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Scott Galloway, marketing professor at NYU, coined the term “yogababble” to describe spiritual-sounding language companies use to make their brand appear more compelling than it actually is. The term came out of the WeWork disaster, and it stuck because it named something everyone recognized but nobody had a word for.
WeWork rented desks. That was the business. But their 2019 IPO prospectus described a company that aimed to “elevate the world’s consciousness.” The document mentioned CEO Adam Neumann 169 times, often by first name only, as if he were a spiritual leader rather than a guy running an office-sharing startup. Phrases like “the power of We” and promises to transform global work culture papered over an unsustainable business model that was bleeding cash.
Galloway saw through it immediately. He created the Yogababble Index to measure the gap between what companies claim and what they actually do, and found an inverse correlation between the level of yogababble in a company’s S-1 filing and its stock performance one year after IPO. The more spiritual the language, the worse the returns.
WeWork is the most dramatic example, but it is far from the only one. Yogababble has become a default setting in corporate communication, and it shows up in places you would not expect, including the books people hire me to write.
What Yogababble Looks Like in Practice
Galloway’s original examples came from tech and wellness companies. For more, see books build trust, not just revenue. Peloton does not sell exercise bikes. According to Peloton, it is “an innovation company transforming the lives of people around the world.” Galloway’s response was blunt: “No. You sell exercise equipment.” SoulCycle uses phrases like “We aspire to inspire” and “We inhale intention and exhale expectation,” which sound profound until you realize they describe a spin class.
The pattern is consistent. A company with a straightforward product or service wraps itself in language designed to make it sound like a movement, a mission, a force for human transformation. The language is vague enough to resist fact-checking and emotional enough to short-circuit critical thinking.
Galloway identified three characteristics that mark yogababble. First, spiritual jargon without substance: phrases like “elevating consciousness” or “creating a global movement” that are not backed by tangible actions. Second, overuse of vague feel-good words like “empowerment,” “transformation,” and “alignment” used without clear definitions. Third, misdirection: language that diverts attention from core business problems like financial instability or weak products by focusing on emotional narratives.
Yogababble in Book Projects
I see yogababble constantly in my ghostwriting work, and it is not always intentional. Sometimes clients genuinely believe their own elevated language. Other times they know exactly what they are doing.
One client contracted me to write a memoir. Good project, real story, legitimate experiences worth putting on the page. Then partway through, he launched a coaching business and wanted the memoir rewritten to showcase extensive coaching experience he did not actually have. The book was supposed to become a credibility vehicle for a brand-new venture, retroactively creating a track record that did not exist. That put me in a difficult position. The memoir was honest. Bolting on fabricated expertise would have turned it into yogababble in book form.
Another client wanted a technical book about artificial intelligence. The problem was that he had no AI experience. None. He was depending on me to make it look like he did. I told him we needed source materials and references, that you cannot write an authoritative book about a subject you have not worked in. A book is not a LinkedIn bio where you can stretch a job title. It is 50,000 words that either demonstrate expertise or expose the lack of it.
Both of these situations are the book-world version of WeWork claiming to elevate consciousness while renting desks. The impulse is the same: use language to create a perception that reality does not support.
Why It Fails
Yogababble works temporarily. WeWork raised billions before the collapse. Plenty of books built on inflated credentials sell copies before anyone checks the claims. But the failure mode is predictable and brutal.
When a company’s messaging becomes detached from its real-world offerings, the gap eventually becomes visible. WeWork’s downfall was accelerated by the disappointment that arose when investors realized “elevate consciousness” meant “lose money on office subleases.” Peloton’s positioning as a life-transforming innovation company made its product recall and safety issues feel like a betrayal rather than a normal business problem.
The same dynamic applies to books. A memoir that claims coaching expertise the author does not have will be exposed the moment a reader or client asks a follow-up question the author cannot answer. A technical book written without subject matter expertise will be torn apart by the first reviewer who actually works in the field. The book becomes a liability instead of an asset.
The Opposite of Yogababble
The fix is not complicated. It is the same thing Galloway has been saying since the WeWork debacle: say what you actually do, and do it well enough that the truth is compelling on its own.
In ghostwriting, this means building the book around what the client has actually done, not what they wish they had done. Real experiences, specific details, verifiable claims. If a client has built three companies, we write about building three companies. If they have coached two people, we do not pretend they have coached two hundred.
The best books I have worked on, the ones that actually generate business for the author and hold up over time, are the ones where the author’s real experience is strong enough to carry the narrative without inflation. After 54 ghostwritten books, the pattern is clear. Authenticity outperforms yogababble every time, not because authenticity is virtuous but because it is sustainable. A book built on real expertise can be defended. A book built on yogababble cannot.
If your story is strong enough to tell, it is strong enough to tell honestly. If it is not, the answer is not better language. The answer is more experience.
Schedule a free consultation to discuss how to turn your real expertise into a book that holds up.