Bernadette Martin's synopsis of a good bio is that it "sets the stage." Hold that thought. She also summarizes the essence of a bio with "It's your story." [She should trademark that.] Beyond the "straight bio," which is the sort of thing you skim over on BoD reports and such things, there is the "narrative bio," wherein lies all the good and tasty bits and bytes of a person's vision, purpose and passion—those "personal touchpoints that resonate" [her words] and which (I presume) are the components that "inject personal branding" into the paragraphs (the necessary zeitgeist). It is the story of your vision, the telling of your purpose, the rendering visible of your passions that makes the whole shebang believable . . . and desirable to another, whether looking for a blind date or blindly looking for a better job. The fact of the matter of bios is that they are not just about the past and present you that may or may not be profiled in LinkedIn or Facebook or a hundred other public purviews, but the present-becoming-the-future You that brings all this baggage to the station, ticket in hand, ready to take on new challenges and to grow. It's this becoming-You that will make the vision, purpose and passion come alive. And that stage? It's the workplace where your creative character at work is the public persona that you yourself direct from backstage, behind the curtains, a socially acceptable workplace avatar (a titled Doppelganger) who has successfully separate him- or her-self from his or her chronological chains to the job obituary of traditional resumes.
All the good stuff of a bio fall naturally into the first part of a bioblog, with the graphic component carrying the load in a vacuum of competitive words. Whether you are heading upstage or downstage, your bio should be established in your own character's mind first; then dress it up in your costume of choice.
It's not just your story, of old: It's your story, of becoming. (Remember, that's what the other guy pays for, and that's why you want to create as much curiosity in your story as he/she has in his/her own story.)
Nice synopsis, Bernadette.
