A few years ago, a leading optometrist showed me the bio he’d been using to submit speaking proposals to medical conferences.

He had all the credentials for it, including papers in respected journals. Exactly the specialty conference organizers were actively looking to fill. However, the bio itself was three sentences, a dense inventory of credentials that read like it belonged to any of the dozens of other similar proposals.

We rewrote it together. This time it opened with the actual reason he was so passionate about optometry in the first place (an eye injury as a child), added one concrete patient outcome, and cut every phrase that sounded like it came off a certificate on the wall. He submitted the new version, and got in.

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That’s the lesson, and it applies whether you’re writing a speaker bio, a bio for work on your company’s site, or a LinkedIn summary. Most people approach a professional biography like a resume line, a list of proof that they’re qualified. But plenty of people are qualified.

A bio’s job isn’t to prove you’re qualified. It’s to give a specific reader a reason to notice you, remember you, and care about you.

How to Write a Professional Biography That Gets Results

Figure out who’s reading before you write a word. A potential client skimming your website wants something different than a conference organizer scanning forty submissions.

Keep that specific person in mind, not a generic audience, and ask what they need to trust you fast: who you help, what result you deliver, and one detail that makes you memorable instead of interchangeable.

Choosing a Tone, and First Person or Third

Tone is where professional service providers, doctors and lawyers especially, undersell themselves, assuming professional means stiff. A family law attorney can sound warm without sounding unserious. Match your tone to the brand you actually want, then apply it consistently.

That brand choice also answers the question I get asked most: first person or third? Convention still matters, but it isn’t fixed.

Third person (“Mr. Smith”, or “she” etc.) shows up in conference programs, press materials, and formal team pages, partly because an editor can lift it straight into their publication without rewriting pronouns. That makes it easy for them to visualize your bio on their program.

First person (“I”) shows up almost everywhere you’re speaking for yourself directly: your own site, your LinkedIn summary, a newsletter. If your brand leans personable and accessible, a common choice for solo practitioners, first person can work even where third person is the default. Just don’t switch mid-document.

How to Write a Good LinkedIn Summary

LinkedIn rewards a specific approach: first person, nearly always, since third person there reads as oddly formal on a platform built around direct connection.

The About section allows a generous amount of space, but only the first couple hundred characters show before someone clicks “see more,” so your opening lines carry almost all the weight. Lead with who you help and what result you get them, not your job title.

Whether you call it a LinkedIn summary or a LinkedIn bio, the rule’s the same. LinkedIn’s own research found that fully completed profiles get dramatically more opportunities than incomplete ones.

A Method That Actually Works, Step by Step

Here’s the process I walk professionals through, in order.

• Get everything down first. List every credential, project, outcome, and story, unfiltered.
• Find your one anchor line, the sentence connecting who you help to the result you deliver. “Helps overwhelmed business owners get audit-ready books in under a week” beats “accountant with fifteen years of experience,” every time.
• Open with the anchor, not your title, and back it with proof instead of adjectives. A number or a specific example beats “passionate” or “extensive experience.”
• Match voice and person to the platform, using the guidance above.
• End with a next step suited to where it lives. A LinkedIn bio can invite a connection. A speaker bio doesn’t need one.
• Read it out loud, and cut anything you wouldn’t actually say to someone across the table.

Getting the Words Down: Software, a Pro, or a Notebook

You don’t need to spend a dime to do this well. Grab a notebook and answer four questions: who do you help, what result do they get, what’s different about your approach, and what’s one detail a stranger wouldn’t guess. String the answers into three or four sentences, read them aloud, and cut anything that sounds like a brochure. That alone beats most professionally polished bios.

Using AI to Draft Your Bio

An AI assistant is genuinely useful here, but only if you feed it real material instead of a vague request. Start with the anchor line and the proof points from the method above, then tell the tool exactly which platform it’s for, what tone you want, and whether you need first person or third.

Once it hands you a draft, go back in and add the one true detail only you would know. Skip that last step and it reads like every other AI-generated bio out there.

A handful of tools offer solid free access, more than enough for drafting a bio:

• ChatGPT (OpenAI), the most widely used option, with a capable free tier and no credit card required.
• Claude (Anthropic), also free to start, worth comparing against ChatGPT’s draft for tone and structure.
• Gemini (Google), free with any Google account, and convenient if you already live in Gmail and Docs.
• Copilot (Microsoft), free in Windows, through the browser, and built directly into Word and Outlook if you have Microsoft 365.

Two prompts to copy and adapt, since you’ll likely need both versions eventually:

For a first-person LinkedIn bio:

Write a first-person LinkedIn About section for a [your profession] with [X] years of experience helping [who you help] achieve [specific result]. Open with that value, not my job title. Weave in these three accomplishments: [list them]. Keep the tone conversational and direct, stay under 200 words, and end with an invitation to connect.

For a third-person bio:

Write a third-person professional biography for [your name], a [profession] who helps [who you help] achieve [specific result]. Include [credentials or certifications] and mention [one genuine personal detail]. This is for a [conference program / press kit / company website], so keep the tone formal and the length to about 150 words.

Go pull up your own bio right now. Read the first line out loud. If it sounds like a job title, it’s time for a rewrite.