Anne Beiler is the founder of Auntie Anne’s, the world’s largest pretzel franchise. Her success stands as an inspiration to many — a woman who began her company after years of trauma and depression with no capital, no formal education, and no business plan.
She felt she had a powerful story to tell, but she needed someone to help her tell it.
For that, she turned to Emily Sutherland.
Sutherland is a ghostwriter and storyteller who has written for and on behalf of clients professionally for more than 20 years. She launched her own freelance writing business in 2017 around the same time she and Beiler connected.
The two wrote “The Secret Lies Within: An Inside Out Look at Overcoming Trauma and Finding Purpose in the Pain,” and later collaborated on “Overcome and Lead,” a book that highlights key stories and lessons Beiler learned throughout her career.
“Empowering someone to find words for a story they don’t know how to tell is a beautiful and powerful experience — for me and for my clients,” Sutherland said. “Long before writing was my career, I remember thinking that my dream job would be to help people find the words to say what they wanted to say. Now, that is exactly what I get to do.”
Sutherland got her start at Gaither Music Company, a titan in the Christian Music Industry founded by Bill and Gloria Gaither, who were named Christian Songwriters of the Century by the American Society of Composers and Publishers. Sutherland began as an administrative assistant but quickly took on additional roles once it was clear she could write. She did commercial voice-overs, wrote web content, and created video scripts for television.
She also began to write on behalf of the Gaithers — that’s where her passion for ghostwriting began.
As she continued to write for other people — both anonymously and as a co-author — she discovered several key traits necessary to succeed as a ghostwriter.
“Most people don’t want a ghostwriter to tell the story exactly as they would,” she said. “They want me to tell it better than they would. A successful ghostwriter needs to be a good listener so they can capture the person’s voice but writing the story even more colorfully and making them sound smart always results in a book they are thrilled with. That little secret consistently makes clients happy they hired me.”
Being a good writer also comes down to being a good storyteller, Sutherland said.
“A great story always takes people somewhere,” she said. “It gets their attention, keeps their attention, then offers a payoff at the end. That payoff might be a good laugh, an important truth, a surprise, or a relatable moment, but it will almost always elicit some sort of emotion or create a ‘moment’.”
Sutherland experienced that first-hand with “It’s Hard to Hug a Porcupine,” a children’s book she crafted based on a personal interaction. The book is a parable about learning that those who hurt are often hurting themselves, even the prickly porcupine who repels others.
She tried pitching it out to publishers, but after a couple of rejections, she put it aside for more than a decade. The story was timeless, though, so for a friend’s baby shower, she dusted it off and self-published it as a gift.
That fear of rejection — the inner critic inside us — is often the biggest hurdle people face when it comes to storytelling, she said. She stresses that point in a new storytelling masterclass she teaches that guides students through silencing those inner voices.
Another lesson she teaches in writing classes and with her clients is that authenticity matters, particularly when it comes to storytelling.
“Most of us are tempted to hold back or downplay unsavory facts about ourselves or others in our writing,” she said. “Not being honest can make our writing sound flat or the characters seem boring. The reader wants to root for us, but we’ve got to make them care and help them relate to us by being truthful about ourselves.
“A great story takes people on a journey, then the payoff makes them glad they went on that journey.”