Learn English, It Will Give You Opportunities | How I Started My Business as a Non-Native Speaker

hello guys and welcome back to my YouTube channel  in this video I would like to share my story  

with you how I started my business at 22 as a  non-native English speaker working exclusively  

in English I think I have intrigued you enough  because first of all I am 22 and second of all  

I am a non-native English speaker so let's begin  with a story and start from the very beginning so  

the first thing I wanted to share with you guys  is my background because I think it's important  

to understand where I'm coming from and how I  grew up so I was born in a small Russian town  

called lipetsk and then my parents and I moved to  an even smaller town called montigors when I went  

to college I honestly didn't know what I wanted  to do because I was only 17 years old and at 17  

it's very hard to make a career choice and my  parents fortunately they reminded me of that you  

know every single month they were like Veronica  it's okay you know if you decide one day that it's  

not for you you can always change something just  don't continue doing a job you don't love so what  

happened is basically I decided to study Chinese  and college to become a Chinese translator or a  

Chinese interpreter I wanted to Translate from  Chinese into Russia which is my native language  

but then I just realized that it wasn't for me and  how I realized that by trial and error I took some  

translation jobs and I just realized that it  wasn't for me like it was fun I loved Chinese  

but something was lacking and this something  for me was interacting with other people even  

though right now with my current job I'm always  by myself in my apartment filming where there  

are no other people but me it's still different  because I know you guys are going to watch this  

video and appreciate it a lot so we're gonna the  housing kind of interaction this way I decided to  

transition to YouTube when it was my second year  in college because you know it was the time when I  

was like yeah I don't like my college I don't like  my major and yeah that's the only thing I want to  

do I want to do YouTube because I have been in  love with YouTube at that point for like four  

years and my love for YouTube continues to grow  nowadays so yeah guys I think that's it for my  

short story and now let's move on to talking about  how I actually started my YouTube channel and how  

that helped me start my own business become no  action and no talk this is the first thing I  

did and guys believe me it was very hard for me to  actually do it because for the longest time I was  

just telling everyone oh I want to start a YouTube  channel oh I want to become a YouTuber but I  

wouldn't do anything about it I was just complain  and complain and complain I would be in this  

victim mentality I would say oh I'm a non-native  English speaker I can't make videos in English  

oh I don't have a camera oh I don't know how to  fill but in reality if you really want to start  

a YouTube channel or any other kind of business  for example when I started my English courses my  

speaking club and my book club that are now all  run under the brand of speakful I was also afraid  

because it was like oh I don't know anything about  how to create a website oh I don't know anything  

about marketing clients Revenue things like that  so in those moments I just usually tell people  

start if you want to change something you have to  start doing it yourself it's like there's a very  

nice quote be the change you want to see in the  world I wanted people to become more compassionate  

to treat animals with respect and that's why  I became vegan the same thing applies to your  

business if you want other people around you to  be more motivated to be willing to change their  

lives and risk and get rewarded do it yourself  and don't shy away from opportunities and here  

I would also like to add that at the beginning  I watched a lot of Catherine Manning's videos  

and also Ali abdall's videos because they have a  lot of videos on their channels all about how to  

start your YouTube channel in 2022 2023 and  yeah guys it's almost Christmas time I hope  

you really appreciate how beautiful my Christmas  tree is but after actually to be completely honest  

this is something that I haven't shared with  anyone my first ever video on YouTube that was  

never published but is still on YouTube it's just  unlisted so only I can see it is in Russian and  

it was filmed way before I officially started my  YouTube channel so I started my YouTube channel in  

2022 and I think that video was filmed in 2018 or  2019 it was in Russian and guys if you subscribe  

to my channel and like this video maybe one day  I'll show you my actual first video on YouTube not  

the one you see right now because I don't know  it's very you know scary for me and also very  

exciting because I want you guys to see how much  I have grown and I want you guys to know that you  

will grow just start don't have this mentality of  oh I want my videos to be perfect they will never  

to be perfect you will always be growing so start  right now and talking about all action now talk  

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back to the video and think about why I thought  I was not worthy of success I'm not worthy of  

success because I'm a non-native English speaker  this is something that I had to struggle with for  

a very long time and this is something that a lot  of people would call an imposter syndrome I would  

be lying to you guys if I told you that I never  suffer from this syndrome right now sometimes it  

does happen to me sometimes I ask myself Veronica  what are you doing you're not a native English  

speaker people are not going to watch your videos  which is so untrue also at the very beginning  

when I first started my YouTube channel I was  afraid because I was new on YouTube and there  

are so many amazing creators on YouTube already  so I was afraid that no one would like me that  

no one one would watch my videos because there  were already so many videos on YouTube I was  

also afraid that I sucked at filming and editing  because I didn't know anything about it but even  

though I was afraid and I had this fear and I  still do have a part of the sphere I still do  

something as I just told you guys I became all  action no talk and now seeing that my YouTube  

channel has over 15 million views that just blows  my mind and it shows that my efforts paid off and  

it motivates me to continue to produce amazing  content for you guys but let's go back to the  

Imposter syndrome real quick and I want to go  into detail about what I did to cope with it I  

found this really interesting article online with  a lot of different tips a lot of different things  

you can Implement if you're also suffering with  imposter syndrome but here's guess what I did it  

based on this article some of the things that I  did and that I think has helped me to get where  

I am at right now so the first thing that helped  me a lot was focusing on facts people watch my  

videos they like my videos they leave positive  comment there is engagement people participate in  

my courses my speaking club and my book club and  a lot of other things I provide I think writing  

all of those things down and actually looking  at the facts looking at the numbers made me more  

appreciative of what I have and more grateful for  sure and this has helped me to cope with imposter  

syndrome at least a little bit the second thing  I did that I actually implemented recently was  

finding a mentor for me it was a business coach I  found a business coach and I have booked a couple  

of sessions with him and I guys this is like the  best money I have spent on myself I can already  

see that these sessions provide so much value  for me and I really want to continue discussing  

more things with my coach but if for you coaching  is not an option what you can do and what I did  

in the past was watching a lot of motivational  YouTube videos because there's so many amazing  

videos where people talk about motivation about  changing your career path about whatever you want  

really and the second thing you can do is also  read books one day my coach recommended this  

book to me the Gap and the gain and guys I really  really recommend it to everyone who is not happy  

with their current situation who wants to change  something who's always running on this hedonic  

treadmill of achieving more and more and more  things just you know get this book take a look  

read it and I'm sure it will help you a lot so  what do we have now I'm 22 I was born in Russia  

I'm a non-native English speaker and I have  a YouTube channel where I speak English where  

I make videos only in English where I motivate  people to become the best versions of themselves  

I have a company called speakful where I provide  different educational courses like my speaking  

club or my book club so I really hope you guys  My Story shows you that where others would see  

obstacles I saw opportunities and this is exactly  why and how I decided to start my YouTube channel  

speakful and all the other things I do where other  people would say no Veronica it's probably not  

gonna happen to you because you're a non-native  English speaker because you live in a small town  

in Russia because you're Russian I would say well  guys look at me I'm still doing it I'm still doing  

what I love and I want to continue doing what  I love and I want to do whatever it takes to  

continue making those videos for you guys because  this is something that makes me excited this is  

something that brings me joy connecting with you  guys and motivating you to do something about your  

life to change it for the better on this note I  would like to finish this video don't forget to  

give lingoda a try and participate in the linguish  Sprint as you guys remember I take Spanish classes  

on lingoda so there's a high chance that we will  see each other in class on their platform also  

make sure to check out this video about how  I went on 22 dates in 2020 and about how a  

guy one of the guys I went on a date with called  me baby on our first date yep that happened too  

make sure to click here and watch this video and  I'll see you guys in my next video bye foreign