Speeches – The Timeless Weapon of the Powerful

Speech writing is important – it helps you focus, stop making noise and start making points. Speeches can change your career, your organisation, your cause, your party and sometimes even your country.

Whether you are giving a speech in politics or in business – how well you deliver that speech matters. The content matters too. Together, they can move mountains – because people are moved by words.

The two biggest mistakes that people make are:

  1. lack of preparation
  2. lack of practice.

Who are you speaking to? Why? What do you want to achieve? What do they want from you? What do they expect from you?

Can you honestly say that your message or your “narrative” is :-

  • coherent?
  • memorable?
  • concise?
  • fluent?
  • credible?
  • compelling?

I can help you make it all of these things. And help you deliver your message in such a way that you will never have any regrets, never wish you had delivered it better.

Typical themes for corporate clients:-

  • AGM speeches
  • Preparation for Merger and Acquisition Beauty Parades
  • Managing Partner contests
  • Pitch coaching
  • Presentation coaching
  • Intensive interview preparation
  • Select Committee preparation

Typical themes for political clients:-

  • Intensive interview preparation
  • Select me speeches
  • Elect me speeches
  • Hustings speeches
  • Handling a crisis in the constituency
  • Maiden speech
  • Conference speech
  • Association speech
  • Speeches at funerals

Speech writing (or speechwriting) is too often done on a scrap of paper on the way to the event. If that is all the time that is allocated to writing the speech – the speech itself cannot be that important.

Good speechwriting will eliminate waffle and muddle, demonstrate clarity of thought, present arguments logically and will build up to something, perhaps a call to action that actually does its job or a pacifying and stabilising oil on water effect.

But good speechwriting does more than that. A good speechwriter will write a speech in vocabulary and with a structure that suits you so that you feel comfortable delivering the speech and that the speech sounds like it comes from you and that you are not just delivering a speech or series of words written by someone else. I helped the Sri Lankan Prime Minister write and prepare his peace speech to the United Nations General Assembly. To do this I spent 10 days in the same room as him listening to him hold meetings and discussions so that I could get the vocabulary and structure and content of his speech right for him.

If you have a slot in your diary for the speech, you should also have an equivalent slot in your diary for writing the speech and another equivalent slot in your diary for practicing your delivery of the speech.

Put my number in your speed dial. 0777 550 4299. Because when you are suddenly about to be put on the spot, you may want help fast.

Even better, if you think you may have a big speech coming up – why don’t you get help now, instead of leaving it to the last minute? Email me in confidence info@peterbotting.com