Write an Excellent Coaching Bio

Reading an author's bio on the back of a book gives you a solid idea of their career and accomplishments. If you’re at the bookstore, this blurb may even convince you to purchase the novel. A coaching bio serves a similar purpose: it entices potential clients to reach out to your practice.

You’ve worked hard in your career, racking up the right credentials and experience to do your job well. As you market your coaching services, you want to show them off in a concise and effective manner. 

Of course, not everyone is eager to put pen to paper. Fortunately, we can help — let’s explore why a coaching bio is essential to your business and how to write a stellar one. 

3 reasons you need a coaching bio

If you want to market your coaching services on a website or a coaching directory, you need a bio. In these spaces, you should briefly overview your career and services to reel in clients. Even if there’s already information about your business on the web, tidying up your credentials into a clean bio will only improve your professional image. Here’s why: 

1. You establish your brand and method: You know what sets your services apart. Use your bio as an opportunity to explain your coaching style succinctly to others and define your brand in straightforward terms. Once you’re finished, you can use a version of this blurb anywhere you promote your services, including advertising and social media. 
2. You build trust with your clients: Writing a bio helps you outline the essential credentials you wish to share with potential clients. When you have a bio handy, you can easily send it to someone curious about your services and make a strong first impression. Show your experience, coaching certifications, and education so the client can feel confident they’ll be in good hands. 
3. You improve your confidence: Sometimes, you can forget some of your greatest accomplishments. We all experience self-doubt, even in our careers – but as you write your bio, you can take a trip back through your resume and recall your success. Rediscover just how prepared you are to be a coach.

How to write a strong coaching bio

Writing a tight bio means narrowing down the essential information about your career, and deciding what makes the cut can be challenging. Here’s how you can start drafting the perfect blurb: 

1. Consider your audience: Keep your ideal client in mind when writing your bio and use words that resonate with them. Are they hoping to become more organized? Follow a wellness plan? Improve communication skills? While writing, stay away from industry jargon they may not understand.
2. Tell your story: Keep this part of your bio short and sweet, but sum up how many years you’ve been in the game and your educational and professional accomplishments. You may want to include metrics on how many people you’ve coached or other relevant figures that could impress a potential client. 
3. Explain how you coach: Give the reader a few words about your coaching niche and the methods you use. With this information, they can research whether this style is a good fit before reaching out for more information about your services.  
4. Consider the platform: If you’re writing a bio for a website, you can run a bit longer than if you’re drafting one for a social media platform. On your professional site or LinkedIn profile, you can have an entire “About Me” bio page with testimonials, links to information on your education and credentials, and a photo. Those looking on directories or social media for coaches will expect a shorter blurb that fits within the platform’s constraints. In these cases, stick to just two or three highlights, like your years of experience, specialty, and certifications. 

{{mid-cta}}

Bio must-haves

Keeping track of everything you should include in your brief text can be complicated, so we made you a list. As you draft your bio, be sure you tick off all the essentials: 

• Background and education
• Years of experience 
• Job title/role 
• Coaching specialty
• Completed coaching courses and credentials
• Values 
• Coaching philosophy 

Tips for cleaning up a draft 

Once you’ve taken a stab at your bio, it’s time to refine. Before you put your bio out there for the world to see, run it through the following filters to polish it: 

• Keep it brief: See if there is any excess text you could cut. Take out filler words or unnecessary descriptors, and ensure there’s no repeated information. 
• Compare it to other industry bios: Look up examples of your colleagues' bios and check that yours highlights the same information — without losing what makes your bio unique. This is especially important when putting your bio on a coaching directory, where you’ll compete directly with your peers. For instance, search for life coaching profile examples (if that’s your niche) and make sure you’re speaking the same language as others in the field.  
• Make it search-engine friendly: Wouldn’t it be great if clients organically stumbled upon your services online? You can help people find your coaching business by making your bio (and any other material on your website) search-engine friendly. SEO (search engine optimization) means peppering your text with keywords that a browser can pick up when someone performs a related search, leading that person to your site. You can find out what search terms people commonly use by performing queries on the web and seeing what comes up in the results. If you want to skip the trial and error of this method, you can use an SEO tool to scan your bio and see if it’s hitting popular terms. 

Round out your business with Practice

Once your bio starts bringing in new clients, you need an organized and secure place to store client data. Practice’s customer relationship management (CRM) platform is specifically designed with coaches in mind, allowing you to communicate safely with clients, file important documents, and receive payments all in one place. Now that’s excellent client management.