Speak when spoken to

Alfred Tanuwidjaja
2 min readJun 27, 2024
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

I met with a client recently, and it was frustrating to convey my point or ideas to her, mainly because she needed to finish all my sentences or give distracting opinions. I understand that as a service provider, in this case, a video creator, my job is to help her create video content that connects with her customers personally and, ultimately, converts into sales. However, it was pointless, and I left with a heavy heart.

Listening is an important skill that we should practice daily. It may sound relatively simple, but the truth is that it is not. Listening requires me to be patient and humble. As industry experts, especially if a client hires you to solve their problems with the services or products you provide, we get excited whenever we have a chance to share what our products or services can do for them or how they can add value to their businesses.

But, in reality, it comes across as annoying to speak and not listen to your clients even if you are an expert in your industry. Everything crumbles down.

I remember that, during music class, my teacher taught me a valuable lesson that I still practice in real life even today.

“Approach your guitar solos as if you are conversing with someone. Add full stops, commas and even exclamation marks. A good guitar solo will have space in between, allowing your audience to appreciate your…

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Alfred Tanuwidjaja

Life lessons I learned as a music teacher and brand content creator - hello@alfredtwj.co