Does Your Business Have a Voice?: The Power of a Brand Voice Statement

The vast majority of entrepreneurs are tone deaf. They’re saying the same things in the same way as everyone else and, as a result, no one’s paying attention. Their voices are lost in the noise… like tears in rain.

Simply saying what you do is not enough in a world of 1.3 billion websites and almost 3.96 billion people online.

In today’s market,  your brand voice — or how you say what you say – is more important than what you actually say. Your brand voice is how what you say and what you write feels, sounds, and comes across to your audience.

You can no longer afford to be tone deaf if you want to be heard.

If you haven’t created a Brand Voice Statement for your business yet, I highly recommend that you do.

Simply taking the time to write 250-500 words about how you want to communicate as a business or brand will give you a huge amount of clarity and awareness. Simply noticing how you naturally communicate will allow you to tune in to your unique resonance and choose what parts of you voice you want amplify. In other words, you want to turn up the volume on your unique expression, so you can generate more interest, income and impact — every time you say (or write) anything.

A clear and concise Brand Voice Statement will allow you and your team to interact and engage – across all channels and media — in a way that supports your brand.

It will also help you bring more personality and voice into your content and marketing, so you become absolutely unmistakable in the market:

• You’ll start to draw in new fans and followers by the way you talk, write and engage.
• Your tribe will begin to recognize and look forward to your communications.
• You’ll do what very few entrepreneurs manage to do: you’ll become more than just a business or service provider, you’ll become a trusted advisor, a mentor and perhaps even a friend.

This becomes even more important as you start to build your team and have other people communicating on behalf of you and your company.

We’ve been building our Marketing Team here at Live Your Message and one of the most important hiring criteria is that they get our voice. If they’re going to be drafting marketing and communications that are being attributed to me, then they have to be able to write like me.

The first thing I give new candidates is our Brand Voice Statement.

Then – if they’re going to be writing anything for us – we give them a writing test. Not only do we read their writing samples, we ask them to write something in our voice and see how do they do. Are they in the ballpark? Or are they completely off?

Let me share our Brand Voice Statement with you as inspiration as you write yours:

The Live Your Message voice is unmistakable in a market full of talking heads, copycats and surface-level communicators.

We’re never boring. We dare to be creative, playful, smart, provocative and vulnerable all at the same time.

We express a deeper truth that goes beyond the so-called business topics we’re actually talking about. We do that by bringing story, metaphor, word play, self-expression and a deep poetic sensibility to topics that are normally taught at the level of the mind. By bringing art, design and a love of language into our expression, we spark breakthroughs, insights and inspiration.

We’re willing to push the envelope of what’s accepted or appropriate. We believe business doesn’t have to look, feel or sound a specific way. By practicing full self-expression, we give others permission to express and ultimately be themselves more fully. We’re willing to take a stand for our beliefs… and our student’s success, even when it’s controversial or unpopular.

Our voice conveys power and strength while remaining curious and humble. We know what we know and what we don’t know, and recognize that there’s always more to learn and ways to grow.

We recognize that business is one of the greatest forces for personal development and change on the planet. We understand this can bring up a mixed bag of emotions, fears, judgments, projections and concerns. We embrace the good, the bad and the ugly. We don’t try to sweep things under the rug or pretend they don’t exist.

Because we know this work can be challenging and we understand the courage and commitment it requires, we infuse our voice with caring, compassion and acceptance. We strive to leave people better than we found them.

At the same time, we believe that every person has limitless potential when they align their business with who they really are and what they really want… and we’re willing to challenge the beliefs and assumptions that hold people back.

We encourage our tribe to take full personal responsibility for their success. To shift from being a victim to becoming a creator of their lives. Because of that our work can be challenging, deeply emotional and ultimately revelatory. We’re not for the faint of heart. We’re for people who are willing to “go there,” be all in, and do business for real.

In order to do that, we need to practice what we preach. We’re not content to simply do business as usual, we want to embody our beliefs and lead the way to a new paradigm of experience marketing and business.

That’s how you become a superhero to your tribe… and change the world from your living room.

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So how did that land for you? Can you hear us in this description? Let me know in the chat…

Also, let me know, what are 3-5 words that really capture your Brand Voice.