EPISODE 9: What is Your Content Personality?

Jessi:
Welcome to the Brand Your Voice Podcast, where we're digging into how you can create personality driven content that connects and converts. I'm Jessi...

Marie:
..and I'm Marie. We're the co-founders of North Star Messaging + Strategy, where we support business owners in outsourcing content without sacrificing authenticity.

Jessi:
Every brand has a unique voice that sets it apart. We're digging into how to capture the way your brand communicates, from the words you use to the stories you tell, so you can create more compelling content that strategically helps you meet your business goals.

Marie:
And if you choose to outsource that content, you'll be able to do so with confidence, knowing your brand voice is in good hands and you can reclaim your time. We're so glad you're here and hope you enjoy this episode.

Jessi:
Welcome to episode nine of the Brand Your Voice podcast. And what are we talking about today, Marie?

Marie:
We're talking about your content personality, what that is, what does it mean, why is it important. And we're going to dive all the way in to your copywriting character, the archetype that may exemplify your content's personality for your brand.

Jessi:
So a couple of episodes ago, we talked about the tone of your content as a part of brand voice. And we very briefly touched on this idea of a content personality, which really is that archetype that your voice really exemplifies and really shows throughout the content. And this is an easy way for people to visualize their voice, which can sometimes seem like a very abstract thing. So when we talk about having a content personality, we're really talking about what is the feeling of your content. What is the feeling of your voice. Whether it's a blog post or an email or social media posts, the feeling across all of them is going to be pretty consistent because you want to be putting forth a consistent personality.

Marie:
Yeah. And it also helps you identify where do you have natural strengths in your communication. This is probably the stuff that your audience is already coming to you for. They really like this aspect of the way that you communicate. And so really it's about building up the strengths. So why do you want to know your content personality? How is it going to actually help you with creating a consistent voice?
Recently, I was, actually both of us were at a Run Like Clockwork virtual event where one of the guest speakers was Darren Virassammy of 34 Strong. And he was talking about, and he did a cool exercise to prove this, but basically the things that you are naturally talented at, the things that you're good at, that you lean towards, your strengths. It's actually much easier to just continue focusing on those and really allowing those to shine as opposed to saying like, "Okay, well, these are my weaknesses and I need to work on them."
Like obviously yes, we want to do that. And we want to be aware of the areas where we're weak, but we can actually get more out of really leaning into our strengths. And so when you know the content personality that's naturally inherent in your brand, then you can really play it up. You can really lean into it. And that's the thing that brings people to you over and over again.

Jessi:
Yeah. And another benefit of really knowing your content personality and leaning into it isn't just that your playing up strengths that you already have and amplifying their effect, but that you're going to be connecting with your audience in a more authentic and genuine way. There are going to be certain types of people who are attracted to certain types of content personalities. They're just looking for a support that feels a certain way. And that allows you to build that bridge between yourself and your audience, because you're putting forth that identity and that personality that really clicks with the people that you want to work with.
If your content personality, if the voice and the tone of your voice is inconsistent, then it's harder for your audience to really connect with you because they don't really know what they're getting. They don't know if they're getting someone who has a softer and more, "I'm going to guide you through things" tone or someone who their tone is really more challenging. They're going to really hold you to things and put you in a position where you're growing in a different way.

Marie:
Right, exactly. So that consistency is just so important for building trust, from the message that goes out there, the personality that's shown through things like your social media content or your website content or your emails, that is setting the precedent for what it's like to actually have a conversation with you, to work with you. This is really, really important if you're offering some kind of service or consulting where you actually are having interaction with your clients.
Even if you have a massive team under you, there's probably like we've talked about before some brand values that are being shown through those conversations. And if you can be demonstrating those strengths and values from the beginning through a content personality, then there's going to be that layer of trust when on the backend, somebody does hire you and they're starting to have the conversations with you.

Jessi:
Absolutely. So in order to help people find their content personality, we've developed a tool. And this was actually originally a tool that we developed to help ourselves as writers, because we would have clients who came to us and they would consistently say that they struggled to find a writer who could capture their voice. And so we developed a quiz called the Copywriting Character Quiz that helps to pinpoint which archetype, which personality they naturally leaned towards. And this then allows the writing to take form around that personality. It's not the be all end all, but it's a very strong starting point for getting that tone correct. And so we've narrowed it down to five different content personalities or copyrighting characters that your personality may naturally lean towards.

Marie:
Exactly. So we're going to introduce you to all five of them now. And we're also going to talk a little bit about the fact that you could be a hybrid between two or more of them. So without further ado, introducing the five copyrighting characters, you want to start us off with a rebel, Jessie, I feel like this is a fan favorite.

Jessi:
It is. Yes. We all love a little bit of rebelliousness, right? And the rebel voice really taps into that desire to call things out, say things as they are, no cutting corners. The tone of the rebel is really direct and straightforward. And when they're building that relationship with their clients, to someone who's not suited to working with a rebel, it can feel a little abrasive. But to people who are suited with working with a rebel, it's exactly what they need. And so it's this voice and this tone that really is challenging the norms. And the word choice that they use and the sentence structure that they use if they're a rebel really all fits around this idea of challenging what you think is supposed to be done and providing a new path forward.

Marie:
Exactly. So rebels shaking it up a little bit here. The artist shakes it up a bit too. This is the second copywriting character, the artist. But in a different way. So the artist is really steeped in creativity. They're very much thinking about, "Okay, if the world is doing it this way, does that actually make sense? Is that the best way to do something? And maybe here's another way to do it that's creative." They're really not only creative themselves, but they incite creativity within their audience. So they're very much igniters, they're poets at heart. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are any kind of drawing expert or sculptor or anything like that. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're creating art with their hands or that they're a musician, but that they truly have a creative heart, soul, and brain. And that that is coming through in the content that allows the listener or the reader to think about things in a new way too. And not only think about things in a new way, but to be creative themselves.

Jessi:
Yeah, definitely. And the next one up after the artist thinks about things differently too, but in a slightly different way from the rebel and the artist. This is the nurturer personality. And I think I mentioned in a previous episode how word choice can really, really show the difference between content personalities. For example, you can challenge someone to move forward or you can guide them in moving forward. And the word choice of guide is really, really emblematic of the nurturer.
The nurturer is all about walking shoulder to shoulder with you, helping you along. It's a slightly softer content personality, but that doesn't mean that it's any less effective. It's really for people who connect on that level of, "I'm looking for someone to take my hand and go on this journey with me, to challenge me in a gentler way, but to still hold me accountable, not to let me get away with anything, but just to approach things in a way that isn't quite as in your face as the rebel might be."

Marie:
Yeah, they're holding space, right? I like this word choice distinction here. So yeah, if the rebel is challenging you and the nurturer is guiding you, then the artists might be inspiring you, right? So let's go then to our fourth copywriting character, in your content, all the Cs.
It's the scholar and the scholar is again seeing things in a different light, but in a different way, which as you can probably guess from the name of the archetype, they're all about research and teaching. The scholar loves to learn. They're a lifelong learner. They're always the entrepreneur that you see, who's consuming books and podcasts. They really want to learn. They're implementing too. And that's important. They're not just consuming, but they're trying things out. They're testing it. They're seeing if this works.
And then also they're this font of knowledge so that whenever somebody else comes to them with a question, they're the person with the answer. And if they don't have the answer, they're excited to go out and research it. They are just natural born teachers, even if they've never taught in a classroom, they're really good at conveying even complex ideas to people who are unfamiliar with them. They may use a lot of metaphors or stories and anecdotes that help get their point across. So I would say the word for them might be teach or guide.

Jessi:
Absolutely. Yeah. I love the scholar personally, it's one of the copyrighting characters I identify most with. And not just because I used to be a teacher, but because I love teaching, which there is a distinction between the two. And the last copyrighting character of the five, so far we've had the rebel, the artist, the nurturer, and the scholar.
The final one is the architect. And the architect is similar to the scholar in a couple of ways. Like the scholar, the architect is really adept at breaking things down into their fundamental pieces and then building them up again. And the architect does like to teach, but their teaching is less focused on guiding them from step one to step two to step three and more focused on really explaining the why behind the step one, the step two, the step three, and breaking it down into the smallest component pieces.
The architect is more likely to talk about building something than about teaching something, if you're looking at word choice examples. And you often find people with architect personalities creating content that's along the lines of these posts that just break down all the nuts and bolts of how they accomplished something and why they decided to do something, because they really like pulling the curtain back and showing the behind the scenes and getting into the nitty-gritty details of what that looks like.

Marie:
Yeah. These are the people who have like frameworks coming out their ears, and it's not even just frameworks that other people have created. They're so adept at creating them themselves because that's just how their brain is wired. So you have now a quick, super quick introduction to our five copyrighting characters. Now we don't believe that there's only five different types of content creators out there in the world. So what we often do is let people know that it's okay if you feel like you're a hybrid between two or more of these. Chances are, there's probably one that's maybe most prominent for you, but there's probably also at least a secondary one. And the reason this is important is to say again, just hearkening back to what I was saying before, is lean into your skills. Right?
So for instance, I tend to test as the scholar, but my secondary is the nurturer. And so I'm not awesome at... And we have developed frameworks, we have frameworks in our business, but they don't come super naturally to me. Right? So I don't need to like, just shove that square peg into the round hole, right? I can just allow that to happen as it happens. Or maybe I'm not great at being kind of in your face or shaking things up. I'm not like going to be leaning into my rebelliousness unless something just comes up for me and I just say it, it's like an intuitive decision to say that.
Otherwise my strengths and the reason that I think clients enjoy working with me is they learn in the process. They come away with not just a product of content, but they come away with new knowledge. So that's the scholar in me. Because I can't help myself but teach them what I'm trying to do. And then also nurturer, they feel very heard. They feel like I'm making space for them. They feel like, "Maybe I'm the only client right now." Because I try to really listen. So that's an example of what it can look like to be a hybrid.

Jessi:
Yeah. I like to think of it as like your boy bands of the late 90s and early 2000s, right? Or like, any sort of band where you have not just a lead singer, but backup singers as well. So you have the lead singer, who's really the person who is present the most often, or at least the most obviously, but everybody else has their opportunity to join in, to have maybe a moment in the spotlight based on the different circumstances. So your lead singer may be the rebel, but there may be situations where it's time to give the nurturer a solo and that's totally fine. It's great, in fact, to blend them because once you start doing that, there are infinite opportunities and infinite options. And that's why when we work with clients and we have every single one of our clients take our copywriting character quiz. And yet none of our clients have the exact same voice, because we take this as a starting point. And then we figure out what are your secondaries? What are your tertiaries, if you have a third one? And so on and so forth, and how do we blend those together into something that is uniquely you.

Marie:
Exactly. So I'm hoping that you, as the listener, are dying to know what is your copywriting character. And what do you know? We can help you out with that. Do you want to let them know how they can access the quiz?

Jessi:
Absolutely. Yeah. So the copyrighting character quiz is super fast. It will take you probably five minutes or less. I think it's 10 questions long plus a few additional just gathering information questions, but really 10 focused questions around your voice, all multiple choice. And you can find it at northstarmessaging.com/character.

Marie:
Exactly. This is a free quiz because we believe that this is way too important and valuable to keep to ourselves. So when you take the quiz, not only will you get your answer then and there, but you'll also get an email that will give you more information about your primary copywriting character. Now, if you do feel like, "Yeah, this is me like 60% of the time, but there's something else," you can take it again and focus on that something else as you take it. And that will help you know what your secondary copywriting character is.

Jessi:
Absolutely. And you'll get access to a PDF that goes into a lot more detail about things like, "I'm the rebel personality, and therefore these are some words that may fall under the rebel that you may connect with," or, "Here's how my sentences might naturally end up flowing." And you'll also get access to a portal where you can look at the PDFs for all of the other characters. So even if you don't want to take the quiz a second time, you can access the information for all five of the characters within that portal.

Marie:
Exactly. So happy quiz taking, and I hope that this has been really illuminating for you. And I hope you actually feel really excited about your content again, because people want to hear you for your strengths.

Jessi:
Absolutely.

Marie:
Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Brand Your Voice Podcast. Make sure to visit our website northstarmessaging.com, where you can subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, and more.

Jessi:
If you found value in this episode, we'd love for you to leave us a review on iTunes and share it with your friends. Thank you and happy content creating.