How to build a personal brand with archetypes
Brands, especially personal brands, are a great way to connect with audiences on a deeper level. Not many know that you can use archetypes to take your brand to a whole new level. Archetypes allow you to embrace a different kind of personality and develop new perspectives. Your brand, or perhaps you yourself, can adopt an archetype and lead a life based on its values. Let’s explore how archetypes can be used to build a personal brand and even improve your own life.
What is an archetype?
Archetypes can be symbols, characters, stories, or themes that are widely known by other people and cultures. They are a part of our culture and are deeply ingrained in the collective unconscious.
A collective unconscious is a huge network of shared experiences, memories, emotions, and thoughts that shape our behavior. And archetypes play a huge role in unlocking the contents of this network.
Archetypes help us navigate the world, and through them, we shape the way we understand and perceive it. It acts like a blueprint, laying down the fundamentals for everything around us. Archetypes can be used as rather powerful tools to tell stories, position yourself, and even in marketing.
To get a better understanding of an archetype, think about video games. The characters we control have some similarities to other video game characters. They can be warriors, rogues, tricksters, blacksmiths, mages, alchemists, and other types. These characters share common goals and experiences. The archetype, or class (in video game terms), determines the way we interact with the world and the people inhabiting it.
Archetypes give us a new perspective on our experiences as they provide a different lens through which we can project our stories. Someone with the archetype of a warrior may be courageous, persistent, bold, and adventurous. They will share their experiences through those values and add their own twist of personality.
How to choose an archetype?
Choosing your archetype can be a daunting task. Primarily because there are a ton of different archetypes in the world and across different cultures.
We can do our best to narrow it all down and choose our archetype from the pool of already-known ones. Let’s call them the default options.
I would say the default options are the following:
- Warrior
- Mage
- Sorcerer
- Monk
- Nomad
- Scholar
- Blacksmith
- Trickster
- Jester
- Bard
- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
There are many more, and the archetype you choose will be influenced by your experience, culture, and exposure to different archetypes.
To choose an archetype, you must be aware of your values and what you align with. Are you courageous, creative, adventurous, and witty? You may probably want to choose the bard. Do you like to write a lot, explore different styles, and create stories? Then the writer is probably the best choice for you.
Find your personal values and quirks. Find the values and quirks of the archetype. See if they align. See if you can feel yourself being the writer, the bard, the warrior, or whatever you happen to choose.
- Would you live your life as one?
- Would you develop the habits of one?
- Would you get the experience of one?
- Can you tell stories that relate to their values?
- Can you tell stories that project their values?
Ask yourself these questions, and if you answer “Yes” to them, you have just found your archetype.
How an archetype can be used in building a personal brand?
Archetypes in branding can be used as a tool to frame and position your brand. To give it certain values, character, and clarify your brand message, and its vision.
Instead of building a company, business, or personal brand, you can use an archetype to act as the persona of your brand.
Archetypes can help your audience resonate with you and your story. It can help you achieve a consistent and relatable brand identity and, of course, connect with your audience on an emotional level.
- Understand your audience
Not only can you choose a personal archetype, but you can do so for your brand. First, you need to understand your audience, their pain points, their aspirations, motivations, and values. These things will dictate what type of archetype your brand can choose.
The goal here is to cover as many people as possible with the archetype you choose. But there is no way to cover 100% of them, so don’t worry about appealing to everyone.
- Consistency
An archetype in your brand will help you stay consistent with your messages and stories. Having something to rely on as the persona of your brand will reduce the cognitive load, and you will feel like you are running a brand for a different person. In some cases, it’s easier to take yourself out of the equation and pretend to be someone or something else.
Some people will find having an archetype helps them write and create better content because they don’t have to rely on their own personalities. Instead, they can rely on the archetype’s personality and perspective.
- Storytelling
Storytelling now plays a huge part in how well your brand is perceived by your audience. Through storytelling, you are taking your audience on a journey from point A (hell) all the way to point Z (Heaven).
An archetype can act as the hero of your brand’s story. Say your brand’s archetype is the warrior. A mighty person who can withstand whatever is thrown his way.
You embark your audience on a hero’s journey. Your audience are the warriors. Warriors who are struggling with becoming a better version of themselves They are currently weak, demotivated, and in literal hell.
Your archetype acts as the leader. By relating to your audience, being weak, demotivated, and in hell, you muster up the strength to go on an adventure to becoming your best self. Your archetype becomes stronger and more disciplined through your own experiences. Those experiences can range from going to the gym, joining a club, or going on a huge self-improvement journey.
You take them on your personal story. But through the eyes, values, and virtues of the archetype you stay consistent and relatable.
- Differentiation
Archetypes in branding are not that common. It will be the differentiating factor when it comes to the success of your brand. You will have the edge in standing out from the crowd if done correctly. Most brands out there try to give advice they haven’t personally taken. In other words, they don’t walk the talk.
The archetype you choose will enhance your brand’s story and message. It acts like a mask or more like a lens. But you will be projecting your experiences through that lens. Creating unique stories bundled with your own personality and experience
- Loyalty
With great storytelling, relatability, and consistency, your brand will gather loyal fans. They will relate to your archetype. Also, they will relate to your experience and your story.
The key here is to be aware of their loyalty. At this point, it would be unwise to switch personalities and betray your followers.
Keep growing and improving. But also, make sure your archetype grows with you. It has to go through change and transformation, as that is what your people want to see, and feel.
They want to see their beloved character take on challenges and overcome them.
They want to be your archetype. They want to be you, and they want to be heroes in their own stories.
All in all, archetypes can play a huge role in shaping your daily life, especially when running a personal brand. Archetypes can be a set of symbols, characters, or even mythical beings that people relate to. An archetype taps into the network called the collective unconscious. This, in turn, makes archetypes a great way to unlock relatability and get closer to your audience. But, perhaps most importantly, it helps to get closer to oneself. Your true identity and values.
