Back in the day, I used to create these dumb customer #personas.
Our customer persona is Oli, who likes books and cinema.
He has a girlfriend, but his status on FB is: "It's complicated."
The benefit of getting older is I don't do this crap anymore. Grab my courage and try to face the customer directly or call him/her.
Another method is to focus not on people/personas but rather on the Jobs to be done framework.
How about you?