Your personal brand isn’t just what you do or know. It’s how you communicate. Here’s how to develop a signature voice that makes you memorable.
Listening to podcasts has long been one of my favourite pastimes, but lately, I’ve found myself watching more traditional interviews and panel discussions. As I’ve watched iconic personalities across industries, from fashion to finance, one thing has consistently stood out: their distinct tone of voice.
Your personal brand isn’t just what you do or what you know. It’s also how people experience you through your words, tone and expression.
Whether you’re looking to redefine your verbal identity or refine an already distinctive style, it’s worth taking a closer look at your signature verbal brand. Because it’s not just about what you say. It’s how you say it.
1. Define the Dimensions of Your Tone
From my experience leading marketing and communications, one of my favourite branding projects is defining a verbal identity. This sets the tone of your brand and is something all professionals and creatives should consider for their personal brand too.
With your personal brand’s personality, goals and values in mind, if you were to define your tone of voice - your verbal identity - in 3-5 dimensions, what would they be?
For example, this might be:
Bold
Creative
Calm
Grounded
This will likely be a combination of who you already authentically are and who you aspire to be. In my blog, Your Alter Ego Advantage: Secret Identities of Elite Performers for Moments that Matter, I discuss the other side of your personality. Be sure to capture your alter ego self in your tone of voice dimensions. Just because you don’t embody a certain personal brand for yourself yet doesn’t mean you can’t.
Take the exercise seriously. It sets the foundations for your public-facing personal brand. So spend time sitting with the verbal identity you truly want to express.
2. Know the Nuances of Your Verbal Personal Brand
The best brands don’t just define their tone of voice in a few simple dimensions. They don’t just pick fluffy and vague words and hope they manifest themselves in their communication. They know the nuances. They define exactly what is on brand and off brand for their verbal identity. Apply the same thinking to your own personal brand.
For example, building on our earlier example, here’s what these dimensions might look like in practice:
Bold — Strong POV, decisive, provocative, leadership presence
Creative — Linguistically chic, contrarian, unexpected
Calm — Measured, composed, understated
Grounded — Relatable, friendly, unpretentious
This becomes the ‘on-brand’ expression of your personal brand. But knowing how to represent your best self also means being clear about what falls outside your verbal identity - what’s ‘off-brand’. It’s about defining what each trait means to you, and what it doesn’t, for example:
Bold — Predictable, passive, conformist
Creative — Generic, clichéd, conventional
Calm — Agitated, erratic, loud
Grounded — Braggadocious, entitled, ungrateful
As you might notice from this example, some dimensions appear to contradict others. Can you be bold and creative, yet also calm? Of course, you can. As I shared in another recent blog, Your Style Statement: How to Define Your Distinctive Personal Style in Just a Few Words, the contrast in your personal brand is what creates tension. The tension makes it interesting. It creates personality. It defines your personal brand in a way that’s truly unique to you. So don’t feel like the tone of voice dimensions of your personal brand need to work in perfect harmony. You are the synergy of it all. Capture whatever appeals to you most, aligns with who you are, and reflects your personal brand goals.
3. Build Your Word Bank
When you start paying more attention to your tone of voice, you start to grow your love of words. While the words you choose are only a small part of your communication, they can still set or dramatically shift your verbal identity.
As Mark Twain said:
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”
In my recent blog, Sound More Like a Vibe: How the Right Words Set the Tone for Your Personal Brand, I discussed the idea of ‘word banking’. I see this as collecting the words you want to use more of.
In personal branding, people often reach for buzzwords. Think passionate, experienced, strategic, innovative and results-driven. There is nothing inherently wrong with these words. The problem is that so many people use them that they feel generic and vague.
So the question isn't simply, “Is this word true?”
It’s, “Is this the right word for the vibe I want to create?”
The goal isn't to use bigger, cleverer or more impressive words. Sometimes the most powerful choice is the simplest one. It's about finding language that is precise enough to express what is distinctive about you.
The difference between sounding generic and sounding memorable can be just one word.
4. Elevate Your Verbal Personal Brand
It’s one thing to define your tone of voice; it’s another to put it into practice for your personal brand and take it to another level, so you communicate with confidence.
Here are some practical ways you can practise building your verbal personal brand:
Read regularly: Establish a regular reading routine. Research has shown that readers, compared to TV watchers, have an enhanced vocabulary.
Practise public speaking: It’s said that 75%+ of people fear public speaking. Don’t be like the majority. Put your hand up for presentations, start a YouTube channel or podcast, create talking head or voice-overed TikTok or Instagram videos.
Send voice notes: Swap texts and emails for voice notes. Make speaking clearly, confidently, and with personality part of your everyday routine.
Moodboard: Create a Pinterest or physical board of your favourite words. Pay attention to podcasts, your reading, TV, movies, social media, and collect the words that pique your interest. Grow your love of language.
Train ChatGPT: If you rely on AI for your writing, spend time developing a comprehensive prompts guide for yourself. Detail your defined tone of voice from the earlier steps and train AI to communicate with a distinct, not generic, verbal identity for your personal brand.
If you want to become more articulate, communicate better and connect with others, spend time developing your verbal style like you would your personal visual style.
Your Verbal Style
Your verbal identity is an often-overlooked yet powerful part of your personal brand. Define your signature tone, refine your word choices and practise expressing yourself with intention. Because it’s not just what you say, but how you say it, that makes your personal brand memorable.
