Building a Compelling 'Character' and Personal Brand
“Let me make it simple. When the character becomes stronger than the audience, you lose your audience. The character has to have as many problems as the people in the audience, then they can relate. Like here’s a guy. He’s tough, he’s world champion. But he’s scared. He’s still nervous. And I don’t care who you are, when you sit in front of a crowd, you get nervous. It’s that connection.”
“It’s very important to use the ten or fifteen identifiable things that we have in common: pride, ego, jealousy, false pride, fear, insecurity… That kind of thing is what makes the character absolutely relate to the audience. When I don’t do that, it’s a disaster. And I have done that before.”
This was from an interview with Sylvester Stallone, as part of the Zurich Film Festival, back in the early 2000’s. You know not many people realise, Stallone is one of just a few people who have directed, acted, and written a lot of major films.
Anyway, when you look at what he said, well, there’s some incredible insight for marketing, sales and business in general.
And in particular, for this topic of creating a ‘relatable’ and compelling character or personal brand. Because a lot of businesses ‘lose’ their audience because of how they show up in marketing.
So this is something that can drive engagement and sales almost above all else.
Your Character Driven Business
Years back, I watched a screenwriting docco, it was talking about the two different types of story. Plot driven, vs character driven story. Basically, a plot driven story is where something is happening, and characters come in to attend to it.
The other week there was a car accident not far from my house. I could hear the crash from the desk. I went out there. And nobody was injured. One old guy hobbled out from his house and seemed a little bit out of it, lurching around. But none of the characters that were involved had any further motive. There was nothing to be done. Eventually the cops came, they towed the car away, et cetera. But the police came as part of their job. It was a plot driven story.
I tried for the life of me to turn it into a compelling email. But I couldn’t. There were no compelling characters.
And so it is with the most engaging stories. A key character drives the plot forward, inside the world where the whole story exists. We identify with the character, because they are not only relatable, but they’re also compelling. We’re intrigued, and we want to follow along with what happens not just in the story at large, but to them specifically.
In the world of business, we used to have a lot more plot driven businesses. Concrete companies, big airlines, big chains of restaurants. Largely ‘faceless’, and really just there to fill a market need and generate profit.
Richard Branson, was probably one of the more well known guys to shake this up. He built ‘big biz, but put his character into the centre.
In small business, especially with the internet, we all have a character driven businesses.
People identify with the characters (often ‘first’), resonate, build trust, then are open to buying what they have, when the need arrives. If you have a service business, the only way you can continue to engage customers for a long time, is through the customers feeling as though they have a relationship with you.
Just yesterday actually I went to buy a new dive knife. I drove twenty minutes out of my way to a local store. Paid 50% more than what I could pay online, waited in line, then drove home. I could have bought the thing and had it delivered. But the point was I have a relationship with the store owner.
I want him to win, so I support him. The stronger he can help that relationship to become, the better for him.
Most successful service driven businesses in the modern economy are character driven businesses.
Yes the service solves a particular problem, but we also know enough about the character to have a relationship with them, respect them, and want to associate with them as a person.
Some people call this personal brand…
To me, the difference - and why we call this ‘character building’ - is we’re always looking at how the character is driving the story forward. How are you driving your biz-ness story forward? So it’s the story that the character is both telling, and creating as they move forward in business, rather than just the reputation, or ‘brand’ of the service provider.
A lot of people think about ‘personal brand’ as how they dress in a facebook video, what colours they wear or put on their instagram feeds, and what glasses they have on. But that doesn’t tell us about their profitable promise - or what their mission is in the world. And this is how the character, or brand, is truly defined.
Sure your ‘looks’ impact your character. But most importantly, your character is defined by how they do what they do.
Anyway, let’s look deeper at what makes a character compelling
OK I’ll be up front here. In Creator Club, we have something called the ‘character compass’. This is a four point character profile system, that I’m not going to go into right now. One, because it takes a lot more depth - and usually one-to-one coaching (and another set of eyes) to really get it right. And two, because this article would blow out, and I sense the word count is going to be high enough as it is.
BUT we will cover a couple of the main points, or kind of ‘dance around’ this…
1 - The Character Must Show that They Are ‘Effective’
The other day I interviewed Janet Forbes - one of the co-founders of World Anvil, a worldbuilding platform with a hefty 2.5 Million users.
“Compelling characters are competent. They should have agency within the setting. They should be able to do something. They shouldn't just stand there dithering and sweating, right? We want to see characters doing things and being good at them. Not everything, not all the time. We want to see them do one thing that's really good.”
If you’ve been following my stuff for a while, you’ll have seen me talk about the key ‘intersection’ for character building.
That at any content, we want to a) demonstrate mastery, and b) show our character.
And this mastery part is something Janet is speaking to here. If you can do something very well as a service provider, that tends to be powerful…
I have a bad ‘spending’ habit in winter.
I’ve learned that winter is basically my achilles heel. In that, if I’m not careful, I’ll stop training, and just sit around and work, and that’s no good, so I spend money on new training programs. Because when I pay, I pay attention.
Anyway, I bought a sprint program from a guy that I’ve followed for a long time. And the number one reason I buy from this guy, is he is at mastery level, and he demonstrates it, daily.
I mean really. He’s 38 years old, 95kg, 179cm and as strong and as fast as I’ve ever seen for an ‘everyday’ guy. 150kg snatch. 300kg deadlift. Slam dunks a basketball hoop. It’s nuts. So anyway, I buy from him because he’s very good.
In my world, we teach service businesses how to grow a business they’re proud of. So, I demonstrate how I’ve done that. Three times. In my writing, I’m actually demonstrating it. By producing books, articles, emails… and having fun with it at the same time, it’s demonstration of the system that I recommend: Clarify your character, create your profitable promise, and build out your world with content.
Anyway, all that is demonstration.
So the first and most important question, is how can you demonstrate competency in your area of specialty. (If you haven’t narrowed that down, then it’s hard to demonstrate).
2 - The Character Shows that They Are ‘Active’
In a character driven story, the character needs to be driving the story. Sounds simple, but so easy to miss. Change attracts attention, so we’re looking for characters that are changing, or creating change. If you’re strength coach, how are you getting stronger as well? Or what seminars are you running? Or what book are you writing? How are you moving the story forward? What decisions are you making?
We work with a small business lawyer. That’s a field where you might think it’s pretty boring, right? Terms and conditions? Yeah. Not too exciting. So, how does she show ‘active?’ Organising events. Networking. Showing things that are happening. She’s running an event this week.
Janet also shared her thoughts on this:
“They make decisions. Even if it's a bad decision, they still make a decision and do something because watching a character that is indecisive is like watching paint dry.”
Yep.
And this is a key one for coaches, consultants… If you’re like me, you’re mostly working with clients. A lot of my work is at a table, or behind a screen. Or in a client’s place of business. It’s not particularly ‘active.’ So I ‘create’ active around this. I’m writing book two. I run live events. I go see clients, film parts of it and turn it into content.
I’m putting effort in to ‘show’ the active.
This ain’t that hard. Because if you’ve got a business and you’re trying to grow it, then you want to be ‘doing’ things anyway. We call this ‘time lining’. What is on your timeline? What are you doing in the future that you can showcase? A workshop? An offer launch? We typically do this with a client in a 90 day plan.
But the basic takeaway is if you want a more compelling and ‘exciting’ character, set up some events on your timeline that you are driving, and then show how they unfold! Remember, it doesn’t matter if it’s a perfect decision or a perfect event. It can be total chaos. It can be a ‘bad’ decision. That’s no problem. Whatever. It still is more compelling than doing nothing.
3 - The Character Must Be ‘Relatable’
“A ‘world’ really, is its people. Like when we are reading a a story, what we're connecting with is the people. When we are playing a game, what we're connecting with is the people. They're the conduit for all the emotions. And the emotions is really what we're talking about here. It's not just creating compelling characters, but creating characters we can connect to.”
One of the big problems with social media, is it’s taught us to bring out this shiny, polished exterior.
And this goes back to what Stallone talked about at the start… The polished character is too ‘strong.’
When he says strong, it ain’t just ‘strong’, but he also means the character is too ‘perfect.’ No flaws. So what do we do here? We want to show that we’re effective. But it also ain’t about being perfect… Some people go into the whole ‘faux vulnerability’ road.
The latest one I’ve seen is these videos of guys that they put on social media, where they’ve broken up with their girlfriend, and they’re having a proper cry. And they put some music behind it. And it goes viral. Look, I’m not saying you can’t cry as a guy or anything… But why stop, turn on your phone, film that, and then post it? The only reason you’d do that is if you’re trying to get social media traction from it. Overblown vulnerability. I don’t think that’s ‘it.’
Instead, what about if you just looked at yourself practically, and saw some of the weaknesses that you have, or nuances, and brought them out?
I’m obscenely impatient. I’m next to useless in a large crowd, and I’m about a year behind any current ‘trends.’ Thankfully I’ve learned to channel my addictive personality to coffee and writing (before it caused any serious harm), but I have that to deal with as well. I’ve got all kinds of problems, and dysfunctions, and while I don’t put them front and centre, I make a point to bring them out where I can.
The point is, the world doesn’t need another hero. The world wants someone they can relate to.
No matter what your opinion is on these people, Elon, Oprah, Robert Kennedy Jr., Connor McGregor… They’re all at the ‘top’ of their game, but they bring out their flaws. And it means people can connect with them. They don’t try to be virtuous. They just show up as themselves.
Anyway, this could be one of the most powerful ones. It’s kind of the same as cutting out the whole ‘coach speak’ thing. Or just writing your copy like yourself.
“But the most critical thing is you need to make yourself connectable, is you need to relatable. People have to understand you are a human and, and you are a human like them in some way. You must be relatable. And I think the danger of of a lot of us is we create these, like Teflon exteriors. We try to be perfect. We try to create the non-stick version of ourselves. But it's okay to say, “oh, you know, just give me a second to get my coffee. You don't wanna speak to me before I've had my coffee.””
Spot on Janet.
4 - The Character Must Show They Are ‘Growing’
When we think about the three parts of a story, we’ve got 1) a character, 2) who goes on a journey and faces obstacles, and 3) who then undergoes a transformation. What’s the transformation? That’s growth. That’s the change.
So as a service provider, or a human, the question is how can you show growth?
How can you show progression, or change? What does this look like for you?
“Characters that are good characters react to what's going on around them, and they grow. They are interactive with the world. And I think the, the big parallel here is that you are interactive with your people and you show progress in who you are. So, you know, if somebody knows you for a long time, they should get to know you better and they should see you, you blossom as a person.”
So you want to show some sort of growth. It’s so easy to get locked into doing things the way we’ve always done them. But you know what? That can be dead wood? Almost as soon as you’ve started to do something, you’ve got to think of how you can change it, you know?
And, this growth thing is as much the internal transformation of the character as it is the external changes in behaviour. Because it’s all related right? So to have a service provider come out and say “I’ve changed, I’ve adjusted my ways. I used to think that, now I think this…” That’s powerful. It inspires us as an audience. And it gives us the idea that we can change as well.
When I was younger, there was a show on TV called the Biggest Loser. They’ve stopped running it. For a few reasons. One is I don’t think it would be socially acceptable anymore. But also I think because there were a bunch of health issues with it. Like the trainers were pushing these people so hard to lose weight.
That I think one of them got sick, or something happened. It was too stressful.
Anyway, people love those kinds of shows, because they’re filled with obstacles, and trials and tribulations, which is how we grow. So we see them change physically, but also we see the mental shift as well.
And we identify with that. We all want some kind of change. Showing your growth is important.
Conclusion
OK, that’s enough for this article. As I said earlier, the word count can really get up with this stuff. But there’s enough here for you to implement in your work, and start to build a more relatable character, much faster.
And while you may or may not be a fan of Sly Stallone and his movies, the guy speaks the truth on character.
Bring this into your content and delivery, and you’ll really have a personality that’s cookin’.
People will be able to engage and buy like never before.