What happened after publishing my first white paper 🧐
June 2nd, 2026
There’s a particular kind of project that asks more of you than you anticipated – more time, more coordination, and more trust in the process than you expected when you started. It requires you to learn as you go, protect large blocks of time in a calendar that is never truly yours, and keep multiple people moving in the same direction. If you’ve ever taken something like that on, you already know: the stretch is the point.
For me, that project was a white paper – my first. Six months of learning a new process, doing deep and focused work alongside my client roster, and bringing six contributors and a contributing author toward a shared finish line. If that energy sounds familiar, you’ll recognize what I’m about to describe. And if it doesn’t yet, I hope this case study shows you what becomes possible when you say yes to the right kind of stretch.
Two weeks after publishing, I’m still surprised by where it landed.
I expected it to reach coaches and consultants who facilitate. I didn’t expect it to land in the hands of an Organizational Development Consultant at a major Canadian municipality, who wrote back to tell me she’d let it influence how she guided a group through a session that same day.
But I’ll come back to that.
First, let me tell you how this actually came together. Because this wasn’t a document I generated overnight. It was a six-month project, and the story behind it has real relevance for your business.
How it started
One of my goals for 2026 was one meaningful collaboration per month. This one started as a pitch to a client – Mike Zimic of Human Scaffold, a facilitator who has spent two decades getting rooms full of people who had every reason not to engage to actually engage.
I had been researching trauma-informed facilitation following a personal experience with poor facilitation that affected me more than I expected. The research was building into something. I pitched Mike on a collaborative article.
He said yes.
Mike took my early research and built something I hadn’t anticipated: a trauma-informed facilitation tenet table mapped directly to his own facilitation frameworks. He then developed a checklist he began using in real workshops while we were still writing. He didn’t just contribute to the paper. He stress-tested the ideas in real rooms.
He later said: “I wasn’t familiar with the term ‘Trauma-Informed Facilitation’ until Moriah told me about it. Upon learning more, I realized these were approaches I had intentionally been building into my workshop preparation all along. It was a powerful reminder that many of the instincts and methods I use naturally already hold real value and credibility.”
That recognition that the instincts you’ve been trusting have a name and a framework behind them is exactly what I hoped this paper would give people. Defining the thing you’re already doing well – and giving you a framework to do it with more intention.
The pivot
As I started sharing the idea with others and thinking about who else had relevant expertise to contribute, I realized this was no longer an article. The scope, the contributors, the research – it had become a white paper.
That reframe changed everything: the format, the production process, the distribution strategy, and ultimately the value it could deliver. An article would have gone out as a long-form email and that would have been the end of it. A white paper had legs.
I was also missing a lead magnet. I’d been stuck for months on what would genuinely provide value for my audience. A research-backed publication with six contributors, three case studies, and legal analysis across three jurisdictions? That’s not just some freebie. That’s a resource.
What the process actually required
A white paper is a project management undertaking. Here’s what you may not anticipate:
It requires large, uninterrupted blocks of deep work. This isn’t something you can chip away at in 20-minute windows between client calls. I had to carve out focused periods and treat it as the primary project during those windows.
Managing contributors across multiple stages (input collection and courtesy review at a minimum) requires clear timelines, consistent communication, and timely follow-up. In my case: six contributors, three customized questionnaires, one contributing author interview, a structured editorial process, and a final review round. If you’ve ever chased someone for a deadline, you know this skill is not universal.
Attention to detail – at every stage. A white paper carries a different standard than a blog post or newsletter. Readers expect it to be thorough, accurate, and internally consistent. That means fact-checking every statistic, verifying every source link, and confirming that the claims you make in one section don’t contradict or drift from what you’ve said in another.
It also means editorial coherence – when six contributors are woven through a document alongside your own research and a contributing author’s field experience, someone has to hold the through-line. Voice consistency, terminology consistency, and structural logic don’t happen by accident. They require someone reading the whole thing with fresh eyes, more than once, asking: Does this flow? Does this land? Does this earn the reader’s trust?
For this paper, that included a plagiarism check, a full reference audit with live link verification across three jurisdictions, a courtesy review round with every contributor, and multiple editorial passes. Not because I’m a perfectionist. Because the document has my name on it, and because the people whose names are also on it trusted me to get it right.
That level of care is what separates a white paper worth downloading from one that gets skimmed and forgotten.
Download your copy of Trauma-informed Facilitation in Practice
What surprised me most
The benefits of publishing a white paper are wider than most people realize going in. Two weeks out, here’s what I’m already seeing:
An extended and unintended audience. L&D professionals, HR teams, social workers, organizational development consultants… people I wasn’t writing for are finding genuine value in it. That happens when the research is solid, and the topic has real cross-sector relevance.
A credibility asset with genuine reach. This paper is already being shared with organizational development teams and facilitators’ communities of practice. Which brings me back to the person I mentioned at the start.
An anonymous reader, an Organizational Development Consultant at a major Canadian municipality, wrote to ask permission to share the paper with two internal groups. A few days later, she sent a follow-up:
“Timing was perfect too – I let some gems in your paper influence how I guided a group through a session today.”
I didn’t write this paper for her. But it reached her. And it was useful in a real room, with real people, that same week.
A lead magnet that works. The week this paper launched, more people joined my list than in any recent comparable period – many of them because of the paper specifically. And a good portion of those new subscribers are exactly the kind of people who might one day need help creating something like this for their own business.
Which brings me to the point.
Is a white paper right for your business?
Not for everyone. But if you’re an established coach or consultant with genuine expertise, a clear audience, and something worth saying at length – the answer might be yes. Here’s what makes it work:
Clarity on your primary purpose and how it will be distributed. A white paper that lives on a public landing page as a lead magnet needs to deliver value to a cold audience who doesn’t know you yet – accessible, practical, structured to introduce your thinking. One written to pitch a corporate client is more formal and credential-focused. One designed for peer thought leadership positions you differently again. The tone, length, citation style, and promotion strategy all flow from this decision.
A real connection to your expertise. The paper has to build or deepen your credibility – not just demonstrate that you can write. If the topic is a stretch, readers will feel it.
Something your audience can’t find anywhere else. The most valuable white papers fill a genuine gap: a perspective, a framework, or a body of field experience that only you can bring.
The right contributors in mind. A white paper is a relationship project as much as a writing project. The contributors you choose will either deepen existing relationships or open new ones. Both are valuable – but knowing which you’re after will shape who you reach out to and how.
Bandwidth and commitment. Other people are involved. Timelines matter. If follow-through isn’t your strength, this project will either stall or damage relationships.
Someone to manage the process. This is where I come in. Whether you need a project manager to run the production, a research and development partner to help shape the content, or both – this is work I can help with.
Exercise: Brainstorm your white paper topic
Take ten minutes and work through these questions. You don’t need answers to all of them – you’re looking for where the energy is.
On the topic:
- What question do your clients or audience ask repeatedly that deserves a longer, more researched answer?
- What do you know – from experience, observation, or practice – that most people in your field are getting wrong or missing entirely?
- What topic sits at the intersection of what you’re genuinely passionate about and what your audience genuinely needs?
On originality:
- Is there a perspective, a framework, or a body of field experience that only you (or someone in your immediate network) can bring to this topic?
- What would make someone download this over anything else they could find on the subject?
On contributors:
- Who in your network has a perspective that would strengthen this topic, and would saying yes deepen your relationship with them?
- Is there someone outside your current network whose contribution would open a new relationship worth having?
On fit:
- Do you have a clear picture of who this is for – specific enough that the right person would read the summary and feel like it was written for them?
- Do you know what you want readers to do, think, or feel differently after reading it?
If you answered most of these with confidence, you might have a white paper topic worth developing. If several of them stopped you cold, that’s useful information too.
What’s next with white papers?
I met with Mike yesterday to flesh out plans for his next white paper. I’ve been circling in on the next topic I might approach. If you’ve been thinking about creating something like this too, and want to talk through whether it makes sense for your business, a Coffee Chat with me is the easiest first step.
We’ll explore whether you might need a project manager to run the production, a research and development partner to help shape the content, or both.
Talk soon,
Moriah
P.S. If any part of this made you think “I’d love to do something like this, but I wouldn’t know where to start” – that’s exactly what a Coffee Chat is for. No agenda, no pitch, no obligation. Just a conversation to see what might be possible. Grab a time here.
P.P.S. If you know someone who facilitates, runs group programs, or holds space for teams, please send them here to download the paper: vibehigh.kit.com/facilitationwhitepaper