This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 518.
Kick your business English into high gear.
Welcome to the Business English Podcast from All Ears English.
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This is Real Business English, with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Aubrey, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
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Hey Aubrey, how are things today with you?
What's going on?
I'm doing pretty well over here.
What about you, Lindsay?
Doing pretty well.
The week is rolling right along.
So yeah, all good.
I think we're in 2026 now by the time this episode comes out.
So crazy stuff.
Yeah, we are.
Speaking of the new year, here's a question for you.
When was the last time you had to kick things into high gear?
Well, I think, before any kind of like, sometimes I'll do little 5Ks, So I have to kick my workout training into high gear the few days leading up to that.
But 5Ks are not a huge deal, but I do want to be in good shape for those, right?
That's a good point.
Any exercise training, right?
You're going to need to kick it into high gear, especially right before a race or a tournament.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
What about you?
Anything comes to mind?
I feel like every new year I try to kick it into high gear when it comes to like clean eating, exercising more, setting those good habits.
So yeah, for sure.
But this is interesting.
We recently taught. phrasal verbs for increasing intensity, like amp up, crank up, step it up.
So stay to the end and we'll share details if you missed it.
But we promised a follow up with related idioms.
So we're going to share those today.
Another example of when we might do this at work would be if we're going into a busy season.
We know that accountants have their busy season, January, February, March, April, right?
For us, our busy season is probably the fall, September, October, November.
So I think at All Ears English, we probably kick in at a high gear around that time.
Yeah, or any product launch for a lot of companies, right?
They're going to use these idioms when you're talking about increased efforts or intensity around that.
Yeah, for sure.
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All right.
Yes, absolutely.
All right.
So let's go into ways we could talk about this in business, right?
Business is a little bit different.
Yeah, exactly.
So this first one, kick it into high gear, meaning to start performing at a higher intensity.
So just like you said, Lindsay, for product launches for tax season for accountants.
Everyone has that time or that project where you have to increase the intensity.
Yep.
So for example, I need to kick it into higher gear.
I'm sorry, high gear.
If I'm going to reach my sales goal, we don't really say higher gear.
I need to kick it into higher gear.
Do we say that?
No, that's true.
Good point.
We just say kick it into high gear.
It's like you were in low gear.
Now we kick it into high gear.
You want to start functioning at a higher altitude, right?
Yes.
Exactly.
Right.
It's just like a car the gears of a car back when we had standard transmissions and we shifted the gears ourselves more.
I know that's still more common in like European cars.
It's pretty rare in the States anymore.
It's all automatic transmission.
I know Michelle and I talked about this on the show this morning.
We were talking because my first car was a stick shift.
Was yours?
Me too.
Okay.
Yeah.
Same here.
I learned on a stick shift.
Yeah.
Michelle was saying she hasn't learned stick shift before.
So I think that cars have been phased out.
Yeah.
In the American car market.
It's true.
It's crazy.
Interesting.
Yeah.
You can think about that.
Yeah.
When you have this idiom kicking it into high gear, just like the gears of a car, you might say the team kicked it into high gear after the break.
Yes.
Good.
Perfect.
And then another way of saying essentially the same thing is turn it up a notch or step it up a notch.
We want you to increase quality or intensity of something, right?
Exactly.
So, for example, she wanted the presentation to be perfect, so she tried to step it up a notch.
Right.
Or he stepped it up a notch for the second interview.
So this is a great idiom for just saying you're trying to improve your performance in some way.
Could be for a meeting, a presentation, an interview.
And this is a little bit more informal, but it still works for it to be like.
I want to step it up a notch.
Yeah.
Or raise the stakes.
This makes a situation more intense, maybe more risky, but I think more consequential is a good way to say it.
The word consequential is a great, great way to say that.
Yeah.
So, for example, this new competitor raises the stakes.
Right.
That always if there's added competition, then this always raises the stakes.
It raises it's more consequential.
There's you know, everything's going to be more intense when there's more competition.
Yeah.
More is on the line.
Right.
More possibility of failure or and success.
So another one is they raise the stakes with these new quarterly goals.
So when you set clear quarterly goals, people are going to know whether they've succeeded or failed, and that does raise the stakes.
Exactly, which can be really great motivation.
But yeah, it's definitely, it's more clear.
And it's interesting, we use this adjective high stakes, that something is high stakes.
So that's very related.
We raise the stakes, we make something even more high stakes.
And then go all out.
What about that one?
So this means to give maximum effort.
For example, the marketing team decided to go all out for the product launch.
It just means they are doing the best job they can.
They're giving that maximum effort.
Yeah.
So for example, if we want to win the client's trust, we need to go all out on this proposal.
Yeah.
Again, you're going to do the best possible job that you can do so you can win their trust and hopefully get more projects from the client.
Right.
Exactly.
And this one's a slightly more casual, still definitely used at work.
It's not overly informal, but it's probably the most informal of all of these to go all out.
We use it a lot in everyday conversations as well.
Yeah, we also exactly.
So in everyday conversations I feel like I use this.
Maybe if someone hosted a party and they went really, really into the decor for the party, preparing for the party, walk into their party wow, you went all out.
Or maybe with Christmas light decorations.
You decorated the whole house and the woods in front of your house.
And what a great way to connect with someone at work if they planned a party or set up something at work.
Maybe even if they just like set up for a meeting and went above and beyond with the catering or something, to use this and say wow, you really went all out.
It's a great way to compliment.
Sometimes in the corporate world.
It's not necessarily in someone's job description to prepare parties, but they'll just take that on.
And that's amazing.
Retirement parties or birthday parties for people.
And so it's good to recognize them to build that relationship, make them feel good.
Right.
They put a lot of effort when they put in that effort to go above and beyond to go out.
They're probably going to really appreciate it being recognized.
Right.
Oh, my gosh, for sure.
And when you worked at the nonprofit, Aubrey, was there someone that was always doing those things?
It was in charge of me.
That's what I thought.
I was.
I was in charge of, you know, planning all of those parties.
And I did.
I got these compliments.
And it did mean a lot because I could have put in minimal effort.
Yeah.
And it would have just kind of been so, so OK.
But I wanted to really.
Yeah.
You know it was great in appreciation of volunteers that I really wanted to feel our appreciation for them.
And I did go all out with those, you know, within the budget constraints that I had.
But yeah, I wanted to give that effort to make sure that they knew how much we appreciated them.
And you felt recognized for it then?
Yeah, that's good.
That's so important.
I mean, that builds relationships at work.
That's huge.
Absolutely.
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Okay, role play time, Aubrey.
We know that our listeners love role plays.
So, in this particular role play today, I am a project manager and your team lead is, So we're discussing options to meet a client's requests.
Yeah, exactly.
Yes.
Want to start us out?
Yes.
We're only two weeks from the deadline and the client just asked for additional features.
We're going to have to kick it into high gear if we want to stay on track.
Agreed.
The development team can turn it up a notch on the testing side for the next few days.
That would definitely help.
And with the client paying close attention now, this really raises the stakes for us.
We can't afford any delays.
Absolutely.
Let's go all out on this release.
I'll reorganize the team's priorities and we'll focus exclusively on the features that matter most to the client.
Perfect.
I'll update the client and reassure them that we're fully committed to delivering on time.
Yeah, a lot of it is client management, managing client expectations.
Right.
Absolutely.
Right.
We used all of them here.
Let's go over how we use them.
You first said we're going.
You know you had just found out.
We're two weeks from the deadline and the client has asked for additional features.
So now the timing is really tight.
You said we're going to have to kick it into high gear if we want to stay on track.
So you're saying, you know, what we've been doing in the past isn't going to cut it.
We need to increase our efforts, increase the intensity.
Exactly.
And then you said agreed, meaning I agree, right?
That's a very casual way of saying I agree.
The development team can turn it up a notch on the testing side for the next few days.
So what are you saying there?
Yeah, so I'm saying that they can do more of the testing to kind of fast track that, right?
They can turn it up a notch on the testing side.
So whatever they had scheduled to do for testing, they're going to increase the intensity there and do more of it.
Do even more of it.
Yeah, exactly.
Just be more intense.
And then I said, this really raises the stakes for us.
So the possibility of failure becomes more pertinent and also success, right?
Exactly, right?
The stakes are raised, whether that's you know and this is more like with this client is paying really close attention to what we're doing right now.
As the deadline looms, as the deadline nears, then the stakes are even higher.
Exactly.
And then one upper, what's the last thing you said?
I said, let's go all out on this release.
So I'm just saying like, let's really do the best job that we can.
This is kind of a motivational statement to say this.
Yeah, and actually as a bonus for today, you could also say let's go all in on this release.
Couldn't we say that's the same thing?
Yeah, good point.
That's kind of saying like we're going to put in all the time and energy possible to do the best job we can.
Yeah, putting our full selves.
Kind of like the poker idiom of going all in with your cards, right?
Right, right, right.
Interesting.
So there are variations.
There are more slangy versions of this, but all of these will definitely serve you in the workplace, guys.
Yes, definitely.
This is one of the best ways to build connection is to use idioms, this more informal language that we still use at work, to lower that wall.
We don't want to use incredibly formal language that gives distance between us and colleagues.
These idioms help kind of break that down.
Yeah.
I love it.
So part one of this series guys was on, this is a series.
Yeah.
Am I wrong?
Yes.
Yes.
The part one was Michelle and I, it was right here on business English 514.
It was called phrasal verbs to amp up your business English.
So scroll up if you missed that one.
Yeah.
Go check it out.
And where should we leave our listeners today?
Yeah, just like I was saying, this is such a great way to connect in English, to share.
When you need to be more intense, instead of being super formal with the way that you would do this collaboratively, use these more informal phrases that don't have that same wall of formality between you.
So good.
Really good stuff.
And it's also it can create a sense of team togetherness.
If you do use these words, it's a way of team building in a sense.
Like right now on the podcast, we are kind of kicking it up a notch.
It's another kicking it into high gear because we're recording a bit more than usual because of the holidays.
Right.
We're looking to take a little time off on the holidays.
So.
And if we articulate that as a team, we can feel closer together as a team.
Exactly.
Right.
That's such a good example.
Right.
If you send an email saying like, we need to kick it into high gear to be ready for the holidays.
That's so much more friendly and collaborative.
Instead of you know the more formal language you could use to do that.
It really matters the words we choose that can dictate how much people want to be on the team they're on.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Working towards shared goals.
Yeah, for sure.
All right.
Great stuff today, Aubrey.
We'll see you very soon.
And you have a good day.
All right.
Awesome.
See you next time.
All right.
Talk soon.
Bye.
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