Business English for Project Management & Budgets

11,153 views ・ 2024-01-27

Benjamin’s English


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Hi there and welcome back to engVid. My name
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is Benjamin. Today's lesson is primarily aimed
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at those of you using English for business,
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particularly those of you who have some hand
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in project management and keeping control of the finances, the budgets. So let's plow
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straight on in. Just a quick overview. We're
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going to be looking at possible problems when
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things go wrong, when things are going well,
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and then looking at some top tips, as in advice
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you can give others. So things that might
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go wrong. Well, if we're looking after a pot
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of money and no attention has been paid to the
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detail, then maybe some's gone here, some's
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gone there, some's gone there, and then all of a sudden, oh, there's no money left. A
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lack, that means not enough attention to detail
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in the planning. So that can refer to more
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things other than the budget, the project. Was
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it planned in enough detail? Now, if things
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fall behind, the project is moving too slowly,
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then we would say that it is behind schedule.
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Behind schedule. So we're on Monday, but the
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work, we're still doing Friday's work. We're
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behind schedule. And if you become behind schedule, then you're going to need to play
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or have to play catch-up. So if we've got a race
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and my friend is ahead of me, then I have to try
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and catch him up. If we're playing catch-up
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at work, then we're meant to have done this,
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so very quickly we have to reach this level. We
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have to catch up. If you are ill, then when you
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come back from being ill, you need to catch up on
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all your emails and all the work you need to do.
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Now, I have created a lesson on sort of sailing,
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boat idioms, etc. So this one is in there. But if
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you missed the boat, then you're too late. Maybe
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you're applying for a job and the deadline is
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nine o'clock. And if you don't finish your
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application by nine o'clock, you've missed the
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boat, or more formally, to miss the deadline.
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Often, idioms can be used in a more sort of
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social and informal way where the accurate
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vocabulary to the point is often what's used
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in business English. That's a generalization.
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Other problems, if you run out of money,
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it doesn't mean you're running away. No, it just
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means the money has run away. You have run out,
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there's no money left. Maybe that was caused
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by an unrealistic budget. Could you practice
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saying that with me? Unrealistic budget. And once again, unrealistic budget.
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So, reality is, you know, the real world. If
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something is realistic, then it's in line with
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how the world is. I think realistically, it's
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looking like it might snow tomorrow. If I have
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unrealistic expectations of the weather, I might
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think it's going to be sunny. An unrealistic
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budget is a plan for the money in the project that is not realistic.
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Budget constraints. Constraints is like a tie
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that holds you. So, it's like a limitation,
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budget limitations. So, we can only spend this amount on burritos. Key consideration.
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If you go over budget, then you spend too much,
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maybe on the burrito. You go for the extra large
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instead of the large. Yep. You're out of control. You can't help it. You're like,
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I want the extra large, but the budget says you're only allowed the large.
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We've got to pay attention to the detail, haven't
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we? We don't want to be running out of money.
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Yep. We need to have realistic budgets. If I
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can't help getting an extra large burrito, then
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I need to be more realistic with my budget. I make
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it sound like I've got some real food problem.
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Okay. Let's look at effective planning.
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Effective planning, when we plan effectively,
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we stay within budget. So, our plan is to spend
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this amount, and maybe we spend less than that.
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It doesn't happen to me very often, but I like the idea. To stay on track.
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Track. Yep. Like the train track. So, if a project is on track, then we're going to be
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meeting the deadline. The deadline's kind of at
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the next stop. Choo-choo, choo-choo, choo-choo.
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We're on track. We're going to get there. If your
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budget is on track, then you're not spending too
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much. Yep. You're staying on the straight and
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the narrow. You're staying on the path. Yeah.
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An accurate forecast. Yep. Forecast. What is
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coming our way? What is coming forward? What's
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coming from... What's, you know, the weather
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forecast. What weather are we about to have?
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An accurate forecast. An accurate prediction.
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An accurate forecast of maybe the money that
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is coming into the business. We're going to have this sale, this commission.
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If you get that accurate, it will be easier to plan the budget.
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Upfront planning, meaning planning in advance.
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Plans are meant to be about what's meant to happen.
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It's a very strange situation to have to do plans
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for things you have already done. You don't want
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to do that. You want to plan upfront, before.
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To make the launch date. Launch. Rocket. If you
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make the launch date, then the project is running
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to time. Or, even better, ahead of schedule.
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So, over here, we had behind schedule. Yeah,
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you're all late and you're doing last week's work.
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If you're ahead of schedule, you're like, "Woo,
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I've done all of this work and now I'm going to
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do next week's work." Okay, you still with me?
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Good. Hope you are a subscriber, because that
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helps me to make these videos. And let's have a
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look at some key tips. This quote is often quoted
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by Benjamin Franklin. "By failing to prepare, you
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are preparing to fail." Sometimes shortened to
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"fail to prepare", "prepare to fail". Well, it
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sounds all rather negative. Let's avoid that,
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shall we? By prioritizing tasks. Say it after
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me. Prioritizing. I know it says prioritize.
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Say "prioritizing". Good, in the continuous. So,
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you have a to-do list. Yep, people normally have
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long to-do lists. Prioritizing the tasks, the
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things you need to do, is going, "Right, well,
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that is more important than that." I often have
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two columns on a piece of paper saying sort of
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urgent and non-urgent. Or before I came here to Toronto, it was before Canada,
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urgent, non-urgent. Different people do it in different ways.
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To keep a tab on spending. Now, if you go into
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a pub in the UK and say, "Can I start up a tab,
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please?" It means that they just write down everything you spend, and then at the end,
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you pay the bill. So, if you keep a tab on
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spending, what you're doing is you're writing
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it down. You're taking note as it happens. Allocate sufficient, again, difficult to
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pronounce, sufficient resources. Adjective
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meaning enough, and the verb here, allocate,
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means that's going for this, that's for this,
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that's for this. This is how much we're spending
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on rent, this is how much we are spending on food,
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this is how much we're spending on transport.
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So, putting, you know, deciding to give enough
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for each of the things. Here, resources,
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allocating sufficient resources. Well, money
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is a resource, time is a resource, manpower.
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To make a contingency plan. I've written here that contingency means a backup plan,
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plan B. So, this is plan A, but if it all goes
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wrong, if it snows tomorrow and we can't do
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anything like that, our contingency plan,
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good formal English that, a contingency plan.
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At my cousin's wedding, the father of the groom, that's the man getting married,
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had a contingency plan in case there was a
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huge flood, which seemed rather unlikely, but
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you've got to think of all eventualities.
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Shall I write that down for you? Eventualities,
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that means anything that happens. Eventualities in the plural, eventualities.
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We're going to check progress at every stage.
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So, you can imagine this man was very detail
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orientated as he prepared for his son's wedding,
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and he was making sure that progress was being
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made at every stage. Has this been done? Has this
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been done? Can we have an update on this, please?
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Yep, very, very detail orientated. Can be a bit of a headache. Now, I've just got a few
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ways in which time, stay, and keep can be
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used to talk about budgets, etc., and plans.
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Time, you're not going to run out of time. So, we've had run out of money,
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where there's no more money. It's the same idea.
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The time goes, oh no, I'm leaving Canada tomorrow,
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and I've run out of time, and I haven't done this, and I haven't done that.
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Stay, I could, but it wouldn't be very popular.
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Stay, you're managing to stay on track. You're
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managing. Are you... If you manage... So, a manager handles things, yep, they organize,
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control things. If you are managing, are you...
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If you are managing, you're kind of surviving,
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you're being able to do it. Are you being able to stay on track? Are you...
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You're doing okay on track? Are you on progress?
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Still going okay? You're going to meet the
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deadline? Are you staying within the budget?
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You're not going over budget, staying within
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the budget. I don't think I've ever done that in my life, must learn. Keep,
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keep to the budget. Yep, this is how much we're
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spending, we keep to it. Keep to the launch date,
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yep, getting everything ready for the big day,
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and keeping costs down, yep, less spending.
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I hope there's been some really useful vocab
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for you in today's lesson. As a way of revising
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the content, do go over to the engVid website
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where you'll be able to do today's quiz. Thanks
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for watching. Do share with someone who would
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find this useful, and I'll see you in the next
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video, just as long as you're subscribing so you know when it is out. Thanks.
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