Ready to Say Bye-Bye to Your Boring Bio? Here’s How

Tough economic times have created opportunities for people to exit corporate life to start businesses of their own. That means the timing is perfect to stand out and attract more of the right clients by creating a winning bio that makes ideal customers stand up and take notice. Now that social networking plays a powerful role in how people seek new clients, new jobs, and new ways to be of service, telling one’s story so others will listen is essential.

Many people struggle with this challenge. Whether they are overcome with humility, find it difficult to put pen to paper to say what needs to be said, or can’t seem to find the right, well chosen words to make the most of the web page assigned to their executive photo, the fact remains that telling a winning story about how you contribute to the marketplace is crucial in today’s marketplace.

One recipe that works really well is this one.

Stunning results + Sassy sound bites + Succinct stories + Social information to make a connection with others = a Winning Bio.

Here are a few examples that take just a few lines of text to deliver the goods. These can serve as useful introductions to a radio interview, speaking engagement, or book jacket. They can even be modified to serve as a 60-second elevator speech to deliver in person at the next networking event.

Kim Duke, founder of SalesDivas.com and an international sales expert for women, motivates with her trademark high heels, high energy and high level of sales tips. Kim thinks cold-calling is best left in the freezer. She is a sought after expert in the media and writes articles internationally – sharing her sassy and savvy sales advice.

Michael Gerber is the founder of E-Myth Worldwide, the coaching, training, and education firm he founded in 1977 to transform the development of small businesses worldwide. E-Myth Worldwide has achieved stunning results by helping to grow more than 60,000 business clients in 145 countries. As the author of eight E-Myth books, including the mega-bestseller “The E-Myth Revisited,” Michael Gerber has established his revolutionary perspective as the gold standard for small business development, becoming what Inc. magazine called, “the world’s #1 small business guru” and one of BusinessWeek’s best-selling authors over the past two decades.

Marci Shimoff is the woman’s face of the biggest self-help book phenomenon in history, Chicken Soup for the Soul. Her six best-selling titles in the series, including “Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul” and “Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul,” have met with stunning success, selling more than 13 million copies worldwide in 33 languages and have been on the New York Times bestseller list for a total of 108 weeks. Marci is one of the best-selling female nonfiction authors of all time. In addition, she’s a featured teacher in the international film and book phenomenon, The Secret. Her new book, “HAPPY FOR NO REASON: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out” offers a revolutionary approach to experiencing deep and lasting happiness.

If your bio isn’t in great shape, consider your own experience from the standpoint of stunning results, sassy sound bites, succinct stories, and social information to help your ideal customers connect with you. Then, write a bio that delivers that information in an engaging, remarkable, and memorable way in record time.

If every sentence in your bio begins with “I,” re-write the bio from the standpoint of the benefits your ideal customer enjoys as a result of working with you. When the “I-You” ratio is weighs too heavily on the former, opportunities to connect with the customer are lost.

“I am an award-winning interior designer who enjoys creating beautiful spaces customers love to come home to” is an “I-focused” sentence that leaves the customer out in the cold.

“If you crave a beautiful home that is a joy to come home to, I can help” is a “you-focused” sentence that invites the customer in.

Once you write your bio, ask yourself an important question. If your ideal customer were to land on your bio page first before meeting you in person, shaking your hand, or having any experience with your company, product, or service, would he/she like what was said enough to click to other pages of your website, pick up the phone, send you an email, or request a meeting? If the answer is “no,” go back to the drawing board and try again.