I was talking to a young female friend recently and she told me she had left her car in a 30-minute parking zone and that time-period had already lapsed. But she was having fun and didn’t feel like bothering with the car so she was going to “risk it for the biscuit”.
I might have been hiding under a rock but I hadn’t heard the term before. I liked it and it is one of those terms where you can work out what it means.
That’s not the case with a lot of the terms Millennials and some Gen-Xers use where, thanks partly to texting and social media, a whole new language of acronyms and abbreviations has emerged and if you’re not in the know you don’t have a clue what people are talking about.
IMO (in my opinion), trying to understand the new language can be a CWOT (complete waste of time) and leaves me SMH (shaking my head) FWIW (for what it’s worth).
People who don’t understand this modern communication might experience FOMO (even I know that one) but others who couldn’t be bothered with any of it could experience JOMO (joy of missing out).
My 16-year-old son referred to something I said the other day as a “flex”. Someone tried to explain what that means but I still don’t really get it. I do find there is a bit of strategy of KPC (keeping parents clueless), which is quite nasty of the little brats.
When words and terminology are unclear there is a breakdown in communication. That might be okay by today’s kids but the industry I work in relies on clear, concise communication.
Good communication is vital whether you are dealing with a seller, appraising their house, suggesting a marketing and sales strategy, giving feedback from an open house or talking to a buyer about the features of a property, explaining price expectations, or negotiating a deal.
It might come as a shock to some young people but sometimes a text won’t cut it. You actually need to pick up the phone and talk to someone because what you are saying might lead to questions, the need for clarification. There might be a level of nuance or emphasis in the words that make the meaning clearer, more concise in a way that a text can’t achieve.
Of course texting and emailing have their place and there are times when you don’t need to bother someone with a phone call.
But the important moments, when it’s decision time, when an agent needs to earn their money, that’s when the texting needs to stop and it’s time to talk. And the words need to be clear, convey a meaning that the buyer or seller understands.
Take this sentence: “I didn’t say you should kill him”. The meaning of the sentence changes completely depending on which word you emphasise.
I didn’t say you should kill him … I didn’t say you should kill him … I didn’t say you should kill him … I didn’t say you should kill him … I didn’t say you should kill him … I didn’t say you should kill him … I didn’t say you should kill him.
Clear communication is vital in my business because, while it’s not life and death, we are talking about people’s most important assetts and we can’t just risk it for the biscuit.
