6 Tips For Ghostwriting for an Entrepreneur Without Being An Entrepreneur

You’d be hard-pressed to find a successful entrepreneur who has the time to be a prolific writer. Most of the time, they employ people to build a brand, presence, and readership for projects and initiatives they believe in using ghostwritten content. After 6 years of ghostwriting for some of the most interesting, driven, and talented people in their industries, I’ve learned how to talk and write like an entrepreneur without being one.

Do Your Research

Entrepreneurs don’t have time for you. If you get them on the phone or in-person (which is preferred), make sure you’ve done your research on them. Not doing so is disrespectful at worst and amateurish at the least. That first on-boarding meeting may be your only chance to gain their trust. I’ve seen relationships between an entrepreneur and his or her ghostwriter break down because trust was never established.

Yes or No Questions Are a No-No

Ask open-ended questions. Let them talk about themselves, usually they’ll be happy to. Some examples of open-ended questions I’ve asked in bio interviews with clients:

Tell me about your current business role

Tell me about the path you took to get here

Tell me what you’re passionate about

What’s important to you?

How do you want your customers to see you?

Pull Answers, Not Teeth

The hardest people to interview are ones who aren’t forthcoming about themselves. In these cases, you’ll need to prep very targeted questions off the bat. Three of the questions I ask are:

    Tell me 3 adjectives people at work would use to describe you
    Tell me 3 adjectives people in your personal life would use to describe you
    Describe yourself using only 3 adjectives.

If that doesn’t work, ask for a CV and try to finagle the name of his or her assistant so you can pick their brains instead. No one knows executives better than their support staff.

Stay On Topic

Interviewing entrepreneurs who passionately talk about themselves and their companies is a lot easier than interviewing the ones who don’t talk at all. The challenge with the former is to stay on topic. I once interviewed an entrepreneur who talked about cheese for 30 minutes. Unless the blog is about cheese, you’ll need to subtly but firmly get back on target.

What’s Off Limits?

A ghostwriter I once knew wrote a scathing anti-Android OS article for a client who ended up being very pro-Android. Though it was not a deal-breaker, it was embarrassing and preventable.

So, one of the first things I ask in the initial bio interview is: ‘what can’t I talk about?’ Topics like family, acquisitions, competitors, etc. are things some entrepreneurs want to avoid. Even ones who aren’t big talkers are more than willing to tell you what not to write, so be sure to ask up front. 

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