Updated May 2026 to reflect current data. Original recording: May 2026.

Richard Lowe (The Writing King) joins Michael A. Forman on Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections for a conversation built around one practical question for solopreneurs, consultants, and small business owners: when every coach, freelancer, and consultant is selling the same thing, how do you become the one people remember and refer? Topics: why a book outperforms a business card in every networking room, branding versus marketing, the snowflake-in-the-blizzard problem that keeps competent professionals invisible, how to find the right ghostwriter, and three concrete steps any solopreneur can take to start building authority through a book.

Michael A. Forman is a business networking expert who helps professionals sharpen their networking and communication skills to drive profitability. He’s a sought-after speaker for dynamic presentations and corporate workshops. His site is at michaelaforman.com.

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Interview

Michael A. Forman: Hello, and welcome to Networking Unleashed, Building Profitable Connections. Welcome back to the show, folks. I’m your host, Michael Foreman, and you’re listening to the podcast where networking is more than just awkward handshakes and bad coffee. It’s an art and a talent. But here’s the twist. It’s an art and talent you can actually learn. Yes, even if you’re the person hiding in the corner at every event, pretending to check emails.

Networking isn’t just a nice skill to have. It’s a game changer. When you get good at it, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner. More connections, more opportunities, more profits. It’s like unlocking a cheat code for life.

So whether you’re the life of the party or the just-let-me-stay-at-home-and-text type, we’ve got something for you. So stick around and let’s turn those awkward small talk moments into big wins.

I have a guest today and his name is Richard Lowe and I will tell you a little briefly about his background, but then I will let Richard take it from there. Richard Lowe is a best-selling ghostwriter who helps professionals turn their expertise into powerful books that build credibility, attract opportunities, and leave a lasting legacy. Now, before I butcher it even more, Richard, how are you? Welcome to the show.

Richard: Thank you for having me, and I feel very welcome.

Michael: Good, good. Do you want to delve into your background a little bit more or just…

Richard: Yeah, I’ll talk a little bit about myself. I am a ghostwriter. I capture ghosts and I write, I don’t know.

Writing a Book for a War-Hero Grandfather

Richard: I got my start in writing when I was 17 years old and I wrote my grandfather, nobody really talked to him. He was, they considered him weird and a little curmudgeony. That means persnickety, difficult to get along with. But I wanted to know him. So I talked to him, and I wound up writing a book for him.

Now, it was never published, but it turns out that he was a hero. He was in the Yangtze River Patrol in China before World War II. He was captured on Corregidor. He was in the Bataan Death March with 10,000 Americans marched across Bataan, and a lot of them died. And he was in a prisoner work camp for four years.

Now, I listened to him, wrote his book, and then decided he can be as difficult to be with as he wants to be. He earned the right. I had a huge, had huge respect for him after that. They gave me the writing bug because I got to learn about somebody just through the act of interviewing them and writing them.

From Tech Executive to Florida Writer

Richard: Unfortunately, I had to put it on the shelf because I had to leave home. It was not really a choice. I got a job, became a VP of a company, and then a VP again, and then the director of computer operations at Trader Joe’s.

And I had a family, had to deal with that, a wife who was very sick, a stepson, all the usual things, stuff that you accumulate over life. And I didn’t really have the time to write, or so I thought. I wrote a little bit at work, did some columns, did some articles, started on a book 15 times, you know how it goes.

And then I said, wow, I am ready to do something different. I don’t have a wife right now. She passed away. I have some money lined up. So why don’t I go do what I want to do? And what I want to do is write.

So I left my job, moved to Florida, said goodbye to all my friends, which is a whole story in itself, because I was a photographer and had 1,500 dancers and models and supermodels as friends. I said goodbye to all of them. We got through a huge party on my birthday. Hundreds of women there, which was interesting.

And then drove across the United States with my belly dancer friend, or excuse me, my Indian Bharatanatyam dancer friend. She wouldn’t want to be called a belly dancer. That’s a classical Indian dancer. We drove across the United States and had a bunch of grand adventures. It was fun.

Building a Ghostwriting Practice

Richard: And then I settled down in Florida, became a writer. I started writing LinkedIn profiles, and then I wrote a lot of books and things. I wrote 113 books of my own. I wrote coloring books, puzzle books. I was just experimenting, lots of other books, a couple of bestsellers, and decided to go into ghostwriting.

And that’s where I am now. I’ve been ghostwriting now for 13 years. I’ve written 54 books for other people, and my name is not on them. Sometimes it’s in the acknowledgement. Some of them you probably have read or may have heard of. One of them’s a science fiction book for a rock star, a pretty famous one. Can’t say his name, unfortunately. The good side is I get paid for it and he gets the glory. So there you go.

Michael: Good. So you transitioned from advertising to becoming a best-selling author and premium ghostwriter. What was the biggest challenge in making that shift and how did networking play a role in your success?

Richard: One small change there. I transitioned from tech to being a ghostwriter. I wasn’t an advertiser, but that’s okay.

Why Networking Drives a Solopreneur Business

Richard: Networking, especially now, plays a huge role because how do I find clients? I join networking groups. I reach out to people. I formed quite a big network. I have my own podcast where I network with people and get them on there. And then we become networking buddies, so to speak, sometimes.

And networking is interesting. I tend to be introverted and shy in the past. You got to get over that real fast when you’re a solopreneur. If you’re shy, forget it. It ain’t going to work. You have to put yourself out there. You have to get capital. You have to talk to people.

And then you wind up networking with people. And you find somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody. And finally, you got to find somebody who has what you need, business or a vendor or something like that.

I found my marketing vendor through networking and he is awesome. He does all my marketing stuff. Just couldn’t be happier with him after going through like 15 other marketing groups and blah, finally found a good one.

Michael: Good. So what lessons from your background helped you build connections and grow your brand as a ghostwriter?

Richard: Put yourself out there. That’s something I learned really fast. My first books came across because I knew a couple of people and they knew me and I met them. And it was more chance happenstance than anything. But after I went through those, I had to put myself out there.

And I wasn’t looking for the low end, barely surviving ghostwriting gigs. I was going for the high end. And when you’re going for the high end, you got to meet people. To meet a rock star, you got to meet somebody who knows their PR agent, who knows them. You can’t just talk to the rock star. You want to do a celebrity, it’s the same thing, only harder. It can be difficult.

I still haven’t figured out how to get through one of the influencers on TikTok because they seem to have a lot of barriers, because I’d love to do some of their books.

Michael: Okay.

Richard: And some may not even be interested in writing a book, but some may. You never know. That’s the key to networking is you never know what’s at the other end of the string. You’re basically pulling these strings and you’re pulling them and find, okay, there’s somebody there I can talk to. Good, nice guy, but I can’t do business with him. We’ll stay in contact, pull these strings.

And then this guy that you talked to three years ago comes back and says, “Hey, I just realized I want whatever you’re selling.” You know, but I, you’ve ghosted me for three years. I don’t understand, that’s networking.

That’s how networking works. You’re dealing with people, but the people, you’re not dealing with just the people, you’re dealing with their networks. And their network of people. And you never know who’s gonna come back to you and say, “You know what? I spoke to you three years ago and I need your stuff now.” And even though they ghosted you, in their minds, they spoke to you yesterday.

Michael: Ghosted me, no pun intended.

Richard: No pun intended.

Michael: How has networking influenced your journey as a ghostwriter? And what did key relationships play in your success?

Richard: One of the keys is people that I network with, they know people that I can do business with. So that’s number one. Number two is those people become references. So I get testimonials from them. They talk good about me to other people. They refer people to me. It becomes linked.

You can use social media to find business, and that’s passive. You’re putting out ads, you’re putting out this, and you’re waiting for people to come to you. When you’re networking, you’re active and you’re going out there and you’re finding people. And it is much more fulfilling. It’s actually much more likely to get you business or whatever you’re looking for. And it’s more fun because you’re meeting people.

You’re out there talking to people. Even for an introvert and shy person, I’m not really shy anymore, but I am an introvert. It’s much more fulfilling because I get to reach out to people. Like I have my own podcast, like I said, I get to reach out to people. I invite them to my podcast, we talk and stuff, and then we become buddies and we’re friends for the rest of time. It’s very strange to me as an introvert for most of my life. It works well.

And I go on stages and I speak about keynote or breakout sessions, or I even do workshops in corporations. And I say that you may be an introvert, but you have to have extrovert, some extrovert values or something else like that. Because if you’re going to just stay within your own world, you’re not going to do your company any good. So you have to get out there and you have to network.

And networking, I believe, is the basis of all businesses. So hopefully that will work.

Branding, Pulling Strings, and Reaching the Unreachable

Michael: What are the biggest misconceptions professionals have about branding and how can networking help them refine their brands?

Richard: A lot of people conflate branding with sales, and marketing with sales. Branding is basically letting people know who you are and what you are, what you believe in, and all that kind of stuff, what you sell, whatever. It’s the appearance.

So my Hawaiian shirts are part of my brand. It shows that I’m a little casual and I’m going to create a book that’s about you. And it’s going to be colorful and have feeling. If I was in a suit, that would portray an entirely different brand. This is intentional.

You’ll find a lot of ghostwriters, they do similar things. They want their brand to portray who they are, or if they’re a mystery ghostwriter, they’re going to be dressed in some kind of Sherlock Holmes-y kind of things, at least give that appeal maybe, perhaps. Cozy mysteries would generally be written by women, and they’re going to show that brand.

So branding is not sales and it’s not marketing. It actually supersedes them both. If you don’t have a brand, it’s hard to sell. And then guess what? People make it up for you.

Michael: Yeah, you don’t want that.

Richard: You become their brand. And then again, you’re passive again.

When you’re driving and you see a billboard and you just see somebody’s name and what they do. There’s no contact information or anything. That’s a form of branding, because that’s not for sales. That’s just to keep you aware that they’re in the business. So that’s very good.

Michael: What strategies have worked best for you when you’re building meaningful long-term relationships in the publishing and business world?

Richard: Opening my mouth and reaching out and talking to them, no matter how scary it seems. Sometimes it can be very intimidating. I try and reach out to CEOs of big companies and my mind says, “They’re never going to talk to me. I’m just a ghostwriter. I am just this.” They’re people.

One of my things I want, a person I want to contact is Bill Gates. He’s done books and stuff, but I would love to just sit down and talk to him. I’d love to maybe write his book, another book for him. That Fear Takes Over. Like, why would Bill Gates talk to me? But that’s where your reputation comes in and your branding and everything else, because there’s probably 10,000 people that want to talk to Bill Gates. But if you have the branding, if you have the background that he’s looking for, then he’ll speak to you. And also the people who can recommend me.

Michael: Yes.

Richard: So that’s the power of the network.

The Snowflake in the Blizzard: Why Every Professional Needs a Book

Michael: You believe that every professional needs a book. Why do you think a book is such a powerful networking and branding tool?

Richard: Let me give you, for instance, a lot of people are leaving their jobs now, either voluntarily or involuntarily, and a lot of them are becoming coaches because coaching is, in their minds, relatively easy to set up. They can just put out a shingle saying, “I’m a coach. I can give you executive coaching. I was a CFO of this company, and I can coach you on how to do that again.” Sounds real simple.

Problem is a lot of people are doing it. And then you’ve got what I call the snowflake and the blizzard problem. There are a thousand, thousand, thousand of those people out there, and you’re the snowflake. And I don’t mean that in a derogatory term. I know that has other meanings. But how do you see that one snowflake in this blizzard of snowflakes? That’s what a book does. It turns that snowflake red or green or blue, so it just stands out. That’s what a book does.

If you look at the coaches who’ve actually made it big, virtually all of them have their own book. And if you look at a lot of people who get on TED Talks, people who get on the speaking circuit, people who actually make it in that area, especially those that have to deal with other people, they have a book. That happens to be very true.

There’s a golden triangle, I’ll call it, of people that do what I do. I’m a public speaker. And if I’m a speaker and I wrote a book and I did a TED talk, that’s a golden triangle. So that’s what gets me the people that contact me. That’s what makes them look at me and say, “Oh, you know what? He’s got all of it. Let me call him and see what he’s about.”

Michael: What advice would you give to professionals who want to use a book to enhance their credibility and open doors to new opportunities?

Finding the Right Ghostwriter and the AI Elephant

Richard: Who want to have a book?

Michael: Exactly.

Richard: They need to, first of all, they need to find the right ghostwriter. A lot of them say, “I could write it myself. I could use AI.” First of all, let’s hit the elephant in the room, AI. It’s going to write a garbage book. It’s not going to have any feeling. It’s not going to have any passion. It’s not going to have your heart in it. It’s going to be a book. It’s going to be, excuse the term, a crappy book.

But if that’s what you want, if you’re worried about money, it’s a way to go. You could hire a low-end ghostwriter. You’re going to have the same problem. They’re not going to capture you.

So go out there and interview good ghostwriters, premium writers who are, they’re going to cost you some money, but it’s a one-time fee. If it’s for your business, it’s probably, I’m not an accountant, it’s probably tax deductible. The government will fund half of it or part of it for you because it’s tax deductible. So get that, find that ghostwriter that works for you.

Now me, I’m a ghostwriter who listens. What I’m trying to do is get to the heart of the person, get the spirit and put that into the words into the book so that it shines through in the book. And that’s not an easy thing to do. Not a lot of ghostwriters can do that. That’s what I do.

Find one that you can work with. And the most important thing is find one that you have a good relationship with. Cost, that’s a one-time fee. A ghostwriter is going to cost less than one of these newfangled electric cars. So that’s the kind of cost we’re looking at. What does a newfangled car cost? 60, 70,000? That’s what a good ghostwriter is going to cost you for a good book.

Pay that. It’s a one-time fee. It’s going to be a better investment than that new car. And the government’s going to fund part of it. But more important is the relationship. You’re going to be working with this guy or girl for quite a while. And if you don’t have a good relationship, you’re going to get a lousy book. And it’s not, you’re not going to be happy with it. And you’re going to go back and forth on what I call revision hell. It goes back and forth and back and forth.

Michael: How can writing a book create networking opportunities that might not exist otherwise?

Richard: You want to get hold of somebody who’s been unreachable so far. You just tell them, “I wrote the book on your subject,” or “I wrote the book that you might be interested in.” You give them the book, you sign it. You have a speaking engagement, you got your book, you sign it for everybody there. You have now created some buzz and your network’s going to grow.

I wind up giving away more copies of my book than I do selling, because I do it as a loss leader. You’re not going to sell a lot of copies of your book on Amazon. And that’s not the point. The point is to use it as a networking tool or as a tool to bring you business or whatever you’re looking for.

Michael: Right. Very good.

Three Steps for Someone Just Starting Out

Michael: For someone just starting to build their network and personal brand, what are three steps they should take right now?

Richard: Number one, take their box and throw it away. Everybody’s got a box. I got a box. We’ve all got a box. We’ve got these boundaries. My boundaries, I’m probably never going to talk to Bill Gates because he’s way above my level. I need to get rid of that mindset. That’s a box. So get rid of the box.

The second step would be start putting yourself out there. If you’re shy and you don’t know how to speak, go to Toastmasters. You’ll get rid of that shyness pretty quick. Toastmasters is a group where you speak a lot to people and they help you get rid of the oohs and ahs and pauses and all kinds of things and make you more relatable. And they have lots of exercise. It’s a lot of fun. And for an introvert like me, it was murder. It was grueling, but I got through it. And I had a great time learning to talk to people.

And the third one is get out there. Get out there on LinkedIn, get out there on Facebook, start introducing yourself to people. They might say, “I hate you.” Who cares? They’re just one person. They might not want to talk to you. You get ghosted a lot. Some won’t answer. Who cares? Somebody will. And somebody, you’ll try a couple of conversations and then you’ll realize this person might be able to help me or I might be able to help them.

The key to networking is you have to help before you get help. The more you help, the more help you get. And there’s a ratio somewhere, I think it’s three to one or something. You help three and you get one back kind of thing. That is probably the key to good networking is you have to help.

You can’t just go out there and network because you want things, when you can, but it’s far more effective if you’re helping people. Which is why I started my own podcast, because they get the podcast, they get little TikToks, I write a little bio, they get all this stuff from it for free. And what do I get? I get to meet somebody new and I get to find all about them on a podcast. It’s great.

Michael: You’re right. That’s one thing that I speak about is that you have to have the mindset when you go to a networking event to give. You give and not receive. Because if you’re looking to give, then everything is all right. Nobody looks at you like you’re a phony. You’re just looking to help everybody.

And one line that I usually say to people that I want to create that relationship with is, “How do I make you more successful? How can I be a good referral source for you?” And that usually starts a relationship and we get on, it all works out.

Closing Advice: Help Before You Need Help

Michael: What’s one networking lesson that you wish you had learned earlier in your career?

Richard: Well, this is a big one. To network. I was super, super introverted. I was very shy, which is interesting because I was an exec. I was a C-level exec and a director of computer operations at Trader Joe’s. And I couldn’t talk to people except for my own team because I knew them. So if I didn’t know you, I wouldn’t talk to you.

So when time came for the promotion to CIO level, nobody knew me. The leaders in the company didn’t know who I was. The path forward wasn’t there without those connections. That’s one reason why I left is I was stuck because I didn’t network. I didn’t network outside the company. I didn’t network in the company because I was comfortable.

That’s probably actually the second lesson is don’t get too comfortable in your job. But I was comfortable. I was happy. But I wasn’t networking with anyone, internal or external. And I grew out of that a lot.

Michael: Okay. Okay. Why don’t you give my listeners one marketing tip of a ghostwriter that they can take away, and if they wanted to go into this, if they wanted to, what would they do starting today or tomorrow?

Richard: Take a look at their business or whatever they’re trying to do from the viewpoint of reaching out to people. Because you’re dealing with people. You’re not dealing with money machines on the other end of that. You’re not dealing with an ATM machine. You’re dealing with a person. You’re not dealing with somebody who could cough up cash and buy your product. You’re dealing with a person.

And to make a business that has some legs, longevity, you need to treat these as people. So when you’re networking, you’re talking to real people. You’re not talking to somebody who can give you a publisher or give you customers or something like that. You’re talking to a person. And if you treat them like a person, then they will treat you like a person.

And the biggest thing is start planning your business like that. And your brand. So you want your brand to be relatable. You want your brand to be comfortable with people. You want your brand to show you something you’re comfortable with, something that promotes whatever you’re trying to promote, and build a plan for your whole brand around that.

Find an expert to help you, but be cautious. I went through a dozen of them before I found a good one. So don’t drop a lot of money into them, but find one you’re comfortable with. And again, it’s that relationship. It’s always the relationship. You have to find somebody you can be in a relationship with. If you’re not comfortable with them, fire them and go on to the next one. You’re not going to hurt their feelings. They’ll go on to somebody else.

And don’t be afraid. We’re all about relationships. And don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. Just go out and do it. Start doing it. They’re not going to hurt you. And if they do, you can just cut them off, just stop. That’s all you have to do.

Michael: So, Richard, tell me, if any of my listeners wants to get hold of you, either to be coached, to be on your podcast, to start ghostwriting, do whatever, what’s the best way for them to get hold of you?

Richard: If they need white papers or case studies or a book, they could contact me at thewritingking.com. And if you want to talk, there’s lots of places where you can set up an appointment. Set up an appointment and let’s chat. If you have somebody who has something to say, contact me. We’ll set up a time to talk and I’ll put you on my podcast. And then we’ll have a good time.

Michael: Perfect. Okay, Richard, I can’t thank you enough for coming onto the podcast. You gave us great insights on what it’s like to be a ghostwriter, what to do, what not to do. And I thank you very much for your time.

Richard: I’m very happy to be here. Thank you for having me on.

Michael: You’re welcome.

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