If you're an introvert who finds it hard to practice speaking for the CELPIP exam, this episode is for you! Here's a simple framework: the 1-1-1 rule — to help you get more speaking practice in a way that feels safe and manageable.

Key Topics:

• Why introverts tend to avoid speaking practice (and how to break the cycle)
• Tip 1: Speak to one Person — Stop thinking you need to talk to crowds. Focus on just one person.
• Tip 2: Aim for one Conversation — You don't need massive group discussions. One conversation at a time is enough.
• Julia's story — How a CELPIP Success School member took the brave step of moving to sit next to coworkers to get more English practice.
• Tip 3: Don't forget one shield — holding a coffee mug (or cup of water, or a snack) at chest level can act as a psychological comfort buffer during conversations.
• What not to hold: electronic devices (phones, iPads) — they invite distraction and signal disinterest.
• Why human interaction is irreplaceable for speaking practice (AI and solo recording only get you partway).

People Mentioned:

• Ed Oyama — Small Business Video School (inspiration for the 1-1-1 rule concept)
• Julia — CELPIP Success School member (shared her story of stepping outside her comfort zone)

Let's work together on your CELPIP!

• Join the CELPIP Success School — the most introvert-friendly space on the internet to get ready for the CELPIP exam.

Are you an introvert?

Are you quiet and shy and you find it hard to make friends and be around a lot of people all the time, but at the same time, you still need to get ready for the speaking section of the CELPIP exam.

And that shyness, that introvertedness feels like a giant obstacle for you.

Hello and welcome to the CELPIP Success Podcast, the most introvert friendly podcast on the planet, dedicated to helping you confidently prepare for and conquer the Celpiph exam.

If you're tired of feeling nervous, stressed and stuck and getting ready for your exam, then my friend, this is the podcast for you.

Who am I?

My name is Aaron and I've been an English teacher for over 17 years and I'm a certified Celpip trainer and I can't wait to help you get ready for your Celpip exam today.

I'm going to be talking about the one one one rule that's going to help you get more practice time in a safe way for introverts.

That's going to help you to get more time practicing your English, which is what you need to be doing.

And this podcast episode is inspired by two people.

The first one is Ed Oyama over at the Small Business Video School.

I've been following Ed now for probably about a year and he's the one who has been getting me into making these videos.

I really admire the way that he produces things, the way he puts things together on camera and just comes off so natural and he makes it easy and that's what he's been teaching me to do.

To make something that's really hard for me.

Recording these kinds of things is hard for me to do because I'm an introvert too.

And getting in front of people, getting in front of a camera feels like it's a big step outside of my comfort zone.

But thanks to Ed, I've been slowly getting better at it.

I hope you you be the judge.

And this video is also inspired by a good friend, Julia, who is has been a member of the Celpip Success School.

We've been in contact now for over a year.

Hi Julia.

Something that she did and that she shared with me really kind of inspired me.

So I wanted to talk about what she did a little bit too.

So the 111 rule.

Ed made a video about this, about the 11 rule for making videos.

So I'm going to kind of borrow his idea and because I think it fits for what we're trying to do today.

Get ready for the self of exam.

Even though I am shy, even though I am an introvert and being in front of people is really tough.

So the one, one, one rule for you, my friend, if this is you, if this is your problem, you know you need the practice, but you just find it hard.

The one, one, one rule is one person, one conversation and one shield.

Ah, that's a weird one, isn't it?

I'm going to be talking about that a little bit more as we go along.

So here's how this works.

When I say you need more speaking practice for the selfip exam, and I talked about this in previous episodes, but automatically we assume we need to have these massive conversations with lots of people at a party sort of setting or like doing public speaking standing in front of a crowd.

Our brains automatically assume that, or at least I think mine does.

Mine goes to that extreme place which feels very undoable.

It feels too scary.

Something that I don't want to do because I'm an introvert and because I don't want to do those kinds of things, I don't want to put myself into those publicy situations.

I tend to avoid engaging in those situations, which means if that's my concept of what speaking practice looks like, I'm avoiding it.

And maybe you have that as well.

You think in your head that it has to be these very public sort of facing situations.

And because it is that, and because you are a quiet person by nature, you will just avoid it at all costs.

Which means that your time spent practicing your speaking skills is zero.

Right?

It just doesn't happen because it seems like it's too scary of a thing.

One person.

That's the first rule.

One person.

I want you to let go, release that idea of having to talk to a whole bunch of people, and instead I just want you to zero in like it's a camera lens.

I just want you to focus in on one person.

That's who we, us introverts, if we, if we can, that's where we probably excel, right?

That's where we feel the most comfortable, is when we're just having one conversation with one person, where it's not a big group or anything like that.

So that's my first rule for you.

Instead of thinking big, I want you to think small.

When I.

When it comes to practicing for the CELPIP exam and using your speaking skills, one person is all that you need.

The next thing that you need is just one conversation.

That's another important, I don't know, thing that gets blown up in our head.

I think, I think we imagine that we have to have these massive conversations with lots of different people.

We already got rid of that first lie.

That has to be with lots of people.

It just has to be with one.

And it just has to be one conversation.

I can have one conversation with somebody.

It might not come easily, but I can do it.

I can have one conversation with one person and I can feel pretty good about doing that as an introvert, I mean, it's part of my job.

If you've been a listener for any amount of time, you know that I work with seniors.

I do it all the time engaging with people.

Now my role often has me in groups of people, like sometimes even in front of groups of people.

And over the years I've gotten a little bit better at doing that.

But my sweet spot where I feel the most comfortable, the most me, is when I'm working just with one person, one at a time, one on one.

And that's what I want you to be looking for as well, just one person.

Now this is where my friend Julia comes in this because she also.

And Julie, I hope you don't mind me saying this, but she's kind of like a quiet person, like me or she.

She seems to feel that way about herself.

And her problem was in her day to day work, she was always isolated.

She was always working most of the time by herself or with very little interaction with other people.

And that was for her one of the obstacles that was kind of holding her down and not giving her the chance to use her English skills as much as she needed it.

And so what she shared with me, which made me light up, it made me get so excited for her, is that she took the huge step of actually moving to be able to sit next to co workers where as before, she'd be by herself, which, which is pretty much a dream for an introvert.

You know, you want to be working all alone without having to worry about anybody else around you.

But she saw that that was an important thing to do in order to begin achieving or improving her already pretty good speaking skills.

And Julia, your speaking skills rock.

Keep it up.

But she made that move.

She realized I've got to be around people in order to use my English more.

And my friend, that is the bad news to this.

There are no secret workarounds that will help you to avoid, you know, that will get you to avoid this, this necessary evil of being, of needing to engage with other people.

And I hope I haven't lost you right there on that, but we need to be able to Talk to another person in order to build our speaking skills in English.

There's just no other way around it.

AI won't do it for you and you just can't do it alone.

Like recording your voice gets you and listening back to it, that will get you part of the way.

Working with AI will get you part of the way.

But you just need that human interaction.

Just enjoying a cup of coffee.

Are you enjoying anything right now as we're talking?

I hope so.

I hope you have something nice to drink as we're going along together.

But yeah, you need to have that interaction with at least one other person.

Hence rule number two.

One person.

Don't worry about trying to get in front of lots of other people.

Don't worry about trying to get in groups of people to talk.

Look for just one person to have that conversation.

Especially if you are an introvert like me, because that's probably where you're going to feel the least uncomfortable.

You still will probably feel uncomfortable, but working with one person makes it a whole lot easier.

It reduces the pressure quite a bit.

And that leads to the third rule.

And that third rule is a shield.

You need one.

I need one.

As an introvert, I need to have a conversation shield at all times.

If I don't have it with me, I don't feel like I do a very good job in my conversations.

Now, what is this shield?

Well, it's something as easy as this.

This is not just my cup of coffee.

And by the way, if you are watching this, you can see that it's Central Perk.

That's what's on my coffee mug.

That's from my favorite TV show, or at least one of my favorite TV shows, Friends.

And my wife gave this coffee mug to me many years ago.

You can tell because the logo is already fading on it.

Because this is my favorite coffee mug.

And you tell me something.

Do you have a favorite coffee mug or a favorite tea mug or something that, that you use only for your coffee or only for your tea?

And for some reason, any other coffee mugs, like if this one is dirty like it was today, I. I didn't put it in the dishwasher last night.

And so I do have other coffee mugs here.

We have more than just one.

But this is my favorite.

So you know, when I did it, I hand washed it just so that I could drink coffee out of it.

Isn't that weird of me?

Is that something that you would do as well, just so that you could use your favorite mug?

Maybe I'm the Only one with that quirk, but that's something that I would do because it just feels right in my hand, you know, makes the coffee taste good.

So, anyway, this is not just a coffee mug.

This is not just a cup of coffee in my hands.

If I were in a social setting, if I needed to engage with just one other person, I would feel way more comfortable in doing that.

If I have my shield with me, and it works as a shield, if I hold it like this, and if you're listening, I'm just holding it at chest level between maybe.

Maybe two or three fingers or four fingers below my chin, a hand space below my chin.

I'm holding it just so.

Just at chest level between my chin and my chest.

But it is between me and the person that I'm talking to.

And I find that being able to hold something in my hands.

And if you're watching this, I'm holding this coffee cup here in front of you, not because I'm afraid of you, but I'm just kind of showing you what I'm doing.

And if you're listening to this, I've got my coffee mug kind of in between myself and the lens or my microphone, that I'm my microphone.

I'm actually talking into my phone right now, which is probably why the sound isn't that great.

Precisely.

And I'm going on a little side trail here precisely because I'm trying to make content creation easier and I'm trying to incorporate video a little bit more frequently because it's a skill that's way out of my comfort zone, and I'm trying to get better at it.

And this is the simple way for me to do it.

So if this is ruining the audio podcast of this for you, please do let me know, like, if you're.

If you've noticed a really drastic drop in the quality of the audio, if it was high quality before, and you've just noticed that all of a sudden the last few episodes have sound like trash, just let me know.

I would really like to hear from you.

But where was I?

Oh, yeah.

So I'm just holding this coffee mug between me and the person that I'm.

I'm talking to.

And right now, that's you.

And if you're listening, you can't hear it, but.

Or can't see this, but I.

You can imagine it.

I'm holding my coffee mug just a little bit away from me in a.

In a natural way.

I'm just holding it in front of me.

But it acts like a psychological shield.

At least it does for me.

And this might be a great tip for you if you find it super hard to engage with people, to talk with people, because you're an introvert.

Having a shield with you could be what saves the day for you.

And what if you're not a coffee drinker?

Well, there are other things that you could do.

You could bring a cup of water.

I'm holding one right now in front of me.

Just took a drink.

And again, that's something that you can hold at this in the same way, just at chest level.

And it just kind of sits between yourself and the person that you're talking to.

And it gives something for your hands to do, which for some reason is also helpful, at least for me when I'm engaging with someone in a conversation.

You might also have food.

You know, I've got an apple here that could act as a little shield.

Something small that you can hold in your hands keeps your hands busy, but also kind of puts a small little buffer between you and the person that you're talking to.

For some reason, that that just makes a big difference.

I don't know if you've ever tried this, and if you have, let me know.

I would love to hear how it works for you.

The one thing that you should never have in your hands when you are engaging in these conversations.

And I didn't have actually a cell phone with me, but you should not have an electronic device like an iPad, an iPhone, or a regular cell phone.

You don't want to have that in your hands when you're trying to have a conversation with someone.

I mean, that is an invitation for you to get distracted.

It's an invitation for you to, you know, look down at it.

And that sends the message that you don't really want to have a conversation with someone.

It's.

Anyway, that's just my thinking about it.

I would not have that in my hands.

I would just have my go to is my trusty cup of coffee.

And if you're done drinking coffee for the day, my limit is 2 cups.

If I drink any more than that, I get all buzzy.

But if that works for you, I think you should give it a try.

Let me know if it works in the comments, if you have any questions about it.

And if you need more help practicing your speaking skills for the Celpip exam, then you should join the Celpip exam.

Success school, my friend.

I'm going to put a link in the show notes.

I promise you this.

If you like this video, you're going to like and love working inside the Celpip Success School.

It is the most introvert friendly space on the Internet to get ready for the Celpip exam.

I hope you'll join me.

There's a link in the show notes that will take you right to it.

Thanks so much for listening and watching today's video.

I hope you'll come back again next time.

Bye Bye.