As the owner of a veterinary conference, the host of two podcasts, the founder of a website that’s published thousands of articles, and a mentor of any veterinary professional who decides to flatter me and then ask me questions, I read a lot of bios that veterinary professionals write to explain who they are. The typical one goes like this:
Dr. Samantha Jones was born in Easly, SC and attended Auburn University for her undergraduate and veterinary medicine degrees. She then did an internship at Best Friends Veterinary Clinic in Annapolis, MD. Now she enjoys seeing internal medicine and dermatology cases. Oh, by the way, she also volunteers at the local shelter, writes articles on the most common health problems affecting senior pets, and used to be a professional flamenco dancer.
This. Is. Terrible.
It’s also highly representative of literally hundreds of bios I’ve seen for specialists, faculty members, GPs, lecturers, entrepreneurs, and people interested in writing blog posts.
Why do I say it’s awful? Because the point of your bio is to communicate, as quickly as possible, why readers should care about you and what you have to say. It’s not to walk people through your career starting at the most ancient, least relevant part of your training.
People today are busy, distracted, and often intellectually lazy. They don’t want to dig to find the good parts. They want the good parts to be spoon-fed to them through their eyeballs.
That’s why, if you are writing a bio for yourself, please, please, please… lead with the good parts. How about something like:
Dr. Samantha Jones has a half dozen senior dogs and 2 senior cats. She’s passionate about helping pets thrive in their golden years and lives this passion by writing articles on the most common health problems affecting senior pets and volunteering at the local shelter. When she’s not loving on every gray muzzled face she can find, you might see her out on the dance floor where she used to flamenco dance professionally!
Also, if you care, she is fascinated by internal medicine and dermatology cases. She went to Auburn University for her undergraduate and veterinary medicine degrees and did an internship in Annapolis, MD
Do you see the point here? The first bio example did nothing to communicate who this person REALLY IS, or why others might be interested in hearing from them as opposed to any other veterinarian in the world. Yes, I know I was overly dismissive of Dr. Jones’s clinical training, and I wouldn’t really communicate her academic training exactly like that. Still, I hope you get the point about what really matters and what matters a whole lot less.
So, if you have a bio that you are using to apply for jobs, let clients know who you are, get yourself introduced as a lecturer, or hope to one day include on the inside a book jacket cover, please pull it out now and make sure it’s not terrible. Tell people what makes you special and what you care about most. Let people know who you are, and why they should give you just 5 minutes of their time to hear what you have to say.
Yes, writing like this means that you may have to sit and think about what you care about and how you bring value to the world. Just do it. You are better than a bio that chronologically lists your life accomplishments. You are one-of-a-kind. Let people know it.
