How to stop avoiding conversations and start conquering them: Interview with my student, Daniela

Hey everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I have a question for you. Do you think it's possible to actually fulfill all your biggest English dreams? What does it feel like to live a reality that once seemed practically impossible? Today I'm going to talk to Daniela from Czech Republic, who is my lovely beloved student. And she is going to share with you her journey in English and how she went from avoiding English to using English confidently and influencing others. She's going to talk about her challenges and what has helped her succeed and be where she is today. I cannot wait for you to hear her inspiring story and learn what else is possible when English is no longer an obstacle. Let's listen.

Hello.

Hello, Daniela. How are you, my dear?

Oh, I'm so great. And yeah, I'm so privileged. I feel so honored you having me here today. And yeah, especially in this turbulent time. So, yeah, well, the pleasure is all mine. Thank you for asking.

I am okay. I am okay. And I'm doing what I love, which is speaking to you, my student and my friend. So it's. It's so great to, to bring you here so you can share your incredible English story. Inspiring. And. And it's an opportunity for you to share your own journey and also to show others that might be where you were a few years ago and to see what's possible.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. And I must say it, thanks to you because it hadn't been happened without you because you know it totally. You are my game changer. Definitely.

Well, it's been, it's been an honor to be a part of your journey, even though the work is on you and you did all the work. So I'm glad that I was able to be there to support you in any way possible. So for those who don't know you, Daniela, would you like to quickly introduce yourself where you're from, what language you speak, other languages you speak?

Yeah. So I'm Daniela. I born and raised in Czechoslovakia, but now it's a Czech Republic because we split. And yeah, I live in brno, the smaller city than Prague, our capital, well known city, famous city. And yeah, I just always loved English, but when I was young because you know, I was born behind like iron curtain that time. So English wasn't like big deal even if I learned English at the grammar school. But you know that the way of teaching was, you know, we all know how it was, so nothing special.

It didn't set you up for success, basically.

Yeah. And actually we didn't need it because it wasn't like allowed to traveling Too much so, you know, but during the time, everything changed and I wanted to start with English somehow. And I, like, tried several times, but still was something missing because I, like, consumed a lot of content. YouTube and so. But, you know, if I hadn't put it into the practice, there wasn't worth it. And I wasn't able to speak, to communicate. What.

What drew you to English? What was that thing that made you excited or feel passionate about consuming content even before practicing? Because obviously you had to have that something to motivate you. What drew you to English? Because obviously, like you, you don't need it for your everyday life, right? It's not like it's essential for work or where you live. So what was it?

Actually, maybe it was music, because I always wanted to understand the lyrics. And it's so connecting because, like, a melody of English, so beautiful, it's music on its own. And if you combine it. I always wanted to understand. And actually, I don't know exactly why I'm so kind of obsessed with English, because I wake up every day and I wanted to do something like I wanted to do English, like my morning routine. And sometimes I ask myself, like, why I'm doing this. And now I know why I'm doing this because I can travel, I can communicate, I can understand people, I can create some. So many beautiful friendships all over the world. And it's something really special. And that is the main reason why I do it. Because I don't know, I don't need it for my job because I work as a gardener, so I can speak with flowers in any language.

Have your own language? Yes.

But I. I try to do it in English. Oh.

It's really like, you know, I always say that English is far beyond the language. It's a personal development journey, you know? And what you're saying now really, really establishes that idea, because you're doing it not as a child. First of all, there is the challenge and overcoming a challenge and. And doing something for yourself and for your brain. So that's that investing in yourself and your brain, of course, it's personal development, but also what it offers you. Culture, friendships, understanding the world, information, knowledge. Right? And that's for people who don't really need it for their everyday life. Because a lot of times it's like people think, you know, it's. I don't have to have it for. For work, then why bother, right? Like, it's not a big deal. And you are here saying it is a big deal because it makes me a more thriving Successful person, individual. Yeah.

Got more confident and more confident, more happy and even I feel younger because if you learn something, you feel you are still student and your brain is like on fire and you try to learn something and all the way how the process is like a really big value because it's amazing. Yeah. And as you mentioned, that information, because I speak my mother tongue is Czech language. And in my country there is 10 million people and you know that language, just 10 million people. And if you want to get some information and you are not speaking different language, you get some just like you know someone like translated for. For you. But you don't know what has an.

Agenda and it's filtered through their brain and their eyes. So you don't really get the full picture.

Yeah, yeah. It opened your whole new world and you can search for information and I try to switch my environment, my personal environment into the English. So if I try to learn something, find some information, I always try to do it in English. So. And yeah, yeah, so different.

I love that. And obviously you are the type. I've known you for. How long have we known each other? Two years?

Three. Three years. In January it's gonna be three years.

Three years. My God. Yeah, Time flies. You've been such a dominant, significant part of our. All our communities and specifically beyond which we're going to talk about. Because I want to talk about your journey in. In the success path of beyond, which is sound. Of course. English Practice community and New sound is our signature program. So both of them are designed to move you up success path from. From, you know, like maybe avoiding speaking to speaking confidently and all the way up.

Yeah, it was definitely from avoid or speaking to. To confident.

So I want to highlight that like we have a success path that goes from avoider to anxious speaker to brave speaker to challenger to influencer. And when you joined, you identified as an avoider. And how do, how do you identify today?

What.

What is your stage?

I'm Influen. Last name. Yeah, definitely. And it really changed my life and not just like in terms of English, but it affects and influenced whole my life. Like my really. I'm totally different woman and I'm going to speak about it, but I wanted to start with some particular like a story what happened to me. It was maybe a trigger, you know, because before, as I said, I tried to learn somehow English. I attend some courses. It wasn't bad, but it still was something missing. But then I started to consume a lot of content on the Internet and it wasn't worth it. But I was spending a lot of time, hours and hours on Internet, like write down some beautiful phrases and words and phrasal verbs. But I wasn't able to use it practically. And there was some like particular story when we were with my partner, my boyfriend, we went to vacations to Croatia to meet some friends and we wanted to spend one day, one night in Budapest. So we booked some hotel and we were on our way. And during the way we were soon, we were approaching soon and he asked me so call them and ask if we can check in like sooner. And I totally was frozen and I wasn't able to do it. I was so stressed out because speaking over phone, it was something really, I couldn't like do it. And he was like pushing me like why? Why you don't want to do it? You are studying English all the time still. Like I can hear English over there. But I couldn't do it. I don't remember how I fixed it. Maybe I sent some email or something. I'm not sure. It was much easier.

You snuck out of it. You didn't really confront the challenge.

But as you know, everything happens for some reason. And after this I start to think I need to change something. And I think it wasn't an accident or something. And I like came across some video and it was you on the video video. And I was like, I totally felt in love with the way how you express yourself. I, I couldn't believe you are not native speakers. And I was like, this is my teacher. And after a few days I jumped into the influencing community and you know, the first thing was like make a video and introduce yourself.

So like, I'm just going to say for those who don't know, the Influencer Community is a free online community on Facebook where we have a lot of video challenges and conversation groups allowing people to participate. So that was your first journey with your first interaction with our community. So you had you, you said to yourself, I'm going to record a video.

Yes. So I was like observing few days and I like challenge myself, try to do it. And you know it's not about to make the video really short like I'm Daniel and so and so. But to watch it back, it was a joy. That's the hardest part. Yeah, but so I did it and people were so nice and so supportive and they left me beautiful comments and I like, it was wonderful. But then I realized you have like community beyond community. And as I'm, I feel myself still like an introvert, but now I'm like outgoing Introvert. And when I realized like beyond community is smaller and we are closer so I asked to be there and yeah. And you know, I create so many beautiful friendship there. So it was like. And then was, then came new sound and. Yeah. And second round of new sound and.

And continuing doing the work and yeah. How you, you kept progressing. What would you attribute most of your success to? Your progress because like moving from where you were to where you are today, where you have no issues, not only making a reservation at a hotel, but also hosting groups and facilitating conversations.

Right.

You're actually helping other people now communicate and build confidence, which is like an influencer. Right. You are working on your fluency by influencing others. And what would you say has helped you get to where you are today?

It's a small. So many small things. But I think that beauty of community, that support and support of you, all the beautiful, wonderful people, coaches and like consistent consistency, persistency to be every day doing something small. You know, like sprint is my like every morning routine. I can imagine to leave my apartment without doing sprint morning. I'm, I'm really.

Is a 10 minute exercise that I developed that we use in Beyond Daily to boost pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary through repetition. Right. So it's 10 minutes, like going to the gym for 10 minutes every day.

Yes.

How has that helped you, by the way?

The repetition, as you said, you like get it under your skin and sometimes you want to use it and the next day it isn't possible. But sometimes after one, two months, suddenly you start to use some phrases and you actually don't know why or how it happened because it's like settled down inside of you and your brain and you start to use it and yeah. And we learn so many great phrases and, and focus on pronunciation. So yeah, like whole bucket.

And what would you say? The, the. Because you've been a big part of our community, like very active, posting videos, inspiring, encouraging others. What would you say about the importance of community when it comes to learning a language? And I'm saying that because I know that there are a lot of people out there probably watching this interview, right. Listening to this on the podcast and they're doing all the work, right? Like they, they're doing the thing, they're practicing, they are, you know, watching videos, maybe even practicing with themselves, but they're alone and there's nothing wrong with that. Like I'm a sole learner. Like I love to learn on my own, but, but I guess that sometimes, especially when you learn a language, it's. It, it might not be enough. So tell me about your experience being in a supportive community and how that has helped you and why.

It'S something like absolutely essential. Because if you have people, you are on the same boat and you can share with them your struggles and you feel like before if you are not part of some community, you feel like really it's your issue and you don't know how to solve it. And then you realize. I realize so many people have the same struggles and if we like we are together we can grow much easier. And that support of other people is so important and so useful. Yeah, it's. And if you are part of like kind of community, but I think still feel like beyond is something really special. I can imagine something better. Anything better for me. And you feel so safe. So safe. You can be what you want to be here. We have so many interesting things to do to try and. Why is it important to feel safe?

Because you said that like with conviction. Why do you think it's important to feel safe in this. In this journey?

Yeah, because I think like Inurat is kind of wild, wild west and like generally way to put it. Yeah. It's. And you know, some people are even. I wouldn't like post something like maybe without within people. I really don't know because people generally are nice about. There is some people and it. It could be just one person and they can like with their like mean critique like put you down and it could be crucial for you. But if you have a people. But it doesn't mean we just like flattering ourselves or like patting on the back. Yeah, it's not necessary. But you feel that support. You feel people like feel you want you help. They want to help you and you won't help them back. And Yeah, I think that's. That's something really special. Yeah. Effy.

Daniela, what is possible for you today that was not possible at all three years ago?

Like this. Like this to speak with someone on public. Yeah, I. I wouldn't say maybe I wouldn't do it even in my own language. My first language. Yeah. Because it influenced my. My whole life. Yeah. I. I feel much more comfortable and much more confident to speak and to express myself. Yeah. Special is connected with travel. I love traveling. Like I. Everyone almost loved traveling and I was travel with my partner and with friends, especially with my beloved daughter. She's like 31 and we try every year to get like a few days together and travel. So it's beautiful. And I always was someone who rely on the other person and I Hadn't feel like strong enough. And what happened? After almost three years in Beyond, I like get my very first solo trip. It was something special and I just like, I just jumped on Internet. I bought my flight tickets to Rome and. Tell us about that. I think I was thinking like, what you want to do. And then I wow. Like contact Benderos, who is living in Italian Beyond. Italian Beyond. And I organized like a small meetup in Rome and I met like five beautiful ladies from Vienna. We spent the whole day like in Rome together, chatting and it was something really amazing. And. And then I spent another day with Elisa and yeah, it is absolutely unforgettable for me. And you know, it's like a sense.

Of, like a huge sense of accomplishment.

Right.

Like being independent, doing what you want, not being dependent on someone else. And you know, like when we had the meetup in at the end of 2022 in New York, we had a lot of of our community members, women who traveled on their own for the first time. And it was very similar. Like, it was the first time they actually traveled. I mean, I know they have already immigrated to the U.S. they did the most courageous thing in the world to begin with. But then in the US they never travele travel on their own. And they were always dependent on booking and everything on their partners, husbands. And it was the first time for them and it was a huge accomplishment. And I can like. And this is what you're saying as well. Like, it's, it's. It's really like I can do everything. Because it's not just that, it's just this. It's a symbol to other things that are now possible.

Yes. It gave me the freedom. Yeah. Even if I, I don't have to like travel on my own, just. But if I, if I want, I can, I, I can. It's such a beautiful feelings. You can do it. And yeah, it totally changed my life. And yeah, I feel so good.

I want to ask you for. Because, you know, you said that before you joined beyond and that new sound, you did study a lot on your own. And I'm sure that there are a lot of people who have been doing the work and they still feel frustrated and stuck. What was not working for you back then?

I had no one to speak to and I didn't know how to put into the practice what I've learned. And yet like a regular, regular speaking partner is the key. And it doesn't have to be just like one person, but that interaction with people and using language every day and. But not Just in your head, but out loud. Because if we feel. If we speak to, like, to ourselves at home, it sometimes feel like it's not so bad. But if you want to speak with, like, a real person, it's different. Yeah.

Yeah.

Even now I think in my head there is a better English, but still. But it takes a time, you know, like. And I'm patient. It's always like that because our, Our.

Brain is so sophisticated and so like, we sometimes we think that we just think in a language. We think in colors and in shapes and in feelings and, you know, so there's like, all that that is here and obviously what we're able to translate, whether it's in our first language or second or third, it's probably always going to be limited. So we, we should be okay with that.

Yeah. And I would love to mention one more thing. What is like, a huge advantage of beyond. Like, you can be here whatever you want to be. Like, you can play with your voice, you can do monologues, dialogues. You can sing, because it's my passion and I sing a lot. And you can, like, wear wigs. Amazing things, as I do, and do crazy things. We have so many, like, sessions and opportunities to do and. And you don't feel like you're scared about it because no one is going to judge you. Yeah. You just enjoy your life because, like, what's the point if there is no fun? And it's much better to. To enjoy it, your. Your journey than just like, learn, learn and.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think again, you know, being able to. To be in English, but also be yourself is something that always feels like, almost impossible because it's like when you. There is a part in the learning journey where you feel like when you speak in English, you put on a mask or you put on a costume and it's not really you. And then it's hard to do crazy stuff and sing and tell jokes and. And put on wigs and all of that because you, like, it doesn't feel like you. You don't even feel like you have permission to be yourself. And I think it's so important to remember that no matter what language you speak and no matter how well you speak, it is this. It is still authentically you. And pushing yourself to doing those things that you are doing. I think it has helped your fluency journey. Absolutely helped it, because you gave yourself permission. What would you tell someone who is too afraid of being judged, too afraid of being criticized, too afraid of making mistakes? What would you tell them?

Sure. If I'm like the person who would like want to give any piece of advice. But I would say like try it. You can try. You can make it if you try. So find like safe environment to feel good, to feel free and then try and you will see how easy it's going to be like if you, if you give it a chance. If you give it a chance. Yeah. Because you maybe would stay in the corner or sit in the corner and never try anything. And like it was a really pity. It would be really pity.

What are some of your biggest goals and ambitions when it comes to English?

Oh yeah, I haven't like thought about. I hadn't thought about my. My setting my goals before New Sound. But then my first goal after New Sound was like start to hosting sessions in. In beyond and I accomplish it and I really enjoy it. And I also after second round I set my like long term goal which is connected with my job and with English because I work as a gardener in botanical garden at university belongs to my, to my city. Sometimes we have some visitors and we have just one person which is our boss who speaks English and can like guide the visitors during the garden. And yeah, it is my goal to be able to do it. It's like not on because it's. It need it. It needs like just time to time, not on daily basis. But I would like to. To be able to do it. If it's. If it's. Yeah, yeah. If I told you that you need.

To do it tomorrow, would you be.

Able to do it tomorrow? Actually I need to gain a lot of like information even like in that field because I hadn't studied horticulture. I studied economy. I was working as an accountant for almost all my life. Yeah. Then I quit and changed everything. So it's another story. Crazy story. Wait, wait, no, I want to hear that.

Like what made you, what made you make that shift?

Yeah, I just decided to try and I wanted to change something and I was lucky enough. My beloved partner, he supported me and he told me like if you are not happy like doing what you do now, just try. I can support you if anything happened. Like so. So I, I did it. I quit my job. It was like a pretty good job because like accountant at university, like the social benefits and so But I did and I became like a really happy person.

Wow.

Outside in the garden and. Yeah.

Amazing.

I love that. Yeah.

So that's, that's a good goal. So you need to just learn the vocabulary and practice it a little bit. I believe in you. I know that's gonna be.

Yeah, that's like.

I'm waiting for the video. In beyond that you will share telling us about. About your first tour.

Your first. Actually a small win. I already done because once some like, visitors came and I was doing like translator. Yeah. 1. My leader was like guiding them, but she's not speaking English, so she. She told it like in Czech language and I was translating. It was like a good win. But I would like to go more up my own.

Amazing. So before we wrap up, we talked about your future plans and I love that. What advice would you have for our audience who might be struggling with fears, who might be, you know, like, they don't have a plan. They can't find motivation to practice consistently. But they do enjoy, let's say, watching YouTubes and consuming content. What would you tell them?

I would tell them, like, join some community. Find people you can practice with because it's a crucial. It's essential. And enjoy the journey because the journey is the destination.

Wait, wait, say that again. Say that again.

The. The journey is the destination.

I so agree with that. We forget that we always, like, think about the destination and we forget that it's about the journey. It's good to have a goal, but you may not hit it. You will get somewhere. You. You'll get elsewhere. But it's the journey that counts.

Yeah. And I would say then maybe even like, and do it now, do it today. Because there is nothing like tomorrow. It's always today. So you need to do it today. Just small step, small little step and try and you will see. And if you see some results, if you see improvement, such a huge motivation. So you can't stop.

Exactly. No. But what you said is so important. Like before that you said being consistent. And when you enjoy it, it's a lot easier to be consistent, I think, because it's something you want. It's not something that you have to. Because when you have to do something.

Yes. Yeah. And I would say I don't have to. I can, I can. I have access to Internet. I have time. I can't find the time. Even some people have, like, less time because maybe families, little children, whatever could be. But like 10 minutes a day, I think we can all of us find and yeah, do something. Do something. But before we wrap it up, I don't know how much time we have. I wanted to mention a few more things about beyond. Especially I wanted to name people. Our name them. Let's. Let's talk about them. Not all of like people, because we would need like several hours for it. But especially like coaches and Elena, I have the privilege to meet her in person which was really something like unforgettable meetup. And also Marcella, our grammar queen because I don't imagine I would like fall in love with grammar because people don't like grammar. But Marcella was able to like because we so many people in beyond fell in love with to fall in love.

With grammar the way she's passionate about it. Absolutely. So Marcel is one of our coaches and Yelena, just for people who don't know is our head head of the training department and customer success. So so she is definitely responsible for. For all of that goodness as well.

Abby. Abby. He motivates me with his first karaoke session. I started host my sessions teach and learn through songs and the like very end of the session we always do karaoke version and we sing together and then I post it in our group and it's so much fun if I see that. So smiles on people's faces. So it's so like beautiful, beautiful feelings. And of course Christina, Christine and Judith and Marwa and Amar. Amar, our tech magician, he always can solve any like technical issues and help us like so it is like it.

Is, it is a community that supports the community. Absolutely. Like our team is a part of the community. You know, it's not, it's not separate. And, and the. You guys are why we do what we do. You know we are. It's so funny. Like when you look at our Slack channel, Slack is like the, the platform we use to connect. It's like WhatsApp, you know the, the, the, the most popular channels are the channels where we talk about our students. Like did you see what she posted? Or this happened or she's celebrating this or he's celebrating that. Because it's such an honor to be a part of such beautiful journeys like yours and other members of our community and all of you are constantly doing your best and you inspire us to do better. And I think it's like this mutual collaborative experience and I absolutely love that. So thank you so much for acknowledging all the team and there are a lot of people behind the scenes as well. This is an opportunity to say thank you to everyone and I'm also going to say because we mentioned a few places and programs so let me just organize it and we're going to post all the links in the description. So Daniela first joined the influency community. That is our free community for people to connect. Non native speakers from around the world. Everyone's welcome as long as your intentions are pure and to connect and to speak with others with respect. So that's the influency community on Facebook and then we have beyond our English practice membership. I'm going to put a link below so you can join the wait list or join if you're watching this when doors are still open. I think when we air it, doors will be open. And New Sound is our signature program that focuses on pronunciation prosody, which is intonation, rhythm and stress, mindset and fluency strategies. So that is like a three month program that takes place twice a year. And Daniela is a proud member of all three.

Absolutely proud. And as you mentioned, mindset, it was that like, like game changer mindset, special time module about mindset. It changed everything my approach to, to English. And, and we've seen that because you.

Kept, kept putting yourself out there and challenging yourself without being afraid of, you know, what people are going to think or how it's going to come out. And I think that is such a growth, mindset oriented action. And again, like the thing is when you do something that pushes you, it's not that you're just doing it for yourself. Of course you're doing it for yourself, but you have no idea the impact it has on others. Because when people see someone else doing something scary that they think they would never be able to do, that.

Makes.

It possible for them to imagine themselves doing it as well. And it kind of like, it's like a nudge for them to do it as well. So I think that when people are courageous, apart from it being beautiful for their own, you know, development, it has a huge impact. It's like the ripple effect on the people around you and your friends and your spouse and your parents and your kids who see you doing something positive in your life that you're passionate about. I mean, if that's not leaving a legacy, I don't know what it is. So, yeah, I think they are proud.

Because you do your best and you try your best and it is. Yeah. So join us and feel free because what, what happens in beyond stays in beyond. Rephrase, like famous sentence. Yeah, yeah.

Daniela, thank you so, so much for this beautiful conversation and for sharing a little bit about your life and your, your story, your English story. And I cannot wait to see what's to come in the next few months and years. It's been a pleasure being here with you and in your journey.

I'm gonna stay with you like until my last day. I will never leave beyond it's my family. It's my family. Yeah.

Yeah.

I feel this. Like this. So thank you so much, Hadar, for inviting me, for having me, and for your beautiful smile and your impact on my life.

Thank you for everything. And thank you for your time. And thank you, everyone for watching and listening to our conversation today. If you have questions for Daniela, just leave them in the comments below and we will be there responding. Thank you, everyone. And thank you, Daniela. And have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day, everyone. And we'll see you next week in the next video. Bye.

Bye.