Newsletter #9: The right fit and finding your next “Suzanne”

Not sure why but the universe brought me three doses of wistfulness this week.

First, a friend of mine says to me, “You don’t know what it’s like out there. You wouldn’t wanna be in the dating world right now.”

True on both fronts.

Then the wistfulness came into my professional life with a couple prospect calls two days later.

First Lady, a small business owner, is looking for a ghostwriter. We didn’t even talk about writing projects. Instead we learned about each other. She had a copywriter—let’s call her Suzanne—in America who really ‘got’ her. First Lady loved Suzanne, who is alive and well.

I asked the obvious question, “Why not keep working with Suzanne?” Sure, the exchange rate stings but the right fit is the right fit.

Turns out Suzanne has niched elsewhere and no longer has the capacity to do projects for First Lady. And First Lady keeps finding writers who are more about editing than capturing someone’s voice like Suzanne could. Suzanne has a process for that. [Here’s a link to mine, in case you need it.]

Am I the next Suzanne for First Lady? Don’t know. We had a great chat, I sent my info kit and we agreed to a follow-up date in a month because she’s swamped.

Then a couple hours later, I spoke with Second Lady, a marketing director at a giant consulting company, in finance and compliance. Second Lady is developing a freelance pool of senior writers and during our delightful conversation, she told me she’s also looking for a staff writer to replace—let’s call her—Brigitte. Brigitte who was so amazing Second Lady said replacing her was like searching for a unicorn.

Second Lady and I had a great chat but right now it’s not a good match as her finance folks only want to work with writers who can tell you what Sarbanes-Oxley is without Googling it. She introduced me to a marketing manager in another department where she thinks there’s a better fit.

And this concept of ‘fit’ is where wistfulness comes from. Because once you know what a good fit feels like—whether in matters of the heart or working relationships—you long to experience it again.

Finding that fit can be difficult and time consuming.

But if your next Suzanne or Brigitte is an executive ghostwriter—which is the work I do, by the way—you can streamline the process with a few utilitarian tasks.

Three due diligence tasks for finding the right ghostwriter fit

• Tick off the ‘can write’ box – Read a few pages on your potential ghostwriter’s website to figure out if she can string sentences together in an orderly fashion and write so well you don’t notice the writing.

• Look for testimonials – Sure, all published testimonials sound great, but read them for hints about what it’s like working with her, the reliability factor, getting it right the first time around, if there’s a process involved and what level of relief the client felt during the project. If you can get a referral like First Lady did, that’s even better.

• Figure out if you jive – Have a chit chat and listen to what your gut tells you about the match. Competence is obviously essential but once that’s certain, decide if you’d want to work with this person.

These three due diligence activities probably won’t leave you with the one, the only next Suzanne. But, the list of possibilities will be shorter.

Then it’s time for a leap of faith.

Make a decision and find out what it’s really like working with her on a small project. Not a project your next promotion depends on, of course, unless you like living on the wild side.

Then you’ll see for yourself what kind of working relationship is possible. If it’s not a good fit, that’s okay because you minimized your downside. But if it is a good fit, you just saved yourself years of headaches. And after a while, when you’re certain you hit the jackpot for fit, you’ll probably stop calling her New Suzanne.

Until next time, keep on truckin’,

Andrea

PS: Names were changed in this story and for ideas, I typed “sophisticated female names” into the search bar. One of the auto-suggest searches was “sophisticated female dog names.” This concept caught me by surprise.

**********The quote of the month**********

One cannot hire a hand; the whole man always comes with it.

- Peter Drucker

**********Marketing tip of the month**********

4 ways to build an unstoppable team

Technically, these aren’t marketing tips but the better your team, the better your marketing, right?

To create an effective team, you must do 4 things:

• Find the right people.

• Don’t let ego (yours or anyone else’s) destroy group cohesion.

• Build trust so your team can and will perform to its highest potential.

• Appreciate your team—in the way each of them need to be appreciated—so you don’t lose top talent.

Would you be surprised to find out that the #1 dysfunction in teams is a lack of trust?

Build trust by:

• Giving trust first.

• Being transparent with your team.

• Stopping puppeteering and micro-management.

• Being trustworthy.

Darren Hardy, author of The Compound Effect, put together a 15-minute video series on building teams. For more excellent tips, watch it here: https://dh.darrenhardy.com/building-a-great-team

Source: Darren Hardy

**********Good vibes**********

Finding a spiritual fit: hula dance at San Quinten State Prison

There are prisoners at San Quinten who practice hula dance twice a week. This religious/spiritual practice is sanctioned through the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, in case you’re thinking it’s just a dance class. One guy who spent 24 years in prison said “Pre-hula, I was a very dark person. I gotta live with that. But … hopefully that’s not who I am today.” Hula helped him tremendously spiritually. If you know me at all, you know my favourite stories are the ones that involve epic transformation. To hear this guy’s experience with hula at San Quinten, watch this four-minute video on the Good News Network.

**********My 60-second commercial**********

I'm an executive ghostwriter, specializing in benefits, leadership coaching, corporate wellness and employee assistance programs (EAPs).

I work with executives and executive coaches who have big hearts, are driven to help others and never open a conversation they're not willing to close.

My clients are straightforward, ambitious, humble, hilarious and I never have to wonder what they're thinking because they say what they mean and mean what they say.

If you're a tough-love executive or executive coach who would benefit from the kind of work I do, please get in touch:

andrea@redsailwriters.com | 647-502-3187 | ca.linkedin.com/in/andreabassett

Let's talk about these thought leadership projects in 2021:

• Newsletters | White papers + e-books | Ghostwritten articles

• Workbooks to supplement corporate training

• Business book ghostwriting (fall 2021, early 2022)