How to Write A Bio- Tips for Building Your Personal Brand
How to Write a Bio
Don’t know how to write a bio on yourself? You’re not alone. Bio writing is difficult, it forces you to prioritize what’s most important about you. It’s an intimidating task to boil down your entire professional life into one paragraph that’s clear, concise, and works for you. Luckily, you don’t have to start your bio from scratch. Before writing your bio, let’s dissect Dan Schawbel’s. If someone is already doing things right, why not learn from them? Personal branding guru Dan Schawbel‘s short bio is an excellent example of a brand-building, professional bio that works for him. I’m going to break it down piece by piece to show you what you can learn from it. Let’s get right down to it:
Learn by Example: How To Write a Bio
Dan Schawbel’s Bio: “Dan is the leading expert in personal branding for the generation-y audience, with an award winning and world recognized Blog, a TV podcast series that he directs, Awards that he gives out, and a Magazine that benefits the American Cancer Society. He has written over 20 publications for major magazines and online resources and has been featured in Fast Company Magazine and Yahoo! Finance and is EMC’s social media expert. He is also establishing the first 360 degree personal branding website, DanSchawbel.com, creating a new standard for career development. Recently, he has redefined personal branding by establishing a collaborate wiki, which he is using to acquire knowledge from all the leading experts to establish a single definition for personal branding.”
Analysis of Dan’s Bio
Let’s break down Dan’s bio now, one piece at a time. “Dan is the leading expert in personal branding.” This immediately tells you Dan’s niche, without hesitation and without confusion. When you’re writing your own bio, be crystal clear about what you do from the get-go. Your first sentence should have people nodding their heads along with you… ahh okay, so that’s what you do.
“…for the generation-y audience.” This makes it very clear who Dan’s audience is. Personal branding focuses on achieving success by making you the best solution for a particular audience. It would be difficult for Dan to say he’s the leading personal branding expert in the entire world. It’s much easier to be an expert for a certain group of people – for Dan, that’s Generation Y (today’s twenty year olds). Who is your ideal audience? It could be individuals (the disabled, the elderly, women in their twenties, etc.) or groups (cancer researchers, failing not-for-profits, green startups, etc.). Choosing an audience helps you attract more ideal opportunities that better align with your long-term goals. That way, everybody wins. In sum, choosing an audience is an important aspect of figuring out how to write a bio.
“…with an award winning and world recognized Blog, a TV podcast series that he directs, Awards that he gives out, and a Magazine that benefits the American Cancer Society.” This sentence highlights Dan’s professional accomplishments. What have you done that directly backs up your first “what I do” sentence? Include your most important achievements, but be picky because you don’t have too much space.
“…He has written over 20 publications for major magazines and online resources and has been featured in Fast Company Magazine and Yahoo! Finance and is EMC’s social media expert.” This showcases Dan’s “credibility boosters” – items that build a strong argument for his authority in his field. What credibility boosters (awards, certifications, memberships, etc.) might make you a more attractive job candidate in your bio? “
…He is also establishing the first 360 degree personal branding website, DanSchawbel.com, creating a new standard for career development.” This shows what Dan is doing to stand out in his area of expertise. What things (side projects, past work, etc.) have you done that differentiates you from your peers?
“…Recently, he has redefined personal branding by establishing a collaborate wiki, which he is using to acquire knowledge from all the leading experts to establish a single definition for personal branding.” This demonstrates how Dan is contributing to his niche. Are you doing anything novel or innovative in your niche that might make you more memorable to readers of your bio? If so, be sure to include it.
Conclusion
So there you have it, a breakdown of one of the best biographies that I’ve ever seen. So now do you know how to write a bio? You can definitely learn a lot from seeing how Dan’s bio was broken down, if you have any more tips or tricks on how to write a bio please be sure to leave them in the comments section under the post. Have a great day!
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Great post. I used it to help me upgrade my bio. You don’t realize how lame the old one sounds till you start thinking about how others are looking at it. Thanks again.
This is a great article on writing a professional bio. I think for most people the hardest part of writing a bio is choosing what to put in and what to leave out. Because 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?
As you illustrated in your sample – just focus on what’s going to be most relevant and impressive to your target reader!
I thought it was very detailed. It will definitely help me on writing my biography. Thankyou.
Great thoughts. I agree that writing a bio is difficult to start – so thanks for breaking it all down. The hard part is when you have worked your tail off and don’t have an awards to list. I think this holds true for most people out there. I have a great solution. I created a professional portfolio in personvita.com to brand myself. It allow me to list all the project I have worked on in my career what have been validated by my colleagues and boss. It might not be an “award” – but it show my accomplishments.
That really helped me how to write a biography. It was awesome that i read this
page. Thank you very much for all of this, I got great marks for this!
I am having problems doing it
@Ben: Great to hear from you Ben. You’re absolutely right – seeing how other people do things is often just what we need to improve ourselves. Glad to help!
@Barbra: Deciding what to include in a bio and what not to is a brutal process! It really makes you think deeply about what you’ve done and how to articulate your value. It’s a great exercise to help concretely define the your personal brand.
@Yakiema: Glad to hear it!
@John: You’re right, many people don’t have a long list of awards. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you’re compellingly describing what you HAVE done 🙂
@Elizabeth: I’m glad it helped!
@Adam: What’s the biggest obstacle you face in writing your bio, Adam?
– Pete Kistler
CEO, Brand-Yourself.com
Awesome article! I am really nervouse as we have been requested by our employer to write a brief personal bios to better help in assigning projects going forward. Our employer has outlined the criteria as : 1. Name, title 2. Responsibilites 3. Educational background, year(s) graduated 4. Current and recent projects 5. Experience history (at and before company x) 6. Number years with company x 7. Professional affiliations/organizations 8. Career highlights or specialty skills 9. Anything else about yourself you believe to be pertinent. My question is would it be a good idea to incorporate all the above into one nicely flowing paragraph, or seperate each item out?-Mark
Thank you for this excellent instruction on writing a bio. May I send you mine for editing?. I am just trying to write one following your analysis.
It is a lot easier to give examples then break it down to show everyone how it should be done. Please send your bio to [email protected] and I will try to give you some thoughts ASAP but please allow a few days 🙂
Hello Pete,
You are Brilliant, Pete. We definitely learn by example and your article has to be the best I have found on how to break it down. I saw some good bios on another website and was able to align how well they did by using your analysis questions/headings.
Love the blog and will definitely recommend it to others.
Thank you!
Learning by example is definitely one of the best ways to learn in general, especially when it is broken down like this. Your bio is short so it needs to be concise and to the point. As you can see in the example above, each sentence of Dan's bio is powerful and doesn't deviate off topic. This is why is the one of the thought leaders in our industry and there is a lot that we can learn from him.
Great information. Like many writers, I was not looking forward to writing my bio. I had some help with it. Writing a clear and concise paragraph was overwhelming at first. Now I think I got the hang of it. I look at my bio from time to time and revise it to reflect where I'm at in my writing career.
Writing a bio can be a very daunting task for someone people. For most people it is weird to write about yourself in the 3rd person so that someone else might read it and get a better understand of who you are. Like anything else it just takes practice and time. Everyone needs to remember that there is no such thing as a great first draft, only great re-writes. I'm happy to hear that you keep updating it which is key.
Writing a bio can be a very daunting task for someone people. For most people it is weird to write about yourself in the 3rd person so that someone else might read it and get a better understand of who you are. Like anything else it just takes practice and time. Everyone needs to remember that there is no such thing as a great first draft, only great re-writes. I'm happy to hear that you keep updating it which is key.
hello, I just came across your comment and I am in need of HEEEEELP. I am a realtor for REMAX and I am changing offices and they are asking for my bio to be able to post in the Newspapers. SCARY. As a realtor I have help the Hispanic community in purchasing homes by connecting them with the appropriate people to purchase, also I have guided them and educated them on how to write their checks for the mortgage and other important docs. I have been a realtor for 10 years but beside the hispanic community I have help many other clients purchase and sell their homes. I served in the military National Guard for 10 years. as well as worked in the medical field for 15 years. I love to travel and see the world. Hobbies I like are sailing, diving , motorscycling, observing people. I am friendly and dynamic with people and very flexible. I guess what I am trying to say is I have a niche that perhaps no body has in my field. I can take care of the Hispanic population in Real Estate because I speak, read and write Spanish very fluently and I would like to reflect that in my BIO but not omit the regular speaking people to use me as their real estate agent. CAN YOU HELP
Hey multitalentrealtor,
Thank you for the reply to my previous comment. You seem to have a lot of experience in your field and other interesting facts that you can mention in your bio to really entice anyone who reads it to contact you. Unfortunately I am not longer apart of Brand-Yourself.com and can't personally assist you in writing it, but if you contact any of them via their email on the about page, I'm sure they would be more than willing to help you.
Best of luck!
Trace
Thanks for breaking it down. We work so hard on ourselves, businesses and blogs but when asked that one question, “So, tell me about yourself.”, we suffer memory loss. I'm new at blogging and MLM and really appreciate helpful information such as this.
Thanks for breaking it down. We work so hard on ourselves, businesses and blogs but when asked that one question, “So, tell me about yourself.”, we suffer memory loss. I'm new at blogging and MLM and really appreciate helpful information such as this.
This is utter crap composted out of hackneyed phrases: “leading expert in personal branding”, “with an award winning and world recognized Blog”, “has written over 20 publications”.
These phrases are the clipart of copy writing, copied from other idiots that don't know how to write and cut n' pasted into communications that fail to help a brand stand out at all.
Let me ask this one question: how do you stand out by using the same tired words as everybody else?
Thank you so much for writing this. I was having trouble choosing which accomplishments to share on my bio. Your tip about tailoring it to your audience was really helpful!
Great Job getting the point across…
I have done my own bio but it was not a prefessional enough for the public speaking I am looking to do. I have not taken a course on this topic yet , I would like more details on how to write a bio.
Onehandedknitting,
pivotalwriting.com has a series of posts on how to write a professional profile. They might help provide some extra ideas. If you’re still stuck, contact me through that site.
Best of success!
very nice blog
I have to write a bio for my play like a 300 word one HELP how should I do it?
Hey Joey, shoot me an email at [email protected] and let’s see what we can do!
Hello very nice bio. But i’m in the 10th grade and at my school we go out to work in big companys two days a week, they want us to write a bio for our boss but i dont know what to write. Can you help pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. By the way i have to have it down my monday.
Hey Mike,
Thanks for sharing, your links has some good information!
I was asked on Friday to speak at a conference this Wednesday. I learned this morning that I need to provide a bio. I am fairly new to this field so I don’t have many relevant accomplishments. However, I am a veteran. Would it be ok to add that information so that’s my bio isn’t so puny?
Thank You!
Hey Erin,
I would say that including your veteran status in your bio would be a great idea! Though you should also include other relevant accomplishments into you bio, but including your veteran status can never hurt. Hope that helps- if you have any more questions please feel free to email me at telwell[at]brand-yourself[dot]com.
-Trevor Elwell
this sucks
Hey Cassady,
Thanks for the comment- was there something in particular that you didn’t like about the article? If so, what could we add to make it more useful to you? Feel free to reply to this comment or email me directly at telwell[at]brand-yourself.com with any suggestions. Have a great weekend!
-Trevor
I like how you broke this down and showed exactly what and why to include in a bio.
This helps alot..Do u have any tips that would help with a person who is new to an industry and only has 1 or no significant accomplishments in that field?
Just one idea: Speak to why you’re interested in your new field. What about it draws you? Why is it worth your time and energy? Defining your ‘angle’ could help set you stand out. Best of success!
Mike,
So, after reading this forum I am still a little confused about the first & third person stand. Should a bio that will be used on a company website be in third person?
I am in the process of writing a bio and found your article. Great posting.
I am having trouble finding what I should include in a more up-to-date bio- I am so used to doing the old fashion verion of name, where I graduated from, what I did upon graduating, awards, etc…. Are there any sites that will help look at who the person is, take basic info, target audience for the presentation and then help decide what should be incuded in the bio?
Should you always write a bio in the Third Person…what is written here seems more like a testimonial then a bio.
Hi Daniel,
If media attention and speaking are priorities, a third person story is best. The reporter or meeting emcee can simply read your story without having to make any edits. It makes things much easier for everyone.
Hi Daniel,
There’s an argument for the first person when you want to make a personal connection with the reader. Here, I’m thinking of potential clients if you’re a service professional.
With that said, Nancy makes a great point below about media attention and speaking opportunities.
Probably best to write a version using each point of view.
Best of success, Daniel.
Thanks for some great guidelines for writing a short bio. Your article was very helpful in crafting an important but short piece for huge opportunity I have with a Fortune 500 company.
Great video Mike. Just watched it and learned a lot.
Just sitting down to write my bio for my “About” page for my website. The article gave me some great ideas to get the juices flowing.
trying to make a website/portfolio, make it seem professional even though its not 😉 this guide helped but since i am a hobyist rather then proffesional It was hard to list very many accomplishments in my feild of art.
It’s a lot harder to write a good bio than I had initially thought. Thanks for the blog but I’ll have to do some more research into this as I don’t have any awards and major achievements as displayed in the article so I’ll have to come up with something else. 😉
Sir, you are a godsend! I published my 1st book last year with Balboa Press & they are wonderful people. They wrote the text on the book cover FOR me & I was very happy with it. About a month ago I found a site that listed my book for purchase & the they were asking for a photo as well as a short bio to let the visitors of their website know more about me as the author of the book. Thanks to you, I can now give them that short bio they requested. You wouldn’t happen to be a photographer would you? jk
this reallly helps….,…NOT
does NOT help
i am 23 years old lady and in the process of writing a bio but at times i get stuck on ideas and feel its a waste of time,but deep inside i know its something i really want to do and publish it some day after a completing my honors degree.Is it normal for that to happen more especially because i am writing about things that has happened in my life till this point?And thanks for the advice you are giving really get me going
Hi Constance,
Are you writing a bio or a biography? If it’s the former, check out the resources that I’ve linked to, found elsewhere in these comments.
If it’s the latter, (great!), I’d encourage you just to write, write, write for now. Don’t worry about how it will all fit together. Write when your ‘muse’ strikes. At another point, take some time to think about how you’d like to structure your experiences. Your future readers will need a logical progression to follow your story.
Best of success!
Excellent and very detailed. I’m definitely going to use the key points you pointed out. I was thinking about what I want to find in an author bio if I want to follow the author or not.
thanx for sharing this was very use full for me i wanted someone to advice me how to write a bio to say it in my presentation
Hi Pete: Thanks for passing along some great tips on writing a personal bio. I’m just about to pitch my first book, and after reading your post, I’m going to rewrite my bio!
Great post! If you decide to use a template, they have them at www.thewritebio.com. You can always edit it to your personal style.
this was sooo very helpful! I have been “writing” my bio for over six months… and this helped me to finally accomplish that goal! THANKS SOOOOOO MUCH!
Thank you so much!!!!!!! This has helped me a lot!
Thank you so much … It has been helpful greatly
We can’t have it all…
Thank you for your guidelines and insight! Will keep referring back to you as a great source of branding information!
Thanks for share your knowledge!!!! Helps a lot!!
Thanks!!
But how get a kick start for an Autobiography??
I need to know an attractive way to start my portfolio??
I need to know it as quick as possible!!!
adfs
Thank you – short precise and to the point. I appreciate your assistance and advice.
how to write a bio for school it’s very hard for me im a 3rd grader
great help thankyou!
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