Writing a Bio

Allie Nimmons:
Welcome to the Underrepresented in Tech podcast, hosted by Michelle Frechette and Allie Nimmons. Underrepresented in Tech is a free database, but with the goal of helping people find new opportunities in WordPress and tech overall.

Michelle Frechette:
Hi Allie.

Allie Nimmons:
Hi Michelle. How are you?

Michelle Frechette:
Oh, I’m good. How are you?

Allie Nimmons:
I’m fantastic. I always love talking to you on Thursdays.

Michelle Frechette:
Yay. I know it makes me happy too. [crosstalk 00:00:31]. I text in-between and everything, but seeing your beautiful face, I know nobody else can see your beautiful face, but seeing your beautiful face and your smile makes me happy every time, so.

Allie Nimmons:
Yeah. And it’s a dedicated 20, 30 minutes of unfiltered, uninterrupted talk time, which is really nice.

Michelle Frechette:
Yeah. It is really nice so.

Allie Nimmons:
So, what is our topic for today?

Michelle Frechette:
Yeah, so our topic today is writing a bio and it’s a little bit, we’re going to have some similar ideas, so that what we shared in the previous episode, where we talked about putting together your resume. But a bio is a very personal thing, it’s not a list of your past jobs and experiences, it’s how you can express yourself on social media, when you submit a bio for a talk or when you write a blog post for somebody, you put a bio at the bottom. So lots of times when you’re interacting with other people online, especially they’ll be like, “Oh, and send over your bio and your headshot.” And so, having that bio is, there’s an art to it, so. And, it’s not always easy to do, it’s hard to talk about yourself.

Allie Nimmons:
Yeah. Definitely.

Michelle Frechette:
[inaudible 00:01:44].

Allie Nimmons:
For reference, if you want to go back to listen to our episode about resumes, that’s way back in episode six and a lot of the same kind of things apply. Which the first thing that applies in my mind, which is probably not the most basic tip, but I think one of the most handy tips is to kind of do what we suggested to do with the resume, which is have more than one, right?

Michelle Frechette:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Allie Nimmons:
If you are looking to speak at an event, that bio might look a little bit different, than if you need a bio to put at the bottom of a guest blog post.

Michelle Frechette:
Okay, great.

Allie Nimmons:
And having the essentials is always important, what you do, maybe where you work, what you specialize in. But then if this is a speaker bio, maybe saying one or two things about, Michelle has also spoken at events like… And maybe the biggest events you’ve spoken at, or if this is a writer bio, Michelle also contributes to posts on X, Y, Z, so that…
Because I feel like a lot of times, the purpose of the bio in my opinion and this is debatable is like, well, why should I care? Like, why should I care about this particular person doing this particular thing right now? We’re talking about this particular topic and the bio is kind of the way to say like, “Here’s why I am qualified to do whatever it is that I’m doing, that this bio is attached to.”

Michelle Frechette:
Yes.

Allie Nimmons:
So having different ones for different purposes helps to serve that purpose, especially if you are a jack of all trades, which I feel like a lot of underrepresented folks are, either by choice or by necessity. You have a lot of skills and your bio should zero in on, I think what that particular skill is in that particular circumstance.

Michelle Frechette:
Absolutely. The other thing about the bio is even though, let’s put this right out at the very beginning, it should be written in third person. It shouldn’t be, I do this and I am this, because when it’s on somebody else’s website, it is talking about you like you’re the guest post, you’re the guest writer, you’re the guest speaker kind of thing. So, it should be third person, so it shouldn’t be I am this, it should be Michelle is or Allie is. But it should still be allowed to have your personality seep into it too. So, you don’t want it to be so sterile that it’s just reading your resume.

Allie Nimmons:
Yeah.

Michelle Frechette:
You could include some personal information. For example, for a while when I was a single mom, at the bottom of my bio, I would say, “Michelle lives in Hilton, New York with her daughter, Lydia and their three cats. Something like that, that kind of put a little bit like, and she’s a real person too. And there’s different ways to do that, of course. The other thing you can do in a bio is include some of those things that kind of make you uniquely you, like not just what you do for a living, but do you volunteer anywhere or do you sit on a board? What blogs have you contributed to? Where have you spoken? Like you said. So there’s an opportunity to kind of, I always say it should be like a nutshell, so it should be like maybe, instead of a 32nd elevator pitch, maybe it’s a minute, you going up another 30 floors or something.
So, it can talk a little bit more about you that way. And I always like to end mine, where you can find me, you can find Michelle at her website, this is her Twitter and this is her LinkedIn or whatever.

Allie Nimmons:
That’s a really good tip too, I tend to forget to do that. [crosstalk 00:05:39].

Michelle Frechette:
Yeah. I’m good at remembering that part.

Allie Nimmons:
Another thing I like to do, like I have one really long bio, which is on my website and it starts with a little introduction about me. Like, what I identify myself as, which as of right now is a self-taught WordPress evangelist, which I should probably change. And then, I have a little like bragging section about how I self-taught myself and started my own business. And what I do now, and then I have a section about kind of like my, “Side projects,” so I mentioned Underrepresented in Tech. I mentioned a little bit like my previous work, like when I worked at GiveWP, when I was a speaker ambassador for GoDaddy Pro.
And then I talk a little bit about like, I love talking about connecting through WordPress, blah, blah, blah. And then at [crosstalk 00:06:31] the very end I have, I live in Austin, Texas with my husband, Greg and my cat, [Freda 00:06:36]. And so, whenever somebody asks me for a bio, I come to this page on my website and I just sort of copy and paste the bits that I feel like are necessary. Because a lot of times when somebody asks for a bio, they don’t want a full essay on everything that you’ve ever done, they want a little blurb that they can just put at the bottom of something. And so, it’s a good idea to have lots of information ready, and then trim it and-

Michelle Frechette:
Edit it down, yeah.

Allie Nimmons:
Yeah. I remember when I did speaker selection for WordCamp Miami in 2019, that was one of the things I thought was really annoying is every once in a while, we would get somebody whose bio was paragraph upon paragraph, upon paragraph, upon paragraph. And it was so irritating, not only to have to read through when you have tons of people, but it also just like messed up the spreadsheet pages, like there would always be one person’s spreadsheet [inaudible 00:07:41] that large.
So yeah, I would say brevity and being concise about what it is and what you do, in addition to adding that little, a sentence at the end about where you live, if you have a pet, family. Some people I’ve seen will put an interest, like in her free time, Michelle really enjoys chess and rock climbing, like a little bit of, like you said, that kind of personal note. And, people will connect with you about those things. Right?

Michelle Frechette:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Allie Nimmons:
I’ve definitely had people reach out and acknowledge something, like a personal thing that I put in my before. Especially now while everything is virtual, it really helps to make that connection.

Michelle Frechette:
The other thing to remember about that when you talk about brevity, is that usually what you’ve submitted as your speaker bio is what somebody’s going to read out loud as your intro.

Allie Nimmons:
Yeah.

Michelle Frechette:
So if you’ve got seven paragraphs, you’ve irritated them because now they’re like, “Oh man, I’ve got so much to read about here.” And the other thing is, you’re sitting there on screen, or you’re sitting, or you’re standing on the stage or whatever, and you’re [crosstalk 00:08:50] staring at everybody, while these accolades that you wrote about yourself are being read out loud. So at that point, brevity feels so much better.

Allie Nimmons:
Yeah. Or at worst, well maybe not worst, but I feel like another option in that scenario is the person might trim your bio for time and they might trim it in a way that you don’t like, in a way that doesn’t feel flattering to you or accurate to you. So, it’s best to give them exactly what it is you want them to say and have it be concise.

Michelle Frechette:
Yeah.

Allie Nimmons:
I feel like something that I hear a lot is like, people don’t feel…. Especially when you’re first starting out, like maybe this is the first time you’re applying to speak somewhere, the first time you’re writing something, maybe you don’t really have a ton of things, braggy stuff to put in your bio. And I think I’ve heard you say this before, a good way to handle that is to ask a friend, or ask somebody else who knows you and has worked with you to write a little bio for you, because they’re not going to have that imposter syndrome about you. They’re going to be super ready to say all kinds of nice stuff about you, that you might not think to say about yourself.

Michelle Frechette:
Yeah. The other thing is like, I actually hire myself out to write bios. And so, I-

Allie Nimmons:
You write really good ones.

Michelle Frechette:
Thank you. I recently wrote one for a major podcaster, I’m not going to name names, because they haven’t given me permission to do that. But when I write a bio and it was… I delivered it, and then that person had to deliver a bio to something else I was working on. Like, “Can I just use the one that you wrote?” I’m like, “Well, of course, that’s why I wrote it for you.”

Allie Nimmons:
Yeah.

Michelle Frechette:
But what’s a really good idea to do, and the way I wrote that one was kind of in sections based on the different things that they did, so that any one of those sections could be lifted out and used as its own bio in different places. But if you do hire somebody to write a bio, pay them to write two versions, the long version and the short version.
And then when they deliver those, give feedback to what you, “Oh, can we add this or can we add that?” And then remember that just because you hired somebody else to write, it doesn’t mean you can’t edit it. So they deliver it, you pay them for it and you decide you want to add something, take something else out. It’s your bio, you do it too hot with it, for sure. But having somebody else write it, sometimes gives you, like you said, the opportunity for them to say things about you that you would feel weird writing for yourself. But also, it maybe they write more professionally than you have the foresight or ability to do. So, it’s one of those things that makes it easy. I thought maybe I’d just read you my bio, so you can see somebody get an example of what a bio sounds like.

Allie Nimmons:
Yeah.

Michelle Frechette:
Knowing that it’s going to sound like I’m bragging about myself, but that’s what a bio’s all about. And it’s fairly short, it’s going to sound longer than it is, but it’s one tiny paragraph, and then it’s a little bit longer. But here it is, Michelle Frechette is the head of customer success at GiveWP, where she and the customer success team work with fundraisers all over the world to make the world a better place. In addition to her work at GiveWP, Michelle is the podcast barista at wpcoffee.com, co-founder of underrepresentedintech.com, creator of wpcareerpages.com, the president of the board for bigorangeheart.org, author, business coach and a frequent speaker at WordPress events. Michelle lives outside of Rochester, New York, where she’s an avid nature photographer. You can find out more about her at her website, worksbymichelle.com.

Allie Nimmons:
Pretty dang perfect.

Michelle Frechette:
Right. It’s nice and brief, but you learned a bunch about me. There’s lots of things you can talk about. So if you are having me on your podcast and I send you my bio, you know that there’s things you can look at in advance, lots of questions you can ask me because I’ve given you information, just someplace to start with. So we’re not starting at square one, we can start at square three and make it a better deeper conversation.

Allie Nimmons:
And it’s interesting how, like I have my longer one pulled up in front of me still and there really is kind of a formula to it, where you have that one first sentence that is like, if nothing else, this is the main chunk of who I am, what my job is, what I’m employed as, what my business is, whatever. Other things like side projects, accomplishments, where you serve, all of that sort of stuff. And then, you had your little personal bit about where you live, and then how to contact you. [crosstalk 00:13:10] It’s really those sort of four main chunks that you can start with, and then embellish from there. And I do feel like the tone, depending on the event, or the purpose or the person, like if you are a podcaster and you’re a comedian, your bio is probably going to sound a lot different, than if you’re like the CEO of a bank or something like that.
I think it’s definitely worthwhile to think about the tone of the work that you do, the tone of the people that are going to be reading that bio and what they’re going to appreciate. So like for a WordCamp, I love when people add a little bit of spice to their WordCamp bio, they add a little bit of fun. Because WordCamp’s are fun, it’s a big like educational party. But like yesterday I spoke at Laracon, which is a Laravel PHP conference. And for a tech developer conference, it was a fun event and everything, but it was a little bit more serious, just a little bit more buttoned up. And so, I feel like people’s bios were just a little bit more formal. And so, I think having that formula to start with is really important. And then having a Google Doc, where you can just keep your long version, and then a couple of different short versions that you can just grab and send.
Because nothing will make an event organizer happier than if they ask you, “Hey, can you send me your bio and headshot?” And, you send it back immediately.

Michelle Frechette:
Immediately.

Allie Nimmons:
Yeah.

Michelle Frechette:
I actually have my bio as aText. So literally, I just have to put like-

Allie Nimmons:
That’s so smart.

Michelle Frechette:
I just have like a-

Allie Nimmons:
[Text Extender 00:14:52]. Right?

Michelle Frechette:
Yeah. So I use aText type [inaudible 00:14:55], so it’s just auto text filler, text completer. So I just do, I don’t even know what that symbol is, the [inaudible 00:15:01] symbol, and then BIO, and my bio just fills right in.

Allie Nimmons:
That’s so clever.

Michelle Frechette:
With links and everything. [crosstalk 00:15:06] Then I don’t have to go, “Where did I put it?” I have to copy and paste it, it’s just right there. And, that’s where I make the changes to it. So if I need to make changes to it, I make it in that text completer and then- [crosstalk 00:15:17] I do that with everything. Phone number, email addresses, Facebook link, Twitter link, everything, I just have set up, so I don’t think of anything.

Allie Nimmons:
You’re so savvy.

Michelle Frechette:
I was like, “I like same time.”

Allie Nimmons:
For sure. The other thing we talked about, like we talked about hiring somebody to write a bio for you. If that’s not where you’re at, at the moment, I would say at the very minimum, ask somebody, a friend or a co-worker, a colleague to just proofread.

Michelle Frechette:
Yes.

Allie Nimmons:
Maybe as a favor to proofread what you’ve read, especially if English is not your first language, but you are applying to English speaking things. Or vice versa, if English is your first language, but you’re working in a different country and that arena speaks a different language, make sure that you have a native speaker proofread what you’ve written, because you’ll be surprised. I mean, I remember once I submitted a bio where I had misspelled my own name, and that was super embarrassing because it was like, I just had to bang it out really quick and send it and I did not take the time to fully proofread it.
So you’d be surprised what kind of silly mistakes you might make, even if that is your first language. So-

Michelle Frechette:
That’s so true.

Allie Nimmons:
… at minimum, have someone proofread it for you.

Michelle Frechette:
Yeah. And back to what you were talking about too earlier, where if you don’t have a whole list of things that you’ve been involved with, like I do now, like my first bios said things like that, “I was a tea snob,” because I like tea at the time, now I would say coffee snob. But it said, “I was a tea snob,” that I was something about like a frequent Scrabble player, and serial volunteer and 11th hour enthusiast.” Like I just put things that were… Things that I did, sounded good and it was filler, but they told you a little bit about me, but I didn’t have all those other things to fall back on that I do now, that I have deeper into my career. So you can have fun with it, still sound professional and still have it be your personality.

Allie Nimmons:
Yeah, absolutely.

Michelle Frechette:
For sure. So, that’s very cool. And if you have hobbies that are not even anywhere near related, like let’s say that you’re a dancer or you are, I don’t know, like I put photographer in mine, that kind of thing. You can include that in there. And when she’s not working in WordPress, she dances with this belly dance troop. I don’t know, I used to teach belly dance. If I don’t that in there now.

Allie Nimmons:
Yeah. I love those. I will say definitely make sure that those go at the end.

Michelle Frechette:
Absolutely.

Allie Nimmons:
I remember reading a bio for someone ages ago or maybe it was when I was doing event [inaudible 00:17:59]. I remember coming across a bio once where somebody opened with that bit of text and I was trying to nicely explain to them, “That’s great, I want you to include that, but that’s not the first…” “That’s not what people are looking at your bio to learn, they’re looking at the bio to learn what your specialty is, how it applies to your talk or your content.” So it’s just kind of, it’s confusing and kind of off putting to have, because then it’s like, “Wait, why is this belly dancer?” “Is this the wrong bio?” “Who is this [inaudible 00:18:34]?” “Does this need to be on a different website, what’s going on?”

Michelle Frechette:
Yeah, exactly.

Allie Nimmons:
Definitely make sure that the content goes in order of importance, and then your contact info at the end, like you said.

Michelle Frechette:
Yeah. So, it has a nice flow. It includes all the pertinent information. People enjoy hearing it, because it’s actually giving them some insight into who you are. And like you said, make sure it’s proofread, either hire somebody to write it, get a friend to write it. You write theirs, they write yours, that kind of thing. And, different people charge different amounts to write bios. And like, if I write your bio, I’m going to do like, at least a 15 minute interview you with you, so I can learn who you are, not just get a bullet list, but certainly there’s going to be more parts to it than that. Or if you have one already, I’ll start with that, that kind of thing. So whoever, if you do hire somebody, make sure that you’re working with somebody that you appreciate the way that they’re doing the work, and that you can kind of go back and forth little bit without racking up additional charges, make sure it’s just a one time charge, so.

Allie Nimmons:
How often, Michelle, would you say someone should update their bio? Because I know, if you Google my name, stuff comes up with bios for me that are massively outdated, and it always makes me cringe and it always makes me upset, not upset, but I’m always like, “Dang, I wish I could reach out to that person and be like, can you please…” But then, [crosstalk 00:19:59] I’d have to do that, I feel like three, four times a year. So, how often would you say you should go in and kind of redo your bio and add new information, so that it more up to date every time you provide it?

Michelle Frechette:
So this is my rule of thumb is number one, if it feels stale to me and I just want to display myself differently, that’s certainly a trigger. So if I’m not happy with it, then I want to change it. But anytime that I add something different, so like actually it was last week that I became the president of the board for Big Orange Heart. Prior to that, my bio said, “Volunteer at Big Orange Heart.” And so, because that’s a big change and my role within that organization changed, I updated my bio. So next time I submit it, it will be different than the last time I submitted it. And yes, it’s going to change over time. So if I go back and I look at previous WordCamp’s especially, because I’ve spoken over 40 times at different WordCamp’s in the last six years, that first bio is radically different than what I’m submitting today.
So yeah, it’s just all about that. And some of them are really long, because I actually did pay somebody to write mine. And now it’s like, mine is half the length that used to be and I cringe at how long the bio was at one point in time. But I’m pretty happy with how succinct it is now, but how much information it provides.

Allie Nimmons:
Nice.

Michelle Frechette:
So yeah, if you have questions, you can head us up. Our DMs are open on Twitter, we’re always happy to answer questions like that. We’re not going to write your bio through Twitter, by the way, we don’t hire out to do that through Underrepresented in Tech. But if you do have some specific questions about things to do with any of our topics, we’re always happy to give some advice or opinion, I should say, in our Twitter DM, so feel free to reach out to us, or through our contact form on our website.

Allie Nimmons:
Absolutely. Yay.

Michelle Frechette:
Yeah.

Allie Nimmons:
Thanks for talking to me today, Michelle.

Michelle Frechette:
Sounds good. Yeah. Thank you. I love this topic. I just love when we can tell people some great information about how they could be themselves through the way that they present themselves online, so.

Allie Nimmons:
Very actionable, very useful. And yeah, Tweet at us if you found any of this helpful. I want to know if you used these tips.

Michelle Frechette:
Absolutely. Me too.

Allie Nimmons:
All right. See you next week.

Michelle Frechette:
Awesome. See you then.

Allie Nimmons:
This episode was sponsored by the following companies, Ninja Forms. Ninja Forms is WordPress form building simplified. Build beautiful user-friendly forms that will make you feel like a professional web developer, no code required. If you’re interested in sponsoring an episode using our database or just want to say hi, go to underrepresentedintech.com. See you next week.