There is a wall in my home that I love unreasonably.

It is hung salon style. Which means there is no single focal point, no careful grid, no breathing room between frames. There are paintings I made, paintings friends made, things I found at thrift stores, a print I bought at a museum, a piece of framed ephemera that means something only to me. They are grouped by instinct and resonance rather than by size or color or any principle I could explain in advance.

People who come to my home either immediately understand something about me from that wall or they stand in front of it looking slightly overwhelmed.

Both responses tell me something useful.

When people ask me how I help entrepreneurs find their brand voice, I usually start with something that surprises them.

I do not start with their offers. I do not start with their audience. I do not start with their competitors or their niche or their positioning. I start with lists of what they love.

I start with their favorite TV shows.

Specifically, I ask them to tell me what they love about the shows. Not just that they love them. Why they love them. What they do that other shows do not. What they feel when they watch them. What they would tell a stranger to convince them to give it a chance.

The answers are almost always the beginning of a brand voice.