VOICED. with Helen Bee on Branding and Voice.
Helen Bee has been designing brands and building websites since 2000, with a background in marketing and advertising agencies working for global clients. In 2015 she turned her focus to the voiceover industry and found her people. Together with her husband Rob, Helen co-founded B Double E, a support services company dedicated entirely to voice actors, helping them to be Seen and Heard.
Helen talks to us about why branding matters for creatives - and it’s not just about looking pretty.
Helen Bee
Thanks for joining us! How's it going and can you tell us a little bit about what you do?
Hello! I’m Helen Bee. With my husband Rob, we founded B Double E - a company that helps voiceovers to be seen and heard. We’re entirely dedicated to helping voice actors look and sound their very best. I’m the 'seen' half – a brand designer and website expert who makes sure you look as good as you sound.
Rob is the 'heard' half – an audio engineer, home studio guru, and all-round tech wizard who makes sure you sound as good as you look.
I've been designing brands and building websites since 2000, and honestly, I found my true calling when I started working with voiceovers in 2015. I come from a background in marketing and advertising agencies, working on global campaigns, but working with voice actors? That’s when I found my tribe.
My work as a brand and website strategist and designer goes deeper than making things look good (although they will look good, I promise). I help voice actors figure out who they are, what they stand for and how to show that to the world. And do that in a way that feels right, builds confidence, and wins them more work. My clients are based all over the globe, which I never take for granted.
B Double E has picked up 4 One Voice UK Awards for Best Service Provider, and in January 2026 I won a SOVAS award for Outstanding Website Design too. All makes me smile a lot!
Outside of the design work, I speak at voiceover events and conferences worldwide. Rob and I run our membership for voice actors Be Seen Be Heard and organise The Voiceover Social, a growing collection of in-person meet-ups for voice actors across the UK and into Europe. We also co-host The Voiceover Social Podcast together, where we explore what it really takes to build a career in voice acting.
You’re juggling a few different things! Can you tell us what an average day look like for you?
I’m not sure there is an average day. I mostly have two call-free days so I can get my head into a website build or write copy - I need bigger chunks of time with no distractions so I can get my head into a client’s project. The other days tend to be a mix of 1-2-1 client project catchup calls, one-off coaching calls, running group co-working and coaching calls for our membership Be Seen Be Heard. I offer website care plans so may need to help out with my client’s website upkeep tasks. There’s often a webinar, podcast recording or I’m running a session for another voice organisation or membership. And then there’s the admin - accounts, marketing, and working with my own coaches. I’m an ambivert - half extrovert, half introvert - so I love meeting people in person, but also need my own space too.
It’s a bit of a juggle, but it’s also part of the fun. No two days are ever the same. I’m not an early morning person, so calls start at 9:30AM earliest, but can run until 8.00PM as I work with clients in the US and Canada. My days always starts with coffee and often involves going to the gym.
Away from work I play Xbox (Assassin's Creed, Minecraft and Ark are my current time saps), I love cooking (big batch cooks, fermented chilli sauce, kimchi, garam masala) and adore live music - anything from punk, indie, alternative, dance, funk and soul, rock, classical. Just not musical theatre! If I had more cash, I’d go to more gigs, eat more tasty food and explore more independent breweries. Good food, beer and music make me very happy.
Lets talk more about this thing called ‘branding’. Why is it so important for creatives? Doesn't being a creative already imply some sense of identity? Can you tell us a bit about where branding begins for creatives, especially those working in voice?
The biggest mistake I see is voice actors making is basing their brand on how their voice sounds. But branding isn’t about how you sound, or the service you offer - it’s not WHAT you do, but HOW you do it.
Branding is all about feelings and emotional connections. It’s about customer experience - the way someone feels about working with you. And how you do things - your approach, your background, your way of problem solving. That’s your unique skill set and identity.
How we make our clients feel is so important. We’re not just offering a service - we’re solving a problem, making our client’s lives easier. That is branding. That builds a reputation. That gets repeat clients. That commands higher rates. That’s the bit that makes people come back to you.
People will remember if you made them feel great. If you gave them a sense of relief. If you had clear processes and response times, easy payment systems, easy booking processes. Equally - they remember if you made their job harder or disappointed them - if you were difficult to work with, uncooperative, if the invoice was wrong, or you said you could do something and couldn’t deliver. The experience of working with you matters.
The starting point with all my 1-2-1 clients is to work out a list describing how they want clients to feel. And - equally importantly - how they don’t want clients to feel. Use that list to guide everything - your copy, visual identity and colours, how your website is laid out, how photos look, the scripts you use on your demos, the way you email people, your bio on LinkedIn - everything.
Start with that list of words.
(There’s a blog and podcast that talks about it more here )
Do you ever disagree with a version of someone's brand identity?
Good branding is all about representing the feeling of working with you. I may not like the way you do things, but that actually means the branding is doing its job. Apple has as many people who love them as they do people who wouldn’t use an iPhone if you gave them the highest spec one for free. That is a good thing. We have to stop trying to be all things to everyone, and start being the BEST thing for a few people. Then we become memorable and desired.
So the brands I don’t agree with are usually the ones that feel disconnected with the person or business they represent. It’s not always a specific thing, it just feels off somehow.
What about trends? Is there something that's really working at the moment or is consistency the best approach?
Trends come and go. They always will. Some trends stick around for ages, some are gone in a few days. Some trends come back (although why the shell suit did I’ll never understand!). So I’m not sure trends matter that much. If everyone only followed the trend, we’d all end up being the same. Trends start because someone did something different that stood out. I’d rather try something different than follow someone else’s idea.
The other thing that is guaranteed is that things will keep changing. As business owners we have to be able to change and adapt. We have to get used to trying new things, working in new ways, adapting to new tech, learning new ways to promote and market our businesses. That doesn’t mean following trends, that means experimenting, trying stuff out, failing some of the time, being OK with failing, and then trying again.
We've seen huge shifts for creatives over the last few years... pressure to have an online presence and following, a more diversified skillset expected across the board, and audiences buying into personality as much as talent. So, is brand more important than ever in this new digital world?
We have seen big shifts and we will again - change will always happen. What hasn’t changed so much is people wanting connection - how they get it has changed, yes, but the desire to connect is still there. And when our branding is based around how we make people feel, then that feeling of connection becomes clearer.
When it comes to social media - it’s well documented that there is a darker side. Addictive platforms that are causing huge mental health problems and are linked to suicide, hate, fear and so much more. The owners of these platforms don’t care about connection - they care about money. One algorithm change, if your account is hacked, or has unexplained block (which I’ve seen multiple times) you can loose everything. Over night. Gone. Don’t base your entire marketing plan on something you have no control over - a tech bro’s platform that may go away at any moment. Have multiple things that all help promote what you do. Then, if something unexpected happens to one thing, the others can keep working for you.
And remember brands like Lush hardly use social media at all - they recognised the harm it does, and made a statement by coming off platforms like Instagram, Facebook and X.
I’m not saying don’t use socials - I use them, you can use them! Just don’t feel you have to. And remember social media should only ever be a small part of a much bigger marketing ecosystem.
Helen Bee
How do you see the future of brand and voice?
It’s becoming more and more important to show that it’s not simply reading out loud. AI can do that. Bad voice actors can do that. I can do that (I’m an awful voice actor!).
We need to form connections and build relationships with clients. Show how we can help make their day-to-day easier and how we can help them connect to their audience. That is more than speaking out loud. And AI can’t do that. So show people how else you can help make their lives easier, better, smoother or simply how you can take something off their to-do list.
I've got to ask! What's your favourite brand?
I don’t actually have one. But I’m a bit like that with most things - I love a variety of music, but I’ve never obsessed over 1 band or genre of music. Variety is my spice of life! I am drawn to businesses that care about more than just making money (although they can make money too!). Companies that do good - whatever that might be. What I hate is a company that prioritises making money over everything else - regardless of their impact on other humans, or our planet. I could list an awful lot here! I hate that some bosses literally earn enough to have a pocket-money hobby project of building space rockets, while their employees struggle to earn enough to eat. That boils my blood. So any company that genuinely treats is staff, their suppliers, the planet and their customers well - those are my favourites.