The fastest way to make an About page boring is to tell me everything.
I bet you think the biggest challenge in writing an About page is figuring out what to put in it.
Trust me. The challenge is deciding what to leave out.
Faced with a blank page, panic sets in. You begin emptying your professional pockets onto the table. Degrees. Awards. Certifications. Promotions. Boards. Committees. Speaking engagements. By the time you’re finished, everything is there except your blood type.
Comprehensive? Exhaustingly so.
Memorable? Not even a little.
Here’s the problem. I’m not looking for a timeline. I’m looking for meaning — and meaning is memorable. Forget the list of everything you’ve done over the last twenty years.
I need to understand what connects them.
And that’s where so many About pages go off the rails.
We’ve been taught to think about what we’ve done as a chronological trudge from Point A to Point B. First this happened. Then that happened. Then you got promoted. Then you changed careers. Then you launched a business. Then you joined a board. Then you earned another degree.
You lost me at hello.
A story is not a collection of events. A story is a pattern.
The goal isn’t to document your professional life. LinkedIn already does that.
The goal is to make sense of it. To connect the dots so I can see not just where you’ve been, but what has consistently been important and driven you along the way.
You already know where you’ve been. Now, you’ve got to step back far enough to see the pattern. I promise you it’s there.
What connects all those jobs, pivots, accomplishments, and detours? Now that’s a story I want to know more about.
When I finish reading it, I shouldn’t be thinking, Wow, she’s been busy. I should be thinking, Now I get her.
Think about the people you remember most.
Chances are, it’s not because you can recite their résumé. You remember them because you understand something essential about them. What drives them. What they care about. What problem have they spent years trying to solve? What perspective they bring to the world.
What has remained constant through all your changes? What idea keeps showing up? What challenge keeps pulling you back? What have you spent years learning, observing, questioning, or building?
I’m afraid those are the questions you will need to confront.
The irony is that the more experience you have, the more selective you need to be.
An About page — or any kind of bio — is not a storage unit.
