The Story
Marcos built a $1 million/year ghost writing business in just 2 years - and he did it as a self-proclaimed introvert. He's the CEO of The Birdhouse, a Twitter ghost writing agency that went from $0 to $65K/month in one year.
- •"I've never been a sales guy. I'm an introvert, which is why I became a writer."
Before finding ghost writing, Marcos tried every business model under the sun: drop shipping, affiliate marketing, crypto, day trading, blogging. His first introduction to "internet money" came at 19 during Army basic training when a friend showed him day trading on his phone.
Finding Ghost Writing
Marcos realized his strengths aligned perfectly with ghost writing:
- •Played video games (introvert)
- •Had a blog
- •Did marketing in college
- •Been on Twitter since 2011
- •"When I chose copywriting I probably had like $2,000 to my name. It was a challenging time."
He bought a $50/month course that taught the ins and outs of ghost writing. After signing his first two clients at $1,000 each, he reinvested all $2,000 into a bigger $2,000/month course ($12,000 total). That investment led to a $3,000/month client.
The Service
The Birdhouse writes tweets, threads, and repurposes client videos for Twitter. They focus on coaches, consultants, and education companies because these clients can monetize faster.
Services include:
- •Tweets and threads
- •Long-form posts
- •Articles
- •Replies
- •Spaces setup
- •Video repurposing
Getting First Clients
The Cold-Warm-Hot DM Strategy
Cold DMs (100-200/day):
- •Compliment based on their profile
- •Give your offer
- •Say "if interested let me know, if not you're good"
Warm DMs:
- •DM people following you
- •DM people engaging with your content
Hot DMs:
- •People already interested
- •They're DMing you first
- •"Using those three and having a happy balance, that's how you can really accelerate the clients that you land."
First Client Journey
- •Started on Upwork
- •Used that job as social proof for Twitter DMs
- •Sent 100-200 DMs a day, tracked in Notion
- •Landed first $1K/month client
- •Got testimonial: "I got seven free trial subscribers"
- •Used that to land $3K/month coach client
- •Crushed it - viral every week, drove sales
- •"He's paying me $3K a month and this thread probably made him like $20-30K. So he just made enough money to pay me for 10 months."
The Closer Framework
For introverts who struggle with sales, Marcos used "The Closer Framework":
- •"If you can just get on a call, tell someone how you actually are going to help them and be honest and be a human, most people actually vibe with that."
Key insight: Sales is about conviction. If you believe you can help someone make more money, it's easy to sell.
Scaling to $50K+/Month
Two big shifts:
- •Mindset shift: From tactic hunting to implementing
- •Hiring: Decided to be an entrepreneur, not solopreneur
- •"Implementing is actually going out and doing it not just once, not just for a week, but for 6 months, 12 months straight."
Differentiation
Instead of promising followers (what everyone else did), Marcos differentiated:
- •"I quickly realized there's a much better way to do it. If I just make somebody more money than they pay me, then I'll have a client forever."
His offer: Help you monetize with Twitter, not just grow. Growth is a byproduct.
Current Business
- •~$70K/month revenue
- •~60% margins
- •Team of 5-6:
- •2 senior writers
- •1 junior writer
- •1 ops manager (started as assistant)
- •1 sales representative
Tools
- •Google Docs/Sheets
- •Canva for design
- •Hemingway (writing grade level checker)
- •Hypefury (tweet scheduling with client access)
- •Notion (dashboards, CRMs, client hubs)
Day in the Life
Marcos themes his days:
- •Mondays: 12-15 meetings, 7am-5pm, then Jiu-Jitsu
- •Tuesdays: Blank calendar - editing content, sourcing clients, working on business
- •Wednesdays: Calls and content day
- •"I don't really go out, I don't really party. I'm usually just either working in or around my business or going to Jiu-Jitsu, gym, watch TV, play video games."
Key Advice
- •"Play to your strengths and have the discipline to just stick it out. I would have succeeded 5 years earlier."
Biggest struggle was shiny object syndrome - seeing people flex Rolexes and Lambos online. The solution: shut out the noise and stick to one thing.
Resources
- •The Birdhouse: Twitter ghost writing agency
- •Follow Marcos on Twitter