My Brand Voice — brand-voice.md
<!-- HOW TO USE: Send this file to the assistant (or keep it in your coding assistant’s folder) and say: “Ask me questions to fill out my brand voice file.” The assistant asks a few questions, fills out the file, and from then on every post it writes sounds like YOU. The sample answers below belong to “Alex, a local coffee roaster”—replace them with yours. -->
WHO I AM
Alex — I roast small-batch coffee in Austin and ship nationwide. 8 years, one roastery, zero shortcuts. <!-- One sentence. What you do + the detail that sets you apart. -->
AUDIENCE
Home coffee nerds, ages 25 to 45, who own a grinder, hate bitter coffee, and want café-quality results without the café price. <!-- Who follows you (or should)? What do they WANT that they don't have yet? -->
OFFERS AND CALLS TO ACTION (rotate these — one per post, never more)
- Free shipping on your first order → "link in bio"
- Coffee quiz ("find your roast") → "DM me QUIZ"
- Wholesale for cafés → “DM me WHOLESALE”
- Engagement only → “tell me in the comments”
VOICE RULES
- Funny ↔ Serious: 70% playful, serious about technique
- Bold ↔ Humble: bold about coffee opinions, humble about myself
- Casual ↔ Polished: casual — write like you're messaging a friend
- Short ↔ Storyteller: short lines, but one story post per week
- NEVER: walls of hashtags, "elevate your coffee experience," fake urgency, attacking competitors, politics
MY PHRASES (use these — this is how I really talk)
“Life’s too short for bitter coffee” · “roasted Tuesday, at your door Friday” · “your grinder matters more than your machine” · “chef's kiss” · “okay, seriously”
MY STORIES (true, specific — the fuel that fights generic AI)
- WIN: A coffee shop in Dallas switched to us, and its espresso sales rose 40% in two months. The owner sent me a photo of the empty funnel.
- FAILURE: I burned an entire 60-pound batch in 2021 because I trusted a new thermometer instead of my nose. $800 worth of beans became garden compost. My nose wins now.
- SURPRISE: My best-selling roast started as a mistake—I pulled a batch 90 seconds early by accident, and customers begged for “that lighter one” again.
PROOF POINTS I CAN CITE
8 years roasting · 40+ wholesale cafés · 4.9★ from 2,100 reviews · from roaster to doorstep in 4 days
CONTENT PILLARS (my ongoing themes)
- Brew better coffee at home (tips) 2. Roaster behind the scenes (process/stories) 3. Coffee myths, debunked 4. Customer wins 5. New roasted coffee launches
PLATFORM STYLES
<!-- The assistant reads the section for the platform you name. Adjust the rules to your liking. -->
- Hook = first line, max. 8 words (assume it's cut off after that)
- Short lines, white space, max. 1–2 emojis
- MAX. 5 niche-specific hashtags, at the end
- Formats I use: Reels (30s, hook in the first 2 seconds), carousels (slide 1 = big, short text), single-image posts
- Visual style: warm tones, real hands + real coffee, no stock-photo perfection
X / TWITTER
- Each post ≤280 characters. Direct. Strong opinions welcome.
- No hashtags (or one at most)
- Threads: the first tweet should stand on its own; number the rest; end with the call to action
- 150-300 words, one-line paragraphs, white space
- Angle: business lessons from running a coffee roastery (not coffee tips)
- Professional, but still me — "ok, seriously" is allowed
- Max. 3 hashtags. No links in the post body — "link in the comments"
TIKTOK
- 30-second scripts: spoken words + on-screen text
- Hook in the FIRST 2 seconds, visual and specific ("I burned 800 dollars' worth of coffee — smell this")
- Casual, imperfect, behind-the-scenes energy
- Conversational, 40–80 words, like talking to regulars at the shop
- End with a question—comments are the goal
- Local angle whenever possible (Austin events, local cafés)
YOUTUBE COMMUNITY / SHORTS
- Community: one image + one question or poll
- Shorts: same rules as TikTok, less slang