Speechwriters, visible

The seed of the idea for an online store for Professional Speechwriters Association-branded gear began to grow at the very first PSA World Conference, back in 2014.

The swag we gave out at that conference was little PSA buttons. They’d been made in my very kitchen, feverishly, in the days leading up to the conference, on a button-making machine that my art teacher wife borrowed from her school, and with the help of our then 10-year-old daughter.

At the conference, there was a moment when I asked the gathered speechwriters what they thought they would like most about having a professional association to call their very own. One speechwriter—a veteran of the Reagan White House, who had been in the profession much longer than I had … held up his button triumphantly, and said, “This! Now I can finally go to cocktail parties and when people ask them what I do, I can show them—this is what I do!”

Well, my daughter is a senior in high school now. The PSA has grown up a lot too. And we thought it’s time to offer more and better SpeechwriterSwag to speechwriters proud of their work.

All profits go to scholarships to PSA events, for young people interested in exploring the profession, speechwriters between jobs and other folks who can use a hand. And as you’ll see, the prices are reasonable and the stuff is cool.

Speechwriting has been called “the silent profession.” But it doesn’t have to be invisible, too.

Let’s represent.