6 Essential Elements of Your Personal Brand’s ‘About Me’
Your About Me is prime real estate for your personal brand. Invest in what’s most important to make it shine for your audience.
Don’t relegate your About Me to an afterthought. Whether it’s on your website, proposals, LinkedIn or other online bios, your About Me plays an important role. It makes the business of You personal. Because people connect with people. People buy from other people. And it’s personal connections that build brand trust.
People buy emotionally first and then rationalise with logic. A well-formed About Me for your personal brand can move your people through this process.
Perhaps counter-intuitively, your About Me isn’t all about you. It’s about your audience. Share the essential elements that help their processing.
Here’s what I recommend considering:
Tip #1: Develop your story one-liner for your personal brand
In Building a Story Brand Donald Miller recommends a story one-liner. Inspired by Hollywood, where writers pitch a logline to studio executives. Loglines make or break a pitch and help form the movie’s marketing. Take a simple scroll through your streaming services to see loglines at work.
Your one-liner becomes the answer to the question, “what do you do”? Or “tell me about yourself?” For your personal brand, it should highlight:
The problem (you help solve)
The solution (you offer the marketplace)
The success (the transformation)
A one-liner sums up the mission your story is currently on.
Use your one-liner across all your online bios and other communications.
Tip #2: Position your personal brand as the ‘Guide’ with empathy and authority
Building a Story Brand, proposes positioning yourself as the ‘Guide’. Allowing your audience to be the hero in the story. This uses your unique story and expertise to help pave the way for them.
Miller proposes the Guide has two key qualities:
Empathy
Authority
Empathy shows you understand the hero. Use understanding language that demonstrates your awareness of your audience’s pain points.
For Authority, he cites traditional signifiers including:
Testimonials
Statistics
Awards
Logos of whom you’ve worked with
I’d also recommend:
Industry experience
References to published content
Strategic photos
Qualifications that demonstrate your authority or knowledge
Remember, your audience is using their mental energy to process your communication. So, they’re likely to ask themselves, “Why am I listening to this person again?”
Your audience doesn’t stumble upon your About Me hoping you’re not the solution to their problem. They want you to be the one. Show them that you are.
Tip #3. Share the relevant off-stage interests of your personal brand
William Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage.” Leadership expert, Michael Hyatt, highlights the three key stages you have:
Front stage: When you’re actually performing visibly. This is usually what others actually see.
Backstage: What you do to prepare for your on-stage time. This usually goes unseen.
Off stage: Seemingly unrelated to your work, but still essential. It prepares you to perform in the other stages.
Include ‘off-stage’ interests in your About Me. This provides context for the person behind the work.
You’re likely a well-rounded person with lots of interests. But, focus only on what’s most relevant. What contributes to your personal brand vision, positioning and personality? Where possible, explicitly tie back any relevance to your work.
Tip #4: Write a connected narrative for your personal brand
Connect the dots for your audience. Do the heavy lifting so they don’t have to.
Your origin story shares your background. But, remember to tie the narrative into your current work (your founder or current business story). Was there an inciting incident that moved you into your current work? Or was it a natural extension.
Personal branding expert, Dori Clark, shares an important reminder in her book Reinventing You. Clark proposes that at some stage (or several) in your career, you’ll find you need to reinvent yourself. When you do, remember:
You can take it with you.
The reputation you spent so much time building can follow you into new endeavours. Stanford professor, Jeffery Pfeffer, calls this the psychological phenomenon known as the ‘halo effect’. Whereby, if you’re talented in one domain, people will assume you have the ability to be good in another.
In a similar vein, Clark emphasises the importance of your past experience. Rather than discounting it, connect your narrative. Tell your story in a way that helps your audience make sense of your transition. Give yourself the credibility you worked so hard to earn for your personal brand.
Tip #5: Include a call to action
Instead of simply closing your About Me, open a relationship. Let your audience know what they can do next to connect with you.
This might include inviting them to:
Send you an invitation to connect online
Send you a direct message or email
Engage with your published content
Your website
There’s no point making a great pitch for your personal brand without a call to action.
Tip #6: Show your face to build personal brand trust
If you’re like me, this might make you pretty uncomfortable. It was the strangest thing when I started adding my personal photo to communications. But, people connect with people. Seeing someone’s face helps build trust.
When it comes to your About Me, remind yourself that investing in it is for your audience. Make it as useful for them as possible.
So, tell me about yourself?
