Why Your About Page Might Be Talking About the Wrong Thing

You’ve spent 30 years building something real. Your skills didn’t come from a weekend workshop. You didn’t wake up one morning magically knowing how to do what you do, you learned it the hard way, through failure and experience and showing up over and over again.

And then you sit down to write your About page, and somewhere between your first job and where you are now, you convince yourself that nobody cares about any of that.

So you write about your credentials instead. Your certifications. Your degrees. The workshops you attended last year. You lead with the accomplishments that look good on paper, because somehow those feel safer than the truth, that you’ve become really, really good at something because you gave a damn and stuck with it.

Then you hit publish and something feels off. Your About page reads like a resume from 2005. It doesn’t sound like you. It doesn’t explain why someone would want to work with you specifically, out of everyone else doing what you do.

I see this a lot, and I want to name what’s actually happening here. It’s not that your About page is too short or needs more bullet points. It’s that you’re talking about your past when what your ideal clients need to understand is your perspective.

Let me explain what I mean.

The Difference Between a Resume and a Real About Page

Here’s what many women find themselves doing: they treat their About page like an application. Like they need to prove their worthiness by stacking up credentials.

I got certified here. I studied that. I worked in this industry. I earned this credential. Here are my degrees in descending order of impressiveness.

And you know what? Those things probably matter. I’m not saying they don’t belong on your website. But that’s not what your About page is for.

Your About page isn’t a resume. It’s an introduction to how you think, what you believe about your work, and what makes your approach different from everyone else in your space.

The difference is this: a resume says what you’ve done. An About page explains why you do it, and what that means for the person considering working with you.

One of them is interesting to a hiring manager. The other is interesting to someone who’s trying to figure out if you actually get them.

Your ideal client doesn’t care that you went to a good school. She cares that you went through something similar to what she’s going through right now, and you found your way through it.

She doesn’t care about the 47 certifications. She cares about the thing you believe so strongly that you built your entire business around it.

The biggest opportunity I see on a lot of About pages? Leading with your perspective instead of your credentials.

What Clients Actually Need to Know About You

Here’s what I know from 30 years in sales and marketing: people don’t buy from people they’re impressed by. They buy from people they trust.

And trust doesn’t come from a list of accomplishments. Trust comes from feeling like someone gets it.

So when you’re writing your About page, the thing that matters most isn’t proving how qualified you are. It’s answering the unspoken question your ideal client is asking:

Do you actually understand what I’m dealing with?

That’s it. That’s the whole ballgame.

And the way you answer that question isn’t by listing your credentials. It’s by showing her that you’ve stood where she’s standing. You’ve had the same fear, or the same frustration, or the same realization she’s having right now.

Then you explain what happened next. How you moved through it. What you learned. And what that taught you about what really works.

When an ideal client reads that, she doesn’t think, “Wow, this person is smart.” She thinks, “Oh thank God, someone who actually understands.”

That feeling is the entire foundation of a working business relationship.

In my experience, the About pages that actually move the needle are the ones that tell a story. Not a tale with plot twists and dramatic music. Just a real story about why you do what you do, and what you’ve learned that might help someone else.

A lot of business owners I talk to are sitting on these incredible stories, moments where something shifted for them, or they discovered something that changed how they work, and they’re not putting them anywhere. They’re burying them because they don’t feel “professional enough.”

But here’s the thing: that story is the most professional thing about you. Because it proves you’ve been tested. It proves you’ve learned. It proves you’re not just reciting something from a textbook, you’re speaking from actual experience.

What to Include (and What You Can Actually Downplay)

Okay, so if credentials aren’t the opening act, where do they go?

They go in the supporting role. Which is their actual job.

Your credentials matter. Your education matters. Your certifications matter. They just don’t matter first. They’re the reassurance that comes after someone has already decided they trust you.

Think of your About page like this:

The opening is where you connect. You tell her who you are and what you learned the hard way. You answer that unspoken question: “Do you get me?”

The middle is where you explain your approach. This is where you talk about how you think about the work, what’s different about how you do it, what you believe matters. This is your perspective in action.

The supporting section is where your credentials live. This is where it’s totally appropriate to mention your certification, your education, the fact that you’ve been doing this for 25 years. But it lives below the line. It’s the “Here’s why I’m qualified to know this stuff” section, not the introduction.

I’ve seen a lot of About pages light up when we move the credentials down and move the story up.

Suddenly someone reads it and thinks, “Oh, I get why she does things this way,” instead of, “She has a nice background in this field.”

Both things might be true. But only one of them makes someone want to work with you.

The Feeling You’re Actually Going For

Here’s what I want you to aim for on your About page: the feeling that someone could close her eyes and still hear you talking to her.

That’s it. That’s the entire goal.

If someone reads your About page and hears your voice, your perspective, your way of thinking about the work, then she knows what it would be like to work with you. She knows if you’re her person.

And at that point, the credentials are just confirmation that you’re also qualified.

The opposite happens when your About page reads like a corporate brochure. Someone finishes it and still has no idea if you’re someone she wants to spend time with. She knows you have experience, but she doesn’t know what you think about that experience.

And now she has to make her decision based on incomplete information, which usually means she keeps looking.

When you’re writing, ask yourself this: If I read this page aloud to a friend I was introducing you to, would she hear me? Would she get why I love working with you?

If the answer is no, there’s your opportunity to rewrite it.

The irony is that putting more of you on your About page is actually more professional, not less. Because it’s honest. Because it proves you’re not hiding behind corporate language. Because it shows that you trust your perspective enough to lead with it.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about, just so it’s concrete.

What not to do:
“Sarah is a business coach with 15 years of experience in entrepreneurship. She holds an MBA from State University and is certified in several coaching methodologies. She has worked with over 200 clients across various industries.”

What to do:
“I spent my first 10 years in corporate believing I was supposed to want what everyone else wanted, the title, the office, the security. Then I left, started my own thing, and realized nobody tells you the part where you have to actually believe in yourself while you’re building it. Every coaching client I’ve worked with since then has been solving that same problem in their own way. That’s what I do now. I help you believe your business is worth your own attention before the rest of the world catches up.”

Both versions prove you have experience. But only one explains why that experience matters.

Only one of them makes someone think, “Oh, I want to talk to this person.”

You don’t need a degree in marketing to tell a true story about why you do what you do. You just need to be willing to tell it.

And here’s the thing that a lot of business owners don’t realize: that willingness to be real on your About page is actually part of what makes you good at what you do. It’s proof that you can connect with people. It’s proof that you understand that business is built on relationships, not lists.

That’s the thing I want you to understand about your website. It’s YOUR website. It should sound like you, sell what you actually sell, and show people what it would be like to work with you. Not the corporate version of you. The actual you.

And when your About page finally sounds like you instead of like you’re trying to impress someone, something shifts. Your ideal clients feel it immediately. They read it and think, “This is my person.”

And that’s when the magic happens.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I’m early in my business and I don’t have a long track record yet?

Your track record isn’t the only interesting thing about you. What’s interesting is why you started. What problem did you have that made you decide to solve it for other people? That story is worth telling, and it’s often more compelling than a long list of client stories anyway. Lead with why you started, not how long you’ve been doing it.

Should my About page be long or short?

Long enough to tell the truth, short enough that someone will actually read it. That’s usually somewhere between 300-500 words, plus a supporting section with credentials if you have them. The point isn’t length, it’s clarity. A short About page that actually says something is better than a long one that says nothing.

Can I include a photo on my About page?

Yes, please. A real photo of you actually smiling is worth more than a hundred perfectly polished credentials. People want to see who they’re working with. Make sure it looks like you, not like a professional headshot from 2003.

What if I’m worried my perspective might turn some people away?

Then it’s working. Your About page isn’t supposed to appeal to everyone. It’s supposed to appeal to your people. The clients who think the way you think and want the help you actually provide. If your About page is so generic that nobody can tell what you believe, it won’t appeal to anyone, and that’s a bigger problem.

If your website no longer feels like you, let’s talk about it – Book a Free Website Clarity Call with Beth →

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