Three Powerful Words to Improve Your Credibility

In this day and age, especially in the Social Media arena, credibility and trust can make or break a business, particularly if that business is based upon a personal reputation. So having impeccable credibility is essential to having a successful business.

It isn’t enough to know a lot of technical details, nor is it enough to know current marketing jargon. You have to know what you don’t know, and you have to be totally, completely, and wonderfully at home in that knowledge¹.

What separates the real knowledgeable people from the posing pretenders who make all of our lives friggin’ ridiculously difficult is that the real knowledgeable people are willing to say the three words that will automatically create a sense of trust in a client. What are they?

I don’t know.

Something magical happens when you say, “I don’t know.” Your willingness to admit a limitation makes your true knowledge even more powerful, because you have just admitted that you will not pretend or make something up², but rather you will confess your ignorance.

You may be thinking: ‘But wait, why would you admit that you don’t know something? Aren’t you supposed to be the expert?’

To which, I have two replies:

1. Your FACE is an expert³

and

2. An expert is not omniscient. They are skillful, knowledgeable, adept, resourceful, and wise. But there is no requirement that an expert know everything.

Admitting ignorance about an area of expertise shows confidence, it also shows a willingness to be honest. Besides, in Social Media, you don’t have much of a shelf-life if you fudge facts, make stuff up, pretend to know, or just flat out lie. Someone will find you out, point out your flaws and make sure everyone knows.

And you deserve it.

When you pretend to know something for the sake of impressing a client or saving face, you are essentially telling the client that they are not worth being told the truth. When⁴ the client finds out the truth, you have lost all credibility. Think about it as a customer. Would you like being lied to? Would you like someone just making something up so that you will pass your hard earned money to them?

No. The correct answer is no, you would not.

As a customer, you would appreciate someone telling you truth. You buy from people you trust. People will also buy from you if they trust you and one of the

1. Just…please, keep your pants on. [↩]
2. Like the fact that 73% of all statistics are made up on the spot [↩]
3. Burn!! [↩]
4. Not if [↩]