AP 0752: Can I Start an Online Business in English? It’s Not My First Language.

AskPat 752 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What's up, everybody? Pat Flynn here. Welcome to Episode 752 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always, I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions, five days a week. And also, I want to thank you so much for all the birthday wishes from yesterday.

My birthday was yesterday, 34, and I'm excited because (like I did a couple years ago) I'm doing a campaign on my birthday to help serve Pencils of Promise, an organization that helps build schools around the world, that I am part of, I'm an advisor for. I worked with them a couple years ago to build two schools in Ghana, which you guys helped out with, and just thank you so much for that. This year, I'm doing something that is benefiting them, as well, but I'm also selling a t-shirt, so you can check out that t-shirt, and all the profits go to Pencils of Promise. You can check it out at ServeFirst.io. Serve First is sort of the quickest and easiest way for me to tell you how one can become successful in life, and that is you first serve others. So www.ServeFirst.io, there's only 500 available in this first run. And again, all the profits, 100% of the profits, go to Pencils of Promise. So, www.ServeFirst.io. [Editor's Note: All sold out!]

Here's today's question from Mohamed.

Mohamed: Hi, Pat. How are you? I hope that you are fine. I am Mohamed from Morocco, in north of Africa. My question is, what do you advise someone, a newbie in online businesses and he don't have anybody to start, especially when English is the second or the third language in his country? Thank you very much for your hard work. Peace.

Pat Flynn: Hey, Mohamed. Thank you so much for the question. I'm going to make this really easy for you. I would just say, to get started as a newbie, especially if you have English as your second or third language, just go and try and don't worry about being perfect. Don't even worry about making sense at first, because truly, and this is for everybody no matter what language is first, just putting yourself out there is half the battle. Getting used to writing and practicing every single day is what's going to help you improve. What's cool is, I mean, your English was perfectly fine. I understood every single word you said, so I'm sure that that will translate to with whatever you end up helping and serving people first with, whatever that topic is about, you're going to be able to explain it in a way that people are going to understand. Even though you might have an accent and even though it won't be perfect English, I mean I'm stumbling with my own English right now, so don't seem like. . .don't make it so. . .man, now I'm really struggling.

Don't worry about having perfect English. Worry about serving people first and putting yourself out there. What's going to happen is some people are going to really vibe with you, even though you might have broken English and you have this accent. Some people will prefer that, and likely you'll be able to connect with people who also have English as a second or third language, especially if they're from your same country. Don't be afraid to be yourself and don't be afraid to put yourself out there, and just go, do it. Make connections and write about things that are really useful and talk about topics that are really interesting. Also, just build relationships with people. You've been able to build a relationship with me just in this small way through SpeakPipe and through www.AskPat.com here. You can do it on a much bigger level with many other influencers and people out there in the space that you're serving, too.

So, Mohamed, just go for it and don't be afraid. Truly, the more you do it, the better you'll get. You're going to find that the English will just begin to come naturally to you, if it's a struggle now, which it doesn't seem like it on my end, but I feel like great things will happen the more work you put into it, which is always the case. So just get started, keep practicing, don't worry about being perfect, make connections. That's what it's all about.

Mohamed, thank you so much for your question. I appreciate you so much and I want to send you an AskPat t-shirt for free, as I do with everybody who gets their question featured here on the show. For everybody who gets their question featured, we'll send it to you free of charge, which is really cool. So we'll send that to you, Mohamed. You'll hear from my assistant in the next couple weeks or so, maybe after the holidays. Also, for those of you who have a question that you would like here potentially on the show, head on over to AskPat.com, and you can ask right there on that page.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Make sure to check out that t-shirt, if it's still available, at ServeFirst.io. You can check it out and the amazing design that I had done for me there on the lettering and it's just so much fun. I'm just really glad to be doing even more for Pencils of Promise, but also being able to give back something in return, like this shirt, because last time it was just the donate and feel good kind of thing. Well, I wanted to give something back this time, so ServeFirst.io.

Thanks so much guys, appreciate it. I'll see you in the next episode of AskPat. As always, to finish off, here's a quote. Today's quote is from Joel Spolsky, who is the CEO of Stack Exchange. He says, “Every day that we spent not improving our products was a wasted day.” So don't waste that day, today and tomorrow and the rest of the days.

Thanks so much. I appreciate you. See you in the next episode. Bye.