Justin Blackman is the Founder of Brand Voice Academy, which helps businesses define, document, and apply a distinct brand voice across their messaging. He is a messaging strategist who helps brands move beyond generic, forgettable copy and create bold, personality-driven communication that resonates with their audience. Drawing from his experience with brands such as Red Bull, 5-hour ENERGY, and IHG Hotels & Resorts, Justin developed a process for analyzing vocabulary, tone, cadence, and writing patterns to make brand voice more consistent and scalable across writers and AI tools.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [04:52] How working with the New York Rangers shaped Justin Blackman’s career
- [06:44] Behind-the-scenes secrets from Red Bull’s marketing heyday
- [15:25] The art of mirroring any client’s unique voice
- [18:16] How AI tools can become your creative partners
- [23:55] Justin talks about his new program, “Different On Purpose”
In this episode…
In a world where AI can generate polished copy in seconds, sounding “good” is no longer enough. The harder question is how do you make your brand sound unmistakably like you?
According to Justin Blackman, a messaging strategist known for helping brands sharpen their voice, the answer starts with documenting the patterns that make your communication distinct. He explains that voice is not just intuition; it can be broken down through vocabulary, tone, cadence, and even mathematical patterns, a process he calls “brand ventriloquism.” When brands understand those patterns, they can create messaging that feels consistent, human, and harder to copy in an AI-saturated world.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Justin Blackman, Founder of Brand Voice Academy, to discuss building a bold brand voice in the AI age. They explore why generic copy blends in, explain how to measure and mirror brand voice, and illustrate how AI can become a stronger writing partner. Justin also shares advice on finding the edge that makes your work different on purpose.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- John Corcoran on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- Justin Blackman: LinkedIn | Website
- Brand Voice Academy
Special Mention(s):
- Nick Araco Jr. on LinkedIn
- Amy Porterfield on LinkedIn
- Stu McLaren on LinkedIn
- Todd Herman on LinkedIn
- Claude
- ChatGPT
Quotable Moments:
- “Because I have a process, it allows me to work with really any type of client.”
- “We can literally change the patterns in your writing to make you sound one way or the other.”
- “I like being around passionate people, but I was passionate about different things.”
- “I use it (AI) as a thinking partner. I don’t write with it very much.”
- “The old stuff still works. It just does. Human behavior has not changed.”
Action Steps:
- Document your brand voice patterns: Identifying your vocabulary, tone, cadence, and communication style helps your team create messaging that sounds consistent and unmistakably like you.
- Use AI as a thinking partner: Treating AI as a tool for brainstorming, challenging ideas, and refining drafts can improve your work without replacing your unique perspective.
- Analyze what already resonates with your audience: Studying past conversations, copy, and messaging helps reveal the patterns that make your communication effective and memorable.
- Preserve your human edge in your messaging: Understanding what makes your voice different helps you stand out in a crowded market where generic AI-generated content is becoming common.
- Create processes that make voice scalable: Turning intuition into repeatable frameworks allows writers, teams, and AI tools to produce stronger content without losing the brand’s personality.
Sponsor: Rise25
At Rise25 we help B2B businesses give to and connect to your ‘Dream 200’ relationships and partnerships.
We help you cultivate amazing relationships in 2 ways.
#1 Podcasting
#2 Strategic Gifting
#1 Our Predictable Podcast ROI Program
At Rise25, we’re committed to helping you connect with your Dream 200 referral partners, clients, and strategic partners through our done-for-you podcast solution.
We’re a professional podcast production agency that makes creating a podcast effortless. Since 2009, our proven system has helped thousands of B2B businesses build strong relationships with referral partners, clients, and audiences without doing the hard work.
What do you need to start a podcast?
When you use our proven system, all you need is an idea and a voice. We handle the strategy, production, and distribution – you just need to show up and talk.
The Rise25 podcasting solution is designed to help you build a profitable podcast. This requires a specific strategy, and we’ve got that down pat. We focus on making sure you have a direct path to ROI, which is the most important component. Plus, our podcast production company takes any heavy lifting of production and distribution off your plate.
We make distribution easy.
We’ll distribute each episode across more than 11 unique channels, including iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Podcasts. We’ll also create copy for each episode and promote your show across social media.
Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more.
The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.
Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships.
Are you considering launching a podcast to acquire partnerships, clients, and referrals? Would you like to work with a podcast agency that wants you to win?
Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
#2 Our Comprehensive Corporate Gifting Program
Elevate business relationships with customers, partners, staff, and prospects through gifting.
At Rise25, thoughtful and consistent gifting is a key component of staying top of mind and helps build lasting business relationships. Our corporate gift program is designed to simplify your process by delivering a full-service corporate gifting program — from sourcing and hand selecting the best gifts to expert packaging, custom branding, reliable shipping, and personalized messaging on your branded stationary.
Our done-for-you corporate gifting service ensures that your referral partners, prospects, and clients receive personalized touchpoints that enhance your business gifting efforts and provide a refined executive gifting experience. Whether you’re looking to impress key stakeholders or boost client loyalty, our comprehensive approach makes it easy and affordable.
Discover how Rise25’s personalized corporate gifting program can help you create lasting impressions. Get started today and experience the difference a strategic gifting approach can make.
Email us through our contact form.
You can learn more and watch a video on how it works here: https://rise25.com/giftprogram/
Contact us now at support@rise25.com or message us here https://rise25.com/contact/
Powered by Rise25 Podcast Production Company
Episode Transcript
Intro: 00:00
All right. Today we’re talking about how to sound like a better you. My guest today is Justin Blackman. He’s an expert in how to make your brand voice unique. And I’ll tell you more about him in a second.
So stay tuned.
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders, and thought leaders and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now let’s get started with the show.
John Corcoran: 00:30
All right. Welcome, everyone. John Corcoran here. I am the host of this show. You know, if you’ve listened before, every week we have smart CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs from all kinds of companies.
If you check out the archives, we’ve got Netflix, Grubhub, Redfin, Gusto, Kinkos, Activision Blizzard, lots of great episodes for you to check out. And this episode is brought to you by our company Rise25, where we help businesses to give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. We do that by helping you to run your podcast, so you’re the easy button for any company to launch and run a podcast. So if you want to learn more, you can go to rise25.com and learn all about what we do.
All right. My guest here today is Justin Blackman. First, a shout out to Nick Araco from CFO Alliance who introduced us, a great friend of Rise25. And Justin is a messaging strategist. And he’s been helping businesses to craft standout messaging that resonates with their audience for many years now. He helps brands to ditch generic, forgettable copy and replace it with much more bold and personality driven messaging.
And that you you go to his LinkedIn page, you go to his website, you’ll see that he really walks the walk too. And so I’m really looking forward to talking to him today about that. But Justin, let’s start with, I’d like to get to know what people are like a little bit. When they were a kid, you said you were a bit quiet, a little lacking in self-confidence at a young age, but also that gave you an ability to observe and to discover what’s going on behind the scenes and kind of understand better how others can express themselves. So let’s talk a little bit about what young Justin Justin was like.
Justin Blackman: 02:04
He was kind of a shy, little quiet, dumpy kid kind of guy that swam with his t-shirt on in the pool.
John Corcoran: 02:12
Nothing wrong with that, says the pale guy over here who burns easily.
Justin Blackman: 02:17
Yours is for protection. Mine was from protection from the outside, not from the sun, but from other people’s suns.
John Corcoran: 02:24
I got it, yeah.
Justin Blackman: 02:26
No, I just did not have a lot of confidence growing up and kind of quiet. I was always kind of funny, but I was. I wouldn’t say jokes out loud. I would whisper them to my friends who were the class clowns, and then the class clowns would say them out loud and they’d get the laugh. So I was sort of quietly funny, and I was I was a really good observer at things.
And yeah, I just sort of became a pattern through my life that I just, I didn’t quite fit in with the loud kids, but they liked having me around because I kind of made them funnier sometimes.
John Corcoran: 03:03
Yeah. Sometimes you figure out that someone has a great sense of humor and, you know, you just enjoy it for yourself, you know, like, yeah, they’ll say something under their breath that just cracks up all their friends.
Justin Blackman: 03:15
Yeah. Like I was friends with the rowdy kids who got in trouble, but I never got in trouble either. Like people didn’t believe me that I would ever do anything bad. And I mostly didn’t. That was a rule follower, for sure.
John Corcoran: 03:26
So did it take a while for you to find your footing? Like when, as you work your way into the career world, because it’s not like you can go to employers and be like, I’m a good observer. You want to hire me? Or did it take a while to kind of figure out like, how, how do I make that my superpower? How do I leverage that into a career or profession?
Justin Blackman: 03:47
Yeah. Like even in college, I went to school for sports management and I focused on marketing, but I was in there with a bunch of athletes and I played hockey and I was an athlete, but I didn’t live and breathe sports. Like all these guys were like, see the game last night and they’re rattling off stats back and forth, and I’m like, I didn’t do any of that. I was at home reading a marketing book. Yeah.
And like, I played sports, but I didn’t necessarily follow sports except for the New York Rangers. Still my team. Yeah. Always have been. And like, I was diehard and passionate about them, but I wasn’t passionate about sports in general.
John Corcoran: 04:19
You live in Atlanta now, but you grew up in the northeast where I.
Justin Blackman: 04:24
Grew up.
John Corcoran: 04:24
In New Jersey. Hockey. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
A lot more up there. Okay.
Justin Blackman: 04:30
It didn’t quite fit in with some of those kids, but I really got good at the business around what they were doing and what they were passionate about. And I like being around passionate people, but I was passionate about different things.
John Corcoran: 04:44
You actually worked. You mentioned the Rangers are your team.
Justin Blackman: 04:47
Yeah.
John Corcoran: 04:48
And you worked for them for a little while.
Justin Blackman: 04:49
I did game night operations for a little bit.
John Corcoran: 04:52
But what was that like working for your team?
Justin Blackman: 04:54
It was pretty awesome. It was cool. It was whenever they had promotions, I was just sort of standing behind a table and, you know, things like that. It was sort of my first entrance into professional field marketing. I had done some stuff in college handing out, you know, t-shirts for beer companies and keychains and things like that.
And that’s sort of what I continued to do. And that’s what I did with the Rangers. And then eventually kind of worked my way up with different brands, helping them manage those programs.
John Corcoran: 05:24
I guess even the most amazing job could eventually become mundane, which actually is kind of my story. I mean, I, I, you know, I worked at the white House and I tell people sometimes it was mundane because I was just sitting away, pounding away writing, you know, but like I, I went to a Warriors game with my son on Friday night and there were people doing those promotions. They were running out, like doing the t-shirt cannon and stuff like that. And I even remarked to him at one point, I was like, one of those people doesn’t look like they’re having fun. How can you not have fun?
Like that looks absolutely amazing. But I guess if you did it night after night, eventually you’d be like, oh, this is boring.
Justin Blackman: 05:57
It gets old and sometimes it’s like, this is what I knew. I had to leave sports. I was back when I worked in sports marketing. We had a suite at Madison Square Garden, and I remember being like, oh, I got to go to the suite again tonight. I just want to go home.
And I’m like, in a luxury suite watching my favorite team and doing what I love, what I went to school for. And I didn’t want to do it. And I was like, I might be done with this part.
John Corcoran: 06:21
Right, right. Yeah, yeah. I think you don’t want it to be so frequent that it loses its pizazz, I guess.
Justin Blackman: 06:28
Yeah.
John Corcoran: 06:29
You eventually find your way to working for two iconic brands, Red bull. And then after that five hour energy. Both don’t seem like the home for like, a quiet, introverted kind of kid. What was it like working at Red Bull?
Justin Blackman: 06:44
Red bull it was there in the heyday when they were doing everything wild and just I mean, they still are, but it’s.
John Corcoran: 06:51
Back then it was just so breakthrough. Yeah yeah.
Justin Blackman: 06:54
Yeah. They were everywhere. Just the media was everything there. It was the time of my life. Best job I ever had.
Wow. And it was phenomenal management. And that’s the thing that people don’t realize. People say that Red Bull sells itself. No it doesn’t.
There’s a team of really smart people selling it. And then there’s everyone from the distribution chain, which I actually worked in for a little bit too. But the marketing. So it was great. I used to run one of the sampling teams in Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina.
So I covered a lot of the southeast area and it was great. And we, I, I trained the team that would run all the sampling programs, mostly focusing on college campuses, work sites, even white collar offices. A lot of military bases. And I had to train those teams. But you’re right in the fact that it didn’t quite fit in.
I wasn’t the loud adventure adrenaline seeker type of guy. I was more quiet and calculated, and one of the things that I did with the sampling programs, we had to keep track of all the interactions and document everything. I actually created spreadsheets that wound up being used by the teams to help calculate all that. And when I saw some of the conversations happening, I could tell when something went well and something didn’t. But I was like, what just happened there?
And I would analyze it and play back and I got really good at pattern recognition. I guess I have always been good at pattern recognition, and I was able to figure out why certain things worked. And again, that I wasn’t the guy, like you said, the guy firing the t-shirt cannon having fun. I wasn’t that guy. I was the one looking in the crowd to see how the crowds reacted with where it landed.
And it was more analytical. And with Red Bull, with the conversations, I wound up being able to track what worked well and what had the better resonance, and tried a few things and created a couple of processes that wound up becoming part of a national training program. So things like that. I didn’t quite fit in, but my quiet, analytical style had a place. It just wasn’t necessarily out in the front lines.
John Corcoran: 09:03
Yeah. It’s interesting because both of those companies, Red Bull and Five Hour Energy, basically pioneered and invented a whole brand. You know, Red bull was really kind of a different kind of consumer drink product. And five hour energy certainly was very much a different product than what people were used to. A very small little vial size thing that you drink quickly that is sold in convenience stores and on countertops and things like that.
So there’s a lot of similarities between the two. And for you professionally?
Justin Blackman: 09:36
Yeah, there absolutely was as far as the product fit, I mean, five hours essentially like a concentrated version of Red bull. It’s like Red bull without the water, but it is a completely different positioning. And whereas Red bull is really a brand that’s built on marketing, five hour is a product and it doesn’t have a big wild brand. It doesn’t want to be a big wild brand. They had opportunities and they are still a $1 billion company.
They sold a ton. But it was all about the efficacy of the product, whereas Red bull had also a product that worked, worked very well, still works well. I still drink it. And they also had the marketing to back it up. Five hours was not flashy.
It was just something that worked. It was too from a branding perspective, they’re completely opposite. Yeah, a very different perspective. They’re pretty much the same ingredients.
John Corcoran: 10:29
Shows the difference of different choices that you make as far as marketing is concerned?
Justin Blackman: 10:34
Yeah, for sure. The way that it was presented, the way that the teams were trained, the quote unquote professionalism of the teams. Whereas Red bull was kind of designed to be a little bit edgy, but also needed to fit into a work environment as well. It wasn’t all or not just going off people going after people jumping off a building. You’re also going for, you know, the person coming back to their corporate job after lunch who’s trying to fight off the post lunch food coma.