If Your About Me page is About You, That’s a HUGE Problem!

If your ‘about me’ page on your website, blog (or even the section on your landing page), is anything like MANY of the websites that I read, then it’s all about YOU. 

Here’s how they normally look:

1. There’s a short paragraph of text next to a portrait (either a candid or serious looking photo of you).  
2. Next, a short biography about you.
3. Then, a few carefully chosen words about how amazing you are at whatever-the-fuck-you-actually-do
4. And finally, a little about your product / service

If the above sounds familiar to you… ..that’s a massive problem, and you need to solve it, real quick.

Why?

The Problem is…  …It’s All About YOU!

Are you confused? You really shouldn’t be. 

Unless of course, like sooo many other people before you (so, don’t punish yourself for this), you forgot exactly who an ‘about me’ page is written for.

The truth is; your ‘about me’ page isn’t written for you, therefore it shouldn’t be all about you, at all. 

When people come to your website, I regret to inform you but,  they’re not there to learn about you.

Your audience read your ‘about me’ page for one reason… 

…to figure out if you’re the right person to help them solve their problem.

Tell Your Story, but Solve Their Problem

Your about Me page is kind of about your message, your story, your brand and the product you sell. 

But, it’s more about what your story, your brand and the product you sell does for others. 

Your about me page is a chance to get your audience’s trust, and show them what you can do for THEM.

It’s also just as important for you to solve their problem in a unique way. The more unique and different your solution is, the less anyone else can compete with it. 

Making your solution unique can be the difference between someone believing in you, or blowing you off to find someone else more inspiring. 

So, now we know what the About Me page needs to contain, let’s take a look at what you should write in there…

Hopefully you won’t let this cripple ALL other progress, like I did.

I Put my Whole Business on Hold 

When writing my ‘about me’ page, I got obsessed with getting it perfect.

At one point, this completely crippled all progress for my business. 

I got totally obsessed, and told myself I must finish the about me page before moving on to anything else. I got so obsessed with my about me page being perfect (the infection of perfection), that I stopped doing ANYTHING ELSE on my business at all. 

I hit pause, stopped writing my newsletter, social media content, and anything else I was doing. 

When I looked at the first 2 newsletters I’d written, they didn’t relate to my overall business message. 

I’d go as far as to say; I really didn’t even HAVE a message. That was a HUGE problem!

I was struggling to write my about me page, because I had no idea what my business was really about. If I did, writing the about me page would’ve been much easier.

I was busy following the advice of the ‘just start now, figure it out later’ crowd. But, no matter how many times I try this approach (no matter how many times it’s worked out in other things before now) it never works out.

My newsletters and blog posts had solid advice, and were really good to read… 

…but they had no running theme or message. 

My goal in business wasn’t just to write 200 blog posts about random topics from success to marketing, business, and design. 

It needed to have some sort of purpose.

So, I stopped doing all things until my business message got a lot clearer.

Although, I REALLY wish I hadn’t done that…

It took me Six Weeks to Write my About Me Page

For 6 weeks (yes, that’s right, SIX WEEKS!) I was completely stuck on stupid, trying to write just ONE page of my website.

IT DROVE ME FUCKING NUTS!!

I rewrote my about me page ELEVEN TIMES! 

I literally smashed my forehead against the desk, SO MANY times, I felt like I was going out of my mind.

Every time I rewrote the page, it sounded like the same old bullshit. I had nothing to say, and I couldn’t figure out how to bridge from the about me, to the future you.

Here are the problems I faced, and lessons I learned, so you can avoid them.

I Should’ve Written my About Me Page Last

When writing a book, it’s good advice to write the summary, index page, and the introduction to the book, LAST.

This is because most of the time, the story, or the direction the book is going in, will evolve over the time of writing the book. 

Once you’ve completed it, and know exactly how the book worked out, then you should write the introduction.

Instead of stopping all other work and trying to force my About Me page into life, I should’ve focused on figuring out what my message was, and what the business was about. What voice it would be speaking in, and so on. 

I should’ve written the About Me page last, when I knew most of everything about what I was going to be doing.

The truth is, your about me page will evolve with your business, and needs to be updated as your business grows anyway, so try not to get stuck on stupid, aiming for perfection, like I did.

Too Autobiographical

The first draft of my About Me page was like reading my whole life story, from beginning to now. 

From childhood to 49 years old? It was like 30 pages long. 

Seriously, NOBODY has time to read that shit. 

As you can imagine, it was boring, and mostly pointless. But, it had every single ‘important moment’ of my life so far (the ones nobody cares about, but me).

In truth, it was mostly irrelevant to the reader. 

It wasn’t helping anyone at all.

I Got Confused Where the Story was Going

I knew what my business was, kinda… but I wasn’t sure what the product was, or how I connected the reader from what I’ve done, to where I solve their problem.  

Nothing was solid and clear. 

I kinda knew what I wanted to do, and I knew about my past. But, my About Me page wasn’t connecting my past to my future, or providing the solution for the reader.

So writing it, I kept losing direction and started rambling again.

This was analysis paralysis, I would get completely frozen in thought. 

I knew I wanted  to start a one-person business, and I know kinda what I will be selling, but how do I make that interesting, exciting to read, and ultimately about YOU?

How could I show you that I really genuinely want to help you?

I needed to write a story that took you from reading about my poor, sad, broke-assed self…

…to who I am today, and who you can be tomorrow.

How do I prove to you that you can really be someone with a lot of high-value skills with totally limitless future income, and the ability to design any life you want…

…if you hang out with me?

I Tried to Shorten the Story

I thought maybe a smaller part of my life could be valuable enough to tell you who I am, and how I got here. 

I tried to take a smaller chunk of my life and create a relatable story brand around that, but nothing seemed to work without the other parts. Much of my life has been built from gathering a stack of skills that make me unique.

At this point I truly envied younger, less experienced people. 

With a shorter timeline, and less to say, this would’ve been A LOT EASIER!!

Nothing worked trying this method for me, so I started over… …again.

Reverse Engineering the Story 

When you can’t figure out where the story is from beginning to end, sometimes it’s best to try working your way backwards from the end. 

Start at the finish line, and walk back through the steps you took to get where you are now.

Taking each stepping stone to success in reverse, to rebuild your story. 

Walk back towards your beginning, retrace your steps.

I tried working my way backwards, but I only came up with the same story. Still too long, still only about me, still not connecting the dots, or building the bridge I needed to build.

The real problem for me with this version was going backwards, and not connecting the dots to the future. 

So, the moment I caught up with the present time, I got stuck in the same place all over again.

Write in Chapters or Sections

Another way to write out your story is to write very short, 2-3 sentence paragraphs as chapters / sections.

I tried this, and it worked REALLY well!

I had a story about how people say I’ve ‘lived 100 lives’ (because I’ve achieved a lot, and done a lot of things others haven’t), but really it’s more like 4-5 chapters of my life.

I really enjoyed the format! 

It felt different, was fun to read, had a cool way of telling my story, and this was very close to being the finished version. 

But, it still had the same problem. It lacked the bridge to the future, and focused purely on the past. 

I didn’t quite have the direction I was looking for, to show you how I can take us both in a whole new directions. 

.It had a great beginning and middle, but there was a massive gap in the story. 

I STILL couldn’t connect you to the future, or any end result for you, at all.

Write a Framework then Fill in the Gaps

I knew I needed to get my story to include all the important points, but as concise as possible, going in the right direction, but ultimately leading to the conclusion.

So I wrote out each part of my story as a list of one sentence bullet points.

When looking at the list, I needed to have:

1. A beginning: where I started out
2. A middle: my journey, and ,my struggles, my adventures
3. A conclusion / end:  the future I’m working towards right now, that I can take you forwards with me.

When done, I took each one sentence bullet point and expanded it into a very short version of that part of the story. In as few words as possible, I wanted to write only just enough to get the point across.

The result was a clean, high-level, bullet point, easy to understand version of my life so far, with where I’m going next, and how that can help you, at the end.

I chose to list the skills I’ve learned over the years off to the side of each section of the story, indicating the importance of that skill in my skill-stack, and keeping the story part much shorter.

Victory was mine!

Finally I had an About Me page that did my story and experience justice.

More importantly, it takes you into my future, and yours, together.

It’s interesting, keeps the reader reading, and gives the solid values behind my why. 

But, more importantly, it concludes with why this project exists for you.

Please Don’t Suffer Like I Did

Whilst I myself indeed went through 6 weeks of agony, and making no progress with my business, there’s NO REASON for you to get stuck-on-stupid like I did. 

After going through this, I decided to write a free guide, so you can write the perfect about me page for your website, blog, newsletter, that appeals to your audience, and makes it more about them, than it is about you.

I call it the ‘About You About Me’ mini course.

And, here is 100% for free…