This is an all ears English podcast, episode 15 30 for how unclenching can help you succeed in business English.

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Hey, Michelle, how's everything going today? Hey, Lindsey, I'm good, I'm good. How are you feeling? Pretty good. I can't believe we're in March already. That is so crazy. But, yeah, here we are. Here we are. Here we are. And it's a very exciting month, isn't it? Right. Because we have these awesome business English classes. Oh, my God.

There's some really exciting things happening this month. But specifically, one of the coolest things is that business web where Jessica and Aubrey are going to show you guys how to ask for a promotion in English.

Wow. Good stuff, right, Michelle?

Yeah, that's very important, right? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And being able to ask for that promotion. So, yeah. Guys, make sure that you sign up for that. It's your last chance to get on that. Right, Lindsay. When is it.

Tomorrow. March 9th will be the last one we always do to and we don't record these guys. So if you miss it tomorrow, it's going away forever. So where can our listeners go to sign up?

Michelle, head over to all ears. English dot com slash promotion.

Yes, I love it. And I love that we're talking about business today. We want to do a lot more business English stuff in the spring, right, Michelle? Absolutely.

Absolutely. So, yeah, today we're talking about this topic that can apply to our listeners in so many ways. I mean, you have to really think about how it applies to you and your life so it could apply to you with business. It could apply to you with language learning.

Just so much to talk about. But I recently learned about something called the eighty five percent rule.

Lindsay, you're into a lot of like all this business and inspiring stuff. Yeah, I'm really into like productivity and business rules and stuff. I've heard of the 80 20, the Peruto principle and that's what I thought you were talking about. But then I realized that's not what you're talking about. You're talking about something else. So I'm really excited and interested to learn about this. I bet our listeners are, too. Yeah, this is awesome.

So, yeah, I recently read an article. It's from Inc.com. OK, so and it's called exceptional.

Well, I guess this is the actual title. Exceptional performers like Hugh Jackman and Hussein Bolt follow the eighty five percent rule. So should you. And it's by Jeff Hayden. And I thought I had a date on here. Let's see if I have a date.

I don't see a date, but I'm sorry, but that will be the link. We got you the author.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, who knows, maybe we'll reach out to the author and get him on the show.

Or maybe who knows. Maybe, maybe exactly. So I when I saw this, I was really intrigued. So, you know, we're talking about, you know, runners and Hugh Jackman, a performer, you know, gold medalists, you know, all sorts of things here.

So, you know, this is about this idea that after you prep for something and it's time to actually do it, you should put eighty five percent into it.

So that sounds like what I'm supposed to put, a hundred and ten, a hundred and fifty percent into everything. Right, Lindsey?

Oh, that's so interesting. Yeah, I love the subtitle, this article. It's why do successful people ease off the throttle in high stakes situations?

I mean, I would imagine, Michel, that a lot of this is the reason that high performers are actually able to ease off. And I love that phrase over. By the way, what does that mean to ease off?

It just means to put a little less into it. Kind of like, yeah, when you think about literally putting your foot on the pedal, when you're you know, when you're driving a car and it's just kind of like lifting it a little bit. I love it. I love this concept.

I mean, the reason they're able to do that is because they have gone one hundred twenty percent in their preparation. To me, that's what this is all about. Right. Right, right.

That is what this is all about. Because at first when I read it, I thought, oh, well, you just only put eighty five percent into it. But know what they're talking about is kind of at God time, right. So at no time, that's another good bonus phrase. What is God time. So time is performance time. The moment when it all matters. Right. Maybe when you're running a race, it's the moment when the gun goes off or when it's an exam and you're sitting in the aisles.

Test is the moment the writing test starts. OK, that's go time. Love it. Exactly.

So yeah, this idea of only putting eighty five percent. Well that's a lot, but it's not completely right. So the what they're trying to say here is to relax a little bit. Like you said, like in the subtitle is off right.

Yeah. And it talks about Usain Bolt and Carl Lewis and it talks about how they would relax a bit and not be so clenched all the time. You can read the article for more specifics about how each one used this. Right. We'll link to the article.

But yeah, the idea is giving yourself a little relaxation, a little less pressure can actually help because it'll give you that space like that.

Eighty five percent is what you're putting into it. That other fifteen percent is like giving you some space to focus, think, unclench. Right. As I, as I said. Yeah. So yeah.

I mean, what do you think about this one thing.

Well I just wanna say we have a lot of good bonus bonus words for listeners today. Unclenched another really good one that we're going to have to have. In the blog here, I mean, unclench the idea that your fingers are clenched, right, they're all tightened up into a fist and then you unclench them, you relax them. So good. I love it, Michelle. I love it because I can imagine, you know, we do a lot of Eilts exam preparation.

You guys know if you're in our course, three keys eyelids are you follow the child's energy podcast. And again, I can envision our students doing this only after they've taken enough practice tests and they've done enough sample exams and mock speaking tests and really, really understand that exam so well. That's why we're able to sit back and unclench.

Yeah, right. I love that.

And it also so Hugh Jackman, who is one of my favorite and talks about this quote where he said, I actually think you need to risk being bad. Yeah. Just let it be. Yes. Yes.

And that only comes with the conversation to interrupt. That only comes with the confidence of knowing that you actually know the material or know the thing. Right. You can't have that mindset if you're a worry that you don't know enough. Exactly.

Guys, this is not us saying like, oh, never try that hard, like always be super duper, whatever. Oluseyi goes relaxed, right? Yeah. This is not what this is. I mean, Hugh Jackman doesn't go into a role not preparing and Hussein certainly prepares and practices. And Carlos Lewis. Right. These are people who are massively, massively successful and they don't do it by putting in 85 percent all the time. But at go time, right.

In that race. Right. That's when things kind of change. So I think that this is important to kind of like realize the difference between when the eighty five percent kicks in. Right.

It also makes me think of this concept of, you know, usually if you're in a room of people who are saying they're successful or that they know something, well, it's usually the person that's not saying anything that is the most successful, that knows the topic the best, because that person doesn't need to fake it. They don't need to pretend they can sit back and know that they know the topic and just perform. Right. So it's kind of that same idea in a way.

And that's and that's all that's kind of an interesting topic, too.

I mean, like, have you ever felt I mean, sometimes I've been like different things for, you know, whether it's business or whatever.

And sometimes I can tend to be as you know, I like to talk because I do the show, but like.

Yeah, but sometimes when I get in those settings, I tend to turn into more of a listener.

And then what worries me is sometimes like, who am I not participating enough? You always feel like you have to kind of show, oh, I can talk about this on this, but I, I'm not saying this because I quote unquote know the most, but I'm just saying I tend to just turn into more of a shy listener. I'm observing. And those people sometimes are looked at in a different way.

And as such, I feel like we could go into this in a whole series of episodes for our listeners because it kind of opens the topic of self promotion, even at work in a professional context. Right. How much do we need to be self promoting and showing what we know versus kind of understanding that our reputation precedes us and also issues of. Yeah, succeeding at work in that kind of thing. Oh, my gosh, this is great. This is huge, Michel.

I don't know. I mean, jeez, I think you need a mix of both.

Yeah. Right. Yeah, yeah.

I think so too. Yeah. So we should definitely go into that more in another episode. But today we're really going into this. Eighty five percent feeling. I mean, like we said, preparation is the key. Right, because if you've prepared you're feeling confident and you're confident enough to say, OK, I'm going to unclench, I'm going to just like take the pressure off a little bit and that will give you that extra space for whatever you need it for.

I love it.

That is so good. And this also really applies. And, you know, in our business course, I think we talked about this a tiny, tiny bit. But this also really applies in English conversation, guys. So imagine the business world or just in your social life, if you've done all that preparation, now is the time to enter that conversation. But let your mind go a little blank, like sit back and say, I know it.

I'm not going to obsess whether I'm going to be right or not because I know it in my bones. It's kind of the thing you have to know in your bones, right? You practiced it so much and now you go in and you drop all those feelings of insecurity because you just perform. You just have to be in the present moment.

At that time, it's your last chance to sign up the business. English live web class is happening tomorrow, March 9th. Go to all areas English dot com forward slash promotion to grab your spot. Spaces do fill up, guys. So sign up and arrive three minutes early to hang out with us all ears. English dotcom board promotion.

I think I could have really used this rule in school because I would study really, really hard, but then I would be so Klensch, I would be so nervous, you know, when it came to the time, even though I knew it. But I would let my nerves kind of take over. And if I had thought about, OK, no, like just like put the 85 percent in, like, chill. Yeah. You know, things, you know, maybe I would have gotten some better.

I mean, I did fine, but like, I think I could have done better on tests, especially because I always had a lot of test anxiety, like I'm sure our listeners deal with as well.

Yeah.

I mean, it's also kind of, you know, this idea of just of shipping, you know, I mean, it's a Seth Godin concept, the concept of shipping, meaning he says that the way to get better at something and to knock out not feeling confident, to become more confident is just to do it more often, to deliver more often. And like for us, we podcast four days a week. So someone who might be starting a podcast or maybe the only podcast once a month, they might get really nervous behind the mic that one time a month.

But because we do it so often, we can relax into it and be ourselves more because we're always going to ship again tomorrow, you know?

Right, right.

Right. That's true. That's true. So, again, like we were talking about, this is really guys, how does this apply to you? I mean, this can apply to I mean, whether it's for business. Right. So, like, for example, even a job interview, I mean, it sounds like it sounds so it sounds like a little scary to say go in at eighty five percent.

Like it sounds like I don't want to tell anybody that. Right.

That's like a good idea, but I know what that means. Like do the prep and again for for Eilts and also for presentations. I was thinking. Right Lindsay.

That's kind of all apply to that per child for starting a conversation in a business context. Presentations. I love it. You just have to kind of find a way to care a little bit less. And you can do that because you know what to do. You know the material again in your bones. I love it. That's so good.

Right, right, right, right. And you know, like thinking about what are some issues that could, you know, come up, you know, beforehand, you know, so like included it in your preparation. Think what problems might I run into. Right. That's something to think about as well. So that you're kind of prepared for that as well.

So like guys, you know, do the work for Eilts prepare really hard? I mean, we offer the ILT Energy podcast and three years. Right. We have a lot of stuff for you to get to that. Over one hundred percent with preparation, right, Lindsay?

Absolutely, Michel. And when it comes to presentations, you know, do them more often. Don't make so much being right on that one presentation a year, volunteer to give more presentations. That's kind of the only way that we get out of the sense of the idea that everything is riding on that one moment because it's not right.

Right. Right. Exactly, exactly. And same with conversations. You know, you do your prep, however you work on learning English with all your English and all different ways. But, you know, get out there and, you know, talk to as many people as you can and then you'll be less nervous. That's a part of the preparation as well, right? Yeah.

That's so good. That's how good. This is a great concept to keep in mind, guys, and let us know how this shifts your thinking. If you take this concept and run with it, come back and let us know what you think. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Definitely, definitely. I would be curious to hear if you know that people, you know, adopt that mindset now and how it changes things. Yeah. So so but yeah. We're going to give you this article, guys. You can read more about the specific examples and see how it can apply to your life. But yeah, I think I mean, Lindsey, what's the takeaway for today?

Guys, the takeaway is, you know, how can you unclenched think about when you're in that moment. Well, I think the takeaway here is the key is preparation, because, again, like we said before, you can't be like Hugh Jackman unless you prepare like Hugh Jackman. Right. You need to be kind of crazy when it comes to preparation for something that actually matters, whether it's passing that exam, being better at native conversation, natural conversation or performing on a stage.

You have to be crazy about your preparation. Do it the right way, do it well, do it often and then relax.

Exactly.

I love it. And guys, part of that preparation for asking for a promotion comes with our Web class.

Yes, I love it.

Here, guys, go to all your English dot com slash promotion to get into the live webcast with Aubrey and Jessica. It's going to be awesome. And tomorrow, Tuesday is your last chance. So go sign up, guys. Cool.

All right, Özlem Lendee, this has been fun and I will see you next time. Yeah, great stuff. Talk to you soon, Michelle. Take care. Bye bye.

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