When I was younger, I used to spend a lot of time hanging out around five-star hotels in London.
I didn’t have much money to my name, but I was obsessed with understanding how wealthy people lived, behaved, and interacted with one another.
And I figured the best way to learn was to put myself in their environment.
One of my favorite spots was the Dorchester Hotel in Mayfair.
I noticed the wealthy people there always wore clothes that fit them perfectly, so I’d show up in suits I’d bought from H&M and had them tailored to get the expensive look.
Sounds crazy, but I got a lot of compliments…
One lady I was hoping would make me her sugar baby told me I looked like a million bucks.
In reality, I only had around £20 in my pocket.
£8 to spend
£10 for a tip
£2 for emergencies
But I’d walk around like I owned the joint.
Chin up.
Chest puffed.
Slow and controlled movements.
It worked!
The staff started recognizing me.
One asked for my name, and that was it…
They all started greeting me as “Mr. Pykes.”
Regular guests started taking notice too.
I’d find myself having conversations with wealthy business owners, celebrities, and other influential people who were old enough to be my parents.
Some would even invite me to their table to dine with them.
I remember one guest quite fondly…
He owned a luxury eco-hotel and residential development overlooking the River Thames in Battersea.
This gent invited me to his table to dine with him and his son.
For whatever reason, he took a liking to me.
He invited me to visit them at his hotel and even offered me free access to the penthouse suite and his office.
I never took him up on the offer because I was afraid there was a catch (and I had no money to deal with any catches).
But I left these sorts of interactions intrigued more than anything...
These super wealthy people knew NOTHING about me.
Yet they treated me like I was valuable.
They PERCEIVED me to be someone of value.
And that’s where we’re going with today’s article…
People don’t necessarily treat you according to how valuable you ARE.
They treat you according to how valuable they BELIEVE you are.
It’s the same principle that’s helped me charge $5,000+ for my ghostwriting services while other writers fight for crumbs.
Is it because I’m a better writer?
Not necessarily.
I’ve simply learned how to increase my perceived value
in the eyes of the people I want to work with.
And that’s what I’m going to show you how to do…
What makes someone be perceived as high-value?
People perceive you as high-value when THEY believe you have access to resources that matter to them.
And these resources aren't limited to money.
So what are some other examples of useful resources?
It could be:
Information they don’t have.
Skills they haven’t developed.
Relationships they can’t access.
Expertise they need to solve a problem.
Opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have.
The point is that you have access to something THEY want.
The more valuable that resource is to them, the more valuable they see you.
For example, let’s say you’re a phone seller and repairer...
You’re extremely valuable to someone who doesn't have a working phone for whatever reason.
But you’re less valuable to someone who's happy with their phone and how it works.
They may never even notice you.
This is because value is subjective.
Your perceived value depends on two things:
How badly someone wants what you have.
How strongly they believe you can provide it.
So it’s all about becoming valuable to the RIGHT people and making sure they recognize it.
I’ll show you how to do that shortly.
But first, let’s talk about why your perceived value matters to ghostwriters in the first place...
Why perceived value matters for ghostwriters
There are several benefits to being perceived as high-value.
But for ghostwriters looking to build a premium business, I’d argue these three are the most important:
1) People take you seriously
Ever had a client hire you and try to tell you how to do your job?
We can chalk it up to the client being a micromanager (or an asshole), but I’ll tell you this for free...
People who are perceived as high-value are FAR LESS LIKELY to be told how to do their jobs.
And when they are, it’s often because they’ve given the client a reason to question their expertise.
In other words, when clients don't see you as someone with valuable expertise, they’re more likely to treat you like someone they brought in (If they bring you in) to follow their instructions.
They will tell you what to write…
How to write it…
Even if it’s detrimental to the objective they claim to want.
When clients perceive you as high-value, they’re more willing to listen to your recommendations and ask for your opinions.
They’ll also trust you to make decisions without constantly looking over your shoulder.
2) You attract better opportunities
I used to believe in meritocracy.
But now I know it’s all a heap of horse dung…
The best opportunities don’t always go to the most talented people.
They often go to the people others believe can deliver the results they want (even if they're less skilled).
This is why people you’re probably smarter than are more successful than you (and I).
But when people see you as valuable, they’re more likely to recommend you.
You get introduced to people you might never have reached on your own.
As demand for your services increases, your perceived value can rise with it.
3) You have greater pricing power
When prospects see you as just another writer, they need something to compare you against.
And what’s the easiest thing to compare?
PRICE.
If it doesn’t check out with what they’re willing to pay, you will lose out on a customer.
On the other hand…
When prospects perceive you as someone with valuable expertise, they begin evaluating you on what your expertise could help them achieve.
If they believe the value you’ll bring to their business is worth significantly more than what you’re charging, your price becomes easier to justify.
In other words, when prospects can’t see the difference between you and your competitors, they’ll compare your prices.
When they CAN see the difference, they’ll compare your value.
Now, don’t get me wrong...
High perceived value doesn’t mean you can charge whatever you want.
But it does mean you’re less likely to find yourself competing solely on price.
How to build high perceived value as a ghostwriter
Now you understand why perceived value matters, let’s get into how you can increase yours.
I’ve broken the process down into three steps:
Step 1: Figure out what they want
Remember what I said about what makes someone be perceived as high-value?
People perceive someone to be high-value when they believe that person has access to resources useful to them.
Well, that’s the key…
You’ve got to know what the people YOU want to perceive you as high-value want.
And it’s honestly not as hard as you think.
If someone runs a coaching business, they probably want more people to coach.
If someone is a consultant, they probably want to build authority so they can be seen as a go-to expert, which inadvertently helps them get more demand for their services.
If someone doesn’t run a business, but they’re posting consistently online, they probably want to build a personal brand they can monetize later down the line.
The catch is WHOEVER it is you’re choosing to help, may frame this want differently.
For example, an AI practitioner who offers coaching may want to be seen as an authority so they can build credibility to land more customers.
Whereas, the business consultant may outright say they just want more customers.
The skill is in being able to capture the desire of your ideal customer in the language they would likely communicate it to you.
This will help you immensely with the next step.
In order to identify how your ideal customer would communicate their desire to you, you must have lots of conversations with different people who fit the criteria of your ideal customer.
Paul Graham, the founder of popular startup accelerator and venture capital firm, informs that the best way to do this is to “Do things that don’t scale.”
Airbnb founders, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia did this by going door-to-door to meet hosts in person and took professional, high-definition photographs of their properties themselves using a rented DSLR camera.
This was because early listings suffered from poor-quality photographs, which made it difficult for potential guests to trust what they were booking.
Now they could’ve sat behind their computer screens and made a ton of assumptions about what was preventing people from using their platform.
But assumptions don’t solve problems.
You MUST speak to the people you want to help.
This will help you understand:
What they want to achieve
What’s preventing them from achieving it
What they’ve tried to solve it
And pay attention to the WORDS they use.
Listen to HOW they’re describing it.
Step 2: Be of genuine help
But don’t just stop at listening to HOW they’re describing the problem.
Helping people for free gives you an opportunity to develop your expertise.
But it can also increase your perceived value in the eyes of the person you’re helping.
Why?
When you offer valuable advice without immediately asking for money, you show you have something to GIVE, not just something to TAKE.
Taking = desperate energy.
And desperate energy repels.
This is why you may get nasty responses (or no response at all) when you try to talk to do outreach...
The prospect may feel you’re coming in to take their money, which can make them feel you don’t have their best interest at your core.
And it naturally makes them skeptical of you.
But when you approach a prospect and offer to help them solve a problem without asking for anything in return, it allows them to acknowledge you have something THEY need.
If your advice is something they haven’t considered yet, and it most likely won’t be if you genuinely know what you’re doing, it gives them a reason to believe your expertise is valuable because they’ve had a chance to experience it firsthand.
So becoming valuable works in two stages:
You have to become good at what you do.
You have to demonstrate that you have something THEY need, rather than convince them to give you something YOU want.
Now, becoming a genuinely good ghostwriter is a topic for another article.
But I’ll give you one piece of advice...
Become your first customer.
If you’re promising to help clients generate leads through LinkedIn, learn how to generate leads through LinkedIn for YOURSELF.
If you’re promising to help people build authority, build some authority of your own.
Achieve the outcome you’re selling…
Then use what you’ve learned to help others achieve it.
It’s a hell of a lot easier to convince someone you know what you’re doing when you’ve done it.
Step 3: Control the narrative
Let’s circle back to my story about my visits to the Dorchester Hotel…
I was walking around in a cheap but tailored H&M suit with £20 in my pocket.
Yet people treated me like I had a million bucks in the bank.
This is because how you present yourself influences how people perceive you.
Quite frankly, our first instinct as humans is to judge a book by its cover, even though we know we’re not supposed to.
So you must learn to appeal to your ideal customers' wants and desires.
You see this a lot on social media…
The 20-something with a Rolex, a penthouse overlooking the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, and two Lamborghini Huracáns in different colors sitting in their garage.
This is also why rappers wear expensive chains and surround themselves with half-naked women twerking in their music videos.
They’re selling a LIFESTYLE.
And it works because that lifestyle appeals to the desires of the people they’re trying to attract.
But not everyone wants that lifestyle.
A 45-year-old business owner with three kids might not give a damn about your Lamborghini.
They may be more impressed by someone who runs a successful business while spending most of their time with their family because that’s the life THEY want.
And that’s the point I’m trying to make…
What makes you appear high-value to one person might make you appear completely irrelevant to another.
So if you’re a ghostwriter trying to attract premium clients, think carefully about the image you’re projecting.
If your ideal customers are busy people who hate sacrificing time with their families, constantly posting about working 16 hours a day probably isn’t the smartest move.
But don’t stop there!
Showing people you have the lifestyle they might want will only get their attention.
You MUST also show them how your expertise can help them get closer to achieving it.
Remember…
People see you as high-value when they believe you have access to resources that help them.
Everything you share should reinforce the belief that you have access to something your ideal customers WANT.
… And that you’re the person best equipped to help them get it.
Now, don’t go faking a lifestyle you can’t afford.
The moment people realize you’re full of shit, your credibility goes out the window.
But you MUST be intentional about which parts of your life, business, and expertise you choose to showcase.
That’s why identifying WHAT your ideal customers value is the FIRST step.
Without that understanding, you’re just putting on a show and hoping the right people are watching.
The danger of being perceived as more valuable than you are
Now, there’s something I haven’t told you about my visits to the Dorchester Hotel...
Although I convinced people I was wealthy, one BIG problem remained.
I wasn’t.
I still lived at home with my parents in a tiny little bedroom.
They made a shallow assumption about me based purely on how I dressed and carried myself.
But I wasn’t exactly innocent either…
I was deliberately presenting myself in a way that encouraged those assumptions.
And guess what?
I ended up attracting people who were more interested in what they THOUGHT I had than who I was.
Which meant neither of us had much to gain from the relationship.
They couldn’t get what they wanted from me.
And I couldn’t offer them what they expected.
So while I had no problem making a good first impression, sustaining those relationships was impossible.
Of all the super successful people I met back then, I’m still in contact with approximately none of them.
Because the value people THOUGHT I could offer was greater than the value I could deliver.
And that’s a dangerous position to be in.
I say that to tell you: don’t get too wrapped up in the presentation aspect of your brand to begin with.
Looking valuable and BEING valuable are two completely different things.
What matters most is what happens when someone hires you!
If you can’t back up your image with genuine expertise, the perception you’ve built won’t last long.
And soon your reputation will be in jeopardy.
Looking valuable gets people interested in what you might be able to do for them.
And that’s why I don’t want you walking away from this article thinking you need to move to Dubai, pretend you’re rich, or manufacture some extravagant lifestyle to attract high-paying clients.
Focusing too much on those things is one of the biggest mistakes you can make because you can spend all your time trying to LOOK like a successful ghostwriter without ever becoming one.
So if you’re just starting out, prioritize Steps 1 and 2.
Understand what your ideal customers value.
Then develop the expertise and experience to help them get it.
As you become more competent, start paying closer attention to Step 3.
Be intentional about how you present yourself.
Share what you’re learning.
Showcase the problems you’re solving.
Use your experience to demonstrate why someone should trust you.
This way, you’re not creating an image you have to struggle to live up to.
Final thoughts
So, do you need to move to Dubai to build high perceived value as a ghostwriter?
Absolutely not.
You don’t need to wear expensive suits, drive Lamborghinis, or pretend to live a lifestyle you can’t afford.
You just need to understand three things:
What your ideal customers value.
How to become someone who can provide that value.
How to present yourself so they recognize it quickly.
That’s it.
You can be the best ghostwriter in the world, but if nobody believes you can help them achieve what THEY want, your skills won’t mean much to them.
And on the flip side, you can convince the world you’re an incredible ghostwriter, but if you can’t deliver, that reputation won’t last.
So don’t obsess over looking successful.
Focus on becoming valuable.
Then make sure people can SEE that value.
The goal is to make sure people don’t underestimate what you’re worth.
Thanks for reading!