The 100 Headlines in 100 Days Experiment
Back in 2017, Justin set out on a public creative sprint: write 100 headlines a day for 100 days straight. The goal was visibility, not brand voice — but the experiment became a masterclass in learning how different brands sound distinctly different when you write for them back-to-back. Most headlines were junk. But the exercise built the muscle that let him eventually define brand voice mathematically, not intuitively.
The AI Gym Analogy
Justin’s punchiest metaphor: using AI without doing the underlying work is like going to the gym but not lifting heavy. You show up, feel busy, but at the end of the year you’re weaker than when you started. “I like to think with AI. I don’t like to write with AI. If you want to get good at something — actually good — you have to do the work.”
Face-to-Face as a Writing Education
Before he was a brand voice consultant, Justin managed Red Bull’s sampling teams — talking to hundreds of thousands of people face-to-face across college campuses, military bases, corporate offices, and construction sites. He learned to read a room instantly and adapt his message in real-time. That embodied experience of matching language to audience is what he brings to writing for brands now.
Brand Ventriloquism
Justin coined the term “Brand Ventriloquism” — the ability to throw your voice so completely into a brand’s character that you disappear entirely. The two schools: invisible writer (you’re just channeling the brand) vs. identifiable fingerprints (you want people to know it came from this brand). Justin plays in both, depending on the client.
Brand Voice = Vocabulary + Tone + Cadence
Justin’s core framework — brand voice isn’t a feeling, it’s a system. Vocabulary is the reading level and word specificity: Nike Swift vs. cross trainer vs. sneaker. Tone is the emotional register: calm and serene vs. giddy and boisterous are both “happy.” Cadence is the rhythm: choppy and staccato vs. long flowing sentences. All three are measurable. That’s why he built Verbatim — a tool that scores how well two pieces of copy match.
The Trifecta of Nothingness
Justin’s coined phrase for why “friendly, human, casual” is the worst possible brief: “Show me a brand that isn’t friendly, human, and casual. You probably can’t — unless you’re looking at the outliers doing something interesting.” Real voice definition goes deeper than any personality test or avatar exercise.
Voice of Customer: Editing Tool, Not Writing Tool
Justin and Chris agree: voice of customer research is invaluable — but as an editing reference, not a writing engine. Use it to choose between two words. Use it to check if you’re using the language your audience actually uses. But if you’re lifting entire sentences or building copy from VOC alone, you’ll never develop a distinctive brand voice. You’ll just sound like your customers.
Scaling Voice Across Teams and AI
Justin’s voice guides range from 35 pages (corporate brands) to 100+ pages (personal brands like Amy Porterfield, Todd Herman, Ali Abdaal). For AI: break guides into 15-30 page chunks (vocabulary, grammar, tone rules separately) and feed the brand’s perspective — not the archetype. Archetypes are personality, not voice.
