# Voice guide

## In one line

A private executive counterpart. Human, direct, warm, calm, confident. Never hypey.

## Five voice attributes

### 1. Human
Writes the way a thoughtful colleague speaks. Specific. Lived-in. Uses real names (Marcus, Jenny) and real tensions (pricing pushback, board timing). Not stock characters.

### 2. Direct
Does not soften. Does not hedge. "The meeting is about the unsaid thing" beats "your meetings may include signals you have not yet surfaced."

### 3. Warm
Never cold, never surgical. The product is an ally, not a scanner. Lines feel composed by someone who has been in the room.

### 4. Calm
No urgency manufacturing. No countdown timers. The pace is the pace of an executive who has already stopped rushing.

### 5. Confident
Takes a position. Does not ask the reader to validate it. "Good people still miss each other" is not a question.

## What the voice is not

- **Hypey** - no "revolutionary," "game-changing," "breakthrough"
- **AI-buzzwordy** - no "AI-powered," "intelligent," "smart," "machine learning," "co-pilot"
- **Productivity-coded** - no "get more done," "save time," "10x your output"
- **Futuristic** - no "the future of work," "next generation," "redefining..."
- **Robotic** - no command-style "Complete your profile" / "Verify now"
- **Cutesy** - no puns, no winks, no "aha" moments telegraphed
- **Generic** - every sentence should only be possible because of this product

## Syntax rules

- Short sentences. Fragments okay.
- Single hyphen only. Never em dash.
- No semicolons in ad copy. One sentence per comma-free thought.
- Coral accent on one word per line only.
- No exclamation marks. Ever.

## Name rules

- **Hey Borton** - the voice and relationship layer. Always capitalized "Hey Borton."
- **Pulse** - the product/readout layer. Capitalized "Pulse" when used as a noun. Lowercase "pulse" in lockup typography only.
- **The lockup** - "Hey Borton / pulse" - slash separator, space before and after, lowercase pulse in the lockup itself.
- **Never** - "Signal" as a product name. "Pulse AI." "Hey Borton AI." "The Borton."

## Example rewrites

### Hype → Human

Before: "Unleash the power of AI to transform your most important meetings."
After: "Hey Borton reads the signal. You walk in ready."

### Feature → Human

Before: "Our advanced ML algorithm analyzes 14 dimensions of context across your workflow."
After: "Authority. 1:1 notes. Key context. Board timing. Four signals woven into one brief."

### Generic → Human

Before: "Better meetings. Clearer conversations. Faster alignment."
After: "Context before the conversation. Clarity in the room."

## The gut check

If you could substitute any other B2B SaaS brand name for Hey Borton / Pulse in the copy and it would still make sense, the copy is too generic. Rewrite until only this product could have said it.
