Speechwriting

Someone asked me the other day whether they could give the exact same keynote address written for one audience – a college community – to a completely different audience of high-powered business executives. I hesitated. After all, a speech with examples, stories, statistics and anecdotes that resonate with the college crowd won’t touch the hearts and […]

“Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Go It Alone” – a keynote address written in April for a Dayton-area client – drew upon a local historical event to anchor the opening and closing remarks. One entrepreneur attending the event rushed up afterward, greeted the speaker and said, “You made me feel like an astronaut!” Here are two excerpts […]

Try making it personal. Start with a story. This is how I engaged my audience last week with a speech about speech giving — tips on how to “woo, win and wow!! your next audience”: I’ll never forget the advice I got decades ago from one of my crusty old journalism professors during my first newspaper […]

“First Things First: Together We Can Make an Impact on Education,” a client speech written last year, won a national Award of Excellence in the APEX 2012 Awards for Publication Excellence competition in category 101: Speech & Script Writing. Here are the opening and closing remarks. EXCERPT (SPEECH OPENING) Let me tell you a true […]

What were they thinking? Change a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most revered activists, writers and orators of the 20th century? The deed is done, but many are calling for it to be undone. Here’s what chiselers of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington inscribed on the north […]

Want to write more speeches for existing clients? Want to get new speechwriting clients? Serendipity is only part of it, according to Sandra Yin, a writer based in Maryland and a colleague of mine. Sandra recently interviewed me and four other speechwriters from across the United States and in the United Kingdom about how to break into […]