Your Bio Is Your Brand

Brand

Today I spent a few hours updating my professional brand bio and drilling down on my skills, experiences, and accomplishments. Before I started writing, I did research on how other industry experts structured their bios and what made one really appealing.

Rewriting my brand bio allowed me to sit back and reflect on some of the small wins that I’ve had over the last few years in building my career.

After I finished, I felt empowered to embrace my story and show up in a different way. Suddenly after a few word changes and a new format, I instantly went from “Eh, she’s okay” to “Oh, wow. I would like to hire her.” I wanted to share a few tips that I used today to upgrade my bio and spruce it up a bit.

Write in 3rd person It’s something about removing yourself out of the picture and talking as if someone else was introducing you that makes things sound more appealing. This also gives you the upper hand to really think about if you were being introduced at an event, how would you like to be introduced? Be sure to write down any skills or experiences that were pivotal moments in your career.

Include who, what, when, where, and why Take some time to answer the 5 W’s before writing your bio. Who are you? What do you do? When did you start? Where are you based? And why are you doing whatever it is that you do? Once you can answer these questions, your bio will create a better story for the reader to understand. It creates the overall picture of who you are as a brand.

Remember, it’s okay to humble brag This is the time to tell it all. Share all of the accomplishments that you’re proud of even if they are small wins. Don’t downplay yourself. Were you nominated on the “Best Blogger in 2018” list but you landed in 2nd place? Share that you were nominated anyway. Were you promoted to a higher position in your company after increasing sales? Share it. Did you graduate on top of your class and participated in a sorority? People want to know. Use this time to really brag about yourself and what you’ve accomplished.

Add fun descriptions and words As a brand strategist, I’m always playing around with fun words. Think of words like dedication, tenacity, mission, purpose. Those words are powerful and will put energy into your bio. Go on google and look up synonyms for words that you want to use and see how you replace it with something exciting.

Don’t think that it has to be perfect right now Remember keeping your bio relevant is an ongoing process and will always be changing. I’ve changed my bio plenty of time throughout building my career. Write the basics and you can always go back and add to it as you accomplish more things in life.