In a recent poll I did on LinkedIn I found that 85% of executives wanted to become thought leaders and the primary barrier to getting there was time.

As an experienced executive, you might find yourself in this same boat — wanting to share your insights with the world. Not only is this helpful and educating for many, but it also positions you as an opinion leader in your field — it’s win win.

This is where ghostwriting comes in.

Ghostwriting may have a slight stigma, because it’s true — it’s not written by your own hand; it’s written by a professional writer. And some people leave it all up to the writer and simply sign their name to it. This carries risks — as a good ghostwriter must possess a series of skills which should be known:

  • Must have an excellent grasp of grammar and punctuation — a lack of this results in a lack of professionalism.
  • The ability to tell a story in an engaging way — otherwise the content comes off as boring or it progresses illogically.
  • What you find disinteresting should be interesting to them. You may manage in a specific way and assume everyone does. But a good ghostwriter will hunt down the unique traits and qualities of your executive style.
  • Knowledge of your industry — because if they don’t have any familiarity with your field, their writing will reflect that, which in turn which reflect poorly on you.

Do the math

Just 30 minutes of your time with a ghostwriter can equal 20-30 hours of thought leadership a month. This is the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars in marketing and branding.

Here’s how we do it at Executive Leadership Branding — the program is first and foremost designed to save time. We make sure we understand you as a person so we can assign a thoroughly vetted Executive Ghostwriter from our team that will best capture your tone, ethos, and voice. We then gather your insights, which your Executive Ghostwriter uses to build out articles from. In the end, it’s still your voice and your insights, but we remove the barrier of no time or writing know-how from the equation.

You can become an established opinion leader and executive influencer in your field, even if you’re incredibly busy. Ghostwriting is one tool that can help you do that. Executive Leadership Branding is another.