Your Business Bio Length
By Timothy Walker
Obviously your introduction bio should vary according to what group you are addressing. An introduction in front of the Securities and Exchange Commission would be different than the bio introduction used for a speaker about to give a high school commencement address, even though it is the same speaker presenting. But another consideration is how long your bio should be for a particular audience. Different audiences who are listening to you in different formats need different lengths of a bio.
I was delivering a media training teleseminar recently and had emailed the bio off of my web site that is appropriate to public relations people who deal with media training clients. It seemed like I had done my homework, right?
Wrong!
The bio I sent was perfectly fine for someone to READ SILENTLY on a web page, but it was much, much too long to be read by the moderator aloud at the beginning of the teleseminar. I realized my error right before the teleseminar was too begin when I saw the long bio to be use and figured out it would take about 5 minutes to read aloud.
5 minutes is way to long to read someone’s bio when the teleseminar is only an hour long. It was too late for me to get a new bio to the moderator introducing me and too much for me to ask her to shorten it on the spot. She dutifully plowed through the entire bio. When she was done, I almost felt like falling asleep.
Fortunately, I recovered once I was able to hop in with the meat of the seminar. But the point is I shouldn’t have to “recover” in any presentation, and neither should you.
With proper planning, you can time every aspect of your presentation, including the introduction, to flow properly and with the right length. With a teleseminar I would recommend you keep an introductory bio to 30 seconds—60 seconds tops!
How long is your introduction? There is only one way to find out. Read it out loud in a conversational tone of voice and time it. If it’s too long, chop away until you get it right.
About the Author:
TJ Walker is the worlds leading speaking coach, author of "Presentation Training A-Z." and "Media Training A-Z."