Dr. Lydia Machova takes us on her journey of becoming a polyglot and describes how she learned to speak 8 languages fluently and retain them. She begins with her story of how she became passionate about language learning and then explains how she gradually developed her own unconventional techniques for learning and retaining languages from anywhere in the world without paying for classes or teachers. She talks about her initial career path and professional experience as an interpreter for clients ranging from the former Prime Minister of Slovakia to a couple attending an Ayahuasca retreat in Peru. She then explains her transitionary moment when she decided to stop trading her time for money and to start her own business, “Language Mentoring”. Lydia explains how she crafted her company’s unique value proposition of being able to teach anyone how to learn any language in the world from anywhere in the world. She shares some of the key techniques and mindset work that can enable any person to learn a foreign language fluently over a short period of time. She then talks about how she began scaling her business by hiring her raving fans. She explains the value of hiring satisfied customers who are already committed brand loyalists, and the company culture that has allowed her to create. She also explains how she bartered her skills when bootstrapping her business with few resources and very little capital. Lydia then talks about traveling to over 40 countries, and the value of being able to speak languages fluently when visiting a foreign culture. FULL SHOW NOTES AVAILABLE AT www.TheMaverickShow.com
Episode #62: Speaking 8 Languages Fluently and Building Your Business Team Out of Your Raving Fans with Dr. Lydia Machova
Episode Summary
Get The Maverick Show's
Monday Minute Newsletter
Kick off each week with 3 personal recommendations from me that you can read in 60 seconds.
About the Guest
Dr. Lydia Machova
Dr. Lydia Machova is a location independent entrepreneur, polyglot and TED speaker originally from Slovakia who currently speaks 8 languages fluently—Slovak, German, Spanish, French, Polish, Esperanto, Russian and English and she’s currently learning Swahili. She learns a new language every two years, spending the first year going from zero to fluency and the second year focusing on long term retention techniques so that she can refresh the language effortlessly even after a long break. She has learned all of her languages while living in Slovakia, without studying abroad, attending courses, or paying for teachers, and her TED Talk on language learning currently has over 6 million views. She has also been an official interpreter at high profile events for people ranging from Tony Robbins to the former Prime Minster of Slovakia. She is also the co-organizer of world’s biggest polyglot and language enthusiast conference that brings together over 500 polyglots from 50+ countries and set Slovakia’s record for the most languages spoken under one roof at 125! Lydia is also the founder and owner of “Language Mentoring”, a company that helps students learn any language in the world from anywhere in the world using Lydia’s customizable approach to language learning. It is a company with a distributed team of 12 women, and has thousands of satisfied customers from around the world, and won Lydia the award of the “most innovative businesswoman in Slovakia” in 2017.
What You'll Learn
- Techniques to become fluent in any language from anywhere in the world
- Tactics for retaining multiple languages at a fluency level over time
- How and why to build your business team from your satisfied customers
Links From the Episode
Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. If you click through any links and make a purchase, you should assume that Maverick will receive financial compensation (at no additional cost to you). We greatly appreciate you using our affiliate links because it helps to support the show and cover production costs of the podcast.
WATCH LYDIA MACHOVA’S TED TALK
WINE SHARED IN THIS EPISODE
THE TOP 2 BOOKS LYDIA RECOMMENDS
OTHER BOOK MENTIONED
THE #1 PRODUCTIVITY TOOL LYDIA RECOMMENDS
PLACE WHERE MATT AND LYDIA SPENT THE DAY
LOCATION WHERE INTERVIEW TOOK PLACE
LYDIA’S TOP 3 FAVORITE TRAVEL DESTINATIONS
- Slovakia
- Vienna
- Trans-Siberian Railway through Russia
(Take the TransSiberian Railway with the “Nomad Train” like Matt did and get a discount on it here. Enter Code “MAVERICK” )
LYDIA’S TOP 3 BUCKET LIST DESTINATIONS
CHECK FLIGHT PRICES TO ANY OF THESE LOCATIONS
CONTACT LYDIA
Time Stamped Show Notes
[6:12] Growing up in Slovakia and Developing her Passion for Language Learning
- Becoming passionate about foreign languages in high school
- Wanting to be a professional conference interpreter
- Learning her first two foreign languages, English and German, in the classroom
[9:29] Developing Her Own Unconventional Methods of Learning Languages Fluently
- Learning Spanish on her own by reading Harry Potter
- Practicing listening and speaking with native Spanish speakers
- Refining a replicable process for learning any language
[13:57] How Lydia Retains Fluency in 8 Languages Simultaneously
- The #1 key to retaining fluency even when you don’t speak it for a long time
- The importance of getting to the B2 Fluency Level
- Learning only one new language at a time
[17:08] Lydia’s Principles for Becoming Fluent in Any Language
- Having a compelling reason for learning the language
- Making language learning fun for you
- Having effective methods
- Work with the language one hour a day for 500 hours
- Creating habits and systematizing your language learning
[20:34] Lydia’s Journey into Entrepreneurship
- Lydia’s freelance career as a professional interpreter trading time for money
- Getting advanced degrees to become a high-level conference interpreter
- Overcoming self-doubt and deciding to start an “expert business”
- Overcoming “imposter syndrome” by creating a supportive network of entrepreneurs
- Developing and validating her minimum viable product
- Refining her product using focus groups to get better results
- Offering her initial services for free in exchange for testimonials
[30:02] Learning How to Build a Business
- Learning to create an online course
- Bartering her language skills for other skills she needed to build her business
- Using automated webinars to sell her online course
- Building a team and starting to scale her business
- Lydia’s reflections on the difference between being a freelancer vs. a business owner
- Refining her product over multiple focus groups
- Describing her current product offerings
- How Lydia teaches people to learn languages she doesn’t even speak
- The customer journey at Lydia’s company
- Why Lydia started by niching down and marketing her product only in Slovakia
- Lydia’s expansion into the international market
- The power of affinity-marketing
[47:51] Scaling Her Business by Hiring Her Best Customers and Raving Fans
- The huge value of hiring your raving fans and brand loyalists
- How Lydia creates a fun and cohesive company culture
- Organizing in-person team retreats for her remote team
- How Lydia manages her distributed team of 12 women
- Why Lydia only hires her satisfied customers
- Lydia explains her hiring process
[56:17] Similarities between Learning to Build a Business and Learning a Language
[58:16] How Lydia Manages Stress as an Entrepreneur
- Looking at setbacks as ‘lessons’ instead of ‘failures’
[1:00:43] Lydia’s Productivity Techniques and Work-Life Balance
[1:05:51] Reflections on Traveling to Over 40 Countries
- What travel means to Lydia
- The difference when you speak the local language fluently
- Lydia’s most memorable travel adventures
[1:12:50] The Lightning Round
- The Top 2 Books Lydia Recommends
- The #1 App Lydia Recommends
- The Person with whom Lydia would most like to have dinner
- The Advice Lydia would give to her 18-year old self
- The Advice Lydia would give to anyone who doubts their ability to learn a language
- Lydia’s Top 3 Travel Destinations
- Lydia’s Top 3 Bucket List Destinations
[1:22:53] Contact Lydia
- Lydia’s website
- Follow Language Mentoring on Social Media
