I once competed in a national yo-yo championship

Love them or loathe them, ice breaker games are a great way of quickly building connections with people.

The idea is you tell a crowd of strangers one unusual thing about you.

Back in the day, my go-to for this would be that I have a Blue Peter badge. (Try to contain yourself.) Nowadays of course, this doesn’t have any currency at all. I may as well say I have a large collection of DVDs.

But at the time, this felt interesting enough to be different, without giving anything too much away. Unlike the girl next to me in one of these sessions once, who told everyone she could fit her hand in her mouth. I think that might have been too much.

I think about this a lot when it comes to creating ‘about me’ or ‘bio’ content that engages with people. You want something creative enough to stand out, but that suits a professional context.  

Many people find this difficult. It’s much easier to fall back on familiar tropes:

“I’m a glass half-full person”

“I like going out and staying in"

“I’m adventurous”

These don’t really say much. Imagine the opposite: it’s unlikely someone in a work situation would admit to being “glass half empty” (although that might make me laugh).

To give people a better sense of who you are:

Be specific - Instead of saying "I love music”, mention favourite songs or bands

Show don’t tell - instead of saying "I'm adventurous”, share a recent travel experience.

One other thing you can do is talk about something fairly ordinary, but put a unique spin on it:

“I like gardening in the dark.”

This draws you in, because it’s just a little off.

I came across a great example earlier today, of an author bio:

"Little known fact: David was once in a band that had Gary Barlow as their support act!"

And what was the effect? Well, I instantly liked David, and suddenly felt a lot less intimidated by his qualifications and career path. I replied to his email with a zippy little message of my own. There was no hesitancy: I could just relax and be myself.

And that's the thing: one sentence can help you to not just connect with people, but connect with them on a deeper level (the holy grail) that makes them feel comfortable enough to approach you. So use it wisely!

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