This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 568.
What's your secret to success?
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Lindsay and Michelle coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA.
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
Good, Michelle.
How's it going today?
Everything's going well here.
Lindsay, who do you know that's really successful and what is their secret to success?
Yeah, I think sometimes success is ironic, right?
Because this person that I know a friend of mine that's really successful is uses a less is more approach.
So she often will call out colleagues if they're actually doing something that's not necessary or is not going to directly affect the bottom line.
They're doing busy work basically just to kill time, and she'll kind of redirect them and say, focus on this.
This is what matters.
This is how we make money.
And a lot of people just kind of fill their time but don't necessarily keep the mission of the company in mind.
But she does the opposite.
She finds 80-20 way the most direct way to success.
And that's why she's successful.
Oh, that's great.
Yeah.
Success can mean lots of different things, of course.
And so, yeah, in business, we can say the secret to to talk about tricks of the trade.
So you're going to tell people about the best method to achieve something.
But Lindsay, why this secret part?
Yes, the secret to success.
It makes it mysterious.
It does imply kind of a shortcut or something we don't know or something that's lesser known or recently discovered behind the scenes.
It makes us perk up our ears a bit.
Yep.
Yep.
Exactly.
So Lindsay, what are your secrets to success?
I don't know.
I, geez, do I have the privilege of answering this question?
My secret to success, I think we said before on the show is probably consistency.
Like we said before, the unsung hero of podcasting is publishing when your listeners expect your episodes to go live and never missing an episode.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Love it.
Speaking of guys.
So that you never miss an episode, make sure you hit the follow button wherever you're listening to the Business English podcast.
Don't miss anything.
Good.
All right.
So we're going to run through some uses of this.
Right.
And we'll talk a little bit about the grammar after.
But the first one that we want to talk about is the secret to increasing your sales profit revenue.
Is what, Michelle?
What would be some examples here?
Understanding your customer or listening more than you talk or what else?
Solving a specific problem.
These are ways that those are the, they're not even secrets, right?
But they're things we learn over time.
Yes.
Yes, exactly.
What's the secret to getting more clients, Michelle?
I mean, you and Dan just started a new practice last year, right?
Just constantly.
I think Dan always says, always be marketing.
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, marketing and, you know, getting people to write reviews and just providing the best possible experience, like finding ways to really stand out and go above and beyond.
What I'm noticing here is you're using a lot of ING, right?
Always marketing, standing out, building trust, right?
The secret to getting more clients is building trust, following up consistently.
Using good communication, making yourself or your company more visible.
I know you guys do things in the community to be more visible, right?
A lot.
We're always out and about.
So, yeah, it's good.
It's fun.
It's good to get involved in the community as well.
So we enjoy that part of it.
So or here's another one.
The secret to getting the job is showing how you add value, making it really clear, giving clear, confident answers, proving your experience or also proving how your skills crossover to a new industry.
I think a big roadblock for a lot of people will be they've worked in one industry.
Now they want to work in a different one.
They have all the skills, But usually the job will go to someone who has experience in the industry.
And so what you need to do is make it clear how your skills cross over into pretty much any industry.
You have to spell it out for people hiring you now.
Yeah.
And what's hard though, is like okay, maybe there's something they're looking for is somebody who knows a specific software.
Maybe you're the perfect person for the job, but you don't put that on your resume.
And then there's like an automatic.
You know, sometimes maybe they're using AI to search and it doesn't come up.
Yeah.
So, yeah, it's tough.
I mean...
Yeah, I mean, I was thinking more in the interview stage, like if you get to the stage of giving a presentation or doing a case study and you're asked to come in.
But yeah, I mean, even getting past the AI filters, round one, I mean, how do you do that?
Yeah, I think we'll be exploring this in the next few years on this show.
Yeah right yeah, um.
Or finally, the secret to standing out at work is so something like making yourself invaluable, speaking up in meetings and sharing your expertise or knowledge.
Yeah, the speaking up in meetings part is very american culture.
Yes, But it is what it is right.
If you're working in the US, you absolutely have to be verbal in meetings.
You have to be speaking up because even if you have great ideas, no one will know.
And so it's just very different around the world, Michelle.
Yeah, definitely.
We definitely value that here for better or for worse.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
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All right.
Let's talk a little bit about grammar.
Michelle, make sure we're very clear with our listeners.
What do we need to know when it comes to grammar?
Yeah.
So when forming this phrase, you want to use the secret to.
Right.
And if you're talking about an actual activity, I mean, because you could say the secret to success.
Right.
Yes.
Right.
If you have a noun, you don't need to do this.
Exactly.
Exactly.
But if you're doing it with a verb, it's verb plus ing.
So it couldn't be the secret to improve your test score, right?
It would be the secret to improving your test score is studying.
That sounds much more natural.
And correct.
Exactly.
The secret to getting a promotion is showing your value at work.
And look, guys, how I continued with the ING.
Right.
Because we did two verbs, yep.
Yeah, yeah, is doing this.
So that's interesting too.
But that first verb must be in the ing form.
So let's take a look at other examples in our role play.
All right.
Exactly.
All right.
Here we go.
So you and I both work in sales at the same company and you want to know how I am doing so well lately.
What gives?
What's going on?
All right.
You've been doing really well lately.
What's the secret to increasing your sales?
Honestly, I've noticed the secret to increasing your sales is listening more than you talk.
So customers tell you what they want if you create enough space.
That makes total sense.
But how about getting more clients?
Oh, the secret to getting more clients is building rapport.
Remember who they are and any important details about their lives.
So show genuine interest.
Also, follow up consistently.
One email isn't enough.
Yeah, for sure.
My in-laws on both sides, my in-laws are salespeople.
They're all in sales.
They've been in sales their entire lives.
On one side, they're in real estate sales and the other side's like medical equipment sales.
Yeah.
Sales, sales, sales.
And this is huge.
Get to know the person, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
Those relationships are key.
Yeah.
Yeah, you said what's the secret to increasing your sales, right?
So again, verb plus ing.
And then I said, I've noticed the secret to increasing your sales is listening more than you talk.
Yeah.
And then you said the secret to getting more clients.
So that's an ING again, is building rapport.
And I have ING again, building rapport.
Yep.
Yep.
Exactly.
Interesting.
It's all about relationships, right?
All about relationships.
Yes.
And we taught another really good expression on episode 528.
That was, should you say long time no see in English?
So check that one out as well.
Yes.
Yeah.
And I think that's the takeaway here, right?
Secret to something.
We always, when we hear there's a secret to something, we want to buy the book, go watch the movie.
We want to like watch the Ted talk.
We want to, you know, put our ear up to the thing and get that secret, but it's important to say it the right way.
Otherwise it won't have the same punch.
It Yeah, very good point.
Yeah, yeah.
This was really fun, Lindsay.
And guys, hopefully you got some secrets today.
And yeah, let us know any secrets you have to success.
I know.
I wish this one we could get some feedback from our listeners.
Maybe, guys, let us know in the comments in Spotify.
You can comment in there what your secret is to success.
I would love to hear.
Yes.
That would be great.
All right, Lindsay.
Well, thanks for chatting today and guys, thank you for listening and I'll see you next time.
All right.
Bye, Michelle.
See you later.
Bye.
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