Voice is not creative direction.

First thing I learned on the job at PayPal? This is different.

Until I took this job, a lot of my career was about creative direction. That's all about distinction. What's the idea? How can we say it differently? How many ways can we vary it up? Make every expression unique, with its own take on the key message.

As Head of Voice, the game is different. What are our brand principles? Are they reflected consistently across every surface, every time we’re saying something? And, crucially, how do we set the table for teams to replicate those principles across the org? Make sure we always “feel like us” on the website. In the app. In an email, then another. Then 6 more.

That’s not making rules. It’s giving guidance. Through playbooks, messaging hierarchies, frameworks.

One’s left brain. One's right. Both matter.
Distinction without discipline, and you’re a kite without a string.
Too many rules and you stifle creativity, effectively taking the pen away from your most valuable creators. Telling them what to say, how to say it.

When I started out in Voice I mostly had a right brain. As I developed the left, I quickly realized there's power in empowering others. Building the tools that let teams run and make good things.

Anyway, now I do both. And sometimes my head hurts.