Boe’s Work Is Our Work Now
Well, Boe Workman is retiring this Friday, after a career that began with rhetoric scholarship, continued with political work and self-employment, and concluded with a short stint as the head …
‘Does European Speechwriting Have a Future?’
Tuesday. I am on a train. Behind me is a world full of chores: the kitchen lights that flicker like the world’s worst, most desperate, domestic disco; the disintegrating garden …
It’s Lonely Near the Top (But Only If You’re Alone).
Recently Forbes had a piece quoting CEOs on why they join peer groups where they can exchange experiences and ideas with others just like them. “I joined a peer group because I was making …
Impossible to Describe: A Letter Home, from the Leadership Communication Academy
What is executive communication precisely, and what all do you need to know to be great at it? Exactly a half-decade since the founding of the Executive Communication Council—and at the beginning of …
How to Know Whether You Should Be Worried About AI Taking Your Speechwriting Job
Many of us were journalists before turning to rhetoric, which makes speechwriters an exquisite fusion of objectors and optimists with a weakness for eloquence: people who can spot the long …
Real State of the Union Revealed by State-of-the-Village Speeches
President Trump is giving his big speech to Congress tonight. But even when we have a president who does try to mouth rhetoric that remotely rhymes with reality, I’m not …
Corporate America Won’t Even Defend *Itself*
Earlier this month we invited speechwriters and executive communication professionals to share, at whatever level of confidentiality they desired, how they’re faring in the new administration: “What is going on …
A House of Civic Fellowship, in a Chaotic Time
Published earlier this month at the website of the City Club of Cleveland. —ed. Political upheaval is both chaotic and clarifying, and the opening weeks of the second administration of …
Vital Speeches Editor Sez: ‘No Reading Speeches Off Your Cellular Telephone!’
My old pal Steve Crescenzo was on a Zoom call with a prospect the other day, a young woman. “About ten minutes into the 30-minute call, she appeared to wipe …
Ex-USAID Speechwriter Focuses on Future
Clarification: The following article refers to Kristina Drye as having been “laid off” from USAID, which some might interpret as implying she was technically an employee of the U.S. government. …