There are all types of events and occasions that call for you to send in your bio ahead of time—podcast interviews, speaking presentations, keynote speaking, book signings, author readings. But they don’t all require the same amount of detail and information, do they? It’s not uncommon for a program manager to request a bio in a particular length (say, 50 words), and in those cases, your one-size-fits-all 150-word bio is going to be overkill.
So help out your program managers, podcast hosts, and book store/garden center managers by preparing your bio in different lengths, and you’ll be ready for any request. We’ll show you how!
Short, Medium, and Long Bios
We jokingly call teammate Jenny Peterson our “Swiss army knife” here at The Garden of Words—she’s done a wide variety of things in her career, leading to many different job experiences and interests. So, we’re going to use her bio examples from over the years so you can see how she did this successfully.
1. Short Bios: Short bios are perfect for adding to an article, blog post, or social media profile. They’re typically just a few sentences long, or up to 50 words, and should include your name, where you’re from, and what you do in a nutshell. Here’s a good example:
Jenny Peterson is a copy writer, author, and former landscape designer in Austin, Texas. She had her own landscape design company, J. Peterson Garden Design, for 15 years before joining The Garden of Words as Content Manager and Account Representative.
2. Medium Bios: This in-between version is popular for those times when you’re public speaking or appearing on a podcast. Hosts typically want a little more information about you to share with their audiences as well as to establish you as an authority, so include details like achievements and interests. Medium bios can be 50–100 words. To continue with our example, this is what Jenny’s medium bio looks like:
Jenny Peterson is a copy writer, author, and former landscape designer in Austin, Texas. She had her own landscape design company, J. Peterson Garden Design, for 15 years before joining The Garden of Words as Content Manager and Account Representative. She is the co-author of Indoor Plant Décor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants, and author of the award-winning The Cancer Survivor’s Garden Companion: Cultivating Hope, Healing & Joy in the Ground Beneath Your Feet (St. Lynn’s Press).
3. Long Bios: Long bios are called for when you’re a featured guest of a significant event, such as a keynote speaker of an industry conference or fundraiser, and in these longer bios you’ll want to include awards, personal details, and anything else that elevates you to the audience. In general, although Jenny did actually keynote once at a breast cancer fundraiser, her speaking experiences typically called for either a short or a medium bio. Still, the long bio (100–150 words) is great to have on hand so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Jenny Peterson is a copy writer, author, and former landscape designer in Austin, Texas. She had her own landscape design company, J. Peterson Garden Design, for 15 years before joining The Garden of Words as Content Manager and Account Representative. She is the co-author of Indoor Plant Décor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants, and author of the award-winning The Cancer Survivor’s Garden Companion: Cultivating Hope, Healing & Joy in the Ground Beneath Your Feet (St. Lynn’s Press and winner of the 2017 Silver Award from GardenComm: The Association for Garden Communicators). She’s a popular podcast guest, public speaker, and workshop presenter focusing on how the garden and natural world support health and wellness, and when she’s not writing and speaking, she fills her time with hosting Goat Yoga on her 1-acre urban farm and raising Bernedoodle puppies.
Tips for Writing Different Length Bios
- Start with your short bio and then add to it with more details and other significant info for your medium and long bios.
- Save it in a Word doc or on a Google doc and pull from it as necessary.
- Remember to update your bio at least once a year. We can’t count how many times we’ve been asked for our bios only to realize the only one we had filed was slightly outdated.
- Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn! Bio writing is difficult for many people because it sounds like “bragging,” but really, you’re simply helping your host to introduce you properly to their group.
