by David Staughton CSP CCEO, Keynote Speaker and Small Business Consultant
This blog covers how to create a Great Speaker BIO and how you can use your Bio and one liner to better position yourself in the speaker market to land more bookings.
To be a memorable Speaker you need a great speaker BIO that positions both you and your expertise.
When I first started Business Coaching in the early 2000’s I remember writing my own BIO.
It described who I was, what I have done in the past and what I could offer. In hindsight, it was just boring ‘blah, blah, blah’.
I was working with an assistant coach and one day he wrote me a new BIO. When he showed it to me I nearly cried. same old ME, completely different description!
Sometimes an outsider can describe you in ways that you can’t even imagine. Maybe its our own limiting beliefs or low self esteem that hold us back from describing ourselves in our full technicolour glory.
The growth of your speaking career can be limited if you are NOT positioned properly in the market.
Perhaps your BIO needs some help from a Speaker Branding Expert or a Copywriter for speakers?
Get some help with your identity and niche if you are describing yourself and your services poorly – Specificity Sells!
A Speaker Bio is your speaking resume – a description of who you are, what you’ve done, who you helped or what you offer.
It is WHY a buyer should choose you and an audience should listen to you. It has to be credible but NOT too fanciful.
Beautifully crafted copy will SELL you to speaker buyers and audience members.
You can design THREE different Speaker BIOs which can be used for different promotional purposes.
A LONG BIO (up to 400 words), MEDIUM BIO (up to 200 words) and a SHORT BIO (up to 100 words),
Each Speaker Bio is a curated set of the BEST COPY that will impress your potential clients and audience members and encourage them to choose you & attend your presentation.
Start with your BEST 400 words and work out how to edit it down to 200 and 100.
A good Speaker Bio is most likely to be used …
A Speaker INTRO is typically your BEST 75 to 100 words describing you & your benefits that are READ OUT LOUD by the host or MC in front of the audience.
NEVER read you Speaker BIO out as a Speaker INTRO. The intro should be the SIZZLE version of your Bio.
Your INTRO needs to excite your audience and whet their appetite without being egotistical or just your boring CV or resume.
A Good Speaker INTRO covers your background & accomplishments mixed with lots of benefits for the Audience. It has a great opening & closing and demonstrates your credibility. The audience will be eager with anticipation after hearing it.
Many speakers now prefer to use their own VIDEO Speaker Intro as it’s guaranteed to entertain & impress the audience more that a bland or bad MC doing a poor reading of your Intro.
For Guaranteed results you could also have a Radio Announcer record several different INTROs and have one of those played.
Speaker Intros have a bad habit of getting lost so BYO – Bring Your Own.
As a minimum send your INTRO to the client and MC beforehand, Have a downloadable copy of your Speaker Intro and Bio on your website AND always carry multiple Laminated A5 SPEAKER INTROs with you to hand personally to the MC.
Having worked with Speaker Bureau consultants for nearly 10 years, I have watched speakers pitch themselves on paper and in person. I have also had speakers and consultants describe other speakers to me.
We once did a positioning exercise at the Professional Speakers Australia (PSA) Platform Professionals Summit pretending that we were all “Cans of Speaking Potatoes” and what we would each write on other speaker’s Labels to describe them. What a Fun game that was!
Have a look at the Speaker Bureau websites and you’ll find it’s NOT easy to describe a speaker in using just one line or a sentence.
You need to find the ESSENCE of your own positioning or brand.
If it’s too general you’re just a commodity “A Leadership & Communications Speaker” and if it’s too weird “Aardvark Whisperer” or “Stratitudinalist” – you don’t get hired at all.
The idea is to find the perfect one-liner a shorthand code to be promoted by word of mouth. E.g.
Your Bio should reflect who you are – your values, style and positioning.
Some things that your BIO could cover include:
You can also mention your biggest CLIENTS or celebrity STARS you have helped or worked with (respecting any NDAs or client confidentiality agreements).
“His/Her clients include (brand), (brand), (Star)”
“(Name) has helped brands like (Brand) & (Brand)”
Use Words and Descriptors that appeal to all modalities of audience – Visual (See), Auditory (Hear), Kinesthetic (feel) and Digital Descriptors
Check out other expert BIOs for ideas and descriptions
Look at the Speaker Bureau Websites to see Speaker Descriptions and Bios how other speakers are described
Write Your Own Speaker Intro
Writing a Speaker Bio to Attract Attendees
Speaker Bio Templates
Here are some other great books to help with your positioning, bio and intro