Thoughts of my tenure in elementary school as a young lad brings back as many joyous memories as it does scarring ones. I got to play Danny in our 6th grade presentation of Grease, complete with the Michael Jackson infamous "Zipper Jacket", and I nailed it! Then, there was the time I heard crickets chirping and my heart pounding as I bombed while trying to entertain the class with my impersonation of Jon Lovitz's "The Liar" character during my speech for a coveted student council position. I could go on and on about the good old days of being a kid, but there are things I actually learned that still hold true to this day.
I was a somewhat smart child (at least until age 13), so I loved learning. I loved the Spelling Bee and taking my shot at proving I could spell "onomatopoeia" better than Susie Smarty Pants. En route to my inevitable seizing of the Bee Crown, I spoke with my teachers for some tips. "I" before "E", except after "C", when sounding like "A" in "neighbor" and "way". Just one of many catchy memory tools to help me in my spelling career.
While I never appeared on ESPN's Spelling Bee, nor did I letter in "Spelling" in high school, I do know that in my current career as an Affiliate Manager for Credit.com's Debt, Credit Report and Credit Card Affiliate Program, I need to always be careful of what I type and how I type it. Not only misspellings, but using the wrong words altogether. You would be shocked how many times I have been called "Bryan" or "Ron" in an email......even with my signature 2 inches below the email reply! Nothing says "I don't care enough to really focus on your real name" like an error like that. When dealing with partners, affiliates or clients it is imperative you get these things right. I know if I received a prospecting letter to do business with me and I saw a bevvy of misspellings, it would make me wonder how much effort was put into that email in the first place.
The same goes for grammar. Back to the elementary school lessons, "look before you leap" comes into play here. Prior to firing off an email to some awesome potential partner, slow down, take a breath and reread what you are about to send. Spellchecker is a great thing, but even that can change your "I would like to "chatt" sometime" error to "I would like to "chant" sometime" and let's face it..... that's creepy and weird.
So remember, you are only as good as your reputation and when communicating with people, your reputation inadvertently gets put on the line. So, do your best and focus! Now I will cross my fingers that I indeed didn't actually misspell any words in my blog about "misspelling words. "
