This is Into the Story, the podcast where you learn English with true stories from all over the world. Stories that connect us and inspire you to get where you want to be. Hi there, it is your host Brie and welcome to the podcast. If you've listened to this podcast before, you know that normally I share the full story of one person from start to finish. And this is where I ask them quick and fun questions. They're not prepared. So you really get to hear completely natural language.
And today I am sharing the lightning round from my conversation with Stephen Devincenzi. If you missed last week's episode called Being Bold, Stephen is a former teacher and he is the voice behind the Simple English News Daily podcast. also known as Send7. And today he is going to tell us a few things that he has learned from being the host of that podcast. specifically ways to communicate that I think you'll find interesting and also different insights just from life in general.
The doors are now closed to my master public speaking in English course. But if you want to speak English with impact and influence, then you can join my free newsletter for practical tips to help you speak with confidence and open new opportunities. You can sign up at intothestorypodcast.com. Okay, now to my lightning round with Stephen. You are a teacher, is that right? Or what did you get your degree in? What did you go to university for?
So when I went to university, I studied something called education, culture and society. That was the name of my degree. It was like a mix of education and sociology. But I did that because at uni, you can choose to do a specific teaching degree in the UK. Or there's another route to be a teacher, which is to have any degree at all.
and then do a one-year conversion at the end. And I wasn't 100% sure that I wanted to be a teacher when I went to uni, so I didn't want to do the just teaching degree. I wanted to have a normal degree and then do the teaching part. But after I finished the three years, my bachelor's, my degree, then I just travelled for 10 years or something and I was teaching in other places, teaching English and doing some other things.
And then when I came back to England just five years ago, that is when I actually did the last year, the conversion year. called PGC, Postgraduate Certificate of Education. And I did that in something which is quite rare and actually that's the reason i ended up in canterbury where i live now which is for people who are so indecisive like myself that even even when they're 29 years old they still don't know where they want to work in in primary school or in secondary school
canterbury was one of the only places where you could do both so you could do a primary and secondary combined course so that's why i ended up coming to canterbury to do that but i am qualified to teach in primary school or to teach Spanish and French at secondary. So you definitely are a teacher and you're used to explaining concepts to people. You're also the host of the Simple English News Daily Podcast, also known as Send7.
where you are breaking down news, you're explaining news in simple ways every day. My question is, How do you make difficult ideas easy to understand? I would say firstly, I would read the story and understand it well myself. And then imagine that I'm explaining it to somebody who doesn't know anything about it at all.
I don't like to say explain it to a five-year-old because a five-year-old probably doesn't know enough, doesn't have enough background information about, you know, the world to understand it. But explain it to somebody who just... doesn't know about that specific situation. One thing which is really useful is just speaking clearly. Most people don't speak clearly. So what I hear you saying is that in order to make things clear, it starts with your voice.
I mean, on a very basic level, just use your instrument, which is your voice. Use it clearly and be aware of who you're talking to. And then in terms of content, start by making sure that you understand what you want to say very well. And then do you have an approach for... Do you always start in a certain way? Do you always start with location? Yeah, there are a few little tricks. Maybe this is something more specific to my podcast. But one thing is to ground people in the location.
Immediately. So maybe eight out of ten stories on Simple English News Daily start with in... China in India, in Argentina. Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, has said blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, like, the grounding in the geography in the first few words I think can bring the picture of where the story is coming from. so that then the rest of the story can be layered on top of that, if that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. And then also try to use less words.
the most important thing that you're saying. And do you use this approach in other aspects of your life? This idea of using less words to communicate things, just being very direct and making it as simple as possible. I would say, even though it's a bit...
Different. I was working as a primary school teacher for four years, and at the beginning of the time I was doing the podcast, now I'm only working on the podcast, but until last July, I was... doing both at the same time working as a primary school teacher and working on the podcast the content of what i'm talking about is completely different right there's just no relation But one thing which I have always found very useful of keeping the attention of 30 primary school children...
was speaking clearly, just speaking in a way that they understand everything that I'm saying and only saying important things. If I start using other sentences which are not quite as important, maybe a bit more difficult to understand... 100% related to the content that I'm delivering then the primary school children can drop off, stop paying attention.
and start looking at that bird which is just out the window which looks really interesting and is so much more interesting than Mr. Devin Chansey. But if I can keep their attention by... Just saying really important sentences, like, look, listen, this is the thing that you need to know right now. That's really interesting. And actually, there's this rule in public speaking. And what you're saying right now is absolutely in line with that rule.
that you should only ever try to solve one problem when you're speaking. So before you give a class, before you give a presentation, you should always understand, okay, like what is the one problem I want to solve? So what you're saying makes complete sense. Okay, my next question. If I were to open your podcast app right now, what would I see? What are you listening to?
I listen to a lot of news content, as people could probably imagine, because it's my job. I'm keeping myself informed so that I can keep other people informed. I listen to The New York Times, The Daily. There's a fantastic podcast on Ukraine every day, which is called Ukraine The Latest. I listen to that every day. I get some more conversational style things from a guy called Sam Harris.
Okay so when you're listening to podcasts it sounds like it's more for work. Believe it or not I am so lucky that I have actually invented a job for myself that I really love doing. Even before I started the podcast I was already a complete news junkie. I've just validated it even more by turning it into my job. That's amazing. I love that. Okay. Next question. If you could tell your 18 or 19 year old self.
One thing. So the Stephen that was in the story that you told, what would you tell him? It's a bit cheesy, but... Do it. I absolutely loved being 18 and I loved all of my 20s and honestly, I wouldn't change a thing. I just had such a great time.
Maybe be like a little bit more conscious of people's feelings and just be even nicer to people. I think I was pretty nice. I think people can always be even a little bit nicer. Maybe I would say that. But apart from that, I would say... just do you know you've got some great years ahead of you enjoy it And what is your morning routine? I always love asking this question. I'm so curious about other people's morning routines. So what do your mornings look like?
I make breakfast in bed for my partner almost every day, unless one of us needs to get out of bed for something particularly early. Most days, like four or five days a week, I go downstairs, make coffee.
put on some kind of podcast for myself for a moment i make maybe a porridge or some cereal and then take that up to her and then i go into my email and see just in case anybody from the Send7 world has written me anything and check that that's all safe and sound and yeah let's see what's on it what's in my diary And what is one small thing that you do? and that you would recommend that other people do every day in order to grow. So just a small, it can be a very simple daily practice.
that you think is worthwhile to be better in life or in work? I think it's important to realize that Most people are living in their own worlds 99% of the time and people are not thinking about you. I think people get obsessed with what other people are thinking about them when the reality is nobody's thinking. Most of the time, nobody is thinking about you. And that's quite useful. Absolutely. That's such a great reminder.
everyone's just out there doing their own thing doing the best they can no one's really looking at you okay last question what is the worst advice you've ever been given A lot of people say it's all about the money, like everybody is just doing everything for money. that's just not true like there are so many different motivating factors of what people do in their life
There are so many different reasons that things happen in the world. The idea that everything just happens because of money, even I would say just because of power, it's a complete oversimplification of... the world that we live in people are motivated by many many many many different things and money is it's important but it's not
Most people are motivated by wanting to do good firstly for themselves and their families, but then also a little bit more for the wider community and for everybody. Most people are good. Okay, amazing. Thank you so much, Stephen, for answering my questions. It's so nice to hear. people talking about different things you know in your case we're used to hearing you speak about the news
And you're so good at what you do, but it's really nice to hear you talking about other things that we're not used to hearing you speak about. So thank you so much, Stephen. It was wonderful having you on the podcast. Thank you. Thanks for having me, Bree. It's a pleasure. That's it for this bonus lightning round with Stephen Devincenzi. I loved his response to ways to improve our lives. Simple practices. that, you know, no one's really looking at us.
I hope that you enjoyed this lightning round. Make sure to follow into the story wherever you listen to podcasts so that you never miss an episode. And if you would like to support the show, then an incredible way is to leave us a five-star rating. And if you have an extra minute, also a few kind words in a review. And don't forget to join my newsletter where I share practical strategies to help you speak English with impact.
and get where you want to go. You can sign up at intothestorypodcast.com. Okay, that's all for today. Next week, I will be back with a brand new true story. Until the next time, I hope that you have a good time or at least a good story to tell.