The 6 Audience Attraction Archetypes

To have an audience of people who know you, who trust you, who buy your products and services. Sounds easy enough, but building an audience can sometimes feel pretty overwhelming. So today we're really going to dive into some archetypes around audience attraction. Linda Claire Puig is here to share what she knows about these 6 archetypes. And I'm really excited for this because, Linda, this is so interesting how you position this, right? I think for me and for a lot of our viewers and listeners, the idea of having archetypes can be really exciting because we can start to paint a picture of what to do. So let's dive into why archetypes? Why do you share your knowledge in this format?

To be honest, I'd always wanted to create an archetype world, you know, and I just never knew when it was going to present itself to do that. And I've been teaching about audience attraction and nurturing and conversion and whatnot for many, many years. And all of a sudden earlier this year, I thought, you know what, I'm going to do my, my archetype thing with audience attraction because I know that there are plenty of people who are like really anti-social media. I'm, I'm one of them. And then there are others who are really into social media. So I started looking at the different personalities of people and how they operate in the world, how they operate in their business. And it really, it was so interesting. It fell into a very clear pattern of 6 archetypes that, you know, they overlap. You can have one and you can have a primary one and a secondary one. Like, you know, it's not, it's not like you're one thing and one thing only, but it was really fascinating how you could sort of dial in what to focus on based on your archetype.

So I love it.

I felt like it was a way to, um, one of the biggest problems that my students have is they feel this sense of overwhelm around audience attraction because there are so many different things to do and you're supposed to do all of them. You're supposed to do Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest and YouTube and, you know, like all these things that you're supposed to do. And so Finding a way to sort of manage what you might focus your attention on was of interest to me and of interest to my students.

I want to— before we dive into the archetypes, which we will— I want to get your opinion on the state of the union as far as audience attraction is concerned today for social media. I have my own opinions, but I want to explore that with you and get your professional insight as well. Things are changing. I mean, things are changing radically and it seems like they're changing pretty fast. So what do we need to know about audience attraction as far as it pertains to social media for today?

Well, I'm of the opinion. So first of all, there are really two basic ways to attract an audience, to find them and pull them into your world. And one is social media, obviously, and that has its many parameters. And then the other is other people's networks. And that would be things, things like online events, um, uh, JV swaps, you know, working with JV partners, getting in front of other people's communities. Even guest blogging would qualify as that. So understanding that there are these two sort of, um, you know, mutually beneficial but potentially separate, completely separate ways of attracting your audience. Um, the reason that I personally gear myself toward other people's networks is I find it and have found it over the years to be significantly more effective just in terms of the number of opt-ins, in terms of the warmth of the audience, in terms, you know, when, when they meet you, it's because it's by recommendation of somebody that they already know and trust. And so that's why I like to use primarily other people's networks to, to do my audience building. Social media is great for a lot of things, and it can be great for audience attraction. There are several really clear strategies that work well for the right person, but overall, I would say that you're going to have a lot more results for your efforts when you're in front of other people's networks.

What's interesting is how we connected. We connected through the network side of things.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah. And, and to your point, things are changed— changing quite a bit on social media. And it's not to say that people don't still have success. Those are viable distribution channels. There are still billions of people on them, etc. But certainly I believe that if you have high-ticket products and services to sell, you're probably more likely to have success on the, on the networking side. But there's still, I think, a place to be visible online on social media and still leverage those opportunities of distribution as much as you can.

So, well, and you know, Cheryl, the main thing is regardless of whether you are primarily using social media or primarily other people's networks or a combination of both. The main thing is, is that your focus is on getting people to your list and then spending your time nurturing that audience because that's yours. And a lot of people think that, you know, all their social media followers are theirs. They're not actually. Your account could be closed down any, any day just for by accident, just by mistake.

So I have a client— I have a client who that happened to. Yeah. You know, that Instagram account, and one day it just disappeared. And then we together tried to, you know, to try and find a human being to request that the account come back. Exactly. And it still hasn't happened. And they think, you know, he's in his 40s and they think he's 13 years old, and you can't argue with them.

So, oh, that's really sad.

Yeah, it is sad. But, um, but it just goes to show that, you know, you don't really— you're renting. You know, you're renting over on those social platforms. But again, I don't want to discount that those are still viable distribution channels.

Oh, I don't either.

I don't, I don't mean knowing that. Just know that. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so let's dive into the archetypes. This is exciting because regardless of whether you're using social media or you're using the networking and the JV kind of side of things, these archetypes will help you to attract your audience. So let's dive into archetype number 1.

Yeah, well, first I just want to say you usually are going to have one dominant one. You might have a secondary one, uh, and it's not a straitjacket, right? Just because you find yourself, um, as one of the six doesn't mean that you can only do the things that apply to that archetype, right? You get to choose. You're always at choice. Um, and, and it, it's especially important if you're one archetype and your audience is completely different, right? You're going to need to find a good middle ground there. So, um, and then lean into your archetypal qualities. Even if you are, um, for example, if you're somebody who— we'll go through them, I'll tell you in a second— but like, if LinkedIn is your thing because of your archetype and you don't really like LinkedIn but you need to use it because that's where your people are, then you can always lean into your archetype to present yourself in the way that your archetype does on the platform that you have to be on just because that's where all your people are. So just wanted to make a couple of points there before I start. So the first one is the Journalist. So this is a person who is curious about, you know, they're curious about everything, you know, they, they, writing is their strength. They are, they're natural interviewers, and they do pretty good at being interviewed themselves. Um, they prefer, generally speaking, staying out of the big spotlight. Um, so we want to understand that the journalist is probably going to be doing things like podcasts, right, where they can interview people or be interviewed. They're going to be writing longer things on Facebook, for example. They're going to be doing books. Books are a great list-building activity, and a journalist is a natural at that. Um, they would probably focus on guest blogging or summits like the one that I'm, that I'm starting next, next week. Um, so that's, you know, it, it helps them lean into their natural curiosity and their natural talents. Um, the next one is the artist. The artist is my son. My son is a photographer. And you know, you don't have to actually be an artist to be the artist archetype, but they are really just naturally creative. They're drawn to art, they're drawn to design, they're drawn to illustrating things with beautiful photography. So you can lean into your artist archetype even when you're doing other things, if that's you. If you're not the artist, like, you could put up a sales page with no photos and you'd be fine with it, right?

Yeah, exactly. I mean, I definitely lean so far, obviously, to the journalist part. It's what I did professionally for years.

Oh, you were a journalist professionally? Oh, that's right.

You were. Yes, I was. I was a journalist professionally for 25 years. So I definitely can relate to— as you were describing it, I'm like, she's talking about me. Okay. Yeah, it's great. I love it. And I'm sure that our viewers and our listeners can start will relate to at least probably one of these archetypes.

So what's number 3? Absolutely. Yeah, I predict that you will. And I was a journalist too, so it was no surprise for me either. That's what I qualified as. So the artist is going to do things like Pinterest. They love Pinterest because it's just so visual. They love Instagram especially. They love YouTube. They can express and share their artistic vision. And you know, when they're, when they're doing online events such as, let's say, giveaways, you know, they're going to be the ones that have just really eye-catching, eye-popping kinds of web design. Um, the, uh, there's a few really interesting people that I love to follow. There's a guy who actually is an artist and he had, um, he started a YouTube channel after years and years of doing retreats in France, in the lavender fields of France. Um, he started a YouTube channel and he got so many followers from that effort. And then he launched some courses and he sold like more than 800 courses. It was just amazing what he was able to do with YouTube. Um, my son uses Instagram only. That's his preferred way of, of, of getting audience. So the next one is the host. The host, you can imagine people who like to gather people together, start conversations, right? Make sure everybody is doing well. So the host is somebody who would really love, you know, Clubhouse is not that, not as big as it was back in 2020, but there are still people using it quite successfully. And so Clubhouse is a perfect place for the host, for a host. Some of the Twitter— I don't know about Twitter right now, but in general, like the Twitter listening spaces, those also are good hosting platforms. Podcasts are great for hosts, obviously, on the hosting end, and they can host summits and host giveaways. And they just have that presence of gathering people together for this big thing that's going to happen.

Yeah, I love that. I think about the social audio side of things and then also community and, and maybe bringing people together in a group and things of that nature.

It sounds interesting. Exactly, exactly. Um, the Organizer, they love to create groups, they love to organize ideas, they're really naturally good at things, keeping things in order. There is a colleague of mine and friend who's been on some of my adventurous life trips who is just like, you look at her Pinterest page and it is so pristinely organized and colorized, and it's just an amazing thing to look at. And then if you look at all of the rest of her, of her, you know, digital footprint, you can tell she's the organizer because of the way that she, you know, puts things together in little groups and makes sure that things look nice and neat over here. And, and it's not just about visual, it's, it's also about groups, you know, like somebody who in Facebook has all of their Facebook friends divided into very, very minutely detailed groups of people so that they can message them individually or not individually, but, you know, as a group. Yeah.

Is, is Organizer the fourth archetype? Yes, it is.

Okay. Before I put it on the screen, I want to make sure I had it right. Yeah. Yeah. Organizer is the fourth. The fifth is the Connector. The Connectors, they love connecting, they love matchmaking, they love joint venture partnerships, right? It's all relationship, relationship, collaboration, collaboration. And they're the ones that love reaching out to people. You know, there, there are some in the archetypal world that are like, don't make me ask to, you know, talk to people and make them ask or ask them things, right? Just don't make me do it. I can't do it. The connector loves that kind of stuff and they will not only, you know, connect people for other purposes, you know, for their own purposes, they'll also do it for other purposes, you know, so they'll be like, oh, you should meet so-and-so and they'll connect this person as JV partners. So they're just really collaborative and they love, love, love that, that aspect of connecting with other influencers, you know, that sort of a thing. And then the last one is the Talent. The Talent might be the most obvious one. The Talent is the one that loves to shine in the spotlight and they are very natural on camera. They like pop, pop open the camera and just do a, do a video right then and there. They don't need a script. They don't need like, they're just so natural in front of it. They really do gravitate toward video and interviews, especially YouTube. Um, I was going to say, I forgot to say that the connectors are, um, obviously LinkedIn is a very big hub for connectors. Um, and Facebook is too. Um, as far as the talent goes, you've definitely got like YouTube and Instagram and TikTok and Facebook Lives, like all of the things that have a video component, brilliant for the talent.

This is so interesting because as you're describing these 6 different audience attraction archetypes, I can relate to some aspects of multiple of them. And I think what would be fun, Linda, would be to encourage our audience, especially for those who are watching the video version of this episode today with Linda, is to go into the comments and put in what you think you are. It might be one or maybe multiple of these archetypes, but pop them into the comments. I'd be really curious to see what the majority of, of people are, you know, because I can relate to, you know, certainly the talent part of it. You know, I like being in the spotlight and did that professionally for years. But then there's part of me that's journalist, and then I think also a little bit of connector and host, you know. So I can see definitely different aspects of these archetypes playing into how I see myself.

Yeah, some people are lucky and they have a lot of them, and others have just one and maybe two. Like, I have I'm the journalist primarily, and I've got the artist as a secondary and a distant third, the host. Right. So that's about it. You wouldn't find me anywhere near the talent.

Right, right, right. I love this. Well, so let's say, you know, we, we, we understand these archetypes and thank you for bringing that to us today. I think it's brilliant. Once we know what we are or we can identify a little bit of a couple of them or a few of them, What do we do with this information? How can we apply those learnings or that observation of ourselves so that we can attract our audience?

Well, I think one of the main things to do is to first know, uh, what your preferences are, right? Before you start saying, where should I be, where do I want to be? Like, I don't want to be on YouTube. I just don't. And so I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to even try to have a YouTube strategy. It's just not me. So it helps you narrow down. So once you've narrowed down to, you know, where you can, you can discover some of the places that you are willing to play, then, then, then that's what you focus on. And I recommend that people focus on maximum 3, preferably 2, and even fine, 1 of the, of the main bulky audience attraction strategies. So for example, myself, I only focus on other people's networks. Like I've just, let that whole social media part go. Other people are going to be like, I'm going to be on Instagram and I'm going to do giveaways. And that's what I'm going to do. And, you know, as your business grows, you can start focusing on more and more. As your team grows, you can start focusing on more and more. You know, I had team members who were doing my social media for me, and I just, I always discovered that I was the bottleneck. It's like, can you approve these, these things? Yeah, I'll do it in a week. Right. So, so that's how I came to the decision to just stop doing that altogether. But for other people, you know, all you need is that team to, to assist you in, in the growth. You will hear people saying you have to have a presence everywhere. Like you have to at least have a presence and that may or may not be true. I think that it's, it's fine to have just a presence and not really activate it. Um, but you have to be focused on the ones that are working for you.

I think I used to subscribe to the idea of that you have to have a presence everywhere, but I think that my thought process around that was pre-pandemic, you know, and I think now, and this is the case with online business building, social media, entrepreneurship and all that, is that things change. Yeah. And so I don't think I'm quite as much of the belief today as I was a few years ago about really needing to be on every platform and being visible. I think it's more important to your point and what you specialize in really is about what is your strategy to make this work for your business? Because listen, there's a difference between being on social media for fun And being on social media for business, it's very different. A huge strategy that drives what you're doing and what the intent is of it all. Yeah. Um, and I, and I think that's totally where things are going. I mean, I believe that it's really going to be predicated on community access, your network, who do you know in your database, who can you rely on. I think it's going to be about, to your point, your decision to go down more the, the joint venture relationship kind of side of things and, and And that's how we met. And it's just making decisions about where you want to be spending your time, energy, and possibly investment. Right. So, Linda, tell us a little bit about the work that you're doing. I know you have the Blowing Up Summit. Tell us about that. I'm going to show it on the screen. Just, just give us an idea of what it is that you're working on right now.

Well, first of all, just note how perfect it is for my journalist archetype and my distant third host. Right. I'm hosting 40 different speakers, 40+ speakers. I think we actually have a few more than 40. And so I'm hosting them and I'm interviewing all of them. I got the privilege of interviewing all those speakers, which was just like my joy. And these are speakers that are each speaking on the one strategy that helped their business blow up, that hence the word Blowing Up Summit. And so my co-host is Ari Eni. He's with the Miracy ACEs Business Acceleration Program. He's the head of strategy there. And the two of us just really do deep dives into these different strategies that, that each of the individual speakers have experienced themselves and are able to teach on. So it's really, really— I'm super excited about it. I've been working so hard on it. It's beautiful and practical and very exciting, I think, for the people who will be hearing all of the different speakers.

I definitely recognized names. I've worked with some of the names on this website, and I know some of these names, and I know that this is going to be an amazing— a lot of these speakers I've heard on stages in the last decade. I've, you know, coached with some. Like, it's, it's really amazing what you've brought together here. So I just want to congratulate you on that. And I'm going to leave a link below this episode of where you can participate and where you can register for the Blowing Up Summit. Awesome. I love what you've done. I like the work that you do. I'm really impressed with not only this, but just your philosophy around, and especially in this episode, this idea that you don't have to do everything. Pick some places to be. Understand what your strategy is. And I know that that is going to be a big part of the Blowing Up Summit is really helping bring all of that together so that everything starts to make sense. So coming back full circle to where we started this episode, which is this idea of being overwhelmed and confused and all of that, you get to a place where things start really making sense because you're making smart decisions. Yeah, yeah, love it. Linda, one last thing. We have a little thing here called Stop Marketing Like It's 1999. It's my ode to Prince since I'm a huge fan. What is a tip, a tool, a tactic, or a technique that's really helping you to market yourself and your company today?

Well, at the risk of repeating myself a little bit, first of all, I'm going to say I'm going to— I'm not— I don't market like it's 1999, but I do market like it's maybe 2005. I still think that there are lots of really super valuable basics, foundational ways of marketing yourself. That are tried and true. And for me, it's the email list. So I am all about getting the email list and then nurturing them, like developing a real authentic relationship. I love writing my audience about my travels and drawing stories from those and lessons from those. Like, I just feel like the act of building an email list and then developing that relationship with it is what leads to converting them into students and clients and sales of all sorts. So love that. Market like it's 2005.

Market like it's 2005.

I know you asked for modern, but it's still working.

That's okay. You know what? It's more— what's more important is what's working. And I think that it is really going back to the basics. Let's go back to basics and look at the fundamental things that you can be doing that are actually going to be working. And so just a reminder again, look for the link below this episode. Um, I will put it in there for the Blowing Up Summit. You are going to want to claim your free ticket, absolutely, and listen to these 40 amazing entrepreneurs who reveal the details of their number one strategy to explosive success. Linda Claire Puig, thank you so much for being on Cashing On Camera.

Thank you too. Oh, it's been such