What Audiences Want to See in your Speaker Biography: Episode 12

How to Write an Expert Speaker Biography (Without Imposter Syndrome)

Jenn explains how to develop an expert speaker biography by first giving yourself permission to be an expert, even if you work adjacent to a credentialed industry and feel imposter syndrome. 

She recommends reviewing and editing existing bios (website About Me page or social profiles) to ensure they clearly state who you are, what you do, who you help, and how you help, while removing unnecessary length and clutter. 

She discusses balancing education, certifications, and training with experience and personal connection to the topic, noting you don’t owe audiences anything you’re not ready to share. 

She advises adding one human “factoid” to make the bio personable, creating both long and short versions (ideally 150 words or less), and keeping biographies consistent across platforms to avoid confusion and improve hireability.

00:00 Expert Enough Mindset

02:05 Adjacent Industry Imposter Syndrome

03:16 Two Bio Types Explained

03:54 Edit Your Long Bio

05:07 Education Versus Experience

08:28 Share Only What Serves

09:26 Add Human Factoid

11:25 Short Bio Speaker Kit

13:05 Consistency Across Platforms

13:53 Closing And Next Steps

Have a question or suggestion for a future episode topic? Email me jenn@jennspingo.com.

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Looking to book a speaker for your corporate or association event on topics including leadership and communication? View my programs at www.jennspingo.com

Transcript

Expert Enough Mindset

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Is there anybody more expert than you? In today's episode, we'll learn what it takes to develop an expert speaker biography. Let's jump right in. First of all, let's talk about a speaker biography. One of the biggest challenges that comes up for my coaching clients is: Jen, do I know enough? Am I enough to call myself an expert in this particular area? Now I have the beauty of working with brilliant people who have a combination of education and expertise that has told me without a doubt that they are expert. But I can tell them they're expert all day long. Unless they feel like they're an expert, they won't be able to command the stage the same way. So let's talk about what elements to include in your speaker biography so that not just your clients know that you are an expert, but you also give yourself permission to show up on stage as the expert you are. First of all, nobody likes talking about themselves. I am no exception to this. When I first started speaking, I was speaking about health topics. I made it very clear that I am not a medical professional. I have zero knowledge of the medical industry. Now, just because my in-laws happen to be doctors over in India doesn't mean that I know anything about their business. And I like to keep my nose out of other people's business. So when I was talking about my health topics, I told everyone I'm not a doctor, I don't play one on TV, and everything I'm telling you is something that you should confirm with your doctor. There are very specific standards around being a dietitian in the state of Minnesota. I made it clear not only was I not a dietitian, but I could not design specific meal plans according to different dietary restrictions. As a non-certified licensed dietitian, I could not deliver that type of work. As you look at your particular industry, a lot of clients that I work with are adjacent to certain industries. For example, I have clients who are in trauma spaces but are not therapists. I have clients who are talking about the neuroscience of leadership but aren't medical. So you are in an adjacent industry and you may feel like you have imposter syndrome just a little bit. Because you may feel like there's an expert out there who is more expert than you. Which is right. There is somebody out there who knows more than you do about your field of work. There will always be someone who knows more than you. And that's not to say that you aren't an expert. So I think it's important before we jump into the mechanics of your speaker biography, is to first give yourself permission to be an expert and to let your biography showcase your expertise in the unique way that you show up within your space, even if you're adjacent and not really someone who's credentialed in that industry. There are two types of speaker biographies that are important to know about. The first one is one you're probably already using, it's the about me page of your website. Now, if you don't have a website yet or you're having someone develop your website, it might be what you put on your social media profiles in your about section. Usually when I look at people's profiles, there's a bunch of stuff they don't need in there. I know we're always iterating, we're always getting to perfection. It doesn't mean that you're not changing it or don't have better ideas around that, but there's a lot of information in there that we don't need because we're trying to stuff more important things in there. So that would be the first thing I would say is take a look at your bio as it exists currently and be critical. If you were someone who didn't know yourself and you read that biography, did it help you understand more about who you are and who you help? A biography should say who you are, what you do, who you help, and how you help them in some way. If you don't have those pieces in your biography, go back and revisit it. Editing is a skill. I've learned this through the journey of hosting my own podcast for the first time. Editing is not everyone's skill set. That's why sometimes investing in a speaker coach is important because you might have your own baggage around feeling expert enough. And a speaker coach can help you identify those pieces that are showcasing you as the professional you want to show up as. So the about me page of your website or your social media profiles is long. It's way too long. Look it over again, it's probably too long. I know mine is too long. I'm gonna look at this right after this podcast. So too long and has too many things that aren't useful. That's the first thing I would say. The second thing I would say is some of us, and I include myself in this category, lean heavily on our education. There was one time I was asking someone to review my LinkedIn profile. I won't share this person's name, but it was part of a membership group, and she was an expert on how to show up on LinkedIn better. So I'm like, okay, I'll see what she has to say. I'm a person who's open-minded and coachable, so I'm willing to hear what people have to say, and I know that I can take what I want and leave what I don't. What surprised me was we call it a read, right? When someone reads you and thinks that you're trying to state something that you weren't trying to state. In her case, she pointed out how education was really important to me. And it's true. I have a master's degree in leadership, and that was something that I worked hard to do when I was raising a child at home, working full-time, like I committed the hours and the time and attention to that. It was not easy. So it was important for me to include that I do have a graduate degree. She didn't like that I included my initials for that graduate program after my name in my title. And she's like, Well, why do you have that? What does that mean? And I said, Well, that means I have a graduate degree. And she's like, Well, why is that important to you? This is an interesting question that you can ask yourself. Anything that you include in your biography, regardless of where you put that biography, why is that information important to you? That's a really good coaching reflection question. I'm not here to tell you what you should include or not include because it has to have meaning for you. And I can go through and say, can you shorten this up? Can you do this? But I'm not here to tell you what's important. That's your job. You know what's important to you. So that might be education. So if you have a certification, if you have higher degrees, if you had specialized training, if you have a number of hours that you practiced something. There are certain industries where you have to reach so many hours in coaching. Did you achieve some sort of milestone related to education? That would be something to include in your longer version of your biography. There's the other side of it. I've worked with a lot of clients who don't have a lot of education. And that's why I love their boldness and their bravery. Because they're talking about something they have direct experience in. Is there anything more powerful than someone sharing their personal experience and sharing it in a way that translates to greater audiences? That is a very powerful thing. And often they will share things of their experience, but at the same moment they will say, Oh, it's not that important though, because it's not these other things that they think other people might value more than experience. Here's what I'll say about that. Your experience leads to your unique perspective and point of view, and that is absolutely a part of what people need to know about you in your biography. Plus, your experience often shows your personal connection to that topic area. I spoke about weight loss not because I care how much people weigh, I spoke about weight loss because my life changed when I lost weight. Some of the changes were good and some of them were bad. But my life shifted because of that experience. Everyone in this world has gone through something that has shifted how they see the world and how they move in the world. That's important to include in your biography. In terms of what to not include, because we talked about editing, well, that's up to you. I do not believe that your biography owes anyone anything that you're not willing to share, that you haven't already processed and resolved, if you will, on your own time in the way that you need to. You don't owe anyone your entire truth. You only owe someone the basic knowledge of who you are before you start delivering what you can deliver. So that's what I'll say around your experience. Now, your experience is yours to share or not share. And sometimes you may not include that in your biography, but you would go deep with it in your presentation, and that's okay. That might be something you include in your introduction as you're stepping up to the stage, but not in your biography. That is up to you. And I applaud you for whatever you choose to do with that. What are some other things that are important when it comes to your biography? I was looking at PCMA's 2025 Trends Report, and they identified that attendees at events are increasingly expecting personalized, intimate, and human-focused experiences, not just professional credentials. So if that's not a rousing endorsement for your experience, I don't know what is. But also, people need to know the human side of you, and this is the fun part of your biography. The fun side of you. So this is something that might be an eyebrow razor, as my friend Sam Horn likes to say. That one thing that is a little tidbit, a little factoid, something about you that is different. I change up what my factoid is or what my unusual thing is because it doesn't feel unusual to you, usually, but it's what makes you human. So I've included things like, well, do anything for a bean burrito. And that is not an exaggeration. When I lived in Germany, I literally walked across town just to find some refried beans so I can make myself a bean burrito. So that is truth. Sometimes I include things about um enjoys spending time on the lake on one of 10,000 lakes in her home state of Minnesota. You know, it could be geography, it could be some experiences you've had. Maybe I might include something like miss the train in France and met her guardian angel along the way. But those are things that you could include, just a small little tidbit about, oh, well, this is not just a talking head with all these credentials, this is a human being that I might want to talk to after this event. Include one tidbit around the human element of your biography. So we talked a little bit about what to include, how to edit, the importance of not needing anyone's approval for what you include or what you exclude from your biography. Now, what's going to be most important for you as part of your speaker kit, these are your speaker marketing assets, should be downloadable on your website. If they're not yet, it can be easily done. But important thing to know about your biography, you should have the long version, which is stolen from your about me section of your website. Most importantly, you need to have a short version. Short and sweet friends. Nobody wants two minutes of who you are. You don't want to hear that either. That's awkward. So the short and sweet version of your biography, ideally, 150 words, but if you can get it down to 75 words, you are a rock star. I've even heard people say get it down to 50 words or less. That seems like not much for a stage experience, but sometimes podcasts require you to get it down to so many characters before you can fill out a form. Multiple versions of that biography are important for you, so don't get too attached to some of those credentials or some of those experiences. Make sure it's just enough to tease people with, just enough to get a sense of who you are as an authentic person and someone who maybe likes to have a little fun once in a while. That's a little bit about how to show up as a professional in your biography. And if you need support, I offer coaching around that. I have a specific 30-minute present, you know, 30-minute coaching call we can do or we can dive into that. We could come up with something written, you'll get feedback around that. It's something that's really hard to do for yourself. And you might be asking questions like, what do they need to know? Well, you won't know what other people need to know, and nobody's going to give you feedback on your biography. So it's important for you to feel comfortable with what you have out there, and most importantly, to be consistent with how you talk about yourself. I have literally had clients who had one version of the biography here, version A, one version of the biography here, version B, yet another version C, and then in the foreground there was another version. It's okay for you to be everywhere, that's visibility, right? But make sure it's consistent across the different places that you're going to be found. If there is a discrepancy around what you're saying about yourself to other people, then it creates confusion and you're less likely to be hired. So consistency, short and sweet, and making sure that you have a human element, that's how professional speakers show up in their biography. Until then, I will see you on stage. Thank you for tuning in to Mic Drop Mindset. If you enjoyed today's episode, please take a moment to leave a review on Spotify, Apple, or share a comment over on YouTube. Subscribe to discover your own unique Mic Drop moments. In the meanwhile, don't forget to visit my website, Jen with2NspinGo.com.