BE 425: Do Us a Solid and Listen Today
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 425. Do us a solid and listen today.

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.

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Open your search bar now and find All Ears English. Hit follow and start speaking the kind of English that opens doors. Listen to the All Ears English podcast five days a week with me, Aubrey, Lindsay, and Michelle. Hey, Michelle. What's shaking? Oh, not too much, Lindsay. How are you? Doing great. Doing great. What are we talking about today? Actually, could you do me a solid and give me a few minutes before we start? I need to check my hair.

Sure, Michelle. No problem. I'll give you a hair time. Hair time. Okay. Just kidding. I'm ready to go. Today, we are going to answer a listener question today, and it might be using the expression that I just used. So, Lindsay, this was from YouTube. Guys, you can submit your question on YouTube as well. Yes. Very exciting. I'm going to go ahead and read the listener question. This is from Mauroa9748.

hey lindsay and michelle do you a solid is a cool expression what does it mean so it sounds like maybe this listener heard you use it yeah uh and then they they thought that was cool and they wanted to use it too love that well thank you yes great question i guess that's kind of cool yeah i guess i used it um it is in my yeah i do say do me a solid so you're cool i am

Cool. What can I tell you? Yes, exactly. Guys, we're going to talk about this in just a second. Guys, we want to remind you to hit the follow button wherever you're listening to the Business English Podcast. Don't miss anything from us. Let us come straight to you like a nice little present. Nice. I love that. Good stuff, guys. Hit the follow button. So do me a solid... First of all, let's tell our listener and all of our listeners who want to be cool what...

what you're funny yeah what does it mean michelle okay so it means do me a favor right and it's kind of uh i think what makes it have this cool sound it's a different way of saying it it's a little bit unique it shows personality for sure um yeah this is about what we talk about so much on the show is adding color to your english um and it does sound

to me it also sounds a little confident what do you think i totally agree it's unique it's a very different structure which is i agree with you that's why it feels kind of smooth kind of cool kind of confident it's a very different structure than asking someone hey can you do well i guess we say do me a favor um

Um, but often we just ask for permission for something or ask someone to do something for us. So it is unique. I agree. Yeah, it is. For some reason I think of the movie Greece. I have no idea. I don't know if they use this in Greece, but, um, yeah, it just makes me think of Greece. I don't know why. Um, but so, but yeah, Greece like is like about the cool kids. Right. Um, so, but yeah. Um, what about you, Lindsay? Are you cool?

I'm pretty cool, Michelle. I use this more often to be cooler, but so funny. So yeah, I mean, sometimes I use it, but not really, to be honest, and I would like to start using it more often. But we're in a business podcast here. So would you use this in a formal business situation, Michelle?

Yeah, I mean, I think if you are okay with sounding a little bit more hip or a little bit more easygoing, right? I wouldn't say it. I would say it also, to me, it sounds like a quick favor, right? I would say this is a little less formal. So if they were in a formal situation, maybe not. But this is like for, you know...

Kind of quick things that someone can answer. Yeah, I agree with you, Michelle. I think that I would not include this. Let's imagine we're in a business negotiation with a client and we're making concessions, right? We're making concessions. We're asking for things. Do me a solid and include this perk in the, no, I wouldn't do that. That's a little too formal of a situation. But if you're talking to your coworker, things can get kind of casual if you know them well, right? Yeah.

yeah exactly exactly so let's do a couple examples here so um you want to do the first one yes here we go hey michelle could you do me a solid and cover for me next week during my shift

Uh-huh. So sounds like we're like buds, like we're good friends. Maybe I've covered for you before. It's kind of a casual. Yeah. Or I could be using this to talk about the past, right? I could say, Lindsay really did me a solid when she recorded extra episodes so I could take a vacation, right? Yeah, that's interesting. I never think about using this one in the past tense, but I guess it works, right? There's no rule against it. Right. Yeah.

And I think a big part of building trust in business is this thing, doing favors. Someone's getting married, so you cover for them for a couple weeks while they're on their honeymoon, for example. We do these things for our coworkers, for sure. Exactly, exactly. I mean, yeah, it's not for... I guess I said earlier that it's for these quick things, right?

But I'm going to kind of change my I mean, you could you could say like, do me a solid and bring me grab me lunch. Right. But I would I would say it's for like the more so for mid-level, maybe higher favors. What do you think? How do you think what type of favor should it be? Because I'm kind of going waffling. Yeah, I think it could be for any type of favor.

It's just more about the relationship between you and that person. We're not in that negotiation situation. We're not negotiating salary for a new job. That's too formal. We're not making a presentation.

really not facing a client or anyone we have to be more buttoned up with. It's more about internally someone we're close with. And then it could be a range of favors between do me a solid and grab me a coffee when you go to Starbucks or do me a solid and cover for me when I'm on my honeymoon. But it's more about

How much context do you add when you approach that person about taking over for your honeymoon? You're going to add more context. Hey, you know, we're planning our trip this. I know something big is coming up at work during that time.

Do you add more context when you make the ask? If that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. I think, yeah, that is really a good way to think about it. But yeah, my honeymoon's coming up. I'm going to be out. Could you do me a solid? And yeah, for me that week, right? That's like your tone of voice. You're not going to use that tone of voice that you just used to ask for a coffee. Could you get me a coffee?

- Can I have a coffee? - It's not gonna be that dire, that serious, right? So there's a lot more to it than just the phrase, I think. - Exactly. I think you have a very good point there, Lindsay. - Yeah.

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- All right, Michelle, we are back. What are some other things we could say? We mentioned earlier, do me a favor. Very common, right Michelle? - To me, that's like kind of the most benign, the most common. Can you do me a favor and look this paper over? - But we don't have to limit it to that. We could also say, help me out. It's also very basic, this one. Thanks for helping me out earlier. I really needed the break. So maybe someone did cover for you a couple of days when you took a three-day weekend

for example. Right, right, right, right. Or even let's say you are a receptionist and you're just exhausted and you just need to take a little bit of time to sit in a lounge or just go get a coffee and you say, can you cover the phones, right? Yeah, of course. If you are in a customer-facing career where you're constantly interfacing with clients and customers, that can be exhausting. And sometimes you just need to sit in a room with

like you said, and not interact with people. It's so true. It's amazing how that can help, right? Yeah, for sure. And then there's another one, a few others, Michelle. Okay, so this one is different.

Um, this is a very specific kind of ask. So this one was with bail me out. So number one to bail someone out is I think of jail, right? You get money to get someone released from jail, but it's also used for when someone gets you out of a

out of like a sticky situation you're in. So it's asking for a very specific kind of favor. It's a little bit more serious. So please bail me out here. I can't get this all done on time. Yeah, interesting, right? So we're kind of using that imagery of jail that you're in trouble, right? And then we're bringing that phrase over into the working world. You know, I'm in a lot of trouble here. I have books stacked up on my desk. I can't get it all done. Can you bail me out?

It's a little more, I don't know, animated using this one. I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then this one is also for a specific type of favor. And we've already been throwing this out here, but a good one to know. Lindsay, what is it? Cover for me. Right. So you're either helping someone cover a lie. That's a little different than the scenario we're talking about today. Or you're covering someone's shift, their work, doing their work for them. Yeah.

being present to hide the fact that they're not present in a way. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Exactly. So can you cover for me tomorrow? I have a doctor's appointment. Love it. Yeah. Okay. So why do these matter for business? I mean, what are

What are your thoughts, Michelle? I mean, we're constantly needing to work as a team, right? I mean, you go on any job interview, you're always being asked, you know, how have you worked as a team member? So this to me is a lot about relationships and teamwork, right? Being able to feel that confidence to ask someone for help, having different ways to ask them and knowing the level of formality and which expressions are best to use.

Yeah, I totally agree. And it feels good to help people, right? Because you know, you could be in that same situation and not just in a quid pro quo. Okay, they're going on vacation, they'll help me next time. It's more like a, I think like there is like a probably a dopamine rush. It's a connection thing that we want to be there for people. We want to build that connection.

Right? Yeah. It's a relationship builder for sure. When you start to realize you can rely on your coworkers and when you are showing that they can rely on you, it just, it kind of takes things to another level. Totally. It's really good. Good stuff. So here, Michelle, we are coworkers and we're going to show our listeners how this is done, but we're not going to use all of them because that doesn't really make sense. Okay.

Okay, so here we go. Hey, Lindsay, I hate to ask, but can you cover for me next week? I have a huge exam coming up and I need to focus on that. Oh, I guess I can help you out, but I can't every time. Oh, okay. I know. Thank you so much. Can you do me a favor, though? Oh, of course. Okay.

So can you finish the citations on the PowerPoint? Sure. Yeah. So this one feels a little more transactional, a little more quid pro quo. It does. It does. I would recommend just sort of, you know, give yourself like be open and be the first to say yes. And then know that that will eventually come back to you. Maybe not directly from that same person, maybe from someone else that they'll cover you. But it's more like you're putting an energy out there.

Right? Right. Yeah. But we just wanted to set it up this way so you could see different examples. Yeah, exactly. It's so many different ways to use them. So I said, I hate to ask, which is a common thing that people say. Actually, my sister-in-law says this all the time, even about the smallest things. She's so funny. I hate to ask. Anyway. Yeah.

But can you cover for me next week? So asking for a specific type of favor. Yeah. By the way, that would make a great episode because people also say, I hate to do this, but, and then you know, a cancellation of some sort is happening or I hate to do this. I hate to ask. That would be an interesting episode, Michelle, over on All Ears English. Yes, guys. So make sure you go on over and if you haven't listened to All Ears English yet, go search for it, find it and hit

follow because yeah, that sounds like I'm going to put that on the sheet right now. Yep. That's a good one. That's a good one. Hit the follow button. All right. And then I said, oh, so my reception was a little bit more cold, right? I said, oh, I guess I can help you out, but I can't every time. Kind of a strange thing to say a little bit. Unless I've been asking you to do this a

lot. Right. Yeah. And so you're, maybe you're just trying to put up a boundary.

That's interesting. That would also be another great episode, a follow-up episode to this one. What if someone asks for too much too often? What could we say? What are some handy-dandy ways that we can make it clear without being too direct? Because we have to toe the line between being overly direct and aggressive in our pushback and getting them to push back and not ask so much. That's...

That's a great idea. I'm right. I wrote that down at the bottom too. I'll be working on that. Guys, hit that follow. Okay. And then you said, so this is the transactional part. You said, can you do me a favor though? Yeah.

Yeah. Weird, right? So then you said, "Of course." Right? And then here it comes. So I said, "Can you finish the citations on the PowerPoint?" And again, yeah, we just set it up this way to show you a few more than just one way to ask, but I wouldn't recommend being so transactional. Right.

Right, exactly. No, this is a little bit catty. But I mean, if we read it in... No, yeah, it's a little bit catty. Yeah. Oh, that's a great bonus word for today. Catty. Michelle, what does that mean? Catty. It's like a little bit snide, a little bit more...

Yeah, more transactional. And you know, just help the person out if you're able to unless your own work is going to get affected by that or you're really going to struggle, help them out and then trust that that help will come back to you either from them or from someone else because you're creating a nice environment. Okay?

Love that. Exactly. All right, guys, if you haven't already, go on over and check out episode 420, which was because we're talking about relationships today, right? This was Don't Miss the Mark on Business Relationships. Nice. I love that. Michelle, any final takeaways when it comes to doing someone a solid? So, so many interesting things that this evolved into. Interesting topics, really thinking about do, you know,

not just making things transactional to build those, to build those relationships at work. This was an example of how to use the phrases, but you saw how it got a little bit, it felt a little bit different than what we were talking about. So be sure that you are kind of doing things out of, yeah,

Yeah. Maybe, you know, one day they'll do something for you, but you don't necessarily want to say right away, okay, can you do this for me? Right. That's too much. No, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. Have the trust, trust in the universe. If you put out good energy, it'll come back to you. A hundred percent. It will come back to you. Three X or four X. I think. Yeah. I love that good stuff.

All right. Well, guys, don't forget to hit the follow button right here on Business English and then find All Ears English. Hit follow there because we've come up with some good episode ideas coming out soon. Okay. Love it. All right, Lindsay, this was fun. Thanks again to our listener for that great question. And I hope I continue to use cool expressions. I hope so too. Very cool. Very cool. Okay, Michelle. Have a good one. Bye.

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