Back at the beginning of this series on positioning, I mentioned a critical point for educational consultants looking to develop their Persuasive Personas.
And it’s important that I repeat that point at the beginning of today’s post (you’ll see why in a minute). So here it is…
Your Persuasive Persona is NOT you. It’s a version of you that you put out there as the public face of your brand and consulting business.
For example, I’ve talked about how it’s important to share some details of your personal life with your audience to build a connection and relationship with them. But you don’t share everything about your personal life (obviously).
I’ve mentioned that it’s important to share a few of your character flaws with your audience so that you come across as human and relatable. But you don’t share all of your character flaws (again, obviously).
And I’ve mentioned that it’s a helpful marketing tool to “3X” one or more aspects of your personality as a way of standing out and sticking in your audience’s minds. But you only 3X one or maybe two aspects of who you are–not everything.
What I’m saying is that you’re creating a character that’s attractive to your Ideal Clients. You’re not making anything up. What you’re sharing is real stuff about you–it’s just selective stuff, with some of it slightly exaggerated.
You’re not lying; you’re playing a role. And that role is what we’re calling your Persuasive Persona.
Your Attractive Character
OK, with that recap out of the way, I want to share another powerful positioning tool with you today.
This is a powerful tool for building trust with clients. It’s called your Attractive Character.
Your Attractive Character is another role that you play as the face of your company. As such, it’s a key aspect of any branding campaign you undertake.
It’s really a certain stance that you take vis a vis your audience.
Here’s how it works…
There are certain archetypal characters that tend to lead expert-based businesses. Examine any successful expert-based business (which is what all educational consulting businesses are) and you’re likely to find that the business owner is branding themselves in one of the following four ways.
The Four Main Attractive Character Types
As you read the descriptions below, identify which one(s) make the most sense for you and your business.
The Leader—This character assumes the role of leading their audience from one place to another.
Most leaders have a similar backstory to that of their audiences and therefore know the hurdles and pitfalls audience members will likely face on their journey to get the results they seek. Usually, the leader has already achieved those desired results in their own life, which positions them perfectly to lead others.
This is a confident stance; The Leader is saying, “I know what you need to do to be successful. Follow me and I’ll show you how.” [BTW, this doesn’t mean that internally some Leaders don’t suffer from Imposter Syndrome (just about all of us do to some extent)–they just don’t let that leak into their public stance.]
People who are struggling and feel lost are attracted to the Leader because they want someone to tell them what to do to solve the problems they’re struggling with.
The Adventurer—This is usually someone who is already at least somewhat of an expert in their field, but doesn’t have all the answers (and doesn’t want to act like they do).
They’re also very curious about finding the answers to the things they don’t know. So, they set out on a journey to discover those answers. They bring back wisdom from their journey and share it with their audience.
This is a similar role to the Leader, but takes a less authoritative stance and instead of positioning themselves as already having all the answers, they position themselves as the person who’s committed to finding the answers and bringing them back to their audience.
Many people are attracted to the Adventurer because they’re relatable. The Adventurer is maybe only a couple of steps ahead of the audience on their own journey to discover the answers to their common challenges, but they’re committed to finding and sharing those answers. It’s more of a “knowledgeable friend” role.
The Reporter—This role is one where the character has not yet set out on the journey themselves, but desires to do so. So, they put on the Reporter’s hat and go out to discover the truth.
Typically, this means that they will go out on the journey (usually by interviewing hundreds or even thousands of other people on the topics they’re interested in) and sharing that information with the audience.
It’s an even less authoritative stance than the Adventurer. You’re basically saying, “I don’t know the answers, but I’m going to learn alongside my audience in real time.” Many podcasters take on this persona.
This role can be attractive to people who are “guru resistant”–people who may have followed one of more Leaders in the past and been burned. People who want the answers to their challenges but don’t feel a need to solve all their problems immediately and are OK with a slower pathway often like to follow Reporters.
The Reluctant Hero—This is the “humble expert” who doesn’t really want to be in the spotlight or have any fuss made over him or her, but they know important information that the audience needs in order to be successful, and since no one else is really sharing that information, they (reluctantly) have to step up and do it themselves.
This type of leader may be somewhat shy and introverted, but they feel a moral duty to share what they know so their Clients can be more successful.
People who want answers quickly but don’t like to follow people who are extra confident (Leaders) and may see those kind of people as “braggarts” or narcissistic are often attracted to the Reluctant Hero because, while they also possess the kind of knowledge that Leaders possess, they come across as more humble.
Which One Will You Choose for Your Branding Campaign?
OK, now that you’ve read about the four most common Attractive Character types, can you see how adopting one of these stances could act as a “filter” through which you run all your marketing language? It adds an extra layer of attractiveness to your Persuasive Persona–at least for the right people.
Now that you’ve read the four descriptions, you probably find that you strongly identify with one of the four–or at most some combination of two of the four.
Ready for your action step? Your job is to describe in writing which character resonates with you most and why.
And then begin to look for places in your public-facing work–everything from social media posts to your website pages–where you can position yourself as your Attractive Character.
Now, looking ahead… In my last post, I talked about the power of a particular kind of story–your Origin Story–for attracting people to your business.
In my next post, I’m going to return to the topic of stories and share a tip about how to use a number of smaller stories in your marketing.
To Your Success,
Willy
P.S.–If the concept of an Attractive Character is completely foreign to you, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the whole approach.
This has been something that marketers have been teaching leaders of expert-based businesses for a long time, and it has proven very successful in a variety of entrepreneurial fields. But few people in education seem to have heard of the idea, and you see very few consultants taking advantage of this approach.
I think there’s a huge opportunity for a consultant in a niche where no one is using this approach to really set themselves apart.
Thoughts? Questions? Comments?
Reply in the Comments or shoot me an email at willy@edconsultantmarketing.com.
