This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 519.
Does your English strike a chord?
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 colorado, usa.
Do you often end up in situations where you know exactly what you want to say but you don't have the English vocabulary words that you need in that moment?
To succeed in English, you need nuanced English vocabulary.
But first, you need to know your English level.
Take our free English level quiz to find out if you are B1, B2, or C1.
Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score.
That's allearsenglish.com slash F-L-U-E-N-C-Y-S-C-O-R-E.
Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
Hey, Michelle.
I'm feeling pretty great today.
What about you?
Yeah, I'm doing well.
I'm doing well.
But I have a question for you as a business owner.
Would you say that you've been able to strike a balance between work and your personal life, considering you're a business owner?
It's a good question.
Yeah, more so now than before.
So my partner does not really allow me to work on the weekends.
That's good.
So we always make plans.
We get outdoors.
We take our dog to the mountains.
And so It's not an option, but I think when I was single, it was easier to just work all the time.
Yeah.
All the time.
There were no limits.
And I think I've found more balance lately.
Yeah.
That's good.
That's good.
Strike that balance.
Strike that balance.
So today we're going to answer a listener question about that expression.
Um this listener um sent in a question on YouTube, um which we have our all yours English channel over there.
So guys go check that out.
Um, so this listener is Nana B4X5E.
Lindsay, would you like to read the question?
Yes, here we go.
I'm really enjoying learning English with your podcast.
It's becoming my daily routine.
Well, we love that.
Congratulations and welcome to the show.
When I was listening to this a while back, I heard the idiom strike a balance.
Could you elaborate on it?
It would also be helpful if you could explain the core image of the word strike.
What a good question.
Yeah.
I like how this listener put it, the core image.
I really like that.
So we're going to get into this great question.
Guys, remember to hit the follow button wherever you're listening to the Business English podcast.
Let us jump into your queue.
Just say hello every day.
Hit follow.
Make it easy.
Yeah.
Three days a week.
We publish over here on Business English and we focus on building relationships at work and connection.
So if that sounds like something you want...
Be sure to hit the follow button for 2026.
Get a good learning routine going with us.
Okay.
Perfect.
Yeah.
So what does it mean, Michelle?
Strike a balance.
What does it mean?
Yeah.
So to strike a balance basically means to succeed in finding the midpoint of something, right?
When you think of a scale, right?
Striking a balance is when each side is even at the same height, right?
It's balanced.
Yeah.
To strike a balance, it's basically to find a balance.
We're just using the verb to strike a balance in this expression.
Yep.
And the word strike.
So asking about the imagery here we might have heard this with striking a hammer, striking out with a bat, a strike in bowling.
I mean, there are a lot of images for the word strike here.
Yeah yes exactly, and we could do a whole episode on that.
But yeah, the definition here is more like achieve, but in the way.
But i i do think if there's a core image for this, it would be almost like with a hammer right like, because here it is, when you're striking, you have to actually make an attempt.
Right, you have to actually like.
If you just say oh, strike a balance it's, it doesn't like, I don't think it really happens by chance that you strike a balance.
That's true.
The word strike is inherently active and not passive, right?
If I wanted to make it passive, I'd say it fell into a balance.
Yes, yes.
Interesting.
Yeah, there's some effort made to strike that balance, right?
It doesn't just happen passively.
Good.
Yeah, that's an important point.
So This is active.
This is achieving something.
This is making something happen, engineering something, right?
So let's get into some examples.
Michelle, what would be the first one?
Okay.
It's important for our company to strike a balance between doing what the customers want and what we can reasonably afford.
So what the customers want and what we can actually provide based on our budget.
And we have to work, we have to put in an effort to strike that balance.
Yes, maybe budgeting, moving money around, seeing where we can find space in a budget.
I want to strike a balance between having a fulfilling career and an enjoyable personal life.
That's what we all want.
Yes, exactly.
Or it's easy to think about this with logic, but maybe we can strike a balance between logic and our creativity.
Yes.
Yeah, I mean, some people are left-brained, some people are right-brained.
Right.
The ideal for me would be a little bit of both.
Yeah.
Striking that balance.
Exactly.
So again, these involve putting some sort of effort in.
It doesn't just happen.
It's active.
This expression in some way reminds me of there's a fine line, right?
Yeah.
You know, we have to strike a balance between this and that which I think we've talked about on All Ears English.
So you can search for that.
But yeah, very similar kind of feel to that expression.
But yeah, after the break we're going to go through some other expressions with strike that can also be useful for business.
Okay.
Sounds good.
Yeah.
It's similar to fine line just because it's a delicate job of striking that balance, right?
It is, like you said earlier, this balance of a scale.
You're weighing two things.
It's a delicate job to get there, right?
Yeah.
You have to when you're trying to balance something on a scale, you might to move one thing a little bit this way and then it went too far, and then a little bit right.
It's like it's not easy exactly, exactly.
Yeah, fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians these are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save hundreds because progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more.
Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help when you need it.
So your dollar goes a long way.
Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.
Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations.
All right.
All right, Michelle, we're back from break.
So strike comes out in other ways too, right?
So strike, sometimes we might hear someone say strike a deal. like achieve a deal.
So for example, I'm hoping we can finally strike a deal with them at our next meeting.
So meaning like reach the end point, reach the finish line.
Mm hmm.
Exactly.
Or strike a chord.
This means to have is a little different.
So this is to have some sort of emotional impact.
Right.
So let's try to strike a chord with our audience by adding a puppy to the commercial.
That's definitely going to strike a chord.
Easy.
That'll do it.
Puppies in all commercials.
Yeah.
You're selling your refrigerator.
Put a puppy in there.
I mean, yeah, exactly.
Somewhere there should be a puppy.
Yeah.
Or his speech struck a chord with me because I didn't realize he cared so much about his employees.
So this really means resonate.
Something resonates with you emotionally, right?
Exactly.
And we're going to do one more fun one, which you might hear, which is strike a pose.
Yeah.
Yes, so this is to get into a pose.
Put some effort into making a pose for a picture or in a fashion show, but it could possibly you might hear it at work, so maybe you would hear something like this
Okay, are you ready for your new work headshot?
Strike a pose.
Yes.
And when I think about this phrase, I can't not think about Madonna and the Vogue song.
Right.
I mean, I mean she made major, like it's just, like there's a whole.
There's a lot to learn about her work and that song in particular.
They're just dig into the history of it.
It's fantastic.
Fascinating.
Didn't you see a Madonna in concert?
I did a couple of years ago here in Denver.
Yeah.
You really liked it?
It was awesome.
It was just amazing.
I mean, just a classic, right?
It was cool.
It was really cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right, Michelle, let's dive into a role play.
So here we're in a meeting.
Yes.
I think most people, most of our listeners probably spend 70% of their day in meetings.
That's probably true.
So here we are right there with you.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay, so what do you think of these numbers?
I'm really encouraged.
I think we'll be able to strike a deal here.
Oh, me too.
This is so exciting.
Yeah, we must have struck a chord with them when we sent them all those holiday gifts.
Maybe.
I just hope we can strike a balance between having them try out the product and having them think they own us.
True.
I trust them though.
Here, let's take a photo to commemorate this moment.
OK, strike a pose.
Nice.
All right.
So clearly it's coming up appropriately in a bunch of different places here.
Right.
Yeah.
I ask you, what do you think of these numbers?
And I said, yeah, I'm encouraged.
I think we'll be able to strike a deal.
Things are looking good.
Right.
We'll be able to make a deal, come to an agreement, negotiate to a conclusion.
Right.
Exactly.
And then you said yeah, we must have struck a chord with them when we sent them all those holiday gifts.
So we resonated with them in some way.
Yeah.
Resonate is the best word, I think.
Right.
We, like they were, they felt that we were speaking to them um, and then i said maybe, i just hope we can strike a balance between having them try out the product and having them think they own us.
So there's gonna be some.
Yeah, maybe they.
Yes, there's a lot.
There's a lot that i just said here.
I mean we we, you know, basically like keeping your, keeping the power in some way we want to make sure we don't just hand over everything to them, right?
I'm sure, in any kind of mergers or acquisitions or partnerships that get forged, there's always that concern.
And then you said, let's take a photo to commemorate this moment.
So maybe we're taking a selfie.
And so it's a more lighthearted moment.
And I said, okay, strike a pose.
Exactly.
Yeah, we're getting light now.
We're having fun as co-workers together, playing around, taking photos.
So And that's very common, right?
You might go from a very serious conversation into just being silly for a few minutes.
You're going to find this with building relationships at work for sure.
Guys, go check out Business English 508.
This is promising how to talk about potential at work.
Love that episode.
Yes.
Yes, absolutely.
So guys, yeah, takeaway for today.
Um, yeah, Lindsay, what would you say?
I mean this.
I think this word strike, I think the takeaway is like generally with generally, with most of the expressions we taught today, that strike is about being active right.
Trying to get something done, strike a deal, strike a balance, not just sitting and waiting for something to happen.
That's a good point.
I think that's the key here.
That is the theme that's emerging in all these phrases.
Even the phrases we gave you like strike a deal, strike a pose, strike a chord.
You are taking an active role in making something happen.
Something is not just falling into your lap.
We can do a whole other episode on passive ways of achieving success.
Right, like a lot of times, people will say it's a very common phrase like how did you, how did you start working in this industry?
Oh, i kind of fell into it.
People say that a lot and i never understand what they mean when they say that, because how can you just fall into a job?
But we could do another episode or series of episodes down.
This is good stuff, it's really good stuff.
Um, but this is not that right, this is actively creating something, so we want to know the difference.
Huh yeah yeah, Okay.
Well, I'm glad we talked about this today.
This was really fun.
And thank you to our listener for that really great question.
Really good stuff.
Michelle, I'll see you back on Business English very soon.
You have a good day.
All right.
You too.
Bye.
Bye.
Thank you for listening to Business English a podcast, just for you, the high achieving global professional.
Want more from All Ears English?
Don't miss our biggest and best podcast with 8 million monthly downloads.
Just search for the All Ears English podcast and hit follow to get four new episodes per week on fluency, American culture, grammar and so much more.
Or tap the link in the show notes.
Remember, we believe in connection, not perfection when it comes to learning English.
Follow the All Ears English podcast now.
