Update: Do you have a short biography so your fans can find out more about you? What you've accomplished, where you've traveled, and what you've discovered?

I've been asked to add life to some biographies for a website. It's a bit more challenging than it seems because all I know about the members are what's currently written. I also want to tie the biographies to a particular theme to make this pop when media people are surfing on their website.

I'm going to develop a questionnaire for the members, sell them on the idea that this is important for their organization and then get to work transforming their list of unrelated life accomplishments into biographies that have punch and pizzazz.

Will this work? I don't know. You never know about some of these projects until you actually jump in.

But for now let's see if you can add some pizzazz into your biography with today's...

Feature Article: Taking Your Biography off Life Support

Subscribe: Sign me up for this e-zine and qualify me for the 5-week Secrets to Website Mastery e-course.

A Case for Congruency...

"I want you to help me with my introduction," Jeanine requested. She's giving a short speech and wants to create an introduction for the Master of Ceremonies.

"That's pretty easy," I replied. "You'd want your introduction to be related to your message."

"Are you serious?" she asked. "I wanted to include episodes of my education and my work."

"Only if you talk about those topics in your speech," I responded.

And since she hasn't finished composing her speech, her introduction will have to wait. One of the most confusing things you can do to your audience is introducing you with a, b, and c—then having you talk about x, y, and z. It's best to keep them congruent.

Taking Your Biography off Life Support

Dear Associate,

Whether you're viewing a website of an influential person, reading an author's book you can't put down or watching a speaker who inspires you—you're probably dying to know something more about him or her.

You can usually find their biography nearby. Just check the website's navigational bar, an inside flap of a book or on some other piece of marketing material. The biography is where the expert gets to shine and declare something positive about him- or herself.

But sometimes you'll read a biography that drags on and on about that expert. She tries a little too hard making herself shine. She gives too much unrelated detail. And in doing so, it has the opposite effect.

I'm reading one such biography right now off the Internet. It starts out with:

"So-and-so is a facilitator, mediator, and a consultant working with organizational resilience, strategic planning, partnering and leadership effectiveness."

This particular website is promoting a two-day public speaking seminar. What that quoted line has to do with speaking... I don't know. I've always concluded that if something doesn't add, increase or maximize—edit it out.

Here's why from the example...

Because people will wonder how leadership skills will make them a better speaker. They're curious to know how facilitation skills will help them overcome stage fright. And they'll be tickled pink if someone could explain organizational resilience.

Let's exit from that webpage and look at three ways you can add some pizzazz to your biography...

1) Not just the facts, ma'am. Hard facts may have worked fine back in the fifties when TV became popular—but it's absolutely taken a back seat today! The left-brainers don't rule as much entertainment territory now as they did back then.

A lot of biographies read like a cop typing his report. One fact, after another, after another. The only one who could decipher this report would be another cop.

Your biography doesn't have to end up sounding like a dry report...

You could tell an interesting story. Stories can be humorous, serious, intriguing, factual, colorful or all of the above. The secret is to create interest—not boredom.

2) Toss out the laundry list. Have you ever seen websites where the members' biographies are long, drawn out lists of everything they've ever accomplished since the beginning of time? Okay, I take that back... since the beginning of birth?

Of course you have.

It's a list of every conceivable educational and career goal that person has completed. Their biography is all over the map and you wonder what this list has to do with the main message of the website. You begin scratching your head thinking, "I don't get it."

Your biography should be congruent and relevant with your web content. If you're volunteering with Doctors without Borders, then your Ph.D. included in your bio enhances your credibility. The time you've spent investigating the medicinal properties of marijuana living in a 420-friendly commune would not.

3) No bragging rights. Well... maybe just a little. Believe it or not, your biography is for your readers' sake. So they can know you better. So they can like and trust you even more.

It's rarely about you sticking your chest out advertising how good, great and godlike you are. Or how powerful and influential you've become. It's about what you've done that qualifies you to lead your readers on their personal path.

Here's what you can do: Reveal a flaw.

Once readers discover you're not superhuman, but have made the mistakes, failed, sunk to a new low, and yet you kept fighting back—you'll gain instant credibility. That's because they now identify with you. Your flaw makes you more human than you know.

So get going on your biography. What's the delay? Be sure to make it congruent with your message.

Warm regards,