In 1872, the US government passed a tariff law exempting some imported goods from tax.

One was for fruit plants, like a banana or pineapple plant. You know, the stuff that makes the fruit.

The line read:

"Fruit, plants tropical and semi-tropical for the purposes of propagation or cultivation.”

Now, you might’ve breezed past that and not noticed an issue…

The government made that mistake too.

The comma was one word early. Fruit, plants. Importers argued that the line implied all fruit and plants were exempt from tarrifs.

Fruit began pouring in.

The government tried to fight back, going to court to battle the sentence nitpickers.

But the court agreed.

The comma was wrong.

The result?

Over $2m in refunds.

Which might not sound like much, but when you account for inflation, that’s $38m.

Now, I don’t know anything about the current tariff stuff except my bum squeaked when I checked my investments this week.

..but that’s fine, because that’s the point.

Money goes up, money goes down—your sanity should stay the same.

But hopefully Trump’s reading this email, because here’s the lesson from 1872.

Clarity is king.

When you write, you think you know what you mean. But if you’re not clear, you’re not compelling.

Your reader ends up confused, and confused people don’t buy.

This applies in copywriting, but also at a brand level.

For example, I took on 9 high-ticket clients in January, and I've spent most of my time repeatedly drilling down the same point:

You’re not being clear enough.

When I find you on social media, you need to say precisely who you are, who you serve, and how you can help.

And I need to know why I should care.

If you don’t, you are wasting your time creating content. It’s like building a bucket full of holes. People who you can serve never stick around because they don’t know you serve them.

The cost of confusion is a killer.

Get your message right,

Kieran