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August 27, 2024

Well, we are now past the major-party political conventions this summer, and if you bothered to tune in (for better or for worse), you would have again witnessed the extent to which nominees emphasize their personal story and biography. As I indicated in April, these conventions are more about promoting the person than his or her policies. We did not see much of that from Donald Trump, but we already know plenty about him. But for J.D. Vance, Tim Walz, and Kamala Harris, the conventions served to place their personal histories and biographies in the national spotlight. 

Vance discussed his troubled childhood in Appalachia, where his mother (now a decade sober) struggled with drug addiction. He lauded his grandmother for filling the breach and shaping him into a success, while also applauding his mother's recovery. His mom, in attendance, received a standing ovation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gWdnjrkluI

Detached from any concrete policy proposals, one might wonder about the point of such a personal focus, yet it proved clear enough: to humanize the Republican vice presidential nominee and to tell a story, one with a past leading into the present and suggesting a future. 

April 13, 2024

Have you ever wondered why national political conventions—the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, most notably—invest so heavily in promoting the biographies of their presidential and vice-presidential nominees? After all, the vast majority of potential voters—at least seventy to eighty percent, based on historical standards—already know who they will vote for. Their choice will have been determined by their past affiliations and associations, their loyalties, and their ideological affinities. 

That leaves a modest minority of persuadable voters—not much more than twenty percent of the electorate, historically, and much less than that in the twenty-first century. One might imagine that to induce these voters to support a party's nominees, it would simply use its national convention to clarify the candidates' positions on various issues, along with their basic resume—offices held, history of service, and professional achievements. That way, the persuadable minority of voters would become better educated on the political stances and experiences of the candidates and would understand which ones to choose. 

To be sure, the Democratic and Republican National Conventions fulfill those functions to a certain extent, but they are much more about inspiring voters by humanizing (and glorifying) the personal biographies of their candidates. Television viewers and attendees learn about the origins and childhoods of the candidates, their journeys through adolescence and into adulthood, and the pivotal moments in their personal and professional lives. The conventions aim to establish their nominees as people that voters know, admire, respect, and trust. And the conventions know that if they build that sense of personal affinity for their candidates, they will earn an edge over the political competition. 

If that is true in politics, it is also true in business to a large extent. Many products and services will seem very similar and virtually interchangeable, so building brand loyalty often comes down to whether clients and consumers admire and trust the people and story of the business that they might interact with. If those people, and that story, seem motivated by something more than just dollars and cents—if they seem to be individuals of integrity, inspired by values of service and community, determined to build a legacy or perpetuate a lineage characterized by ideals and creativity—they are more likely to win over prospective business partners. And that is why the Bios and About Us pages on their business websites and written materials need to be top-notch—and to stand out from the crowd, so that they do not read like a thousand others.