A lot of speakers who’d happily get up in front of a thousand-person audience start getting the shakes at the thought of speaking to children or (gulp) teens. Fortunately, we have child-and-teen author Robin Stevenson here to share her experience speaking in front of countless school auditoriums and classrooms. She’ll tell us how you can keep your next young audience rapt from beginning to end.
Writing is usually a pretty solitary pursuit. But solitary doesn’t have to mean isolated. Find out how Elana Aptowitzer created a community of speechwriters inside the Canadian public service — and how you can start building a community of your own.
We’ve focused on speaking and speechwriting in the podcast — but there’s more than one way to connect with an audience. And one of the best: the venerable op-ed piece. Today’s guest knows op-eds better than anyone I know: Professor Mira Sucharov is the author of Public Influence, and a prolific writer of op-eds.
If you really want your audience to care about what you’re saying, they need to know you care about it too. And that starts with the attitude you project… and the stands you’re willing to take.
Quotations are one of a speechwriter’s essential tools — right up there with metaphors, jokes and 3 a.m. espresso. But borrowed eloquence doesn’t always work out, and as handy as a quotation can be, using it requires care. This episode looks at how to use quotations to elevate your whole speech, and how another person’s fine words can make yours shine even brighter.
Most of us like to think of ourselves as basically honest people. But as speakers and speechwriters, it’s surprisingly easy to find ourselves misleading our audiences: accidentally or (gulp) deliberately. Find out how — even with the best intentions — you may be leading your audience astray… and how to get back onto the path of truth.
Looking for advice on public speaking, speechwriting and leadership communications? Here are some of my most comprehensive posts, on topics that people ask me about most often.
