The Ghostwriter Takes a Bow

I’m used to being the man offstage, quietly watching as other people make use of my words and ideas.

Because I’m a ghostwriter, nearly every job I’ve taken over the past year has included a non-disclosure agreement, even if it existed only as an unspoken understanding between the client and me.

Whether I’ve signed on the dotted line or not, Ghostwriter Dad clients expect David and me to deliver our best work, then lock our lips and toss the key into the can.

Fair enough.

I’ve never really minded. After all, I did add the Ghost to Writer Dad. Dave and I have plenty of online properties with our names in bold type, too many really, and we’ve found that people will pay a premium when you’re willing to help them look good, then shut up and stand behind the tree like a good Cyrano.

Things were moving at a comfortable pace. David and I were making steady progress on our personal projects, while quietly improving the properties of others as a loud whisper in their backgrounds. We were content to continue along this path. Things were lining up just right to make this our year.

The first week of January had exploded with promise and each week grew even brighter.

We had plans. Improve our properties, build our products, and increase our client gross each week. Everything was working and there wasn’t a reason in the world to change it.

But then I met Lori Taylor.

Lori Taylor is walking talking ‘HELL YEAH!’ and I’m thrilled to be working with her and the remarkable team at REV Marketing. These past three weeks have been a non-stop toboggan ride, cascading along the upper lip on both sides of the raceway, flirting with the branches whipping past our face and seeing the scenery in flashes as it skirts our senses.

Our personal and professional lives have shifted, yet all is well. The good has finished getting better, and now the better is on its way to BEST.

I’ve hinted about our collaboration with REV a bit here and there, even teased it on this site last week by saying something about Victoria’s Secret models.

Now it’s time to let the kitty out of the bag and run around the room, maybe let him get sky high on a giant bag of kronik catnip.

I’ll start with the normal roundup, as it shouldn’t take too long this week since I was REVving it up all week long and had nary a moment to answer email, let alone add water to any of my projects.

I wrote just one post for Writer Dad last week, but it was one for the archives. I penned “A Promise to My Family” while in the sky on my way to meet the folks at REV. It was a raw, honest, and rather naked post. To my surprise, it ushered an unbelievable response to my inbox, far eclipsing anything I’ve ever written before.

Humbling, rewarding and great for my writer’s ego, but a bit crippling when considering a follow-up.

Fortunately, I have a couple dozen Writer Dad posts in the bank. I’m going to set them all to schedule. Once I’m through them, I plan to pull back and write one remarkable Writer Dad post per week.

Available Darkness has been dormant now for three weeks. Dave and I are planning to take this week off as well, but should be back next Friday with a fresh installment. It is our plan to maintain a consistent publishing schedule until the book’s conclusion. Funny thing about Dave – when he can’t write his stories, he get’s a real burning need to get back to them. I’m looking forward to seeing his first draft of the next chapter.

I’ve also posted nothing at Potty Training Power for three weeks, though there is content written and waiting in the dashboard. I’ve hired a VA this week, so she’ll be getting everything uploaded and scheduled. With new writers on staff and eager for work, content should never be a problem.

In addition, Potty Training Power will benefit from some of the awesome strategy we’re learning by working with REV. We’re seeing results in real time and building systems that we can apply to all our work across the board.

It looks as though Children Write the Future, which I’ve bled sweat to ready by March 15, will miss it’s grand unveiling. Blogger Dad, Things My Child Says, Penny to a Million and Collective Inkwell have all been ignored.

Though I was on the front page of Copyblogger on Wednesday, I had to give my favorite place to guest post the cold shoulder as well.

Yet I am deliriously happy.

Why?

Because Dave and I are working with Lori Taylor and her team at REV Marketing and I cannot help but see this as a giant step forward.

Lori swept into my life with the speed and intensity of a tempest – sudden, strong and shifting the plates of my days without warning. From nowhere, Lori appeared to send my partner and me in an entirely different but welcome direction.

At first, I wasn’t sure about Lori, this vivacious, articulate woman who wished to wrangle all of my attention. She seemed awesome and one at every level, sure, but we all know what’s wrong with things that seem too good to be true.

However, Lori flew Dave and me out to the REV offices last week so we could all meet face to face. I’m thrilled to report that Lori and her team are not only perfectly wonderful, they are also wonderfully perfect.

REV has exceeded my expectations at every level.

Lori is pure energy a little crazy – but in a great way. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen words chase thought with greater speed. It’s as though her tongue is the whipping boy of her brain, suffering the constant beating and battery of a billion thoughts all bouncing at once. Lori pushes sentences through her mouth at such a furious speed; she requires an entire team to take notes that they then assemble like pieces of a jigsaw.

Lori doesn’t so much speak as she thinks aloud with barely a filter. Yet for Lori, this totally works.

I’m paraphrasing, but you’ll get the idea:

“That’s not it but it’s almost it and please don’t feel like you have to pay attention to me right now I’m just thinking my way through this but I have to talk out loud because that’s how I’ll figure this out and if I figure it out then it’s win-win for all of us and I’m almost there and then what if we wait no that won’t work oh okay I totally have it how about if we…”

Then BOOM! Lori’s spark of an idea ignites into flame and the team is off and running.

The rest of the REV team is equally awesome, each member a cog in machinery that seems capable of moving mountains. There are members of the REV team that have been working with Lori for as long as 16 years. Despite the crazy that comes out of her mouth, Lori is an intensely driven solution finder and her team is fiercely devoted.

And we get credit for the things we write. It’s the best of win-win situations.

One of my primary areas of focus has been working to get this new blog off the ground. I’ve loved every minute. I’ve always enjoyed brainstorming and the strategy, but for the first time, I have the full resources and teamwork to help make the incredible happen on a massive scale.

Everything is due the day before yesterday, each client must be over the moon and three orbits around Mars happy, and every result must be pitch perfect or it’s shake the Etch-a-Sketch and start all over. There is an endless stream of activity and the firm is bursting at the seams with both creative energy and quality work.

This might just be the happiest I’ve ever been online.

Yeah, my personal playground is growing weeds. The chains on the swings are rusting from disregard and a cool wind is snapping at the tumbleweeds as they roll across the cracking concrete. But it is all temporary.

Being a core part of a dynamic team is truly a wonderful thing. Though it’s been a while since I’ve been this exhausted, I’ve also never felt more eager to rise in the morning and send my fingers sailing across the keyboard.

Ghostwriter Dad has been doing remarkable things for a while. But now, thanks to Lori Taylor and the team at REV Marketing, we’ve been invited to step on stage, do our dance, then graciously take our bow.