Benny Lewis is one of those guys you’ll eventually meet – in some absolutely random spot on the globe – and immediately take a liking to. For me, that particular meeting spot was near Khao San Road here in Thailand – appropriately enough, in an Irish pub named Shamrock. Here’s what’s remarkable about this chap: at any given moment, you can hear him shift between any of 7 languages in casual conversation. Benny Lewis has the type of linguistic skills that make me feel like a low-functioning autistic by comparison. Fortunately he has that disarming Irish charm to spare the fragile, unilingual ego of the average American.
After hearing him speaking Esperanto (seriously), I was fascinated. After hearing more than a wee’ bit o’Gaelic, I felt an Irish camaraderie with him. Having heard no mention of Elvish or Klingon, I knew he wasn’t just some lonely language nerd (though he did deconstruct Na’vi). After listening to him charm a Parisian model to the point of melting – in fluent French – I was straight-up jealous of him. I recall Sean Ogle and myself were about ready to bow at his feet after we witnessed that moment.
So, how is this relevant? Aside from being fascinating, what does this have to do with turning passion into passive income, product creation, and mobility? Everything.
Mobility
First off, Benny is entirely location independent. He’s lived all over this fine globe, supporting his travels as a language consultant and translator. He has the workflow and toolkit to a science, and this work also develops and maintains his core language skills. He is not crunching spreadsheets in a cube, hating his life, dreaming of a someday that will never come. He’s found a way to fuel his lifestyle doing what he loves.
Check out this post on Fluent In 3 Months for more on going freelance: How To Become A Location-Independent Freelance Translator
Product Creation: Content is king. You are nothing without content.
I don’t speak 7 languages, and I never will. That’s not my passion. However, I could make Benny relatively rich by helping him beautifully package everything he knows into something marketable. Nothing is possible without the content.
At present, you can’t buy anything from Benny. When you go to his sites, you aren’t hammered with promotions for an e-book or a course he’s selling. Everything he’s doing is 100% pure content emerging from his own learning process. This is the foundation for what will become a seriously profitable product/course. Content is all you need. If you are cranking out content around the thing you know best, you can create income. Packaging knowledge is formulaic – possessing the knowledge and sharing it liberally is what counts. Go buy yourself a $500 package from Rosetta Stone or Berlitz. By the time you’re thoroughly frustrated and regretting your decision, Benny will have something out there worth buying. He’s setup a mailing list to keep everyone updated on the status of his Language Hacking course, so I highly recommend you jump on that here.
Proving it
Benny doesn’t flaunt his language chops. He won’t bust into a language for the “Oohs!” and “Ahhs!” it surely gets. Instead, Benny blogs, tweets & films in all 7 languages – every time. Want proof?
- Twitter: English, Irish, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Esperanto
- IrishPolyglot (Blog): English, Irish, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Esperanto
- Video: He re-dubs every video in each language too. Below is a compilation. Check out his YouTube Channel for more.
Wrapping it up
There’s a lot to digest here, but the simple point is this: share as much as you can about the thing you absolutely love, and do so with the realization that you can monetize it. You cannot monetize an intention. You need substance, you need remarkable content. It costs nothing and there are no excuses. Start consolidating, structuring and focusing what you know best, and leave it to guys like me to show you how to turn it into income – fuel for your lifestyle.
Want more on the actual language hacking process?
- Cody McKibben also sat down to talk with Benny, where he goes much further into his specific language hacking techniques and concepts – highly recommend that you check it out over at Thrilling Heroics.
- Check out FluentIn3Months.com
