Veteran speechwriter Hal Gordon says that speechwriters need to know three things – the speaker, the audience and the subject. Knowing the speaker means, among other things, being aware of how they speak. How they form their words and their cadence when they are in front of an audience. If a writer can do this then we say they have captured their ‘voice’. The speech sounds like it is the speakers own, not that of a professional writer. This is a difficult challenge for many.

True professionals are justifiably proud of their unique ability to write in a speaker’s voice.

Ted Sorensen: JFK’s Counselor

Ted Sorensen, JFK’s speechwriter and counselor, declined to write speeches for anyone else after he left the White House. He states that he could not write for “a stranger calling me up on the phone.” Sorensen explains, “For eleven years I was with JFK day and night. I knew what he thought and what he said on almost every subject…We traveled all 50 states together. We ate together, we lived together. We formed a bond.” The result was “I knew what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it on virtually every topic.” Indeed the mind-meld was so complete that no-one “could determine then – and certainly cannot now – which words in a final draft had originally been his and which were mine.”

An admiring Richard Nixon, of all people, told an interviewer in 1962 that “Sorensen…has the rare gift of being an intellectual who can completely sublimate his style to another individual.”

In the absence of this extremely close personal bond what is a merely mortal speechwriter to do?

Ground Rules

The first rule is to avoid the temptation to try to sneak something of your own into a speech. Make sure nothing gets into a speech that the speaker does not want to say. This might mean saying ‘no’ to some important people in the organization.

Once you’ve controlled the content, the next challenge is to get the ‘feel’ of the speaker.

It’s a lot easier if, like Sorensen, you have direct access to the executive or politician you are writing for. Travel with an executive – whether in the corporate jet or on the drive to the auditorium – is invaluable. It’s also easier to spend quality time if you have a staff position vs. doing freelance work with a new client.

Homework

Both freelance writers and staff need to do their homework. Start by reading all the past speeches by the person you can find. Better yet, search for video and audio on the web and in podcasts.

Learn to write in someone’s voice and, essentially, you’ve learned to imitate them. It means avoiding anything that would be discordant, either for them to read or for the audience to hear.

The writer needs to be fully aware of the speaker’s background and characteristics. This might be one or more of the following:

• Accent: Many non-native English speakers (and even a few native-born ones) have difficulty with certain words. Learn which ones might cause problems and avoid them.
• Emotion: Be aware of the emotional challenge certain situations might present. Chriss Winston, a member of George H.W. Bush’s speechwriting team, tells of the time Bush had to deliver a eulogy for forty-seven sailors killed in an explosion on the USS Iowa. The writers had built a number of emotional peaks into the address. Bush’s eyes filled with tears as he came to those passages and he had to skip them and move on.
• Origin: Speakers from the American South obviously speak in a different manner to New Englander’s. Speakers born outside the USA will have their own distinctive style. Having emigrated from the UK in the 1970’s I’m well aware that, as George Bernard Shaw said, “England and America are two countries separated by a common language.” If you are writing for a speaker from overseas you have the dual responsibility of writing in their voice while not confusing the audience. Be careful about letting your British-born speaker tell an American audience that we are “batting on a sticky wicket” or of letting an American named, say, Randolph Scott, start a speech in the UK with the words “Hi, I’m Randy…”
• Education: Overly-literate speechwriters should avoid the temptation of larding a speech with flowery language and pretentious expressions. Highly educated speakers and subject experts should use language the audience will understand, even if it’s below their own grade level.

As with much of the craft of speechwriting, if you succeed in finding your speaker’s voice, no-one will ever know of the work you do. Nor should they.

This article was first posted to Ragan.com.

Debra Russell: giving artists their edge

Last week I attended a presentation given at the Sandbox Suites by Debra Russell. Debra is the founder of Artist’s EDGE. She uses her business knowledge and ability to facilitate change and growth to help small business owners create a prosperous and sustainable living doing what they love. Debra specializes in small business and the Arts and Entertainment Industry and has presented innovative programs for industry trade conferences across the country.

In ‘Niche Marketing’ she discusses why many business owners are afraid to define their niche on the mistaken premise that they will lose business as a result. The truth is just the opposite. Designing your marketing around a niche can enable you to have a major impact on a small budget. Since most business owners are working with a limited to non-existent marketing budget Niche Marketing can give you a tremendous advantage over your competition.

In this video Debra discusses the concept of a niche and how it applies to your business. Specifically:

• The 8 steps of business income
• Finding a niche
• What aspects of a niche to research
• How to use Google and Yahoo Groups to develop a relationship with your niche market
• Best ways to use LinkedIn to connect with a niche
• How to combine Niche marketing with Social Networking to deliver high impact results with a very low investment

Parts of this presentation are based on the book Multiple Streams of Coaching Income by Andrea Lee.

Patrick Schwerdtfeger: The Tactical Execution Guy

Here’s edited highlights from a presentation to the SING Networking Group, Danville CA, June 29, 2009.

In this presentation to an audience of 50 job seekers Patrick discusses:

• How to rise to the top of the rankings when someone Google’s your name
• How to develop your unique Value Proposition
• The importance of recording a Video Resume
• Why you should post videos of yourself to YouTube
• Ways to tune-up your LinkedIn profile
• How to demonstrate your expertize by writing online articles
• The importance of niche marketing
• The value of being a published author

Patrick is the author of Webify Your Business, Internet Marketing Secrets for the Self-Employed as well as Make Yourself Useful, Marketing in the 21st Century

He is a professional speaker and corporate trainer focusing on the Social Media Revolution and how companies can leverage platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to build their businesses.

Looking Back

The last year has seen four editions of Professionally Speaking. When we launched this magazine a year ago I wrote that “Hewlett-Packard’s innovative MagCloud system makes magazine publishing available to anyone with a message to share. This describes most the members of the National Speakers Association.” Creating the first edition was easy. The articles were secured within 24 hours. I had help from H-P with the layout. What’s been a much bigger challenge is bringing out the other editions on a regular quarterly schedule.

We’ve now published over 30 articles by NSA/NC members and guest contributors from across the country. Our editorial and advertising team: Craig Harrison, Scott “Q” Marcus, Ann Steiner, Joanne Black and Gary Karp have done an incredible job bridging the gap between speakers who write and writers who speak.

Above and beyond Professionally Speaking, the unique opportunity to publish a magazine using print-on-demand technology (with almost no up-front costs) has been seized by our members. Go to magcloud.com and check out these publications:

• Two Words by Scott Marcus
• RESILIENCE! by Karen Walker-Tunoa
• Right Etiquette by Syndi Seid
• 100 Best Fleets by Tom Johnson

Finally, since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, take a look at the two editions of Georgia Speaker published by NSA Georgia.

Professionally Speaking is a showcase for one of the most dynamic and innovative chapters in the country. I’m proud to have helped create it and excited to look ahead to our second year of publication.

In This Issue

Ann Steiner, Ph.D. — Create Your Professional Speaker’s Back-Up System.

Jeanne K. Smith — Your estate is part of your legacy as a speaker. Protect yours!

Syndi Seid — Learn why manners matter for professional speakers.

Elfrena Foord CPA, CFP — Using money to create a passionate life.

Eve Abbott — Key cues to how first impressions of us are formed.

Randy Hlavin — Easy ways to create products and increase profit.

Order your copy of the magazine today.

Thanks to @jayphilips Tweeting about these 50 free resources that will improve your writing skills. Courtesy of Smashing Magazine.

Nested tips run into the hundreds.

Write on!

For many authors the book tour is a necessary evil. The reclusive scribe is forced into the public eye to read extracts from the podium to an indifferent audience. Authors, researchers, accountants – subject matter experts of all kinds find it difficult to speak about their passion in a compelling and engaging manner. These are introverts forced to perform unnatural extroverted acts in public. All but die-hard fans are likely to find such presentations boring.

The challenge is to take the minutia of a non-fiction book, research report, PhD thesis or chart of accounts and turn it into something audiences will find entertaining. Sounds impossible? Not so.

A modern Mark Twain

The Weekend Financial Times has a fascinating article on The Author as Performer by London ICA talks director James Harkin.

He reviews author Malcolm Gladwell’s presenting material from his latest book, Outliers: The Story of Success:

…this wasn’t a book reading or a Q&A session of the kind authors traditionally submit to. Neither was it a slide show, as you might expect to find at a lecture. Instead, the author recounted a single vignette from the book – the tale of why a plane ended up crashing, from the perspective of the pilots and those in the control tower – and burnished it into a narrative with all the chill and pace of a traditional ghost story. Even the lighting was kept deliberately low to create the right atmosphere. The performance lasted precisely an hour and five minutes, and no questions were invited after Gladwell had finished speaking. Rather than a talk about a book, it looked more like a carefully choreographed stage show.

Harkin recalls that Dickens and Mark Twain packed lecture halls in the US and Britain back in the 19th century.

Contemporary events such as the TED conference showcase “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world”. Speakers at TED are limited to 18 minutes in which to present their case – just long enough, according to the organizers, to develop an argument but short enough to hold people’s attention and encourage an economy of language. No questions are invited.

Speakers must adhere to the “TED Commandments” of speaking. These include: “Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out Thy Usual Shtick”; “Thou Shalt Tell a Story”; and “Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.”

The speaker as showman

The TED injunctions seem to work. In 2007, following his complex graphical presentation of economic trends, Hans Rosling, a Swedish professor of public health, tore off his shirt and proceeded to swallow a sword. The following year American brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor, talking about the memory of her stroke, pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and picked a real and soggy-looking human brain from an assistant’s tray.

Al Gore delivered a masterful presentation in his award-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth, by adding a touches of drama to what could have been no more than a glorified slide show.

It’s only rock and roll

Harkin notes that the trend toward speaker-as-rock-star signifies a shift in the economics of book publishing which mirrors the economics of the music industry.

Just as rock bands, in the age of digital MP3’s, give away the music and make the money off live performances, so authors might learn from the same kind of business model: supplementing meager returns from a book contract with an income stream from public speaking.

This is not news to the many author-members of the National Speakers Association. They are speakers who write, rather than writers who speak. As I’ve reported in this blog, they hold day-long seminars on topics such as publishing tips for speakers. Being natural performers, they are in the pole position to make money from the podium as well as the page.

Harkin reports that a select group of non-fiction authors with a business or technology focus have been able to command high fees for speaking privately at corporate events.

The new economics of publishing are bringing these exclusive presentations to a wider public.

Performance Piece

As in the time of Dickens and Twain, audiences seem willing to pay good money for a speech which informs and entertains.

Harkin notes:

When almost everything is available in a digital world of zeroes and ones, the thing that is impossible to duplicate is the intensely involving experience of live performance.
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That’s why people are still prepared to pay big money for live music, and why people choose to pay £20 for a one-off performance by Malcolm Gladwell. It’s why, in the past two years at the ICA our talks have been accompanied by everything from live butchery to live beard-trimming to the sudden appearance of dancing girls.

The challenge for many authors – especially of the dryer kind of non-fiction book – is how to make their words come alive on stage. It’s one thing for the author of a racy novel to hold an audience’s attention. After all, as someone once said, if you’ve got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.

But if your subject is cost accounting or nanotechnology, you’ll need a solid grounding in the ways subject matter experts can make an audience sit up and take notice when you’re presenting complex information.

The good news is that authors like Gladwell and the organizers of the TED Conference have cracked the code on this and are packing ’em in.

Now the bar has been raised, what will you do differently to turn your next talk into a performance piece?

Ellen Taliaferro, MD (aka Dr T) is a recovering emergency physician now serving as the Medical Director of the San Mateo Medical Center Keller Center for Family Violence Intervention in San Mateo, CA.

Using her background in emergency medicine, stress management, and writing, she has created a program called Healing the Wound Within with a personal Writing Practice Prescription.

In addition, she continues to speak on Domestic Violence As A Health Issue and The Medical Aspects Of Manual Strangulation As A Form Domestic Violence Assault.

Dr T grew up in Will Rogers country and loves country humor. She sees herself as a true Okie: “Sooner born, Sooner bred, and when I die I’m California dead.” Of note, she finished her clinical career at UTSW medical school and Parkland Hospital. While there, the Dallas Morning News named her as one of the 100 most influential Texas women — an amazing feat for an Okie.

Pro-Track Profile

Dr. T. is a professional member of the National Speakers Association. She’s also a Board Member of the Northern California Chapter. Ellen is one of a growing number of established members who have enrolled in the 2009 Pro-Track class in order to take their career to the next level.

To hear what Dr. T has to say about professional speaking, well writing and Pro-Track, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:09 — 1.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

I spent the day at the Women In Technology International (WITI) 20th Anniversary conference in Santa Clara.

One of the exhibitors was Pat Lynch, CEO and Editor in Chief of Women’s Radio, an online media and education network which carries podcasts on a wide variety of topics: business, relationships, lifestyle and politics.

Women’s Radio uses a unique podcast and video hosting service called Audio Acrobat. This allows anyone to record, publish and stream audio and video. Uses include radio shows, podcasts, multimedia email, video and more.

I took the opportunity to ask Pat about Women’s Radio and Audio Acrobat. Joining in the conversation, Wendy Wallbridge from On Your Mark Coach discusses how she uses Audio Acrobat to host her own video and podcasts.

To hear what Pat and Wendy shared with me, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:00 — 1.2MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

I visited the Northern California National Speakers Association (NSA/NC) Pro-Track class today and videotaped three great presentations.

1. Sentence Aerobics: Linda Vanderwold

I blogged Linda’s presentation at our chapter meeting back in November. She took the time to review her Sentence Aerobics process with the class. I’m a big fan of her software and run all my articles and important writings through it (although not, I must confess, these blog postings – they’re more off the cuff).

This video shows a few highlights from her 90-minute presentation.

2. Getting Your Articles Written and Published: Craig Harrison

Craig discusses why speakers should write; who they should write for; what they should write about and what form their articles should take.

He’s made the handouts for his talk available for download. Check out his document. There’s a ton of great resources listed.

3. Marketing 101 for Speakers: Nan Andrews Amish

Nan knows marketing inside and out. She discusses the importance of differentiation, positioning and branding for speakers and gives some great tips.

Luke Johnson writes in today’s Financial Times of the list of requirements for a great CFO. He recommends:

• Someone fundamentally conservative to balance the optimism of a CEO.
• A qualified professional who can assemble and analyze financial statements.
• An eye for detail, in absolute command of the financial basics such as debt ratios.
• Something of an IT expert able to master accounting software.
• A knowledge of property leases, grounded in corporate law.
• The strength of character to deliver the truth to business owners.
• Absolute integrity and a capacity for hard work.

Finally, and most noteworthy from my perspective:

“The CFO must also be able to explain treatments, policies and consequences so that every executive can understand them. The best accountants do not hide behind jargon or technical mumbo-jumbo.”

As with all subject experts, it’s the capacity to covey complex information in a way that does not go over the listener’s heads that is often crucial.

I recently noted some ways financial professionals can deliver complex information so that people understand them. I help create presentations for CFOs and CPAs that make people sit up and take notice when you speak. If this is an issue for you, and you need professional help, call me.