An archetype isn't a costume. It's a compass.

Pick a primary, add a secondary, translate them into how you actually show up.

The archetypes only become useful when applied to your specific story. The exercise moves through four steps. Choose your primary archetype based on how you instinctively help others and how people feel around you, energised, calmer, safer, clearer. Add a secondary archetype as the seventy-thirty flavour note that makes your brand specific rather than generic, a Hero with Ruler energy versus a Hero with Magician energy land entirely differently. Translate the pair into three to five tone-of-voice rules, three to five visual rules, and three to five behavioural rules. Compile the result into a one-page Archetype Card that becomes your compass for every content decision afterwards.

The four steps to define your Archetype Card:

• Choose your primary archetype based on instinctive help and the feeling you create
• Add a secondary archetype to introduce specificity and contrast
• Translate the pair into tone, visual, and behavioural rules, three to five each
• Compile into a one-page Archetype Card to use as your brand compass

In this video, Des walks through the four-step exercise and provides a ChatGPT prompt that uses the AI as a creative sparring partner to clarify your primary, your secondary, and the rules that translate them into a working brand identity.

Whenever you write, post, or pitch, check the compass.

That's the work this exercise builds.