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There are many different ways to say something good
about yourself and your skills.
Today, we talk about self-promotion in a social context
and you'll get five ways to do it.
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Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
Hello, Michelle.
Feeling great today.
How are you?
How's it going?
Yeah.
Everything's good over here.
Lindsay, do you find it irritating when people brag?
Yeah, for sure.
It can beat.
Well, it depends on how it's done.
Right.
If it's done well, then I may not notice as much
that it's a brag.
Right.
I might consider it just, hey, this person is confident.
They've done a lot of cool things.
And so it's OK.
It just really depends on the delivery, Michelle.
Right.
And also on the person, if it's somebody
that you feel is just doing it all the time,
then you're just kind of over it, I think.
And that's when you kind of, they cross that line
from the cocky and, yeah.
So yeah.
But we've talked about bragging a little bit before
and Lindsay, how I would like to be a little bit better
about promoting myself, but I feel very comfortable doing that.
But you do need to share your skills.
Guys, it's also good to do it in a humorous way.
And today you're going to learn ways to talk about bragging
and how to say that you're not bragging.
Because sometimes that's a key piece, right?
How to say, hey, this is not meant to be a brag.
Sometimes that can actually backfire.
There's a lot here, Michelle, today.
So I hope our listeners are ready to get into some really good tips.
I'm sure that we'll pull in culture today as well.
Right?
Yes.
And please, guys, remember, if you haven't hit the follow button
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All right.
That sounds good.
All right.
What else, Michelle?
There is another episode we wanted to tell you guys about episode
2194.
Play it cool with these English idioms.
So I don't remember exactly what that one was about, but I bet it was a good one.
So, yes.
Okay.
Let's get into it.
Lindsey, what's the first one?
All right.
So you might say I don't mean to brag, but I make the best cup of coffee in New York City.
Ooh.
That's a bragable thing for sure.
Yes.
Well, it's funny in New York, you always see different restaurants, best pizza, best
bagel in New York, and you know, it's always funny.
Well, it's funny because no one, you don't have to qualify or there's like anyone can
say anything about their product, right?
It's not.
Yes.
Yeah.
Anyone can say they're the best XYZ in X place for sure.
Right.
Yeah, but that would be really common.
So I don't mean to brag, but I make the best cup of coffee in New York City.
Nice.
Yes.
The next one, this is fun.
It's not to toot my own horn.
Mm hmm.
It's another way to say not to brag or to shout about myself.
So you could say not to toot my own horn, but I won first place in my middle school's
art show when I was a kid.
Yeah.
This expression to two ones on horn.
We do hear that it's kind of a strange expression.
It is.
But we do hear it even in professional advice.
Like you need to toot your own horn.
You need to, you know, for example, the way this translates into the working world,
let's say you want an award in your industry.
You need to go on LinkedIn and do that thing that people do.
And I'm honored.
And maybe we can do an episode on this actually.
I see this every day and I struggle with it too.
Of writing those posts, but it's good to do for your career.
You hear a lot of people posting things and it might start with I'm honored to receive
this award or I'm excited to be collaborating with.
There's a lot of ways that we can learn the right language for it.
But you do need to get the word out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Exactly.
I like that expression to get the word out.
That's a good bonus one today.
What does that mean?
Get the word out to announce things.
Let people know what's going on.
And so it's so there's a time and a place for not bragging but self promoting and tooting
your own horn.
I think.
Yeah.
Yes.
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Okay, all right, next one is Pat oneself on the back.
Very common.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
So you could say, I don't mean to pat myself on the back but I think I did a good job on
this report.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
It's interesting how all of these phrases say I'm not trying to do X.
Right.
Right.
It's really interesting.
It is interesting because that's exactly what you're doing.
Right.
You're trying to soften it or at least acknowledge how it may sound and that awareness
without it just saying, I make the best cup of coffee in New York City or I won first
plays or I did a good job on this report without that awareness of that it sounds like
bragging.
It feels like it feels more intense.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
I think there's a, if it's the right platform for just presenting the facts as facts, it's
okay.
Like let's say you're on a panel and you've been invited to speak on a panel and it's
okay to say, you know, all there's English.
We do 5 million downloads a month.
That is not something I would never say.
I don't mean to brag but I would never say that on a stage.
True.
That's a very good point is when you are in that actual professional situation where
you are trying to, where you want to show what you've accomplished.
Don't use these.
You must, you must present that data to give yourself credibility for what you're going
to share.
Right.
So that's another episode for another day, right?
Probably for our business English podcast, which you guys should check that out.
If you're planning to go to a conference, speak on a stage or just speak in general, hit
the follow button for business English.
But this is more in, I think we should just lay out the context, Michelle, though, for
these kind of like, who are we talking to when we're saying these things?
What kind of context?
So we know it's not a conference.
Maybe you're talking to a friend, you're talking to a friend about your coffee making
skills or you're sharing something with a friend that you did at work.
Maybe you won an award at work and you say, no, I'm not to tune my own horn, but I just
got the employee of the month of work.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I agree.
Maybe it's a dinner party with your partner and another couple.
And if it fits your personality too, there's a personality aspect.
Sometimes people might just be able to just to say it and be okay with that.
And that could actually be okay.
It depends on your personality in general outside of the comment too, right?
Right.
So these actually might be best used by someone who's uncomfortable bragging.
Yeah.
But wants to try it out and needs to a little bit, right?
So it might give you that push or just feeling, okay, I'm softening my brag a little
bit.
Right.
It might be best for that kind of a personality.
Yeah.
So we're not saying today that if you feel proud and you're excited to talk about your accomplishments
that you have to put this qualifier before it, we're saying if you're otherwise not going
to say something great about what you've done and you need a way to kind of inch into
it and feel okay about it, this might be useful for you today.
Get your feet wet with brag.
It's actually comfortable with it.
And the last one we have, well, these are actually two.
It's a gloat or a boast.
So these both mean brag.
So I hate to glow.
Well, gloat is a little bit more in your face than brag, I think.
Like, oh, he's gloating.
It's like, if a bat I've been watching a lot of basketball play, basketball games, if
a basketball player like makes this huge dunk and then goes around like making all these
motions and that might be more like gloating.
It's a little more extreme than boasting.
We're in football, it's even worse than basketball.
They have their like end zone dancing.
Dancer making something.
It's so ridiculous.
I think.
Right.
Yes, it is.
It is.
So you can say, I hate to gloat, but I won.
I won.
Yeah.
Okay.
Alright, so for you, Michelle, which one here feels the most natural that you would tend
to use?
I think I might like to use not to tune my own horn because it's fun.
Yeah.
What about you?
Yeah.
I don't love the word brag.
It feels kind of younger to me.
You know, so maybe the same one is you, not to tune my own horn.
Yeah.
I feel like I have people in my life that brag for me.
And like say, oh, Lindsey did this and then I kind of go into it and explain a little
bit.
So it just depends on the context.
Who are you around?
What do they want to hear from you?
There's so much context here that we have to pay attention to.
Yeah.
Lindsey, I want to hear from you.
It doesn't have to be something with work, but what is something you can brag about?
Tell us.
Probably the traveling I've done.
Right.
So I've traveled probably more than your average person.
I lived in South America for a year, lived in Japan for a year and a half while studying
abroad in Paris, hiked the Camino de Santiago.
It had a lot of adventures.
So adventure is one of my highest values as a person.
And I think I've lived that to a fair extent.
I could do more, but more than the average person.
So yeah, I think that's one of the things.
And I would rather tell stories than brag, but yeah, I suppose that's bragable.
What about you, Michelle?
Well, I'm going to brag about something less less than travel, but, but something funny.
I can brag about my egg making skills.
Dan always says that I make the best eggs.
And it has definitely gone to my head, which is a bonus expression when somebody tells you
how good you are.
It's something and you become a little bit.
Oh, you have, you have this feeling of I'm the best.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I do feel that my eggs are significantly better than Dan's.
What is your secret?
Do you whip the eggs?
Like what's the secret?
Like milk in there?
I could do that, but I like to make like a good fried egg.
Oh, yes.
I'm sometimes, he'll make the eggs in the morning, because I eat eggs every morning.
And sometimes he'll make them and then it's just not the date.
They're kind of mushy.
And then whenever he sees me make my eggs when he's leaving for work and then he'll say,
oh, that looks so good.
That smells good.
They're like, they're like from a restaurant.
And you know what?
They are delicious.
So guys, that's good to hate to brag.
Not to toot my own horn, but my eyes are the best.
Good to know.
All right.
Well, that's great.
I wish I could try your eggs, Michelle.
And I know.
The next time I miss you in person.
Yeah, there you go.
All right.
So where do we, where do we go from here?
What do you think?
All right.
Well, let's just say, you know, again, these are best for situations where you're being
playful and fun.
If you are using these for real situations, you might get irritable.
Yeah.
For sure.
For sure.
Yeah.
And so should we just do a role play to, to, let's do it.
Yeah, let's do it.
Let's do it.
So here we are friends and we're deciding what to make for a party that we're throwing
together.
All right.
Here we go.
Okay.
So what should we make?
Well, not toot my own horn, but I make amazing chocolate cake.
I can do that.
Oh, awesome.
That sounds delicious.
What about you?
Well, I don't mean to brag, but my chips and salsa are to die for.
Oh, sounds great.
Oh, my cinnamon rolls are done.
Let's try them.
Oh, wow.
I have to pat myself on the back for this one.
So good.
Ooh, cinnamon rolls yum.
This ties in with, I think we did an episode before about I make a mean X.
Oh, yes.
Good memory.
Yes.
So guys, if you can find that in our back catalog, add that to your listening queue and then
combine your skills.
All right.
That would be a great way to do that.
I love it.
All right.
So what do we do here, Michelle?
Oh, okay.
So I said, well, not toot my own horn, but I make amazing chocolate cake.
So again, we're friends.
We're having fun.
It's played with us.
So these are really good for these types of situations.
Exactly.
And then I said, oh, awesome.
That sounds delicious.
And then you said, what about you?
Well, I don't mean to brag, but my chips and salsa are to die for.
Nice.
Maybe you make chips from scratch, like kale chips or something, right, put them in the
oven.
Yum.
Mm-hmm.
And to die for, that's a big bonus expression.
That's a fun way to say that they're amazing.
Oh, for sure.
Yes.
A lot of times that expression is used to describe a dessert, right?
And then I was saying very scrumptious and very indulgent, like a lava cake or something
to die for.
To die for.
To die for.
I have to say all of that.
Yeah.
I can be a whole other episode for sure.
Yeah.
It could.
Good.
Okay, what else?
And then I said, I made the cinnamon rolls and then I tasted them and I said, oh, wow,
I have to pat myself on the back for this one.
So basically, it's a little bit different, but it's another way of bragging.
I'm saying, yeah, I have to pat myself on the back.
I did a good job.
Yeah.
So clearly, like this roleplay is showing you, it is a little bit fun.
It's about more mundane things.
I think at the top of the episode, we talked more about, you know, self promotion, maybe
in a different way.
And then we kind of moved it into a lighter piece or I think it's good.
I think these phrases do fit more.
They feel more comfortable around kind of lighter, more trivial things, right?
Right.
Yeah.
So, but yeah, these are fun.
We didn't use glowed or boast, but we gave you some examples of it earlier.
So guys, use these in your conversations.
Have fun with it.
And also, before we head out, we want to remind you, please, if you haven't done so already,
please leave us a review.
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Very cool.
Michelle, any final, final takeaway for a listener?
It's about connection here, right?
Yeah.
It's about connection.
Yeah.
It is.
It always comes back to connection, right, Lindsey?
So these, these are good, especially when you're feeling a little bit uncomfortable about
bragging.
But don't do it too much and let us know which expression is your favorite.
Try throwing, try these with friends first, I would say.
Try it, try it with a friend.
Maybe something that you know you're good at or even if you're, even if you're just
playing around, maybe you're going to play a game with them and you're going to say,
I don't mean to brag, but I am awesome at, uh, at GoFish.
Well, I also think it'd be a great opener to invite people over to host a party.
You know, I don't mean to brag, but I make a great Margarita.
Why don't you go over this weekend and we'll make margaritas together on the porch, right?
So this could be not just a statement in itself, it could be an opener to have a party, host
a party, get together, right?
Right?
I'm going to, yeah.
Maybe if I want to invite people for brunch and I'm going to make my delicious eggs, I mean,
I will come over to your house to try those eggs.
Yeah.
Oh, with a bloody Mary, I will come.
You know what I put on it?
I put everything bagel season on them.
Do you like everything, baby?
I trust these things.
I mean, I don't not like it.
I would have to try.
I would have to try it.
Oh my gosh.
All right.
Well, hopefully you can come fly out here and I'll make the eggs.
Anyway, guys, thank you so much for listening.
This was fun and have a good one.
All right, Michelle, talk soon.
Bye.
Bye.
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