Shadowing Practice: 26K - Learn English Speaking with Video

If you feel like you're not making progress, this might be why.

In my earlier part of my career, I read a ton of self-help books, everything I gave my hands on, but I realized that my life didn't change.

And so this video is about why that might be the case, and more importantly, what you can do about it.

If you think about, you know, climbing a mountain, a lot of people think that there's like, what is the perfect path up the mountain?

But in my experience, there's usually multiple paths up the mountain that you can take,

but none of the paths will work if you're constantly trying to jump from path to path because in the real world, one path might be direct and might be steeper.

Another path might have more loops.

Now you might see the other path and think, man, that one's not as steep.

But we don't see about the path until you get on it is that, oh man, this one's actually going to take me way longer to get up the mountain.

And so most of the time we need perfect conviction about our plan more than we need a perfect plan.

And so think of the paths up the mountain as your strategy.

Like the mission is getting to the top.

That's what we want to do.

But the strategy is how we're going to prioritize our resources to getting there, right?

And so your ability to execute on the path, walk the path, stick to the path is ultimately the thing that's going to predicate your success far more than the path itself,

provided it's sensible.

And what I found in my experience is that most people actually have a pretty decent idea what to do.

I'll give you a different analogy.

So if I said, hey, you need to get in shape.

If you know nothing about getting in shape, you still probably have an idea that you should probably stop eating crap and you should start moving more.

And if you're trying to gain muscle, you should probably like lift weights.

And if you want to get bigger, you should probably make those weights or those reps go up.

These are probably things that you'd be like, I kind of already knew that.

The thing is, is that people don't do that.

And so the issue usually is like, I want to have this perfect plan.

But like, if you just did only that for the next three years, you'd probably be way better off than the vast majority of people.

And so this was a big realization that I had, which is I had this, this over analysis of like, what is the perfect plan?

And I call it the fallacy of the perfect pick, which is that we wait and we wait to try and find the perfect path.

And the thing is, is that this is a $5 million year business owner.

So this has nothing to do with where you're at.

This happens at all levels, right?

The mountain just gets bigger, but it's the same concept.

And so for me, there was a period in my life before I started making, you know, more money where I had nine different businesses.

All right.

And I had nine businesses that I was CEO of and I wasn't making any money.

Now we're making revenue, but because I was so spread thing, I couldn't focus on any of them enough.

And so all I could do is just barely keep my head above water.

I had a dental agency, I had a chiropractic agency.

I had my launch business where I was flying out.

So I was in different cities every week doing these launches.

And then I also had six locations of gyms that were running too.

So I was so spread thing.

I was stressed out of my mind.

And so most people can't execute.

And so what I would think at that moment in time, like now looking back, it's obvious.

And maybe you're hearing it's obvious.

But for some reason, it's kind of like the Yiddish saying where your nose is an inch above your mouth, but you need somebody else to tell you your breath smells bad.

I think it's the same thing with this, which is that at the time, if I had asked younger me, what do you think the problem is?

I'd be like, oh, I think I need to change my strategy up.

I think I need to change all these things up.

When reality is that most times you don't need to change that much at all.

You need to actually just do the one thing really well.

And so it's not about coming up with the plan or doing the plan.

It's sticking with the plan, right?

You can beat most people at anything if you just stick with it for a year.

If you're willing to suck at something for 100 days in a row, then you could beat most people at most things.

The bar for excellence has never been so low.

And so most of your competition quits after the first sign of difficulty, the first impasse on the mountain where they don't immediately get it because they've never known what hard feels like.

And so you having to figure something out, the unknown is the hard part.

The figuring it out is the hard part.

And so people think that, oh, I should switch paths because I understand the path of getting to here.

So you might get this far up the mountain and you might be on this path and think, oh, I could do this path or this path or this path.

The thing is, is usually you have to go back down

and then you got to go over and then you got to go up again, right?

So it's actually a lot longer to keep switching paths, but we don't think that because this path we can see.

We already walk down here.

We already see the bottom of the mountain.

We can see the path to here, but then from here we get stuck again.

And so we keep, you know, re-leveling up and going from, you know, level one to level two, level three really quickly because we've beaten those bosses before, but then you get to level four again and you're stuck.

And so you have to grit through that period where you don't know what you're doing.

And this took me so long to understand, like the not knowing part is the part that's hard.

And that is where people give up.

It's not usually the, the like, oh, I just need to work harder.

Sure.

There's some people who are weak and they just lose there.

But most of the times when I talk to business owners, that's not actually where they lose.

It's because they don't know what to do.

And so they think, oh, I'll change my strategy rather than figuring out what to do is the strategy.

And so most strategies do work.

So I want to hit on this a little harder.

One of the misconceptions about business is that there's this one secret thing, right?

There's usually lots of ways to win.

There's a few ways to skin a cat, right?

If you have a dull knife, on the other hand, you're never going to be able to skin the cat.

And the sharpness of your knife is your ability to execute whatever path you have, right?

Whatever way of skinning a cat, which is actually pretty visceral and nasty.

Like who's actually skinning cats?

I should probably retire that saying.

I mean, think about a skinned cat.

It's a little tough.

Anyways, when I was talking back to the business owner, I said, okay, so if execution is the issue, what's the, that's the, okay, that's the surface level problem.

You're not doing what you know you should do.

The underneath of that is why is this not happening?

And so I see this as a combination of two different things.

And so one is culture and the other is talent.

So I'm going to explain both in a more operationalized manner.

So it's not just these buzzwords.

All right.

So what is culture?

100

So culture is the rules of reinforcement in a business.

101

Okay.

102

So what are the things that govern what gets rewarded and what gets punished?

103

And so if you think about culture, there's probably a hundred or thousand behaviors that exist within any business or any environment, right?

104

When we learn a culture as a society, there are things that we do.

105

You hold a door.

106

That's one thing that you do, and it gets rewarded.

107

And if you don't do it, it gets punished, right?

108

If you cut somebody off in traffic, it gets punished, right?

109

And so each of these things are things that get rewarded or punished, and that's what creates culture.

110

But within every business, there's kind of a subculture within the larger culture where you have more

111

and more nuanced things that are your preferences as a business owner.

112

But if people are not working to your preferences, then it means the culture you have, the rules that govern reinforcement are not being adequately exercised.

113

And the way that you reinforce culture is one, who you hire and who you fire.

114

So who you allow to exist in the business tells more to your team about what you think is acceptable.

115

Number two is the behavior that you do not allow to change.

116

So if someone does something good and you don't reward it, then they learn that they don't get rewarded for doing that thing.

117

On the flip side, if someone shows up five minutes late to a meeting and no one says anything, then you teach everyone it's okay to be late.

118

And so the first issue with his business was that there's probably a culture of non-performance.

119

And we have to get very specific with what makes somebody not perform.

120

And sometimes it's only two or three behaviors.

121

Oftentimes it's like 20 or 30

122

and you have to be able to observe what are the things

123

that makes me not like my team and what would I rather them do instead.

124

And so I use the format of start, stop, keep.

125

So what I want you to start doing that you're not doing, what I want you to stop doing that you are doing, and what do you need to keep doing that I'm going to keep reinforcing.

126

It's a very simple way to give feedback that I really like.

127

Now, what about talent?

128

Because that's the second half of this.

129

One is the rules, right?

130

The talent is the people who are actually doing the behaviors, doing the stuff.

131

And so from a talent perspective, a lot of businesses can't expand anymore, not because they don't have the model to do it,

132

but they don't have the ability to execute on the plan.

133

And the ability to execute on the plan comes down to the quality of the people that you have in the business.

134

And I can tell you this firsthand you probably don't have high enough bar for who should be working for you.

135

And I say this for myself too.

136

The moment I increase the quality of the people who work with me, the more money I make, right?

137

And so what's really interesting is that I think

138

that this is one of the greatest arbitrage opportunities that exists in business to this day still, which is that the 50% mark for a role is $75,000 a year.

139

Now for you to pay 90th percentile, it might be $115,000 per year, right?

140

Now you might be like, wow, that's a big difference.

141

But here's the thing is

142

that this person is probably like five times more effective than this one But they only cost 30% more.

143

That's a great deal.

144

That's a good investment And so at this point all I really try

145

and do is just find rainmakers I want people who are exceptional who are obsessed with this task Now, how do you differentiate the people who are good versus not i'll give you a tactic around this

146

So when you're interviewing I like to know what someone's doing in their off time And

147

if what they do in their off time is not what

148

I want them to do in their full-time then they're not going to be full-time, right?

149

They're going to be always moonlighting to their other thing.

150

And so I'd rather say like, what are you obsessed with?

151

And I like asking that question.

152

What are, what are your extracurricular activities?

153

Now, if they're like, honestly, all I do, let's say I'm hiring a videographer.

154

They're like, all I do is video stuff.

155

Like this is what I'm really passionate about.

156

This is what I spend my time watching on YouTube is like, how do I improve the lighting?

157

How do I improve the audio?

158

How to improve the sets?

159

Like this is the stuff that I like really am obsessed about.

160

I probably know that that person's going to do a pretty good job because also if I tell them, Hey, you need to improve this stuff.

161

They're like, great.

162

I love this feedback.

163

I want to get better.

164

Now, if somebody is like, oh, I love pickleball and working out.

165

There's nothing wrong with that.

166

It's just that, is that the thing that you're obsessed with?

167

And so asking

168

that question in a couple of ways in an interview will tease out whether someone's spending their discretionary effort

169

and time on the talent or the skill that they need to win in their role in the business.

170

And so that's on the pick side, right?

171

The third element of this, here we go, is training.

172

So if you have rules that govern reinforcement in the business, okay, this is what we like, this is what we don't like.

173

And then you get really good people in.

174

You still can have people who have potential versus actual.

175

And so obviously the higher up in the business, the more you're hiring for actual, the less you're hiring for potential.

176

The lower someone is in the business, the more you're hiring for potential and less for actual.

177

And so when we're picking somebody, it's like, I'll pick somebody who's just generally intelligent

178

and has work ethic over somebody who might be more experienced in the career, but doesn't demonstrate the same level of intelligence.

179

Because I think the smart person will be able to catch up to that dumber person really quickly and then pass them.

180

And so what is training And so, training in the business, in order to execute, I want to be really clear here, the reason that your plan isn't working is because no one's doing the plan.

181

So, why aren't they doing the plan?

182

These are the reasons, right?

183

And so from a training perspective, it typically comes down to observing the details.

184

I'm going to give you a story about this.

185

So I was meeting with a different business, which is a solar sales company that was doing, you know, multiplied figures, which is great, good sized business.

186

And the founder was telling me that they were struggling to develop a sales leadership within the business.

187

And he said they did an offsite and they came up with like their six pillars of sales leadership.

188

And it was like accountability, time management, blah, blah, blah, right they had like six things i don't remember they were

189

and he said after the two-day you know two-day event where everyone came together

190

and agreed on those principles they went back

191

and no one changed their behavior

192

and i said okay well what does accountability mean in terms

193

of behavior what is like show me what someone who's holding someone accountable does how would i know

194

that accountability had occurred right and so what happens there's he was like wait

195

so i need to be like oh you need to text your team every morning

196

and you have to do end of week reports with every person review.

197

And you need to, at the end of the day, give kudos to the people who did well, and then ask the people who didn't do well, what they were struggling with,

198

and then drill them on how to improve that skill.

199

He's like, oh, I was like, right, say that.

200

Don't say accountability.

201

No one knows what it means.

202

We have to translate these big words into smaller actions that we want someone to make.

203

And then it's very easy to say, hey, you didn't do these four things rather than you didn't hold someone accountable because they're like, I don't know.

204

I thought I was holding them accountable because we both have different definitions for the same thing.

205

If this sounds more nuanced, guess what?

206

Welcome to business, right?

207

These are skills that you just need to develop at some point

208

because changing strategy forever over and over again is never going to get you up the mountain.

209

All you're going to do is keep going down from this one over to this one.

210

And then maybe you get to here and then you change over and then you go over to here.

211

And so each time you're wasting all of the extra effort, keeping switching paths rather than saying, oh, the issue I have is talent, which means I need to recruit better.

212

Oh, the issue is culture, which means that I have to show my leaders how to punish and reward behavior in the business.

213

Oh, we're getting people in, but they're not being productive.

214

So we need to improve our training rather than just say, oh, everyone sucks, right? And

215

so a lot of success comes to sticking with something long

216

enough to make the number of mistakes required to actually figure it out.

217

Otherwise, you just keep starting from zero every single month.

218

And you can beat 99% of people without being smarter or luckier, but by being willing to endure pain and uncertainty for longer.

219

That's the path of the mountain.

220

Hey guys, real quick.

221

If you want to have a blueprint of how to get up the mountain, this is the free $100 million scaling roadmap, the zillion dollars scaling roadmap.

222

This is something that was actually an internal tool

223

that we made for ourselves

224

so we could better identify at every level of scaling what

225

a company would probably have to work on in order to get to the next level.

226

And then we just decided to make it free.

227

And so if you want this, you go to acquisition.com forward slash roadmap.

228

And you can enter business information and grab it.

229

And if you'd like my team to give you personalized tactics, then on the next page, you can book a call.

230

We'll get to know you, get to know the business, and ultimately invite you out if it makes sense.

231

And at that point, we'd actually meet with you in person and say, hey, these are the things that we think are going to be the unlocks for your business right now.

232

These are the things that can help pay down the uncertainty on the path you're already on.

233

So, hey, just look around the edge.

234

You know, just here's a drill bit so you can get through the rock, right?

235

Rather than say, oh, we have to reinvent the business

236

because most time we just need to do what we're doing a little better, a little different.

237

And by doing that, it unlocks the path up the mountain so you can see it.

238

So click the link and maybe I'll see you here in Vegas.

✨ Recommend Video

135 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 238 sentences and 3345 words to shadow. The speech runs for 13:38. The speaker talks fast, about 245 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
execute verb	/ˈɛksɪˌkjuːt/	To kill, especially as punishment for a capital crime.
punish verb	/ˈpʌnɪʃ/	To cause (a child, student, or someone else being looked after, or a suspect or criminal) to suffer for crime or misconduct, to administer disciplinary action…
obsess verb	/əbˈsɛs/	To be preoccupied with a single topic or emotion.
accountability noun	/əˌkaʊn.təˈbɪl.ə.ti/	The state of being accountable; liability to be called on to render an account or give an explanation; liability to be held responsible or answerable for…
reinforcement noun	/ˌɹiːɪnˈfɔːsmənt/	The act, process, or state of reinforcing or being reinforced.
govern verb	/ˈɡʌv.ən/	To make and administer the public policy and affairs of; to exercise sovereign authority in.
accountable adjective	/əˈkaʊntəbl̩/	Obliged, when called upon, to answer (for one’s deeds); answerable.
nuance noun	/ˈnjuː.ɑːns/	A minor distinction.
reinforce verb	/ˌɹiː.ɪnˈfɔːs/	To strengthen, especially by addition or augmentation.
unlock verb	/ʌnˈlɑk/	To undo or open a lock or something locked by, for example, turning a key, or selecting a combination.
steep adjective	/stiːp/	Of a near-vertical gradient; of a slope, surface, curve, etc. that proceeds upward or downward at an angle approaching vertical.
uncertainty noun	/ʌnˈsɜːtənti/	Doubt; the condition of being uncertain or without conviction.
observe verb	/əbˈzɜːv/	To notice or view, especially carefully or with attention to detail.
drill noun	/dɹɪl/	A tool or machine used to remove material so as to create a hole, typically by plunging a rotating cutting bit into a stationary workpiece.
preference noun	/ˈpɹɛf(ə)ɹ(ə)ns/	The selection of one thing or person over others (with the main adposition being "for" in relation to the thing or person, but possibly also "of")

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come down to verb		To reach by moving down or reducing.
come up with verb		To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
get up verb		To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb.
go back verb		To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
go up verb		To move upwards.
come together verb	/ˈkʌm tʊˈɡɛðɚ/	To assemble; to congregate; to combine.
figure out verb		To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
get through verb	/ɡɛt ˈθɹu/	To overcome; to endure.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

That's what we want to do.
I'll give you a different analogy.
What are, what are your extracurricular activities?
How do I improve the audio?
It's just that, is that the thing that you're obsessed with?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	had, which is · pick, which is · this, which is
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has never been · they've never known · we've beaten
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was stressed · are obsessed

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 78 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: ethic /ˈɛθ.ɪk/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: punish /ˈpʌnɪʃ/, arbitrage /ˈɑɹbɪˌtɹɑʒ/, discretionary /dɪsˈkɹɛʃəˌnɛɹi/, misconception /ˌmɪs.kənˈsɛp.ʃən/, operationalize /ˌɑpəˈɹeɪʃənəˌlaɪz/
Long words — get the stress right: accountability /əˌkaʊn.təˈbɪl.ə.ti/, reinforcement /ˌɹiːɪnˈfɔːsmənt/, uncertainty /ʌnˈsɜːtənti/, chiropractic /ˌkaɪɹəˈpɹæktɪk/, discretionary /dɪsˈkɹɛʃəˌnɛɹi/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like execute, punish, obsess.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: 26K - Learn English Speaking with Video

My Morning Workout Routine

How to Get Ahead of 99% of People (Starting Today)

How To Actually Generate Motivation

You can achieve anything you want

If You Only Watch One Video Today, Make It This One

How to Plan Your Life (Interactive Exercise)

Organize Your life - Motivational speech

If You’re Ambitious, But Stuck, Watch This.

How To Learn Any Skill So Fast It Feels Illegal

Think In English With Me | Episode 1: Motivation

If you're ambitious but lazy, please watch this...