181. Real Stories About What's Possible | Interview with Tomasz

Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar, your host, and today we are going to hear success stories. Hey, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in for another episode of the Influency podcast today. I'm super, super thrilled to have you here because today I'm going to share with you an interview that I conducted with a few of my favorite people in this world. And those people are my students, my dear students. And they are going to share with you their English journey, where they used to be and where they are today. And there is quite a difference. And they're going to share with you what they've done to reach that place of freedom and confidence and success and all their accomplishments thanks to that shift and change in their English and approach to English. And also they're going to share where they were and the limitations and the things that held them back and what they did to let go of those limitations. So this is such an inspiring episode. And it's not just me telling you this because I'm not objective, obviously, but people who heard them speak kept sharing how inspiring it was and motivating. And I think that you deserve to hear that too. And this is why I'm sharing it here. Once you listen to this episode, I would love for you to come back to me and share with me what you feel about this and about their stories. You can find me on Instagram, Hadar Accentsway and. Yeah, and tell me what you think. So, thank you for being here and I can't wait to share with you today's episode. So let's listen.

Welcome.

Tomas.

Hello. Hello.

Hello.

How are you doing?

I am fine. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. It's a life opportunity for me. It's a very precious time for me. I think it will be great occasion to talk to you.

Well, it's very mutual. And it's your first live on Instagram.

Yeah, yeah, right. First one.

I'm challenging my students, but I am.

Excited because it is something that I. It is my take out from. From your course. You shouldn't be afraid. Rather, you should be excited when. When speaking publicly.

You know, this is so important what you're saying. So I'm gonna translate it into, like, different words because you weren't clear, but because I actually think it goes really deep, what you just said. Because, yes, you turned like, the fear into excitement, but it's not even that. It's really, when we think about it, an emotion. Right. That is associated with doing something new. It's like maybe you feel your heartbeats and like the blood is streaming down your body and you're like feeling this agitation or nervous energy. And we are so used to interpreting it as fear or nervous energy. Right. Like, but what if we just agree that it's an emotion that happens when something is coming and we can interpret it differently, like you just did, saying, you know, it's not nervous energy. I'm excited. So a lot of times we can take that nervous energy and actually decide that we're seeing it as excitement again.

Yeah. And that excitement helps a lot because it makes me more focused, more sharp.

100%. Exactly. Like when you have that good energy, then you're like, you know, you're ready to go. Would you like to introduce yourself?

Yeah, of course. My name is Tomasz. I am from Poland. I am pretty, pretty advanced. I am not spring chicken anymore, as I like to say about myself, because I am 63. But English is my hobby. It's not a must. It is not because of some professional reasons or some, some duties. It's a hobby partially. And I am wearing two hats because I am owner and artisan in a stained glass studio. And second profession is this. I am dealing with real estate because I am watching the real market worth of real estate. So these two professions may see as divided and completely different, but it is very interesting that sometimes they are very close to each other because clients from one profession turns out to be the same as in the other profession.

So interesting. Really? Like first of all, yes. And I also think that we're all multi passionate and we have all these different things that we love doing. And the fact that you have these two passions I think is just an indication of the fact that it's possible these days, you know, and you can even have more because we're no longer live in this era where you only have to do one thing, you know, the thing that you studied and that's it, you do it for the rest of your life. Plus, I have a few things to ask you about real estate, but we'll keep it for next time.

I'm perceiving myself as a lucky, as a lucky man because I love what I do. So it's not a work is like a pleasure rather. And I think that not many people can say about their work like me, so 100% fortunate.

So fortunate. And I think that we can only always pursue something that we love doing. And even if we're doing something that takes up the majority of our time, there is always an outlet like for Example, you know, English for a lot of people or being a part of the community is an outlet that they're very passionate about, even if they don't need it for something very specific. And I think this is definitely something that I see in our community. So why don't you tell me how your English journey has started.

It started when I was 10 years old and it was very typical because I was attending some lessons, classical lessons, when I was taught how to read, how to spell, and it was almost without talking. So it was very, very typical grammar, vocabulary and some tenses. And it was not very effective. It was difficult case. I think all of us were in the same position. And then I was continuing my learning by myself, by reading. And I was reading mostly books which interested me, of course, Sci Fi and George Orwell. It was crazy. It was crazy joy for me when in Poland we had martial law impositioned by communists. And I was able to read 1984 at that time. So it was for me, it was the takeaway for English. And then I was using English from time to time. And then out of the blue, I was in Scotland and I was alone without anyone. So I was exposed to English almost all the time. It was more than a week. And after that week I noticed that being exposed for so all the time without occasion to speak in my native language, I progressed a lot. And even though I was exposed to the mixture of Scottish and Irish English, and it was very difficult to comprehend at the beginning, but then step by step I was able to comprehend it. And I thought it would be a pity to lose that progress. And I started to search for occasions how to go on, how to progress even more. And I was searching for on the Internet. And my beginnings were trials with applications which were based on artificial intelligence. They were cognizing my speech, but it wasn't a joy. They weren't operating very efficiently. So then I found teacher, American teacher. She was organizing Fluency Breakthrough Challenge. It was on Instagram. And it was my first occasion to use public media, social media for learning English. And I am very grateful to her. Because of her, I made my first video and published it's on.

Amazing, amazing. It was really like how one thing, one opportunity, you know what it can lead and like it gives you the possibilities. Did you hesitate before saying yes to that?

Yeah, yeah, a lot. Because I was very anxious if I should show up myself publicly. And you can see that my name of my account is not my real name, but like invented name, because I was afraid. And it is the remains of this, of this situation.

Not anymore though, right? Like, not anymore.

And then when I found you, because of my continuing searching for the ideal teacher, I found you and I. And I thought that's it. But my one doubt was it is an American English. And I was. All my life I was learning British English. But after some time I thought to myself, my British English is not a British one, but because it is really Polish English rather than American or British. So it would be better, I think if I had started for from the scratch and start producing the sounds properly, it would be easier for me to learn from the beginning completely new things then correct my wrong British pronunciation. So I decided to join you and I am very, very satisfied and grateful that because of that decision it was life changing, I think. And on this Instagram, on this account, I have two movies. One was recorded just after this first fluency breakthrough challenge and next two years later. And everyone can see the difference. So.

Oh, I'm going to see it. I didn't see it. I know you from now, but. And I remember the beginning, but it's nice to have that, you know, to look at these two videos to see the differences and the journey.

Yeah. And I decided to leave that movies as a stepstones of my journey. And next movie will be, I think maybe soon, sooner than in two years because my progress, I feel my progress and it's a joy when I am reading out loud something and out of the blue sounds are going properly and this connected speech starts to also go and play. And that's amazing that I can hear myself when these sounds are going spontaneously properly. And that's the big reward after your.

Course for both of us. For both of us. It's a big reward when it just happens and you're like, oh, was that a th. That just came out of my. Or the R Or like, was that. It felt effortless, Was it clear? And all of a sudden you're like, yeah, it was clear. So yes, that's a huge achievement. And I have to point out that one of the things that attributed to this result that you're experiencing is your utter commitment and diligent practice and showing up when you could. And also what I loved is that you had spaces and times where you're like, I need some time off. Right. Like, I need to take a break. And then you came back. It wasn't like, oh, I fell off track too late, I can't. You're like, no, I know I can do it. I just need like to get the rust off right? And then you went back. So can you talk a little bit about this process, this commitment, habit building for those who feel like they can't stay on track or they don't know how to get these results?

Yeah, indeed. The foundation of progress, of any progress, is consistency. And in my case it is like that I would like to do as little as 15 minutes of speaking every day. And it is my basic point of day. But the beginning is the, is the sprint. It's your training. Sprint is a connection of pronunciation exercises, grammar, vocabulary, connected speech and some Tony twister and the warm up of our apparatus, of our mouth. And it's a foundation. Sometimes when I have no time, it's. Sprint is the only, is the only exercise. But I feel that if I, if I do only the sprint daily, I wouldn't be deteriorated in my English.

So it keeps you on track. Listen, you know how I came up with the sprints? I was doing this. Well, I've been thinking about this idea of a very effective drill every day. But then I was working out, I started training physically and it was functional training where you do something for three minutes and then you do cardio and then you do weights and then you do. I'm like, why can't we have that for speech, right? Like, why can't we have something super effective that you do for a little time and that it keeps your body in shape? And I think what you're saying now is like, this idea of maintenance is great because people forget that when we don't use the language, it deteriorates because we're not using the muscles, we're not using the parts in the brain that we need to use. And it's totally okay. It doesn't mean that, you know, you're not talented or like, that's it, it's gone forever. It's just that you need to maintain it. And this is like, what you're saying now is great because you experience that, right?

Yeah, yeah. And if I add some more exercises after some time, after month or two months, because it doesn't come at a moment, I can see progress. But it is like that, that I have to be consistent. I have to do some exercises every day because if I make even a short break, I can see that the next day is slightly harder. And if I am doing that every day, the same phrases, the same words starts to begin very easy and smooth. And I was surprised that it comes without noticing. And it's again this compound effect when you go many, many times, after some time you would notice that there is a progress. And sometimes you wouldn't notice because you are still not satisfied with your level of speaking. But the community, and this is the second strong point, the community, someone from your peers, from your students will tell you, oh, you have progressed. And even though that I am not noticing that somebody else is able to notice that I am better than I was sometimes ago. And that's again a very good thing to have a supportive community, people who can comment your way and people who can support you. Because sometimes it is like that, that we are overwhelmed, we are working too hard. I had such a moment, for example, that for two months I was doing live videos on your platform every day without any stop. And after these two months, I was a little overwhelmed. It was obvious. But for me it was, it was saddening that I cannot go third month.

But I was, listen, we know our boundaries. Like, it's not like there is no should or shouldn't. I love that you were connected to yourself and you're like, wait overwhel. Ciao. And. And you explained it. You also, you know, you conveyed it to the community. And yeah, so go ahead. Sorry.

And somebody, somebody told me that I shouldn't be so harsh to me. I shouldn't be. Shouldn't be. So going live for third month, it is possible to make a little break. And it will be for me refreshing. And I would be stronger after that break. And I remember that I asked you also in one of our workshop about that, because I had doubt. Because if I was doing these exercises every day, every day was a little easier. My first life, I was all wet, I was sweating from the emotion. Then each one life was easier, easier. And then I was able to do it without any preparation, without thinking about it. And it was amazing. It was beautiful. But then I was afraid what would be if I, if I stopped, if I stopped for one day, two days, week, would it be very bad for me? But you assured me that sometimes it is, it is good to make a break because we need that perspective. We need the distance sometimes to ourselves.

Yes. As long as your intention is towards. This is like a long journey. I'm not leaving, I'm just resting, I think especially when it comes to pronunciation, by the way, allowing things to sink in. I mean, sometimes when you're not actively doing things, it doesn't mean that your brain is not processing information. It doesn't mean that your brain is not, you know, working in the background still. You know, all the hard work that you've done and sometimes to actually like to go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Without allowing things to sink in, it's actually counterproductive. And you'll advance less than when you recognize your impulses and you're like, what, wait, I need to take a break. Because some. Something is signaling to you. I need to tone down also. Especially introverts, right? Like when you're exposing yourself or when you're outgoing and you're going out there. The only way for you to recharge is not by making more videos, but it's actually like, kind of like going inside. And like, for me, for example, I'm a total introvert. I love lives and I love interacting with people. And I can go, you know, my recent live had 3,500 people in it. But afterwards, I need, like, time for myself. I need quiet. That's how I recharge. So I think that recognizing that, because I believe that English practice should be. You should be a part of a community, right? Like, I think English is not meant to be learned alone. I see, like, what you're saying now that results come faster when you're a part of a group, a part of a gang of a team that supports you and holds you accountable. But at the same time, a lot of people, especially introverts, are afraid to do that because they're like, what if I don't? You know, I don't feel comfortable or I don't. It's like, you gotta find a way to balance it like you did. Now, for those who don't know, Thomas was first in Accent Makeover. Then he joined beyond, which is our English practice community. And then he joined New Sound, my recent program. And the community we're talking about is the community first in the programs and also in Beyond. And a lot of times they kind of like, overlap, obviously. Thomas, I have a question for you.

Yeah.

Recently we got this question from someone who was interested in the course, and he said, I'm 65, and I think it's too late for me to do anything about my English. And do you think that this is going to work for me? Because he doesn't believe that it's possible. So what would you tell that person or anyone, whether they're like 27, 36, 41, or 65. What would you tell them about capability and age and language?

I think it's a perfect occasion to train brain and to stay active and learning English. In my case, that's my recipe for aging. I think that learning English could be a perfect activity for brain, for our brain, training our brain. And Making it flexible like a fitness for our mind. And it was told by doctors that we should exercise our brain. We should wash our teeth with left hand and then with right hand, we should change our routes to our work or to our home. Because if we are too connected with our habits, our mind stops using stops to be working and we have to activate our brain. And I think that learning English is a perfect opportunity. It's much, much better than solving cross words, for example, silicon really logical puzzles and memorizing things. Activating our brain is a perfect opportunity. And the second thing, it was told that only children could, or youngsters could learn English, but it was proof. I read somewhere in scientific research that is not a case of age, but it is case. It is. It depends on the motivation and depends on the time committed to this activity. And when you are 65, you are retired, you have plenty of time and you can commit it to some precious exercises. And I think it's a connection of this Time magazine of Time and the opportunity to train mind. It's a great thing.

Amazing. And not to talk about the fact that you start creating all these relationships, you know, that never hurt anyone when you're a part of a community and you're using English to connect. So it's not just about the brain. It's really. And I absolutely agree with you, by the way, way. And, and I also think that it's, you know, we're such habitual creatures. And that's the same with, with relationships. Like, when I think about it, my best friends are from, you know, high school, college, maybe work like the first 20, 30 years of my life. And then you get to a point where it's harder to make new friends. Right. And I think that's the social skill is also a skill that we need to develop and it's good for us. And I think that in these communities and settings, you're actually exercising that as well. It's like an emotional skill in addition to all the brain work that you do.

By the way, I wanted to say about time, and I think that the paradox is that we had lately this quarantine time, this period, this special, this strange time. And I think that regarding English learning or language learning, if it hadn't been imposed, it should be, should have been invented because it was the perfect opportunity to learn. Sitting in home for a long time and being absorbed with this activity was the best.

Yeah, I've never seen like the year between March 2020 and I think until April, May 2021, my students have never been so freaking diligent. And everyone was online. I absolutely agree. I think it was really good for English. Yeah, it's good for English.

Yeah.

The pandemic.

And now it is more and more difficult to be so active, to commit so much time while working. So it's a pity for me that this time would never return. Fortunately, I think we need to invent.

Like you said, we need to invent those, like, pockets of time where we. We're disconnected and we're just, like, doing our thing. Thomas, what was the moment where you said to yourself, huh? It worked. Can you talk about a defining moment, maybe, that you've experienced recently? I'm not trying to suggest any specific memory, but maybe I'm talking about something that you shared where there was a moment where you said yourself. I realize the compound effect now. Can you share it with us?

Yeah. Yeah. There were two such cases lately. One was the wedding of my son, party wedding. And one of the guests was a woman. She was a diplomat from Belgium, and she was speaking American English perfectly. And I, by duty given by my wife, was to take care of her because she was only one speaking English person there. And I had to accompany her. And I was. Two days I was talking with her about many, many things, many topics. And I was able to fill in this time perfectly. And. And I had occasion to move such a lot of topics. And it was the time when I realized I am not a very talkative person. In my native language, I am rather reserved. But in English, I am completely different. And I think that this English activity caused that my character has changed.

Interesting.

I am able to talk about many, many things, many topics, and that was great. And I was understood. I was comprehended. I was talking with her as I was, as if she was my native. Even better, because I was more open. And English was. Because the character of language, the English is that it is more direct, as you say, easier to establish a relationship because of the nature of the. Of the. Of the.

It's so beautiful what you're saying. Really. Like, I haven't heard that story, but I'm really moved by this because, yes, like, first of all, it's very direct. It's very outgoing. Your experience of managing a lot of casual talks gave you this freedom in the language. And I agree that, you know, they say that people who are bilingual, they have two different facets of their personality. And I definitely feel that when I compare Hebrew and English. And now you can say, like, to reach a level where you're actually. Not only that, I feel like myself in English, I actually have a new self, like a new identity that I love, and I feel connected and actually helps me get things that I'm unable to get or feel or achieve in my native language because of the cultural differences or because of habit or. So beautiful. Thank you for sharing this. Okay, so that was the first moment.

And the second moment was out of the blue, phone call. And somebody, on the other hand, side calls me, and he speaks in American English. And it was a future client from states. And I was able to communicate with him pretty good, I think. And I was asking detailed questions, and the conversation was pretty advanced. And I don't know why, but I think that maybe because of that, that we had established a very good relation, good rapport. And the commission was established, and he commissioned a big work for our studio. And then we contacted some stained glass panels from the synagogue in Arizona.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's a big deal. Yeah.

Yeah. And it was funny. This was a synagogue windows. And in Arizona, in the states, who.

Would have thought, right, like, five years ago, would you have imagined that one day you would create glass for a synagogue in Arizona?

And, you know, it was, for me, even funny, funnier thing, because I could feel that he is not 100% natural American, because I. I could hear some sounds which weren't 100% American. And then it turned out that he was Russian. And when he was five years old, he migrated to us. And I could hear. I was amazed that I could hear that slight, very, very little difference. And it was also because of the chorus, because I could recognize when somebody speaks. And if he speaks beautifully, I am amazed. And I can. The biggest thing for me is that I can hear myself. And I could autocorrect myself because I can hear him speaking with errors. And maybe now I am speaking with errors for sure. I'm speaking for hours.

But let's reframe the word errors, because it's not errors. You're speaking clearly and fluently. And so did he. But it's just maybe deviation from the standard, right? Like the way we learn, like the optimized. Optimized production of sounds. But. No, but I totally agree. Like, being able to recognize and to hear it is the work. It's like a huge part of the work that you. You've done, you know, so well.

I can. I own teacher now, probably. But to be. To recognize this different. Not a. It's not a 100% thing. Because the most. The second most precious thing was from that course of you that I had a path you know, I had a vision what I should do, because my path before my actions, my exercises were very chaotic. And we as learners are bombarded with tons of materials, YouTube videos, some exercises, and we are going from one to another and we are searching for the best opportunities. And after, sometimes we catch ourselves that our main activity is searching for something, not learning and having such a path, such a perspective, it's, I think, very important not to lose time, not to go somewhere, not to be distracted by other possibilities. You can go fade.

Amen to that. Like having. Having your target, having a path, understanding you know, what you're trying to do, doing it. And when it gets hard, because it does get hard, to keep your eyes on the goal, on the target, and keep doing, because keep going down that path. And you know, those who join New Sound, there is like a very clear path, so detailed to the level of how much time you need to invest every day and what exactly to do. But, like, you have that and you gotta trust it and give it a chance until you feel the change. Because, you know, it gets the hardest right before change. And usually people quit when it gets really, really hard and they lose faith and they're like, this is not going to work for me. And what you said, they get distracted and they're like, okay, I'm going to look for something else. I'm going to try something else. Or, you know, or they give up. And the thing is, is that when you hit that, you know, when you have that feeling of almost despair, like, this is not working for. For me, keep going, right? Like, that's what I always tell my students. Stay with the content, stay with the schedule. I promise that you'll see results. We talk about building habits, so it's not just about the commitment and the willingness. It's also the structure, the infrastructure of showing up every day, which you have so beautifully created. I think for yourself, Thomas, what is one piece of advice that you would give people who are still struggling and they are where you are, Were two years ago, before posting that first video.

First of all, be consistent and find your path and do something even 10 or 15 minutes every day. Be connected with language and try to immerse in language. Try to listen as much as possible. I am listening to podcasts a lot, to radio, but the most transforming exercise for me was creating videos. And these videos were, at first, they were offline. But the most effective way of training it needs, I know it needs breakthrough, were live videos. Because when you are going live, you are stressed and you are at that moment you are exposed to people like you were talking to somebody. And it's a real situation.

It simulates the stress that you might experience speaking with real people. And you don't have that luxury of re recording again and again and again. So recording videos is great to build that confidence. I agree. And then when you're live, when you get stuck, you have to maneuver and like work yourself out of it. And that is the beauty of the work that we do. Like being able to manage a situation that is not expected.

And in my situation it was crazy when I discovered that words which I should have known, like useful, for example, very simple words. I couldn't use that word being live. And I discovered this situation noting these words and filling the gaps in my vocabulary because I have a very rich passive vocabulary. It is a result of intense reading. And the paradox was that this rich vocabulary obstructed my speaking because I was trying constantly to use that fancy words and I wasn't able. And during live videos I learned how to manage that, to use simple words to make some description instead of using these words. And it was only possible because of being exposed live in situation. And I was able to to notice my lacks and learn how to tackle with that lacks. And it was because of the lives. And as I said before, initially it was hard as a hub, but then gradually it would be easier and easier.

I love it. This is so motivating and inspiring and like for everyone who have not yet use the power of video to improve fluency. Whether it's influency, community, our free community, or in one of my programs, we definitely encourage people to do it and give them a safe platform to do so. In beyond, we did the 30 day live challenge where you have to show up live every day. I think if you haven't been convinced just yet, I think after what Thomas just said, like that's it, it's free, it's in like you're with your phone anyway. 20, 27, right? 20 hours a day. Why not make it the best tool to improve your fluency, confidence, communication skills and definitely English in general. And what you said about the gap, the paradox of, you know, I know a lot of words, therefore I know English, but hey, I actually can't use them. This is the most debilitating experience in English. And I think this is what gets people who are super intelligent and they're using English and reading and writing and they're so afraid to speak because they're afraid to be found as a fraud because they know English well, but they're afraid that people are going to discover that their English is not that good. And it's simply because of the gap. And that gap, like, what we do, what I do in my YouTube videos and in the community, it's like, to minimize that gap. That's all we need to do. That's the focus and how we do that, like, with a very clear strategy and sprints. All right, Thomas, thank you so, so much for these so valid, invaluable tips and for showing up here and sharing your experience and stories.

Thank you for having me here because it was lifetime occasion for me being with you for so long time and being exp. To life. And it was another. Another test for me.

It was another stepstone, check, check done.

Yeah.

Next one go live on national television.

Yeah.

And maybe, you know, our next meeting is going to be live when I come visit Poland or Europe. We do our beyond meetup sometime at somewhere, some point in the world. Yes. All right. So, Thomas, thank you so much.

Thank you.

And yeah, thank you so much, Thomas.