Meet Jamie Dykstra

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jamie Dykstra a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jamie, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

I basically found my purpose through trial and error. It’s been a long and winding road. When I went to college, I majored in accountancy. I knew that if I could learn accounting, I could have so much flexibility with what I wanted to do in the business world. I planned to take a traditional path of starting in public accounting, learning a lot, and then deciding where I wanted to go from there.

While I was in college, I was coaching high school field hockey, basketball, and softball. With just two semesters left, I decided that I didn’t want to be an accountant. Instead, I wanted to be a high school math teacher. My parents encouraged me to finish my major (which I”m grateful for), and in the meantime, I took other courses that I would need in order to meet the qualifications to become a high school math teacher.

After I graduated from Notre Dame, I finished the remaining prerequisite classes and started a Master’s in teaching. While I was doing this, I continued to coach and also started substitute teaching. Early on in the Master’s program, I realized that teaching wasn’t going to be what I expected. While I have the utmost respect and admiration for teachers, I knew I wasn’t cut out for it.

With my degree in accounting in hand, I entered the business world. I took a position in corporate finance. I served in various roles in corporate finance for about 4 years and also earned my Master of Finance degree. I was performing some traditional finance functions while also getting exposure to project management. I decided that I loved project management and took a role in operations.

I realized that the position didn’t feel like the right fit. I left that role a short time later and worked part-time at a local business as I figured out what I wanted to do next. I planned to take a few months and then decide what my next move would be. I fully intended to re-enter the corporate world.

As my self-imposed deadline neared, I reflected on where I was at. I had experienced a level of freedom and balance in my life that I couldn’t fathom giving up. The only way I could think to maintain this in the long-term was to start my own business. But doing what? I wrestled with this idea for quite some time.

As I talked on the phone with a dear friend about my dilemma, she told me how good I was at writing and suggested that I might start dabbling in that. I recounted all the times in my life that I’d been told I had a talent for writing. Those dated back at least to high school. I told her maybe she was right but that I didn’t think I had anything to write about. She listed off several topics I could get started with related to my journey. So I figured, why not give it a try?

A short time later, I hired a coach and started a blog. Several months later, I started my copywriting business, which has now turned into my ghostwriting business. I had never thought a business in writing would be possible, but now I’m thriving and get so much fulfillment out of helping others share their stories.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

[The lead-up to starting my own business is answered in a prior question]

My journey of discovery didn’t stop with starting my own writing business. I established my business as a copywriter. I was able to get some quick wins helping local businesses, and then I started to expand from there. While I saw success quickly and enjoyed helping great companies share their stories and make an impact, something still didn’t quite feel aligned.

While on a copywriting coaching call, I had heard the coach talk about how he’d moved from copywriting to ghostwriting. As soon as I heard about ghostwriting, I was like, “That! That’s what I want to do!” I wasn’t quite sure how to get started, but a few months later, that same coach offered some free coaching sessions on LinkedIn. I jumped at the opportunity to learn more about how I could get started in ghostwriting. After that call, I hired him to be my ghostwriting mentor.

At this point, you might be wondering what ghostwriting is. While we could talk at length about this, I’d tell you it’s basically this: I interview authors about their stories and thought leadership, and then I put pen to paper on these thoughts, stories, and insights to collaborate with them on creating their book. While I do the actual writing, the book is still wholly and completely theirs. It’s their genius that fills the pages. I just help make the magic happen.

While I still do some strategic business communications, my primary business development activities center on non-fiction book ghostwriting. I focus on the business, leadership, and personal development genres. My prior experiences in the business world, paired with the journey I’ve been on to start my own business, position me uniquely to add a lot of value to these authors. I can more easily understand their perspectives, their struggles, and put a voice to their thought leadership.

There are so many things that excite me about what I do as a ghostwriter, but what drives me the most is the potential that a single book can have. A book doesn’t just impact those who read it. If someone reads the book and the book inspires them to take positive action, then that book also has the potential to positively impact those around them. The ripple effect could be endless. The ghostwriting process is also valuable to the author. Throughout the course of the interviews and the review of their book, they get time and space to reflect on the impact they want to make, the genius they have to share, and often land new insights throughout the process.

Because books have the ability to make such profound impact, I choose to work with purpose-driven authors. How do I define that? Mainly, I’m looking for authors who are trying to create good in the world through the book they produce. There are so many ways this could come to fruition. They could be sharing their inspiring story, leadership principles, new business insights to revolutionize an industry, etc. The list really could go on and on.

While my main focus is ghostwriting, not everyone is always ready to write a book when I speak with them. Because of this, I’m also introducing thought leadership consulting. In this offering, I help my clients to see their genius. I work with them to develop and refine messaging and content that helps them amplify the impact of the mission they’re on.

I’ve also realized my time and talents can help non-profit organizations doing great things. I’ve begun to help where I can as my bandwidth allows in this area, which is really cool.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I would say the biggest skill that I had to learn on the journey to start my business was that confidence comes from trying things, not researching. I was stuck early on in my journey because I thought I had to have a huge knowledge base to gain the confidence to start. I learned that my confidence actually came from doing the thing. And this was also how I learned the most. I not only learned the skills I needed to do the job well, but I also gained clarity on what I liked and didn’t like. Sometimes something sounds great until you actually get into it.

I would also say investing in yourself has a huge impact on your business. I’ve hired a variety of coaches throughout my journey, and they’ve been instrumental in my success. They’ve been hugely impactful in helping me to learn and grow in my business more quickly than I would have otherwise. More than that, they’ve been key to helping me develop personally, which helps me to show up better for both my clients and my friends and family. We’re never done learning and growing. When you own your own business, there are always new challenges that can pop up or uncertainty that lies ahead. While this can definitely be stressful, I’ve learned that I also need to embrace this. It means I’m growing and expanding both in my business and as a person. And that’s how I can maximize my impact.

Lastly, I always want people to know that it just takes one small step on the journey to their dreams. You don’t need to quit your job and burn the boats to follow your dreams. You can take one small action to get started. You can read a book about what you might want to build. You can start to serve others through articles or podcasts. You can volunteer. I started my business with a weekly blog. It didn’t cost much except for what it took to start my website, and I only had to worry about new content weekly. One foot in front of the other.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

This is a great question. As a writer, I’ve learned that there are lots of ebbs and flows in my business depending on how different project life cycles are lining up. There are a few ways I tackle overwhelm (although I’m always learning).

The first is to make a list of everything I have to do. For bigger projects, I break these down into bite-sized tasks. This helps in a few ways. With a list of smaller tasks rather than a few big projects, it seems more doable to start knocking items off the list. This also helps with prioritization. I look at the week ahead and list out all my commitments (meetings, appointments, etc.) I then look at what items have to get done on a certain day. Things that have a firm deadline that week have to take priority and be scheduled first. Then I sprinkle in items that should be done that week. I leave items that would be nice to be done on the overall list, but I don’t schedule them into the week. Then I don’t feel bad if I run out of time to check them off. I try to make it so I focus on three main tasks per day to avoid cramming too much in, especially in a creative field.

I also make sure that I still take time for myself. My dog is an immense help with this. I still get outside and go for walks. I still make sure I’m getting proper levels of sleep. I still wind down at night by reading a book or catching some TV. I eat three proper meals. And as much as possible, I try to keep some normalcy in the plans I would normally make.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jamiedykstra.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-dykstra/

Image Credits

Credit for the personal photo goes to Lauren Elizabeth Photography.