1672 – Forging a Trustworthy Relationship with Your Ghostwriter with Danielle Perlin-Good

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0:59with us right now it's danielle perlin good danielle you are also known as the soul aligned ghostwriter it's great to have you your website is the soul aligned ghostwriter.com hi danielle thanks for joining us hi josh thanks so much for having me today all right so what do you do as the soul-aligned ghostwriter? Great question. I work with C-suite executives and professional leaders on their nonfiction books, including memoirs, self-help, thought leadership, and business. And I work in various capacities as a ghostwriter, a book coach, and an editor. So lest someone hears soul-aligned and immediately say, uh-oh, they might say, oh, that feels like you work only with spiritual or new agey type authors.

1:47That's not the case. It's not. I have a two-prong approach and I work on the logical side as well as the spiritual side. So if somebody is not as into the spiritual, then I always say those are tools in my toolbox to get to unearth those vulnerable stories that we need for the book. And if we are not needing the meditations, the Oracle card readings, the no judgment, understanding, listening zone, I like to call it, then that's okay. But the logical part is also crucial and important in the process because we do need to talk about deadlines, deliverables, goals, and then overall messages of what you want to share with your target readership and your target audience.

2:41Yeah. What would be some examples of books that you've helped create? And again, if you're allowed to be specific, by all means, if, you know, again, part of, I know sometimes in that ghostwriting role, you're like, oh man, I wish I could tell you about this one book because you'd probably know of it. That was me. But a little bit maybe about your work and your background. Absolutely. So I have over 18 years of writing and editing experience, and I've worked at the Chicago Tribune. I also did a stint at Albert Whitman and Company, which is a local publishing company in the Chicago area. I was the social media coordinator there for several years.

3:23So I bring not only a journalism background with writing and editing, but also digital marketing. and a book is a marketing tool for a lot of us. And it's really critical and important to think about the marketing aspects of the book in the beginning of the process. Now, in terms of the books that I've worked on, I've actually worked on more than 20 books now at this point. And I believe it actually, because of the last few months might be closer to 25, which is very exciting. And they've been in different capacities. So I can tell you that I have worked on a number of thought leadership books, leadership coaches, people who are in leadership development, consultants who work with leadership teams at large companies.

4:15I've also worked on memoirs, multiple memoirs of folks who either have been in also the leadership industry or they have had incredible stories and journeys. I'm working with one right now who has, unfortunately, she grew up in foster care and had a abusive and neglectful childhood. So I do work with individuals fairly often who have had not the best life experiences. And it's really important to be able to sit with that and understand where they come from and give space for those stories to come alive. You know, I would imagine it sounds like, and I'm sure you've experienced this and working with the client and going through this process that this can actually, boy, I'm thinking about the catharsis that can happen.

5:17You know, it's like, if you've got these stories, I was just listening to an interviewer and they were talking about the power of that confession, but confiding in somebody, you know, if you're carrying a burden or you're carrying an inexperience and being just the freeing energy that happens when you're able to share that. I'm sure you've experienced a lot of that. It happens almost weekly with all of my clients. I always joke that, you know, that my clients tend to cry on the phone with me, on Zoom with me, in person with me. It's very, very common because crying is inherently a release. It's a release of our emotional baggage.

6:03And when we cry, we're literally letting go of what's been holding us back for sometimes many, many years. I mean, I have somebody I'm starting out with in a couple months who she told me she's been wanting to write her book for 18 years. And when somebody talks about how long they've been wanting to write their book, that in itself can be so emotional because they're not even talking about the stories, but because it's been inside them for that long. It's been inside them for so many years and it's just dying to come out and be alive. Hmm. Would you mind maybe going through kind of the main, let's say someone wants to, they want to write a book, right?

6:53And there's, they've got some options, right? So they can either write it all themselves. There's probably some stuff in some options in between. And then there's the full ghost writing experience. Would you mind maybe, and again, please help me out a little bit on maybe what those in-between options might be, and very importantly, who might be a good fit for those different ways of producing the book? Obviously, kind of concluding with, okay, well, here's who really just needs to work with the ghostwriter. Yeah, great question. So I like to talk about our resources in life with this type of question.

7:32So we I like to say we have time, we have energy, we have money, we have mindset. If you have an abundance of time and energy, and you want to learn something new, by all means, take craft classes, take those, you know, experiences, go on those writing retreats, you can do it, you can absolutely do it yourself. We can learn anything we want on YouTube right now. Those inherently, though, are resources that we have that are precious to us. If you don't have time and energy, then that's when a ghostwriter might come into play. That also costs more money because you're spending less time and energy yourself.

8:16It's the same idea as hiring any type of service to do something for you. So you are outsourcing most of the organizing and the writing of the stories. So I'm in a ghostwriting capacity. I interview the clients. I take those stories. I organize them. I flesh them out. I utilize my background and storytelling and craft and make this a beautiful, organized, lovely book. Right. And what happens in between those in-between options, one is what I like to call a VIP day intensive or experience where we meet for a set amount of hours. Usually it's virtually, it can be in person. And we flesh out that framework that you've been wanting to flesh out for probably many years now.

9:08And we sit down with it and I organize those ideas with you. we brainstorm together and you end up with an outline by the end of that day. Usually, sometimes it takes a couple of days for us to go back and forth, of course, but that's one of the in-between options. The other in-between option is coaching. And this is where you are responsible as the writer. And then I am responsible for coaching you to get to those goals that we have set in the beginning of our coaching relationship. And then another option, the third, is my brand new writing accountability group. And we are in the midst of the very first one right now.

9:54Everybody in there is meeting their goals. We meet weekly for 12 weeks, and I will be opening this up again in the fall slash winter. And it's going to be an enlightening, amazing experience for anybody who wants that accountability to get their goals done in terms of their writing. Yeah. And Daniel, I know that it can be, you know, thinking about, you know, what might be the most important thing that we leave behind is this memoir, you know, or that's how we may feel about it. So hiring a ghostwriter, I think should be done pretty thoughtfully. any general recommendations you would make if it's not you it's you know just like well listen if you're gonna hire a ghostwriter do this this this this if you hear this that's a red flag if you hear this that's good that's what you want to hear any any recommendations on that process yeah I think that you first off my number one recommendation is always to meet the person and And we don't have to meet in person, obviously.

11:00We can meet via Zoom, via Google Meet, Teams, phone. It doesn't matter. But we have to meet each other to see if there is a synergy and that connection. If we vibe, you have to be able to fully trust your ghostwriter. If you feel, if your gut feeling and everybody listening has had that gut feeling one way or the other before, when they've been in a situation where they're not comfortable and your gut is telling you to get out of that room or your gut is telling you, yes, these are my people. You listen to that. So when you're meeting that person, you'll know if you can get along with them. It's a long process.

11:42This is not a two week, three week engagement. This is a minimum six month engagement, usually closer to nine to 12 months, especially if we're talking memoir. And yes, you can get it done in a quicker period of time. If somebody comes to you and says, yes, I can go straight your book in a couple of weeks, that is a red flag. Thanks, ChatGPT. You know, that's an interesting point that you make there too. And I will add this. I think that ChatGPT will only get better. AI will only get better. However, AI doesn't know your stories. Even if you are inputting your stories, you need a human, whether it's you or somebody else to help flesh out those stories and organize.

12:31And ChatGPT can help brainstorm. And it's a great little sidekick, but it's not going to fully replace the person behind the writing. yeah um and then finally um what outcomes well you know let's say the book's getting done and now it goes you know we have it and we order to create a books for ourselves and hopefully we get this you know listed and indexed on amazon but what does that world typically look like once the book is done yeah so i'll actually go back a few steps and what a lot of ghost writers do is finish a completed manuscript. There are a lot of steps in between a finished manuscript and a published book.

13:18So we have cover design, we have formatting, we have proof reading, we have marketing. There are a lot of those steps that are integral to the book publishing process. I have colleagues and referral partners on my end. So whenever I work with a client, whether it's a coaching capacity or ghostwriting or something else, I always like to make sure that you're in good hands and you know those next steps. In terms of what that looks like, then after the book is published, your goal should be to continuously market that book. So a lot of times, even in the very beginning, when I'm doing an exploratory call with somebody, I will ask you, what is your goal for this book?

14:05Is it to leave a family legacy? Is it to encourage more speaking engagements? Is it to have more credibility and authority and trust behind you and your brand for courses or your coaching practice or your business in general? It doesn't quite matter what it is, but we have to be clear on that specific goal. And I want to see that goal being met when the book is published. Yeah. All right. So someone's been listening to our conversation, Danielle, and like hot diggity dog. I need to either have a conversation with Danielle. I need to learn more about. I don't know if there's a connection here or there's a fit, but I want more.

14:51What would you recommend? Like where do they go from here after they've heard our conversation? And again, thinking here's just a little bit about the thoughtful entrepreneur we've learned is a lot of people find our episodes like years from now. So two years from now, from when we're recording this now, someone's going to be listening to this episode. The universe has directed them. The SEO gods have directed them in our direction. Now they've heard our conversation. What do they do now? Where do they go? So there are two options. One is find me on LinkedIn because I am very hopeful that LinkedIn will still be around years from now.

15:28And LinkedIn is a great place to connect with me, message me, say, hey, this is where I heard you. Let's have a conversation. Might have a different calendar link in a couple of years. So I'll just tell you LinkedIn for that one. And then the second option is to go to my website, the soul aligned ghostwriter.com. and you will be able to schedule a consultation with me there. Yeah. All right. Danielle Perlin Good, your website, thesoulalignedghostwriter.com. Danielle, thank you so much for joining us. I've appreciated the conversation. Thank you, Josh.

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