Your About Me page is probably the most important thing on your website (and also the hardest to write!)

Picture this: someone finds their way to your website

They have a nose through your homepage. Maybe they click through to your services. They might even scan a testimonial or two if you've got them.

Then they go straight to your About Me page.

Every single time. Invariably. Without fail.

It's not the services they care about first. It's you.

Because people are nosy. Wonderfully, predictably - sometimes overbearingly - nosy.

They want to know who you are before they decide whether they trust you enough to hand over their money. I mean, it’s fair enough really.

Your About Me page isn't some nice-to-have afterthought you chuck together in twenty minutes. It's the bit that actually converts browsers into buyers. Often without them realising the impact it’s had.

On the flip side, it’s also the bit that makes most people want to fake their own death and start a new life where they never have to write about themselves again. Swings and roundabouts.

People want to know who they're working with

Nobody hires a service provider based purely on a list of what you do. Nobody wants to read your job description for fun.

They hire you because they like you. Because they get a sense of who you are and think "I have to work with this person. Right now. This instant."

Your About Me page is where the magic happens.

It's where someone decides whether you sound like their cup of tea. Whether they'd actually want to work with you or whether the thought of getting on a call makes them immediately want to run away.

They're not just looking at your credentials. They're looking for connection.

Do you sound like a human? Do you have a personality? Do they feel like they know you a bit better after reading it?

Or have you just listed your qualifications in chronological order and called it a day?

Because here's the thing. Nobody cares that you've got a Level 3 Diploma in Whatever from 2008. Not yet anyway.

They care about whether you understand their problem. They want to know that you've been where they are and that you can actually help them. They’re not after just another person who's "passionate about helping clients achieve transformation."

(Side note: of course you are. Passionate about transformation? Aren’t we all? It means nothing.)

Your About Me page needs to do more than tell people what you've done. It needs to make them feel something.

It needs to make them think "This is the one for me."

And if not? It needs to make them think they absolutely don’t want to work with you. Remember, it’s just as important to send the wrong people away as it is to call the right people in.

Writing about yourself feels absolutely horrible

I get it. Writing about yourself is nauseating.

It feels wrong. Self-indulgent. Like you're showing off or making stuff up or overselling yourself in a way that makes you want to crawl under your desk and stay there.

You sit down to write it and suddenly every sentence sounds either too big-headed or too apologetic.

"I'm an award-winning, passionate, dedicated expert in my field who loves helping clients transform their businesses."

Delete.

"I'm quite good at this thing and I've been doing it for a bit and some people seem to like working with me."

Delete that one too.

You end up staring at a blank page for three hours and producing absolutely nothing except a mild sense of panic and the urge to bin the whole website and go back to working in corporate.

The problem is you're too close to it.

You can't see what makes you good at what you do because you've been doing it so long it feels normal. You don’t realise that not everyone can do what you do. 

You don't know which bits to emphasise because it all feels equally important or equally irrelevant so you overthink every word. Second-guess every sentence. Talk yourself out of saying anything interesting in case it sounds ridiculous.

It's exhausting.

Stop trying to sound professional

The worst About Me pages are the ones that sound like they've been written by a robot who's just learned what business jargon is.

"I'm passionate about delivering innovative solutions that drive transformational results for my clients."

What does that even mean? Not much really.

You're trying so hard to sound professional that you've forgotten people want to work with actual humans.

Nobody wants to hire someone who sounds like they've copy-pasted their entire personality from a LinkedIn template.

They want to know what you're actually like.

What you care about. Why you do this. What makes you different to the seventeen other people who do the exact same thing.

The About Me pages that work are the ones that sound like a person wrote them. The ones where you finish reading and feel like you've just had a chat with someone rather than been lectured at by a corporate brochure.

They’re the ones that turn casual observers into keen clients.

If you’re struggling to put yourself on paper - or GoogleDoc - then get in touch. I’d love to help find the words that sound like you.