We’re always grateful when our clients set us up to succeed. Take this anecdote of how a client prepped our writer for a thorny call.

A tricky kickoff
A prominent investment firm has asked us to ghostwrite a letter from its president to its clients. The letter goes out in a few days—and no one’s happy with the firm’s first draft.

Ten minutes before the kickoff Zoom, our contact Mike phones Sarah, our writer (not their real names). He says the president and three other company leaders will be at the meeting, and the dynamics will be tricky:

• Everyone will defer to the president, but each person holds strong opinions that could come out in edits.

• Certain people may push for topics that don’t belong in the letter or for language that’s jargony or salesy.

• The letter has to address sensitive company politics.

Mike tells Sarah he wants her to take charge of the conversation, drawing out the president’s key messages, engineering consensus on content and tone, and exploring how to frame sensitive topics.

A writer empowered
When the introductions end, Sarah grabs the reins. She directs her questions mainly to the president, but also coaxes viewpoints out of the other participants. And she encourages them to let readers’ needs drive the letter’s topics and tone.

Sarah gets the information she needs in 30 minutes. The draft almost writes itself, revisions are minimal, and the letter hits clients’ mailboxes a week later.

Be like Mike
Time in group calls is precious. Telling your writer the specific challenges they’ll face and the role you want them to play can help get the most out of calls and smooth the whole content development process. Sometimes all it takes is a 10-minute conversation. (Thank you, Mike!)

If you’d like to talk about ghostwriting, kickoff calls or anything else, please reach out. We’d love to hear from you.

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