This is an All Ears English bonus episode.
The number one rule for clear work emails in English.
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In today's episode, find out what the biggest mistake is that you might be making with your work emails and how to solve it.
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Hey Jessica, excited to have you on All Ears English.
How's everything going today?
So excited to be here.
We get to talk about how to be clear in emails.
And I just heard from a student.
Actually, I had a question this morning asking to look at some work emails she wrote and she's like afraid to send them.
But they're really important.
And like, I feel so bad for that anxiety.
That is such a hard place to be, right?
Yeah no, you need to get your message across.
You know, as a professional, and you know maybe your boss is pressuring you to send the email, but then you don't know if you've made some mistakes or if you're the way you've worded things are gonna are going to be clear.
Right.
Right.
And think about it.
I mean, I feel like I email today more than ever before.
Right.
More people are working on their computers, not face to face.
I like how many emails do you think you send every day?
Oh, my gosh.
Crazy number.
When you look back at it.
Right.
It's a lot.
It's a lot of emails, maybe 30 a day, 40 a day.
I don't know.
Quite a few.
So many.
So imagine having like lacking confidence in 30 different tasks every day.
You know you're sending 30 emails a day and each one is taking way too long because you keep erasing things and deleting things and then writing too much.
And it's so hard.
And also the feeling that we know this is going to be a roadblock to our careers, right?
There's no way we can get promoted all the way up to the top.
If that is the track that we're on, if we have ambitions to reach the C-suite or move up into higher levels of leadership, it's not going to happen if we can't send those clear, direct emails and command that respect.
Exactly.
Exactly, guys, because building relationships, that's everything to advance your career.
Right.
Connecting to not just coworkers, but clients and partner businesses.
Right.
You're building relationships through your writing.
So there's.
There's kind of a lot riding on this.
That's a good expression for our listeners.
What does that mean?
I think we can know from context, but just to define it, a lot riding on this.
I like that.
Yeah.
It means there are a lot of consequences to this, right?
Like this is a very important thing that will have a lot of effects.
So there's a lot riding on this.
That's a great business idiom right there.
Yeah.
And so what are all the factors involved in our emails that our listeners, our students, might be worried about when it comes to sending out those 30 emails a day?
Totally.
So we completely understand how people are lacking confidence in this because there are so many moving pieces in your writing.
What about your grammar, vocabulary, linking words, organization?
Is your tone correct?
Are you too formal or informal?
Like there's so many pieces in this.
Yes, 100 percent.
And then we're also kind of translating into the style that maybe worked in our other classes corporate culture or country culture.
And it might be different if we're an American business culture or global business culture.
So there is a lot here.
A hundred percent.
Yes.
There's so much.
And like, just as a side note, that's one thing that I really love about our business course is how much we do focus on culture, because that's not in other business courses, right.
Like here's vocabulary.
That's like other business courses.
But for us, it's like There's there's layers here.
There's culture to think about.
So OK guys, we promised, as we said in the title of this episode, what is the number one thing in the way of clear emails.
And that is not being direct.
So what do we mean by that, Jessica?
What does that mean?
And how might that show up in an email being indirect?
Yeah, totally.
Well, I can say from firsthand experience receiving and reading, you know, 30 emails a day from other people, non-natives and natives alike.
By the way, sometimes there's just way too many words.
If I open an email and it's way too long, I'm like I don't even understand what this person wants from me.
They're wasting my time.
I'm going to delete it.
You know, I don't even want to read it all.
Right.
Love that.
Okay.
You mean like a sales pitch, right?
That kind of thing, but not like an email from, you know, like a bar.
So yeah.
Deleting is one option.
Yeah, surprised you, i think.
Definitely, when i can tell it's a sales pitch, i will delete it right away.
Um, i would just heard a story.
Someone i know works in the corporate world and she was sharing how her former co-worker would come back from a vacation and she would just kind of share that instead of reading all the emails that came in when she was gone, she just deletes them all.
No, oh my god, what do you mean?
You delete emails Because you like instant anxiety, because you're like picturing, like you doing that or me doing that.
You're like, oh, my God.
So you mean kind of more the emails where there's not already a relationship and it seems like more of a salesy conversation kind of thing.
Yeah, for sure, like cold open emails right, like I've never met this person right um, but okay, so let's talk about the emails I don't delete, which is most of them.
Um, let's say, I get an email from a student who has an issue.
Um, maybe they can't understand something in a course.
Yeah right yes yes, like I want to read their question and I want to understand immediately what they want from me, because I do want to help them.
I'm their teacher.
Yeah, you know what I mean, of course, but like, if you are, if you're saying too much stuff and I can't even understand what you're asking, I can't help you.
Right.
So you're not, you're not accomplishing your goal in writing the email.
Yes.
And so of course there are things we can do that would be kind of crutches.
Like we can put things in bold or underline them, making them bigger.
But before you know it, if you do that, your words are going to be huge.
They're going to be like size 20 on the email.
So don't do that guys.
We're joking around here, but there are certain things you can put in your email or ways you can structure your sentences that can be just as powerful as bolding everything or underlining everything for sure right, or like putting things in all caps.
You know, really be careful with that.
The yelling in the all caps is yelling essentially, isn't it right?
It is, though.
Yeah.
So that's why we have like these email templates in the course, because here's the thing, guys.
You need to be polite, but you need to get to the point.
Yeah.
So it's it's a it's a fine balance here.
And there is it is possible to have almost like an equation, like a math equation for this.
You know, like here's what you do in the first sentence.
It's very polite.
You inquire about how the person is doing.
And then right away, guys, second paragraph. paragraph, very short.
You get to the point ask your question, make your request, answer the question.
You know like it can be mathematically defined like that
For sure.
You know, save the kind of super building of you know going back and forth and the nuances for when you're on a call.
And actually, I would sort of recommend getting on a call as much as you can.
Right.
Because if something's unclear, especially between coworkers, try to jump on that phone call.
That's a lot faster and easier.
Right.
A hundred percent.
I think there has to be like a rule of three here.
Yeah.
You know, like if you've gone back and forth more than three times, jump on a call.
Oh, my God.
You're not solving this.
Yes, 100 percent.
But there's a quote from our business course that came out of our business course.
Jessica, what is that?
It's a good piece of insight here.
Oh, my gosh, guys.
I was just telling Lindsay this before we started recording.
So we have recently updated our business course.
It is amazing.
Oh my gosh, it's amazing.
And so we've gotten to like review and go through all of this amazing material.
And I cannot say how much my heart has like, grows every time I look at something we created that I kind of forgot about because we created it a while ago.
And I look at it with fresh eyes and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.
Like this is such gold.
So anyway, I was looking at a quote in our business course and it is, this isn't a conversation.
Be polite, but get directly to the point.
Did that come from one of the interviews or where did that come from?
It came from a lesson about emails, about this specific thing, like how to be direct.
But it did come from our survey of over 100 native professionals.
So we surveyed 100 native professionals and we took out their advice and their worries.
Right.
And their issues.
And this was one of the things that we took from that.
So less is more.
Right.
Jessica, less is more.
That's the idea.
Get directly to the point.
And Again we recognize this is more so in American business culture, modern companies.
Your company might be a little different or country might be a little different.
So check in on that to adjust based on your culture.
But in general, for global business, people are busy, right?
Time is valued highly.
Exactly, exactly.
And we still do recognize how important it is to be respectful.
Of course.
And that's why we say like, yes, you still have to be polite.
And here is how you do that.
Yes.
This shows respect, right?
But also, guys...
Being direct is respectful because you're respecting that person's time.
Yeah.
I mean, that's why in our business course, we provide templates, right?
Direct templates that you guys can deploy immediately.
And you kind of save some of the thinking, right?
And then you can see yourself using those templates.
You can adopt that as your style.
You know what?
I had a great class with a business student a few weeks ago and she was saying how she printed out those email templates and she keeps them in her desk at work.
And she literally like takes them out every time, like just to double check, just to make sure she has all the pieces.
I love that.
That's fantastic.
So she must be feeling a lot more confident at work these days.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
A hundred percent.
And you know, and this is, you guys, I'm not making this up.
I'm not going to say her name in case she doesn't want me to, but I'm not making this up.
Like she literally, literally like just got a promotion as well oh, I love you know.
And she's feeling like so confident about everything at work and it was such a great class.
Once you start improving one specific thing about your work, that confidence kind of emanates everywhere else.
Like she's probably feeling more confident around presentations because she's seen the success in emails and that translates.
There's something in our nature when we're confident.
That's just unquestionable.
Well, it's like one win at a time, you know, like tackle the email thing.
Feel like you win that.
And then you carry that confidence into the next thing that you want to improve or learn about.
I love that.
So, knowing how important emails are Jessica, and now we know what that number one rule is for clear emails.
What else should our listeners know about what is happening this week?
To get all this insight in these templates?
What should they know?
So excited.
We worked so hard on this, you guys.
So we want to announce the business and social english summer Deal.
This is incredible, you guys.
So this whole entire course is over 100 lessons, you guys.
It is so incredible.
So this package would usually cost $266, but don't do that.
If you get in right now, guys, before July 26th, okay, this deal goes away July 26th at midnight.
Go to allearsenglishcom, slash career and you get the entire business course course and new lifetime access and new personal feedback guys on the final exam, personal feedback on your speaking and writing on the final exam.
This is all new and it's all included.
Yeah guys, we've really made some major changes to this course.
We've added so many personal touches with us, so many ways for you to practice, new quizzes, new activities, new exercises, a certificate of completion.
And that's all added to what was already there, which is the interviews with 25 business professionals, the vocabulary that comes from those surveys we talked about.
But what I love about this offer this summer, Jessica, is the timing.
Because we know that you guys have a window of about 30 days to get ready for the fall.
What happens in August?
People divest their stocks.
They go on vacation.
That means it's your We're on deck time.
It's your time to prepare, to practice.
We're doing it too.
We're going to be working hard in August preparing some amazing things for the fall and fall is go time in most business workplace corporate cultures.
Right, Jessica?
Exactly.
Exactly.
And so, yeah, like now is such an amazing opportunity, guys.
You have a little bit of extra time.
It's summer, right?
You have time to wrap your head around all of these amazing things so you can put them into practice in fall.
Like, yeah, get that confidence.
August.
Everybody is back to work around the world.
You know and you are ready to make new relationships, new connections and to really like, show your boss confidence.
Oh my gosh, look at what I did this summer.
You know what I mean?
Look at the certificate.
I did this incredible course because I want to stand out at work.
It's true.
And you know you're learning from those people who are active in the corporate world or the nonprofit world, or the medical world, the biotech world,
Currently, you're going to meet them on the video.
I love that because Jessica, I think what it comes down to here is you know you need to be ready when it's go time, right?
So when you sit down to work, you come back from vacation or everyone's just back in the office.
In mid-September, that's not the time to go and get this course and learn these things right.
The time is now.
Exactly, exactly, you guys.
Because I mean, we're talking about like, solving this problem of being anxious while you're writing, right?
Because it's so important.
You need that to make connections.
Well, solve the problem of being anxious at work, you know, by getting ready now.
It's all about the preparation.
I love it.
So we are so excited to invite you guys in.
Remember the offer closes right up until July 26th at 1159 New York time.
You can save 67 or 25, plus you're going to get a bonus right how to start the conversation in english on top of the business english course.
So it's an amazing deal.
It's amazing guys.
I was just looking at the how to start the conversation course this morning.
It is so fun.
There's like extra role plays and vocab and questions and it's so cool.
You guys, i love it.
So jessica, where should they go to get this deal right now?
It is available currently.
Yes,
Right now, guys, go to allearsenglish.com slash career.
C-A-R-E-E-R.
That's allearsenglish.com slash career.
Yeah, guys.
And this will be your way to stop making that number one mistake we've seen in all these emails.
You'll learn how to be direct and concise and clear in those emails.
I love it.
So good.
All right, Jessica, thanks for hopping on the mic with me today.
Great to have you on All Ears English.
My pleasure.
Anytime.
Talk to you soon.
Bye-bye.
All right.
Bye.
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