This is the Business English Podcast, episode 150.
That's a game changer, how to comment on profound shifts in business.
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Hey, Lindsay, how's it going? It's great, Michelle.
I'm excited to be on the show with you today.
How's everything going in your world? What's happening?
Everything. Yeah, everything is good. Everything is good.
Lindsay, so we've been doing the Business English podcast for a while.
Is there something that you think has been a game changer for this podcast or maybe for, you know, the All Ears English brand in general?
What's been a game changer? Sure. Ooh, a game changer.
It's hard to know how to answer that question.
I know, sorry. No, that's okay, that's okay.
Well, I think that when we started doing our live events, that was kind of a game changer for us mentally because we got a chance to meet our listeners, which was really awesome, you know?
Yeah, that was the best. New York, Boston, and then the events we did in Japan in 2018 and 2019, it's a pretty cool feeling to get on a plane to go to japan for a business trip to do a live event you know it's a pretty cool thing so mentally that was kind of a game changer that made us feel like okay we're doing this for real this is a real thing and I don't know.
We're going global. Going global. Actually, my sister-in-law is in Japan right now.
She just got there. Yeah. So she's there for this conference.
So I'm like so jealous. Oh, we love Japan here in All Ears English.
Great place to travel. Well, catch us up later on her trip, okay?
I will. I will. I will. Guys, we want to make sure that you hit follow wherever you're listening to the Business English podcast so you never miss any of our episodes.
They come to you every super easy. Just hit the follow button.
Go for it. Yeah, exactly. And our motto in all of our All Ears English shows is connection, not perfection, guys.
And so here on this show, we show you how to focus on connection at work.
Because again, work is about relationships in the end.
Your success is about your relationships.
Right, Michelle? How you do among people.
Absolutely. Absolutely. So today we are going to talk about a great expression that you can use in business.
You can use it out of the business world as well, but we're going to focus on how to use this today because it came up.
I forget what I was listening to and I heard and I thought, this is a game changer for our podcast.
No, the expression is game changer. Game changer.
Yeah. Lindsay, what is a game changer? Oh, well, I wonder if this is another baseball idiom.
Probably is, right? But we don't know what game it comes from originally.
I guess we don't really know. But what does it mean?
Something that changes the game. And what is the game, Michelle?
It could be whatever it is. It could be, you know, the game of life, the game of business, the game of whatever it is.
But the idea is that something comes around and everything changes.
Lindsay, do you use this expression? Yeah, for sure.
I do. You know, I use it a lot when I think about opportunities, right?
More forward looking rather than backward looking.
Because I think for All Ears English, it's really been a gradual grow.
There really have not been any other than what we said with the live events in terms of our mentality.
It's been, you know, boom, boom, boom every year, working harder, doing new things every year and seeing gradual growth.
So there haven't been any massive game changers for us, but we like to dream about them.
That's right. I mean, everything changes.
I mean, this could be in business, like you could think about using this with company mergers, right?
Two companies come together. Or what's another time you might think about being a game changer? well hiring would be huge right so this person could be a game changer for us right if we hire an operations person that would be a game changer for us at allers english right we've talked about that um some or someone leaving maybe if would you say that you would use that in a negative way like if a good that is a person left the company someone who's adding a lot of value if they left would you use it that way Or would you reserve it for kind of generally?
Yeah, you know what? I think you're right.
I think it is more of like, I think, I mean, it can be used in a more negative way, but I think overall it's a more of a positive idea.
I really agree. So I would tend when it comes to hiring, I would say it's more about hiring a new person who can change the business.
Yeah. Good point, Lindsay. Yeah. I mean, another thing could be talking about a new software or a tech development.
So you get some sort of new software that makes everything easier.
That was a game changer. I mean, when I hear game changer, okay, Lindsay, if you hear the word game changer, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
Well, since you've mentioned software and tech, definitely chat GPT.
Chat GPT. GPT. I always get that confused.
I don't know what... GPT. Yeah, for sure.
Because there are things that people are doing with this that are going to be a total game changer for so many industries, including ours.
Right, right. And I also think of like... got something my i i just think i think of the iphone like i think of steve jobs on like you know everything that apple like you know that's that was a game changer so you can describe like these you can describe things from the past yeah like past inventions past things or things in the future so you can it's really versatile but yeah chat gpt um huge game changer that will be And we've done other episodes on that.
I think we've probably done some on the Business English podcast about ChatGPT.
So just have a swing through our back catalog, guys, and check that out.
Is it good for presentations, would you say, when you're introducing this thing that could change?
Yes. Yeah. Yes, exactly. Maybe you're trying to convince your company to invest in something.
Maybe, you know, you are sharing statistics from the company's past year.
Use Game Changer. So, yeah. Right. Right.
The other thing that Apple's coming out with now is is it I don't I don't want to get the name wrong, but it's the the virtual reality augmented reality stuff where they just released this really expensive headset.
But it's for developers. And I think they want developers to create apps and things around these virtual experiences that could be a game changer in the future.
Right. Right. Like how do you do simulations?
How if you're like a retired person at a retirement community and you never got a chance to visit Italy, maybe someday you could through this augmented reality.
Right. That's crazy to think of all the things that could happen.
But yeah. Um, so guys, before we move on, we want to direct you to another episode, because I was thinking about game changers, like with the global pandemic, right?
How everybody got on zoom, right? So that was kind of that was a game changer.
Well, that was a negative game changer, though.
So like, you could say that was a game changer.
But yeah, yeah. You know, I do think it's more positive, but it's certain.
That's interesting. There's a real nuance here, isn't there, Michelle?
Yeah, why does it feel funny to say it about like, oh, somebody left the company, but it feels right to say it with like, you know, pandemics.
Let's just throw this example. Tell me what you think.
So I was having a conversation with a friend last night at a brewery, and she was saying how with her company, you know, there was the lock, the COVID stuff, and everyone went online.
They're a company in Denver, and they had had a physical office before the COVID.
Then everyone went online for COVID. And then in fall of 2021, they all said, we're coming back.
We want you back in the office. We're so excited.
We want to see you. Everyone was ready to go.
And then all of a sudden, Omicron, lockdowns.
And then they never reattempted. They never attempted again to bring people back.
And now they've started hiring executives remotely.
So they're probably never going to end up back in the office.
So would you say that for them, For their physical work environment, COVID was a game changer.
I mean, that's kind of a negative thing, but that still works there, right?
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yes, I would definitely say game changer.
So very interesting how sometimes that like, I think it can always be used for a positive change.
And then with a negative... Um, I, yeah, interesting.
This is why we listen, guys. We, you know, there's lots of podcasts you guys should be listening to.
Listen to the Wall Street Journal, listen to business podcasts and listen in on the conversations.
That's what we have to do to find out when we can use it and when we can't.
Yeah, but guys also, yeah, if you want to hear more about on like remote online meetings, right, you're involved in those listen, we just did recently, episode 144 was how to introduce yourself in a remote online meeting.
So go ahead and listen to that one. I love it.
So overall, it's a change that has a big impact, you know, usually good, sometimes bad.
It just changes the trajectory of something, right?
That's right. That's right. So let's do is let's do a couple examples of how you would use this in a sentence.
So for example, well, this is, yeah, what I said before.
Here we go. Chat DPT is going to be a game changer in so many fields of work.
And I totally agree with that. For sure.
For sure. Or when Tracy joined the company, it was a game changer.
She's amazing. Yeah. Or 2021 was a game changer for our company.
Sales went through the roof. Yeah. I think a lot of companies that are online did experience a bump in sales because so many people were at home in 2020 and 2021.
So very interesting. Super useful phrase, Michelle.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. All right, what's next, Michelle?
All right. So, I mean, Lindsay, any other game changers in your life?
Maybe not even with business? Yeah. I mean, I would say moving to Denver for me was a game changer.
It changed a bit about how I try to prioritize my life, right?
I think on the East Coast, well, at least in Boston, in my life, it was very work-centric.
Now, I get outside more. I spend more time in the sun, which is good.
More time hiking. I try to lift weights.
So... I'm not sure if I would call those things a game changer.
I don't know if it's dramatic enough. I feel like probably you would say having children was a game changer.
No. Yes, I would say that. Yes. I was like me.
I was like, I don't want to always talk about kids.
So I'm not going to use that example. But it's true.
These are big things, right? These are things where you like there's clearly a before and an after.
So that's why I was sort of hesitating to use it about moving to Denver.
No, but I think, but I, oh, because it's not, because you're still.
I'm still my, like, I don't know. I don't know if it's a profound enough change.
No, I think you can. Lindsay, I'm going to say you can use it.
Okay. Can I? Okay. You can. You have my permission.
Not that you need it. But yeah, I think that's fine.
But yeah. So a couple of other ways that you can say this.
So what's one word? Okay, revolutionary.
So this goes along with the technology. So the iPhone was revolutionary in the tech space.
And it was because they actually designed for, well, they built for design for the first time, right?
For user experience, not for the tech itself.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And then the other one you can use is transformative.
So you could say, the addition of the marketing team to our company has been truly transformative.
And you could swap right in game changer right there, right?
The addition of the marketing team to our company has been a game changer, a total game changer.
Perfect. Yeah. Right, right. So just to clarify, so game changer is what part of speech, Lindsay?
A game changer. Well, it sounds like a noun to me.
Right, exactly. But whereas, so just to clarify, transformative and revolutionary, those are adjectives. yes yes totally so it's good to have nouns adjectives idioms to kind of say the same things guys okay yeah exactly exactly um so should we do a role play let's jump into it michelle so here we are at a business meeting here we go okay all right i think we have to keep the team back in the office it's been a total game changer to be in person again That's true.
But some of the tech that's come out has been so revolutionary that people may be able to work at home with no issues.
Well, that's true. But the ideas we come up with in the same room are truly transformative.
So it goes along with what we were talking about.
That was a spontaneous example of a conversation I had just last night.
And then there's this example. So I think clearly COVID and moving in and out of the office, this has been a game changer for a lot of companies, whether they've gone back or haven't gone back, everything's changed in the way they do business.
Yeah, that's right. OK, so let's go over it.
So you said you want to bring the team back to the office.
So you said it's been a total game changer to keep the team back in the office.
So they come back. You want to keep them is that it's been a total game changer to be in person again.
So big change. Sounds like a positive change.
Yeah, absolutely. And then you said, but some of the tech that's come out has been so revolutionary that people may be able to work at home.
So you're probably talking about some of the virtual reality stuff that might come out or systems you can buy, enterprise software, where you really feel like you're in the same room. right yeah that's right uh and then you said oh yeah that's true but the ideas we come up with in the same room are truly transformative so that there's a an amazing ideas that we come up with in person that maybe we can't it's not going to feel the same yes when we're you know online yeah so game changer what's the takeaway for our listeners today first of all don't forget to hit follow guys on business english and this is the time to prepare to get fluent to feel confident in that workplace what's the takeaway michelle for our listeners All right.
Well, I mean, this is this is such a great expression.
I mean, you know, business is life. So you can use this in the business world.
You can use this in your personal life. Think about game changers in your life.
Maybe they don't have to do with business.
But a lot of times we really use this to talk about things in a certain way that can be used in business or your career.
So this is a really good one for that. We taught you other a couple of other great words.
And yeah, I have a feeling just coming up in the next few years, there are going to be so many game changers with tech and all that stuff that it's going to be an interesting like 10 years.
It is. It really is. I feel like we're on the cusp of some major disruptions in a lot of industries.
Right. And so we will see what's out there.
All right. But we'll keep on going. Allers English will keep trucking along.
That's right. That's right. I love it. All right.
Well, that was fun. And guys, we'll see you in the next one.
Have a good day. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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