Becky's banned word list

10 banned words when writing about yourself or your business.

They're overused to the point they're meaningless and make people like me roll our eyes. You're aiming to stand out. Don't use cut-and-paste language.

Have an irreverent interpretation of the main offenders, followed by a sensible tip. Thank me later.

1. Enthusiastic - Spaniels. Spaniels are enthusiastic.

2. Motivated - Likes being able to pay bills.

3. Go-getter - Gets up at 5 just so they can flex on it (m.).

4. Driven - obsessed, potentially demonic forces involved (don’t ask).

5. Passionate - irrationally obsessed. Do not be fooled. Passionate about a project is being up at 3am sporting psycho hair, missing an eyebrow, and being choked by sitting on the back of your back-to-front t-shirt you’ve been meaning to deal with ‘in a minute’ for the last 18 hours (Becky TM). Nobody wants to deal with that.

6. Conscientious - won’t steal the office supplies (too much).

7. Detail-oriented - always finds Wally. Even when finding Wally isn’t part of the brief.

8. Meticulous - organises paper clips.

9. Precise - counts them while they’re at it.

10. Exacting - everybody they’ve ever worked with hates them. Probably due to their fetish for micromanaging paperclips.

So now I’ve finished poking fun, what do we do? They’re good words. They fit the bill.

That’s why everybody uses them.

We’re not everybody.

Show, don’t tell.

‘I am, I am, I am’ statements are empty. They don’t contain anything, so they don’t sell anything.

You could say:

‘Detailed-oriented, precise and exacting, I go over business expenditure with a fine-tooth comb to find where profits are seeping.’

Or you could say:

‘For client X, I cut spending 5% finding unused subscriptions. Then reduced it a further 20% by sourcing better deals on everything from shipping contracts to the office handwash.’**

One claims characteristics. The other sells the results of those characteristics.

** I don’t do financial audits. It probably shows.