Introducing: Ghost
January 2024
Too many extraordinary ideas never see the light of day.
We’re building an agency to change that.
Introducing Ghost: How brilliant people scale their best ideas.
A 🧶 on the unusual art of helping other people communicate, and how to uncover stories that actually matter.
We're booked up for Q1, but if this work resonates throw me a DM 💌
I’ve devoted my career to helping other people write.
🪩 Funky choice.
🗓️ Wasn’t on the 20-year vision board.
🥲 Wouldn’t have it any other way.
Why writing? Because it’s been the great unlock 🔑 of my life. It introduced me to my best friends (and greatest love); it helped me sneak into a college I had no business attending; it’s been the vector through which I’ve navigated mental health, career, life transitions – in word, adulthood.
But over the last decade, writing has become something else: it’s the atomic unit of the internet; it’s how we talk to the world.
And I’ve seen over and over how many beautiful, enriching opportunities and relationships can emerge from this conversation.
In an internet as big as ours, writing is still the ultimate lever – and magnet. When we show our thinking in public – and we do so with originality, and elegance – we broadcast our signal to new collaborators, investors and friends.
And the right ones will hear it 🎧
Here’s the problem: for most people, producing exceptional writing is really hard.
It is both easier than ever to participate in public discourse, and harder than ever to stand out.
🤖 GPT is amazing – especially at helping you increase output.
But even with AI, the hardest part of the writing process remains the same: identifying and developing something that hasn't already been said.
The next question is: where do original, net-new ideas actually come from?
The archetype of the mad genius, typing away in some desolate cabin, acting as a conduit to higher knowledge -- many of us hold onto this fantasy. "If only I had enough time,” we say. “And the right cabin.”
But as David Perell and others have argued – the best writing stems from great conversations.
That is, expansive interviews & brainstorms with an exceptional sparring partner.
A person with no agenda except to extract your best ideas and shape them into stories that matter.
That's the work I love. Following the path of a dialogue into questions and ideas we never saw coming.
I started Ghost for about 💯 reasons.
But most of all, I do it because when it goes well, producing and publishing great ideas can change the trajectory of my client's life.
That’s because writing is not just a way to figure out what we think; it's a means of understanding who we actually are.
This is where writing and editing becomes coaching. Sentences become strategy. And why so many of my clients have become lifelong friends.
Weirdly enough, ghostwriting is a family business. My uncle and mentor, Hugh Delehanty, has written with and for some of the world's greatest thinkers and leaders, including two #1 bestsellers with Phil Jackson, the greatest coach in NBA history.
From Hugh, as well as dozens of editors, friends and teachers over the decades, I've learned essentially one skill: finding the story.
For my clients, "finding the story" might entail a strategic pivot for their business or pitch; it might result in writing and stories that change the way their team -- or the world -- sees them. It's hard work. But it does bear fruit.
Over the last two years we've seen a new crop of "CEO Ghostwriters" who promise to 5x your following. They clog up feeds with half-baked thoughtboi listicles. To achieve scale in their own biz, they apply a formula. Formulas make for tired, redundant content and mid results.
No bueno.
Ghost does something else.
We help founders, investors, artists and other leaders find the words their ideas deserve.
It’s not about increasing your output. It’s about finding the story, expressing it the right way, and getting it out there.
It’s slow, messy, beautiful work. But when it is done well, it can change just about everything.
Two examples:
💌 Hinge: Founder Justin McLeod and I wrote a book about Hinge’s story and unique way of working that continues to shape the company today
🐘 Park Rangers Capital’s Erica Wenger and I wrote her viral essay “Elephants, Not Unicorns” that was instrumental in the launch of her brand and new fund.
If you resonate with the above and are seeking a writing partner or content agency, my DMs are always open.
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