“Trust the process“
These words adorn the sign on star ghostwriter Joanne Gordon’s desk, and when former Coach CEO Lew Frankfort engaged Joanne to write the book that would ultimately become Bag Man: The Story Behind the Improbable Rise of Coach, published by Harvard Business Review Press in October 2025, this became the mantra that would guide their collaboration.
At November’s Gathering of the Ghosts conference in New York, 225 writing and publishing professionals had the pleasure of hearing from Lew and Joanne about their work together in the keynote session.
Lew had an enormously successful career building Coach into the one of the world’s most iconic fashion brands, and as he embarked on his authorship journey he felt a deep responsibility to do justice not only to his own story, but those of the company he’d devoted his professional life to leading and all the colleagues, friends and family members who’d supported him along the way. Lew wasn’t looking to self-mythologize or portray himself as a “master of the universe,” but to dig deep and open up about the low moments as well as the triumphs. As he put it, he set out to “tell the story of Coach in an authentic way that would discuss my own drive for excellence, my fear of failure, and the occasional depressive episodes that I’ve had.”
Pulling it off meant that establishing trust with Joanne was absolutely critical, not only so Lew would feel comfortable discussing some of the toughest and most vulnerable moments of his life with her, but also so he could follow Joanne’s lead in exploring unexpected tangents, rethinking material that wasn’t working, and letting the book reveal itself to them over the course of the collaboration.
Trusting Joanne was perhaps made easier because she was a superstar collaborator who’d previously written for numerous business leaders who’d built successful brands at companies, such as Starbucks and IBM. It also helped that in 2001 she’d already profiled Lew for Forbes Magazine—though funnily enough, Joanne said she’d heard through the grapevine that Lew hadn’t liked the story, a misapprehension that wasn’t corrected for 23 years until Harvard Business Review Press put her forward as a candidate for Lew’s book and he told directly that he actually had liked her article.
But ultimately that trust between author and collaborator wasn’t just a function of Joanne’s resume or prior credits, but something she and Lew built through countless hours of interviews and deep conversation over the course of an 18 month collaboration—in person and on zoom, one on one and with over 75 other key players in Lew’s story, covering the highs and the lows of Lew’s life and everything in between. They found that they were remarkably aligned on many levels (both are driven by a deep fear of failure, for instance) and together, they developed a shared philosophy to help the writing process, built around a few key, guiding principles:
Process is the product. Lew came in knowing some of what he wanted to say, but some of the most compelling portions of the book emerged organically through conversations with Joanne. It was important not to cling too rigidly to a predetermined vision, but to allow the structure and content of the book to change and develop. Lew particularly liked that Joanne was good at challenging him in a constructive way that pushed him to “evolve his thinking.” As Joanne said, trusting the process is a “hedge against the inevitable problems and obstacles that will come up as we try to figure out what does this look like?” Part of that approach involved not letting “perfection be the enemy of progress,” meaning that Joanne would share materials with Lew when they were still in a very rough form to allow for iterative feedback, which eventually helped her hone in on a voice and style that felt true to Lew.
Logic and Magic. Lew built his career around these twin pillars, and firmly believes successful enterprises require a bit of both. He brought that same mindset to his work with Joanne. Writing is an art, so there must be room for “magic,” for spontaneity, inspiration and above all curiosity. But they also need to abide by a certain logic, by a coherent structure and consistent work ethic. Lew believes that ”extreme collaboration is a quality that needs to be learned. It doesn’t come naturally,” and logic is about putting that into practice. In both business and writing, the forces of logic and magic aren’t opposed, they’re symbiotic.
The Power of Parking It. Many of the most engaging parts of a book may emerge through unexpected tangents that bring to mind stories and ideas that otherwise might have never come up. As Joanne put it, “The joy and excitement is when [the author] says things they didn’t know they wanted to say.” A good bookwriting process isn’t about rigidly predefining the book, it’s about creating a framework that allows for discovery. At the same time, staying on track to hit deadlines and cover key moments and ideas is also important. Walking the line between making room for tangents without getting lost in the weeds can be a tricky balance, and their solution was to say “park it” when they found themselves going down a tangent that was interesting but maybe too far from a core story or message—meaning, like a parked car, they were going to leave it for the moment but come back to the anecdote later. Managing tangents with a firm date to return to them helped them stay on track without being overly rigid.
Ultimately, that process was a successful one. Not only in that it produced an excellent book, which Lew, Joanne and the publisher were all thrilled with, but because Lew came away feeling “more contented with his life’s journey.” Small wonder that Lew had no issue with sharing credit with Joanne. As he said “I like to promote Joanne’s role even more than she allows me to….There’s no doubt it’s my story, but Joanne brought it to life in a way that I could not do on my own. We share similar values, and we went on a journey together.”
The keynote session was moderated by business book collaborator and publisher Becca Braun.
