Telling the 1 Outsider’s Great Story

When I meet with my business advisor, I update him on how things are going with my outsider clients or prospects. Instead of mentioning them by name (because he can’t keep track), I tend to use occupational or identification shorthand: therapist, Bronx Brother, sex worker, surfer, crypto guy, schoolteacher, Realtor, police brutality victim, impostor, guy who got shot 48 times, Trump guy, and so forth.

Each of the above descriptions are or were real clients or prospects. One day, my business advisor volunteered a marketing suggestion: I seem to attract people on the outside of society, so maybe I want to market myself as such.

“You should say, ‘I tell the story of those people who are on the outskirts of society,’” he told me. “‘These are the stories those on the inside of society love. Look at Netflix. It’s all about the people reaching out to me, except I’m telling the real stories. Netflix is fiction.’ There is an art around understanding, empathy and knowing how to tell that type of story.”

His suggestion intrigued me, so I decided to research groups considered outsiders of society.

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

People defined as outsiders or “on the outside of society” include individuals marginalized due to socioeconomic status, race, ideology, or appearance, often experiencing intense isolation, stigma, or lack of belonging. Key groups frequently treated as outsiders include the homeless, immigrants/refugees, social misfits, and those with non-conformist views.

These groups include:

Socially Marginalized and Economic Vulnerable: Homeless populations, the impoverished, and the long-term unemployed often experience invisibility and exclusion.

Cultural and Linguistic Outsiders: Immigrants, refugees, and ethnic or religious minorities often face structural barriers, language hurdles, and prejudice that prevent full integration.

Ideological and Social Misfits: Individuals with unconventional beliefs, non-conforming appearances, or who are misunderstood by the mainstream often feel, or are made to feel, like outcasts.

The “Othered” or Ostracized: Groups or individuals intentionally excluded from social groups, workplaces, or communities due to prejudice or perceived differences.

Individuals Living on the Margins: People who do not fit into a single group, such as nomads, “digital nomads,” or those who choose to live away from mainstream society.

A ghostwriter in Dallas who would want to work with people within these groups needs to impress upon them this salient fact: Their story is compelling and should be told. 

It doesn’t matter who they are. Their stories count. They should not be labeled. They should be respected.

MARKETING CONSIDERATIONS

If they consider themselves outsiders, tell them they are a member of a group that often feels unheard. Examples could include formerly incarcerated individuals, veterans transitioning to civilian life, people recovering from addiction, whistleblowers, immigrants and first-generation Americans, survivors of institutional systems (foster care, cults, religious exile, etc.); survivors of violence, be it sexual, physical, mental, or a combination; aging creatives whose work was never recognized, or people estranged from family or culture.

In my career, I’ve encountered a man who joined a gang and lived to regret it; a woman who fought the state to avoid paying the $1.4 million her psychopath ex-husband stole without her knowledge, two people who have suffered at the hands of the police, a woman who has consciously chosen to stay in sex work, and a man falsely accused of sex trafficking (and has nothing to do with the Epstein Files). Many of these people want or wanted to write a book because they want or wanted to be heard.

These people are not outside history. They are part of it. They don’t have to be famous; most ghostwriting services (including all of my practice) focus on nobodies because, to paraphrase James Carville, it’s the story, stupid.

With outsiders, silence isn’t neutral. They need to tell their story because if they don’t, someone else might. They need to get out there and control the narrative—especially true if they were wronged by powerful or influential people or systems. 

They lived it. They should tell it. They just need some help.

That’s where the ghostwriter comes in. The ghostwriter for the outsider is a ghostwriter for the unheard. Not just a writer, a translator that can turn lived experience into a legacy. No flash, no slice, corporate polish. Just solid storytelling, letting the words bring the audience in and give them a sense of being there and experiencing whatever the outsider client has.

Here’s a secret: Famous lives aren’t the only ones that can be considered meaningful. Those on the margins of society have seen, heard, and lived plenty. History isn’t just shaped by the rich, famous, and powerful. It’s shaped by people who survived, adapted, built families, and changed one life at a time. These stories rarely get recorded, but they are the fabric of everything. These stories were never asked for, but they still matter. 

Readers connect to struggle, doubt, resilience, moral conflict, and transformation. Those are universal, and often more visible in non-famous lives.

History is not always written by the famous victors. No one has to be famous to matter. The world runs on the quiet resilience of people who never expected to write a book. Those stories deserve to exist—not because they are glamorous, but because they are real.

An outsider wanting to tell his or her story pushes back against silence, erasure, and distortion. It announces “This happened. I was there. It mattered.” 

The outsider has been handed a label: outsider. Telling the story removes the label and makes that person an individual who proudly reclaims authorship of their life. No longer are they misunderstood, misrepresented, overlooked, reduced to a stereotype or an assumption, or invisible. The outsider is now the main character, the star, the center. He or she now reclaims their rightful place in the spotlight and declares, “My life counts. This is real. I’m not disappearing. I’m here.”

It’s an outsider’s job to want to tell those stories. It’s a ghostwriter’s job to tell those stories.

Because these stories still count.

Feel free to read and check out my other posts related to ghostwriting. Go to https://leebarnathan.com/blog/