Creating an Easily Digestible Public Identity
People are always the main characters of their own lives. To every single person who knows you and interacts with you, you are a side character, a supporting character. When you are creating your public identity, don’t try to create the best protagonist you can, you are attempting to create the best supporting character you can.
Protagonists and supporting characters are written very differently for a good reason. For example, the most common protagonist type is the Mary Sue, but a Mary Sue type character in any role but the lead becomes the type of character that stands in the crowd and is played by an unpaid extra. Think about all of your favorite side characters from movies, books, and TV shows. Almost all of them will be bold, simple archetypes. This is because our brains hate to have nuanced processing foisted upon them. Our brains prefer that side characters be easy to categorize archetypes.
When “shopping” for whatever public persona you choose to adopt, sites like TVTropes.org are great places to look for inspiration. Keep in mind that, while there is no harm in borrowing the trope of a popular character type from media, you will be able to grab more mental space from others if you build the trope of a character that is not yet popularly depicted, but a trope society collectively “wished existed.”
Examples of these powerful tropes emerging can be seen in public figures like Sarah Palin, Anna Wintour, Donald Trump, and George Takei. They presented personas to the world that were simple and easy to understand that fit in with existing tropes, allowing them to resonate strongly with the public. In some cases, the tropes that real people present through their public personalities work their way into popular media going forward.
When we say society collectively “wished these tropes existed,” we do not imply that society necessarily likes these characterizations of people. We simply mean such tropes fit snugly into our brains as bold, simple, and easy to understand. Consider a character like Professor Umbridge from the Harry Potter series. Few people “like” Professor Umbridge, nor do they “want” her to exist, but even if you had never encountered her character before, were you to meet her in person, you would feel a sense of satisfaction with how snugly her character fits into your brain. Moreover, you would remember that person for years after only a brief encounter.
Ultimately, not everyone creating a public persona needs to focus on ease of digestibility. As stated before, this method is only necessary to study for individuals who want to be memorable, become effective leaders, act as influencers in interpersonal groups, and/or operate on a public stage.