You cannot design your brand voice

Describing myself as talkative is probably an understatement. As a child, every report noted how much I enjoyed chatting, and this trend continued with my bosses. It’s the main reason why I always volunteered to be the social secretary at every company I’ve worked for.

It’s also why, when I realised the lack of face-to-face talking involved in freelancing, I had a slight panic, before I began to record myself.

Without me sounding mad, this is a practice I fully recommend. I think best when talking something through. So rather than sitting with my thoughts, when I’m working through a problem or an idea, I put myself into a one-person meeting, hit the transcribe button (there are good purposes for AI!) and talk it through. I can then read back my transcripts and see where the cogs were turning and buttons started to click.

Have an idea whilst you’re out for a walk? Voice note yourself! Game changer!

This has made me very aware of my speaking style. Primarily, it’s gotten me to focus on reducing the number of times I say “like” and “um”. But it’s also shown me my core words and speech patterns. It’s helped me see the topics I keep coming back to. The core beliefs that always come through in my speech, no matter the subject.

In short, it’s helped me to recognise my voice.

I am a call-over-an-email person through and through.

By no means did I struggle with having a voice before this point. But there’s a big difference between speaking on any and every topic across all your marketing channels and actually having a brand voice.

So many clients tell me they’ve defined their brand voice. Often with a list of adjectives that describe them (let me guess: “friendly”, “open”, or my least favourite, “authentic”). Or a table of what they do and don’t say.

So many more clients tell me they have no clue what their brand voice is. They don’t know what to talk about. They want their voice to stand out, but they don’t know how.

The latter group is probably being more honest with themselves. But both groups share the same problem: they’re trying to define their brand voice rather than recognise it.

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Your voice is your perspective

Your voice isn’t your tone, your style, or the structure of your sentences. It’s not your brand slogan, and it certainly isn’t found in a list of dos and don’ts.

Your voice is the lens through which you see the world.

We each move through life individually, facing problems and experiences that shape our beliefs. We arrive at our own conclusions about how the world works, what matters to us, and what we should stand up for. We have our own rulebook that guides us, helping us understand what happens, solve issues, and defend our beliefs.

Understanding what resonates with you and why forms the basis of your voice.

When you are clear about who you are, what you believe in, and why you serve your customers, every element of your voice can effectively mirror that identity.

By recognising your own perspective and making that your voice, you shape all of your messaging around your core beliefs. Meaning you can stay true to yourself and consistent because you’ve identified the main message within your voice.

Potentially making it my core belief that this is the most perfect takeout cappuccino I have yet to have?

This is excellent news for those of us who do want to speak to everything.

If voice is your perspective, then it means that multiple interests can coexist, and your identity evolving is natural.

Too often, a brand voice definition comes with that dos and don’ts list. We try to force ourselves into certain categories, outline only a few of our interests that we will speak on, or become selective about what issues we’ll acknowledge.

But that’s not how real-life works. My friends would know which subjects I would naturally speak up on. What my core beliefs are and what my general views are. Definitely not because they’ve seen a one-pager about my personal brand or because I’ve posted a list of personality words that are meant to describe my voice on my personal Instagram. But just because that is my actual voice. Why should that not be the same for my clients with my brand voice?

When we are all striving for authenticity, is the solution not to simply recognise what we innately stand for, rather than trying to define it and tell ourselves what our voice should be?

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So how do you recognise your voice?

1. Listen to how you naturally explain things

I’ve already encouraged you once to try recording yourself, listening back, or reading through the transcripts — think of this as take two! Of course, I understand that this might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Outside of that, the easiest way to recognise your voice is to notice how you naturally explain things when you’re not trying to impress.

Imagine how you talk when leaving a voice note to a friend or chatting on the phone with someone you care about. I personally incorporate my natural speaking style into my writing, too. I know I tend to speak casually, often using words like “actually” and “so” more than I should, and I’m not always quick to get to the point. But I’ve found that when I structure my marketing in this same way, potential clients who then get on a discovery call with me feel an instant connection because it’s so true to the messaging that they’ve already heard from me.

Write! Listen to recordings! Practice speaking! Learn your voice through whatever comes most naturally to you.

2. Look for the problems you keep trying to solve.

I frequently speak about having one core perspective. One core customer problem you talk to. You can solve that same problem in multiple ways and have different tangents on it, but if you can nail something you really care about, and that your business is here to solve, that is a golden nugget for your messaging.

For example, maybe you’re obsessed with the concept of avoiding burnout, perhaps because you’ve been there before, and passionately believe work should support life rather than consume it. That is your core perspective. You can talk about different ways work can support life. Different things you do to prioritise life. But it can all come back to that core perspective and the core problem you are solving, so people can know what to expect from you, and almost hear your voice in their head when they’re nearing that burnout stage.

If you think you can’t narrow it down to one perspective or one problem, then what is the common thread that connects everything you care about? Often the same belief can show up across completely different areas. Maybe you care about ethical business, equal pay, positive mental health, and slowing down. All valiant causes, and all with a common thread of believing that people deserve systems that respect their humanity.

Your interests might be different, but your perspective will likely be the same. So what ties everything you care about together? And how can you recognise that tie as your voice?

I will forever quote this quote. So what are your promises you’re intent on delivering on? What’s the core point of your messaging?

3. Repeat it

To have a voice, you must be heard. There’s no point in defining your beliefs and perspectives if you aren’t going to share them. Naturally, we are all a bit self-centred. We’re all the main characters in our own stories, and because we are constantly thinking of ourselves, and seeing every piece of messaging we write and hearing every word we say, it’s easy to think that repeating our core perspective repeatedly is dull. But everyone else is their own main character in their own, entirely different story. You’ll be lucky if they see a third of what you put out, and even then, they’ll likely only absorb about a third of the bits they do see. Find your voice, then use it again and again until you’re bored. And then use it some more.

Whether your school reports or quarterly reviews equally reflected that you were a talker, or if you’ve always identified as more of an introvert, we all have a voice. And whilst that voice certainly shouldn’t be defined in three personality words of “friendly”, “open”, or again that dreaded “authentic”, it can be recognised through your underlying beliefs. So here’s to more voices being found, and even more importantly, being used.

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