Her Story
About Samantha
I started as a journalist in 1991 after college. I moved to Asia, working in Hong Kong and Cambodia during the 1993 UN election, then joined the Wall Street Journal Asia Edition as Vietnam Bureau Chief covering finance. In 1999 I returned to the US as a business writer for Crain's New York Business covering healthcare and education. That led to my first book project and I transitioned to full-time ghostwriting in 2008, helping business leaders, celebrities and prominent people tell their stories in narrative form.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Samantha
01What do you attribute your success to?
My special sauce is curiosity about other people and willingness to check my ego at the door. It is much more important to really listen and make sure I understand what the client wants. You need to be able to listen before you write with this kind of thing.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Just write. Have the courage to take the step even if it's not perfect. You can go back and fix and edit later. Have the faith in yourself to make a move.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
If writing is your calling, read the best writers and absorb what has come before you. Learn and understand what the greatest have done going as far back as you can. Have a little bit of humility and absorb that. Your vocabulary, style and sense of putting words and ideas together comes from reading and listening to the greatest minds.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is AI and large language models making it easier and faster for people who don't want to invest in quality writing. The opportunity is to be the luxury human organic product, building skill in listening, synthesizing and processing information to bring the human touch and humanity to the page that machine learning cannot replicate.
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