Warmest Sunday salutations
Ey up. Wotcha. Alreet. Hiyaaaa!
Howdy doody, Mel here.
Pinch, punch, first of the month. Listened to our latest episode?
It’s all about tone of voice, and how different brands have different verbal identities. Ideally. More on that in a sec. But first, your regular Sunday reminder that podcasts are great for when you’re…
pottering around
cleaning
going for a walk
lying in bed with a coffee and a crossword, with nothing to do and nowhere to be, just festering in your sleepjuices all warm and cosy and duveted up ahhhhhhhh
My in-laws are here, so sadly that last one will have to wait til next week.
I wasn’t into podcasts before we started to make one. I’ve listened to some since and while I do enjoy the interview-based ones (we’ve both been on them*), I love our format of two mates having a chat and, invariably, a right old laugh.
And other people seem to like it too. Here’s a snippet from a lovely review from listener Kath Finney 💖🥹💖
“I'm not usually a podcast person – never got round to listening to one before – but I've genuinely had the most delightful week tuning in and taking notes and nodding along […] I know I'm late to the party (and all the cool kids who listen to podcasts are already established fans) but I thought you'd like to know you've gained another fan and converted someone into an official podcast listener.”
Full disclosure/BTS, we self-fund the podcast. We pay sound guy (and sound guy) Ant to edit and produce the show, along with various subscriptions like RiversideFM and our Squarespace fees. And we put a lot of work into it. Eventually we hope it’ll earn its keep. Maybe one day it’ll become part of our incomes. More on that to come, once we’ve made a plan.
But our main driver (aside from the shameless self-promo, obviously) is to help other freelancers, founders and independent business owners like us. We gained so much knowledge and support from other people, we want to pay it forward. So, getting lovely reviews like the one Kath sent in makes it all worthwhile. Also, we’re vain. So we love praise. Well, I do anyway.
You’re the voice
And back to the current episode. We’ve got 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, the Eleven Primary Voices short course, and his Substack Tone Knob.
Our “Your Friend And Mine” is 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.
Handbags and gladrags
Our next episode is all about industry awards. It’ll be out on Thursday 12th December, then we’ll probably have a short break before returning in January. Have you ever entered an award? What are your thoughts? All bluster and bullpoop or a valuable way to showcase talent?
See ya,
And find our swiftie tallboy producer Ant Henderson on LinkedIn
*👇🏻
The back catalogue
Replays here…
12 Plug In Baby: Software ft Jo Shock and Jack Chambers-Ward
11 Somebody Told Me: Referrals ft Bob Burg and Penni and Jo Pickering
10 Paranoid Android: AI vs creativity ft Tom Albrighton and Molly Scanlon
09 Shiny Happy People: Personal brands ft Lea Turner and Steve Folland
08 Chasing Rainbows: Business planning ft. Alastair Thomson and Melanie Johnson
07 A Design For Life: Creating for yourself with guest co-host Dan Nelken ft. Penny Brazier and The McKinneys
06 I Bet You Look Good On The Timeline ft. Dave Harland and Jonathan Wilcock
05 Flaming Lips: Public Speaking ft. Pascalle Bergmans, Becki Wilson and Nikki Pilkington
04 A Little Respect: Client Relationships ft. Jodie Newman and Sophie Cross
03 All Together Now: Communities ft. Mark Masters and Ant Henderson
02 It’s Oh So Quiet: Finding Clients ft. John Lyons and Bonnie Harrington
01 Fools Gold: Pricing your projects ft. Tom Garfield and Ange Lyons
00 What’s The Story? Podcast origins