You don’t want there to be a difference between your brand voice & your personal voice, but there is.

The idea of a difference feels artificial, inauthentic, and potentially dangerous. What if the voice of my brand FEELS different to my Right Person than my own voice does, & when they work with me or meet me in person, they feel the disconnect?

But there is a difference — albeit sometimes a subtle one — between brand voice & personal voice, & the difference exists for a reason.

Here at The Voice Bureau, we believe passionately in the separation of brand voice and personal voice. We find it empowering — and we teach our clients and customers how to embrace and appreciate the difference.

The differences that matter to you, as a brand creator or business owner are:

• shaping & editing vs. ‘off the cuff’ & unfiltered
• personable vs. personal
• Right Person focus vs. self-reflective or self-reflexive focus

Let’s go through these one by one so you can explore the difference.

Shaping & Editing vs. ‘Off the Cuff’ & Unfiltered

At their best, brand voices are always shaped and edited. An ‘off the cuff,’ unfiltered brand voice isn’t very effective or trustworthy. Whereas a personal voice, writing on a personal blog, can be ‘off the cuff’ and unfiltered, and still be readable and enjoyable to others.

You are not your brand. Not even if you’re a solo business owner. Not even if your Right People say they hire you for YOU.

Why? Because YOU’RE a person, whereas your brand is a construct of personality plus (value) proposition plus awareness of your potential buyer. No matter how much of your personality you allow into your business brand, there’s still a distinction — a necessary, human, life-affirming one. (To distinguish between your self and your brand is to affirm that you are more than, and separate from, what you create.)

Your brand voice is an expression of your brand. Your brand voice might incorporate your own particular personality, and it may feel personal, but it still belongs to your brand. If your brand went away, so would its brand voice. (This is why it’s possible to tweak and evolve the voice of your brand in order to aim at new goals, to up the interest of a particular segment of your market, and to position yourself differently as you move your brand into a new phase.)

Personable vs. Personal

A brand voice can aim to be personable in how it moves online, whereas a personal voice can afford to be, well, personal. Your personal voice is the voice you might use in your personal blog (not your business blog), your emails, your non-business Facebook posts, your love letters, your diary.

A business brand that leans on the personal as part of its currency and energy opens itself up to great risk.

What happens when life happens, as it inevitably will? If the brand creator becomes temporarily jaded, gets hurt by a collaborator, feels betrayed by a subcontractor, goes through a divorce, has postpartum depression, feels weary at life or marketing, is disappointed at a failed launch? You can’t put your brand voice on Prozac. As a business owner/leader/CEO/brand manager, it’s your job to protect your business and brand from the vagaries of the market, and once in a while, from yourself!

Personable, in the context of marketing a brand, means to show up as approachable. Making your brand voice personable means to give it a point of view, a distinct perspective, a style that is recognizable, relatable, and human. 

I didn’t come up with the ‘personable vs. personal’ distinction. I heard someone talking about it in a podcast interview a few years ago. The person (I wish I could remember who!) gave the example of taking her kids out for ice cream. A personal Instagram post might show her two daughters crowded on her to her lap, everyone angling their tongue at the top scoop of a huge cone. A personable Instagram post (one she might use on her business IG account) might show a downward shot into the colorful ice cream barrels. It’s still real life, it’s just not personal to the business owner only. It becomes personal to any IG follower who loves ice cream, loves color, loves their memories of going to the ice cream shop as a kid and standing on tippy-toe to look down through the protective window into the frosty, chock-full barrels of cold, creamy goodness.

Your personal voice is personal. Your brand voice is personable.

Right Person Focus vs. Self-Reflective or Self-Reflexive Focus

Your brand voice is shaped at least 50% (and sometimes up to 100%) to speak to the Right Person reader, client, or customer in a way that would extraordinarily appeal to them. Your brand voice MUST resonate or else it’s a flop.

Want some input on how to shape your brand voice to appeal to your Right People? Sign up below to Discover Your Voice Values. We’ll send you a rich, 48-question self-assessment that’ll get right down to business — and to brand voice — in about 10 minutes.

Enter your best email address below and click Go to get started.

Your personal voice is yours. It’s self-reflective (meaning, focusing on yourself and your own experience) or self-reflexive (meaning, focusing on your own creation of self). You can develop and shape your personal voice however you want, or let it be raw and untouched and first draft-only as long as you’d like, in whatever realms you’d like. In your personal voice, you can write for you and what pleases you, without worrying about the demands of the market and the preferences of your Right People.

The differences between your brand voice & your personal voice are significant & meaningful.

They’re there for a reason and the reason is to support the thriving of your business. While at first we might start a business for personal reasons — to make money doing something we love, to fulfill a personal dream — we quickly realize that in order to thrive, we have to consider our Right People every bit as much (actually, more) than we consider ourselves.

In the comments, we’d love to hear:

Do you notice a distinction between your brand voice and your personal voice? What have you made of that? What do you make of it after reading this post?

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What’s the connection between your brand voice & your ideal client? It’s pretty major & you’ve been probably been overlooking it.

Here’s what you already have figured out:

Certain people are drawn to you.

You are drawn to certain people.

As it is in your personal life/friendships/romances, so it is in your client roster and subscriber list.

Here’s what you haven’t yet parsed: the particular alchemy of those seemingly-destined connections. The recipe for that subtle mysterious magic. You’re highly self-aware, but you know you haven’t yet put your finger on all of the insights that will make the client connection thing make sense.

Divining and describing the patterns (and the outliers) that can be found in connection with our Right People is one of my very favorite things to do in my work at The Voice Bureau.  I call it Right People Profiling.

Back in seventh grade, I wrote an innocent, ‘wanted ads’-style matchmaking column for the Valentine’s Day issue of the student newspaper. (What was the paper even called? The Lehman Ledger, maybe?) Anyhow, I wrote about how Kelley W. was obsessed with Jordan Knight from New Kids on the Block and was looking for a “fine, sensitive guy” who resembled him, and how Marcus L. was in search of a special “fly lady” who was looking for appreciation from “a true gentleman.” Keep in mind, I was not quite 13 at the time and the oldest classmate I was writing about was 15.

While I’ve long had an eye for chemistry, I never thought this skill would show up in my work. (Nope, being a professional matchmaker — a less brash Patti Stanger — was never on my radar.)

But being obsessed with the particularities of what makes two humans magnetize each other . . . and then describing the texture of what that is and why it’s works . . . that’s my sweet spot.

At The Voice Bureau, describing the chemistry between you and your ideal client is at the heart of our work.

It shows up in our copywriting projects with clients, in our evergreen courses, and in our signature Voice Values methodology. Truly, your Right People Rules are all encoded in your brand voice.

The 16 Voice Values help brand creators understand what their innate brand voice sounds like (and looks like) in action, and understand why certain people are drawn to that voice and why others are ambivalent or repelled.

Haven’t taken it yet? 48 questions, about 10 minutes of your time, and you’ll self-score your way to clarity on what’s naturally powerful about the way you tweet, Facebook, write blog posts, and email your list.

You’ll also learn a bit about why certain people are drawn to you and what you should watch out for as you grow your brand.

Enter your best email address below and click Go to get started.

 

I created this paradigm for branding to help brand creators and business owners — especially small, creatively-oriented brands (writers, authors, web and graphic designers, artists and illustrators, singers, dancers, and performers), helping-focused brands (healers, teachers, trainers, coaches, consultants, wellness practitioners), or aesthetically-inclined brands (fashion designers, floral designers, food stylists, interior designers, product designers) — own how they naturally and powerfully communicate when they’re at their best, standing in their strengths. So they can do more of it, consciously and intentionally.

The Voice Values give name & substance to what is already there.

But your top mix of Voice Values don’t stop at describing what you are and how you do it. Your top mix of Voice Values also tells you a LOT about the reader, client, customer, or buyer who is going to be drawn to you, when you’re owning what’s uniquely potent about you in your brand. When you’re owning your voice.

After all, when we speak/write/teach, we don’t do so in a vacuum. We are part of a conversation. Yes, even before we’ve grown our readership to a certain size of audience.

Our voices matter. Because voices inherently do.

If you believe this, too, you’re in the right place.

So what is the connection between your Voice Values and the people who will be innately motivated to learn from you, buy from you, do business with you, read you?

I have some conclusions and some insights to share, and I’m putting them together into The Voice Bureau’s first fully digital, downloadable product. It’s called Right People Rules: Define Your Brand Voice & Your Ideal Client. It’s a digital inquiry kit, which means it goes beyond basic e-book-ness and takes you into self-assessment, self-reflection, and immediate applications of what you learn.

I’m taking what I know to be a big, complex subject and distilling it down to the pith. Well, the pith plus. You know I have a high Depth value.

Noteworthy: Right People Rules is the first of several fully digital, highly affordable products we’ll be releasing . . . and we’re pricing it to SELL. We want to get this into the hands of as many of our potential clients and longtime readers as possible. This work is designed for accessibility. While it’s currently one of our lowest-priced products EVER, it packs so much value. 

Remember what you already know:

Certain people are drawn to you.

You are drawn to certain people.

The why behind that magic isn’t always as easily discernible in our client rosters and subscribers lists as it is in our personal lives/friendships/romances.

If you’d love for ideal client understanding to become a much richer discovery process than it’s been until now, or if you’re turning a corner in your business and need to bring your brand and your audience along with it, Right People Rules is for you in mind.

$95 Pre-Sale happening now, until Tuesday, September 1st when the price goes up to $125.

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This article was written in collaboration with The Voice Bureau former collaborative partner (and current friend!), Tami Smith.

Right People (AKA ideal clients or site visitors). Every brand has them.

This is true whether you’ve launched a product yet, have revenues of $500/month or $10,000/month, and despite whether you blog 2x a week likeyouknowwe’reallsupposedto or not.

It’s easy, in a frustrated state, to feel that your Right Person — the person most inclined to hire you, to buy your products and services, to read your articles and social media posts, and to become a brand advocate for you — is a needle in a haystack. Where, in the big bad internet, is this elusive one-in-a-million (billion?) individual, who is supposedly “hanging out” somewhere online with scores of other People Just Like Them who are waiting, wallets poised, to snatch up your latest creation, because you, to them, are like the entrepreneurial Second Coming?

This, as I’m sure you’ve gleaned from my sarcasm, is not exactly the way getting better qualified site traffic and better conversions (i.e. more opt-ins or sales) works.

There’s no secret place on the internet where all of your Right People are hanging out hoping to meet someone just like you.

But Right People? They’re real. Ideal clients? Not a myth. (Although there are many myths about how to size them up.) [link]

How do we know? Let’s take a look.

In the whole world over, there are a finite number of ‘types’ of people.

While we’re all individuals and our needs and desires vary from person to person, if you study universal human nature (and psychological-behavioral patterns), you’ll find that people tend to fall into 4 basic types: we call these types Humanistic, Spontaneous, Competitive, and Methodical.

• HUMANISTIC TYPES are attuned to the interconnectedess of all people and things. They’re wired to be helpful. They dislike conflict and prefer to focus on beauty, harmony, and solitude. They seek unity.

• SPONTANEOUS TYPES are attuned to freedom, flexibliity, and possibilities. They’re wired to be enthusiastic. They dislike rules and restrictions, and they’re turned on by big vision, adventure, and a sense of community. They seek approval from others.

• COMPETITIVE TYPES are attuned to winning and achieving. They’re wired to be powerful. They dislike weakness, inefficiency, and people who slow down action by getting mired in feelings or wishy-washy deliberations. They love order and strength, and they desire to be the best — sometimes their personal best, sometimes best in class. They seek control.

• METHODICAL TYPES are attuned to the search for pure, irrefutable truth. They’re wired to be deep. They dislike brashness, things that can’t be proven, and sloppiness. They’re attuned to details, measurements, and proof. They seek certainty.

While the Four Buyer Types are a well-known, well-documented marketing framework — a part of the methodology we employ at The Voice Bureau to guide our copywriting client projects and more — this perspective doesn’t apply to business alone.

Four different types run through our world in many ways.

There are The Four Seasons. The Four Temperaments. The 12 Signs of the Zodiac, which can be grouped into 4 Elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire). The Four Blood Groups (A, B, AB, O).

Of course, there are blends, too: there are Spontaneous buyers with a Competitive edge, and Methodical buyers with a Humanistic edge. In terms of Blood Types, you can be O+ or O-, etc. All of us have access to all four types (we human beings have great range), and sometimes we switch from one type to another based on context, or our needs in the moment. But essentially, we’re wired to be motivated like ONE primary type, consistently over time.

The bigger the brand and the larger their marketing budget, the less precise the company can afford to be about marketing to one primary type. This is why car manufacturers, credit card companies, pharmaceuticals, and major food brands can design for all Four Buyer Types in each social channel, while keeping their brand voice distinct. They have whole teams of people and millions (billions?) of dollars to help them pull this off.

But solo and small businesses? We’re obliged to specialize.

Solo and small business owners — like The Voice Bureau, and like our clients — have limited resources (time, money, interest, human power). In order to be most effective (and usually, most profitable), it’s necessary to design a brand conversation and an offer for a particular type of person — someone most likely to buy.

Here are some tips for moving closer to designing a strong Content Strategy:

• Understand your Brand Voice and how it meets the needs of your Right Person buyer.

• Consider building yourself a Brand Language Bank — a branded lexicon of words, phrases, and “handles” — that engage your Right Person buyer and make your conversation fresh (without being convolutedly cutesy or abstract).

• Step into the shoes of your Right Person buyer and ask yourself, “Why would this be important to her? Why would this solution work for her?”

Here are some beginning tips for engaging your specific primary Right Person “type” through your content, using an empathetic marketing model:

• If your Right People are HUMANISTIC, engage with warmth, intimacy, even love, and show them you’re a real person who genuinely cares about people, planet, and profits. The Humanistic buyer appreciates a peek behind the scenes of your business, as they want to believe that you are who you say you are. Create content that will present all sides of the picture with equanimity (big picture thinking). Keep your tone and your calls to action harmonious and conflict-free. They’ll get value out of content that helps them to move forward toward their goals, without risking overwhelm. Focus on presenting small slices of your brand conversation that feel positive, encouraging, uplifting, and promote a peaceful approach to life, work, and business.

• If your Right People are SPONTANEOUS, engage their possibility orientation by using visionary language. Design offers and experiences that keep them at the center of attention. It’s about them, not about you (although the Spontaneous buyer is drawn toward a charismatic personality who opens doors for them to experience something new, fresh, and exciting). The Spontaneous buyer grooves on community, sisterhood/brotherhood, feeling like they belong, and having opportunities to self-express. Keep your tone and your calls to action clear, easy, playful, and positive. They’ll get value out of content that connects them to their unique potential and ability to have an impact. Avoid overcomplicated explanations, lots of hoops to jump through, or dry navel-gazing philosophy. Focus on presenting visually-oriented content that feels cutting edge while activating their love for lifelong learning.

• If your Right People are COMPETITIVE, engage their drive to “get it done now” by being direct, straightforward, and competent. Demonstrate your credibility and assume that your Right Person will choose to do business with you because they see you as the best option. Match their high Excellence value with your own, and redeem all opportunities to demonstrate your wins. Position yourself at eye level with your high-achieving buyer. The Competitive buyer is relentlessly focused on activating ideas and being in control, which creates security. Through your content, show them how they are the hero/ine, how they can rise to challenges, and conquer obstacles. Avoid asking them to go against their nature, which includes slowing down, seeing things in grayscale, and admitting they have been wrong. Note that your Competitor buyer may be oriented to compete with himself or herself, just as much or more than with others.

• If your Right People are METHODICAL, tap into their desire to know why things are the way they are, through understanding all the nuances and seeing the big picture as well as the fine details. Validate their passion for solving problems, pointing out what isn’t working (i.e. being a contrarian), and finding the next layer down. Provide them with research, resources, systems, tools, frameworks, and visual data to balance their overactive brain. Frequent content is less important for the Methodical buyer, just so long as your content is deep, thorough, and consistent. Methodicals care less about the personal details of a brand creator’s life; rather, they’re obsessively interested in the brand’s reasoning for doing what it does, the way it does.

If you understand your buyer, you’re closer to understanding what content they need/want to see from you in order to make a purchasing decision.

In the comments, we’d love to know:

In your perspective, have you already been using this Buyer Type approach intuitively, without quite knowing why? If so, how did you come to “know” that you wanted to talk to this type of person? What have you noticed? How does it feel? We’d love to hear about your process and experiences.

(Image credit.)

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By now, if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve probably taken our complementary Discover Your Voice Values self-assessment.

Haven’t taken it yet? 48 questions, about 10 minutes of your time, and you’ll self-score your way to clarity on what’s naturally powerful about the way you tweet, Facebook, write blog posts, and email your list.

You’ll also learn a bit about why certain people are drawn to you and what you should watch out for as you grow your brand.

Enter your best email address below and click Go to get started.

I thought it would be fun to provide a (sometimes humorous) rundown of what the 16 Voice Values think, do, and say in action. (If you’re curious about what my own top Voice Values are, I share them here.)

The scenario: You’ve just had a huge flash of an idea for your business. We’ll call it Idea X. Based on your Top 3-5 Voice Values (see below), you’ll probably respond like this . . .

Accuracy

THINKS: Wait a minute. Slow down. Let’s chart a course here. I don’t want to miss anything.

DOES: Opens your favorite of three mindmapping tools and begins a new project.

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: Absolutely nothing — until all the details are sorted out, checked, double checked, and ready to go. Or: “Looking for resources around Idea X. Who else has information, studies, knowledge?”

Audacity

THINKS: F*ck yes, this is it! This is bad ass. Can’t wait to launch this baby next week.

DOES: Immediately gets to work writing the sales page. The sooner you can get this baby up and out the door, the better.

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: “Coming VERY soon: possibly the very best idea I’ve ever had. It’ll rock your socks.”

Clarity

THINKS: This is the beginning of something amazing. I need to fill in the details. It’ll be a while until I’m ready to go public with this.

DOES: Opens a fresh doc and starts typing like the wind. You need to write your way into knowing what you think.

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: “In process. In flow. Illuminating. Clarifying.”

Community

THINKS: Ooh, my people would really come together around this! How can I get others involved? A forum? A Google Community? Small Mastermind groups that meet bi-weekly over Skype video?

DOES: Immediately Facebook messages your community sharing the idea in one line and requesting feedback.

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: “Would you be interested in working alongside your peers and colleagues around Idea X?”

Depth

THINKS: I’ve scratched the surface of something here. I wonder what else is beneath this idea.

DOES: Log the idea in a Google Doc (along with a hundred other ideas that have yet to be mined) and breathe a sigh of relief, knowing you can return to it as soon as more layers unearth themselves. And they will. They always do.

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: “Contemplating our relationship, as humans, to Idea X.”

Enthusiasm

THINKS: Oh my gosh, this is what I’m meant to do! This is the lightning bolt I’ve been waiting for! This is where my business is supposed to go.

DOES: Creates a new Pinterest board called “My Vision for Idea X.”

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: “I dreamt a little dream, and it’s all coming together now. Stay tuned!”

Excellence

THINKS: Perfect. Peeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrfeeeeeeeeeeeect.

DOES: Carefully outline the idea, making sure not to lose any of the details.

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: “On such-and-such a date –” [which you will hold yourself to or die trying] ” — “I’ll roll out the latest and greatest creation from My Business Name. If Idea X is important to you, you’ll want to pay attention.”

Helpfulness

THINKS: Who could really use this?

DOES: Makes a list of people and businesses who could benefit from Idea X. Then creates a landing page with an email opt-in to get people on a list for when the idea is ready to go. It’s never too early to start letting people know a solution is coming!

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: “If you’ve been challenged by Idea X, hang on. Relief is coming.”

Innovation

THINKS: OhmyGodIhopeI’mthefirstonetoeverthinkofthis.

DOES: Immediately runs an advanced Google Search for Idea X plus all related ideas, to see what else is out there. You need to know how your solution can be different and better.

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: “You thought you knew everything there was to know about Idea X. Just wait.”

Intimacy

THINKS: This feels really right. It’s like it’s been there all along. How could I not have noticed this before?

DOES: Meditates. You need to be alone with this idea, so you can expand into it and really see inside it. Probably let it see inside of you, too.

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: “Spent time in stillness with Idea X today. Focus is knowing.”

Legacy

THINKS: I wonder who else has done something like this before, and what I can learn from their work.

DOES: Thinks about how what you already know is connected to Idea X.

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: “If I were to create a new tool to help you create more Idea X in your life, what features would you want it to have?”

Love

THINKS: Swoon. Every new idea feels like falling in love. It’s like I’ve entered into a courtship with Idea X.

DOES: Gets a little hot and bothered, thinking about how happy the people you want to serve will be when they receive this. Idea X is a gift, really.

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: “Working on a prezzie for my people. I love you so.”

Playfulness

THINKS: Wheeeeeeee! This is going to be so. much. FUN!”

DOES: Creates a graphic of it in PhotoShop or collages it on Polyvore to help you understand it better. The more visuals, the better.

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: “Oh my gosh, you guys, I can’t wait to share Idea X with you. You’re going to have a ball!”

Power

THINKS: How can I quickly and confidently become a content authority on Idea X?

DOES: Hoard the idea and never mention it to anyone until you’re ready to go into pre-launch.

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: “It’s finally the right time to share my long-held expertise on Idea X with you.”

Security

THINKS: This is a really valuable idea. I need to hold onto my edge here.

DOES: Checks the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office site to see if Idea X is already claimed. Log the steps you’re taking to go about securing your claim to the idea.

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: Absolutely nothing until you’re sure the idea is free and clear and yours for the taking. No sudden moves!

Transparency

THINKS: Whoa. What an amazing opportunity to share my process with others.

DOES: Writes the first of a 20-part blog post series taking readers inside the workings of you creating and launching Idea X.

SAYS/TWEETS/FACEBOOKS: “An inside glimpse into the way I create and launch a great idea? Why, yes. I thought you’d enjoy that.”

Oh, you. What do you think?

In the comments, we’d love to hear:

Do your own top Voice Values in action resonate with you? Why or why not? How are you already drawing on your strongest Voice Values to help you shape a meaningful brand conversation with your Right People?

Looking forward to chatting with you!

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