Ghostwriting Services Guide

You can’t just hire a ghostwriter, hand them your login, and expect magic. Your personal brand IS NOT a one-size-fits-all content factory. It’s your voice, your insights, your credibility on the line. I see so many leaders outsourcing their entire profile to a ghostwriter with zero involvement of their own and then act shocked when things go south. A ghostwriter is only as good as the inputs they get. - If you don’t set clear expectations, don’t expect quality content. - If you don’t review what’s being put out, don’t expect authenticity. - If you don’t provide your insights, don’t expect originality. And let’s talk about plagiarism. If a ghostwriter is straight-up copy-pasting content, that’s a bad ghostwriter, not a problem with ghostwriting itself. (You need to change your ghostwriter) A good ghostwriter doesn’t just fill up your feed. They capture your voice, bring fresh ideas, and ensure that what’s posted actually reflects you. If you’re outsourcing without due diligence, the risk isn’t just bad content, it’s your credibility on the line. Ghostwriters don’t ruin personal brands. Careless outsourcing does. #shambhavi_writes

An overlooked truth about personal branding: You can outsource the work, but you can’t outsource your actual voice. And yet… this is the mistake founders make the most. They hire someone, then step back completely. You wouldn’t have someone join a Zoom call with your profile picture, speaking on your behalf 😅 After 7+ years building personal brands, here's an approach that works: 📌 The 10/80/10 Model - 10% at the start: Your voice (Calls, interviews, voice notes - capture your actual thoughts & stories) - 80% in the middle: The heavy lifting (Drafts, transcription, editing, design - all things you can outsource) - 10% at the end: Your seasoning (The unique details, examples & final touches only you can add) You need to write or record your thoughts throughout the week to have enough Source Material. That’s your role - then a team can support you. The ghostwriting industry gets this backwards. They promise to BE you instead of helping you be MORE of you. If not, it can damage your account and reputation long-term. The whole point is to share your voice online. Your personal brand is too important to fake. But it's also too important to do everything yourself. Own the beginning. Own the end. Outsource the middle. That’s how you protect your time and gain leverage.

Most ghostwriters don't actually ghostwrite. They just… type. There's a difference. Typing = same voice, different byline. Ghostwriting = becoming someone else entirely. I don't write posts. I channel people. Tech founder? I'm thinking in code and exit strategies. Creative director? I'm seeing campaigns and colour palettes. VC partner? I'm calculating burn rates and market size. Different brains. Different rhythms. Different results. I study how they text. How they email. How they think out loud. One client uses bullet points for everything. Another writes in stories and metaphors. A third? Pure data and logic. My job isn't to make them sound better. It's to make them sound like themselves on their best day. Most "ghostwriters" have one voice they copy-paste. Real ghostwriting means disappearing completely. Ever read a post and thought: "That doesn't sound like them"? Exactly.

Stop asking ChatGPT to "Sound like a human." That's too vague. And you'll still get robotic, corporate-sounding content. If you want writing that actually feels natural, relatable, and authentic, you need to define what kind of human voice you're aiming for. Use these prompts instead: 1. The Conversational Voice "Rewrite this content to sound like I'm having a casual conversation with a friend over coffee. Use short sentences, contractions, and natural speech patterns. Remove any formal or stiff language. Make it feel like I'm talking directly to one person, not presenting to an audience. Content: [paste text]." 2. The Confident Expert Voice "Transform this into the voice of a confident professional who knows their stuff but doesn't need to prove it. Use clear, direct language without jargon or hedging words like 'maybe' or 'perhaps'. Sound authoritative but approachable. Remove any unnecessary qualifiers. Content: [paste text]." 3. The Storytelling Voice "Turn this content into a narrative that pulls people in emotionally. Use sensory details, personal moments, and natural pacing. Make it read like someone sharing an experience, not explaining a concept. Keep the human element at the center. Content: [paste text]." 4. The Relatable Voice "Make this sound like someone who truly gets what the reader is going through. Use 'you' and 'I' language. Acknowledge common frustrations and shared experiences. Make it feel empathetic and understanding, like talking to someone who's been there. Remove any corporate speak or distant tone. Content: [paste text]." 5. The Punchy Voice "Give this content energy and punch. Use short, impactful sentences. Remove fluff and filler words. Make every sentence drive forward with momentum. Sound bold and decisive, not cautious or wishy-washy. Cut anything that doesn't add value. Content: [paste text]." 6. The Thoughtful Voice "Adapt this to sound reflective and insightful, like someone who's genuinely thought deeply about the topic. Use natural pauses, nuanced observations, and honest admissions of complexity where appropriate. Avoid oversimplification but stay accessible. Sound human, not perfect. Content: [paste text]." 7. The No-BS Voice "Strip this down to a direct, no-nonsense tone that cuts through the noise. Remove corporate jargon, buzzwords, and anything that sounds like marketing speak. Say what needs to be said plainly and honestly. Sound real, not polished to the point of being fake. Content: [paste text]." P.S. ~ For more updates like this: 1. Scroll to the top 2. Click "View my newsletter" 3. Subscribe, and you'll never miss a thing in the world of AI ever again.

15 mins into the call, I realised I was completely wasting my client’s time May 7th: We onboarded a nutrition coach from Dubai. Everything looked perfect on paper: ➡️6-figure business owner ✓ ➡️Paid in full, upfront ✓ ➡️Detailed questionnaire completed ✓ But 15 minutes into our strategy call, I was mentally drafting a refund email. Despite her success helping women lose post-pregnancy weight, every answer she gave was generic responses to my questions that you could Google in seconds. I couldn't ghostwrite content that would stand out. We were both wasting our time. Instead of asking about her business methods for the tenth time, I tried something completely different: "How are you able to run a 6-figure coaching business in Dubai while being a breastfeeding mother?" Then she started talking. Really talking. Suddenly I was hearing about: 🪴Her own 42-pound weight gain during pregnancy 🪴How expat community pressured her to "bounce back" 🪴Developing her methodology between 3 AM feedings The moment she realized her struggle was actually her superpower This single question opened up : - 5 distinct content pillars - 27 unique story angles - The authentic voice I'd been searching for After implementing our new approach: ✅Her Linkedin engagement jumped 47% ✅Post repost 2xed on personal story content ✅3 new clients specifically mentioned her pregnancy journey Most importantly, my formerly reluctant client started sending me voice notes with new stories and ideas. She was finally excited about her content. Next time, Ask these instead of generic business questions: 🤯 "How did you manage [achievement] while dealing with [personal challenge]?" 🤯 "What's something everyone in your industry gets wrong that you learned the hard way?" 🤯 "When did you first realize you could help others with this problem?" 🤯 "What would your younger self be most surprised about in your current work?" 🤯"What personal struggle made you better at what you do professionally?" As ghostwriters, our job isn't just to write, it's to ask the one question that connects these worlds. That's when generic content becomes a story only your client can tell.

Ghostwriting is tough. Especially if the expert is in a niche you’ve never worked in. Here’s how I write as them, not just for them: 1. Get them to brain-dump on Loom. Ask: “What’s something your peers often get wrong?” Let them rant. That’s gold. 2. Pull out their core POV. From a 10-minute ramble, extract one belief. For example, a pricing expert might say, “Most people confuse discounts with value.” 3. Turn that belief into a sharp line. I rephrase it to: “Discounts don’t build trust. Value does.” 4. Build a post backwards. Take that sharp line. Add a hook, 2 examples, 1 line of advice. That’s your post. 5. Use their exact words. If they say “ridiculous” a lot, I don’t write “absurd.” Same tone, same vocab. 6. Read what their peers are posting. Not to copy — to avoid sounding like everyone else. Their edge is in how they disagree. 7. Ask for 1-minute voice feedback. Don’t wait for edits. Say: “Just record your reactions while reading.” It’s faster. More honest. This is how I’ve written posts for: ✔︎ A cloud architect ✔︎ A D2C growth marketer ✔︎ A women’s leadership coach Each niche is different. But the process is the same: Extract → Sharpen → Sound like them. #personalbranding #writing #marketing #founders

This mistake taught me more than success ever did. Early in my ghostwriting journey, I made one mistake repeatedly: I assumed the client wanted to sound better than who they were. - More polished. - More intelligent. - More “LinkedIn perfect.” So I edited out pauses. - Removed simplicity. - Replaced their common words with sophisticated ones. And what happened? The content looked good - but it didn’t feel like them. One client replied with a single line: “This is great but this isn’t me.” That one sentence changed everything for me. Because here’s the reality: People don’t come to LinkedIn to read flawless content. They come to hear human thinking. Writing isn’t about elevating someone’s voice. It’s about preserving it. Now, before writing a single line, I ask clients: - How do you speak when you’re excited? - What phrases do you repeat without knowing? - What’s a sentence you’d never say? - What tone feels natural - blunt, warm, analytical, or sarcastic? Because ghostwriting isn’t storytelling. It’s identity replication. Your content should feel like the person just typed it and hit post - not like a copywriter tested 12 versions of it. P.S.- The moment I stopped trying to make my clients sound impressive, their content started becoming impactful. P.P.S.- What is your style?

Pro-tip for anyone who writes on behalf of someone else (including all communications professionals, executive assistants, and ghostwriters)👇 If given the opportunity, interview those who know the person you are writing on behalf of well (or ask the person you are writing for to do this). Ask their direct colleagues, friends, and loved ones about their communication style and how they describe their tone, voice, and messages. Then, use this information to your advantage. You can ask someone you are writing for to describe their tone, voice, and style (and you should do this), but here's the thing: communication isn't solely about the person communicating. It's also about the person or group on the receiving end. It's not uncommon to describe your writing and communication style one way but to deliver your message slightly differently. Hearing from both the person you are writing on behalf of and the people who are frequently on the other side of their communication better equips you as a writer to find that authentic, messy middle—that space where you can recreate their voice to the best of your ability in a way that sounds and feels like them. In a world where communication is constantly scrutinized, heavily AI-drafted (for some), robotic-sounding, or just downright poor, authentic communication will reign supreme. It also allows you to help them spot the gaps between how they hope to and how they communicate and present themselves, allowing you to become a strategic partner.

I've made 25+ founders sound different on LinkedIn (unlike most founders' content), and here's my process. Now the most obvious reason for this sea of sameness is ChatGPT. Everyone's using it, and it shows. But there are other reasons too. 1/ Most ghostwriters aren't actually talking to their clients. I know this sounds basic, but the difference between a 30-minute call and a Slack thread is massive. You can't capture someone's voice through async messages. I know clients who are busy and can’t hop on a call, in that case, ask for voice notes. 2/ People don’t factor in age. Yes, "age is just a number," but as a ghostwriter, I use it as a baseline for how someone sounds. Younger founders tend to be more casual, more willing to experiment with structure, more comfortable being vulnerable online. Older founders are more measured, more direct, less interested in performing relatability. If you're not adjusting for that, the writing will feel off. 3/ Personality types dictate tone I break my clients into two categories: passionate or analytical. Passionate founders explain through stories. Their writing is more poetic, more grounded in lived experience. They care about emotional connection first, logic second. Analytical founders explain through frameworks. Their writing is cleaner, more structured, more research-driven. They care about comprehension over emotion. If you write the same way for both, one of them will always sound wrong. So yeah, just use AI as a background dancer for efficiency, obv only if you want. But it’s you who needs to hop on calls, listen to transcripts, and pay attention to how your client actually talks, not how you think they should sound. And if you're a founder writing your own content, the same applies. Stop copying what works for other people and figure out how you actually sound and write from there.

One of our first clients was very shy in real life. Working with him taught us that content can be "too good." One of our first clients was an engineer who built a strong enterprise product in financial services. He sold to large firms. He understood his space deeply. He just didn’t have the bandwidth to show up consistently on LinkedIn or X. Perfect client. At the time, we were inexperienced, but highly execution-focused. We produced content that: Reflected his insights. Spoke directly to his ICP. And we nailed the distribution. It performed well almost immediately. On paper, it was working. But we missed something critical. The people reading the content didn’t believe he was writing it. Not just the words. But the ideas themselves. The ideas weren't fake. The stories were real. But the confidence of the content didn’t match the confidence of the person. When leads got on calls with him, there was friction. The online version of him felt bolder than the real one. The mismatch was profound. And it hurt his credibility. It was frustrating at the time, but it taught us something important. Great content that isn’t believable is worse than average content that is. Because people don't buy the content. They buy the person behind it. Content writing is a valuable skill. But it’s not nearly as valuable as voice alignment. Good founder content isn’t about making someone sound impressive. It’s about taking what's impressive about them and delivering it to their ICP in an authentic way. The job isn’t to upgrade someone’s voice. It’s to amplify the one they already own. I hate the word “ghostwriter.” People don't need to believe founders type every word. But they need to believe the ideas are truly theirs. Otherwise it's worthless. Today, the hardest part of our job isn’t writing posts. It’s creating an environment where founders feel comfortable enough to show up as themselves, so their ideas flow naturally. Because great content is becoming commoditized. Voice, trust, and credibility are not. Performance matters. But good service + real content alignment matters more. Most of the time when content agencies fail it's not because the content is bad. It's usually because it’s misaligned. Alignment isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the whole game.