This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 38, How to Be Worth Your Salt by Finding the Right Job.
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Have you been to Central Park lately? No, I haven't been in a while.
I need to go. Yeah. Do you have any parks near your house that you like to go to?
Yeah, I do. Actually, I was just walking in the park yesterday and it was so nice to be outside and just for it to be light later at night.
So good. Yeah, that is awesome. That's awesome.
So guys, today we're talking about an idiom and we really want you to get to know idioms because it's an important way to learn a lot about a culture, right?
How things are measured and what people care about.
And what's the phrase we're talking about today, Michelle?
The phrase is to be worth your salt. Yeah.
And what does it mean? It means like to be worth one's pay, right?
But it can also just mean to like have value in a general sense.
Yeah, exactly. It's not always directly about a career.
It can be, but it can also be about like the value that you bring to the table in a number of ways, like a number of areas of your life, right?
So we're not exactly sure where this comes from.
You guys can look it up online. There's always a history to every phrase and I'm not a historian.
Right. So we talk about language. If you're really interested in history, look it up and do the research to find out where it comes from.
But let's throw out some examples, Michelle, so that our listeners can see how this is used.
Because I feel like I've used this recently in the last couple of weeks, you know, just in conversations.
What's the first example? Okay, so the first example is, any IELTS teacher worth their salt can tell you the difference between a vocabulary word that will get you a score of a six versus a score of a seven on the speaking test.
Right, and I think this is something that we've talked about on the IELTS Energy podcast, right?
So teaching IELTS versus teaching general English is very different.
So we warn our students not to hire a general English teacher to teach IELTS.
It's so, so different. They have to have a really good sense of the scoring system.
So we can use this to say any teacher, any IELTS teacher worth their salt can show you the differences between a score of a six and a score of a seven.
That's a really good example of the use of that phrase.
Okay. And here's another one. Any New York tour guide worth their salt should know Brooklyn like the back of their hand.
Hmm. I was a tour guide in New York once, and I definitely didn't know Brooklyn like the back of my hand.
It was horrible. Oh my gosh, we got lost.
Oh, really? Yeah, on the 2-3 train. Oh, I think you talked about this once.
Yeah, well, that would be stressful. Yeah, it was really stressful.
I was with a bunch of high school students from France, and we totally missed the stop for the Natural History Museum, and we were headed towards Harlem, and...
It was a big mess. Oh, boy. Oh, gosh. I like that phrase, like the back of their hand.
Like the back of their hand. What does that mean?
I mean, that's kind of interesting. It's like you know it so well.
It's almost like because the idea is that you can recognize the back of your hand anywhere, right?
Yeah, that's kind of the idea. It's sort of strange.
But this one might be more common than worth your salt, actually.
Yeah, I use this one a lot, I think. You use this one a lot?
What do you use that for? Like, to talk about what?
Like, what do you know, like, the back of your hand?
Um, I know, um, oh gosh, good question. What do I know, like, the back?
I know, I know the words to, um, some Spice Girls songs, like, the back of my hand.
Yeah, or the opening song for Friends. Yeah, yep, yep, yep.
I know most of the episodes of Friends, like, the back of my hand.
Exactly. Exactly. So to know something very well.
I know my neighborhood at this point like the back of my hand because I've lived here for five years.
So to know something well. Okay. So anyways, the point of that was any tour guide worth their salt should know Brooklyn well.
Okay. Exactly. And Michelle, maybe you could finish this sentence because you have experience in radio, right?
So any radio host worth their salt, what would you say after that?
Like what makes a good radio host? Okay.
Any radio host worth their salt is able to know their audience like the back of their hand.
Oh, very nice. Very nice. I like it. Any radio host worth their salt knows their audience like the back of their hand.
That's what I would say. I love that. I think you're right.
It's really important to know who you're talking to and what they want. right okay yeah how to engage them and how do we all different things you got it michelle you got it and so all right guys so that's the phrase uh worth your salt that's the phrase we want you to learn and start using today okay or start listening for it but there are a couple of other phrases that mean similar things that are used to talk about value and we want to share those today so what are they michelle Okay, so the first one is to pull one's weight.
Yeah, I mean, how is this different from worth your salt?
It's similar. This is I think about this one more about like, OK, if you're doing a group project or something like that, it's like to pull to pull your weight and, you know, like to do your part.
Yeah, exactly. Right. If you're weighing down the group, you need to pull that weight up and be worth what you say you're worth.
Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Or there's another one to be worth your weight in gold.
Right. That just means that something is extremely valuable.
Right, right, right. Absolutely. And then the last one is to know your stuff.
I like that one. Yeah, I love that. I love that.
That's just like to know a lot about something.
To know a lot about something. And again, coming back to to be worth your salt, it's not always about knowledge or skills.
It could be about a bunch of other things.
But in that case, if the currency is knowledge, then to know your stuff means something similar.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. So Michelle, I mean, how can we make sure that we're worth our salt?
We want to be worth our salt in our career, but it's not easy to find the right career path, the right career, the right job, right?
Often we take very winding paths to get to our dream job.
How do we do it? Um, yeah, I mean, it's definitely a difficult thing to really find your true passion and what you're going to be happy doing.
I mean, you were telling me, Lindsay, you have some, an author or speaker that you really enjoy.
Can you tell me more about that? Well, yeah, last night, I actually went to see Chris Guillebeau talk, who's one of the writers that I really look up to.
He wrote a book called The Art of Nonconformity.
He wrote The $100 Startup. So he's really influenced my thinking quite a bit.
But he was in Boston last night. Because he came out with his new book called Born for This, Finding the Work You Were Meant to Do.
And he gave us his theory. And his theory is that we find our perfect job at the convergence of three things.
Want to know what they are? I'm dying to know.
Okay. Well, they are three things. Number one, flow.
And flow is a state of kind of almost like enlightenment, but not in the spiritual sense.
Flow means when things are, you know, hard, but not too hard.
We're good enough at it so that we can enjoy it, but it's just challenging enough.
So it keeps us pushing. It's like the time moves and we don't know it's moving.
That's flow. That's a flow state. Okay. I see.
Okay. So flow is the first thing. Number two is joy.
And number three is, I wonder if our listeners could guess.
Again, guys, we're talking about a career here, not a hobby.
So the third piece is money, obviously. We're not in a fantasy world here.
You need to pay the bills. So you find your dream job at the convergence point, according to Chris, of flow, joy, and money.
I really like that. What do you think? Yeah, I think that that's a really interesting way to put it.
And I mean, people can really learn a lot from that and do a lot of self reflecting.
So I mean, what practical tips, you know, other than, you know, this, because this is, you know, like, you know, a nice idea, but so like, what, like, what can we do with it?
Yeah. Good question. Well, we have to buy the book.
Okay. Well, that makes sense. Yeah. Cause I really, I really like the, those ideas and those are like really, really interesting.
And I just, I want to learn more. So I know it sounds like very interesting.
Yeah, no, it's fascinating. So Chris has all kinds of activities.
I don't have the book yet. but I'm planning to buy it.
And I would recommend that you guys check it out too on Amazon.
You know, he's put together a bunch of activities to find out like what your core values are in terms of work.
What emotions you value most when you're working?
Like what, do you want to feel autonomy?
Do you want to feel like security? Do you want to feel cooperation?
What matters to you? So all kinds of activities.
So I would really recommend guys, the way to make sure that we're worth our salt in our work or in our lives is to make sure we're doing the right thing Right.
Yeah. That's really interesting. And yeah, I hope everybody can find what makes them happy and make money.
Yeah. And it's not easy. We understand there are real realities out there and we can't just pick up and run off and start something or do something that we've always dreamt of.
I think it's kind of a trite phrase, right?
Follow your passion in some ways because it's not a reality for everyone.
But we can at least look into ourselves and see what we like about our current jobs and what we don't, right?
Right. And I think – is that where the flow comes in, Lindsay?
Like the reality? Is that kind of part of flow or no?
What do you mean? I'm a little bit confused by the question.
The reality of like – Following your passion.
You know, like I feel like flow also means like how realistic something is.
Or is that true or am I missing the point?
Oh, well, actually, there's a book called Flow.
You can actually read about that, too. It's a concept by this guy.
I think he's an Eastern European author.
I'm trying to – no one can pronounce his name, actually.
But I think he's a scientist. And it's just kind of a state of heightened awareness concept.
Oh, OK. I understand. I'm actually looking up Wikipedia.
I can actually quote Wikipedia real quick.
OK. In positive psychology, flow is also known as the zone is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement and enjoyment.
So that's right. So they talk about being in the zone in sports.
It's the same thing. I get it. Okay. I get it.
Pretty cool, right? Thanks for explaining that.
Yeah. I really love talking about this stuff.
So, guys, come on over to our blog. Leave a comment on today's episode and grab that book.
And most importantly, start using this phrase to be worth your salt.
Absolutely. All right. This has been good.
Guys, go on over and grab the transcripts for today at allearsenglish.com forward slash transcripts.
And we'll see you next time. All right. See you, Lindsay.
Thank you. Thanks, Michelle. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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