The Two Types of Bios You Need & How to Write Them

Summary

The Kate Show — Episode 274

Title: The Two Types of Bios You Need & How to Write Them
Date: January 20, 2025
Host: Kate (Socialite Agency)

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Overview

In this episode, Kate dives deep into the essential marketing tool every home professional needs: the business bio. Specifically, she breaks down the two types of bios—the About Page bio and the Homepage/Media bio—and guides listeners on the crucial differences between them, providing practical outlines and tips for crafting bios that attract ideal clients and build trust. Kate also dispels common myths about self-promotion in the home industry, emphasizing relatability and authenticity over “fancy” or exclusive-sounding language.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Rethinking “Putting Yourself Out There”

• Timestamp: 00:09–02:31
• Kate reframes the commonly dreaded idea of “putting yourself out there,” noting:

  “Good marketing has actually nothing to do with putting yourself out there and everything to do with finding common ground with your ideal client.” [00:44]

• She stresses that common ground isn’t about matching a client’s lifestyle or wealth, but about specializing to meet their desires (e.g., a beautiful or organized space).
• Your expertise bridges the gap between where the client is and where they want to be.

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2. The Two Critical Bios: Purposes & Differences

• Timestamp: 05:16–12:25

About Page Bio

• Purpose: Give ideal clients a deeper understanding of your philosophy and background to build trust.
• Key Elements & Structure:
  • Your Story: Why you love your service and what motivates you; mention industry pain points.
    • “Open that bio with your story. So why do you love design, staging or organizing or window treatments?” [05:29]
  • Origin: Why you started your business.
  • Experience: Relevant experience—even if informal (e.g., personal projects, helping friends).
    • “If you've applied your own services to your own home or to friends or family homes, that counts and that should be included.” [06:13]
  • Education/Certifications/Networks: Mention only briefly; clients care more about understanding & results.
  • Client Benefit: How you handle budget, solve problems, and make their lives easier (before, during, and after projects).
  • Client Experience: How they’ll feel during and after the process.
  • Action: Clear next step (e.g., discovery call or contact form, with honest, clear instruction).
    • “Do not mislead your leads ... If you don't have a way for them to directly book a discovery call, that's fine. Just don't act like you do.” [10:18]
• Language Tip: Use words your ideal clients use (“budget” vs. “investment”).

Homepage/Media Bio

• Purpose: Quickly assure ideal clients you specialize in their needs and spark interest.
• Differences from About Page Bio:
  • Focuses on specialization and benefits—not trust yet.
  • Shorter, punchier; sits next to your photo and intro headline.
  • Describes client benefits, your experience (not credentials), and what sets your service apart.
    • “Do not talk about your credentials. Do not talk about your education. Again, people really don't care. They want to know, do you have experience?” [13:23]
  • Ends with a call-to-action to your About Page or more details (especially for a media kit).
• Media Bio Use: Practical for press, podcast features, and outreach, even if you’re not being actively pursued—should be revised yearly.
  • “You need to have a media kit. It should be a one-page PDF... This is something you're going to use more often than you might think.” [13:48]

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3. Bio-Writing Pitfalls & Industry Myths

• Timestamp: 14:35–end

Common Mistakes

• Writing in third person—creates distance and coldness.
• Calling yourself “the only” (e.g., “the only organizer in Atlanta specializing in…”):

  “Don't call yourself the only ... that's cheap. That is a lazy way of trying to be known for something versus actually being known for something.” [15:27]

• Overly fancy or stuffy language—makes you unrelatable, and can alienate even very elegant or affluent clients.
• Not updating your bio or failing to clearly state how you help clients with simple, direct language.

The Power of First-Person, Relatable Bios

• Kate recounts a client who worked with British royalty, yet remains down-to-earth:

  “She has no pretenses. She's giggly, she's bubbly, she's fun ... I was so impressed by the fact that she was so intrinsically confident that she didn't have to put on airs.” [16:18]

• Elegance in bio-writing means simplicity and clarity, not fanciness.

The Role of a Strong Bio in Your Marketing

• A well-written bio encapsulates your core messaging, ideal client profile, and call to action in one place.
• Kate offers services to help professionals craft both bios—reach out for guidance or done-for-you writing.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Not “Putting Yourself Out There”:

  “Your common ground is something that you create. Your desire matches their desire for a beautiful space ... but the difference between you and them is you have a way to reach their goal and they don't.” [01:26]

• Budget Language Reality Check:

  “Even the wealthy are budget-minded because they didn't necessarily get to their level of income by being frivolous with their money.” [07:35]

• On Client Experience:

  “Tell them how easy you're going to make it for them ... paint the picture and tell them this is how you're going to feel and it's going to be amazing.” [08:57]

• On Bio Authenticity:

  “People like real people, they don't want people who sound robotic or stuffy or holier than thou or better than thou. They want someone who is relatable.” [15:47]

• Real Elegance Defined:

  “True elegance is simplicity. If you can't simply describe who you are and how you help clients, then you failed at marketing.” [17:04]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment | Timestamps | Notes | |----------------------------------|-------------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | Reframing Self-Promotion | 00:09–02:31 | “Putting yourself out there” vs. building common ground | | About Page Bio Outline | 05:16–10:33 | Step-by-step content and language advice | | Homepage/Media Bio Outline | 12:25–14:35 | Distinctions from About Bio, practical use, media kit intro | | Avoiding Bio-Writing Mistakes | 14:35–end | First-person, relatability, “the only” myth, elegance |

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Conclusion

Kate boils down the art of great bio-writing for home industry professionals to two actionable templates that, when done right, can dramatically elevate your brand. Her practical advice: be honest, be relatable, speak directly to your client’s desires, and skip the fluff. A bio isn’t just your story—it’s a marketing asset that speaks for you and builds trust before you ever get on a call.

Final words from Kate:
“Keep your marketing simple, your message clear, and I will talk to you soon.” [End]

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For one-to-one help with your bios or holistic marketing support, reach out to Kate and her team at Socialite Agency.

Transcript

[Kate]

Foreign.

And welcome to episode 274 of the Kate Show. I'm Kate, and I am so glad that you're here today. I'm talking about the two types of bios you should have in order to attract your ideal client instead of repel them. And of course, I'm going to give you outlines on how exactly they should be constructed and and written. Now, the most painful part about marketing, aside from wondering is this ever going to work, is talking about yourself, or as my clients sometimes phrase it, putting myself out there. Let's talk about that idea for a minute. You see, putting yourself out there as though you're an object on the shelf for anyone to look at or snatch up is awkward, and rightfully so. And the thing is, good marketing has actually nothing to do with putting yourself out there and everything to do with finding common ground with your ideal client. If you work with homeowners who are, let's say, one or two income brackets above yourself, you might think finding common ground is a joke. You don't own three homes, but you're sure glad they do. But finding common ground doesn't even look like that. Common ground looks like you specializing in a certain type of client or project, and that client or someone with that project being attracted to you for that reason. You see, your common ground is something that you create. Your desire matches their desire for a beautiful space, for an organized space, for staging listings that sell really fast and for more money. But the difference between you and them is you have a way to reach their goal and they don't. One of the best ways to illustrate your common ground is to integrate that ground into your about page bio and your homepage bio, which can also be used as a media bio. I bet you had no idea these two bios were different. And they are definitely not copy and pastes of each other. Today on the Kate Show, I'm sharing outlines for both of these bios so that you can more effectively establish common ground with your affluent ideal client and start earning their trust sooner. Now, as a reminder, guys, you can stream the Kate show podcast wherever you get your podcasts, or watch it on YouTube and Spotify.

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All right, so guys, let's get into it. The about page bio is what we're going to start with and the purpose of it is to give your ideal client a deeper understanding into your philosophy and your background, to build trust. This is a longer bio and it's the one that you're most used to seeing. So this is why we'll start here. You should open that bio with your story. So why do you love design, staging or organizing or window treatments? And what do most people get wrong when they try to do these things on their own? This is where you start talking about pain points. And why did you start your own business doing this? Because, you know, a lot of people are passionate about design and they never start their own business. They just have a blog, they Dabble, they're a DIY or maybe a better DIYer than most. But you took it to a new level. You are the real thing and that's when you start talking about your experience. So if you're new and you don't have experience that you could skip this part. However, if you've applied your own services to your own home or to friends or family homes, that counts and that should be included. Even something as simple as saying, I've worked on a number of homes where disorganization was an issue and I tackled it by blah, blah, blah. Now this also means that if you have photos of those spaces, those spaces should be in your portfolio. Next, you should talk about your education, so certifications, credentials, networks or industries you're a part of. Degrees, of course. And then talk about how clients benefit from working with you. So really we're glossing over your education and your certifications because people do not really care how many letters are after your name. They just want to know, number one, do you understand them? And number two, can you help them? So let's talk about how clients benefit from working with you. How do you handle their budget? Now I know some of you are like, I don't want to talk about budget because I don't want to attract budget minded people. But quite honestly, guys, in today's culture, and this is true in the us, Canada, the uk, everywhere else, really, we are budget minded. Even the wealthy are budget minded because they didn't necessarily get to their level of income by being frivolous with their money. Now, of course that brings up the conversation of old money versus new money. Most people prefer to work with new money people because they're not entitled. Usually they're more appreciative, but they're also stingier with the money because they're not Used to having it. They still feel like they are, you know, making $30,000 a year, having to scrape and pinch every penny. But maybe now they're making multi six figures or even seven figures and they are not used to it yet. And that is the new money mindset. That is why you should talk about how you're going to handle the budget and maybe even ask yourself, should you be calling it an investment or does that make it sound even more expensive? That is a question that you have to answer for yourself because there is no right or wrong. It really depends on your ideal client and the language they use. So if you've talked with any clients around this and they're like, my budget, my budget, my budget. And they're not saying my investment, then use the word budget. Use the language that they use. So talk about how you're going to allocate their budget. Talk about how you're going to address unforeseen project issues, change orders, things like that. Talk about how your client will feel during the project. Because a lot of people are like, am I going to have to leave while you organize my whole house? Am I going to have to move out while you remodel my kitchen? Is it okay that I'm working from home while you're installing my blinds? Like, they don't know. You've got to tell them. Tell them how easy you're going to make it for them. And then also tell them how they're going to feel once the project is done, once everything is installed, once it's tidy all, whatever it is you're doing for them. Paint the picture and tell them this is how you're going to feel and it's going to be amazing. And then tell them what the next step is. Tell your ideal client to book a discovery call with you or to fill out your contact form and make sure that all of that is functional and working. Now I will say the problem I see a lot of people making on their website is that they'll have a button that says book a discovery call, but the button actually takes them to a form they have to fill out. The form goes to you and then you coordinate with them to book a discovery call. It's actually very misleading. Do not mislead your leads that doesn't present you in a good light. If you don't have a way for them to directly book a discovery call, that's fine. Just don't act like you do. Just send them to the contact form and make sure all the verbiage says please Go complete our project request form, our project inquiry form, our contact form, whatever it is you want to call it. Call it what it is. All right. So that is the about page bio.

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[Kate]

For the homepage which is also going to be used as a media bio. The purpose of that is a little bit different. It is to assure ideal clients that you specialize in the situation they need help with in their home. And and it is to build interest. Now as a quick. Excuse me, as a quick contrast the about page bio had a different purpose. There was to give your ideal client a deeper understanding into your philosophy and background to build trust.

[Sponsor Representative]

Okay.

[Kate]

But going back to the homepage media bio it is to assure ideal clients that you specialize in the situation they need help with in their home and to build interest. We're not building trust yet, just interest. So this is where you should have like an opening image on your homepage with an opening headline, a body of text, and then you should have an image of yourself and this media bio next to it. You should dive into how clients benefit from working with you. So some of this can be taken from your about page bio, but not all of it. You'll talk about how you handle their budget, how you address project issues, how the client feels during and after the project. Don't do an exact word for word, copy and paste here. You'll need to be a little bit more creative. And then also talk about your experience. Do not talk about your credentials. Do not talk about your education. Again, people really don't care. They want to know, do you have experience now? Again, if you're new, you might be like, well, this puts me in a bad spot. I have no experience. I bet you do though. I bet you've designed your own space. I bet you've organized your own space. You can talk about that. That is valid experience. You don't have to say, I designed my own home. Some people are ashamed of that. I'm not sure why. I've built my own website many times over. You know, it was very valuable experience. It taught me a lot. You shouldn't be ashamed of that. But the bio where it's shorter. So you're talking about how clients benefit from working with you. You're talking about your experience. And then the call to action sends people to your about page or to your general website. If this is being used as a media bio where they can get more information. Okay, so why would you need a media bio? Some people are like, I, I'm not exactly being hounded by the press here. Here's the thing. You need to have a media kit. It should be a one page PDF. That's really all you need. You don't have to tout how many social media followers you have because that's a vanity metric. And any reputable PR company is not going to care how many followers you have. They're going to care about how good you look. And that comes down to do you have good lifestyle brand photography of yourself? Do you have high quality images of your work? Do you have a working media bio they can quickly swipe when they're talking about you in articles? This is something you're going to use more often than you might Think. And it's something that should be revised every year with new content edits to the bio, whatever it is, a new headshot. But basically it's as simple as go to Canva, type in media kit into the design template options, pick one that works for you, make the branding match your brand and then fill out the content. There should be a photo of you. There should be a spot for your bio. There should be a list of your service areas and your service specialties, as well as a description of your ideal client. And that is a solid media bio for a professional in the home industry, especially one who is looking to reach the upper echelons of clientele. Now, if you're like this is still kind of a lot, how am I supposed to work in creating two different bios when I'm also, you know, running a business? Well, I want you to know that I do help people with this. I either give them pointers or I simply write their bios for them. This is part of the ongoing marketing services that we offer here at Socialite. It's also something we do if you contract with us to do a custom website. So I just wanted to throw that out there. But one thing I want to kind of harp on a little bit is you might think that your bio is good. I will say most bios are bad. Just the truth of it. Most bios are written in third person, so they feel very cold and corporate, which comes across as very unrelatable. And the other problem is there was a trend, especially in the design industry for a long time to call yourself the only. I'm the only interior designer in such and such county. The problem is that is not a good reason for someone to hire you. It's also something that could be easily proved for false if one other person starts a business. And a lot of people have to dig really, really deep to figure out how they're the only at anything. I'm the only home organizer in Atlanta that specializes in under the kitchen sink cabinets. You know what I mean? Like what is this? Don't do that. Don't call yourself the only that is that's cheap. That is a lazy way of trying to be known for something versus actually being known for something. And I know that this whole idea was prolific, proliferated by someone who wrote bios for a living and sold services around it to interior designers. I will not be mentioning this person by name. However, I will say this person has done a great deal of disservice to people by telling them this is how a Bio should be written. It makes them very unrelatable. So I make it my mission and I make it my soapbox today to say, hey, if your bio is not written in first person and if it talks about how you're the only such and such, you need to rewrite that thing because I guarantee there are other things in it that are hurting you and deterring your ideal client. Because truth be told, people like real people, they don't want people who sound robotic or stuffy or holier than thou or better than thou. They, they want someone who is relatable and depending on who that person is, you know, more or less elegant sounding. But sometimes we can make ourselves sound so elegant that we alienate these truly elegant people who are actually just looking for realism. They're looking for someone they can work with on a long term project, who they can stand being around, who can stand being around. Someone who holds up their pinky when they drink tea, you know, so don't make yourself come across that way, even if you're the one working with celebrities. Now, I will say I have this one particular client who has worked with members of the royal family, the, the British royal family. And she has no pretenses. She's giggly, she's bubbly, she's fun. And when she told me about her clientele, I was shocked and I was so happy for her and I was so impressed by the fact that she was so intrinsically confident that she didn't have to put on airs when she was working with the Duke on his interior design. I thought that was so cool. Why can't we all be like that? A lot of it comes from a lack of confidence or from being told by different branding experts that we need to use more elegant language. But there is a difference. Are you elegant or are you fancy? Fancy is actually a big turn off. True elegance is simplicity. You guys know this, especially in interior design. True elegance is simplicity. If you can't simply describe who you are and how you help clients, then you failed at marketing. But the good thing is this is an easy fix. And when you have a solid bio that helps support the rest of your marketing because it puts all your brand messaging elements into one place. You have your philosophy, you have your company mission in there, you have your ideal client and their pain points and a solid call to action. It's actually a huge deal and it's why I wanted to focus on it today. So if you need help with your bio, please do reach out. I do one to one discovery calls with people all the time. I would love to meet you and discuss where you're at in your marketing in the home industry. Until next time, guys. Keep your marketing simple, your message clear, and I will talk to you soon.