EP #079: Nobody Wants You to Know That They Work With Us

I run a company where discretion is the product.

Most executives who post consistently on LinkedIn use ghostwriters, and almost nobody wants to admit it publicly.

I've worked with 300+ executives at this point, including CEOs of publicly traded companies and founders who raised $30 million or more. You've probably seen their posts. You've probably engaged with their content. And you'll most certainly never hear them mention Executive Presence.

And I'm completely fine with that. 

The Problem with Selling Discretion

Every marketing playbook says the same thing, so you've heard it before. Collect testimonials, build logo walls, gather video endorsements, and show the receipts.

We have some of that - clients who've agreed to be named, case studies we're proud of. But the vast majority of executives I work with would prefer you never know they hired us.

The reasoning is simple. A CEO doesn't want their board wondering if the strategic insight they shared was actually written by someone else, a founder doesn't want their investors questioning whether the thought leadership is genuinely theirs, and a senior partner doesn't want colleagues speculating about who's really behind the posts.

The moment you announce you use a ghostwriter, many fear it will introduce doubt where there was none.

Discretion Is the Product

I had a realization recently. The same thing that makes our service hard to market is exactly what makes our service valuable.

Executives want the influence, and they want it to look effortless. They hire us so they can build authority without anyone wondering how they find the time to post daily.

And from our side, we can anonymize client examples without losing the point:

“A public company CEO increased engagement by 400%." 

"A Series B founder landed their first enterprise deal through a LinkedIn connection." 

The outcomes speak for themselves, even without names attached. And sometimes being elusive actually builds trust. If I named every client, prospective clients would wonder if I'd name them, too.

Talking About Clients Without Naming Them

I've started describing clients by details that prove we work with serious people without compromising privacy, whether that's a CEO at a company with $30 million in funding, a publicly traded company executive, or a founder with 10,000+ followers who wanted help sounding less like ChatGPT.

The details hint at the level without exposing the individual - and audiences respond to the approach. There's something credible about a company willing to say, "I can't tell you exactly who, but here's what we accomplished for them." 

Accepting that tradeoff signals we take discretion seriously enough to let it cost us some marketing firepower.

Trust Requires Privacy

Giving someone access to your voice means trusting them with more than your LinkedIn password.

The executives we work with share their actual opinions - what they really think about their competitors, their industry, their leadership philosophies. They share the things they believe but haven't figured out how to say publicly. That kind of access requires knowing everything stays private.

So when a client stays quiet about working with us, I take it as a sign we've earned their trust. They understand discretion is part of what they're paying for.

The best ghostwriting disappears entirely into the client's voice…along with the best ghostwriting relationship disappearing entirely into the background.

— Justin

Justin M. Nassiri | Founder & CEO
M: 650.353.1138 | E: [email protected]
250 Fillmore St Suite 150, Denver, CO 80206
www.ExecutivePresence.io

Executive Presence specializes in helping top-tier executives boost their visibility, activate their network, and position themselves as thought leaders via our premium, fully-managed LinkedIn service.

Our unique process involves ex-McKinsey, BCG, and Bain consultants conducting monthly hour-long interviews with our clients, and turning them into impactful daily LinkedIn posts to establish their unique voice and authority. On average, our clients see a 500% bump in engagement in their first 30 days with us. Data is continuously analyzed to improve engagement and identify impactful messaging that you can use for conferences, podcasts, and internal communications.