Your Speaker’s Bio (or one-sheet) may be the ONLY information an event organizer will use to decide whether they want to hear what you have to say – or not.
Most presenters make the deadly mistake of thinking that their Speaker’s Bio is a resume. While establishing credibility in your bio is important, keep in mind that people are far more interested in their own problems and desires than they are in where you went to school or your certifications.
Your bio needs to be client-focused, rather than self-focused. Yes, you need to establish your credibility but only after you have triggered desire from your reader to know more about you.
In other words, a compelling bio is one that identifies with your audience and explains how they will benefit from listening to you — what problems you can solve and which desires you can help them fulfill.
It should describe who you are, what you do, whom you serve and how you serve them, in a way that uniquely positions you as a “go-to” person for a specific issue.
6 Questions To Answer – Brainstorm words and phrases that answer:
- What do you do? Create an easy-to-say, easy-to-repeat identifying statement that targets your market and gets the right people interested to know more.
- How do you do it?
- What are the specific needs of your target audience that you fulfill? How does that relate to their time, money, or reputation?
- What tangible, measurable benefits can you provide, or problems can you solve?
- What are the intangible benefits of #4 and #5 above? These are the real things people care about, but they won’t believe you can help provide them unless you justify it with the tangible items first.
- Credibility: Why you? What are your unique abilities? In addition to your formal education, think about your experience, and how it uniquely qualifies you. Include anything you can add to build credibility such as your other speaking engagements, being quoted in the newspaper, published articles, workshop titles, whitepapers, audio programs, etc.
Keep these tips in mind while you’re brainstorming:
- Identifying and REALLY knowing your target market — their unique challenges, desires, problems — is probably the most critical part of marketing and your bio is no exception.
- As you write down your thoughts and ideas, think of a client or person you know that represents your ideal target market.
- Be specific! The more specific you are, the easier it will be for you to find your prospects and the easier it will be for your prospects to find you!
- Brainstorm key words and key phrases FIRST! Do not begin to write paragraphs until you have “slept on” your key words and key phrases. This will save you a lot of re-writing time.
- Include your “Unique Abilities” that you identified from the information gathering process.
Look over your current one-sheet/bio – is it client-focused? Is it compelling? Have you answered the 6 important questions? If not, it might be time to dust it off and revamp it!