Multiple Persona Disorder

In the product world, we often try to reduce users down to a single persona – a representation of this users motivations. By bucketing them into a neat little box it makes it easier to design and plan for.

But this isn’t a post about other peoples personas: it’s about yours.

Lately I’ve been toggling between multiple focuses. Writing on this blog, building Hardcover, as a husband, a friend and even as an employee (if I choose to get a job). Each of these are me, but a different version.

For anyone creating online, they’re likely hit with the same question: what tone do I use for each project?

We’ve recently seen renewed interested in the Personal-Website-Verse – a desire to create something online that you can own not tied to social media.

At Epic Web Conference 2025 last week, multiple talks were about building up your personal brand: Epic Bets: Practical tips for betting on yourself by Aaron Francis, Why You Should Learn Out Loud In 2025 by Madison Kanna and Networking through Streaming on Twitch by Leah Thompson.

With more people creating online, it means more people figuring out their voice online.

Finding My Voice

Lately I’ve been trying to write more. Each place I write has a different tone and a different reason for writing.

For this blog, my motivation is to share what I’m learning, what I’m experiencing, how I’m growing, what problems I’m working through and how. Journaling in public motivates me and helps me hold myself accountable. I have a secondary motivation to grow my own personal brand not attached to any projects. Projects come and go, but blog was here before them, and will be here after.

On minafi.com, my motivation is to help others make positive money decisions and cultivate healthy mindsets around money. A secondary motivation is to create a business around this topic, although I’ve invested much less time towards that lately. It took years and hundreds of articles to feel like I found my voice. I figured out I could create standout content in this space with a dash of coding mixed with content.

On Hardcover, my motivation is to grow a book-focused community. I want people to feel connected, included and seen. I have a secondary motivation of having people become paid members and fund the project. It took me years to realize that my role in Hardcover isn’t a developer, and a connector.

I have little doubt that I’ll add more projects to this list in time, each with their own motivation.

Flip Your Motivation

Each of my secondary motivations is business related – my personal brand, financial brand and Hardcover’s success.

When you think about the persona of users using your app or website, their main motivation isn’t to spend time there; it’s to solve a problem.

A few years ago, I started taking that approach my writing.

That problem can be your own! Learning in public, obstacles you overcame, how you’re figuring out a problem in your life. I love a good growth story.

Write a Personal Mission Statement

While working at Code School, we spent some time working on a company mission. I was inspired and wrote my own. Writing this post today made me realize that after 7 years, it was no longer in line with what I cared most about. I decided to update it. Here’s what I came up with:

I help connect people to transform their ideas into reality by enlivening community.

I’ve been hesitant to call myself a community builder. It makes me think of major connectors – people with large followings, conference creators, popular vloggers.

Enlivening community doesn’t mean I need to start the community. It can mean enjoying other peoples company at a meetup or conference, supporting projects that favor connection, and helping others succeed with their own ideas.

This mission is inspiring. That’s what a personal mission should be! If it can give you butterflies in your stomach because it’s so important to you, then you’ve succeeded.

You use your personal mission statement in each project you participate in. If you’re able to bring that energy to a job, a side project, or even a personal blog, it will be successful – if only because it’s accomplishing what you’ve set out to do.