Speaker 1: You're listening to a Mom with Me podcast.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to biz your work Life Sorted. I'm
Speaker 2: m Vernon and today we're diving into something that's probably
Speaker 2: been flooding your TikTok feed. It's the email like a
Speaker 2: Man trend.
Speaker 1: So you know that.
Speaker 2: Moment when you're crafting what you think is a perfectly
Speaker 2: professional email and then suddenly you realize you've used five
Speaker 2: exclamation points, three emojis, and apologized twice for something that
Speaker 2: isn't even your fault. Well, this trend speaks to so
Speaker 2: many women who do this and are trying to unlearn
Speaker 2: this way of emailing. And today our career coaches Michelle
Speaker 2: Battersby and soph Hurst are breaking down why women tend
Speaker 2: to soften their communication at work, and more importantly, how
Speaker 2: to strike that perfect balance between being direct and maintaining
Speaker 2: your authentic voice. Michelle's actually lived both sides of this,
Speaker 2: from the super direct world of investment banking to emoji
Speaker 2: friendly culture at Bumble and Soap's Go. Some fascinating insights
Speaker 2: from her time at Google about how the most effective
Speaker 2: communicator is actually right. Plus, they're sharing their top seven
Speaker 2: email mistakes We're making, yes, even the executives are making these,
Speaker 2: and trust me, you're gonna want to take notes on
Speaker 2: their practical swaps. For those cringe worthy corporate phrases we
Speaker 2: all use.
Speaker 3: It's given baby, never ever play me like I'm a I'm.
Speaker 4: Twenty twenty four is the year we email like man.
Speaker 4: If you're a corpora goody like me, you know how
Speaker 4: we subconsciously add exclamation points, emojis, kisses, and kindness because
Speaker 4: that's just who we are, But we rarely receive.
Speaker 5: The energy back from men by email.
Speaker 1: So here's two not apologizing.
Speaker 4: Here's to only putting one exclamation point in a paragraph
Speaker 4: instead of five, And here's two not asking people if
Speaker 4: that's okay with them.
Speaker 5: They will.
Speaker 4: So as I was thinking about this topic, I realized
Speaker 4: that I started my career writing like a man because
Speaker 4: I entered the workforce at an investment bank in an
Speaker 4: environment that I guess was designed by men and led
Speaker 4: by men, and so I therefore think the default communication
Speaker 4: style in the organization was written like a man. And
Speaker 4: I think, especially when you're earlier on in your career,
Speaker 4: you just model what's around you. So I would just
Speaker 4: receive these emails think okay, that's how I email, you
Speaker 4: match their tone, you match their vibe. And then I
Speaker 4: transitioned into working at Bumble and was met with a
Speaker 4: million exclamation marks.
Speaker 5: Did you change the way?
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, but I remember thinking, oh my god, this
Speaker 1: is so fun.
Speaker 4: You know, I get to use emojis, exclamation marks, kisses,
Speaker 4: felt very casual. It was just complete opposite ends of
Speaker 4: the spectrum.
Speaker 3: In a way, I think you're actually lucky to have
Speaker 3: had that experience.
Speaker 5: I wanted to look up if they're.
Speaker 3: Actually a difference between how men and women communicate, and
Speaker 3: there are a bunch of studies that show that there
Speaker 3: is obviously generalization, but women typically do use more indirect
Speaker 3: language and men will be more direct. For example, women
Speaker 3: can use more hedging language like just or I think
Speaker 3: or perhaps one of the most simple things you can
Speaker 3: do to make your emails stronger or to come across
Speaker 3: as more confident, there's a few words that you should
Speaker 3: just cut from your email vocabulary, and then there's some
Speaker 3: really simple phrase swaps that you can actually do. So
Speaker 3: I'll tell you just what a couple of I remember
Speaker 3: when someone taught me this. It was like quite early
Speaker 3: on in my career, and this amazing woman was like
Speaker 3: you know, you use these two words quite a lot,
Speaker 3: and if you just cut them out, you'll notice that
Speaker 3: you sound a lot stronger. So the first word is
Speaker 3: just so, you just don't need to say that, I
Speaker 3: just but so instead of you know, just checking in
Speaker 3: or just following up, just say checking in or following up.
Speaker 5: So just cut the word just.
Speaker 3: And then I think as well, so instead of saying
Speaker 3: you know, I think we should just say we should.
Speaker 3: There's a couple of others that I really like. So
Speaker 3: instead of sorry for the delay, say thanks for waiting.
Speaker 3: You know, if you've made a mistake on something, instead
Speaker 3: of saying sorry for missing that, say thanks for letting
Speaker 3: me know. And then the classic could per my last email,
Speaker 3: which is just so passive aggressive. I think that used
Speaker 3: to be fine to say, but now, just like so
Speaker 3: many people use it, I think it sounds really passive aggressive.
Speaker 3: So I prefer to just say, like, do you have
Speaker 3: any more questions on this? Or is there anything else
Speaker 3: I can help you with? To like reply kind of
Speaker 3: thing or respond to reply. But I do think the
Speaker 3: one thing that you really notice the difference between when
Speaker 3: you look at the way people who are more junior
Speaker 3: starting out in their career email versus people are getting
Speaker 3: more senior is just the length.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 3: It's like, when you're starting out, you just I think
Speaker 3: a lot of young people just write these really long emails,
Speaker 3: and I think as you get more senior, you start
Speaker 3: to figure out that you don't need all that information.
Speaker 3: I will say, though, I love this TikTok that we
Speaker 3: will put in the newsletter. The caption is time to
Speaker 3: write emails like a CEO who earns forty times my
Speaker 3: salary and he has a whole bara cup of text
Speaker 3: which he then just deletes and in the subject line
Speaker 3: he writes, send the presentation. And the thing I talk
Speaker 3: to young people about this all the time, and they're like, well,
Speaker 3: that's fine for CEOs to write that way, but if I,
Speaker 3: as a junior person, wrote that way, that wouldn't be cool.
Speaker 5: And that's true.
Speaker 3: So I think, like we'll often say to young people like,
Speaker 3: you need to write shorulder emails. But then I actually
Speaker 3: have a bone to pick with execs in terms of
Speaker 3: the way they write emails. So we'll get into that
Speaker 3: a little bit later in the episode. Michelle, I want
Speaker 3: to know, so you had this experience of emailing like
Speaker 3: a man and then emailing like a woman fumble.
Speaker 5: How do you email?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 4: So I do think my style is now more of
Speaker 4: a blend, and I actually do comb through my own
Speaker 4: emails and remove words like just because I've seen the
Speaker 4: research I've heard, you know, the kind of discourse on this.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: But I also weirdly like reread my emails like three
Speaker 4: times before I send them. And I also once I
Speaker 4: send something, especially like a high pressure email that I've
Speaker 4: read through like five or six times before I've even
Speaker 4: pressed send, and then go into my scent folder and
Speaker 4: I read it again and I'm like, oh, did I
Speaker 4: do that well? And I'm like, is that just me?
Speaker 1: Do you do that?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Absolutely.
Speaker 3: I think the more senior or like, the more important
Speaker 3: the person is that you're emailing, and the more times
Speaker 3: you're going to read it.
Speaker 5: Yea.
Speaker 3: There is that function on Gmail where you can set it,
Speaker 3: so there's like a unsandal as.
Speaker 5: I do that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because there's a psychological thing that happens in your
Speaker 3: brain the second you send it you're like, oh my god, I.
Speaker 5: Didn't put the thing in.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think that's totally normal.
Speaker 3: But if you were doing that when you were emailing,
Speaker 3: like your co founder, then that would be kind of weird.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 6: No, so so you have worked on tips for anyone
Speaker 6: listening things that might be undermining your email or slack style.
Speaker 4: I just cannot wait for these because I've also received
Speaker 4: your emails and they're really good. Like I've started modeling you.
Speaker 3: I just want to say for the record that I
Speaker 3: was never good at this stuff, so it's definitely something
Speaker 3: that you just get better out of time. I think
Speaker 3: it's so interesting, like we started writing more emails so
Speaker 3: we could have less meetings, and then we started using
Speaker 3: Slack more so that we could have less emails, and
Speaker 3: now we're even kind of lazier and more careless in Slack.
Speaker 3: So I do think it's really hard. I actually read
Speaker 3: the other day that a third of emails that we
Speaker 3: send at work that need a response go completely unchecked
Speaker 3: kind of thing. So I just think that we are
Speaker 3: completely drowning in text and we all need to help
Speaker 3: each other. So yeah, I think, just before I kind
Speaker 3: of get into the seven things, I will just say,
Speaker 3: with communication, we live in our own heads, right, and
Speaker 3: it makes sense like we're in our bodies, we're in
Speaker 3: our head, so so much about communicating is we sit
Speaker 3: there thinking, you know, what do I want to say
Speaker 3: to this person? What do I need to say? And
Speaker 3: we're kind of in our own heads. The best communicators
Speaker 3: get out of their own head and they think about
Speaker 3: the other person. And so the trap that we get
Speaker 3: into is we'll go to sit at our keyboard and
Speaker 3: we'll either be reacting to something that someone has said
Speaker 3: to us or we'll be thinking, okay, like what do
Speaker 3: I want to say? Really, you need to be thinking
Speaker 3: about the other person. What do they need to hear?
Speaker 3: What do they need to know now? And what can
Speaker 3: they maybe know later? What kind of situation are they
Speaker 3: going to be in when they receive your email or
Speaker 3: your plack message. Just like, think about them more, And
Speaker 3: I think the quickie you can learn that muscle memory
Speaker 3: of doing that all the time. It honestly takes ten
Speaker 3: seconds before you start typing. Just spend ten seconds thinking
Speaker 3: about the person or people that you're sending.
Speaker 5: Your communication to. I feel like I'm being a teacher now.
Speaker 3: No, I love it, But I know this sounds like hectic,
Speaker 3: extra work.
Speaker 5: I promise you it's not.
Speaker 3: And like, if we all get better at this, it's
Speaker 3: going to make everyone's lives easier.
Speaker 5: So did you learn to do that?
Speaker 3: So I was really bad, and I will say I
Speaker 3: can't actually type properly, so I type with three fingers.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: I was never good at this.
Speaker 3: So I joined Google, and I think that's really where
Speaker 3: I learned because the engineers are very good at written communication,
Speaker 3: I have to say, so, same just like learning through modeling, modeling.
Speaker 5: Exactly, I learned through modly.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you are sitting there thinking is this email
Speaker 3: too long, the answer is yes. And even if you're
Speaker 3: not sitting there thinking that your email is still too long.
Speaker 3: So the shorter your email, the faster you're going to
Speaker 3: get a reply. And if someone can actually see if
Speaker 3: you think about your email on a like a mobile
Speaker 3: phone screen, if someone can actually see the end of it,
Speaker 3: they're way more likely to respond to you.
Speaker 1: This is such a good point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, honestly, when you're emailing, especially when you're emailing
Speaker 3: up to sort of seeing new people but really just anyone,
Speaker 3: you might be better off having a few short exchanges
Speaker 3: of like short things, rather than trying to put everything
Speaker 3: into one email. But it is a trade off, right,
Speaker 3: You can't put everything into a single email. You have
Speaker 3: to decide would I rather someone actually read these three
Speaker 3: points or risk trying to send them an email with
Speaker 3: fifteen points and know that.
Speaker 5: They're actually just not going to read it.
Speaker 3: So that's the first thing, is your email needs to
Speaker 3: be shorter, and just a couple of tips like it
Speaker 3: does really help to you can just put the text
Speaker 3: into chat, GPT or whatever your company's allowed to use
Speaker 3: and just say, reduce this by fifty percent. Obviously read
Speaker 3: it because it can cut out information you need. But
Speaker 3: the main trap people get suck in is you can't
Speaker 3: write a concise email unless you're clear about what you.
Speaker 5: Want to say.
Speaker 3: So back to my point before, just spend ten seconds
Speaker 3: thinking about what you actually need to say to this
Speaker 3: person before you start typing.
Speaker 4: I think when you receive an email and it looks
Speaker 4: fucking massive, you also can just take a quick glance
Speaker 4: at it, think oh my god, that's huge, mark it
Speaker 4: as unread, and then it just gets buried in your
Speaker 4: inbox and you've mentally marked it as it's in a
Speaker 4: bit of a too hard basket. It's going to take
Speaker 4: me some time, so I'm not even going to bother
Speaker 4: until I've got that time, which might not come around
Speaker 4: for another few days exactly.
Speaker 3: And I think the thing is, like, there is a
Speaker 3: difference between sort of internal emails that we're sending all
Speaker 3: the time. And maybe you're emailing a client or someone
Speaker 3: that you don't email a lot. But if you're emailing
Speaker 3: people a lot, you should be having a conversation. Like
Speaker 3: I used to say to my team, I'm going to
Speaker 3: send really short direct emails. But that's just because it's
Speaker 3: going to save us all time, and please do that
Speaker 3: back to me. But that's because we have a relationship.
Speaker 3: Back to what I said earlier, I have a bone
Speaker 3: to pick with executives. Can emails be too short? And
Speaker 3: the answer is yes, because it's like all the execs
Speaker 3: in the world got together and agreed, let's all send
Speaker 3: three word emails. And the thing with that is I
Speaker 3: sit there sometimes I get emails from execs and I
Speaker 3: sit there for ten minutes trying to figure out what
Speaker 3: they are actually trying to say because they've given me
Speaker 3: no context. So, like, your point is to send an
Speaker 3: email that is clear, and sometimes to send a clear
Speaker 3: email you need to give the right amount of context.
Speaker 3: So it's not just about the shortest email you can
Speaker 3: possibly write.
Speaker 4: I also think if you receive a really short, brief,
Speaker 4: sometimes cold in tone email from an exec, if you're
Speaker 4: a junior person, you can also sit there thinking do
Speaker 4: they hate me?
Speaker 1: And I also feel as an exec.
Speaker 4: You need to be aware of the fact that you
Speaker 4: might not even realize that you're intimidating someone. Simply just
Speaker 4: the title that you have might intimidate someone. It's nothing
Speaker 4: about you, and you need to be conscious of that.
Speaker 4: And as an exec, I don't want to sit there
Speaker 4: and scare someone just because I can't be bothered to
Speaker 4: like I think at it as an exec. Maybe sometimes
Speaker 4: they need to do that have a great weekend, you know,
Speaker 4: so the person on the other side just feels a
Speaker 4: little bit better about dealing with them.
Speaker 5: Michelle, I totally agree. I was getting a little bit
Speaker 5: too enthusiastic when you were talking.
Speaker 3: That's the thing, right back to the point I said,
Speaker 3: before thinking about the person your email in. So the
Speaker 3: average rate of emails that an executive get today is
Speaker 3: like seven hundred, and at Google it was more like
Speaker 3: a thousand. I know sometimes you need to send one
Speaker 3: word emails for sure, but there is a level of
Speaker 3: think about the people you're emailing as well. And so
Speaker 3: I think sometimes yet like yeah, approved one word. Fine,
Speaker 3: But there are times when you you know someone's worked
Speaker 3: really hard on something and give them one extra sentence.
Speaker 4: Or even saying I loved this email, like really appreciate
Speaker 4: the conciseness of this email.
Speaker 5: Answer, just help them out of it, give them something
Speaker 5: you need to write a dear executive's letter.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, So point number one was your email's too long,
Speaker 3: and then point number two is your emails upside down,
Speaker 3: so measure I wonder have you heard of this bluff
Speaker 3: bottom line up front?
Speaker 1: No method?
Speaker 3: Okay, so it's a method used in military communication. And
Speaker 3: you know how we at work we kind of joke
Speaker 3: around like, oh, guys, we're not saving lives. Well, in
Speaker 3: the military, they actually are saving lives. So the way
Speaker 3: that they email and communicate is really important. And the
Speaker 3: basic principle is that we think and want to communicate chronologically.
Speaker 3: So most people it's like this happened, then this happened,
Speaker 3: then this happened, and what that means when you are
Speaker 3: emailing it, you'll often say explanation, explanation, Can you review
Speaker 3: this doc and then send me feedback by Friday?
Speaker 5: But what you actually want to do is completely flip it.
Speaker 3: You want to put that part right up the top
Speaker 3: and then put the context and the explaining points underneath that.
Speaker 3: So the method it's bottom line upfront, which literally means
Speaker 3: what is the bottom line for this person? Usually that
Speaker 3: is in the form of a request that you're asking,
Speaker 3: or like a critical update or a recommendation you're trying
Speaker 3: to give.
Speaker 5: So ask yourself, what if the bottom line for this person?
Speaker 5: Put that up the top.
Speaker 3: I often just bold it, so often just say like hi, Michelle,
Speaker 3: bolded statement, and then you say context or like this
Speaker 3: is why I've said this, and you put a couple
Speaker 3: of bullet points underneath. And then sometimes if you need
Speaker 3: even more information, you can link out. I often under
Speaker 3: my signature will often do like a little appendix almost
Speaker 3: that has like more explanation if they need to get
Speaker 3: into it.
Speaker 5: But yeah, if you want to.
Speaker 3: Know more about that, by the way, you can just
Speaker 3: ask chat to teach you teach me more about the
Speaker 3: bottom line upfront method. I'll actually do it before and
Speaker 3: after example, because I think that's the easiest way to
Speaker 3: understand it. Actually, let's say this is a Slack message,
Speaker 3: because this is about Slack two, right, before example would
Speaker 3: be so, let's pretend you're having a Slack conversation with
Speaker 3: someone and your manager is asking you this. So they say, hey,
Speaker 3: so did the project launch yesterday? And you say, ah,
Speaker 3: so the approval went through to the webtam but they're
Speaker 3: out of office, so we had to log a ticket
Speaker 3: with the support and now we're waiting to hear back
Speaker 3: and the new ETA is Wednesday. The after example would be, hey,
Speaker 3: so did the project launch yesterday? The project didn't launch yesterday.
Speaker 3: The new ETA is Wednesday, nine am. Reason for the
Speaker 3: delay web teams out of office. I escalated it via
Speaker 3: the support team. I'll stay across it. We'll let you
Speaker 3: know if I need anything. So that's the difference between
Speaker 3: putting the point of the email right at the top
Speaker 3: and then explaining the context later.
Speaker 4: It actually is a little bit of a marketing exercise
Speaker 4: when you think about it. Like I was writing a
Speaker 4: job description the other day and it was a really
Speaker 4: good financial offer, and so usually I kind of put
Speaker 4: that at the bottom, but I thought, no, I'm going
Speaker 4: to pull that up to the top because I want
Speaker 4: to get more eyeballs on this. I'm going to lead
Speaker 4: with like the gold. Then I'm going to make the
Speaker 4: job sound quite easy. So I pulled like the deliverables
Speaker 4: up from the bottom, and then I kind of got
Speaker 4: more into the detail underneath, because I felt like the
Speaker 4: detail might make people just tune out and then they're
Speaker 4: not saying, oh, hey, this is actually a pretty easy
Speaker 4: job and they're going to pay really.
Speaker 5: Well, did you see exactly what you just did there?
Speaker 3: What just thinking about the audience and maybe you're like,
Speaker 3: to your point around is it normal and is it
Speaker 3: okay to reread my emails?
Speaker 5: Yes, and like we actually should be doing that more.
Speaker 3: Obviously we don't want to do it to every Slack
Speaker 3: message in every email, but if we actually just once
Speaker 3: read through, will often find that we hide the point
Speaker 3: of the email at the bottom, and you just want
Speaker 3: to bring that up to the top. I will just
Speaker 3: say again, caveat. This is like you know a lot
Speaker 3: of internal emails. If you're emailing clients, you're probably not
Speaker 3: going to write like that.
Speaker 1: So let's get into number three.
Speaker 3: If you are sending someone an email where you're going
Speaker 3: to ask them for something, and you put how are
Speaker 3: you at the top of that email, you're already asking
Speaker 3: them for something that they have to answer, so you're
Speaker 3: better off instead of saying how are you, just saying
Speaker 3: hope you're well or hope you had a good weekend.
Speaker 3: Make the one thing you ask them in that email
Speaker 3: the thing you actually want. If you are emailing senior executives,
Speaker 3: you don't need to put that at all. How are you?
Speaker 3: Hope you're well? Just completely cut it. They will not
Speaker 3: think you're rude. They will thank you for respecting their time.
Speaker 3: This goes into the debate of like warm versus directness,
Speaker 3: And I do think you know, you do need to
Speaker 3: have a balance of warmth versus direct But the mistake
Speaker 3: a lot of people make is thinking that being warm
Speaker 3: is putting a bunch of small.
Speaker 5: Talk at the start.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so yeah, I'm not saying don't have any small talk,
Speaker 3: and again, think about who you're emailing. But I think
Speaker 3: people get pretty lazy with the how are you? Hope
Speaker 3: you're well and you don't actually care how someone is.
Speaker 3: If you genuinely aren't wondering how someone is, or you
Speaker 3: want to send them a slack message, it's like how
Speaker 3: are you? That's awesome, but like, don't say it to
Speaker 3: be lazy, and then the other person will often sit
Speaker 3: there thinking like do they want me to actually tell
Speaker 3: them how I am? Or are they just saying that?
Speaker 3: And then you have to decide to.
Speaker 4: Say, no, I've one hundred percent thought of that when
Speaker 4: people say how are you, and like, oh, do they
Speaker 4: really want to know?
Speaker 1: How much of a rundown do they want?
Speaker 4: Can you give us an example of how you can
Speaker 4: be warm and direct at the same time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is like the biggest thing, right, So there
Speaker 3: is no one way because the whole point is that
Speaker 3: you personalize it to who you're talking to. But again,
Speaker 3: the mistake a lot of people make is thinking being
Speaker 3: is putting a whole bunch of small talk at the
Speaker 3: top of your email. It's often better to get to
Speaker 3: the point of your email and then put warmth at
Speaker 3: the bottom. So at the bottom, maybe you can put
Speaker 3: some language around, asking how they are, or like softening it.
Speaker 3: I also think that like emojis do play a really
Speaker 3: important role. It's actually a bunch of studies where it's
Speaker 3: really hard to read tone through text, so a lot
Speaker 3: of our understanding of communication actually comes through verbal cues.
Speaker 3: So exclamation marks do have a place, but I think
Speaker 3: we use them in the wrong places.
Speaker 5: And I'll get to that right at the end.
Speaker 3: But back to your question, Michelle around any tips for
Speaker 3: conveying warmth but still being direct. One of the best
Speaker 3: things you can do is to write in very human language.
Speaker 3: And the way you can catch yourself if you're not
Speaker 3: doing that is to just read your email out loud.
Speaker 3: If that's not the way you would actually say it
Speaker 3: in person, then don't write it.
Speaker 5: And so you can also just use.
Speaker 3: Chat Jitpitt and say can you rewrite this to some
Speaker 3: or human But I think in general like warmth comes
Speaker 3: through in subtle, small ways. It's not about using a
Speaker 3: bunch of softening language. I think in general, women especially
Speaker 3: we can be more direct than what we think. It
Speaker 3: feels uncomfortable because we're not used to emailing like that.
Speaker 3: But I think once you start doing it, you'll realize that.
Speaker 3: One you'll notice people that you respect, who you definitely
Speaker 3: think of a warm will often send quite direct and
Speaker 3: like clear emails. So you know, think about you know
Speaker 3: people in your company who may really respect and see
Speaker 3: how they email. So I think in general it feels
Speaker 3: a little bit weird, but try it out, and then
Speaker 3: the way you actually build warmth is through real life channels.
Speaker 3: Or sometimes through slack, build warmth through those other channels
Speaker 3: and then yeah, you can actually be way more direct
Speaker 3: in comms.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, amazing. I love that as a tip focus
Speaker 1: on warmth in real life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, all right. Number four not using sign posting.
Speaker 3: So do you know what sign posting is?
Speaker 1: No, actually don't.
Speaker 3: So large blocks of text are actually really hard for
Speaker 3: our brains to process. Most people's brains find it really
Speaker 3: hard to process. So sign posting is as simple as
Speaker 3: using bold headers and bullet points. And I know it's sound
Speaker 3: so basic, right, but it actually just like breaking up
Speaker 3: large blocks of text is really helpful. People don't read emails,
Speaker 3: they scan, and that is a universal truth no matter
Speaker 3: what country, no matter what company you work for. People
Speaker 3: don't read your email from top to bottom.
Speaker 5: They scan.
Speaker 3: So actually help them with the scanning. So something I
Speaker 3: love to do. Sometimes I'll sit down and if I'm
Speaker 3: emailing someone, I'll actually just think, like, what are the
Speaker 3: questions that they might have, And I'll often just use
Speaker 3: their questions as my subheaders and then put bullet points
Speaker 3: under that, even if I'm just writing a really short email.
Speaker 3: Sometimes so say, it's just like a couple of sentences.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I will steal bold certain words and just like
Speaker 3: put it into two bullet points just so it's easier
Speaker 3: for people to understand.
Speaker 4: It's even like proven that when you're applying for jobs,
Speaker 4: recruiters will look at someone's CV for seven seconds. So
Speaker 4: the way you structure your resume is like key achievements
Speaker 4: must be in bold, like yeah, no one cares about
Speaker 4: the dot points of like your skills and expertise, like
Speaker 4: show your brilliance so someone can consume it in like
Speaker 4: the blink of an eye and.
Speaker 5: Sat and second. So yeah, yeah, it's actually like philosophy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so know that people aren't really reading your email properly,
Speaker 3: but help them with that.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Number five is don't use cliched corporate speak in
Speaker 5: your email. Speak like a human.
Speaker 3: So the thing that I think people underestimate sometimes is
Speaker 3: just calling it like it is. So say, for example,
Speaker 3: I had someone do this to me the other day.
Speaker 3: They're actually chasing me, so they'd chase me and then
Speaker 3: I hadn't responded to the chase, and so they were
Speaker 3: chasing me a third time.
Speaker 5: And they actually just called it like it is, and they.
Speaker 3: Were like, I know, I'm bugging you at this point,
Speaker 3: I'm giving it one more shot because this is really
Speaker 3: important to get a response from you by Friday because
Speaker 3: of this reason. And I was like, thank you for
Speaker 3: just calling it like it is. You know, she didn't
Speaker 3: say per my last email. She just spoke like a human,
Speaker 3: And I was like, right on, So I think, just like,
Speaker 3: stop using cliche corporates, beak just speak like a human.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 4: Have you seen the TikTok trend where they go around
Speaker 4: the office and they ask everyone what's their most hated
Speaker 4: like corporate one lineer and it's let's circle back per
Speaker 4: my last email. I actually asked chat GPT this. It
Speaker 4: made me lol, let's circle back on this is top
Speaker 4: of their list. They label this as corporate robot speak,
Speaker 4: let's circle back, just following up per my last email.
Speaker 4: Hope this email finds you well, and let's take this offline.
Speaker 4: These ones are funny though. It's like hollow praise and
Speaker 4: cringe worthy positivity. Love that for us, And then chat
Speaker 4: GPT guys in brackets do we do we really? And
Speaker 4: then it goes let's put a pin in that and
Speaker 4: then chat JVT in brackets that pin should be.
Speaker 5: Permanent CHATJPT has sad.
Speaker 1: And then you're a rock star. Just say thank you
Speaker 1: and give me a raise.
Speaker 5: I love this. We'll have to put this in the newsletter. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3: And then my final point is, yes, you use too
Speaker 3: many exclamation marks, and they're in the wrong places. So
Speaker 3: exclamation marks are fine. I'm not saying don't use them,
Speaker 3: but we use them in the wrong places. And yes,
Speaker 3: a lot of people do use too many. So the
Speaker 3: way a lot of people use exclamation marks is to
Speaker 3: try and get someone excited about something that is not
Speaker 3: objectively exciting. So here's that spreadsheet you wanted it, or
Speaker 3: I'm like inviting you to our mandatory finance training is like, no,
Speaker 3: that's not exciting, but yes, definitely, if something is objectively exciting,
Speaker 3: put an exclamation mark on it. I do think sometimes
Speaker 3: they can be helpful to soften the tone of an email,
Speaker 3: but again, I think emojis can be really good for
Speaker 3: that as well.
Speaker 5: What's your take on exclamation marks?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I worked in a workplace where they
Speaker 4: were used at the end of basically every sentence, and
Speaker 4: I had to go through it on learning to be honest.
Speaker 4: Once I left that workplace, and they actually did damage
Speaker 4: to the culture a little bit because they meant people
Speaker 4: being pray they felt like they were being praised when
Speaker 4: they were kind of just doing the bare minimum.
Speaker 1: So they can be a bit damaging.
Speaker 5: It's actually really undermining.
Speaker 3: So if you're someone who's trying to be taken more seriously,
Speaker 3: you're trying to show up as more senior. Yeah, you're
Speaker 3: trying to appear more confident in your emails, Like just
Speaker 3: stop using exclamation marks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think they've become overused in culture as well.
Speaker 5: To be honest, yeah, I gave everyone a lot of rules.
Speaker 3: I just want to say there are no actual rules,
Speaker 3: like be yourself and think about the person that you're
Speaker 3: actually emailing. If you're trying to show up as more
Speaker 3: senior and confident, these things are going to help you.
Speaker 3: So we're just going to recap them quickly with one
Speaker 3: action that you can start taking today. Love it.
Speaker 1: Are you ready ready?
Speaker 5: All right?
Speaker 3: Number one, your email's too long, so instead take ten
Speaker 3: seconds to think about the person you're sending your email
Speaker 3: to and think like, what do they need?
Speaker 5: And use chat GPT.
Speaker 3: To reduce the text by fifty percent. Number two, your
Speaker 3: email is upside down. Write it look for what the
Speaker 3: point of the email is. Put that up the top,
Speaker 3: put it in bolt. Number three. Small talk isn't warmth,
Speaker 3: so cut the lazy how are you? Yes, use emojis
Speaker 3: if that's the right vibe. Appreciate Say thank you in
Speaker 3: emails can bring out warmth. But also just have a
Speaker 3: conversation with each other around how you're going to email.
Speaker 3: If you're emailing people all the time, talk about how
Speaker 3: you're going to do it. Number four, use signposting, so
Speaker 3: bold and bullets even on slack, Like especially on Slack,
Speaker 3: you should be using bold and bullets. Number five, no
Speaker 3: corporate robots fake, so read it out loud to yourself.
Speaker 3: If you wouldn't say it, then don't write it. And
Speaker 3: then number six, be intentional about your exclamation marks. I'm
Speaker 3: not saying cut them completely, but use them in the
Speaker 3: right places.
Speaker 1: Oh I love these so much. They're going to help
Speaker 1: many people.
Speaker 2: I learned so much from this episode, especially how it's
Speaker 2: not about completely changing how we communicate. It's about being
Speaker 2: intentional with our words and knowing when to be direct
Speaker 2: versus when to add that personal touch. And sometimes the
Speaker 2: most powerful thing you can do is just hits end
Speaker 2: without overthinking it. Speaking of intentional communication, make sure you
Speaker 2: check out this week's BUZ Newsletter, where we're sharing those
Speaker 2: before and after email templates that's so mentioned earlier, Plus
Speaker 2: at Hilarious TikTok about the CEO who writes three word emails.
Speaker 2: And if you're loving these practical career tips, follow us
Speaker 2: at biz by Mama Mia on Instagram, where we'll be
Speaker 2: sharing more of the hacks throughout the week. I will
Speaker 2: catch you in Thursday's biz Inbox, where we tackle all
Speaker 2: of your career dilemmas. Bye Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional
Speaker 2: owners of land and waters that this podcast is recorded
Speaker 2: on