Zumwald’s speech, e-publication win two APEX 2020 Awards for Publication Excellence

ENGLEWOOD, Ohio, July 23, 2020 – Teresa Zumwald, the CEO, speechwriter and storyteller at Zumwald & Company, LLC, has received two Awards of Excellence in the APEX® 2020 Awards for Publication Excellence competition.

One entry won in the Writing – Speech & Script Writing category, and one entry won in the Electronic Media – Electronic Publications category.

APEX 2020 is the 32nd annual awards program recognizing excellence in publishing by professional communicators.

About the winning speech

Zumwald’s winning speech is entitled “Free Enterprise at Work: How Winsupply’s Business Model Gives Everyday People the Freedom to Earn Their Own Success.”

It was written for Rick Schwartz, chairman of the board, Winsupply Inc.

Schwartz delivered the speech at the Road to Freedom Seminar: Secrets to Advancing Free Enterprise Over Socialism, the Center for Entrepreneurship & Free Enterprise, Young America’s Foundation in Reston, Va., on Sept. 21, 2019.

Read the speech here.

Earlier this year, this speech also won a Cicero Speechwriting Award from Vital Speeches of the Day, as noted on page 32 here.

“By telling stories about everyday people, the speaker was able to introduce a complex business model to a diverse audience,” Zumwald said. “The first step was boiling down the business model to just three words: sharing, trusting and helping.”

Young America’s Foundation invited Schwartz to speak at the seminar to talk about the practical – not theoretical – aspects of free enterprise:

What does free enterprise look like on the ground?
What does free enterprise look like inside a business in America?
What works?

Schwartz’s address kicked off the first full day of the seminar. The over-capacity live audience included more than 70 college students (freshmen to seniors) majoring in economics, business, political science, history or journalism. These students – from 35 unique colleges and universities – came from 18 U.S. states; Washington, D.C.; Canada; and the UK. In addition, more than 4,000 people streamed the live speech.

About the winning electronic publication

The winning electronic publication is entitled “19 Superpowers Your Speechwriter Must Have to Create Your Award-Winning Speech.”

Zumwald wrote the e-book to help her clients learn how to work with a speechwriter.

It was designed especially for leaders who are way overbooked, already too busy managing people and projects, and worried their speech won’t turn out the way they want.

“For a leader who’s never worked with a speechwriter before, it can seem like a big leap: What am I getting into? How does it work? What can a speechwriter bring to the table?” Zumwald said. “In a word? Superpowers.”

Zumwald goes on to define 19 superpowers required for good speechwriting – from “Super Learning” (No. 3) to “Shapeshifting” (No. 6) to “Steel Skin” (No. 15) to “Sharpshooting” (No. 17).

The graphic design for Zumwald’s 16-page e-book was completed by Keri Jaehnig, founder and CEO, Idea Girl Media.

Read the e-book here.

About the APEX 2020 Awards for Publication Excellence

Excerpt from the winning “Superpowers” e-book

APEX awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence. The Awards of Excellence, which Zumwald received, recognize exceptional entries in each of the individual categories.

With nearly 1,200 entries, competition was exceptionally intense, according to Ken Turtoro, executive editor of The APEX Awards and Communications Concepts, Inc. Besides Turtoro, the panel of judges included John De Lellis, Concepts editor and publisher; Christine Turner, contributing editor of the Writing That Works Archives; and Bill Londino, consulting editor of Writer’s Web Watch.

The judges presented 476 Awards of Excellence in 100 subcategories within 12 major categories: