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, technology, manufacturing, career development, and entertainment.
Some of it goes back a while. That’s the point. The through-line below runs from a customer service book, to a trade column I’ve written since 2008, to a new flipbook out shortly — one thesis, worked steadily, for more than a decade.
ONGOING
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.
Customer service flipbook — coming soon
Twelve years of columns, complaints, and case studies, distilled.
GHOSTWRITTEN — CLIENT BYLINES
“Data is the Haystack; Relevant Information is the Needle”
Developments (ARDA) · November/December 2018 · written for Jon Catlin, CIO, Concord Loan Servicing
A technology executive making the case that access to data means nothing without the ability to curate it — “getting actionable business intelligence when you need it, without clutter or complexity.”
“Branding Electrical Contractors: Short-Circuit or Full Power?”
Electrical Contractor · February 2017 · written for Jimmy Burds, CEO, Colographic
Trade-press thought leadership on purposeful branding, 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 Mike Gunderson, founder, Respond Fast
A founder’s case for voice-activated response in banking — built entirely around his own technology, without seeming like a pitch. That’s the harder version of this job.
UNDER MY OWN BYLINE
“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.
“Gain a competitive edge with improved customer service”
Label & Narrow Web · August 2022
“Customer service is the new marketing”
Label & Narrow Web · April 2022
BOOKS
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. Currently being rewritten.
Writing on Your Wavelength 