BUILD YOUR MAGNETIC PERSONA

If you want anything to come to you, you have to first be attractive to it. You have to be magnetic to the thing or things you want to attract. If you’re not attractive and magnetic to the things you say you want, you’ll likely push those very things away from you. After all, the opposite of attraction is repulsion, which is the act of repelling something. No, I’m not talking about how good looking you are, I’m referring to your attitude, mindset, beliefs, personality, and behaviors around the things you say you want.

You say you want more clients; you say you want better clients; you say you want more money; you say you want more time. If you want something you don’t have now, or at least not enough of, the best way to acquire it, in my opinion, is to have it come to you. When you chase after something, you’re not being attractive and magnetic, you’re being repulsive and repelling that thing. The goal should always be to have stuff come to you because of who you are, how you think, how you behave, and the value you provide for others. 

Welcome, my friends, my name is Blaine Feyen, and I am your host for this, and every episode of the always sponsor free, Real Value Podcast. In today’s show, we’re talking about an important idea and practice when it comes to marketing yourself and your services that I often refer to as the ‘magnetic persona’. I’ve heard this concept also referred to as the attractive character, the unlikely hero, the heroes journey story arc, and several other creative ways to define who this person is, why he or she matters, and how you should look no further than your bathroom mirror for your very own magnetic persona. 

What is a magnetic persona and why does this even matter? If you want people to be attracted to you, your brand, and what you’re offering, you have to first be attractive to that group of people. It is imperative that you design and give life to the magnetic persona that your ideal market of clients and customers will be attracted to. I’m going to introduce you to the magnetic persona living inside of you already and how to bring that persona to life.

Before we do that, though, I want to give you some examples from all around us that you may never have realized were the magnetic personas that helped build those brands and give more value to what they were selling or offering.

 One of the most prolific examples from the business world is Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. Without trying to be anything but himself, Steve Jobs was the identity of that brand. People either loved him or hated him, but they followed his every move and word, and people still buy Apple products by the billions of dollars’ worth because of Steve Jobs, even though he passed away in 2011. People love the backstory of a guy who drops out of college, starts tinkering in his garage with a buddy, comes up with something that the whole world wants.

 Another example of a magnetic persona that boosted the brand is Jared from Subway. Although that story has a sick and sad ending since Jared turned out to be a bad dude, for 15 years (2000-2015), Jared was the face and personality that boosted Subway out of the dumps and to the top of the charts. Jared had a backstory, he had flaws, and he taught in stories. He traveled around the world as the ambassador for Subway telling his story about how he went from morbidly obese to skinny by eating two Subway subs per day and walking. Not only was he hugely popular for the Subway brand, but he also became something of a role model for people trying to lose weight and get healthy. When Jared’s dark side came to light and he went to prison, Subway’s market value plummeted. Without their magnetic persona, the became just another sub sandwich company like all the others.

 You can think of the Verizon guy, the AT&T girl, Michael Jordan with Nike, and the list goes on. Granted, those are more like brand ambassadors, but people are drawn to the brand, and the brand becomes memorable because of those personalities and, in most cases, the backstory. The magnetic persona of those brands is the thing that attracts people to what you’re offering. People are out in the market looking for some kind of result so they may stumble upon your product or service, but a magnetic persona is what will keep them coming back again and again.

 If we venture into the world of make believe and comic books, all the best characters have a backstory, some kind of character flaw or weakness, they’re polarizing, and they have something to teach. Superman has a sort of human backstory, his weakness is Kryptonite, it’s the classic good versus evil story lines and teaching points, not everybody likes him, and there is a very human love story with Lois Lane. Spiderman has a backstory and flaws, Ironman has a backstory and flaws, Batman has a backstory and flaws, and all the best more relatable characters do. And that is the point of the backstory and the flaws: relatability.

 When your ideal clients and customers can relate with you because you have a relatable backstory, you’ve overcome similar challenges, you appear to understand their needs deeply, you’re very human and fallible, just like them, then you become more attractive and magnetic to that type of client or customer. That’s why thinking through this process and taking time to craft your magnetic persona can be such a valuable exercise for your brand and your business.

 Let’s start with the backstory. Think back over your life and write down all of your memorable experiences. Don’t leave any out since you won’t know at first what matters and what doesn’t. Think of the reasons why you started doing what you do now and why that might matter. For me, it started when I bought my first duplex at age 18. From there, it’s been a 30+ year journey of learning every aspect of real estate that exists. I was recruited by one of my Aikido students to help him build his appraisal company, which I eventually accepted under the conditions that he not pay me anything unless I could accomplish what I was pretty sure I could.

 Depending on who I’m speaking to, or what I might be offering, my magnetic persona has several different backstories that relate to that particular market of buyers. If I’m selling to my martial arts market, I have a backstory that includes working in a ghetto grocery store, getting beat up, learning martial arts, and becoming a man and able to defend myself. That’s a compelling story to somebody who has insecurities about being able to defend themselves and hears how I overcame that. They start to relate with that backstory, and thus with that persona and a relationship begins. If I’m talking to a potential coaching student, or that market of people, my backstory includes all of my own personal and business failures, the lessons learned, the coaches and mentors I had, and how I started to finally see some results in my own appraisal business. By the way, they’re all real stories and experiences. These are not made-up stories, they’re real experiences that you or I have had that we just start to realize make us relatable to a particular group of people. So, what are your stories that can become your backstory of challenges, things you’ve overcome, lessons along the way, and so on?

 As you think about your backstory, remember to include the all-important element of your very human flaws because people don’t want to deal with people that aren’t like them. It’s the opposite, people want to do business with people they can relate to, people that are like them in some way, people that are flawed and know it, but people that have overcome some of those flaws and some of the very same challenges that they face. They want to know that you’ve already walked the path that they’re on. So, tell them, what was the compelling reason you became an appraiser? An agent? A lender? If you say it was just for better income opportunities, that’s not compelling in the least. Your reasons for doing what you do, or at least doing it the way you do it has to be filled with some reasons your market of clients and customers can relate to.

 The last two aspects of building your magnetic persona are polarity and parables. Polarity refers to the ability to not stand in the middle. The middle is boring, the middle is purgatory, the middle is ultimate death. People who stand in the middle on a topic may never have anybody hate them, but they’ll never have anybody remember them either. The power of polarity is choosing your topics, researching them deeply, developing confidence in your positions on them, and not being afraid of taking a controversial stance on a topic. I usually refer to this as having a teachable point of view.

 A teachable point of view is simply having an opinion on a topic, but also knowing the topic well enough to teach somebody your point of view and have them understand it, even if they don’t agree with it. Harnessing the power of polarity is one of the vital character traits of your magnetic persona because your magnetic persona is meant to move people one way or the other. The hope is that it moves people to see more of the value of your offering, but it is also designed to move people out of the way a bit so more of ‘your’ people can find you. The goal is to split your audience; your market of buyers of your services; listeners of your podcast; readers of your blog, or whatever area you’re trying to have an impact in into three camps: those who agree, those who disagree, and those who are neutral.

 By the way, oftentimes, those who disagree with you will listen, watch, lurk, follow, and buy more than those who agree. When you understand the science behind this character trait, you will find that the people who ‘hate’ you, or at least disagree with you, will be standing right behind you waiting to see what you say next. Don’t be afraid to be polarizing and a bit controversial, depending on the topic. Be strong in your convictions on certain topics and have a teachable point of view. An articulable point of view that helps people move off of neutrality and into either the agree or the disagree camp.

 Which leads us to the last trait to think about when brainstorming on your magnetic persona, the parables. Parables are simply stories that help make a point or teach something. Learn how to take your life experiences and turn them into short stories that teach a valuable point. Think back to a time when you had a negative experience with a family member, but you learned a valuable life lesson. Learn how to share it in a way that teaches a value, a lesson, or helps you connect to the person you’re telling the story to.

 In fact, if you listen back to many of these episodes, you’ll hear that I use parables in almost every show. I learned the power of parable studying some of my favorite speakers and teachers, many of whom were great televangelists. They only had a certain time to make a powerful and emotional point, so they talk and teach in parables because it helps people more easily relate to the lesson.

 There you have it friends, one of the most powerful parts of building your business is developing your magnetic persona. It doesn’t matter if you’re an appraiser, a real estate agent, a plumber, or run a brick-and-mortar retail business. If you want to stand out in a very noisy and competitive world, you must have something that sets you apart from all the rest and also helps bind people to what you’re offering them. Be memorable, be remarkable, don’t afraid to be polarizing, learn how to teach your points of view in story, and don’t be afraid to share your compelling backstory of how and why you do what you do.

 For my appraiser brothers and sisters out there, if you’re wanting to know how to do this a little better, I talk about some of the ways to stand out in your market in an hour and twenty-minute value packed training that may just help add $10,000 to $50,000 or more to your business, no joke. The things I talk about in that training are things I did in several of my businesses that lead to multiple six figure streams of income. I want you to have it completely free if you think it may help you with your business. Just go to www.coachblaine.com/diversify and it’s all yours.