AI-generated transcript: So last week I had the pleasure of speaking at Gaijin Pot Expo 2023 and it was quite a learning experience for me.
I've never been to a business conference, certainly not as a featured speaker.
That makes it sound more grand than it really was.
I wasn't actually a featured speaker, I was just sort of like one of four
on a panel but the whole program only lasted 20 minutes so it was quite a lesson in trying to get my point across in as short a time as possible.
I wrote about this in the last newsletter, the bulletin, issue number 31 on the website if you want to look at freetalktefl.substack.com but so I want to just
What I found really interesting was having to reduce my message to just a very basic point was quite difficult and also it cut out all the BS and all the self-promotional stuff.
Now of course here at freetalktefl.substack.com it's full of self-promotion isn't it?
I kind of can't help it because I've got to justify why I spend so much time writing all these posts and appearing on the video and all the things that I do.
Yes, of course, I enjoy doing it or else I wouldn't do it.
But I could have more fun just painting pictures if I wanted to do that.
In fact, maybe that's how I should spend my time.
But I'm not.
Why not?
Because I want to generate a bit of income eventually.
And I think that's one of the main motivating factors behind, I'm not going to repeat it, behind this website.
And well, it got me thinking going to this place, you know, because actually I was standing in front of an audience of, I don't know, about 50, 60 people, perhaps potentially more because they videoed it.
TEFL
I won't go into that.
If you're interested in that, go to the issue number 17 of this podcast.
Number 17.
Did I call it issue 17?
Talk about business funnels.
But the point is, what am I doing here?
Well, one of the things I'm doing here is I'm creating a lot of good content, I think.
And I don't think it's too spammy.
Of course, I want you to eventually buy my books.
And that made me think how useful it would be if I had just a table and a place to put my business cards and a place to stack up some books and a place to just talk to people as they came by at the Gaijin Park place.
Now, all of those, well not all, most of those people there were looking for a job.
So, and I'm kind of the anti-job person.
I'm there saying, you don't need a job, work for yourself.
Don't work for the man, work for yourself.
Stop asking permission!
Just go out and do it!
Which is maybe not the message that they were hoping to get, so it might be a hard sell to talk to them, but it's certainly a room with between, I don't know, 500 and 1,000 foreigners coming, and all of them interested in making some money in Japan.
That's my audience!
So,
That made me think further.
What am I doing with this stuff?
And I think what I'm trying to do is Free Talk TEFL website.
I think it's going to be... Free Talk is the overarching... God, dare I say it?
Brand.
That's the brand.
That's the thing.
The Free Talk thing.
So not my personal AKI where I teach.
The AKI where I teach is becoming a sort of laboratory where I can test out things.
I've got loads of books, and you can see on the website loads of books, probably a little bit overpriced for the average Aikaiwa that needs to turn a profit and has to sell these books and make a profit from those books.
So it made me think, I need to revamp all of the things that I offer for sale.
I need to have a good funnel system like I do for my own students.
for you the viewer.
Free Talk TEFL I see it as that's the widest part of the funnel where everything is free and always will be free and you can come here and get your information and so on but for a limited number of people they'll be like okay that's great but how do I actually teach this lesson?
Okay I'll give you the information but then okay I need the materials I don't want to have to think about it all the time.
Okay I give a lot of free stuff as you know every Monday
But I think I can do better and I think I can offer exactly what people need for the students and what the teachers need.
So that would be towards the end of the funnel, the middle part of the funnel.
So what I'm saying is this is a whole kind of business.
Going to this gaijin pot thing made me realize I've got to professionalize and turn it up a gear.
And these were all the revelations that I had while having a shower this morning.
The last time I had a really good idea in the shower
It ended up being QuakeBook which was the charity book that sold 10,000 copies and we raised $40,000 for the Red Cross after the 2011 earthquake.
That was the last time I had a good idea in the shower.
Well, I've had another good idea in the shower and that's to shape this website and the future of Free Talk TEFL.
I'm here for the long term.
Thanks for sticking around.
It started with, you know, if you go to the website, you'll see a great big thing where I did have a smarmy picture of me.
I've changed that, got rid of that, and put in there instead a big headline that says, Start Here.
Hopefully that's where you will go if you just find yourself at freetalktefl.com.
No, substack.com, whatever.
Yeah.
www.tefl.com
Thanks for sticking with me, this will continue.
It's not going to be any major changes, it's just going to be a few little tweaks here and there, and I'm going to keep tweaking.
The subscriber list is rising about between, well, I'd like about, how many, less than ten but more than five new subscribers every month, so it's like at least one a week.
Free Talks
The World Headquarters of My Eikaiwa Club
This is the main teaching room.
You can see behind me is the kitchen.
And looky, looky there.
That's the main teaching room.
I arrange it like a seminar.
And lots of advent calendars that we made.
If you're interested in that kind of thing, I can do a proper tour of the place.
Maybe even show you some lessons.
The Free Talk Staffroom
