In my past several months ghostwriting LinkedIn content for climate tech executives, I've had a key realization. Specifically, about why my clients need me.

My executive climate tech clients need a talented niche-savvy ghostwriter to help them:

• write and fine-tune their content on LinkedIn

• find the right ideas to increase touchpoints with the target audience

• and generally, help position themselves as thought leaders in their industry

But there's another reason behind everything.

And the ones who realize this are willing to make the investment, giving them a competitive advantage over those who don't.

It's not about the "words"

First of all, let's be clear: despite the name, an executive ghostwriter is not someone who just "writes words" or even just fine-tunes messaging.

If you just need "words," you'll get quicker output with ChatGPT or Claude.

You could argue, then, that it's about crafting the right words.

But even then, there's a lot more to ghostwriting than wordsmithing.

After all, we have to know which ideas, topics, and angles make sense before fine-tuning the idea.

It's not about "ideas"

So then, is it about ideas and topics?

Not really — in my experience, a talented marketing team can help a founder identify topics and angles they should be writing about.

A ghostwriter can and certainly should help fill this role ... but it's not the main job.

The real reason

At the end of the day, the real reason founders need ghostwriters is accountability.

Every climate tech founder I know is juggling multiple huge responsibilities like management, sales, hiring, and product.

And every marketing leader I know has the same problem.

Even if the team agrees founder-led content is important, the truth is, it won't always be a priority.

Investing in a talented, professional executive ghostwriter to support founder-led content is worth it ...

Precisely because of the accountability baked in.

A proactive executive ghostwriter will take ownership of the project, to be sure.

But, they will also make sure they get the collaboration and feedback they need to produce excellent content. Otherwise, they can't do their job.

And this is why they're so valuable:

Simply interacting with the ghostwriter reminds the founder why they've made this commitment.

And why they're on a wild mission to build a climate startup in the first place.