Presence vs. Information

Presence vs. Information: Why Your About Page Matters

With your About page, you have a unique opportunity to presence yourself to your client base. An impactful About page should do the following:

• Engage your potential client with both your authoritative expertise and your empathetic humanity

• Embody your brand vibe and values

• Polarize your reader's response - "Hell, yes" or "Hell, no"

• Build trust by communicating your why

• Presence you in your expertise and your humanity. This is different from providing information about yourself, which maintains a certain distance. Site visitors should get a sense of YOU showing up on the page. You, authentically engaged in your image, your voice in the text on the page.

Here are a few guidelines for putting together your About page. 

First, I recommend writing your About page in the first person. Writing in the third person always feels artificial, stilted and pretentious. Like those academic papers that always refer to "the writer" instead of just me. If your business is a corporate brand, the third person writing is fine. But if you are the brand, just cut the crap. Write as yourself. You'll still be professional in the first person. 

Secondly, here's the key to everything I want to say: Your About page is a diamond opportunity to not only inform about yourself, but to PRESENCE yourself. For human beings at least, presence always trumps information. You are communicating at a more-than-information level that's easy to point to, but hard to name. Vibe. Emotions. Impression. Feel. It's simply closer to actually being face to face with your clients. Presencing is richer than informing. Presence trumps information every time.

Lead the page with a LARGE , engaging professional image of you. The image should be iconic. In other words, it can stand alone to represent you in your business role. Don't use a standard head and shoulders cropping for this image. Show more of your body language. Show more of the surroundings you inhabit.

Further down the page include a second image. If you led with an "authority" image (common for consultants, business coaches and professionals whose chief value is their expertise), then the second image should be more inviting and approachable. If you led with an inviting, approachable image at the top of the page (common for therapists and holistic coaches), then use an authority image as the second image. So in both cases you're represented as both authoritative and approachable.

I recommend a third "wild card" image that further humanizes you. For instance a photo of you and your family. Or you traveling somewhere you loved. Or playing a sport you enjoy. Or on an adventure. One of my favorite choices is you in full-throated laughter. Nothing humanizes like laughter.

Instead of focusing on providing fragmented nuggets of information about yourself, introduce yourself, tell your story.

Your story should include:

Your "hook" headline - If your About page were a novella, what would the title be? Give me a reason to read further. Create a little curiosity or intrigue. Currently my About page is titled "Learning to See Anew". So there's going to be a story of learning here. Certainly more interesting than "Here's Dan's Dry as Bone Resume: Read it and Snore".

Your story itself - One option is to tell a story of your journey to where you are today -- a trustworthy guide to your clients. Include your humanity. Be a human being, not a perfect paragon. A story of win to flawless win does not build trust. An anecdote about learning a valuable lesson from a mistake does.

Your story can tell clients your big WHY. Why do you do what you do and how you you do it? My About story tells about  how I learned to see the world in a whole new way. (And now I want to slightly refocus the story to tell more of how I specifically learned to see people in new ways.)

Some other things to include in your introduction - Little, specific nuggets about what you care about, such as what you love, what you hate, what you're passionate about, how you spend your free time. Be an interesting human being. Boring is a choice.

I also want to know what your're committed to, what's really important to you. (And I don't mean vague, cliches like "excellent customer service" or "two times ROI.") For instance, I am absolutely committed to bringing out the unique being of everyone I photograph in ways that transform and inspire. I have given a nervous client Play-Doh in a session, had a minister do improv games, abandoned the studio to shoot on the sidewalk, photographed a client in the middle of a train station, another young woman client with a sheepskin and giant sword, anything it takes to create the space for clients to open up and express themselves.  I am committed to meaningful photographs that reveal what went unnoticed before. For me this is not simply a job, but a calling. See how I told mini stories to tell you my Why?

To sum up your About page:

Presence yourself by writing in the first person. Your About page is not simply information about you. It's an expression of you.

Presence yourself in multiple photos to show different facets of you.

Story telling is key.

Tell me your why.

Be specific! The telling detail speaks volumes.

Own your badassity!