The Voice Ghost Part 2/3: How to become an unmistakable voice in your audience's minds.
Voice Ghost Part 2/3: How to See Differently. Uncover the patterns only you see and turn them into your distinctive, unique advantage: Your voice Ghost.
Voice Ghost Master Series - Complete Reference:
→ Part 1: Foundation - Identify traps & assess content depth
→ Part 2: Pattern Extraction - Extract patterns & cross-domain connections (you are here)
→ Part 3: Voice Guide Builder - Turn patterns into repeatable language
Part One showed you why most content stays at the surface level, without building real compounding authority, how to turn this into your unique advantage. and be aware of the four traps that keep most people stuck in the shallows of surface level content.
This letter shows you how to escape it: how to systematically surface the patterns only you see and turn them into your distinctive voice.
By the end, you’ll have a clear guide of how you see your domain differently. Not guesswork. Not borrowed frameworks. But your claimed intellectual territory. What's best about it? It’s extracted from your unique experience, so no one can copy that. Let’s start exactly there.
As a Premium subscriber, you’ll get the AI-Voice Pattern Assistant.
A plug-and-play prompt to feed your LLM that surfaces the patterns you can’t see yourself and turns them into content-ready insights.
Let‘s start here.
How to see what you can‘t see
Here’s what happens: You solve a problem for a client or your team. It feels obvious to you. They’re amazed.
You diagnosed a strategic thinking issue that everyone else missed.
You explain it.
They say: “I never thought of it that way.”
That‘s a signal.
You saw a pattern and made a connection between at least two things that others didn’t see. To you, it’s clear. To them, it’s a breakthrough.
The fatal error?
You never write it down. You never name it. You move to the next project.
A year later, you’ve solved the same problem 10 times. Made the same diagnosis 15 times. Connected the same dots 20 times. And you still think it’s nothing special.
This letter will help you to change that. To make your patterns and your cross-connections visible to you so that you can finally turn your creative value into compounding language.
Uncovering Your Unique Voice Ghost in Two Steps
Your distinctive voice comes from two places:
Step 1: The patterns you see
The repeating dynamics you’ve diagnosed multiple times that your peers still miss.
Step 2: The connections you make
The cross-domain bridges you use to solve problems that specialists in your field don’t have.
Why this is important:
Most people skip straight to “writing & publishing” without doing this work.
They try to force insights they don’t actually own.
They borrow(or buy) frameworks.
They describe consensus.
They follow other people’s playbooks.
They fall into the surface trap.
The alternative: systematically extract the patterns and connections that already exist in your experience.
Step 1: Identify the patterns you see that others miss
You’re looking for situations that you diagnosed differently from your peers.
Not better. Different.
Where you saw a pattern beneath the obvious problem. Where you knew what would happen next because you’d seen it before. Where you named a dynamic that explained multiple situations.
Here’s how to find them:
Start with frustration: What annoys you?
When you see how others handle problems in your domain, what makes you think “they’re missing the point”?
Questions to ask yourself:
When someone explains a problem, what do I mentally correct?
What advice do I see people give that sounds right, but I know doesn’t work?
What do peers celebrate as success that I know will fail later?
What kind of surface thinking annoys you
Example (from my experience):
“Everyone talks about building strong brands through values. The problem is that most of these values are not actionable. People collect words, but teams don’t know what to do with it.
That’s a pattern.
Write down 2-3 examples from your experience.
Look for repeated fixes: What do you keep correcting?
Think about the last 10 projects. What’s coming up again and again? Think of things you change repeatedly that nobody else catches until you point it out?
Questions to ask yourself:
What mistake do people make before they realize it’s a problem?
What do clients ask me to fix that I know is just a symptom?
What pattern do I explain that changes their perspective?
Example (from my experience):
“Clients hire me to improve their messaging. But the real problem is never the words. It’s always a strategy problem*, not a copywriting problem.”
*That‘s why I call myself a Strategic Ghostwriter.
That’s a pattern.
Write down 2-3 examples from your experience.
Find the Diagnostic Gap
Think about situations where someone described a problem, you heard the same symptoms, but you diagnosed a completely different root cause.
Questions to ask yourself:
What problem do people in my field consistently misdiagnose?
When someone says “the problem is X,” what do you think is the real problem?
What do peers treat as separate problems that I see as the same underlying issue?
Example (from my experience):
“Founders keep saying: “I’m running a real company. I don’t have time to post consistently.”
But the real problem is never time, money, or skills.
The underlying problem, more often than not, is an identity problem.
They don't want to become content creators.*
*That‘s why I call it Identity Publishing System.
That’s a pattern.
Write down 2-3 examples from your experience.
Spot the invisible dynamic: What causes the outcome that others don’t see?
Think about times when you predicted an outcome that surprised everyone else. Not because you’re smarter—because you saw the dynamic they missed.
Questions to ask yourself:
What relationship between two things do I see that others treat as unrelated?
What early signal tells me how something will play out that others ignore?
What invisible force keeps producing the same result?
Example (from my experience):
“Everyone rushes to AI agents and automation. But in Identity publishing*, I keep seeing the strategy problem get worse, not better.
The automation works. The output increases. But the underlying system—what to say, who you're for, how your ideas connect—was never built.”
You can't automate clarity you don't have.
*Thought leadership, personal branding, and authority building included.
That’s a pattern.
Write down 2-3 examples from your experience.
Track your “of course” moments: What seems obvious to you but surprises others?
Think about times when you explained something, and people said, “I never thought of it that way” or “that’s so obvious now that you say it.”
That’s not obvious. That’s your Voice Ghost.
The pattern blindness problem: These moments are hard to remember precisely because they felt obvious to you. Here's a workaround: For the next two weeks, keep a note open. Every time someone pauses, asks you to repeat something, or writes down what you said—capture it immediately. Don't trust your memory. The best patterns surface in real-time, not in retrospect.
Questions to ask yourself:
What explanation makes people pause and say, “Wait, say that again”?
What connection do I make that people call a fresh perspective?
What do I assume everyone knows that only I noticed?
Example (from my experience):
“I kept telling clients:
“People don’t subscribe to newsletters for news, they subscribe for solutions to their problems.”
And every single time someone had stopped and written it down.
I thought everyone saw it this way. Turns out, many brands treat newsletters as a way to deliver information. I treat them as problem-solving delivery.
That changes everything you write.
That’s a pattern.
Write down 2-3 examples from your experience.
Now: Write it all down
You might have 10-15 patterns. You might have 4. The number doesn't matter. What matters is finding even 3-4 patterns you've diagnosed multiple times but never named. That's enough raw material to build a Voice Guide that compounds.
That’s your unique perspective, your voice.
You might think: Wow, that’s a lot to digest.
Here’s my tip: write it down, save it, bookmark it—whatever feels right to you—and come back to it. Most people consume content but never implement. That’s not you.
But wait, that’s not all—here is step two.
Step 2: Map the connections you make that others don’t
Your distinctive thinking comes from applying Domain A frameworks to problems in Domain B.
Most people only know Domain A. You see both.
This is where unmistakable voices come from.
Here’s how to find your cross-domain connections:
Track the metaphors you use repeatedly
When explaining your work, what comparisons keep showing up?
Questions to ask yourself:
What’s my go-to analogy when someone doesn’t get my point?
When I explain a complex problem, what do I compare it to?
What phrase makes people say “that’s a great way to put it”?
Example (from my experience):
“I keep telling founders, ‘your “brand” isn’t a billboard, it’s a casting call.’
Billboards try to reach everyone. Casting calls are designed to attract specific actors and turn away everyone else—before you waste time in the audition room.
I’m applying what I learned as a film director to brand strategy. And it changes what I optimize for.”
That’s a cross-domain connection that comes from experience, not books, not other people’s frameworks, but my own experience.
Write down 1-2 metaphors you use repeatedly.
Don‘t have any metaphor yet? No problem. Start thinking about creating them. Take a look at your patterns and take time to think about this. Metaphors will come up just by themselves.
Look at your background: What did you do before this?
Your previous career, hobbies, or education gave you a lens others don’t have.
Don’t have an obvious cross-domain background? Your lens doesn’t have to come from a previous career. It can come from:
A book or thinker who changed how you see everything
A problem you lived through that most peers haven’t
An obsession or hobby that shaped how you solve problems
A constraint you worked under that forced you to think differently
The question isn’t “what job did I have before?”—it’s “what experience gave me a different angle?”
Questions to ask yourself:
What field did I come from that’s different from my current space?
What did I learn before that applies here in ways others don’t see?
What experience do I have that others in my domain typically don’t?
Example (from my experience):
“I was a film director before I became a strategic ghostwriter. In the edit room, you learn to kill your darlings—that perfect shot doesn’t make the final cut if it slows the story. Now, when founders show me their messaging(or business ideas), I see the same thing.
They’re holding onto ideas because they worked hard on them, not because they work for the market or their positioning. That film director's lens changes how I cut, copy, and build strategy.”
That’s a cross-domain connection.
Write down 1-2 experiences from your background that apply to your current work.
Find the concepts you imported from other fields
What framework from outside your domain helps you see your domain differently?
Questions to ask yourself:
What concept from another field do I apply that peers don’t reference?
What book or discipline outside my domain shaped how I work?
What principle from a different space solves problems in mine?
Example:
“I studied design thinking: prototype early, test with real users, iterate based on feedback. In design school, you don’t perfect the blueprint first. You make something tangible fast and watch how people use it.
Now, when founders show me their posts or drafts, I treat them like prototypes. Ship rough versions, watch reactions, then iterate. That design thinking lens changes how I push people to start publishing.”
That’s a cross-domain connection.
Write down 1-2 concepts you imported from other fields.
Now: Pick your primary lens
You might have 3-5 cross-domain connections. You might have 1-2. Even a single strong lens is enough—it's what makes your perspective different from peers who only know your domain.
Pick the one that feels most natural to you. The one you use without thinking.
That’s your lens.
Where are you right now
You’ve just done something most people never do: systematically extracted the patterns and connections that make your thinking different.
You have:
10-15 situations where you saw patterns others missed
3-5 cross-domain connections that give you a unique lens
This is the raw material for your distinctive voice.
Stop for a second. I want you to internalize that. This is not just a tactic or a nice-to-have—this is how you build a system. This is how you build an identity library that will work for you for decades, not just a couple of posts. This is epic!
Here is what to do now
You have two options from here:
Option 1: Do the work yourself (recommended)
Block 60-90 minutes for this letter's exercises. (Remember: the full series takes 2-4 hours across all three parts. This is the deepest work—Part 3 moves faster once you have your patterns.)
This is the best way to do it. Your patterns are in your experience; you just have to uncover them. The act of writing by hand forces you to slow down and remember. You’ll uncover things you might have forgotten to know.
Option 2: Let AI guide you through it
Become a premium subscriber and use the AI-Voice Pattern Assistant below. The prompts will walk you through it, map your cross-domain connections, and surface the patterns you’ve been missing.
It’s faster. It’s structured. But you still need to do the thinking—AI just asks better questions than you might ask yourself.
Bonus Tip: Build your Input Library starting today
Whichever option you choose, start building a note system right now. This is your input library—a place to collect every signal, pattern, and “of course” moment the second it happens.
Every time a client says, “I never thought of it that way,” capture it. Every time you mentally correct someone’s diagnosis, write it down. Every time you make a cross-domain connection in a conversation, document it.
Don’t wait until you sit down to write. The best patterns surface in the moment, and your memory is unreliable.
Build a system that captures your thinking before it evaporates.
What to use:
I recommend Notion—that’s what I use. If you build your system there, I’ll share helpful templates in future letters, since it’s part of my workflow. But honestly? A notebook works. A Google Doc works. Apple Notes works. The tool doesn’t matter. The habit does.
How to structure it:
Create two simple sections:
Patterns I See → Capture situations where you diagnosed differently from your peers
Cross-Domain Connections → Capture metaphors, frameworks, or lenses you naturally use
That’s it. Don’t overcomplicate it.
Just capture the raw material. You’ll refine it later.
This isn’t just for this exercise. This is your identity library. In 6 months, you’ll have 50+ patterns documented. In a year, 100+. That becomes your unfair advantage.
PREMIUM MEMBERS: Get The “AI-Voice Pattern Assistant”
Most founders struggle with this exercise—not because they lack patterns, but because pattern blindness makes it hard to see what’s obvious to you.
That’s why I created the AI-Voice Pattern Assistant:
The Pattern Recognition Prompt → An AI conversation that systematically walks you through your last 20 client interactions and surfaces the patterns you’ve been missing (includes follow-up questions that dig deeper when you say “nothing special”)
• The Cross-Domain Connection Mapper → Input your background, hobbies, and previous careers—get back the 5-7 unique lenses you have that your peers don’t (with examples of how each applies to your current domain)
• The Voice Codex Template → A structured doc that captures all your patterns and connections in one place, making them easy to reference when creating content (this becomes your competitive moat)
• The “Of Course” Detector → Paste your last 5 client conversations—AI identifies the moments where you said something that felt obvious to you but was a breakthrough to them
Plus: 3 real examples from founders who used this system to uncover their distinctive lens (including before/after content showing how their voice transformed)
BONUS: The Pattern-to-Post Generator → Takes your extracted patterns and generates 10 content ideas that demonstrate your unique lens across different formats (LinkedIn, Substack, Twitter)
Implementation guarantee: Use this system to extract your patterns. If you don’t uncover at least 3-5 distinctive insights you can immediately use in your content, I’ll refund your premium subscription.
Next in this series:
Part 3: How to turn your patterns into language that sticks (creating reframes and building a perspective statement)
This letter shows you how to turn these patterns and connections into language that makes your perspective unmistakable—and impossible to forget.
[UPGRADE TO PREMIUM ACCESS - Get The Complete AI-Voice Pattern Assistant]
