NOTE TO READER: Follow the Good Future Method when you don’t know something: look up the word or phrase you don’t know, and then come back to finish the source material. For example, “Yuletide” in the subtitle of email — a quick search tells me that: “Yuletide is an old term for Christmas” — now you know and can continue!

The Weekly Digest

Enter the Good Future Club!

Welcome to the Good Future Club! I feel like it's appropriate to dedicate this first issue of our newsletter to explaining what the Good Future Club is about and why I'm so excited to have you here.

Good Future Club is the freelancer learning arm of the Good Future Network. We're a community of freelancers who want to equip anyone who's curious about freelancing with the necessary tools to become part of a growing demographic of a multi-skilled, multifaceted, and multi-talented workforce.

If you're receiving this newsletter, then you're all about:

• 📸 Learning content creation: Enhance the engagement and boost the brand visibility of your content.

• 🫂 Using social media to generate profit: Build a personal brand to create income opportunities.

• 🛜 Building a professional network: Connect with like-minded individuals who want to explore niche topics and maximize content creation methods.

• 🍀 Controlling your work-life balance: Do what you want at your own pace! Using AI to work more efficiently: Learn how to automate tasks, so you have more room for creative stuff.

• 🗣️ Improving your English communication skills: There’s always room for improvement.

The EZ English Club, the language learning arm of the Good Future Network, coexists with the Good Future Club.

If Good Future Club is where you'll learn the tools of the trade in today's modern freelancing scene, EZ English Club is the best place to master English for your career. Our community will feature English-learning resources, tips and tricks, and activities to develop language skills without complicated books, quizzes, and tests.

EZ English Club is for you if you want to:

• 📖 Learn English anytime, anywhere: Skip the quizzes and tests. We have activities to help you transform even a trip to the mall into a learning experience.

• ✍️ Get access to practical resources: We know how tedious textbooks can be. We'll build resources that give straight-to-the-point advice about learning English.

• 🗣️ Have accountability partners in your language journey: All members of the EZ English Club are here to learn. You'll never run out of someone to help you practice speaking, check your writing, or have a conversation for practice.

Combined together, the Good Future Club and EZ English Club…

…will prepare you to elevate your career to heights you haven't even imagined!

Watch our recent live stream to learn more about the Good Future Network, the Good Future Club, and EZ English. Here's what's in store for you in the coming weeks and months:

• 🧑‍🏫 Weekly lectures: We have FREE weekly lectures for our Skool Community members. They will be specially curated live lectures with freelancing advice, content creation tips, and discussions about tech and AI trends.

• 📚 Resources: I'm taking 15 years' worth of English teaching, podcasting, and social media experience and transforming them into resources and materials you can use to jumpstart your professional careers. These will include tips on speaking and writing English, video editing and social media best practices, and in-depth industry secrets I believe content creators should know.

• 💸 Paid content creation tasks: I offer tasks in our Skool Community to encourage members to be more proactive in their social media skills and English language learning. The tasks (all PAID*, by the way!) range from finding interesting clips from my lectures to light video editing and other one-off projects for the Good Future Network!

• ⁉️ Q&A sessions: Let's discuss any specific questions about using the English language for your professional needs if you need tips on approaching your job interviews, and if you're planning your first foray into being a content creator.

• 🎮 Gamified learning: I really want to make learning English and creating content more fun for everyone. We're cooking up more exciting ways to make our learning process—we're thinking of competitions and leaderboards!

• ✒️ Upskilling with more experts: I plan to bring in more English teachers and specialists from other freelance-related fields to impart their knowledge to you. These include grammar experts, public speaking pros, video editing savants, and more!

_{*I can't guarantee that there will always be tasks for everyone, but I want to do my part to help foster the next generation of top-tier content creators and English masters! As more educators join our community, more paid work will be offered!}

Learner's Insights

Fear not—we want to hear your voice!

While listening, reading, and writing in English are much "easier" to learn, most English learners agree that speaking English can be terrifying.

It makes sense to have to look at others and speak in a language you haven't mastered. But what if we get judged, make a mistake, or be humiliated like that one time during our childhood?

Some even suggest that the fear of public speaking has evolutionary roots, as rejection from a group can have dire consequences for survival—especially in prehistoric times.

Thankfully, we're no longer in prehistoric times. And we're at a day and age where everyone learns a new skill every day. You deserve to get your voice heard, and here are some ways to get you out of your shell:

• 📚 Preparation and Practice: Thorough preparation is one effective way to reduce anxiety. Familiarizing yourself with your material and practicing your speech multiple times can boost confidence and reduce feelings of uncertainty. Consider rehearsing with friends or using video recordings to assess your performance.

• 📸 Gradual Exposure: Exposing oneself to public speaking situations can help desensitize the fear response. Start with smaller groups or informal settings before progressing to larger audiences. This step-by-step approach allows individuals to build confidence over time.

• 🍃 Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques: Incorporating mindfulness practices, such as deep breathing exercises or meditation, can help manage physiological symptoms of anxiety. Learning to calm the mind and body before speaking can improve focus and reduce nervousness.

• 🙂 Reframing Nervousness: Instead of viewing nervousness as a negative experience, try reframing it as excitement or energy that enhances your performance. Accepting that feeling nervous is a normal part of public speaking can alleviate pressure and help you focus on delivering your message effectively. Seeking

• 🫶 Professional Help: If anxiety remains overwhelming despite self-help strategies, consider seeking professional guidance from a therapist or counselor specializing in anxiety disorders. They can provide tailored interventions that address specific fears related to public speaking.

Trivia Tidbits

Want to learn more about the English language? Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly trivia!

Language Tips

In the Christmas season, “it was” is “twas”!

We normally associate the holiday season with breaks from schoolwork or some well-deserved R&R (rest and relaxation) away from work. Still, this year's festivities won't escape our quest to practice our English!

There's always a way to enhance our English fluency if we look hard enough. We have some language tips you can try as you enjoy Lola's mango graham cake or Ajumma's tteokguk (Korean rice cake soup) over family dinner. Here are some examples:

• 🎄 Explore holiday idioms and expressions: Familiarize yourself with idiomatic expressions related to the holidays, such as "deck the halls," "the more, the merrier," or "to be in the holiday spirit." Understanding these phrases will improve your conversational skills and your ability to respond appropriately to the occasion of your conversation.

• 🎄 Pay extra attention to Christmas specials: Chances are high that you and your family will catch a Christmas special on television or in theaters. While watching these media should help practice your English understanding, you can step up the learning process by trying to catch linguistic nuances. There’s a lot of material to choose from—

  • The ever-present Hallmark Channel's "Countdown to Christmas" films…

  • Premieres such as "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" and "Mufasa: The Lion King”…

  • Franchise Christmas specials like "Joy to the World: Doctor Who Christmas Special 2024” …

  • There are even classics such as "Home Alone," "Love Actually," and "Die Hard" (yes, it's a Christmas movie!)

• 🗣️ Go for an English-only Christmas: You can ask your family and friends to speak in English for the duration of the day. But if you want to make things more fun, you can start a "game" with your family and friends and only speak in English for a certain amount of time. You can even bet money on it - unfortunately for them, you're in this to win!

Trivia Tidbits

Freelancer Focus

Make 2025 your career upgrade year!

Ah, the New Year's Resolution.

It's that time of the year when we're in the mood to think about things we'd like to change for 2025. And while adding burning off-the-holiday calories to your list is easy, why not step up the challenge with an overhaul of your career goals? Plot a 2025 Career Progression you can start in just a few days with a few simple steps:

• 🛠️ Identify skill gaps: Reminisce about your career trajectory in 2024. Were there any opportunities you missed out on or applications you skipped because you felt you were underqualified for the position? Maybe you can upskill next year!

  • Do you remember which skills or qualifications from those listings that dissuaded you from applying? Try to list those skills and do a cursory Google search to see if there are free courses online that teach them.

  • Popular choices include prompt engineering, programming language learning, and better public speaking.

• 🗂️ Network intentionally: You've likely read some tips online that some successful professionals landed their dream role by directly messaging the people of the company they want to work at. This isn't a strategy that will always work, but it's worth a shot, right?

  • Create a plan to reach out to professionals in your desired field via LinkedIn or industry-specific forums.

  • Figure out what things you need that could help when you start your network - do you have an updated resume, a portfolio to showcase your skills, or some projects to show? In speaking of...

• 🏡 Start a career-related project: If part of your resolution is to use your free time to do something more meaningful, why not direct your energy into a career-related project?

  • It doesn't have to be anything too complicated. It can be as simple as building a niche social media page about your hobby.

  • The important part here is to establish a concrete goal. Follow the SMART Goals guide: formulate Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals for your new endeavor. For instance, instead of saying, "I want to post more," specify, "I will complete one post weekly for the next three months."

Game On!

Community Spotlight

We want to talk with you!

We want to hear from you! If you're an English learner and freelancer, we’d love to chat about your experiences and insights. Your unique journey could inspire others in our community, and we believe that sharing your story will help us all grow together.

If you want to participate in a friendly interview, just reach out! We’ll discuss your challenges and successes and any tips you have for fellow learners and freelancers. Let’s connect and celebrate your journey—your voice matters!

We’re genuinely excited to have you along for this ride! Whether you're ready to "deck the halls" of your social media presence or just trying to find that sweet spot between work and life, remember—we're all in this together!

Get ready for more engaging lectures, practical resources, and fun activities. And we want to hear from you! Don’t forget to subscribe to get more content every week!

Sincerely,

-Chris Madden
Founder & Community Leader
Good Future LLC

Shout out to copy writer