In my presentations I share two bad words that have to do with personal branding.
When people create branding statements (a tagline, the dreaded elevator pitch, etc.), they want to get a lot of awesomeness in a very concise statement.
So they use words that encapsulate big ideas.
Unfortunately, these words have very little meaning.
For example, when I was hiring programmers I found that cover letters, resumes and interview responses had certain words coming up again and again. When I revisited the job description I knew why. They were speaking to what was in the job description.
These words, which became meaningless, can be described as either cliche or jargon.
When you go through your branding statements, look for cliche and jargon… AND STRIKE THEM!
Take them out.
Don’t believe me?
Keep them in (throw in one or two more), try it on someone, and ask them to explain what it means. Usually they won’t be able to.
