A ghostwriter’s real portfolio is other people’s bylines. What follows is a cross-section — some under my name, most under someone else’s — spanning financial services, healthcare, legal services, technology, manufacturing, career development, business and management consulting, and entertainment. Forty-four years of it.
The writing came first, and it was inherited. My father was a major daily newspaper reporter and editor who went on to found one of the largest advertising and PR firms in the Rocky Mountain West. The marketing strategy came from serving as a regional marketing director for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Both taught the same lesson: tell the story right, right out of the gate, to relevant and receptive audiences.
Some of it goes back a while. That’s the point. The through-line runs from a customer service book, to a trade column I’ve written since 2008, to a new flipbook drawing on both — one thesis, worked steadily, for more than a decade.
Customer Service column — Label & Narrow Web
A standing column under my own byline since 2008. The clearest evidence of what I actually do: sustained voice, on deadline, for years running.
Most recent: “The importance of being earnest” (July/August 2026) — on the widening gap between genuine and performative customer service.
The Happy Curmudgeon
My own blog on customer service, marketing, and what happens when companies stop treating people like people.
A representative post: “In a world gone mad, the Mad Men TV series is more prophetic than ever” — on what a sixty-year-old portrait of advertising still gets right.
Denver Business Journal
Years of bylined business coverage and commentary.
Ghostwritten — client bylines
“Data is the Haystack; Relevant Information is the Needle”
Developments (ARDA) · November/December 2018 · written for the CIO of a loan-servicing company serving the vacation ownership industry
A technology executive making the case that access to data means nothing without the ability to curate and define it — “getting actionable business intelligence when you need it, without clutter or complexity.”
“Kinder, Gentler COVID-Era Debt Collection Protocols Proliferate”
Developments (ARDA) · Spring 2021 · written for the president of a consumer-receivables servicing company
Why the payment-relief policies improvised during COVID-19 outlasted the emergency — written for a lender-side executive whose work spans consumer lending, servicing, collections, and loss mitigation.
“Branding Electrical Contractors: Short-Circuit or Full Power?”
Electrical Contractor · February 2017 · written for the CEO of a commercial graphics and branding company
Trade-press thought leadership on purposeful branding — from vehicles to interior design — opening with Yogi Berra: “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”
“7 Ways Voice Marketing Enhances Digital Banking”
Fintech Nexus (now Future Nexus) · March 2020 · written for the founder of a voice-technology company
A founder’s case for voice-activated response in a digitally driven, pandemic-era banking market — built entirely around his own technology, without seeming like a pitch. That’s the harder version of this job.
Under my own byline
“Building Loyalty”
Costco Connection · August 2020 · the nation’s third-largest-circulation magazine
How to showcase excellent customer support in good times and bad.
“Great Customer Service is the Best Fintech Marketing”
Fintech Nexus (now Future Nexus) · July 2022
The core argument, made to a financial technology audience: service performance is the marketing, and everything else is amplification.
“Walk it, then talk it: Thought leadership conveys authentic customer service success”
Fintech Nexus (now Future Nexus) · July 2022
Why great customer service has become the path to effective marketing, and how to amplify it without hogwashing.
“Agility & Ability: Lessons in Branding and Presentation”
Global Cosmetic Industry · February 2015
What packaging and presentation reveal about a brand’s ability to adapt — and where the two have to agree.
“Women in Fintech Demolish the Glass Ceiling”
Fintech Nexus (now Future Nexus) · April 2019
Reporting and commentary on women reshaping leadership in financial technology.
Books
Customer Service in an Inhospitable World
Nearly a decade of columns, complaints, and case studies, distilled.
Don’t Get Mad, Get Leverage
The customer service book that started the thread everything above hangs on. Plenty of companies say the customer comes first. This one is about what to do when they don’t mean it.
→ On Amazon → All published books
A Wandering, Wondering Jew: Story of Enlightenment on a Budget
On the goodness that resides in everyone, and where to find sanctuary when things get hard.
A Wandering, Wondering Jew 2: Community Now More Than Ever
WHITEPAPERS/POSITION PAPERS
10 Key Criteria Drive Loan Servicer Selection
Securitization
Actionable Media Intelligence
KNOWLEDGE CENTERS/CAMPAIGNS
WEBSITES
Survivors Empowered
John P. Morse, CPA
Virtuoso Coaching
SELL SHEETS
Mission Critical
Prodata
Remington
CASE STUDIES
Moreover Waggener
Wizard Case Studies