If you want to make yourself cringe, try looking at what your website used to say a few years ago.

I've just looked at mine from late 2008 after I'd been in business a year.

Apparently “we are business consultants and advisors based in Manchester specialised in helping professional services firms achieve their business growth objectives.”

Wow. Consultants and advisors.

Not bad given there has only ever been the one of me.

And apparently, I helped professional service firms achieve their business growth objectives.

I think that means I helped them get more clients.

Back then I thought that language sounded professional. Now it just seems pompous.

But it's so easy to get lost trying to impress people instead of just communicating clearly.

And it's easy to tie yourself up in the kind of internal jargon you and your colleagues might use, but that makes no sense to your clients. 

A while back, for example, I was at a conference when in all seriousness an advertising guy talked about how his work was all about “consumers having conversations with brands”. Apparently watching an ad on TV is “having a conversation with a brand”.

Last week I got a promo for a conference where a bio for one of the speakers told me she had “a real passion for creating assets within integrated campaigns”.

I don’t have a clue what an asset within an integrated campaign is, but I have a sneaking suspicion this person doesn't really have a passion for creating them.

Passion is what we have for music, art, our favourite football team and our wife. We might like and enjoy our jobs, but who of us really has a passion for “creating assets”?

So let's say what we really mean. Let's not pretend we're passionate about the mundane. Let's not try to sound like we're a big firm when we're not. And let's communicate in ways that our clients can actually understand.

I failed miserably at that in 2008, but I got a bit better over time.

It's not so hard when you stop trying to sound clever or professional or something you're not.