Why Tell Us About You

byHarveyBrown

9.7K followers

7 years ago

In the past several months I have noticed individuals introducing themselves with just their name and a blank area where they should have written something about themselves. At first I was upset I thought if that individual cannot take the time to tell us a little about themselves, I am not going to take the time to be overly welcoming.

Then I did respond to a blog like that, not welcoming the individual but wishing them the best at Wealthy Affiliate (WA). I also decided at the time to ask the individual to tell me a little more about themselves. Their response turned on the light in the attic and made me think why others might also have legitimate reasons for being so brief. This person’s reason was language. They did not communicate well in English.
There are others who maybe shy or do not think their lives are interesting enough to write about. Or others who do not know where to begin. So I decided to create this blog with an outline that can be used to get anyone started on introducing themselves.

Why do you need to introduce yourself? It is a human desire to get to know with whom they are being acquainted, with whom they are going to be associated and with whom they will be doing business. Imagine if you were meeting someone for the first time and you were going to spend a long time together, and all they told you was their name. Would that be sufficient for you to warm to the individual, feel comfortable or even to do business with?
By telling people a little about yourself, you are asking them to trust you and at the same time trying to find common ground on which an association can be built.

The approach I recommend is an approach I used when being interviewed for new career positions. What I found was on most interviews to break the ice and to make the interviewee (me) feel relaxed, most interviewers started with the question or statement “tell us about Harvey Brown.” I even used the same approach when I was a manager and conducted interviews.
To ensure I did provide some information about myself I developed a template which I filled in overtime about who Harvey Brown is, what he likes, about his family, and why he wants the position for which he was being interviewed.
Before launching my introduction about me, I wrote it out and when I was comfortable about what I had to say, I started using it on interviews.
Over time what I noticed was not only did it help me to relax, but it humanised the whole process and made it seem like individuals trying to understand each other.

The following is not an exhaustive list but at least you will give your associates here at WA and the visitors to your website an insight into who you are:

• Family: are you married with children, or single
• Education: University, College, High School, Work experience
• Hobbies and/or sporting activities: making model planes, building cars, martial arts, swimming, etc
• Interests: watching tv, reading, painting, music, computers, etc.
• What attracted you to WA and why you want to start online marketing at this moment in your life.
As I said the list is not exhaustive and if you can think of anything else that would help newbies get started or give greater clarity to who they are let us know, and we can add it to the list.

Last but not least, remember this is a world where writing has to become the norm and what better way than to post something about you.

All the best, Harvey