This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 106.
You nailed it! It's okay to have personality at work.
Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.
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Hello, Lindsay. How are you? Hey, Michelle.
I'm doing great. How's everything in your world?
What's going on? Everything is good. Everything is good.
You know what? I really like how the All Ears English team communicates.
I feel like we're all very, like we like to motivate each other.
And if somebody did a really good job on something, I feel like we like to recognize that.
Yes, I love that. It's so important. We need that because we're working online, right?
We're not really around each other physically.
And so we need to feel... Like we're celebrating wins, you know?
Right. And I feel like that goes for everybody in the business world and just to be supportive of each other and not only for yourself is huge.
And people can feel like that genuineness if you are, you know, happy that somebody did a good job with something. it's so true it's so true i mean you know we talk a lot about connection on our podcasts but we also value connection on our team right that's it can't just be about what we're talking about on the show it has to be across our entire all everything we do Exactly.
Exactly. So while speaking about connection on our podcast, guys, we have the All Ears English podcast.
So if you haven't heard that podcast yet, you are missing out.
Guys, this podcast is huge. All Ears English.
Go on over there wherever you listen to your podcast and make sure you follow All Ears English because we are there four times a week and just talking about podcasting.
Culture, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, so many fun and useful things for your English.
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That is the key step you need to take right now.
All right, good stuff. So what are we getting into today, Michelle?
Well, we're talking about saying you did a good job on something.
And guys, go on over and listen to episode 70 of the Business English podcast.
This was how to wish your friend good luck before a job interview in English.
These are episodes about being supportive.
Oh my gosh, episode 70. Okay. Yeah. Episode 70.
Right. Yes. Yes. Sorry. Go ahead. No, no, don't be sorry.
Yeah, we want to be supportive. So this is also about being supportive.
So go on over and listen to that. So how can you do this?
How can you say that you did a good job on something or someone else did?
I mean, because we can say good job, but we can't say that every time.
And we want to be more expressive and emphatic and all of those good things, right, Lindsay?
Yeah, good job is kind of boring, to be frank, right?
It's boring. We don't want to be boring.
And so today we're going to teach you guys three or four or five ways, things you can say that sounds super native and natural.
And again, on this show, we teach you informal, semi-formal and formal business English.
You need all of them guys at work and not just for, I mean, you need all of them to build those connections and eventually have your career success that you want.
You can't just be a robot at work being formal and expect to be promoted because part of promotion is building relationships and having people trust you.
Isn't that true Michelle? Yes, 100%, 100%.
So these are going to help you express yourself in a way that's not just, oh, good job, good job, good job, right?
These are more fun. Yeah, we're going to throw that one out the window right now and do some new ones.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So the first one is nailed it.
I love this. Right, so to nail something.
So you could say, you really nailed that drawing.
It looks just like me. Yeah. I love this one.
Yep. Yep. I think it sounds so natural, so native.
It can also be shortened, as you said, just say nailed it.
Right, right, right. So maybe maybe some of your friend is an artist or something.
And, you know, that's their job. Or, you know, you could say you nailed that presentation or, you know, just you.
Yeah, I think you nailed that article, maybe a report or something like that.
Yeah, I wonder where this comes from. I wonder if it comes from like just the precision of a nail like hammering a nail.
I don't know exactly where I would come from.
Right? You would think that right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would think so.
And what's the next one? Yeah, this one's good to rocked it.
This one to me feels a little young, right?
That's the one I would say nailed it feels for some reason older, but rocked it feels young.
Um, still could be good, right? Students or professionals rock.
I rocked my science exam. And that's when you're kind of saying good job to yourself, right?
Right. And you can do that. And that's, and that's fine.
Um, but you can also say to someone else, like, you know, you rocked that speech.
That was awesome. Yeah, it is. It is a little bit, it is very informal.
It is a little bit younger sounding, I think. yeah for sure i mean choose it maybe not so much for your boss in a formal meeting but choose it for your co-worker that you're quite close to yeah it's all about relationships and how close are we to these people aced it would be the next one michelle she aced her dance audition and this one is less uh colloquial and more just it's just a word i guess you know what i mean to ace something is is less casual i think just it's standard Right.
Yeah, that's true. That is more standard.
Yeah. So someone's a dancer. That's their profession.
Or if you're in the business, you know, in an office environment, you could say you aced that review.
You aced that graph like that you made. You aced, you know, so many things.
Oh, my gosh. I think this comes again, another expression that I think probably comes from tennis.
We talked about the sweet spot a few weeks ago.
This one probably also comes from the game of tennis because Michelle, I don't know if you know when you serve in tennis and if the person does not hit your serve, it's an ace.
Oh, OK. I'm sure I knew that at one point.
One point in my life I took a tennis and gym class or something.
Yeah. Well, I did take tennis lessons as a kid, but I did not excel.
No. OK. Well, yeah. So when you're able to ace, you know, there are famous tennis players that have had great serves like Pete Sampras, lots of people.
Anyways, if the returner can't hit your serve, it's considered an ace.
I think that's probably where this comes from.
OK, cool, cool. And then the last one is killed it.
And, you know, we talk about like some people might not be uncomfortable with that expression, but you will hear it and it is used.
So we don't want to shy away from things, but it's up to you if you want to say it.
So you killed it out there. You were so funny.
So maybe your coworker is opening up for a speech and they make a you know, they make a joke and, you know, they were really engaging.
It's also OK to be funny at the workplace and you should be, I think.
Totally. It's okay to have personality. Maybe that's the title of today's episode.
It's okay to have personality at work. It's okay to have personality.
Yes, yes, exactly, exactly. I would much rather hear, you know, you killed it or you nailed it than good job.
Yes, yes, exactly. Exactly. Because we're saying, you know, just because you're at work doesn't mean you have to be a robot, right?
That's a no, no robots in the workplace.
But although there are a lot of robots coming into our conversation for another day, in five years, this will be the only way that we'll be able to differentiate and add value on top of the robots is our personality.
So we better work on it. Right. That's true.
Although the robots are going to get personalities to some of them.
All right. Well, well, on all ears English soon, we're going to be talking about chat GPT.
Okay. All right. So we'll get to that. Anyway, but guys, another speaking of all ears English, we have, we talked about the expression to kill it on episode 963, which was break a leg how to encourage people in English.
So go listen to that as well. So, Lindsay, do you think it's okay to use these to talk about yourself?
Like, oh, I rocked this. I killed it. Like, what do you think?
Yeah, I think it's okay in context, in the right context, to be confident.
It's all about context, who's around, what are you saying exactly?
Did you actually do it yourself or was it a team effort?
That's important too. Oh, yes, yes. If it was a team presentation, I killed it out there.
Yeah, because a lot of times there is a team behind everything we do right uh allers English podcast got Gaspar we've got Louie we've got the two of us we've got our website developers we've got our app coders we've got such a big team and it would never get done without all of us exactly Aubrey Jessica Jandy I mean chris it's not just you and me on this show right it's everyone involved so we have to remember that that's absolutely right so you know it's okay to use it i wouldn't use it all the time about everything but it's okay to say like oh yeah like if i think it's especially good if you're talking to a family member about something at work like if i had to make an important presentation and then dan asked me like oh how did it go i could say oh i think i nailed it you know Totally.
That's, that's what I was trying to say.
And I couldn't quite get my finger on it.
It's better to turn around. And if someone asks you outside of the context of the workplace, not so much coming out of the room of the presentation and saying, I nailed it.
Yeah, yes. Right. Exactly. It's more of somebody asks you.
Yeah. But Lindsay, which one of these are you most likely to use?
I love I nailed it or you nailed it to talk about someone else to someone else or you killed it would be my second choice, but you nailed it.
You rocked it feels too young for me personally.
It feels like something I said a lot in high school, actually.
Yeah. So I would move on from that. But that's my personality.
You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void?
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Terms and conditions apply. OK, Michelle, let's dig deeper.
So are any of these more formal or informal than others, would you say?
We did say that. Yeah, we did kind of, you know, I think rocked it is kind of like the least formal.
Maybe aced it is the most formal. informal though they're all kind of informal sounding i think but yeah if we if we're going to categorize them categorize them that way um that's what i would think but lindsey is there something recently that you nailed killed aced or rocked that's a great question i think well yeah maybe i my trip to california i think i aced the day we got a lot of things done with my and up and down the i-5 michelle california is incredible the amount of driving you do in that in l.a is just insane but we got everything done we had all our appointments nailed them all we got done what we had to do and then i was back on the flight back to denver so i felt kind of good about about that you know um just completing tasks that you haven't been able to do before but this is not what about you is there anything lately that you've nailed Um, I don't know.
The first thing that just came to my mind was, you know, I have two kids and not to talk about it all the time, but like for me, like yesterday, like I've had my son home on spring break.
So I've had both of them home and, you know, it's challenging and I try and do something fun every day.
But recently I've been taking the train more.
We took the ferry the other day. And so like not nailed it necessarily as being a mom, but like, doing things outside of my comfort zone, it would be so easy for me to just say, let's just go down the street, you know, and sometimes I do have days like that.
But this week, we've had two adventures.
And yeah, so and then my son will say like, Oh, I love our adventures.
So that was a great adventure. So that's when I feel like most fulfilled when I actually go out of my comfort zone.
And then I'm like, we like we nailed it.
Like we nailed it together. You know, that's a great with my kids.
Yeah. That's a great example. Yeah. I mean, and it's so much better for the kids in the long run to have little adventures, right?
That's fantastic. Especially when it's not easy all the time.
You know, those are the most satisfying moments in life when something wasn't easy and we were maybe a little afraid of it, but then we did it and then we nailed it and it's all good.
Exactly. Exactly. So, guys, these are good for, you know, talking about tests.
Maybe you have to take a test for your job.
Like maybe you're getting your your job is paying for you to get your master's or something like that.
Job interviews, presentations, auditions, whatever it may be.
And it's also just a great way to compliment someone.
So let's do a role play before we head out, Lindsay.
OK, Michelle, let's do it. So here we just did a presentation together for our work.
All right. So here we go. we killed it i know everyone was so impressed it was awesome you really nailed your section you too you rocked it thanks i think we could agree that we aced the whole thing and we may get promotions oh that would be amazing awesome i love it so let's go back through it and this is another great example right what we're trying to say is you may not necessarily come out of a solo presentation and say I nailed it.
Right. It's more with your teammate. You're saying that together because you delivered it together.
Right. Right. Like, right. And you came out.
So you said we killed it. Now, it would have been very strange if we came out of the presentation and you said I killed.
Yeah, it would have been weird. All right.
A little awkward. Like, no, this is it's a good way to compliment each other.
Yeah. And then what did you say? And then I said it was awesome.
You really nailed your section. And then I said, you too, you rocked it.
Yes. Perfect. And it, this totally brings about connection a hundred percent.
If you can take a moment that maybe you and your coworker were stressed out about a presentation you had to give and you succeeded, use these words.
Don't imagine the difference, right? Oh, good job on the presentation. yeah good job this is so boring that person going to want to talk to you again not really you haven't yeah we have certain moments that are like ripe for connection and that would be one but we need to use the right words to solidify that connection That's right.
And then you said, I think we can agree we aced the whole thing and we may get promotion.
So that's good stuff. Love it. Yeah. So I think these things can definitely bring you closer to your coworkers.
And I think you should use them in the office place.
Anything else you want to bring up, Lindsay?
Yeah, I mean, we've just said it. Like I said, there are certain moments that allow for connection, but we need to insert the right words and don't insert boring words that you've learned in textbooks, right?
Bring some energy and life into what you say and the connection will be so much stronger that you can build.
And I also just wanna remind our listeners, They can nail or ace or kill the IELTS exam, right?
By taking our course, Three Keys IELTS. But first they could go over and check out the IELTS Energy podcast.
Aubrey and Jessica are over there two days a week.
Such good IELTS advice, Michelle. What do you think?
Oh, I love it. And Aubrey and Jessica are so much fun and they know so much about IELTS.
So you will learn over there. I mean, Jessica was an examiner for 14 years and Aubrey knows everything Jessica knows.
And so it's just incredible the expertise you get in a fun, entertaining podcast.
How fast you're going to learn is going to be insane.
You're just going to nail it. You're going to nail it.
Yes, we love it. All right, guys. Well, we hope you nail your days.
Yes. And whatever your next work thing is or personal life thing is, we hope you nail it.
All right. Sounds good, Michelle. I'll talk to you very soon.
Have a good day. All right. Bye, Lindsay.
Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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