By Barbra Sundquist, Guest Blogger
How Ever Do You Choose?
Probably the hardest part of writing a professional bio is deciding what to put in and what to leave out. After all, a bio is supposed to be short. But most of us have done lots of different things in our work careers. How do you decide what to focus on?
There’s a simple answer: focus on what’s going to be most relevant and impressive to your target reader.
A Bio is Not a Resume.
You don’t have to list everything you’ve ever done. Just focus on the parts that are going to “sell” you to your reader.
So How Do You Sell Yourself ? Here’s How I Did It:
When I wrote my bio for HowToWriteBio.com, I focused on my technical writing and business coaching background – the information that shows I know what I’m talking about when it comes to writing professional bios.
That’s what you want to know about me in this context, right? You don’t really care that over the past 30 years I have also been a waitress, private eye, bank teller, piano teacher, landscaper, university instructor, management consultant and business coach (and yes, I have been all those things).
I left out that history and focused on what would “sell” me to people thinking about purchasing one of my bio templates. This is what I came up with:
Barbra Sundquist is an experienced technical writer and business coach with a gift for taking complex info and making it clear. Over the past 20 years, Barbra has interviewed over 2500 people in a wide range of jobs to create their job profiles. She brings this broad knowledge of different jobs to her work as a bio template writer.
Stick to the Program!
As you can see, I don’t mention all my previous jobs. I don’t even mention that I have a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in public administration. What I do include is the information that is relevant to my audience:
1) technical writer with 20 years experience (lets the reader know that I am an expert writer with many years of experience)
2) business coach (assures the reader that I understand business and what’s required for a good professional bio)
3) interviewer of over 2500 people in a wide range of jobs (again, lets the reader know that I have lots of experience doing this exact thing)
Targeted Advertising
My bio is targeted toward people who are on my How To Write Bio website. They’re reading my bio because they’re deciding whether I sound like someone they would be willing to buy a bio template from. So I make sure to include only the information that answers that question. I don’t distract them with other information.
A bio is a little advertisement for you. Think about who will be reading your bio and what you want them to know about you. Then advertise your best and most relevant features!
About the author: Barbra Sundquist helps people communicate much more quickly and effectively on a broad range of subjects. Her most popular website is www.HowToWriteBio.com.
