273. Real Stories About What's Possible | Interview with Hernan

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 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. So thank you for being here, and I can't wait to share with you today's episode. So let's listen.

Hello.

Hi.

Hello. Hello. How are you? Thanks for having me today.

Thank you for being here. I'm so happy to see you. How are you doing today?

Yeah, I'm pretty amazed that I'm talking to my English mentor. You are my mentor since one year. So you literally saved my. My life. Or not my business, but a hobby. You know, I had a hobby and I needed English. So I. I got the English with you.

Yeah, I cannot wait to hear more about that. So before we go into what happened over the past year and what changed for you from, you know, feeling like your English was not good enough to do something important that you wanted, and you're going to tell us all about that to being here, speaking to me, and even building an online business or putting your work out there in English. But before that, tell us a little bit about you, where you're from and what you do.

I'm from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I am married to Mariana And I have two kids, Julian and Sebastian. They are 24 and 22 years old. I run a family business about zinc plating, coatings and all, anti corrosion systems. And I have a hobby that you talk about. In my online business, I have some books written about youth, sports, parenting. I've written it in Spanish and I translated them in English. Yeah. And as English is the main language, I was invited to give a presentation at a summit. And that's where the story begins. I wrote the script and when I started reading it, I realized that I don't even know how. How to pronounce certain words, how to stress them. I remember evaluate. I didn't know how to stress it. And I also got invited in some podcast to practice. And when I did my first podcast, I thought I was pretty decent till I listened to it. That moment I got really depressed. I was one afternoon really depressed. And then I got you with your videos, your YouTube videos. I remember my first video was the schwa. It was a different. Yeah, I read the 15 minutes morning pronunciation, and that changed my life. I started practicing that in my way to work. And I love my tongue. And that was the first big step.

Tell me. Tell me more about this, because I think it's really important for people to understand because the daily pronunciation practice seems like something physical or something repetitive. And some people might be like, how is that connected to feeling confident in English? Right. How is that connected to being more fluent? So can you tell me a bit more about how that helped you?

Yeah, it's weird. At the beginning, it's weird. I practice it at home, and I practice in a low voice just so no one notice it. And then I. I start practicing it in my. My car on my way home, on my way to work. And I don't know what happened, but my tongue was really stuck because I have to give the presentation, recorded it, and I give it very good. But my stack in my tongue. The second presentation was much fluent. You make sounds, you twist the tongue in different sides. You have some grammar issues, some vocabulary issues there. So I just performed the practice, regardless of the outcome. You know, I just practice. And once I say I'm speaking better, and my friend said, what are you doing? You're so native. I don't sound native. I just practice.

Wow. So I think that idea of practice and repetition is so key, which is something that you've been doing over the past year and has gotten you to do what you do. Now, what happened in that presentation where you prepared for it and you felt not ready or not good enough?

No, I started with you one year ago, and I have three months of practice and I record the presentation, and I gave a pretty decent one. I was very confident because I had three. Three months on my back. And then five months after that, I gave another one, the same one, and my English was much more fluent. But my first presentation was a good one. But I have your knowledge when I need most, you know?

Yeah. And I think the idea of practice is really important. And also, I love what you said about. No, I spent three months preparing for it. A lot of times people leave, like three weeks to prepare for a presentation, you know, or a few days, and they work on the slides for weeks, and then they end up not having enough time to practice, which leads to feeling that it's not good enough. But the fact that you spent three months, I think, had a big part of your progress and success in knowing what. What to do about it. What Would you say to people who have like a presentation or something that they need to work on and they feel that they're not ready?

Something that helped me a lot were two things. I memorized the presentation. I have it. Memorized it. It was a 20 minute presentation, so I have it in my head all the time. And your advice about intonation, to go higher on the verbs and the nouns, that was key because I was monotone and I was the same guy all the time. So it helps me to shift and stress different words. And that was key for a presentation. Maybe not for a conversation, but for a presentation. You get engagement with that one.

I do think that when you practice it in a presentation, it starts. Start sinking in and then you start using it more in conversation. Because I think you're right. Like there is a difference between conversation and presentation. Like, we are not as expressive in conversation, especially casual or small talk, as we are when we're presenting. And we have to really, really get an idea across. But if we get like 20% of the versatility that we have in a presentation in our conversation, that's great. And that's usually the ratio if you practice enough, which I think is great. How did it feel to start playing with your intonation and pitch at the beginning?

At the beginning it was weird because you have to act it. I have some presentation in Spanish, so I get used to acting. So I have a coach there. And the funny thing is that I react with my coach and he doesn't speak a word in English, but he's aware about the bass, about the structure, stress, about my gestures. So that maybe is 90% of a presentation. You can, you can engage more with all that stuff, but you have to have the text in your head. If you don't have the text in your head, maybe it's impossible.

It's true if you have a presentation and you have the ability to. And you have enough time to practice it. So I think memorizing is great. If you have enough time to practice it and then making it your own and then making it natural. Whereas if you are memorizing it but you don't have enough time to kind of like remember it, so you're so busy with recalling the words, then sometimes it's just goes against you and you might as well just talk about it freely. Wouldn't you agree?

Yeah, that's right. Memorizing is hard work. It's hard work. And I spend maybe two months every day rehearsing it. Every day rehearsing it. When I came to the videos, I was kind of tired about memorizing. I used teleprompter, but in that case, I have to practice it a lot because I thought it was easy, but it wasn't easy. You know, I have to practice also.

When did you make a decision to create your own video online course?

The fact is, the summit was the winning summit. It was in January. There was another summit on September. And the guy said, if you have some book or some course that you can develop about the word about the topic, we can load it. And they make some agreement with coach, too. So I say, well, I have to. I have to build a course. I didn't know how to do it. I have to make the research about teleprompters. I make the research about microphones and all that stuff. I have to record 24 videos. And it was a growing process, you know, about data. And you are pretty natural when you. When you go live and when you go with your videos. I have to work a lot for that. But it was worth it. Yeah, worth it. I have loaded now in English and in Spanish. Yeah.

But like, even. Just referring to what you said, even though now it's natural, it wasn't for many years at the beginning. Right. They've been doing this for five, six years. So obviously. And this is just like, really another example of just like you said, repetition, practice, ultimately, that builds your confidence a lot of times, you know, and I'm sure you've seen that too, and I'm sure you've. You're seeing it in your work. And I would love to know for you to tell us a bit more about. What is it? Sports, Parenting.

Yeah. Just. Just a brief note. If you're comfortable, you're doing crap at the beginning, you can make it, because at the beginning we. We deliver crap. Yeah. I'm a former tennis player, and the elder one was very good, very good at under 12. And we start making some mistakes, you know, to get more involved in the sports themselves and all that kind you see in sports. And he quit at 15. So at that time, I. I wrote my first book. I unload all the pressure that I have, and it was pretty. Pretty good for me because I started learning and approaching my kids from a different perspective. I have to grow myself to. To rebuild the relationship. So I've written three or four books about the topic now. I translate it. I have to translate the English book to Spanish. That. That's a whole different game because Spanish has too many words. Wow.

Yeah.

And you lose meaning when you translate. You know, so it was a really tough work, but I'm pretty, pretty confident, and I build a better relationship with my kid, and I share that knowledge with other parents.

That's incredible. What are you most proud of? When it comes to the process and your journey, when it comes to connecting English with your passion and with public speaking and all the things that you do, what are you most proud of?

I think I'm proud of recovering my relationship with my eldest son, and I have to be the best example for him. So you can talk to your kids, do this or do that. You have to be that person. So you have to grow yourself to be an example for them. And that's the main thing. They know that I have a hard work doing my English. My youngest son, two years ago, joking me, he said, you don't speak English, you speak another language, but that's not English. So I started working on that, and I'm working every day. Yeah, that's it.

So do you feel like they're proud of you too, for the work that you've done, or they tease you still? No, no, no, no.

They are very proud of me. And I can feel that the relationship is different. My motto is they don't approach you many times, but when your kids approach you, you have to give your very best and the very best advice for them to come back again. So I'm preparing for the next time they come.

That's amazing. I love it. I love this approach. And what are you. So there are a lot of people who are afraid of taking on this next stage of, like, if they have a hobby or if they have something that they love, you know, they're really afraid because it feels like they're going to have to go be in public and to be on video and to, like, expose themselves and then potentially expose themselves to failure and to criticism. So first of all, like, what is the advice you would give and what practical steps you think they should make to start getting their idea, you know, bringing their idea into.

Everyone has. Has a hobby, has a passion. And what I would say is that you have to step out of the comfort zone. You have to do the things that you don't like to do. I don't like to public speak. I don't like to rehearse. So I have a quick theme. I have a cold shower every morning because I don't like it.

Oh, wow.

I'm practicing getting out of my comfort zone because I don't like cold showers. And I listen to a guy, I say, do that in the Morning. Okay. I do it. So in English, it's the same. You have to. Have to be aware of that and go for it.

You know, I'm feeling very uncomfortable right now because when you said that, I was like, I hate cold showers. I hate. You know. And then as you're saying it, I'm like, I'm gonna have to do it now. I'm gonna have to do it. I was like, I don't want to do it. This is the conversation that I had in my head right now. I don't want to do it. But you have to do it now. Just because it's a challenge that was presented to you. I don't know if I'm gonna do it, because, really, cold showers is my. That's the line I draw. But maybe. Maybe your words will sink into me, because I think it's so smart. Like, if there is something. And I always say that when it comes to English, if you're afraid of something, this is a sign that you need to do it. Especially, you know, and taking a cold shower is not going to advance your English or advance you as a human being, but it's knowing that you've mastered, like, that you've done something that is beyond what you just want. Right? Like, knowing that you are able to do something and kind of, like, be in control of who you are and what you do. So I love that.

Yeah. What else? I can tell. I truly love the British accent, you know, And I was amazed when you say, forget about the native accent. You have to have your own accent. And I buried the British accent. I don't feel that load again. And I can unleash my English.

Yeah, that's great. And here's the beautiful thing. Once you let go of that need to sound like someone, this is where, you know, because accents are like costumes that we put on, and we're able to kind of, like, immerse ourselves in an accent when we have that freedom, when we don't feel like we have to. Like, when there isn't that pressure of sounding like something or someone. So that's. That's great, too. So, Ernan, thank you so, so much. If people want to find out more about you and your course, how can they find you?

In my Instagram page, there's a link tree with all my courses, books, and all that stuff. So there you can reach me all my stuff that I. That I perform. And I also am in your beyond program. That is very good, because there's a room where you can speak without pressure and It's a. It's an excellent place there to listen to the other guy because we are all the same page and we are trying to. To say some word and you wait till the other guy or girl understands it. So it's a. It's a good place to practice active listening.

Yeah. I think that having created for yourself that safe space you've joined beyond, you've been active in the conversation groups and the sprints. And I think that having created that, both safe space and structure, I think it's something that is so important for us to kind of like get into the momentum and the habit of doing the work and practicing. So I'm so honored and happy that you are my student. And for all of you who are interested in learning more about Hernan's work, then just click, click the link. I mean, go to his bio profile and that's it. And anything else you'd like to ask or share?

No, I. You literally saved my life. You let me evolve my English and get you out of stage. No, you understand I reach other places because of my English. Yeah, that's the main thing.

That's the thing. English. And this is why we're doing this. It's possible series because it really is a door to other places. It's not the end goal. It's really the means to get the life you want. And I'm not exaggerating by saying that, because you don't know what's possible unless you take a chance, unless you do it. And I think that it creates this resilience and this sense of accomplishment when you do do it in the language, that it provides you with the confidence to do other things as well.

So.

Yeah, that's beautiful. So much insights. Thank you so, so, so much. Happy to have you as a student. Thank you for sharing your story with us today and have a beautiful, beautiful day. Ernan, thank you so much.

Okay, thank you. And see you in the next sprint.

See you in the next sprint.

Bye. Bye, Sam.