A Simple Process for Producing a Professional Profile/Bio

If you’re anything like me, you’ll have found it a real challenge to produce a professional profile, or bio.

• Where do I start?
• What should I say, (without sounding too cocky and yet still getting across my expertise?)
• How can I make it sound interesting?
• How can I adapt it to fit different requirements or length, purpose, etc?

These were just some of the questions that went through my mind, and probably yours too.

I’d been advised to pre-prepare 3 different length bios that I could ‘use for any occasion’ but everyone seemed to want something different – a different angle, a different length, for a different audience or a different purpose so even when I’d created 3 different length versions of my ‘standard bio’ they still didn’t always fit the bill.

And yet I know that a good bio is important. It creates interest in you and what you’re about to speak about. If your bio isn’t compelling people may well assume that your presentation won’t be either.

Recognising this as a challenge my clients might face too, I’ve come up with a simple 5 step process to give you everything you need to create any bio for any occasion in one document. That makes it easy for you to put together a bio at short notice and to meet anyone's requirements at any time.

Here are the principles of that process:

Step 1: Ask yourself some key questions and note down your answers in a format you can easily access, edit, etc.

My full list has about 20 questions. Here are just some of the questions to give you a flavour and you might have more to add to the list:

What are you:

• Committed to?  E.g …to achieving equality for minority groups
• Known for?  E.g  …..their ability to put people at ease…
• Driven by?  E.g.  ….a desire to inspire others to take action…

What is/are

• your expertise?  Be as specific as you can.
• Your vision?   Be as original as you can.
• Your attitude to challenges? Give an example that’s relevant to what you’re doing now, or that you’re going to be talking about if the bio is needed in relation to a presentation you’re giving.

And finally:

• What sets you apart/makes you unique? There has to be something so don’t be shy on this one! It might be an expansion of any of the answers already given, it might be an achievement or something unusual about you,  your life, etc.

Step 2: Decide on the most relevant points to include in this specific version of your profile.

Step 3: Which of those relevant points is the most compelling or important? Start your profile with that. Weave the rest in accordingly.

Step 4: Which answers go well together? Start putting your answers together into sentences, writing in the 3^rd person using she/he/they or your name (unless this is for your website, in which case you might choose to use 1^st person, I or we.

An expert in fitness and physical resilience and with a can-do attitude to challenge, (our next speaker) has completed 27 marathons in 27 days, in 27 different countries.

Step 5: Check your draft profile for the correct number of words. Put it to one side to come back to later.

If it reads well to you when you come back to it, press SUBMIT.

If you’d like more help with creating your bio please get in touch to arrange a call.

Rachel Maunder is a communication skills and speaker coach and professional speaker.

She has been in the world of competent communication, in different guises, for more than 30 years so has a wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise to pass on to her clients, both through her signature programmes and her own presentations.

You can find out more about her coaching programmes here and about her speaking topics here.