Speaker - December 2017

8
TRILLION

text
messages
are sent

500
MILLION

tweets are tweeted

WHY YOU SHOULD ‘CARE LESS’

When writing or speaking, should you use “I could care less” or “I couldn’t care less!”?

This one is tricky because the two phrases have different meanings:

¢ I COULD CARE LESS implies that you care and have less care. For example: I love my audiences, but I could care less about those who don’t pay attention.

¢ I COULDN’T CARE LESS

implies that you don’t care at all, and there is no less that you can care. For example: I couldn’t care less about the opinions of people who only want to see me fail.

Elements of Style states:
“The dismissive ‘I couldn’t care
less’ is often used with the
shortened ‘not’ mistakenly (and
mysteriously) omitted: ‘I could
care less.’ The error destroys
the meaning of the sentence
and is careless indeed.”
Next time you are deciding
if you “could care less” or
“couldn’t care less” make sure
you know the difference or just
share that you simply don’t care.

Excerpted from The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, Fourth Edition.

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BRIEFS

The sheer amount of information people are bombarded with is overwhelming. And while email, texting, and social media are great tools to reach people, if you want to get more speaking gigs, you may need to start using one of the oldest marketing tools available: the telephone.

People buy from people they like and trust. If all you do is email people and never talk with them or meet them in person, you’re not giving decision-makers an opportunity to like and trust you. Plus, because so many speakers use nothing but email, picking up the phone and calling people will help you stand out.