Speechwriting

7 ways to rock your next acceptance speech

Your audience will thank you if you skirt the predictable – and instead give them something to think about or act upon after the evening is over. For many executives, receiving an award is a good news, bad news thing. First, the good news: “Congratulations! You’ve won an award for your outstanding achievements!” (And now […]

How to wrestle down the beast: Your next Big Hairy Audacious Presentation

Think about the last time you delivered a Big Hairy Audacious Presentation to your management team, customers, prospects or peers. How did your prep go? Were you awash in so much awesome material – that you had to clamor like crazy for focus? What did you leave in? (But more important: What did you leave […]

10 power questions you must ask when your speech hits a wall

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 […]

Speakers: Meet people right where they are (and there’s no place like home)

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 […]

Take a risk – change! – and discover more strength within

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 […]

Pick out a good father and mother, and begin life in Ohio (and other ways to endear yourself as a speaker)

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 […]

Speechwriting Sunday School (a new view from the pew)

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 […]

Put this question right in the crosshairs

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 […]

Notable, quotable State of the Union speech lines that Lincoln wrote (but never spoke)

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 […]

Let’s get personal

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 […]