How this Former Event Coordinator Created a Six-Figure Book Writing Business

Real-Life Relaunch Story

Isabella Masucci, Founder + CEO, The Masucchi Method:

“I love that I get to work with really intelligent people. I work primarily with entrepreneurs, and I am an entrepreneur. I love that energy— that hustle, get it down, move forward and grow energy. I love that I'm surrounded by those types of people all the time.”  

New York City-based Isabella Masucci launched her first career in event coordination, overseeing big-budget affairs like Art Basel and the Super Bowl for the Miami Design District.

But losing her job during the pandemic in 2020 led her on a whole new path as a ghost writer and book consultant. She is CEO and founder of the Masucci Method, a ghostwriting agency that specializes in transforming podcasts and online courses into self-published books.

In three years, she has tripled her former salary. She writes four books a year while making time for daily workouts and nine weeks of vacation.

With natural talent and hard-won discipline, Isabella’s career relaunch shows how it’s possible to write your own ticket to financial freedom and the lifestyle you want.

Q: What was your career path before becoming a ghost writer/book coach? 

I had always wanted to be a writer. But I didn’t know how to do it, or if it was financially possible. I never wanted to be a journalist. I had no interest in working for a newspaper or a magazine. But, I grew up among entertainment entrepreneurs, and that entrepreneurial lifestyle always appealed to me.

After college, I moved to Miami and got a job as a cultural coordinator for a private members club. I really liked it, but I wasn’t making a lot of money. I changed jobs and went to work as the event coordinator for the Miami Design District, where I helped coordinate the calendars and budgets for major events like the Super Bowl and Art Basel. 

Q: How did you decide to make a change?

Covid happened, and obviously, there were no events, so I got laid off. Honestly, when it happened, I was really thrilled. I was exhausted by the events lifestyle, and wanted a different experience. I got on unemployment insurance, and took five months to write a novel that I had been dying to write for years. It was incredible—I got to learn how to really get into the nitty gritty work of writing books, and wrote five drafts of my book until I got it right. 

Then, one day, I texted an old mentor from New York, Rhea Wong, who is a well known fundraising consultant. I told her that I finished my novel. She asked me if I wanted to write her book and I said yes! 

I came up with this idea to transform existing content, like podcasts, Instagram, emails etc. into a cohesive, narrative-driven book. I wrote Rhea’s book and it went number one on Amazon in the genre.

While I was working on Rhea’s book, I had hired a life coach to help me figure things out and make sure that I didn’t go back to a job that exhausted me. She said that at some point, I needed to decide if I was really going to make this my business, or find a job. I decided then that I really didn’t want another job, so I buckled down and focused on my business.

I kept selling the idea of repurposing existing content to other consultants. And now, it is my full-time job.  

Q: What has been the most surprising thing about launching your own business? 

It's a lot of responsibility. It takes a certain amount of drive. Over the last two years, I've worked six days a week. I have not gone out. I am not partying. But, I go to pilates everyday, and wrote six books. 

I think one of the things I didn’t anticipate, but I’m happy I did, is investing a lot of money into hiring coaches. I have a really amazing business coach. And I have editors that I work with. It’s been really important to get the right team behind me to help me to move forward.  

Q: What do you love about what you do?

I love that I get to work with really intelligent people. I work primarily with entrepreneurs, and I am an entrepreneur. I love that energy—that hustle, get it down, move forward and grow energy. I love that I'm surrounded by those types of people all the time. 

I work with a lot of people who say ‘no’ to limitations and like to say ‘no’ to boundaries. So many of the people I work with are breaking boundaries in their own fields. We are reestablishing what it means to do that in a career.  

Q: For entrepreneurs like the people you serve, what are the benefits of writing a book?

I’ve seen that there are so many professional and personal development benefits to writing a book. Professionally, it's about taking the time to authenticate yourself as an authority figure in your  space. You’re coming up with a new idea, presenting it to the world as yours, and cornering the market as a thought leader in your specific field. 

I read Stephen King's book on writing recently. He says that writing a book is like practicing telepathy. It's like speaking directly to someone in their mind. What more powerful way to communicate your own ideas than to literally have your voice be heard in someone’s mind?

There is also massive personal development when you write a book. There's a real transformation of having the discipline – even through working with a ghost writer – to commit to telling your story, explore things that haven't been explored yet, and heal parts of your life that need healing. All of my clients have said that there is a real healing component to working with me and it's very therapeutic. 

And it's quite fun. By the end of it, everyone's a slightly different person. They have a deeper understanding of themselves, who they serve, and what they want to do in the world.  

Q: What advice would you tell others who are thinking about launching a service-based business?

Don't actually do it alone. My first advice for everyone is always to invest in a business coach. Working with a business coach has helped me re-establish all of my own limiting thoughts—for example, about much money I can actually make—and helped me get comfortable charging and talking about money. 

Be kind to yourself. When I first started, this didn’t come naturally. I’m not this wildly disciplined person who can sit down and write for hours and not be distracted by Instagram or online stores. I had to learn the discipline of sitting down and committing to have something to say. Just letting yourself have the space. Finding the right time management system has been huge.

Finally, if you’re going to be writing and working from home you need to have the right set up. Set yourself up with the right desk and the right keyboard. It goes along with the whole idea about investing. Invest in yourself, in coaches and in a great set up so that you can succeed.