This is the first of a two-part report on the September 27th meeting of Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association. On Saturday we heard from two communications experts: Speechwriter Pete Weissman and visual thinking expert David Sibbet. This posting is a summary of Pete’s material.

Award-winning speechwriter Pete Weissman revealed how he helps CEOs and political leaders win over audiences. His methods help sharpen a speakers’ ideas so they are remembered, repeated, reported, and re-tweeted. Disclaimer: I’ve known Pete for over six years since we met at the Ragan Speechwriters Conference in DC. He’s one of the best freelance speechwriters there is.

8 tools to add color to your speech

Pete shared some tried and tested rhetorical tools that add color to a speech.

• Rhyme – used by Fripp when she says specificity builds credibility.
• Alliteration – repeating the initial sounds of words, used in the title for this blog posting!
• Parallelism – used by Susan RoAnne on her website where she states: Conversation Is Crucial. Networking Is Necessary. Mingling Is Mandatory.
• Anaphora – Famously used by Winston Churchill when he uses repetition at the start of each sentence in his June 4, 1940 speech to the House of Commons: …we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…
• Epistrophe – uses repetition at the end of a sentence, as in Lincoln’s Gettysburg address …government of the people, by the people, for the people…
• Metaphor – was contained in Churchill’s comment that “an iron curtain has descended…”
• Opposites – Pete wrote remarks delivered by an executive to honor Desmond Tutu who “…walks into darkness and always finds the light. He finds the best in people even as he confronts the worst in people.”
• Chiasmus – or ‘echoing’ of a phrase was used by JFK when he challenged his fellow Americans to …ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.

Sound bites

These are short catchy phrases that someone takes away from your presentation. Speechwriters should aim for just one sound bite per speech that will be remembered, repeated, reported and re-tweeted. Pete’s “Weissman Wordsmith Formula” to write a sound bite is to

• Summarize your main point, or what happened.
• Analyze what it means. what’s the impact? What’s next? What’s the speakers’ point of view?
• Add some spark in terms of conflict, emotion, or drama.
• Make it sing by using the 8 tools (above).

An example would be Joseph Bradley of Cisco Systems who was quoted in The Wall Street Journal, January 6, 2014 “Big data is worth absolutely nothing without big judgment.”

How to engage your audience

We heard of three ways that a speaker can deliver content that engages an audience:

1. Use a chorus – as in any pop song, repeating key ideas unifies the theme of the speech between different sections.
2. Signpost – especially in PowerPoint slides, don’t have literal titles, but keep people involved with subtle signposts.
3. Dress up your forks – meaning, highlight and embellish alternatives, so there is a sharper contrast between options in your presentation.

How to write a home run speech

Pete shared a simple yet powerful speechwriting secret to plan the structure of a speech. He posed four essential questions you need to answer before proceeding, Babe Ruth style, to the next step.

1. What is the audience’s biggest problem? – Ask the meeting organizers:
   • Why is this group meeting?
   • What keeps them up at night?
   • What frustrates them?

   The goal is for the speaker to be aware of the pain-point the audience has and play back the terms they use in the speech

2. What is the unique point of view that only you can provide?What’s your life experience, challenges, education that gives you a unique perspective only you can can offer the audience?
3. What do you want the audience to know that is new?This is the take-away message, the core of your talk.
4. How can you connect your topic to a current trend or news item?In order to reach beyond the conference, connect your topic to larger issues. That is one way to secure press coverage or social media traction.

These four steps can be woven into any speech, and reminded me of Aristotle’s classic speech persuasion trilogy. Starting with the introduction, then transitioning to the justification for listening to you (ethos), giving an emotionally charged take-away (pathos) buttressed by a logical argument (logos).

Pete deferred a discussion on how to speak like a thought leader, referring us to the recording of his presentation at the 2014 NSA conference on this topic and his SpeakerNetNews teleseminar on strategies for becoming a thought leader.