This is the business English podcast episode 388 listen today for a quick win Welcome to the business English podcast from all ears English Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business for a presentation a meeting or your office party This is real business English with your favorite American hosts Lindsay and Michelle coming to you from New York City and and Colorado USA.
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Go ahead and hit that follow button now wherever you listen to podcasts and thanks for listening to the show Hello Michelle, good morning.
How are you doing? Good morning Lindsay?
I'm good. How are you fantastic fantastic?
What are we getting into today on business English?
Well, so Lindsay. What's your favorite fruit?
Oh my god there are so many fruits that I love.
I love peaches or nectarines in the summer.
Yeah, that's my favorite.
What about you? I think if I had to choose one, it would be a pomegranate.
Really? Interesting, pomegranate.
When there's a thing, what do they call them?
Errols. Ooh, that is...
I don't know what that is.
The pomegranate? You know the seeds, that's what they're called, errols.
Do you ever have pomegranate?
Yeah. Sometimes they're on salads, right?
I can take a jug like I you could there aren't enough pomegranate seeds in the world really I did not know that about you.
That's something new okay.
Yeah, I love pomegranate but uh for a typical fruit I guess I would say hmm I don't know I really love all fruit I really love fruit so but pomegrins like the stand out.
Fruit is the best. I eat a lot of fruits a lot of vegetables especially if they're low hanging.
Oh, just kidding. Ah.
So today, Michelle, what are we talking about?
Low Hanging Fruits.
And I have a feeling this is one that our listeners and idiom that our listeners have heard before.
Right, so we're going to refine today how to use it, make sure we fully understand.
Yes, this one is super common. So we're going to get into it today.
But before we do, guys, we would love for you to share this show with a friend.
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All right. See what they say.
Good stuff. Find out their favorite fruit.
So what does that mean?
A low hanging fruit.
Yeah. So a low hanging fruit is the easiest thing to grab.
Okay. It's easy to get it and pull it down, and then metaphorically speaking, this is kind of a metaphor.
it's it's the task or the the action item or the thing that you could do that would be the easiest and would create the best results.
Exactly. So the low hanging fruit.
So let's give some examples, Lindsay.
So here's one. When I get overwhelmed with work, I just start with the low hanging fruit so I can start checking off tasks and get that dopamine rush.
Yeah, I struggle with this because the low -hanging fruit is often...
well, it's the easy thing to do and you get the dopamine rush.
But it's usually for me and my work, it's not the most important thing or the thing that moves us forward as a company.
So every day, it's kind of a battle.
I want the dopamine hit.
I want to get things done, but I also want to move things forward. That's interesting.
Because you can then start just avoiding things.
Oh, yes. You could work 80 hours a week and avoid actual work.
You could just be doing the little, the minutiae.
Right. Let's organize this folder.
Let's send this invoice.
Let's do this and that.
But you always have kind of that thing on your list. I mean, for me, it's not work related, but this is in my personal light, making a doctor's appointment.
Yes. Making that phone call and just getting that all set up.
You know, that's something, there are some appointments I've been meeting to make for lunch. lunch for lunch. My God, from not lunch, I guess I'm talking about fruit and everything is going crazy.
Anyway, I've been meaning to make for months and they sit in that to do list and I'm off everything else.
And meanwhile, these are just sitting and sitting and sitting.
Yes. You are not alone a hundred percent.
I'm sure our listeners are going to hear what you're saying.
And Phil. Yep. It's very human.
I know. But you know, there is actually another dopamine rush that's even better that happens when you do the thing that you've been wanting to do for months or you know you should do?
That's true. I did make a couple appointments recently.
I still have more to do, but when I did, I was like, this feels amazing.
My gosh, I've got to go out and paint the town red.
It's a huge weight off your shoulders, for sure.
Yep, yep. It's so funny.
Here's another example, right?
right? You did a great job, but let's not just go for the low hanging fruit.
I think we need to challenge ourselves.
Yeah. This is kind of what we're talking about here.
Right? Challenge ourselves, make those appointments, you know, do those things.
What's another example?
Alright. Yes. We could easily make new hires of low hanging fruit, but it's important we take our time to get the best candidates possible.
So are we talking about hiring fruit?
Well, no, hopefully not.
Oh my gosh. One day.
Maybe, I don't know.
We're going to have AI computers and fruit and things like that.
Mr. Banana. Thanks for that great report.
Who knows what's going to happen?
It's an interesting construction too.
We could easily make new hires of low hanging fruit.
Yeah. That's really interesting.
Yeah, you're basically saying there are a lot of candidates who would love the job.
They would be easy to hire, easy to get on the team, but they might not be the very best. You might not move the business forward in a way you need it to.
I'm sorry. I have this image in my head and I have like a banana on a computer.
I can't get out of my head.
Anyway, here we go.
Sorry, guys. But here's one more example.
Well, we know we will get our base to come, but they're the low -hanging fruit.
Right. So now you're talking about maybe an audience or a group.
Maybe you have a TV show and your core audience will come to see the live film.
filming, but we want other people too.
Right? Yeah. Hey, listeners, we're happy to have you with us as we explore business and sharpen your English language skills.
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Okay, what else, Michelle?
What are other things we might say, because our listeners, I know have heard low hanging fruit, but we want to have other things to say.
Yeah, right right. So these are similar.
So one is quick wins right so This is it so it feels good to go for the quick wins first But our time would be best spent planning for the long term Just a lot of what we're talking about.
Yeah, the low -hanging fruit is the It's exactly the easy stuff.
Yeah someone I don't know some business writer that I read once talked about the importance of eating the frog now I'm not saying literally eating frog, but he meant was on Monday morning or every morning you have to eat the frog.
That means you have to do the hardest thing that you know is on your list to do that day.
It's so much easier to answer those easy emails, right?
But instead eat the frog.
Then you set up a day of fulfilled work, right?
Like you feel fulfilled from what you're getting done.
It's hard. It's such a good idea, but oh in practice, it's hard because we get tired.
We maybe wake up tired.
It's tough right and we're distracted.
We're not motivated sometimes.
Yeah. Yeah. This is the struggle Exactly so another thing you could say is easy targets or the easiest targets.
Yeah Yeah, so how about that sound?
All right So let's go for the easiest targets then we can move on once we get more confident and sometimes there is a place for that Maybe you're training someone and you want to gradually build their skills, right?
Mm -hmm. Yeah Exactly.
So, Lindsay, any of these favorites for you?
Yeah, I mean, yeah.
I do like low... I don't know if low -hanging fruit is a lot of work to say, so I like quick wins.
Yeah, to get a quick win.
Let's get a quick win on this.
I like to use that to motivate our team.
It feels positive. I just like it.
Yeah. I'm gonna agree with you.
I think low -hanging fruit, it's important to know.
Very important to know and you can use it.
Sometimes it can sound a little cliche.
I think it's a little overused.
So I would maybe go for other ones, but I do think it's important to know and I do think it's important to use this from time to time it's helpful.
Yeah, I a hundred percent agree.
It's not just long to say it is a little cliche.
It might be approaching just over use at this point.
It's just everywhere.
So try to try a few different things, mixing low hanging fruit.
Let's see how it looks in a role play.
All right, here we go.
So we are preparing for a meeting with clients.
All right. Okay. Yes.
All right. So should we go?
Should we start with a few quick wins to gauge their interests?
Great idea. Get the low hanging fruit first. Yes.
Get some of the easiest targets out of the way.
Now, there you go. There you go.
There it is. So you're saying, should we start with a few quick wins to gauge their interest and gauge might be a bonus today, um, to judge, right?
To get a sense of. Yep.
Yeah, exactly. And then you said great idea to get the low hanging fruit first. So I'm just reinforcing the strategy as, as I see what you're doing, right?
And then you said, yes, get some of the easiest targets out of the way.
Well, we're on the same page.
We're just saying the same thing over and over, but Guys, your next episode to check out today right now to continue listening is 378, How to Catch Attention When You Introduce a Change in English.
Interesting. Yes. Definitely.
Our titles are very intriguing.
They are. They are.
All right. Where should we leave our listeners today.
All right, guys. Well, this is a very, very common expression, and it's very useful.
So we don't want you to avoid it.
That's why we teach it, right?
we would want you to know what it is.
But we also gave you some other ways to express a similar idea that maybe a little bit easier and a little bit more concise.
And yeah. Yeah, and I think the next level skill for our super high level listeners here is start to take notice of what are the idioms that are kind of becoming cliche, right?
There's a lot of them out there.
Not just reigning cats and dogs.
We know that one is cliche.
There are others that you just hear a lot and how do you feel when you hear it?
How do you feel when you think about using it?
Reconsider those and look for other options.
That's a meta skill with English that I think that's what I'm ready for.
For sure. All right, Lindsay, well, this was fun.
I'm going to go eat some pomegranate.
Okay, enjoy that! Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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