Abby (Chief Voice Bureau Officer) says:

[UPDATED 6.16.15] Wow, guys, this is an old post. While it’s been a good while since Tami and I have collaborated under The Voice Bureau, we remain good friends and are happy to support each other’s work.

Here’s the old intro: I am so pleased to introduce those of you who don’t already know her to my friend and collaborative partner, Tami Smith. And for those of you who do know her, I hope this profile gives you a new angle on the person behind the incredibly deep and holistic work she does for her business owner clients. Tami emailed me a couple years ago after purchasing an audio course I was selling at the time called Freeing the Voice of Your Business (look for this product to re-enter our Classroom in 2013, revamped and retooled). It wasn’t just that the course content was useful to her in her own brand, it was that my perspective on shaping a naturally powerful brand voice resonated with her all the way through — in ways she’d been hoping to find in a collaborative partner for an amazing new search persona methodology she was looking to bring to market. A few more email exchanges and a Skype conversation, and we knew we were destined to work together. And so for now — I’ll leave it at that. Meet Tami.

Tami Smith, Advisor, Coach, & Trainer to Visionary Solopreneurs

Tami is a past Collaborative Partner at The Voice Bureau. You can find her at The Dawning Point.

Twitter: @TamiDSmith, Facebook: Tami Smith, Google+: Tami Smith

My top 3-5 Voice Values are:

Intimacy, Enthusiasm, Innovation, Depth, Excellence. (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.)

I do the work I do because:

I believe there is an opportunity to improve the process of being found in search. I saw too much emphasis on tactics and misunderstanding of what optimizing for search was really about.  Mostly I do the work I do because I felt the call to live and work in a more autonomous way. I guess you could say I followed the thread and it has led me to this point.

I find the richest social media conversations take place on:

G+, because conversations are topically related and anyone can enter. It tends to draw enthusiasts and experts. Truthfully it is more about the relationship than the channel, though. I follow and engage with many of the same people across all platforms and I have such a big respect people who use all the channels appropriately.

The song/track/album that feels the most like my brand is:

“Lucky” by Jason Mraz with Colbie Caillat.

Personality typing? Why, yes. I’m:

Enneagram Type 7 (The Enthuasiast) with an 8-Wing (this combo is called “The Realist”). My Myers-Briggs type is ENFP (“The Champion Idealist” or the “Discoverer Advocate”). I have a Cancer sun, Scorpio rising and Aquarius moon.

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

They are “integrated.” They are psychologically mature, tolerant, understanding, flexible, and able to see “the big picture”.

The best compliment I ever received from a client is:

“This is absolutely AMAZING!  Thank you SO much!  I can’t even begin to describe how valuable this is to us.” Or maybe it is this one:  “I totally get your direction and I love it. I pinch myself every time we exchange emails and this project gets another brick added to its foundation, as it is exactly how I want to work. I trust your intuitive direction and I love the link-building concept through connections with my content.”

The truest branding advice I’ve ever heard is:

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.” — Benjamin Franklin

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

Encouragement to go into aloneness. Aloneness doesn’t mean isolated or lonely. It is the ability to stop looking for approval outside yourself. Paradoxically, by going into your aloneness, you discover your true connectedness to others and conviction to “do the work” only you can do.

I can never get enough:

Marinated mozzarella, romance, or random acts of kindness.

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

A car.

My lifestyle, in 3 words:

Simplicity, Spontaneity, Sweetness

My brand is all about:

Core strength. There is a lot of business-building that goes into a search strategy. My background in sales and marketing structure the questions I ask in discovery to formulate value proposition, unique selling position, and how a qualified prospect searches for solutions. My clients don’t have to know anything about these formal terms and processes because they have the answers from their experience. I simply turn their core strength into a smart search strategy.

In the comments, we’d love to hear:

What questions do you have for Tami about her work? She’s ready to say hello.