Do you sometimes scroll through Instagram and see image after image of perky online business owners with positivity and love figuratively pouring out their eyeballs?

Do you sometimes wonder if you need to re-adjust your schtick so you’re a bit more bright-eyed and dreamy? Perhaps that will make you attract more customers.

Wrong. Well, possibly right but they won’t be the right kind of customers for you. And you’ll be exhausted from keeping up the facade. It would be like posing for endless pictures holding bunches of flowers when deep down you think cut flowers are a waste of money and they give you hayfever anyway.

Throwing in a cute term of endearment like ‘Sweetpea’ usually works at this point in the article, but if you’re a Sage (and you’re pretty sure you are), that’s just not going to fly.

So what exactly is a Sage?

It’s one of the 12 brand archetypes. These are the over-arching personality of your brand and what it is you want to communicate with your customers.

There are 12 different Brand Archetypes. Nurturer, Badass, Alchemist, Pure Heart, Adventuress, Girl Next Door, Heroine, Mischief Maker, Lover, Sage, Queen and Creatress.

Here are 5 ways to know if you’re a Sage archetype…

1. You’re the Yoda of your chosen field

Sages don’t need to strive for excellence in their field; it just comes naturally to them. Whatever industry you’re in, chances are you’ve read every book, article and magazine available on the topic. You’ve been to every conference, and you’re probably quite well known as one of the top experts in your field. Unlike other ‘top experts,’ you didn’t get there through good PR. You got there through your insatiable thirst for knowledge and the fact that you run rings around anyone who tries to argue with you. You have the all the facts, and you aren’t afraid to use them.

2. You value wisdom, knowledge and truth above all else

Proof and results are your chocolate. If someone says ‘Hey have you heard about this cool new thing in our industry?’ You don’t respond with ‘Oh wow! That’s looks amazing!’

This is what you say.

‘Is there any peer-reviewed research available on this? I read a research paper last year that said those kinds of results are almost impossible to achieve. There’s also an expert in France who has done seven years of solid research around this topic, and she’s proven beyond reasonable doubt that the opposite of what this thing can do is true.’

The best thing about a Sage? You aren’t afraid to tell the truth and back it up with proof. Keep on keeping on. You’re the reason why the world changes.

3. Sometimes you come across as a bit of a know-it-all

As incredible as it is that you know all the stuff, sometimes people want to eat a piece of cake without hearing about the research you read about how excess sugar consumption can cause cancer/blindness/impotence/spontaneous combustion.*

Knowledge is your superpower, and most of the time, people love hearing about your research. However when you’re out for dinner, and everyone is having a grand old time, that might not be the best time to bring up the fact that most coastal towns in the world will be submerged in water in less than 100 years if we don’t fix the climate. Best leave that info at work.

* Unless you really do have research that proves that excess sugar consumption does infact cause spontaneous combustion. That's something we ALL need to know. *drops Mars Bars*

4. Being a know-it-all is okay

Because you DO know it all. One of the greatest strengths of a Sage is your ability to be entirely confident in what you’re saying. You know why? Because you’ve researched both sides of the argument and you’re ready to rumble.

Note to other archetypes - Never argue with a Sage. They’re almost always right.

5. Dumbledore is the Amy Poehler to your Tina Fey

Sure, a Sage can be a bit of a party killer.

Typical Sage at a dinner party - 'Did you know that most red wine isn't vegan or even vegetarian because it's pressed through fish guts?'

*crickets*

But underneath your (occasionally) insufferable facade, Sages are genuinely good people. Not obviously good people like Lovers or Healers (those bright-eyed dreamy Instagram people we were talking about before), Sages are quiet warriors, often hidden in plain sight. Sages use their knowledge for good, never for evil and are one of the most potent archetypes for that exact reason.