Your bio ends up in conference programmes, podcast show notes, author boxes, event pages, press releases, panel introductions, book jackets and the answers AI assistants give about you. Most of those you never see and cannot edit. It is the highest-reuse writing you will ever do and it is usually dashed off in ten minutes.
01Write three, not one
Different situations need different lengths and if you only have one, somebody else will cut it down for you, badly, and their version becomes permanent on their page.
The hundred-word version is the one you will use most and the one worth spending the longest on. It is what an event organiser pastes without editing, which is exactly the outcome you want.
02Third person, and why it is not optional
A first-person bio cannot be lifted. When an organiser needs a paragraph about you and yours starts with I have spent fifteen years, they have to rewrite it into third person themselves, at speed, without knowing what matters. What goes on the permanent page is their compression of your writing.
A third-person bio gets pasted verbatim. You wrote the permanent record. That is the entire argument and it is enough on its own.
First person, which gets rewritten
- I am a personal branding consultant who loves helping founders
- Over the last decade I have worked with brands across sectors
- My passion is helping people tell their story
- I believe every founder deserves to be found
Third person, which gets pasted
- Bhavik Sarkhedi is a personal branding consultant based in Ahmedabad
- He has worked with founders and executives across India, the UK and the US
- He writes on search visibility, entity SEO and how AI systems describe people
- He is the author of [title] and contributes to [publication]
03The factual spine
Every bio, at every length, is built on the same skeleton. Get the skeleton right and the rest is trimming.
- Sentence one: who and what. Full name, role, organisation, location. This sentence alone is your forty-word bio's first half and it is the part machines extract.
- Sentence two: the scope. Who you work with and where. Specific categories, not everyone.
- Sentence three: the proof. The verifiable things. Books with titles, publications by name, talks at named events, qualifications.
- Sentence four: the specificity. What you are actually known for, stated narrowly enough to be a claim rather than a category.
- Sentence five, in the long version only: the human bit. One line. Where you live, what you do otherwise. One line, not a paragraph.
The ordering ruleFacts first, colour last. Readers and machines both take the opening sentence as the definition. If your first sentence is about your philosophy, the definition of you becomes your philosophy rather than your job.
04The words to cut
There is a standard vocabulary of bio adjectives that every reader has learned to skip, and that actively costs you credibility because using them signals that you had nothing checkable to say.
| Cut | Because | Replace with |
|---|---|---|
| Passionate about | Everybody claims it, nobody can verify it | What you actually work on |
| Leading / renowned / acclaimed | A self-awarded title | A named publication, event or outcome |
| Seasoned / veteran | Vague and slightly ageing | A number of years, or nothing |
| Helps brands tell their story | Says nothing about what you do | The specific service |
| Award-winning | Meaningless without the award's name | The award's actual name and year |
| Serial entrepreneur | Reads as a euphemism | The companies, named |
| Thought leader | Nobody can call themselves this | The thing you argue |
Every adjective you remove makes room for a fact, and the facts are what people were checking for anyway.
05The forty-word version
Two sentences. Who you are and what you are known for. This gets read aloud before you speak, printed under your name on a slide, and put in a byline. It should survive being spoken by someone who has never met you.
Test it by reading it out. If any phrase makes a person introducing you sound like they are reading marketing copy, cut that phrase. The best short bios sound like a plain statement of fact, because that is what they are.
06The three-hundred-word version
This is your about page and your press kit. It has room for the full history, which means it also has room to go wrong.
- Open with the same first sentence as the short version, so the definition of you is consistent everywhere
- Give the career spine in order, with dates that match every other source
- Name the organisations, publications and events rather than describing them
- Include anything a journalist would need: qualifications, books, notable work
- Include your location, because it separates you from namesakes
- End with one human line, not three
- Keep it current. A bio describing a job you left is the most common error on personal sites
07Keeping every copy consistent
The bio problem is not writing it. It is that within two years there are eleven versions of it in the world, all slightly different, several describing a role you no longer hold.
- Keep all three lengths in one file with your name standard, your photo and your links.
- Send that file, unprompted, to anyone writing about you. Organisers are grateful and it removes their need to invent anything.
- When a fact changes, update the master file the same day, then work through the properties you control.
- Once a quarter, spot-check five third-party bios of you and request corrections where they have drifted.
- Never let someone write your bio from your LinkedIn. That is how a three-year-old title becomes a permanent record.
What to remember
- Write three lengths: 40, 100 and 300 words. The hundred-word one gets used most.
- Third person always, because a first-person bio gets rewritten by someone who does not know what matters.
- Facts first, colour last. The opening sentence becomes the definition of you.
- Cut passionate, leading, seasoned, award-winning and thought leader. Replace each with something checkable.
- Send your bio and photo unprompted when you accept anything. It eliminates most drift.
Questions people actually ask
Should a professional bio be in first or third person?
Third person. It is the version organisers, publications and podcast hosts can paste verbatim, which means you wrote the permanent record. A first-person bio has to be rewritten by whoever needs it, at speed, and their compression becomes what appears on their page.
How long should a professional bio be?
Write three: about 40 words for introductions and bylines, about 100 words for show notes and event pages, and about 300 words for your about page and press kit. The hundred-word version is used most often and deserves the most attention.
What should I include in a professional bio?
Full name, role, organisation and location in the first sentence, then who you work with, then the verifiable proof named specifically, then what you are actually known for. In the long version only, one closing human line. Facts first, personality last.
What words should I avoid in a bio?
Passionate about, leading, renowned, acclaimed, seasoned, award-winning without naming the award, serial entrepreneur, and thought leader. Every one of them is unverifiable and readers skip them. Replace each with a named publication, event, company or outcome.
How do I stop old versions of my bio circulating?
Keep all three lengths in one master file and send it unprompted whenever you accept a talk, podcast or byline, before anyone asks. Then spot-check five third-party bios each quarter and request corrections. Never let someone write your bio from your LinkedIn profile.