13 You're The Voice: tone of voice

11/28/24 • 44 min

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Indie business club with Barfield and McKinney

Today’s episode is called You’re The Voice, and we talk about what tone of voice is, why it’s important to you and your business, and how to get in touch with your own unique verbal identity. It’s a bit of a high-pressure episode because we both offer tone of voice work in our businesses (me as a freelancer, Ben as part of Copy Or Die, the copywriting agency he runs with friend of the show Dave Harland) and we kinda need to know what we’re talking about.

Did we do ourselves justice? You decide.

What is tone of voice?

In a nutshell, tone of voice is the way you sound across all the places you use words. Your voice is the personality and the tone is how it’s adjusted depending on the context. You can fit in or stand out, depending on your brand. The famous buzzword bingo brands like Oatly, Innocent, and Liquid Death get a mention. But tone of voice isn’t just for “wacky” voices. It’s for immensely serious, professional, dare we say dull voices too.

Why is it important?

You’ve got a voice whether you like it or not, so we recommend that indie business owners and freelancers are aware of how they want to sound. The important thing is that you stay true to the brand/yourself.

We talk a bit about how to get in touch with your own verbal identity including using “morning pages” (free-flow writing) to allow your voice to come out. For larger outfits, it’s important to have a guide that lets everyone “sing from the same hymn sheet”.

A strong, consistent tone of voice can help your customers and wider network get to know, like, and trust you. Which, as we’ve covered in previous episodes, is the key to getting referrals and business leads.

Voicenotes from voice people

We’re fortunate to have two fab voicenoters this time. Rishi Dastidar is a poet, tone of voice expert and brand copywriter who writes regularly for The Guardian. Nick Parker is an author and creator of Voicebox, a full tone of voice tool/system. He also has a short course that you might find useful when trying to spot which of his Eleven Primary Voices you identify with the most. You can also read more about tone of voice on Nick’s Substack Tone Knob.

Voices in voiceland

To learn more about tone of voice, we suggest (as well as Rishi and Nick) you go follow people like...Vikki Ross (check out her bland book for what not to do)Jonathan Wilcock - SoWhatIf?Felicity Wild - Brand Language Lab Bethany Joy - Bethany’s beautiful website Chris West - Strong Language

Your Friend(s) And Mine

This time we give a shout-out to long-term friend of the show, penfluencer, line tamer, and Freelancer Magazine’s number one doodler, Amy Nolan. Amy runs her illustration business inkypix4u and has a clipart shop where you can buy her doodles to use in your projects and presentations. Here’s one I bought earlier...but please don’t steal it coz it’s Amy’s IP.

Find us wherever you get your podcasts, and on the indie business club LinkedIn page.See ya,

Did we do ourselves justice? You decide.

What is tone of voice?

Why is it important?

Voicenotes from voice people

Voices in voiceland

Your Friend(s) And Mine

Find us wherever you get your podcasts, and on the indie business club LinkedIn page.See ya,

Previous Episode

12 Plug In Baby: Software

There’s so much tech around nowadays, it’s hard to know where to start.

Today’s episode is called Plug In Baby, and we talk about which software we use in our own indie businesses. Safe to say, we aren’t the techiest of bros. Tetchiest, more like.

We’ve got a voicenote from exec VA and all-round processes legend Jo Shock, who talks us through what to consider when choosing your software. You can find Jo here, where she has a free Client Management Journey Checklist: Streamlines Virtual.

In the episode, we cover all kinds of software from financial tools to streaming and client management stuff. Ultimately, we favour simple-to-use analogue tech without too many bells and whistles. Bring back music-only iPods!

Ben’s software TL:DL just make friends with someone who knows how to use Canva 😏

Your Friend And Mine

This time we’re shouting out Jack Chambers-Ward. Jack works for Candour as Marketing and Partnerships Manager and hosts the Search With Candour podcast. He is also a published author and runs a very successful long-running pod called Sequelisers, all about movie sequels. Jack and Mel met at BrightonSEO, where Mel was dumbstruck to hear Jack listens to indie business club podcast. Our first listener in the wild!

Jack lives in Norwich so Ben auto-likes him (kidding, he’s not a fan of ALL Norwich people... but he does like Jack). Maybe one day we’ll get to do a collab / crossover episode.

Quick reminder, we’re both at Cowork Crew Cambridge tomorrow Friday 15th November. Ben’s speaking about how to be your own best customer.

Mel’s at Cowork Crew Northampton next Thursday 21st November, speaking about how to find and use your unique voice.

Annnd find us wherever you get your podcasts, and on the indie business club LinkedIn page.See ya,

Mel & Ben

🎙️ Spotify / Apple podcasts / Amazon Music and Audible

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiebusinessclub.substack.com

Next Episode

14 Handbags And Gladrags: Industry Awards

Hello, Award-Winning-Copywriter Mel and Non-Award-Entering Ben here.

Today’s episode is called Handbags And Gladrags. It’s all about industry awards and whether they’re worth entering as an indie business owner.

Spoiler: Mel says yes.

Industry awards don’t always come with a great reputation. I (Ben) have definitely been a bit sniffy about them in the past.

But it’s been a lovely thing to see the joy and confidence that winning first place in the Brand Copywriting Category at the recent Women In Marketing Awards has brought Mel, as well as the deserved attention she’s received because of it.

She also took home a cool little award which looks like one of the crystals off The Crystal Maze. I always wanted to go on that show. Although I’d have probably got myself locked in in the Science zone.

Anyway, back to the show. We talked about why you should put yourself forward for awards in your industry. And what to look out for when checking if awards are reputable. Mel also talked about how the glow of winning reaches well beyond the adrenaline of the awards night. As well as the obvious confidence boost, the validation and promotion from industry peers and the feedback from the judge (copywriting legend Vikki Ross) has led directly on to Mel winning more work.

An award-winning podcaster

No, not one of us (yet). Although, on that, we did set ourselves a challenge of winning (or at least entering the indie business club podcast into) an award next year. Our voice note comes from expert producer and award-winning podcast host Charles Commins. Charles voicenoted us on his way to Football Supporters Association awards, where his pod It’s All Cobblers To Me was nominated for Best Club Podcast Of The Year. He spoke about how winning the award in 2021 gave him and his business that little extra bit of oomph.

Fab Fab’s fabulous shout-out

This week’s Your Friend And Mine is Fab Giovanetti, headteacher at the Alt Marketing School and host of Cowork Crew in Cambridge. Fab also hosts her own podcast, The Alt Marketing pod (which Mel and I have recently guested on :). She’s an absolute force for good and I’m so pleased she’s a friend-of-the-show.

Find us wherever you get your podcasts, and on the indie business club LinkedIn page.See ya,

Mel & BenFind our producer, theme composer and tall Swift fan Ant Henderson on LinkedIn 🐶

🎙️ Spotify / Apple podcasts / Amazon Music and Audible

The back catalogue

Replays here...

13 You’re The Voice: Tone Of Voice ft Nick Parker, Rishi Dastidar and Amy Nolan

12 Plug In Baby: Software ft Jo Shock and Jack Chambers-Ward

11 Somebody Told Me: Referrals ft Bob Burg and Penni and