Shadowing Practice: Why Smart Entrepreneurs Start Before They’re Ready - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hey, it's Marie Forleo and welcome to another episode of MarieTV and the Marie Forleo Podcast.
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Now, if you've been itching to start a business, but you are overwhelmed with how to actually get started, this one is for you.
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Today's question comes from Adina who writes, Hey Marie, I recently left my job as a school counselor to become a parenting coach.
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Now it's time to actually get out there and do it, but I feel tremendously overwhelmed and have no clue how to sign a client.
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I understand you say to start before you're ready, but there's only so much brainstorming and strategizing I can do.
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I feel like I'm in a catch-22 where I can't sign clients without good marketing, but I can't tweak my marketing without clients.
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Help!
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Adina, this is a fantastic question.
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So first, a little bit of clarification here.
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Starting before you're ready does not mean spending weeks or months brainstorming or or strategizing.
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No, it doesn't.
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What it does mean is training yourself to get out there and do the actual work with real humans.
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And I gotta be honest with you, love, you do not need fancy marketing to get yourself some clients.
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And sorry, you are not in a catch 22.
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I think you're just a little scared.
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And my darling, that is okay.
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Look, we humans often learn best by example.
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So here are two entrepreneurs who started before they were ready, so to speak, so you can see exactly what that looks like in real life.
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You up for it?
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Good.
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Let's go.
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So first, let's look at Lisa Price, who's the founder of the natural hair care brand Carol's Daughter.
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So Lisa got her start in the 80s.
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She was playing with fragrances and essential oils in her kitchen in Brooklyn.
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Now, at first, she gave what she made away to her friends and family, but her mom smartly encouraged her to start selling her goods at at her church's flea market.
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Now, Lisa never planned to really even start a business, but she thought, hey, why not?
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Worst case scenario, she'd have a fun day out.
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Well guess what happened?
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She sold out of every single thing and then she spent the rest of the summer going to craft festivals.
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So she slowly started to build a following and her customers actually started to ask if she had anything for their hair.
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Now initially she didn't, so she went home and guess what she did?
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She figured out how to make hair products because yes, everything is figureoutable.
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Now, Lisa then gave those hair products to hairdressers, she got their feedback, and then she started to make improvements.
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So little by little, Lisa kept growing her business until eventually, guess what?
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Her business was not so little anymore.
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Fast forward to 2014 and Lisa's company was acquired by L'Oreal.
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Now look, Lisa started before she was ready.
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She didn't start off with any fancy marketing.
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She didn't have any marketing whatsoever.
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But she took action.
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She gave away her products.
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She got feedback.
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She kept iterating and adjusting from there.
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Now the next example is Brandon Stanton, the photographer behind the amazing blog Humans of New York.
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So here's what happened.
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Brandon lost his job in the financial industry.
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So he had always had this interest in photography, but he didn't have any experience and he didn't even own a camera.
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But here's one thing he did know.
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He did not want to go back to that job, back to that industry, which made him so unhappy.
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His goal was really to simplify.
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He just wanted to earn enough money to keep a roof over his head
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so that he could do what he really wanted to do, which was take photos.
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So he moved to New York City and he committed to this, taking 10,000 photos of people on the street and plotting them on the map.
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And while he was doing this, he ate Cheerios, he ate turkey sandwiches, and he slept on a mattress on the floor.
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This guy spent thousands and thousands of hours editing thousands and thousands of photos, learning what worked and what didn't,
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and he also started getting really comfortable talking with and interviewing strangers on the street while he was photographing him,
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which eventually transformed into Humans of New York, the beloved brand and business that we all know about today.
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So Brandon's got over 25 million followers.
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He created two bestselling books too.
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Now, just like Lisa, he didn't start off with any fancy marketing, right?
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He just started before he was ready.
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He started taking action.
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He allowed himself to learn and really grow along the way.
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So for you, Adina, if you want to be a parenting coach, guess what?
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You need to start coaching some damn parents, woman.
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You need to get out there and do the work, even if you got to do it for free.
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So if I were you, I would make a list of every single parent that I knew, and I would send them an email or a text message or a smoke signal,
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whatever, and I would tell them that I could help them solve their parenting problems
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and then I was willing to do it for free.
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Or guess what?
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You could pull a lease up.
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You could go get a booth at your local flea market and make a big sign that says, free parenting advice, and you could give your card to anybody who walks up to you.
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Or guess what?
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You could pull a Brandon, right?
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And you could go on the streets and you could stop people.
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Anybody who has a kid, you could say, hey, are you a parent?
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Are your kids giving you any problems?
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I was a school counselor for 10 years
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and I'm starting a new business as a parenting coach
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and I'd be happy to help you solve any problems you got with your kids and I'll do it for free.
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Now, Adina, obviously I'm having a little fun with these ideas, but all the points are valid.
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Starting before you're ready means doing the work.
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Now, if you want a little more structure for how to actually do this, meaning how to attract ideal clients, how to know what to charge,
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how to set up your business so that it's sustainable, you my darling need to get your butt into B-School.
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We show you how to do all of this step by step, and of course the program comes with a risk free guarantee.
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But honestly, even if you don't do B-School, you could use some of the ideas we just talked about and get your business going right freaking now.
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Adina, let me tell you, if you went for this, I mean actually went for this with your full heart,
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I guarantee you, you would have three to five new clients within a week.
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And if you ever forget what starting before you're ready means, don't forget what my dear friend Steven Pressfield says, put your ass where your heart wants to be.
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That was my A to your Q, Adina.
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I really do hope it helps.
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Now I would love to hear from you.
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We got a two-parter today.
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So first, what's one action step that you can take to start before you're ready?
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What's the one thing that immediately pops into your mind and your heart?
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I want you to write it down and most importantly, do it.
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Now second, I want you to leave an encouraging reply to someone else's comment here and cheer them on.
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You know, all of us go a lot further, a lot faster when we feel like someone believes in us and you have a chance to do that right now.
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Now, this will just take you a few minutes
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and I promise you it'll make a huge difference both to you and the person receiving it.
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Let me know what you thought of today's episode.
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I want you to come say hi to me on social media, at Marie Forleo on all the platforms, or tell me over in the comments at MarieForleo.com.
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Once you're there, be sure to subscribe to our email list and become an MF Insider.
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You're going to get a jolt of love and positivity and action-based learning every single week.
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Until next time, stay on your game and keep going for your dreams
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because the world needs that very special gift that only you have.
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Thank you so much for tuning in to MarieTV and the Marie Forleo Podcast, and I'll catch you next time.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 107 sentences and 1453 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:25. The speaker talks fast, about 196 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| fancy noun | /ˈfæn.si/ | The imagination. |
| encourage verb | /ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/ | To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit. |
| guarantee noun | /ˌɡæɹ.ənˈtiː/ | Anything that assures a certain outcome. |
| solve verb | /sɒlv/ | To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out. |
| feedback noun | /ˈfiːdˌbæk/ | Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results. |
| darling noun | /ˈdɑɹlɪŋ/ | Often used as an affectionate term of address: a person who is very dear to one. |
| counselor noun | /ˈkaʊnsələ(ɹ)/ | A professional who counsels people, especially on personal problems. |
| earn verb | /ɝn/ | To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work. |
| founder noun | /ˈfaʊ̯n.dəː/ | One who founds or establishes (a company, project, organisation, state, etc.). |
| photography noun | /fəˈtɑ.ɡɹə.fi/ | The art and technology of producing images on photosensitive surfaces, and its digital counterpart. |
| ideal adjective | /aɪˈdi(ə)l/ | Pertaining to ideas, or to a given idea. |
| valid adjective | /ˈvælɪd/ | Well-grounded or justifiable, pertinent. |
| commit verb | /kəˈmɪt/ | To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; used with to or formerly unto. |
| craft noun | /ˈkɹæft/ | Ability, skillfulness, especially skill in making plans and carrying them into execution; dexterity in managing affairs, adroitness, practical cunning… |
| edit verb | /ˈɛdɪt/ | To change a text, or a document. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| get out verb | To leave or escape. | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| get over verb | To overcome. | |
| give away verb | To make a gift of (something). | |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| set up verb | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | To make ready for use. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 30 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, didn't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: photography /fəˈtɑ.ɡɹə.fi/, photographer /fəˈtɑ.ɡɹə.fɚ/, sustainable /səˈsteɪnəbəl/, importantly /ɪmˈpɔɹ.tənt.li/, entrepreneur /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/
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 fancy, encourage, guarantee.
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.