For the love of God, can’t we love one another just a little – that’s how peace begins. We have so much to love each other for. We have such possibilities, my children. We could change the world.
– The Lion in Winter

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
– President Barack Obama, Inaugural Address

President Obama’s Inaugural Address was a measured speech, somber in places, hopeful in others. It was pragmatic and direct in addressing the current situation of the country he now leads. It was less ‘inspiring’ than many speeches he made during the campaign. He’s no longer auditioning for a role which now sits squarely on his shoulders.

On a freezing day in Washington DC, in front of a building constructed by black slaves, he took the Oath of Office and delivered a speech which, as anticipated, used many of the fundamentals of the art of rhetoric.

There was the simple tricolon:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.

and the tricolon with the third term doubled up:

The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms.

There was anaphora, the repetition of words at the start of neighboring clauses:

Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished.

and even more powerfully:

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth. For us, they fought and died in places Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

There was ethos in establishing his bone fides, such as this, delivered on the steps of what remains the grandest of capitals:

from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born

delivered by a man

…whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

There was the logos of the argument, developed point-by-point:

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched. But this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control. The nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

And, time and again, there was pathos – establishing an emotional bond with a global audience (my 88-year-old father rang to tell me that, watching from his home in England, he had tears in his eyes):

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.

There was subtle alliteration:

Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions

There were words which soared to poetic heights, igniting the imagination with vivid imagery:

And because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

and words which were delivered with short, sharp jabs, hitting home:

The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood.

There were passages that resonated with the references shared by all Americans:

With the Declaration of Independence:

What is demanded then is a return to these truths.

…all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

…but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

With Washington at Valley Forge:

…the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people.

With the Bible

…but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.

With hymns:

…who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

Even with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers:

Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

Perhaps the most telling analysis of the speech are these snapshots of a Java-enabled ‘word tree’ of the speech showing the number of times Obama used “I”, “you”; “they” and “we”.

On the day he assumed the highest office in the land, the speech was far more about those he was elected to serve than he himself.

On the eve of President-elect Barack Obama’s eagerly anticipated Inaugural speech, newspaper headlines are reporting on past Inaugural speeches and millions of Americans plan to engage in the unnatural act of listening to a speech from beginning to end.

Obama, more than any living US President, consciously embraces oratory and the art of rhetoric. A superb assessment of Obama’s speech-making skills appeared in the Weekend Financial Times. Author Sam Leith shows how Obama deploys the terms and tools of formal rhetoric — first described by Aristotle four centuries before the birth of Christ. “They still work the same way on the human ear and the human heart as they did in Aristotle’s day.” His article covers a lot of ground. The main points I took from it are:

Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle

The rhetorical triangle sets out the ground rules for the art of persuasion. It describes how a speaker uses ‘ethos’ to establish their bona fides, ‘logos’ to make the argument logically and ‘pathos’ to manipulate emotion.

Tricolon

The ‘rule of three’ applied in a sentence with three clearly defined parts (cola) of equal length, usually independent clauses and of increasing power. Caesar’s “I came; I saw; I conquered.” Lincoln’s second inaugural with its line “with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right … “. Obama at the Berlin Victory Column in front of 100,000 European’s last July: “As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice-caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.” As Leith notes, this is rhetorical power in pure form:

A double (“Boston” and “Beijing”), leading to a tricolon whose third term is itself doubled up, the whole mixture thick with alliteration. This is very far from informal or direct or off-the-cuff speech. It is marvelously and intentionally musical.

Syntheton

The balanced double words used in “Boston and Beijing” or by speakers who say “young and old” or “black and white”.

Anaphora

The repetition of a phrase at the beginning of successive lines. Consider Churchill:

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, 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.

Now Obama at the Iowa caucus victory speech on January 3rd:

“I’ll be a president who finally makes healthcare affordable … I’ll be a president who ends the tax breaks … I’ll be a president who harnesses the ingenuity … I’ll be a president who ends this war in Iraq … ” Then: “This was the moment when … this was the moment when … this was the moment when … ” And, as his speech built to its climax, “Hope is what I saw … Hope is what I heard … Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire.”

Leith’s article includes an inventory of the debt Obama owes to the rhetorical power of his absent father; to the framers of the Declaration of Independence; to his schooling at Columbia and Harvard; to past President’s; to the Civil Rights movement and the Bible:

Obama sets out to position himself, and his rhetoric positions him, as the inheritor of the oratorical and political traditions of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and Jesus Christ.

Leith concludes by remarking the scorn republican’s poured on Obama as “a person of words” and “an elitist who works with words” – while championing the inarticulate leaders they admire (Bush, Palin and the rest). Let’s not forget, as I blogged in February, Hilary Clinton also criticized him as someone who just “gives speeches”.

It’ll be interesting to see the effect a US President with such a command of rhetoric will have on the general level of discourse in the political and commercial arenas. For too long in this country our politician’s and CEO’s have avoided eloquence as something unworthy, untrustworthy, vaguely “European”. They were proud of being plain spoken. Of being a man or woman of the people. That refusal to heed Aristotle’s simple techniques might have worked until now.

The bar has been raised.

Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose,
Nothin’ don’t mean nothin’ hon’ if it ain’t free
– Janis Joplin, ‘Me and Bobby McGee’

Economic downturns turn many of us from employees into entrepreneurs. We have no choice. Those turned out of the corporate fold can make a decisive move to establish themselves in a business of their own over the option of trying to get hired into yet another ‘secure’ job, (perhaps up near Salinas, Lord) with no job security.

The current economic environment is a forcing function for start-ups created by displaced corporate staffers. It’s an opportunity to ‘Seize the Day’ writes Financial Times columnist, media chairman and private equity chief Luke Johnson.

A big employer may offer security and benefits, but what about creative satisfaction and the chance to change the world? Working for yourself is not an easy road, but few who make that choice would revert to the grey, restrictive life of a hired hand.

He sees armies of freelancers creating new industries and a bright new future. Claiming entrepreneurs are made by hard graft, not gifted by genes, Johnson says we can all achieve something if we work at it.

Better to try than return, tail between our legs, to the corporate fold and the burdens of a W-2 job.

In the words of Thomas Huxley, coincidentally a friend of Darwin: “It is better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right in chains.”

Gentlemen, he said,
I don’t need your organization, I’ve shined your shoes,
I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards
But Eden is burning, either brace yourself for elimination
Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards.
– Bob Dylan, ‘Changing of the Guards’

Charlie Krackeler has been a professional speaker since 1990. His background as a successful real estate practitioner, manager of a large real estate brokerage office and the Director of Training for one of the nation’s largest real estate companies led him to become of California’s most popular continuing education seminar speakers.

Charlie holds a Master of Science (MS) degree in law and public policy from California University of Pennsylvania. And, a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in history from Gonzaga University. He is a real estate broker, active investor, expert witness in real estate related cases and a mediator. Charlie has had more continuing education programs approved by the California Department of Real Estate than any other single individual in the State of California, and was rated a top evaluated speaker by the California Association of Realtors State Faculty five (5) years running.

From 2004-08 Charlie was elected and served as President of the California Real Estate Education Association (CREEA). In his continuing education seminars and negotiation seminars he has become known as one of the real estate industry’s most popular and entertaining seminar leaders. He is a regular on KRON Channel 4 news giving updates on the real estate market and hosted a popular radio program on a major bay area station.

Extra curricular activities Charlie enjoys include running, tennis, animals, fine dining and of course gossiping.

Mr. Krackeler’s company, Charlie Krackeler Presents, is an approved provider for real estate seminars by the Department of Real Estate on a diversity of topics. Charlie’s dedication to education, self improvement, achieving personal goals and being at the top of your game regardless of one’s chosen path, is what puts Charlie at the top of his game. Real Estate Professionals and Speaker Colleagues have given him the official nickname of the “C.E. King.”

Charlie Krackeler can be reached at (650) 941-4321 or by e-mail charlie@charliekrackelerpresents.com.

I asked Charlie to explain how speaking has helped his real estate business and what he is looking forward to learning from the 2009 NSA/NC Pro-Track class. To hear what he told me, double-click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:53 — 2.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Buried in Lewis Jones’ wonderful review of books about Samuel Johnson in the Weekend Financial Times is clear evidence that the 18th-century man of letters, author of the Dictionary of the English Language and subject of Boswell’s Biography, would, were he alive today, never blog:

“No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”

Johnson – flatulent; scrofulous; half-blind; half-deaf; overwhelmed with dejection and gloom; yearning for the “Fetters and Padlocks” which his mistress deployed – wrote to avoid the debtors prison. Solid advice for all writers in today’s economy. Blogging is, perhaps, for blockheads.

NSA/NC Meeting Report: Saturday January 10, 2009

The Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association (NSA/NC) kicked off 2009 with a meeting that attracted over 80 members and guests, including visitors from Nevada, Oregon, Massachusetts and New South Wales, Australia!

Jeff Rubin – Profiting from Punctuation

The day began with Jeff Rubin, founder of National Punctuation Day® who explained how he turned a National Holiday into a branded, moneymaking enterprise. Jeff has developed a speaking program for children and an instructional DVD for teachers. These products have now become major business enterprises. We learned how to take an idea that might come in the middle of the night, develop it, market it, and become known as THE expert in that discipline and make money from it.

My only problem with blogging about Jeff’s presentation is anticipating his comments about all the, ere, punctuation; mistakes” (in, this: blog – report). Sorry Jeff.

Grow Your Speech into a Published Book

An update on the opportunities for publishing a book or magazine for speakers is becoming a January tradition for NSA/NC. Last year I reported on a meeting chaired by ace literary agent Mike Larsen. Mike is the driving force behind the upcoming San Francisco Writers Conference — NSA members who liked today’s meeting are encouraged to attend.

Mike returned with a panel of experts who covered the many aspects of publishing. On the panel were his wife Elizabeth Pomada from Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents. Mahesh Grossman discussed ghostwriting – a common and respected way to Write a Book Without Lifting a Finger

We also heard from Jessica Church of Planned Television Arts on publicizing your book.

Rounding out the panel was editor Alan Rinzler who has worked on books by Bob Dylan, Hunter S. Thompson and Jerzy Kosinski in his 40 years of experience at Simon and Schuster, Macmillan, Bantam Books, Grove Press, and the Rolling Stone Book Division of Straight Arrow Publishing.

10 Options for Getting Your Books Published (Mike Larsen)

1. You can collaborate with other writers in a co-op venture in which you share the production and marketing costs to create, for example, an anthology of your work.
2. You can pay for all the costs to publish your book to a vanity publisher, but vanity publishing has no credibility in the industry.
3. You can use subsidy publishing, which means that you pay part of the publishing costs, an option with less credibility than a trade publisher.
4. You can partner with a foundation that will support the writing and promotion of your book because it will further their cause.
5. You can self-publish your book using one or more of the following options:
   – Photocopying your manuscript and selling it in a three-ring binder
   – Print-on-demand (POD)
   – using print-quality-needed (PQN) for short runs
   – using offset printing for longer runs
   – publishing it for free online so it can be downloaded
6. You can publish it in other media such as a podcast, CDs and DVDs or sell the rights to a film or audio company.

7. You can sell it as a calendar or other form of merchandise.

8. You can sell the rights to:
   – an on- or offline trade or consumer periodical that will serialize it
   – a publisher for a flat fee, as a work for hire
   – a small press, niche or specialty publisher, or a regional publisher
   – a academic or university press
   – a professional publisher that publishes books for a specific field
   – a midsized house
   – one of the six New York conglomerates that dominate trade publishing
9. You can work with a packager who provides publishers with an upload ready for a printer or finished books.
10. You can hire an agent.

Proposal Writing Workshop

The afternoon session was a step-by-step proposal writing workshop with Mike and Alan. Books often sell to publishers on the strength of a good proposal.

“Proposals usually range from 25 to 50 pages, and they have three parts: an introduction, an outline, and a sample chapter.”

In the midst of the worst economic crisis in 70 years, business needs to clearly communicate the benefits of capitalism. Being able to articulate the advantages of the market system to audiences in an authentic and compelling manner is a necessary skill for executives facing skeptical or hostile audiences (workers threatened with redundancy, investors suffering losses).

Too often, those who defend the market system are the system’s worst enemies, claims John Kay in today’s Financial Times. He lists a series of business leaders claims which strike a false note:

• Talking about “wealth creation” while actually diverting money to a few individuals rather than creating new wealth for all.
• Thinking private sector activities – securities trading or auto manufacturing – creates wealth while public sector activities – healthcare – use it up.
• Arguing that financial rewards are the mainspring of innovation. This was not the main motivation for those like Sir Tim Berner’s-Lee when he invented the Web, or Steve Wozniak when he tinkered at the Homebrew Computer Club. Nor is it the primary motivation of the hundred’s of PhD’s choosing to work at places like HP Labs rather than launching their own start-ups.
• Justifying excessive financial compensation of senior managers as necessary performance motivators while condemning those who work in the public sector as too lazy or ineffective to get jobs in large corporations.

Kay concludes:

The complacent sense of personal entitlement these corporate politicians expressed was deeply unattractive: as unattractive as the similar sense of personal entitlement displayed by the lazy teacher who knows he will not be fired.

In contrast, he suggests:

Young people looking towards the world of work should understand that the greatest reward from a job is the satisfaction of doing it well. The people who are most successful in business in the long run are people who are passionate about business – whose aspirations are to bring new products and services to market, to serve customers better, to motivate their staff to greater efforts. And, by the way, you can make a lot of money in the process.

For corporate executives wishing to communicate authentically in 2009 the lesson is to be honest and straightforward with audiences. State where your self-interest lies. If there is bad news to deliver, address it early and show a human-level understanding of how it affects your employees, customers and partners.

Telling it like it is

Authenticity is a rare commodity, especially when people speak to an audience. Many speakers represent corporate or institutional interests. They are instructed to stay ‘on message’. Does anyone really expect the Chairman of the Federal Reserve or the CEO of a corporation to speak authentically? There’s too much at stake on Wall Street or the press for the head of a major institution to say what’s really on their minds.

Let’s face it; this is the era of ‘spin’ and the sound bite. Can authentic communications survive the talk shows and tabloid headlines? I believe it can, and members of the National Speakers Association represent authenticity. The NSA Code of Ethics directs all members to “speak in a most professional and ethical manner”.

As independent professional speakers I believe we have a unique opportunity, and responsibility, to integrate all the aspects of our personal and professional lives and tell it like it is to others.

When we step to the front of the room we have the opportunity to create an environment where everyone’s voice is heard. We can speak for those in our audience, or in the world, who might lack a voice. Using our professional skills to tell it like it is on behalf of those who need someone to speak out for them can make a profound difference.

Many of us have special talents. We light up a room and cast a spell over the audience. We can teach others that they are also special people, and hold a vision that brings light into their lives so they can in turn tell others like it is.

As professional speakers we add value to the events we speak at. We should more than justify our fees. Exceed expectations. Tell it like it is by bringing our energy into the room and delivering results. Help individuals achieve their goals and organizations meet their targets.

In all we do, we help people understand something they would not know if we’d not shown up. They have faith in our expertise. We invest in our own education and long-term professional growth to justify that faith. We tell it like it is and change the world, one speech at a time.

Professionally Speaking is another example of the authentic voice of our members, telling it like it is. Order your copy of this unique magazine now.

In this edition you’ll find:

Using words that embrace a wider audience
by Jessica Pettitt
Learn how the language you use can help audience members feel valued, understood and appreciated.

Puncutate this!
by Jeff Rubin
Boost your credibility and set yourself apart from competitors through proper punctuation.

How to throw a Facebook Party
by Larry Chiang
Social networking success strategies for leveraging your presence on Facebook.

Tips on making Google happy
by Jim Carrillo
Simple strategies to optimize your website and boost your website and blog’s ranking on Google.

Creating confidence
by Robert Graham
How to feel and project more confidence in your professional and personal life.

Have you read a good audience lately?
by Daniel Moirao
Understand what’s going on in the minds of your audience members, why they act the way they do and what you can do about it.

Basic intellectual property concepts for professional speakers
by Sandy Shepard, Esq.
Understand the basics of intellectual property protection for speakers pertaining to copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, trade dress and patents.

Order your copy of the magazine today.

Sometimes events catch up with executives who commit too much to print. Here’s a cautionary tale of a senior leader who was hoist by his own petard.

The Madoff Ponzi scheme has led commentators to issue damning indictments of the S.E.C.’s failure to respond to repeated requests they investigate the fraud. Sunday’s New York Times has an excellent article by Michael Lewis and David Eindhorn where they detail the wilful manner in which the S.E.C. chose to ignore repeated red flags about the situation:

“Harry Markopolos sent his report to the S.E.C. on Nov. 7, 2005 — more than three years before Mr. Madoff was finally exposed — but he had been trying to explain the fraud to them since 1999. He had no direct financial interest in exposing Mr. Madoff — he wasn’t an unhappy investor or a disgruntled employee. There was no way to short shares in Madoff Securities, and so Mr. Markopolos could not have made money directly from Mr. Madoff’s failure. To judge from his letter, Harry Markopolos anticipated mainly downsides for himself: he declined to put his name on it for fear of what might happen to him and his family if anyone found out he had written it. And yet the S.E.C.’s cursory investigation of Mr. Madoff pronounced him free of fraud.”

In light of these revelations, it’s fascinating to read an interview with S.E.C. chairman Christopher Cox in the September 2007 SPEAKER magazine published by the National Speakers Association. The Q&A session “Doing the Right Thing” is subtitled “The chairman of the SEC explains his philosophy about ethics and setting the right tone from the top.”

Cox observes that the best practices in any company are set by the senior executives. “Over and over again, commissioners and staff at the SEC observe that the tone at the top is a major factor in determining the effectiveness of internal controls to prevent fraud…”

When asked if ethics violations in financial companies occur on a regular basis, Chairman Cox answers:

“Sadly, yes. The full, five-member commission meets for many hours every week to take an in-depth look at individual cases in which securities laws violations are being investigated or charged.”

While Madoff kept his $50 billion scheme afloat, the S.E.C. was taking action. Cox details that:

“We have (a chief ethics officer) at the SEC, responsible for publishing ethics NewsGrams every two weeks on our internal web site, and e-mailing those to all employees as well.”

Sadly, these NewsGrams must have been absent any notification about Madoff or the other multi-billion dollar disasters brewing in Wall St on Cox’s watch. As he observes at the end of the interview when asked if he’ll transition out of government service at some point:

“I don’t know what the future holds. And despite the time I’ve spent in government, the challenges of the SEC are fresh and exciting.”

Perhaps a little too exciting?

Blogging Basics is a September 2008 article I wrote for the National Speakers Association SPEAKER magazine that’s now online. Lots of links to blogging resources.