Carter is an interview your client takes on their own time, from a link you send. It doesn't read a script. It listens to each answer, pushes where the answer is soft, moves on where there's nothing there, and keeps going until it has a defensible category for their business. The same day they finish, you get the full Category Codex: their category, their point of view, their language. You write from that instead of from thin notes.
You get one Zoom with a busy founder. They talk about the market, a few wins, a pet peeve. Then they disappear into their calendar and you invent the rest.
The notes are thin, so the draft is generic. It sounds like every other executive in their space. They send it back with "doesn't quite sound like me," and you can't get them on the phone to find out what would.
The draft is only as sharp as what you got out of the client.
A short call with James confirms you're a working ghostwriter. Then you take the Carter interview yourself, about your own ghostwriting business, and get your full Category Codex at no cost. You'll know exactly what your clients go through and what comes back.
When you're ready to use it on a client, order a Codex for $500. They click it and land on Carter, which starts the interview. No Capture the Conversation branding, no pitch, no sign-up. As far as your client knows, this is part of your process.
About 45 minutes, whenever suits them: 2am, a lunch break, Sunday in the driveway. No calendar invite and no Zoom for you to chase. Send links to the rest of the leadership team too, if you want more than one voice.
The same day they finish. Not a transcript pile. A finished position you can build the book, the LinkedIn, the site, and the sales story on.
You stay the writer. Carter is the interview. Your client just notices the draft sounds like them on the first pass.
Your client clicks a link, sees Carter, and starts talking. There's no logo of mine to explain and no second vendor in the relationship. The Codex comes to you, and you decide how it reaches your client: as a standalone deliverable, folded into your onboarding, or never shown at all.
What you charge your client for it is your business. Bundle it into your fee or sell it as its own line item.
Your brand stays in front. I stay out of the way.
The same deliverables a founder pays $2,500 for. Nothing held back at the $500 rate.
The category your client can own, the point of view nobody else has the right to claim, what they stand against, and the language that makes it theirs. This is what you write from.
⚑ The core deliverableThe words your client says, the words they'd never say, and their category and enemy in one sentence each. Built as a paste-in prompt, so any AI you draft with starts in their voice instead of the internet's.
Where your client's current words contradict their own position and where they sound like every competitor. A ready-made list of what to fix first.
I charge founders $2,500 for a Codex. Confirmed ghostwriters start with one free, on their own business, then pay $500 per client. That's $2,000 off, every time. Not a launch promo and not a first-order discount.
One rate. As many times as you want.
Why so low? Because ghostwriters already have the relationship and the writing. Carter just fixes the part that's broken: getting the client's real ideas out of their head.
Carter was trained by a Category Design expert. It analyzes every answer as it comes in and decides what still has to be true before there's a complete Category Codex. Then it steers there.
Your client is a founder or executive who won't sit for a research project. The work is a book, thought leadership, a website, or a sales story that needs a sharp point of view. You want category-grade interviews without becoming the researcher.
Your client needs ongoing product, UX, or customer research (that's a Perspective-class tool). You only need a quick testimonial clip. Or the brief is already locked and you're polishing copy.
Carter turns leadership interviews into a defensible category for writing. Research tools run ongoing product research. Different jobs.
Once you're confirmed, you run the Carter interview on your own ghostwriting business and get the full Category Codex, Voice Print, and Category Gap analysis for it. No charge. It's the fastest way to see what your clients will go through and what you'll get back.
Book a short call with James or email him. He confirms you're a working ghostwriter or ghostwriting shop, sends your free interview link, and from then on every client Codex is $500.
No. Your client gets a link, lands on Carter, and the interview starts. No Capture the Conversation branding, no pitch. The Codex comes to you, and you decide what your client sees.
No. $500 per Codex, as many clients as you want, for as long as you're writing.
No. You need better ideas from the client. Carter was trained by a Category Design expert so the output is a defensible category (a Category Codex) you can write from, even if you never use those words with your client.
No. Carter aims at a complete Category Codex and adjusts the path from what your client actually said: it strengthens weak answers, skips empty ones, and keeps going until there's enough to write a position, not a pile of half-answers.
No. Carter is a link. Your client answers on their own time, in about 45 minutes.
Yes, when the founder's voice alone isn't enough. Same link pattern, and Carter synthesizes across the interviews.
Your writing, built on sharper source material: their own interview plus a category they can stand on. Hand them the Codex too if you want. That's your call.
A short call with James to confirm you're a ghostwriter. Your own Codex is free. After that, every client Codex is $500 (normally $2,500), with no cap.
Rather email? james@capturetheconversation.com →