Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dillon Ford. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Dillon, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later
Oh, I’d definitely love to have started it sooner. I think I was just so used to the hustle of working a survival day job that the thought didn’t really enter my mind until, during the pandemic, there wasn’t really anything else to do. Before that, I was so focused on acting, taking classes and working that I didn’t really feel like I had the bandwidth to try and start a business but realistically, all the knowledge I needed to get started was already there. Sure, I’d have had to dedicate time to learning the business tools but the accent reduction knowledge was all there already. I had already gone through the process myself and I had the ability to create all the teaching materials. Yes, I probably would’ve been stressed out by the idea but I definitely wish I’d have started sooner.
Sure, working for yourself is not all sunshine and rainbows but it beats working a low paying job you don’t enjoy at all any day of the week. This way I get to do something for a living that’s really fun while pursuing my other interests, like writing! I get to set my own schedule and I don’t need to get anybody’s approval to change things around either. Additionally, accent reduction just made sense to do. I had already invested so much time into that skill as well as the surrounding knowledge of phonetics, accents in general, vocal work, etc. that it should have been a no-brainer.
However, all that being said, I’m happy that I DID start my business when I did. I had plenty of time on my hands and didn’t have the additional stress of a full time job to deal with. In a sense, the timing was probably perfect. I’m not super spiritual but it seems like maybe it fell into the place the way it was supposed to. We can’t change when we started something. I’m just grateful that I did when I did, and that I didn’t wait longer to do it. To anybody thinking about branching out on their own, I highly recommend it!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m an accent reduction and dialect coach. I studied acting in New York City when I first came to the US and quickly realized that, despite having a really good foundation in grammar and vocabulary, I had a very noticeable accent. While it wasn’t the stereotypical German accent, I knew it would hinder me from pursuing the roles I really wanted which are pretty much exclusively native speaker roles. Thankfully my acting school offered accent reduction classes and coaching which I took full advantage of. I practiced diligently and consistently during my studies there and developed a real passion for accents and dialects in general. Right now, my bread and butter is definitely accent reduction. Almost all of my students are people that are in the same position that I was in, regardless of the industry that they’re in. They’re noticing that their accent is holding them back, either because of unclear communication, lack of confidence when speaking or because of subconscious bias against them based on their accent.
I think that’s why my students really enjoy working with me actually. They know that I’ve gone through the process myself and that it IS possible to arrive at a fully “neutral” American accent. Most of us grow up thinking that it’s impossible to sound fully native in a language that we learn in school, so it’s reassuring to have somebody by your side who can lead by example. At the same time, it’s also very important to me to make the classes a very relaxed environment where you feel safe taking risks and making mistakes. Experimentation is a really vital part of this process. There are a lot of rules and patterns we can follow for sounds and some of them are not always fully consistent and rely on you practicing what you learn in class and constantly trying to apply it when you’re drilling or speaking in your life outside of class. Experimenting and really going for it helps a lot with that! Like my acting teacher used to say, “fail forward!”
The thing I’d like to stress about the nature of this work is that it takes time. Sometimes students come to me expecting to sound fully American in X amount of time or they expect me to give them an estimate for how long it’ll take them. The truth is, it’s impossible for me to give you an estimate. It depends heavily on how many sessions per week you’re taking, how consistently you’re practicing and applying what you’re learning as well as how solid your understanding of English is when you first start your classes. Everybody has a different starting point. Even then, sometimes you might just struggle with a specific sound a lot longer than others which is hard to predict. My advice is, if you want to reduce your accent, to take it one small step at a time. We’ll work our way through the sounds we need to adjust, one at a time, and we’ll build a solid foundation first. It’s a marathon, not a sprint!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Starting this definitely wasn’t easy. There were a lot of things I had to figure out. For quite a while, I only had two students because I had a hard time finding a place where potential students could find me. Plus, I didn’t have any testimonials to back me up. So, I started with a very low hourly price, just to gain some real experience as well as good reviews. It took a while but eventually it all snowballed and I was able to pay my bills with accent reduction. One of the things that kept me going was that I knew I was providing a really good service. I always made sure to over deliver and all my students, regardless of which price point they’d started at, were really happy. My wife, who runs her own business as well, actually made comments about my conversion rate being very high. Once I had the initial first session with a student, almost all of them ended up signing on to continue the work which was very reassuring. In my opinion, if you have a good product/service, people will come to you. The tricky part is just making it easy for those people to find you which is probably what most business owners find the hardest (also something I’m trying to make better and better myself).
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I think the answer to this is pretty simple (but not easy). It was just about consistently delivering a really good service and, probably way more than required, over delivering as well. I did that enough times and eventually I had collected enough reviews that my imposter syndrome got a lot weaker. I think every business owner still has that to a certain extent but it’s the strongest in the beginning. I used to ask myself a lot “who am I to offer this?” and it turns out that people really appreciate me putting myself out there and teaching what I worked so hard to learn. So, I think it just comes down to consistency and the quality of your product/service first.
Another thing is patience. When I first started, I had so few students that I felt like I may have hitched my wagon to the wrong horse but it just needed time to grow. I’m really happy that I stuck it out and that now I get to work for myself. I get to pay my bills and support my other passions through an endeavor I genuinely enjoy.
That’s another point actually. Having passion for what you do. I don’t think I would’ve been able to go through with this if teaching accent reduction wasn’t fun. Both for my own sake but also for my students. I know people need the money but every student can tell when their teacher’s heart isn’t in it and it has a big impact on the experience they have. You might be the most capable teacher in the world but if you’re making yourself miserable, students aren’t going to enjoy working with you very much. Having the expert knowledge is definitely the first requirement but this is also really important.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dialectwork.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dialect_work/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dialectwork
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dillontheford
- Other: Google Business: https://goo.gl/maps/TqckWiWtNQChErRC7