Voice Notes is an every-Friday feature. We take you inside the online brand presence of a business owner we think you should know — through a dozen evocative sentence-starters.

Abby (Chief Voice Bureau Officer) says:

I’m up this week. Since the purpose of Voice Notes is to shine a spotlight on a brand creators/business owners with whom we’re closely involved, I thought I should take a moment to share a few items about myself, too.

Abby Kerr (That’s Me), Chief Voice Bureau Officer

I’m the Creative Director of The Voice Bureau, a digital copywriter for microbusinesses, and a brand voice development specialist.
Twitter: @AbbyKerr, Facebook: Abby Kerr Ink, Google+: Abby Kerr

My top 3-5 Voice Values are:

(#1) Excellence & Power, (#2) Depth, (#3) Clarity & Legacy. (Note: Discover your own Voice Values when you subscribe to The Voice Bureau’s Insider Stuff e-letter. Look for the sign-up box in the upper righthand corner of the site.)

Personality typing? Why, yes. I’m:

Enneagram Social Type 4 (The Individualist) with a 3-Wing (this combo is called “The Aristocrat”). My Myers-Briggs type is INFJ (“The Protector” or “The Foreseer Developer”). I’m a Pisces with double Sagittarius.

One thing I know for sure about my Right People is:

They’re pretty damn self-aware. They don’t always immediately embrace what they perceive about themselves, but they’re learning to. They’re into making the full spectrum of their nature and personality work for them. They have a high degree of self-respect for their essential humanity, and other people’s, and they’re able to laugh at themselves. (That was several things, actually.)

The truest branding advice I’ve ever heard is:

Design your brand for the people you want to serve, not based on your own idiosyncratic taste.

If my clients only hold on to one piece of advice from me, I hope it’s:

You will inevitably change things about your business and your brand, so commit to the choice that’s the best decision for now — and go all in with it.

I can never get enough:

Water.

The one ‘essential’ I could totally live without is:

A hairbrush. I don’t own one. My curly hair texture doesn’t allow it.

My lifestyle, in 3 words:

Deliberate, curated, harmonious.

My brand is all about:

Identity work. Brand voice is about presenting your work and your personality as a thoughtful composition, one that serves your Right Person wherever she is in her journey. Content strategy is about serving your audience in a way that continuously moves them forward toward their own goals, so they can become more of who they want to be. Copywriting is about helping your site visitors feel witnessed, seen, and understood. It all comes back to identity — who we are, who we’re becoming, and who we want to be in our lives and work.

An unlikely source of creative inspiration for me is:

Again — water! I’m guessing it’s a Piscean thing (the fish). Nothing gets me creatively loosened like a shower, sitting by the ocean, or even a drive in the car past Mill Creek, which flows through the Walla Walla Valley where I live. Even washing the dishes by hand usually works!

On social media, I find I get most triggered when I see:

People being carelessly self-righteous.

The next big business challenge for me is:

Building out The Voice Bureau‘s Classroom. Little by little over the course of 2013, we’ll arrive at a full suite of digital guides, programs, and experiences that help entrepreneurs develop their brands online. Having come from a teaching background (I have my Master’s in Teaching and taught high school students in both traditional and alternative learning environments), moving toward being more of a ‘teaching brand’ has been my dream for a long time. Honestly, it’s a dream I backburnered for the past few years in favor of growing my clientele and working in my business. Now with the team I’ve added, I have more time than before to devote to creating our Classroom. And I’m so excited about that!

In the comments, we’d love to know:

Is there anything else you’d like to ask me about my work or my lifestyle? I’m all ears and look forward to chatting with you.

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Let’s face it:

Creating a brand identity, relaunching a brand, or keeping your brand looking, feeling, sounding, and behaving like its most excellent self is a worthy challenge for any business owner.

Especially for new-ish brand creators who haven’t had the benefit of market response, peer feedback, and industry push-and-pull.

Wouldn’t it be nice to pick a successful brand creator’s brain on a regular basis, and get some answers to the questions that nag you most about creating your brand?

That’s the purpose of The Voice Bureau Asks, our every-Wednesday blog feature.

Each week, right here, we ask 5 smart business owner/brand creators for their take on a provocative brand-related challenge.

We’ve already asked our contributors the best way to defuse a tense moment on social media.

We took the pulse on how to make sending a scary business email a little easier.

And last week we asked you, our readers, to tell us a bit about you and what you’re curious about this year as you grow your brand, your content strategy, and your marketing plan.

This week we’d like to turn The Voice Bureau Asks over to you.

In the comments, would you share with us:

What’s your big, bad branding question — the one that keeps you stirring your latte nervously? (You’re not supposed to stir lattes, are you?) It might be about creating your visual brand, using your own natural brand voice effectively, designing a content strategy, marketing with more empathy and acumen, writing your own copy, or working with a creative pro like a copywriter or a web designer. Lay it on us. We’re listening. And no question is off limits.

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We’d love to get to know you better.

So we created a survey.

Would you contribute? You can participate anonymously, if you choose, and only the questions with asterisks (nothing too nosy) are required. Thanks in advance for your goodwill.

Thanks so very much.

Your responses will be used to help us generate a body of work that serves you excellently as you grow your brand.

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Voice Notes is an every-Friday feature. We take you inside the online brand presence of a business owner we think you should know — through a dozen evocative sentence-starters.

Abby (Chief Voice Bureau Officer) says:

When I met Melissa Black about a year and a half ago on Twitter, I had an inkling I’d met my administrative match. As a detail-obsessed person, my client’s experience is very important to me, and I knew that as I shifted from a freelancer model into a boutique digital agency, I’d need someone as detail-attuned as I am to (wo)man the entrance, so to speak. Enter Melissa. There’s no one I’d rather have as the Voice Bureau‘s own Virtual Concierge. If you send us a note through our Contact page, or become a client of ours, you’ll get to know her, too. But you don’t have to wait until then. Here she is, in her own words.

Melissa Black, Virtual Concierge

Melissa Black is Virtual Concierge at The Voice Bureau.
You can also find her at Black Ink VA.
Facebook: Black Ink VA; Twitter: @BlackInkVA; Google+: Black Ink Virtual Assistance

My top 3-5 Voice Values are:

Innovation, Helpfulness, Power, Playfulness, Love. (Note: Discover your own Voice Values when you subscribe to The Voice Bureau’s Insider Stuff e-letter. Look for the sign-up box in the upper righthand corner of the site.)

Personality typing? Why, yes:

My Myers-Briggs type is INFJ (“The Protector” or “The Foreseer Developer”). I’m a Sagittarius.

I do the work I do because:

It’s immensely satisfying for me to have a part in helping business owners execute their operational and creative visions, and watching it all grow and take shape.

One thing I know for sure about my Right People is:

They are respectful — of me, others, and themselves.

If I could invite 3 people to dinner to give me their take on my work in the world, I’d invite:

Steve Jobs, Katharine Hepburn, Eleanor Roosevelt.

The best compliment I’ve ever received from a client is:

“Thank you, Melissa. You totally get me already.”

The truest branding advice I’ve ever heard is:

“People don’t buy what you do — they buy why you do it.” — Simon Sinek

I knew I’d arrived in the middle of my entrepreneurial ‘sweet spot’ when I:

Began receiving referrals from some of my Right People to work with their Right People. It showed me that the work we did together was valued by them, and that I had identified the perfect mix of my right people and right work.

One color I wish was in my visual brand but isn’t (yet) is:

An orangey-red, like chili powder.

My favorite question to ask people is:

If money was no object, what would you be doing with your time?

I can never get enough:

Red Rooibos tea. Hugs from my nephews. My husband’s blue eyes.

The next big business challenge for me is:

Developing our products.  I have a few ideas percolating that I know will turn into valuable resources for our clients. The challenge will be designating the time to develop them.  I know that the key is doing what I tell my clients to do: block off the time on the calendar!

In the comments, we’d love for you to:

Say hi To Melissa. What would you like to ask her about balancing the operational and the creative in your business? She’ll be watching out for your comments.

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