// about
About
Launched in 2017, Total Emphasis is a full-service content shop: content strategy, executive ghostwriting, thought leadership, scriptwriting, editing, and copywriting.
Keith O'Brien is an executive ghostwriter and content strategist for Fortune 500 and AI companies. A journalist since 2004, he became the youngest Editor-in-Chief in PRWeek's history, ran lines of business at multiple marketing agencies, led content and digital marketing for a fertility SaaS startup, and has published 647+ pieces, most under other people's names.
He also builds the software behind the content. Total Emphasis runs on tools he wrote himself: Current (an automated research pipeline), Recall (a queryable knowledge base over the client CRM), Atelier (a content-operations app), Dossier (a drafting engine that audits every claim against a source), and the portfolio site you're reading right now. He ships in TypeScript, Bun, and Tauri.
The work is measured. SEO content he contributed to at IBM became the brand's #1 source of marketing traffic, and a Fortune 500 executive's LinkedIn engagement rose from 0.5% to 6.5% on his program.
Services
Thought Leadership Ghostwriting
Help your executive convey their brightest and biggest ideas.
Sales Enablement & Web Copy
Decks, one-pagers, case studies, and website copy that helps your sales team close.
Content Strategy
Audits, calendars, and roadmaps that give your content program direction and purpose.
Longform & Book Development
White papers, ebooks, research reports, and book proposals for executives and companies.
SEO & Inbound Content
Blogs and topic pages built to rank and convert.
Newsletter Development
Strategy, setup, and ongoing writing for newsletters that people actually open.
Expertise
- Executive Ghostwriting
- Thought Leadership
- White Papers
- Case Studies
- Newsletters
- AdTech
- MarTech
- Enterprise Tech
- AI/ML
- SaaS
- Financial Services
- Ghostwriting
- Content Strategy
- Editorial Direction
- Brand Voice Development
- Company Blogs
- Industry Publications
- Substack/Beehiiv
Select clients - current and past
How it
works
Speed
We work faster and harder than the competition.
Understanding
We take the time to learn about your business and unique needs.
Satisfaction
We work until you're happy with the results.
Common
questions
What makes Total Emphasis different from other content agencies?
I ghostwrite for B2B founders and executives, and I also build the software behind the work: research feeds, project pipelines, content tooling, MCP servers, the portfolio site itself. Operating from inside the stack means the content reads like it came from an operator, because it did.
What industries does Keith specialize in?
Technology and Marketing & Advertising are the deepest specialties, together about 60 percent of the published portfolio split roughly evenly between them. Consulting, financial services, healthcare, and insurance round out the rest.
Why does Keith build software?
Two reasons. Ghostwriting at scale needs custom tooling (research aggregation, source management, project workflow) that no off-the-shelf product handles well. And building products gives me operator instincts I use when writing for product-led companies.
Where can I see examples of Keith's writing?
The Portfolio page lists 647 published pieces across IBM, Realeyes, Forbes, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, AdvertisingWeek, Ad Exchanger, MarTech Series, and others.
More
When the work needs a system to scale, research feeds, project pipelines, content tooling, I build that too. See the tools behind the work →