As many of you know, I’m a TESOL Teacher working and living in Taiwan. But I don’t work in a regular school, I own what’s generally called a supplementary education language school teaching TESOL to children. I’ve done this for many years, and I love the job. I love the challenge, but would appreciate a holiday… Anyway, today’s story!
On the left you can see one of my favorite classes (but shh! don’t tell them that! they might get ‘big’ ideas! and then I’ll have to double their homework!!)
It was many years ago, when I first hit the streets touting my old boss’s business. She was needing advertising and straightforward word of mouth at that to increase enrolments, so we hit the schools with demos and performances, etc. to increase our visibility. But I remember being vaguely embarrassed doing that kind of work… I don’t know why. I think it was ‘beneath me’ in some way.
Recently, I had the ‘opportunity’ to witness other people handing out flyers, and when I looked at them, it was obvious that they hadn’t done this before! They were stiff, unnatural, perhaps trying to get out of doing, and definitely not enjoying it! It took me straight back to the times I used to feel similarly embarrassed! Looking on from the outside still provided me with little insight!
Today, however, we went to a local school to hand out flyers! And I had to do the same thing! And it was great! We passed out over 100 flyers in twenty minutes! They were flying out of my hands, and they weren’t THAT attractive if you know what I mean! But the fact that we enjoyed ourselves really helped to soothe our self-concsiousness about this.
Then I realized: I had nothing to be ashamed of, nothing could harm me! And it was all good fun! So go ahead! Tell people about your good works, your fun, and your business! Do in good humor! Don’t apologize for doing it and NEVER, EVER be embarrassed! People need to hear your good news… and there is NO ONE better qualified to tell the story than YOU!
We had a great time last Halloween! As we really did go out and show people who we were… some very scary ghosts! Look at the photograph to see if you can see some of our ‘little devils’!
Or ME, as it was today! So, go out and tell the world the great things you do! And if they don’t want to hear, MOVE right on to the next person! Some will want to read or listen to what you want to tell them! But be polite, be sensitive, push when you can, but stop when you sense you’re getting nowhere (sometimes rather quickly!).
And always, always SMILE! Your positive humor, excitement and warmth will radiate out and people will come to you!
