Unfortunately, most of my fellow citizens have vocabularies that ceased growing when they were around 12. (Newspapers write to a mostly-mythical 8th grade level... and prime time TV shows try to dumb it down even further.)
This can be fine... as long as communication still occurs. (And I'm a fan of using fancy words only among folks who appreciate them. Most of my writing, and especially all of my teaching materials, are carefully scrubbed of fifty-cent words... because I want to be understood. Never use a zinger from the Thesaurus when a nice piece of street slang will do the same job, is my motto.)
The trouble is...
... the culture is still pretty much stuck on the 9th floor of the Tower of Babble...
... when it comes to being precise about important words.
I could write for days on this subject.
But I think these few examples, below, will do the job.
These are the words that I see causing the most trouble when I do private consultations.
I used to literally drop my jaw, stunned, when I realized that a client was merrily bustling down a dangerous path... believing he was on the road to happiness...
... when he was actually about to plunge head-first into a pit of misery.
All because he misunderstood a couple of important ideas, as expressed in words.
I see this a LOT. So listen up:
1. Do not confuse ignorance... with naivete.
Rookie entrepreneurs and copywriters... and veteran business owners who've strayed into mysterious new marketing territory... would do themselves a huge favor by realizing there are vast gaps in their knowledge base.
Just own up to being ignorant of how things get done...
... for now.
Ignorance is the absence of knowledge. And it's totally okay to admit to yourself that you're a babe in the woods at this current stage you're in.
Your first job is to get a handle on what you don't yet know... that you need to know.
Then... go get it. Fill your brain with the data, ideas, secrets, skills and direction necessary for you to succeed.
You're going to kiss some frogs along the way, so you need to dive in and start sorting it out.
Ignorance can be cured with info. Just as fast as you can light up your brain nodules with data.
Naivete, though...
... is often a condition that needs bitter medicine to fix.
When I encounter a client who is naive... it means the right thing to do is not pile on more info...
... but rather to perform the most brutal Reality Check they can handle.
The ignoramus just lacks data. Many will fight having that data absorbed into their system... cuz most folks are terrified of change (especially when it means altering your worldview).
But it can be done. I was ignorant of pretty much everything about being a freelancer when I became my career.
But I knew I was ignorant... and I gobbled up knowledge in an ongoing process of de-ignorizing my bad self (which is still going on today).
Naive people don't yet realize they are under-prepared and under-equipped to move forward in life.
And -- worse part -- they tend to aggressively resist being de-naived. They blunder on, oblivious of their vulnerability to things like experience, savvy and skill in their competition.
So know where you're at on the scale.
If you don't know something, fine. No shame in that. Get hip, get educated, get mentored, master the needed skill-sets.
And if you've been sitting on what you hope is secret self-knowledge that you really don't understand squat about what you're doing... just get out of your own way.
Stop pretending. Stop faking it. Stop believing that good excuses can cover your act for an entire career.
The business world is like the jungle. The predator doesn't give a darn if you've got the vapors, or had a bad day, or just aren't good at some things (because you refuse to get better).
The excuse-model that maybe worked to get you through the miserable school system without consequence... doesn't do so well in the real world.
And it sucks to get eaten.
2. Don't confuse experience... with wisdom.
Took me a while to nail this concept.
Back when I was always the young punk at the table (yeah, that was me for most of my career), I knew I couldn't match clients for sheer years on the job.
And often, I just plain didn't know as much as they did.
So I sat on my ego... and went to school with every new consultation and meeting with a client.
Didn't take long before I'd had enough gigs under my belt to qualify for "mucho experience"... but more important, I kept focused on what I learned from each experience.
And that's when the big "a-Ha!" buzzer went off.
Experience does NOT automatically translate to wisdom.
You nearly always need experience before you attain wisdom, yes. But it's not a guarantee.
In fact, over my career, I've always spent the first minutes of any consultation diving into the experience-wisdom correlation with new clients.
Their ego screams "wisdom". But their actual savvy whispers "hasn't learned nothing in all those years".
The smart ones remember why they went looking for a consultation in the first place, and we can get moving on solutions and fixes.
The dumb ones fight it.
3. Do not confuse ego... with self-awareness.
Ego is rubbish. At most, it's a sense of being in the game, and keeping score (often in ways that no one else cares about).
Self-awareness must be earned.
And while most modern people can't entirely murder their ego... they can at least overwhelm it with self-awareness. So when it flares up, or gets bruised, or starts interfering... you can just say "oh, heck, my ego's involved in this" and get over it.
Do you set goals? If you set goals to satisfy your ego, your life will be miserly and grim.
The really good goals in life are always larger than "you".
Don't get confused about who's running the show.
4. Don't confuse expertise... with fast-talking charm.
I recently met a business owner who was extremely bright... when it came to delivering in his biz.
The marketing side? Not so much.
In fact, as we chatted, he was almost giddy when he revealed he was about to solve all the horrific problems he was having making his online efforts work...because he had just paid a small fortune to genius ad guy.
Who was this genius?
Why, the guy behind some of the most recognizable jingles in the history of television prime-time ads.
On Madison Avenue, this genius never has to buy a drink, cuz he's famous.
For jingles.
I almost choked when I found out the price tag of this jingler's services (which, I guessed correctly, were centered on "branding" nonsense that had zero chance of even causing a ripple online).
This problem -- confusing charm with real expertise in what you need -- is like a weed or rat problem in the entrepreneurial world.
People who can talk the talk... but can't walk the walk... are causing some serious financial damage out there.
It has ever been thus... until you get hip to how things really get done.
When money is on the line... especially your money (connected to the success or failure of your biz)... screw charm.
Some (actually, maybe most) of the best marketing and business minds I've ever met... are charm-challenged, grizzled, anti-social quasi-nut jobs.
You don't have to like the dude who rescues you from the hot coals.
You just gotta learn to tell the difference between him, and the dazzling scum-ball out to gut your wallet.
Let your trust be earned.
Finally...
5. As marketers and copywriters, don't confuse no-good customers... with righteously angry folks who have a legitimate complaint.
You blackball the first.
But you embrace the second. As tough as it can be to hear someone point out the flaws, foibles and blunders in your biz...you cannot grow without that kind of reality check.
Getting good advice, insight and direction is almost never pretty.
This is business, folks. Not junior high.
6. And... don't confuse real humor... with puns.
That's just my own personal crusade.
Man, I hate puns.
Brrr. Horrible little things...
About this Author
John Carlton's 25-year career is legendary... as an expert copywriter, a pioneer in online marketing, and a teacher of killer sales copy. He knows marketing inside and out. To read more from John (including accessing the 5-years-deep archive of hard-core tactics and insight and advice, for free) just dive into his globally-read blog:
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