Speechwriting

There we were – stuck in the boardroom on a Tuesday afternoon, three drafts in on a keynote speech – and I’d pretty much wrung all the best stuff out of my executive’s head. He was done. But his speech was not. The holes toward the end were gaping. Meanwhile, the clock was ticking. Just […]

Will your next speech be somewhere far away from home? If so, challenge yourself to find a link to the local region – and mention it early in your remarks to create immediate goodwill with your audience. Here’s how we did it for a European speaker traveling to Atlanta, Ga., for a keynote address to […]

I was interviewing a client for a speech on leadership when he interrupted my latest question and asked, “So what about you? Are you a risk-taker?”  I stopped typing, not often on the end of someone else’s line of questioning. “I guess I haven’t thought about it before. Why do you ask?” “You just set […]

No doubt the most captive audience Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough will ever have during his book tour touting “The Wright Brothers” is the one that flocked to a middle school in Dayton, Ohio, last night to hear him speak about The Bishop’s Boys. After all, Wilbur and Orville were Daytonians through and through. McCullough’s […]

Last Sunday I discovered a way to make sure not one word is wasted when you write your next speech. Imagine someone will have to sign every word you speak for people who are deaf. Last Sunday I watched and listened, on the edge of my seat, in absolute amazement while Fr. Benjamin Jimenez spoke […]

After the applause finally ended, and our amazing breakfast speaker left the stage, my colleague gave me that deer in the headlights look. “Wow – that was incredible!” he said. “Usually these speakers just stand up and spew a bunch of facts at us. But this guy really had something to say!” That we’re reduced […]

Speakers and speechwriters can learn a few tricks by tuning in to the President’s annual State of the Union speech Tuesday. Important speeches like these often deliver up colorful, memorable – often historic – lines and can inspire us to do the same whenever we write and give a speech. Abraham Lincoln is widely considered […]

Want to engage your audience right upfront? Try sharing a little piece of yourself. That’s what I did last night as emcee of the Woman of Distinction Awards Reception-Dayton for Girl Scouts of Western Ohio. The event at Dayton’s Schuster Center celebrated the legacy of Girl Scouting by honoring six exceptional women in the Dayton region who […]

I was thrilled to share six ways to make speeches “sticky” with 80 attendees at the Women in Business Networking Lunch ‘N’ Learn Tuesday. (Translation: A sticky speech has the power to help people hear, understand and remember – so it has the power to help people change the world.) Here’s a bonus example I didn’t […]

Today I am excited to announce that one of my speeches has won a top Cicero Speechwriting Award. “Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Go It Alone” – prepared for and delivered by Barbara Hayde of The Entrepreneurs Center on April 9, 2013, at the University of Dayton – won in the Leadership and Management category. Cicero called […]