About page writing has a specific problem that most other content doesn’t: everyone knows what a bad one looks like, few people know exactly why theirs is one, and AI makes the underlying problem worse if you don’t change what you’re asking it to do. As someone who has read hundreds of About pages and rewritten my own more times than I want to admit, I learned that the issue is almost never the writing — it’s the brief. Today I’ll share the framework that actually works.
Ask AI to “write my About page” and you’ll get the correct structural template: warm opener about passion for the topic, credentials paragraph, who you serve, call to action. It reads like a template because it is one. The fix isn’t better prompting of that structure — it’s changing what you ask AI to do entirely.
Step 1: Extract the Raw Material First
Before you prompt anything, answer these questions in your own words — rough, fast, unedited:
- What did you do before this, and why did you leave or change direction?
- What’s the specific moment or situation that made you start doing what you do now?
- What do you believe about your field that most people in it don’t say out loud?
- What do clients consistently get wrong about what you do that you spend time correcting?
- What’s something you’re genuinely bad at that your ideal clients don’t need from you anyway?
Write at least two sentences for each. Don’t edit. This raw material is the only thing that makes the AI output sound like you rather than like the AI’s model of a professional in your category. Probably should have put this step first in the list of things people skip — it’s the one that matters most.
Step 2: The Framework Prompt
Prompt: “Using these notes about my background, beliefs, and approach [paste your answers], write an About page for my [type of business] that: opens with a specific situation or observation rather than a general mission statement, explains how I got here in one paragraph including at least one concrete detail from my notes, clearly states who I work best with and who I’m not the right fit for, and ends with what to do next. Avoid the words ‘passionate,’ ‘dedicated,’ ‘helping,’ and ‘journey.’ Under 350 words.”
The word prohibition is doing real work. “Passionate,” “dedicated,” and “helping” are the three most overused words in About page copy and they drain specificity from every sentence they appear in. Banning them forces the AI toward concrete language.
Step 3: The Specificity Check
Read the draft and find every sentence that could have been written about anyone in your field. Those sentences need replacing — either with specific details from your Step 1 notes that didn’t make the draft, or with your own writing. A useful test: could your direct competitor copy this sentence with only their name changed? If yes, it needs to be more specific.
Step 4: The Not-For-Everyone Paragraph
Most About pages try to appeal to everyone. The ones that convert well include a clear signal about who is not the right fit. Prompt: “Add 2–3 sentences that describe who I work best with and who would be better served working with someone else. Be honest rather than diplomatic.”
This paragraph will feel uncomfortable to publish. It will also filter your leads more effectively than any other paragraph on the page. That’s what makes it endearing to people who’ve tried it — the discomfort is proportional to how well it works.
The One Thing You Have to Write Yourself
The first sentence. AI defaults produce the weakest output at the opening because a strong opener requires a specific individual voice. Write it yourself — one sentence that’s either a specific observation, a surprising fact, or a direct statement of what you do and for whom. Everything else the framework handles.
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