13 You're The Voice: tone of voice

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 LabBethany Joy - Bethany’s beautiful websiteChris 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,

Mel & BenFind our producer, theme composer and labrador Swiftie Ant Henderson on LinkedIn 🐶

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