A template for an amazing Linkedin Bio

At least once a month, I revisit and overhaul my Linkedin bio. Mostly because I’m constantly honing my niche, and refining my pitch.

You see, the worst thing is to labor over your profile, and then do a ton of ‘outbound marketing’ through comments and posting content – and get a bunch of views, and no leads.

That means there’s a hole somewhere. And usually it’s because my bio is off.

Usually because I have the ‘curse of knowledge,’ and I’ve skipped a step for my audience.

Case in point was my bio a month ago; I thought it was amazing. But I wasn’t getting any leads. And so I spoke with a coach, and he pointed out that I’d missed a crucial step of talking through the pain points.

I’d spent too long talking about my services, and not enough about the pains and the dreams of my target audience.

Darn it!

And I’m in branding too!

After all the lessons and pointers I constantly give my clients, I fell into my own trap. (Hence the value of talking to someone else to help you read the label on the outside of your bottle.)

And then a client reached out to me and asked to learn more, because ‘I don’t really understand what you do.”

That did it.

And then I stumbled into an amazing profile, by Michelle Barry Franco. And as I read it, I realized that it had powerfully pulled me in, and inspired me to keep going through to the end.

Reeling, I went back to the beginning, and realized that she had used a structure.

I instantly grabbed her bio, copied it into a table, and tried to see if I could break down the talking points into a template.

And it worked!

I rewrote my bio from scratch using this new template, and think it turned out pretty well! You – and future leads – will be the judge of its effectiveness.

Now granted, there are as many ways to write bios as there are people on Linkedin. So if you’re struggling to write something more interested than ‘Exceptional ability with Microsoft Word’ and listing other apps you’re good at, this could really help you.

So I reached out to Michelle, and asked her if I could use her bio as inspiration for this blog. She kindly agreed, and mentioned that she’d even involved a professional consultant to help her craft her bio.

(Confirms for me even more that there’s gold here!)

So here’s an amazing LinkedIn template, courtesy of Michelle, with her and my bios for a breakdown:

• The Dream you have for your client
• Background and client problem
• Your proof, credibility, and/or experience
• Your method, program, or services
• Tie it back to the dream
• Final call to action

Read the point by point breakdown between Michelle's and my bios!

As you can see, she has more evenly weighted her sections, whereas I spent more time on the pain points.

And on LinkedIn, I’ve punched up my copy with a lot more emojis and spacing.

Now give me a few weeks, and I’ll likely have some new edits and changes.

But I really like how this has given me a fill-in-the-blank structure. A framework within which I can brainstorm.

Note: after publishing this piece, I learned that it was courtesy of the excellent Kris McGuigan and her brand Professional Courage for the great bio!

If you’ve used this, or have questions or suggestions, please leave a comment! I’d love to see how you’re doing with it.

Over to you!