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Have you ever wondered what the absolute ‘Holy Grail’ of marketing is? The one thing that can catapult you to success more so than any other factor?

I am a real student of success and successful marketing….it just fascinates me. I am always looking at successful companies, and especially successful people, and wondering, “How did they pull that off?”, and “What was the biggest factor that contributed to their success?”

More often than not, the same few qualities play a large role in the biggest success stories.

After many years of paying attention to this, I have determined that the factor that plays the biggest role in most amazing success stories is personality and persona. Or, more accurately, creating and maintaining a genuine cult of personality is what contributes the most to a person’s success.

In this article, I will describe the power of creating a cult of personality, the keys to developing one for yourself, and using it to reach higher levels of success and accomplishment.

What is a Cult of Personality, and What Role Does it Play in Marketing?

A cult of personality is when a person has such charisma, such confidence, such intelligence, and so much individuality and powerful communication skills that they begin to form a following of people who are naturally attracted to them and what they represent. This following eventually snowballs and gains momentum until they have grown to have great influence over the large following that they have created.

We have seen this over and over again mainly with very public figures such as politicians (for whom the term was first used to describe), actors, authors, musicians, and businesspeople. Barrack Obama’s presidential campaign was the perfect example of using a cult of personality to create great success; he cultivated his image to the point where millions of people revered him as the answer to all of the country’s problems.

When I look at the types of actors whose films are most popular and who I enjoy watching most, I see a common thread between them all. The same goes for musicians.

The actors and musicians and authors who gain the greatest success are always the people whom the public most wants to be like. As consumers, we buy into the person before we buy into the product. This is the key principle behind the marketing power of creating a cult of personality; that people are always buying into the image and likeability of the person behind the product or service before they buy the product itself.

We can also see this in other fields as well; blogging is no exception. Naomi Dunford is a powerful example of a blogger who has attained great success in blogging and online marketing through creating a cult of personality around her. Naomi’s unique, personal, confident writing style and online persona have allowed her to create a loyal following of readers and fellow bloggers who follow her every post, promote her through linking and positive mentions on their own blogs, and generally hold her in high regard. This cult of personality that she has created has also allowed her to become very successful at her marketing efforts, because she has reached a point where people buy from her not because of what she is selling, but because she is the one selling it.

That is the power of creating a cult of personality.

How We Create a Cult of Personality

I have given a lot of thought to how a person can consciously create a cult of personality, and what qualities give a person the power to become a personality leader. It is a bit difficult to put a finger on, because it is an intangible quality in a way.

People who have developed a cult of personality just seem to have something special. They just seem to have ‘it’. One thing is for sure, it is not something that can be faked or forced.

I believe that a powerful cult of personality is truly characterized by the ‘vibe’ or energy that a person gives off; when you meet a person who posesses a great deal of power and confidence and intelligence, you can just feel it. This is why a cult of personality cannot be faked, because it is something that is perceived on an almost sub-conscious level by others. When someone has ‘it’, you just feel it and know it by the vibe and energy that they give off.

I believe that while a true cult of personality cannot be faked or forced, we can create and develop the power and characteristics of a personality leader by developing certain qualities within ourselves. Once we create within ourselves the same characteristics and power that these personality leaders posess, we will naturally give off the vibe and energy and charisma that will allow us to create a cult of personality ourselves.

In the following section of this post, I will outline the common characteristics that are shared by all personality leaders, and talk about how we can cultivate these qualities within ourselves and create our own cult of personality.

1) Self-Concept- The single greatest factor in our minds that will allow us to develop a powerful personality and magnetic quality about us is our self-concept. A person’s self-concept is the total composite of all of the feelings, ideas, and beliefs that a person has about themselves. All personality leaders have a magnetic quality about them that attracts others because they have extremely powerful self-concepts.

They like themselves. They are confident. They believe that they have what it takes to win. While they still experience all the same insecurities that everyone faces, something inside tells them that they are different, and that they will succeed no matter what.

Having a powerful, strong, positive self-concept is the most important part of developing a cult of personality. Once you have developed a strong self-concept, and you truly believe in yourself, others will automatically sense it. Your social standing will immediately increase, and you will get better at everything that you do because of your belief in yourself.

We can create a powerful self-concept simply by using the age-old techniques of positive affirmation, self-talk, visualization, and focus. I have made great strides in my own self-concept by using about 3-4 positive affirmations/visualizations at a time that I repeat for weeks, until my mind accepts them as fact and I can feel that they have become a part of me. This can take great discipline, but is well worth the effort.

2) Confidence- All personality leaders have a large amount of confidence. Donald Trump once said that he never knew a successful person who didn’t have a healthy ego.

I used to struggle with confidence when I was younger, and I still do from time to time. The real turning point for me with gaining a great deal of confidence was when I realized that I could not do well at something first, and then feel confident only after succeeding. I realized that I had to develop confidence first before I could succeed at anything.

Once I learned that having confidence was the first step in becoming successful at anything, it became easier for me to focus on having a successful mindset. Through affirmations and lots of positive, confident self-talk, as well as taking risks, I developed a strong feeling of confidence that has helped me immensely throughout my life.

The one tip that I would convey about building a great sense of self-esteem and confidence is that when you begin practicing affirmations and positive self-talk and visualizations, you must over-compensate.

Don’t tell yourself that you are cool, tell yourself that you f***in’ rock! Don’t tell yourself that you are good at something, tell yourself that you are the BEST at it. It may feel funny at first, but overcompensating when building your confidence is important, because you must create a powerful emotional state within yourself for real changes to occur.

Having great confidence is essential in developing a cult of personality; without it, noone will believe in you and your abilities. Focus on creating an abundance of confidence right now, because it could be the most important thing you do for yourself in your life.

3) Charisma- I strongly believe that charisma is nothing more than a by-product of confidence. I think that having charisma is really just liking yourself a lot and having confidence, and other people sensing that and feeling the same way about you.

If you want to have charisma, focus on building your confidence and working on your communication and people skills.

4) Self-Respect- This is an extremely important part of having a powerful self-concept and becoming a personality leader.

All powerful leaders and strong-minded, charismatic people have a great deal of respect for themselves. They take themselves seriously, and other people can tell. If you sense that a person respects themselves a lot, you automatically respect them as well.

I have experienced a lot of personal success in different situations and areas just because I take myself pretty seriously, and others can tell, which gives them faith and confidence in me. People treat a person with a lot of self-respect differently; it causes them to look at that person with high regard, almost automatically.

Like most of these qualities that I am talking about here, this is something that is very important to begin to work on within yourself, because people can immediately sense how high your respect level for yourself is, and they will treat you accordingly.

5) Realness/Authenticity- All personality leaders have a very distinct realness about them. It is one of the biggest factors that draws people to them; like these other qualities, people can sense when a person is real and genuine, which immediately causes them to trust that person and open up to them.

Without authenticity, all of the other characteristics I have listed here will be useless, because nobody will believe them. I know that for myself, I will not consider someone a true friend until they have demonstrated the realness of their character.

When people believe you, it gives you power.

6) People Skills- Having good people skills is essential to building a cult of personality. If you do not know how to get along with people, work with them, and get them to like you and respect you, you will never be able to build a cult of personality. We need the support of others to succeed.

Many people are socially inept without realizing it. They do not understand when they are being inconsiderate or rude, or when they have missed the mark in building a new relationship.

When it comes to people, some general rules that I always live by are to ask lots of questions about the other person and let them talk the majority of the time, always give positive reinforcement of what that person is saying, make sure the other person knows that I am listening, and being polite perhaps a little more than is necessary by most standards. I am always amazed at what people will do for me after I say thank you several times for a simple, small kindness. They know that I am grateful to them, and will go out of their way to help me in the future should I need it.

7) Create a Network- This advice is often given, but so few people practice it because it is difficult sometimes to create a network. Still, one can never become a true personality leader without building a network of influencers who can help spread the word about them.

Always try to build relationships with those who are a few steps ahead of you, so that they are in a position to assist you in your climb to success.

Creating a cult of personality is so essential in savvy marketing because once you reach a point where you have developed a strong reputation of trust, intelligence, competence, and confidence with a large audience of people, you can sell them anything. And they will be thrilled to buy it from you.

I always make it a point to look at and examine the most successful, powerful people and greatest success stories and examine what worked for those people, and what didn’t. When I do this, it becomes more and more clear to me what qualities I must work on within myself, and I find that success comes more quickly to me when emulating the actions of these successful personality leaders.

I also make a point to remind myself constantly that people buy into the person behind the product before they will buy the product itself. If we can remember that, we are already half-way there.

What did you think of this article? What impact do you think having a powerful personality has on marketing and life in general? Please share your thoughts with our reader community in the comments section….we’d love to hear from you and continue the conversation!

Tags: Marketing, personality, Self-Marketing