Writing a bio should be a small thing, and I should be able to do it on my own.

But I need help because for this book and this message I am concerned that how I position myself will affect how the message is received. Plus it’s hard to get this right when it’s you – yourself, your thing!

I reckon there are two approaches to writing my bio for the book:

– traditional approach – lots of credential-dropping, big names and big achievements, gives tangibles (like these bios)

– accessible approach – less hype-y, more refreshing straightforward tone, hoping to build confidence in the reader

But sometimes with the latter people say ‘you’re being too down / not bigging it up enough’.

So here’s an attempt at the accessible approach – what do you think?

Author biography

Will McInnes is a reasonably normal human being who – like you – has mainly made it up as he’s gone along.

After dropping out of a politics degree at The University of Liverpool, and working his way up from a role where he had to make a hundred cold calls a day, Will ended up starting a different kind of company with fellow young entrepreneur Tom Nixon.

This company wasn’t to be just about money or success. It would celebrate people, purpose and work towards a better world.

Thanks to the passionate efforts of quite a few clever people along the way NixonMcInnes is today a pioneering social business consultancy that works with large organisations that need to change their culture, structure and skills to meet the demands of business in the 21^st century. The work is enjoyable and exhausting.

NixonMcInnes itself is constantly experimenting with its own radical management practices and has been recognised by WorldBlu as one of the most democratic workplaces in the world for three years running. This is also enjoyable and exhausting.

Will’s work is divided between developing the company and spreading the word of a better business world through talks, workshops and writing.

Will lives in the creative city of Brighton, UK with his wife and two energetic young sons. He is a mountain biking geek, loves camping in the great outdoors and eating far too much curry.

That’s the ‘he’s a normal human’ approach.

For context, if I go the traditional route, it will talk about the many impressive organisations NixonMcInnes works with, me being a non-exec at Wired Sussex, drop in something tenuous about doing a short course at London Business School etc. Not hard to write – in fact, here’s a few I made earlier 🙂

What do you think?