Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Mirror Neurons: Why man the social animal is returning from virtual

In the presence of each other, a number of species, including us human kind, affect each other cell by cell. Some of us always knew this.  For example, our moms told us to stay clear of "bad companions." The transmission process happens across the species. My dog Molly Mittens could pick up that I was depressed before I did. The vet, part Dr. Phil, told me she had been hanging on despite her bad heart trying to keep me together.  

But how we resonate off each other was confirmed by researchers such as Marco Iacoboni on mirror neurons in Italy. He made all that science user-friendly in his book "Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others.  Last night at the New Haven Zen Center in Connecticut we discussed why meditating together in-person can center us so quickly.  As a guiding teacher noted, we feed off each other's strength.  The same principle operates in 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

No surprise, we are returning to in-person speeches, meetups, chats by the water cooler, author presentations at bookstores, and church services. Virtual social networks were fun but they left us, well, unconnected.

For the past four months, although I was doing my time virtually on Facebook and LinkedIn, I would get attacks of extreme alienation. They were brutal enough to dry up the creative processes as I tried to write.  When I packed up the laptop and went to the public library in North Haven, CT, the juices started flowing again.  Clients raved about what I had created there.  Blog posts done there went viral. The help-wanted I answered there brought in good assignments.

We need other human beings around us. They don't have to even actively interact with us. For this very reason, we speechwriters have been busy preparing what speakers are delivering in the flesh, not on webinars. Social networks have proved to be unable to transmit from mirror neurons.

Staples, The Baby Boomer, Windows 8 - Still small business' best friend

Back in the end of the 1980s, millions of us middle-aged managers were downsized (now called "rightsized") out of corporate America.  We hung out our shingle.  And we flocked to Staples for everything. In its aisles we agonized about buying the kinds of office supplies we had received free in our days as fat and happy wage slaves.

Now, Staples has become our best friend in another way.  We're lots older now. The angst isn't over the choice of mailing envelopes. It's keeping up with technology.  Yesterday I had to make the giant leap forward from the PC I had purchased light years ago, at least in technology time (not all of us can get by with smartphones and tablets). Since Staples was my comfort zone as a small business and since I knew from writing on stocks it was now in the consumer electronics space, I bellied up to the Easy Tech desk. 

Easy Tech associate Ron Lima explained the new configuration of Windows 8, the options in hardware including space on hard drives versus battery life, and how Staples could have that all set up within hours.  His manager Dennis Troiano oversaw what was a giantic transition for me.  At 5:46 P.M. I was back in business.

The marketing folks at Staples should position it as the sanctuary for small-business Baby Boomers.  Statistics show we are the fastest growing and the most successful group of entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs: They can pay as well as Fortune 500

Entrepreneurs, the super heroes of our times, usually were shunned by us ghostwriters.  We figured they wouldn't pay as well as the Fortune 500.  That was a few years ago.

By now, some of them have become successful enough to be able to match establishment compensation.  They also have become famous enough to be in demand to produce books, bylined articles for brandname media, and keynote speeches, including for TED.  In addition, in the Fortune 500, some have set up entrepreneurial or enterprise units to get new products and services out there in the marketplace.

This has expanded the pool of possible assignments for us in executive communications.  For the first time in a very long time I have had to create a waiting list.

Blogging: When life intervenes

"I'd rather be blogging." That's what I told my blogging coach Paul Chaney back in 2005, after he helped me get this site up and running.  I was totally taken with the ability to publish what I wanted, without middleman editors poking around, making changes, and telling me that their efforts were necessary for me to go to the next level in writing. 

Since 2005, I have fallen apart when, well, life intervened and I couldn't blog as much as I wanted.  There is this nasty reality of having to earn a living.  Today, I started the day with several hours of blogging for this syndicated site and two others (here and here.)  As the day went on, I realized that time should have been invested in two client ghostwriting projects.  Progress on one, for example, was interrupted when the client wanted me to interview two sources for his book this afternoon.  I really felt the loss of those early morning hours.

I dread my blogging time reduced.  There will be major developments I can't comment on.  Not that the world will care.  But that has been my priority for eight years.  Will that priority have to be changed to take advantage of the bull market in executive communications?  

Layoffs at VILLAGE VOICE, NEW YORK POST, Say Media, and additional ones at DAILY NEWS

What will be next for those laid off (or as it is sometimes called "accepting a voluntary buy-out") from Say Media, the NEW YORK POST, VILLAGE VOICE, and (again in a second round) at the DAILY NEWS?

In pre-digital times, journalists, especially those getting older and having families, could arrange plum jobs for themselves as public relations representatives at agencies or in corporations.  In covering stories they got to know the game and the players and became valuable commodities.  Often offers were made to them rather than their chasing after The Next.

Now, journalists and editors are being tossed on the street, with little warning, and with a glut ballooning. They should beware of radical career changes.  Email and ads on the subway are full of messages of how easy it is to become a nurse or substance abuse counselor.  The reality is that career change is a painful experiment which doesn't always pan out. 

When executive communications went into the dumper at the turn of the century I tried a lot of things, ranging from providing content for social media to part-time sales.  The parts of those ventures which went okay paid peanuts.  Also, every day was filled with angst. As the career-transition folks hammer, yes, I left my comfort zone but outside it I remained unsure of myself. 

Had I to do it over again I would have remained as much in my comfort zone as possible and embraced the reality that I wasn't as easy to remold as the ads for career change claim.  Executive communications as a field is back.  There are more assignments than I can handle.  And because I am again confident, I can shrug off clients who are unhappy. 

I wish those laid off less pain than I had in their struggle to make a good living, again.

Benghazi: Leaning-in Hillary Clinton gets leaned-against by more confident GOP

Benghazi could be the GOP tipping point, where conservatives parachute out of failure and self-doubt into political confidence. 

As POLITICO chronicles, they are leaning against former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the investigation of what could have prevented the death of ambassador Chris Stevens. No longer protected by an official government identity, Clinton can be as much a target as any other ambitious political figure.  The interrogation is getting plenty of media attention.

Should Clinton blink, the GOP can build on that high-profile vulnerability.  Her leadership style is being tested as it never has been previously.

Ghostwriters: Just shut up and do the assignment

The kiss of death for a ghostwriter's career is to become known for asking a lot of questions about the assignment instead of just doing it.  That's what I am hearing from clients who give me the assignment, instead of them, because the busy men and women they are they want the ghostwriter to get in and then get out.  Fast.

For example, I was told that one ghostwriter, when told to do a short rewrite as a test sample, contacted the prospect five times with questions.  By time a writer is experienced enough to go out there as a ghostwriter he or she should have the territory down cold.  We look at the job and we know what to do.  What's with the questions!

We get stimulating work to do and earn better than average compensation in WriterLand because we are expected to be invisible.  Yes, we are assumed to be the ghosts in the machine.

 

Y Combinator: We ghostwriters need that kind of pitch boot camp

Y Combinator, Nathaniel Rich at THE NEW YORK TIMES tells us, is a sort of camp where entrepreneurs learn the art of the pitch for funding. 

We ghostwriters need exactly that kind of training in how to sell our services in a changing marketplace.  During the past 18 months, I had to figure out on my own how to sell myself to pick up those growing number of lucrative assignments for print and e- books, articles and opinion-editorials for publication in brandname media, blog posts, white papers, and case studies.

Somewhere during the two recessions in the 21st century, a shift took place.  Instead of just looking for a ghostwriter, prospects recognized they needed a communications strategist, media-placement expert, and pragmatist savvy about repurposing the original content such as for their own media center or direct-response marketing.  When we pitch we have to focus on those requirements.  Demonstrating that we are good at ghostwriting per se is not enough. 

For me that has meant getting the hang of presenting myself as a player, not a inward-looking scribe.  On these sales calls I find out that the prospect has received 200 to 300 replies to an ad or a "casting call" put out there by a recruiter.  From the get-go, I have to speedread their real agenda, such as becoming a brandname in digital marketing, and then explain how I know how to configure the manuscript so that it becomes a platform for that.  Sometimes they might not even be aware that is their end goal. Yes, we have to discern that, quickly.

Just like entrepreneurs we have to master performance art, sending the signal to prospects that we can provide a superior return on their money.  In this case it's a fee for service, not an investment with a 7% stake in profits.

 

 

Entrepreneurism: That's where the writing assignments are

Around the world, the focus is on helping the entrepreneur.  And that's where the writing assignments are growing.  A sign of the times, ADP reported that only 119,000 jobs have been created in April in the U.S., well below the expected 155,000.

Recently, I researched and wrote a speech for a major financial institution on how mobile payments are equipping small businesses with the capabilities of large ones.  One of the biggest benefits is collecting the data which will allow the small business to customize promotional plans and outreach, such as using the location-based system to notify the consumer shopping nearby of a special on his favorite brand of shirt.

Also, I ghostwrote nine short articles on aspects of entrepreneurism such as if a business plan is really needed and the how to transform a passion or hobby into a business.  Last night I applied to ghostwrite a major book on entrepreneurism, with the fee structure ranging being $35,000 to $50,000. 

Even those most in denial about the low odds of getting and holding onto a traditional job might now be considering that they will have to become the boss of their career.  That is the birth of the entrepreneurial mindset.

Baby Boomer Writers: Forget those Doctor/Lawyer/Indian Chief Career Fantasies

At the turn of the century, those of us who had been earning a wonderful living in executive communications found ourselves knocked out of the box.  Leaders went first low-profile, then low-budget. Some of us took refuge in the lower-paying journalism, social media, and marketing communications niches.  Soon enough the crowds piled in and those fields were glutted. 

Now executive communications has returned as branding demands evidence of thought leadership.  However, the scars of the financial and emotional beating we took since 2000 haven't healed, probably never will.  So, we might have returned to the fantasy game of what if we had become a doctor (people or animal), lawyer, or Indian Chief overseeing the economic rehab of our tribes.  Forget it.

None of those, along with many other once-status wealth-creating lines of work, are doing all that hot.   A people doctor asked to meet me at Starbucks to sort out how he could re-invent himself after being pushed out of a hospital job.  Meanwhile, thanks to changes in healthcare and malpractice lawsuit threats, specialists are packing it in early.  For animal doctors it's a dog fight to get any job, all of which are low-paying. Lawyers who do get jobs are terrified of losing them and once knocked out of the box it could be impossible to get back in now that the legal sector is downsizing. Indian Chiefs face the threat of online gambling to their economic dreams.

Even if we had taken another career path and even if they were not in the trouble these are, though, we have no idea had they would have panned out for each of us.  The reality is that we have done well in writing and, after a number of disruptions, we are again doing well.  In addition, most of us derive tremendous satisfaction from writing.