📌Public Speaking 📌The Ego Trap in Pitching

One of the biggest misconceptions among early-stage founders and managers is this: “I must appear flawless. My presentation must be perfect, professional, and polished in every way”

Sounds familiar? While this mindset might feel right, it often leads to the exact opposite of what a good pitch needs. It creates tension, stiffness, anxiety. Worst of all, it turns your focus inward, on yourself

You become centered on yourself: How do I look? Do I sound smart? What will they think of me? This is ego. And ego kills connection.

What makes a pitch actually work is everything opposite of ego: relaxation, openness, a genuine focus on the audience

Ask yourself: Is what I’m saying clear (not impressive, but clear!) to them? Is it useful for them? Can they follow what I’m trying to express?

It’s not about “how perfect I am,” it’s about “how well they understand”

🪴 Watch this video of Jensen Huang (founder of Nvidia) fumbling in his pockets during a keynote (at 1:26:25). If he can afford to be human on stage, so can you

☺️ Think back to the moments when you truly convinced someone: a friend, a boss, a client. Were you trying to be perfect? Or were you simply present, focused, connected?

🧸 Why Borat? Because Borat is a parody of forced formality. Also a symbol of radical freedom, irony, and authenticity. He may be controversial, but he moves people. And that’s what great communicators do. A great presenter isn’t someone who pleases everyone. A great presenter is someone who ignites* their crowd

*Post Glossary
🫧to ignite a crowd — to excite, energize, or inspire them (as if starting a fire)
"The speaker’s fiery words about justice and freedom ignited the crowd, turning them to thunderous applause"

📎 Pinned post about our PitchUp club here

👁‍🗨Side hustles from an unexpected angle 👁‍🗨S2S users' topic for discussion this week

While most of the employers remain protective of their employees time and focus in efforts to retain their top talent*, some most forward thinking* ones (or most cunning & manipulative?) encourage their teams to get side hustles!

Vedika Bhaia, founder of Growth Square and Social Capital (LinkedIn), flipped the fear of losing workforce on its head* and said she not only supports but encourages her employees to pursue side hustles, even if it means watching them outgrow her company someday.

The entrepreneur made it clear that this isn’t about letting go of people, it’s about setting them up to fly higher. “It’s a success if my mentorship helps someone build something beyond the boundaries of* my own company,” she wrote.

👩‍💼What about your company? Does it have a stance towards side hustles? What do you think about Vedika's declaration?

*Post Glossary

🫧 to retain top talent — To keep the best and most skilled employees in a company
"Offering flexible work hours is one way to retain top talent"
🫧 forward thinking — Innovative, future-oriented, and open to change and progress
"The company thrives under forward-thinking leadership that embraces new technologies"
🫧 to flip the fear on its head — To completely change the perspective on a fear, using it as a source of strength or motivation
"She flipped her fear of public speaking on its head by joining a debate club"
🫧 beyond the boundaries of — Outside the limits or scope of something, often suggesting innovation or exploration
"Their creativity went beyond the boundaries of traditional marketing"

Want to check if your level is sufficient to discuss topics like this one fluently in English? Text 'S2S level' to @ybeymlina for a checkup

📎 See the pinned post about S2S

⭐ PitchUp Shameless Brag* ⭐ Meet Oksana Kalashnikova, MD, co-founder of Bloom AI (smart weight loss), a startup using AI to help users win the fight against weight loss and empower doctors to engage patients in lasting behavioral change

Oksana joined PitchUp during her fundraising sprint. She already had a pitch deck but wanted to refine her confidence in English, focusing on precise vocabulary, storytelling techniques, stage presence, and voice modulation

🇧🇷Her training culminated in a standout presentation at Web Summit Rio, one of the world’s premier tech events. Its attendance totalled 34,000–35,000+ (entrepreneurs, investors, media). Among keynote speakers, you could find Marcelo Claure (SHEIN), Justina Nixon-Saintil (IBM), Marcio Aguiar (NVIDIA)

Check out Oksana's testimonial in Russian (screenshot above) or English (LinkedIn)

5️⃣0️⃣🔣 We’re proud to be the go-to choice for founders like Oksana. At the same time, half of our members are just starting their entrepreneurial journey and don’t yet have a clear idea. Pitching others’ projects is a smart way to build confidence and shape their own visions

*Post Glossary
🫧A shameless brag — a confident, unapologetic way to highlight your achievements, skills, or wins, without downplaying or apologizing for them. It’s about owning your success while staying engaging

📎 Learn more about PitchUp in our pinned post

🌷 1 quick pronunciation fix that can deceive people into believing you're 1 CEFR level higher than you really are

Video Glossary
🫧 a stepping stone (Something that helps you move toward a goal)
🫧 to set someone to fly higher (To empower or enable someone to achieve more or go further than before)

🪴 Share with 🤍 We're only 8 learners away from our first toddler milestone of 500 🤍 Higher res videos & new features will follow

📎Pinned post about S2S

⭐️ Meet Lourdes Ortega —
A Top Voice in Language Learning 2025 | Researcher at the Georgetown University

As promised, @EnglishForImpact continues to introduce you to top people in the language learning industry nowadays

Why to care about Lourdes Ortega?

💓She's the world's top 2% most-cited researcher according to Elsevier Data Repository. Which means her ideas reflect the mood of the many and good at least to be aware of
💓 Lourdes's acknowledgement of how multilingual (ours!) brains work differently (=basically being twice activated all the time) gives us a chance to appreciate our achievements
💓As she shifts the label from 'making mistakes' to 'expressing things differently' for multilingual speakers, she removes the stigma often associated with non-standard expressions.

Bascially, she would treat the translation of "to be spread thin" into Russian as «быть намазанным тонко» not as a mistake, but as an alternative saying.

💅 How we at S2S use Lourdes Ortega’s ideas

We make sure to expose our users to* diversity — a new speaking partner, another high level learner, every week. This way, our users learn to accept the differences and communicate with diverse people

At the same time, we remain proponents of the standard expression. Due to this, our teachers supply feedback reports with error corrections after each speaking session (based on the Zoom recording)

🍿Resource
Youtube video where Lourdes Ortega pitches Multilingualism to teachers and learners (22min)

*Post Glossary
🫧sloppiness (see the image) — Lack of care, organization, or attention to detail
"His sloppiness in writing caused him to lose marks on the exam"
🫧to expose (users) to (different people) — To introduce or make users come into contact with a variety of people
🫧to reflect the mood of — To express, show, or be in harmony with a particular emotional atmosphere or feeling
"The soft lighting in the restaurant reflected the mood of a quiet romantic evening"

🪴 Share the 💓 for langage learning with a friend today — forward this post

🔫 Quiz time 💅 Let's check if you've been reading our Glossaries attentively this week...

☕️ 4 YC Applications — Deconstructed on One Miro Board

For founders, product builders, and top managers who are non-native English speakers. Want to sound confident, clear, and inspiring even if English isn’t your first language? Start by learning from those who’ve already made it into Y Combinator.

We’ve gathered 4 real YC applications [all of them accepted, one now a unicorn, three acquired] and broke them down on a single interactive Miro board. Each pitch is deconstructed and ready for you to learn from.

🪴 What You’ll Find Inside

1️⃣ Explore:
Meet 4 successful YC-backed teams. Watch their original application videos (from 45 sec to 2:20 min)

2️⃣ Observe:
Spot key elements in their delivery — tone, pacing, clarity, energy

3️⃣ Analyze:
Read the pitch scripts, follow the structure breakdown, and review highlighted vocabulary and phrases

4️⃣ Apply:
Use the same structure to write your own pitch & integrate powerful phrasing used by successful founders

5️⃣ Practice Out Loud:
Shadow-read one top pitch sentence by sentence, mimicking the speaker’s intonation and stress (we marked it for you!). Build your pitch delivery muscle literally

Before this board, you had to search and reverse-engineer good pitches on your own. Now, you can apply proven patterns and start sounding more native-like on the spot

Access the Miro board here

One product builder at a time. One strong voice at a time. One speech that actually gets heard and moves people into action. Let’s go with ❤️ & 🧠 open

📎See the pinned post about PitchUp club — Find out how and why to join

📌To say more in English 📌

As we observe S2S users sharing their responses on a variety of topics, we notice 2 things:

☺️ Some Intermediate+ learners have a difficulty forming consie answers on a question and speak in run on sentences, that can be challenging to follow. They're in the minority.

☺️ Most of the Intermediate+ learners find it challenging to speak at length. The result: they undershare their thoughts, do not build a deeper connection with their speaking partner and... miss the opportunity to produce more speech in English, which is necessary for the skill growth

📈We release a 10 min video illustrating 1 easy to follow tip that helps you to say more and produce more speech in English

Time codes:

00:00 Intro
00:18 Why to say more (the benefits)? Is it for everyone? Language learning & personality
02:40 Learners' typical speech (S2S example)
04:02 The tip 'How-to' boost the typical response and make it longer
05:11 Improved speech, following the 'How-to' tip
07:49 The phrases that nudge you to speak more
08:59 Invitation to practice saying more in English with S2S

*Video Glossary

🫧to lengthen (a response) — to make something longer
🫧a hush-hush topic — a topic not to speak about, a taboo or a secret
🫧The way I see it is ... — a phrase to introduce your opinion
"The way I see it is people don't start improving English until it's too late"

😊 Send this to your silent friend who needs a tip to speak more
🪴 Help us to grow to 500 and enjoy new features

📎Pinned post about S2S

🍬 Your reward for our milestone 🍼 Toddler benchmark crossed 🪴 We're 500 🪴 Your reward for your trust

📈 To celebrate our growth, we kick-off a free weekly subscriber Zoom meeting for high level English practice

⭐️ You get

💓+ 60 min speaking practice on a high level topic that S2S users discuss [example, another example]
💓+ 10 phrases activated in your speech for vocabulary growth
💓Networking with equally ambitious and committed peers — we have the coolest people in this channel: readers of @TheEdinorogblog and more
💓Meet @ybeymlina, the author of this channel (Cambridge diploma in methodology Delta, ex yandex PM, ex Antler resident)
💷 $5-15 OFF your first subscription if you join S2S after the meeting
🌷 ∞ Winner energy boost

⭐️ Conditions

💓Your level is a strong B1 Intermediate or higher (if you're not sure, contact @ybeymlina for a level check)
💓Stable Internet signal, camera on
⏰ Can make time for strategical English growth on Wednesdays, 6-7pm MSC time zone
💷 FREE for 💓S2S subscribers, with no limit 💓@EnglishForImpact readers, 1 time per month

⭐️ Next steps

⏰ Fill out this short google form to reserve your spot. Deadline: Tuesday, midnight
💓Mark your calendar. Receive the link on Wednesday.
💓Come, enjoy, grow
🌷 Invite friends

💐Thank you for choosing us as the go to solution for your English growth. Our mission is to make 1M learners worldwide heard, understood, and respected in the international communication.
💓Read the channel. Spread the inspiration. Grow together.

📎 Pinned post about S2S

🧸 Labubu 👁‍🗨 The Secret of Insane Popularity 👁‍🗨

This week, S2S users discuss Labubu, learn to use new phrases in their speech, and get feedback from our cool assessors. Feedback report contains strengths and weaknesses against 4 criteria: Vocabulary, Grammar, Pronunciation, Interaction patterns

We share 3 top challenging phrases for our users to learn this week, picked by our assessors. Let's review them together. They're worth reviewing, cause they're super frequent and add to your fluency in a big way

🫧Prices soar – Prices rise very quickly and high, like a bird flying in the sky
"Labubu's original prices were reasonable, though resale prices have soared"
🫧Elusive appeal – A hard-to-explain charm
"Like many viral hits, Labubu’s appeal is elusive: a mix of timing, design, and internet buzz"
🫧To embody anti-perfectionism — to represent the idea that imperfections are okay
"Labubu’s global breakout began in late 2022, as China emerged from the pandemic. Many sought emotional escape, and Labubu with its chaotic charm embodied anti-perfectionism"

😇 Labubu's cute
😈 Labubu's ugly

🪴Want to check out the whole Labubu speaking plan to see if you want to join S2S and discuss smililar topics? Contact @ybeymlina with "Labubu" — she'll send you the Notion link

☺️ Let's check...

💗 9 'World Kiss Day' Phrases 💓 Start the week with love 💓

Wikipedia:

"International Kissing Day or World Kiss Day is an official holiday celebrated each year on July 6. The practice originated in the United Kingdom, and was adopted worldwide in the early 2000s.

The concept is that International Kissing Day came about because many people may have forgotten the simple pleasures associated with kissing for kissing's sake, as opposed to kissing as mere* social formality or prelude to other activities."

We asked chat GPT to describe kissing from the point of view of American series, comedy clubs, or Silicon Valley community. Enjoy

👁 TV Show Style (Dramatic/Comedy Dialogue)

Slang and descriptions as if coming from TV characters in shows like Friends:

💓“We made out like teenagers with nothing to lose and too much ChapStick”
💓“A smooch* heard round the group chat”
💓“He kissed me like a man who knows he’s not getting a second season”

😹 Saturday Night Live Comedy-Style (Absurd, Satirical, Wildly Over-the-Top)

Slang as if written for a sketch about weird dating culture:

💓“Mouth wrestling, but sexy… barely”
💓“We exchanged saliva like NFTs: overpriced and meaningless”
💓“Gave each other a lip tax audit”

🧑‍💻 Silicon Valley / Tech Bro Lingo (Hyper-Ironic, Cringe, or Deadpan Nerdy)

Imagine two developers awkwardly describing kissing like it’s product integration:

💓“Beta-tested some emotional API endpoints”
💓“Executed a romantic merge request*”
💓“It wasn’t just a kiss, man. It was cross-platform lip compatibility”

*Post Glossary

🫧mere /mie/ = Only, just. Used to show how small or unimportant something is
🫧a smooch — A quick kiss, often on the lips or cheek
🫧merge request — A way for a developer to ask for their code to be added to the main codebase. To merge sth = to put together 2 parts, as in mergers and aquisitions when a bigger business buys a smaller one

🪴 Which phrase cracked you up (=made you laugh) the most?
🪴 Share your kissing associations or pictures in comments 😂
🪴 Spread love — send to a friend who you secretly want to kiss... or not 😂