Welcome to The Content Brief 💼, a community designed to help you take control of your content with a strategy and system to make it feel simple. It’s less “how to succeed on Substack” … more *how to stay sane* as the Editor in Chief of your content.
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📣 Announcing! The Master Your Message: Define & Document Your Writer’s Voice challenge to help you do just that—master your message (and get it in writing).
Your voice is the foundation and filter for everything you will go on to create.
I’m sure you’ve heard the quote: "Branding is what people say about you when you're not in the room" (Jeff Bezos).
You know this: Your “brand” (yes, even as a Substack writer!) is more than its look—it's every tangible and intangible connection someone has with you. It's about how it feels to connect with you and why someone chooses to engage with you.
Think of your writer’s voice and style like mixing a hit song, with each element playing a crucial role.
This challenge will focus on identifying those essential elements of your voice—the foundation of what and how you write. Join in to define and document your message using the challenge Writer’s Voice and Style Guide template to serve as a constant reference and filter for you moving forward.
The Master Your Message challenge posts are available to all members of The Content Brief 💼, including access to the comments where you can share snippets of your work, ask questions, share breakthroughs and challenges, and where I’ll be available to answer questions, give feedback, and provide clarifications, encouragement and inspiration.
Work through the challenge and you’ll have your own Writer’s Voice and Style Guide—a working doc that defines and documents your message in one place to serve as a constant reference and filter for you moving forward. 👏
Want to define the foundational elements of your brand messaging? Here’s what we’ll refine together in six parts:
The Who - Who is the exact person you want to attract and serve?
The Why - Why do you do what you do?
The What - What exactly do you do?
The How - How are you different?
The Personality - Your message is what you will say, but how will say it?
Bringing It All Together - Creating your Writer’s Voice & Style Guide
That’s right! You will end the challenge with your own Writer’s Voice and Style Guide—a working doc that defines and documents your message in one place to serve as a constant reference and filter for you moving forward.
You’ll work step by step through the six-part challenge with prompts inviting you to …
Understand the essential elements of voice and style, a highly useable skill you can apply to your writing forever.
Articulate the who, why, what, how, and personality of your Substack messaging (and revisit the material at your own pace).
Participate in the comments for support from me and other members of the community.
Create an internal reference guide for your writing—both what to say and how to say it.
With a master’s in specialized journalism and nearly two decades of professional nonprofit communications and content marketing experience, I also taught journalism and communications for several years as an adjunct professor.
And here and now, I’m excited to to help you take control of your content with a strategy and system to make it feel simple.
I spent years deciphering how to show up with purpose, how to create content that connects and how to manage it all.
In The Content Brief 💼, I get to share all I’ve learned with you (and save you some time) to use right here on Substack.
Get inside The Content Brief 💼 community and let’s nail your Writer’s Voice and Style Guide so you have a working doc that defines and documents your message in one place to serve as a constant reference and filter for you moving forward.
⏩ Next up:
Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear in the comments if this resonated or if there’s something you’re going to try. Seriously, drop a comment or hit reply. I'd honestly loooove to hear from you. Typing into the void isn't nearly as fun as interacting with a real human—you! 🫶
For more:
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📩 Forward this to a creative friend who could use more ease in their content.
Thanks! I pour a lot of love into this space and I hope you can feel it. It wouldn’t be the same without YOU!