❣ I am passionate about…
❣ We are passionate about…
Either of these 4 word starters – to a blog post, a job ad, a social media bio, a video or in real life – has me reaching for the sick bag immediately.
Not only are they wasted words (most people wouldn’t be crowing about what they did if they weren’t passionate about it, so why bother saying it?), they are words that have lost all meaning.
Let’s face it – no-one is ‘passionate’ about SEO. You may be good at it, amazingly good in fact, but it’s not a passion. (If it is you need to get out more).
Could you imagine being passionate about lifts (elevators to any US readers)? You may be fantastic at selling lifts to companies that need them. You may even really like selling lifts. But passionate? I’m not convinced, if I’m honest.
A quick Google search showed that people in business are passionate about many things:
❣ Public services (really?)
❣ The North-East (I might give you this one, but you’re an online newspaper)
❣ Training (these people were passionate AND dedicated)
❣ People (what does this even mean?)
❣ Enterprise software (apparently it’s not just a job)
❣ Quality and involvement (no, I don’t know either)
❣ Delivering incredible service (umm, does that need to be said?)
❣ Pets (from a holiday park, who I’d rather were passionate about their holiday park if they have to go down that route)
❣ ‘Our goal’ (just tell me what the bloody goal is, quickly, and before telling me you’re passionate about it)
I know, I get it, the above people probably all love what they do. I love what I do, that’s why I do it. Am I passionate about it? I probably am, but I don’t feel the need to tell everyone that I’m passionate before I show or tell them how I can do the job they want doing.
When you tell me how passionate you are about something as a company or in your LinkedIn bio, it reminds me of those 18 year olds on X Factor crying backstage about how being a singer is their passion and their life’s dream (you’re 18 love, you’ve only been capable of conscious thought for about 17 of those and I guarantee your first thought wasn’t “Ooh I want to be a singer when I grow up”.)
Tell me what you can do, tell me you’re good at it, tell me why I should choose you. Don’t start with “I’m passionate about…” because I simply don’t care.
Here are David Mitchell’s thoughts – it’s well worth a watch.
