BE 413: Do You Know These Cheesy Business Clichés?
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 413. Do you know these cheesy business cliches?

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. Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.

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Oh, not too much, Lindsay. I'm happy to be here today with you. How are you? Me too, as always. Feeling good. What are we getting into today, Michelle? Oh, this is going to be fun. Today we're going to be talking about cheesy expressions that are cliches. Cheesy cliche expressions at work. Lindsay, do you use cheesy cliche expressions, do you think? Yeah.

I mean, there's always a time and place, Michelle, especially when, you know, you're with people you know well, your co-workers, maybe you've been working together for a long time and you want to be silly and fun. Sure. There's a place for it. Yeah. Definitely. So today we're going to talk about some expressions that are pretty overused, but still used for sure. And generally in a funny way. I mean, some

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And see if you agree with me, Lindsay, that there are cheesy cliches. All right. Excellent. I'm excited to see what these cheesy... Yeah. So, I mean, what is our general attitude towards cliches? I mean, what do we think about... What is the difference between a cliche and just an idiom or an expression or something that people say? I guess that's what our listeners are going to ask. Yeah.

Yeah, I think a cliche is just I would say it's overused and it kind of shows maybe that you haven't put that much thought into something, right? Like you're just kind of scratching the surface and just using throwing these things out there. What do you think? Yeah, completely, completely. I think, yeah.

So in like in writing, in academia, using a cliche is worse than in speaking because it shows, I mean, a professor would say it's lazy, right? That using a cliche is a lack of creativity, that you should come up with your own original idea or way of saying something. But in spoken English, when you're having fun, sometimes you're making a bit of a joke when you're using a cliche. You're being a little bit facetious. So that's the

scenario we're talking about today. Yes. Yes, exactly. So we're going to go through them and see if we agree with the philosophy. So what's the first one, Lindsay? Yeah. Okay. Love it. Go big or go home. Okay. Yeah. This is, it's like the state of Texas. Everything is big in Texas, right? Right, right, right, right.

I mean, yeah, this one basically means you have to put everything into whatever it is you're doing or just don't even bother. So it's saying just take risks or quit, right? Or don't bother, right? Yeah, for sure. It's a very extreme way of looking at things. But again, if you're trying to drum up excitement on your team, right, and you're on the same page, you're working together, there's no harm in throwing out one of these cliches. No one's going to say you're so unoriginal. Right.

Right. These are just kind of fun. I mean, to me, I hear this a lot with sports business, just taking risks in general, or maybe even I was thinking an exercise class teacher, right? An instructor would say, okay, come on. Five more pushups. Go big or go home. Right? Sure. Sure. For sure. I could see that happening. Yes.

Absolutely. They want to push you to do your very best. You want to, you know, they'll say something like leave it all out on the field or leave it all in the gym. That sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with you, Michelle. Sports, business, this idea of taking risks leads to greater rewards. Right. And that's something that in our culture, historically, we have always believed.

in American culture, right? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one way you could use this, here's an example. Oh man, I don't know if I should take on this project right now. Well, you know what they say, go big or go home. So I'm deciding to do it, right? Yeah. I tend to like this idea. I tend to say, just go all in on something, you know, just put, leave everything out there. Um,

But it also kind of depends on your personality. Some people want to conserve energy and be really smart about what we select to take part in. So this is a personality thing too, right? Yeah, absolutely. Lindsay, what's the next one? Teamwork makes the dream work. And you have to say it like that.

You have to say teamwork. Yeah, it has to be teamwork makes the dream work or teamwork makes the dream work, right? You have to say it in a way that you know you're using a silly cliche. You're not taking yourself seriously, but you are in a sense trying to

to bring people together and get people excited about working together as a team, right? Right. Yeah. So this is motivational. I mean, it's basically saying we got to work together to accomplish our goals, to make the dream work. Teamwork makes the dream work. I could see, I feel like someone is always clapping when they say this. Come on, teamwork makes the dream work, right? That's so true. Yeah.

You're so right. And you could say this maybe on a Zoom call, maybe at the end of one of our team syncs when we've come up with a new strategy, one of us might say this, come on, guys, teamwork makes the dream work. You know, maybe we have a target, I don't know, revenue goal or something. It's when you're about to go into something that requires teamwork. Right.

Right, right. So you could just say, come on, guys, let's get started. Teamwork makes the dream work. Let's go. Right. It's so cheesy, but it's so it's fun. Yeah, it's fun. It is fun.

All right, Michelle, we're back. So another one that we've heard over the years, I feel like I used to hear this a lot from my, this is another dadism. I used to hear my dad say this a lot, especially at almost every tennis match I played because I would always lose at tennis. You win some, you lose some, right?

said to comfort someone or to comfort yourself when you've had a loss, whether it's in sports or business or life, maybe school, you didn't get the best grade. I don't know. What does it mean, Michelle? Tell us more. Yeah. I mean, you win some, you lose some. You just have to kind of...

expect it, right? You know, you're not on the winning side. For example, I know you're upset, but you win some, you lose some. You'll win next time around. For sure. Yeah, exactly. Or maybe in the case of Business English, you've gone on a job interview. You just didn't get that job. You're not going to get every job you interview for.

you win some, you lose some, right? Yep. Yep. And we have to be okay with losing some. Exactly. And then another cheesy cliche in our list for today, no guts, no glory, right? This actually goes to the cultural value related to go big or go home, doesn't it? It's the same idea. No guts, no glory. So what do we mean by guts?

It's go all in again. Go big or go home. You have to be a little brave to go after something. It's based on the idea that the worst thing you could do is go through life without taking any chances, without taking any risks. You didn't fail, but you didn't really gain anything. And I think there's a quote there somewhere out there.

out in pop culture about that. But it's that idea, right? Right. It makes me think of the you miss 100% of the shots that you don't take, right? I don't know. Maybe that's the one. Yeah, I don't know. But yeah, no guts. Like if you don't put everything you have into something, no glory, meaning you're not going to get you're not going to reap the rewards. Yeah. And I do think this is super rooted in American culture. I mean, I'm sure that some of our listeners do

this quote exists in your language, but I'd be curious to know where does it come from? If I think about where this comes from, it probably comes from the roots of like frontier movement, right? Moving West. It was dangerous as people move, explorers moved West around in the U S and taking risks, taking chances, starting businesses, right? So this idea of no guts, no glory, right?

I think it comes from history, don't you think? Well, if I'm just looking very briefly on ChatGBT, it says there are some military roots to the 1950s. So, yeah, it could be something with the

military, but it's also, it's used a lot in pop culture. So for sure. So I feel like these phrases always come from somewhere, right? Which is really interesting because it tells a story about a country. Really interesting. Michelle, which is your favorite here of these? I think I like, let's see. Um, I think I like teamwork makes the dream work. What do you think?

I really like go big or go home because what it signifies is go all in on something. And I love that thinking. You know, I tend to be kind of tunnel vision. When I go into something, I get a little obsessed with it. I'll just go after it. Right. So that idea of being fully immersed in a goal is very refreshing. It's exhausting, but it's refreshing in a way. Yeah, definitely. Definitely.

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Should we do a role play? Let's do it, Michelle. So here we're co-workers. You just didn't get a promotion and I'm making you feel better. Okay. Yes. Here we go.

Oh, I can't believe this. I mean, I guess you win some, you lose some. Yeah, but you'll get there. Just keep working hard. No guts, no glory. Yeah, I guess I'm just kind of down now. I mean, I wonder if it even matters. Michelle, go big or go home. You're right. And I can help you. We'll do this together.

Teamwork makes the dream work. Now you're talking. Nice. And I purposefully didn't say, now you're talking, right? I said, now you're talking. So we'll circle back to that one another day, Michelle. And this stringing together of these phrases is a little awkward because you would tend to say this more maybe on a team or...

don't you think you tend to say this more less to like a friend directly? I guess. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's more so that I think you don't, you wouldn't say this. And first of all, I'm down and you're just like, you're just, no, I feel like you're getting a little, you're getting a little annoying. It's a little annoying. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe this is a role play. I,

I know I wrote it, but you're being annoying. Yeah, maybe scratch this rope line. Don't do this. Do not do this. Don't just throw, if somebody's upset, don't just keep on throwing these cliches at them. So the point is you want to use them at a time when they, I think like most people are like in a generally good mood, kind of in just like a

funny, you know, teamwork makes the dream work. Like, you know, but I wanted to give you that example of like how they, how they fit together. So it is possible, but yeah, don't be annoying. Don't be annoying. Yeah. Maybe, and maybe use one, one of these every year, every year. And if you do use it, do it in a funny way, you know? Yes, totally. Love it. Um,

Good stuff. So we'll just go through it real quick. So you didn't get your promotion and then you said, I can't believe it, but I mean, I guess you win some, you lose some. I could see you saying that, right? So if we've suffered a loss, maybe in our career, we didn't get the job, we didn't get the promotion, either the person that didn't get it might say it or the other person. That one works in the one-to-one scenario, but then it gets kind of weird, right? Here? Yeah. I told...

I totally, yeah, I totally agree. Yeah. You said just keep working hard. No guts, no glory. I mean, even that, even that I think is okay. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It depends on the vibe between us. Like how disappointed are you? Um, no guts, no glory. And then you said, basically, I wonder if it even matters. So you're sounding kind of down and depressed. Yeah.

And then this feels a little tone deaf, right? Michelle, go big or go home. I would connect this more to something that you're about to do. You're about to go after something. You're about to try. Let's say you're trying to launch a business and you're about to take like call the mayor and be like, can I interview you on my podcast? Right. That's a big deal. Like you're going to get a mayor. Right. That's huge. Go big or go home. Go for the big, you know, the big interviews. Right. So it's a little bit different.

Okay. Yeah. But then you said you can help me. We're going to do this together. And I said, teamwork makes the dream work. Yeah. Yeah. That one kind of...

one kind of works. You're going to work together. Maybe we've just proven that we want to generally be careful around cliches, right? Oh yeah. That's why they're cliches, right? Like that's why we call them cliches. They're cheesy. We know we're being cheesy. Do it at a time when it's low risk, maybe in a group and you're drumming up support for something, right? Yeah.

That's right. Love that. Exactly. Oh my gosh. Well, this was fun, Lindsay. Thanks for talking about this with me today. Uh, guys check out episode 404, which was don't miss this dynamic episode for another good episode. Yes. I love it. And for takeaway today, just kind of know what are the phrases that you're using? Are they cliches? Are they creative expressions? Um,

And sometimes it's all, we're using an idiom and it is kind of a cliche, but also add some innovation to your language. Say something new and original. That's good too. Mix it all in. Have a variety, right? That's right. Oh my gosh. Well, this was fun, Lindsay. Teamwork makes the dream work. I'll see you next time. Okay. All right. Sounds good, Michelle. I'll talk to you soon. Have a good one. All right. You too. Bye. Bye.

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