Brand archetype
The Everyman
The Everyman is the one who sounds like an actual person. If this is you, you have no interest in performing expertise; you would rather be useful, plain-spoken and easy to deal with. That is rarer and more valuable than it sounds. The difficulty is blending in, because an ordinary voice is the easiest kind for anyone else to imitate.
- Dependable
- Realistic
- Pragmatic
- Inclusive
- Equality
- Promise
- To bring fair value
- Goal
- To show empathy
- Strategy
- To be genuinely useful and easy to deal with
- Weakness
- Blending in with everyone else
How does the Everyman sound?
Tone of voice is the most immediately useful part of an archetype, because you apply it every time you write anything at all. For the Everyman, the register to aim for is:
- genuine
- likable
- good natured humor
- down to earth
- welcoming
- wholesome
- friendly
- humble
- practical
Write a post, then read it back against that list. If it does not sound like those words it will not sound like you either — and that gap is exactly the friction that makes publishing feel like work. You can see all twelve registers side by side if you want to compare.
What does the Everyman fear?
Every archetype is defined as much by what it avoids as by what it wants. These are the things this one instinctively moves away from:
- Exclusion
- Standing out
- Hostility
- Isolation
- Separation
The blind spot: You strip out anything that might look like showing off, and what is left is hard to tell apart from everyone else being sensible. The specific detail you think is too much is usually the thing that makes you recognisable.
What should the Everyman write about?
Your material is the ordinary problem nobody writes about because it is not impressive: the admin, the awkward pricing conversation, the part of the job everyone finds tedious. There is very little competition for it and a great deal of demand. Open with the situation, plainly, and skip any claim to expertise — the Everyman has no authority position to establish, and attempting one undermines the thing that makes the voice work. Then cut the generality. This voice's risk is sounding like anyone, and the only reliable fix is specificity: the actual number, the actual client, the actual Tuesday. “Chasing invoices is difficult” is a sentence anybody could write. “I sent four emails about an invoice before realising I had the wrong address” is a sentence only you could, and that is the whole difference between relatable and forgettable.
Which characters are Everymans?
Characters you already know who run on this pattern, described rather than pictured — they belong to the people who created them.
01
Ron Weasley from Harry Potter
Ron is the one without the prophecy, the money or the talent, and the story does not work without him. The Everyman's value is being the person the audience actually is.
02
Peter Parker in Spiderman (out of costume)
Out of the suit Peter is late with the rent and behind on his coursework. The Everyman's grounding — extraordinary ability does not exempt anyone from ordinary life.
03
Homer Simpson
Homer is the Everyman without aspiration, and the show's longevity rests on how recognisable that is. Belonging, appetite and no interest whatever in self-improvement.
04
Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit
Bilbo would rather be at home, goes anyway, and turns out to be the most sensible person present. The Everyman's practicality doing what heroism could not.
If the Everyman is not quite you
The twelve overlap, and most people recognise themselves in more than one. These three sit closest: two that share the Everyman's instincts, and one that wants the opposite thing.
Is the Everyman actually you?
Reading an archetype and recognising yourself in it are different things. The quiz scores you against all twelve and shows you the whole spread, not just the winner.
Discover Your Archetype