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Does It Sound Like Me, or Like Everyone Else?

DD Pim van den Boomen • •5 min

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Pillar 04 // Voice
extraction.md

$ diff what-you-say what-you-do

Does it sound like me, or like everyone else?

That doesn't depend on the model but on what goes in. Fill in four fields about your audience, your offer and your tone, and you get back what you could already have written yourself. And that sounds like everyone else, because everyone writes the same thing there. What's actually useful sits in what you do and have never written down, and it only comes out through probing questions.

DD DataDrift Digital ā€¢ July 22, 2026 ā€¢ 6 min

Behind most doubts about AI sits this question. Not "does it work" but "will it become mine". Someone who has used his own words for years to win clients doesn't want something speaking on his behalf that sounds like a brochure.

This piece isn't about how well language models write English. That's no longer the question. It's about the step before that: how does your way of working actually get in there.

01 / the answerWill an AI system end up sounding like me?

Only if the input is your actual practice and not your self-description. A form delivers how you think you work; a conversation with follow-up questions delivers your judgment calls, your exceptions and your own phrasing. That difference is audible in the very first line of the very first text.

That's why a build starts with us with a sixty-to-ninety-minute recording, and not with an intake form.

02 / the questionnaireWhy does a questionnaire deliver too little?

Because a questionnaire only retrieves what you can put into words. Ask someone about his audience, his offer and his tone of voice, and you get four paragraphs that are already on his website too. The system is then neatly filled in and delivers generic texts, because nothing went in that wasn't already generic.

There's a second problem, and it's more subtle. A fill-in field invites you to answer as the entrepreneur you'd like to be. You write down how you ideally approach it, not how you really do it on a Tuesday afternoon when a client calls with half a question. That polished answer then becomes the source everything flows from.

What you can write down, you already had. The valuable part is what you do automatically.

The useful material sits exactly in the part you wouldn't write down because it seems too ordinary: that with a certain type of client you always ask first about the previous supplier, that you never mention a price first, that you deliberately avoid a certain word because it lands wrong in your market. That's not tone of voice, that's method.

03 / the recordingWhat happens in those sixty to ninety minutes?

We talk about how you work, and we keep asking follow-up questions right where it gets interesting. The form is a conversation, not an interview with a list. Three kinds of questions do the work:

HOWWalk me through a real case. Not "how do you do an intake" but "take the last client who said yes, what exactly happened". Concrete cases deliver ten times more than general questions.
WHYWhy did you do it that way? This is where your judgment call surfaces. Often the answer is "I don't know, just a feeling", and then we're in the right spot: that feeling is the method nobody can copy.
UNLESSAnd when do you not do it that way? The exceptions are the difference between a system that's usable and a system that gets it wrong half the time.

From the recording comes a transcript, and from that transcript we build the knowledge layer: your way of working written down, in your words, exceptions included. That layer is what the AI roles use. It's also yours and readable without us, which means you can read it back and correct it.

04 / the formatWhy a recording and not a document I write myself?

Because in writing you automatically tidy up. You cut the side paths, you leave out the example, you make it into a neat piece. Precisely those side paths are the material: the "yes but with that one client that didn't work", the anecdote you tell three times a year, the way you explain something when you notice someone doesn't get it.

There's also a practical argument. Writing a document is work that ends up on your list and stays there. A ninety-minute conversation goes in the calendar and is then done. We've never had anyone finish the homework, but plenty of people who had a good conversation.

05 / the correctionAnd if it still doesn't sound like me?

Then you correct it, and that correction is the point. Every draft comes to you before it goes out. If you adjust something, the difference between what was there and what you made of it is the sharpest signal that exists: more precise than any instruction, because it's about this text and this case.

Honest about the pace: in the first weeks you correct more than later. That's the period when your judgment lands in the system, and you can't skip it by filling in a form better beforehand.

06 / usableWhat do you ask every provider about this?

  • How does my way of working get into the system, and how long does that step take? An answer in minutes means it's a form.
  • What happens with my exceptions, the cases where I do it differently?
  • Can I read back what's been recorded about my way of working, and correct it?
  • What happens with my corrections: do they disappear, or do they go in somewhere?
Frequently asked questions
Will AI sound like me or like a robot?+
That depends on what goes in, not on the model. If your system is set up with a few fill-in fields about audience and tone, you get back what you could already have written yourself, and that sounds generic. If your way of working comes from a conversation with follow-up questions, including your judgment calls and exceptions, that's audible.
How much time does it take to capture my way of working?+
One conversation of sixty to ninety minutes, plus reading back what comes out of it. There's no homework and no document you have to write yourself. The reason is practical: a conversation goes in the calendar and is then done, a writing assignment stays on the list.
Why doesn't an intake form work for an AI system?+
A form only retrieves what you can put into words, and that's usually already on your website. It also invites you to describe how you ideally work instead of how you actually do it. The valuable part is what you do automatically and consider too ordinary to write down.
Can I read back what's been recorded about my way of working?+
Yes. The knowledge layer is text in your words, readable without us, and you can correct it. That's also why it's yours and moves with you if you ever go elsewhere.
Does my voice fade if a system writes on my behalf for years?+
Only if you stop correcting. As long as every draft comes to you and you adjust what's not right, your judgment stays the standard. That's why there's also a fixed weekly moment where you share what's changed in your offer or way of working. Skip that, and the layer quietly goes stale.
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This text was produced with AI assistance and checked and approved for publication by a human.