Yes, This Work Is Worth It

Fourteen years ago this week I started my first executive communications job.

I was (very) loosely qualified for it, but the team was scaling quickly and needed bodies. And my plan was to spend as little time as possible in the discipline before moving into media relations, which was a much better fit for my background (journalism and politics).

This was supposed to be my first “grownup job”—one where you can’t swear loudly in the office and have to be around from roughly 9 to 5. But a decade and a half later, I’m still doing it. Because, first, I figured out how to do the job and because it’s really cool.

A lot has been made of the “speechwriter” role fading away. And it’s true that I write fewer words for a teleprompter than I did before the pandemic.

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(Photo: a teleprompter used by Herbert Hoover in his post-presidency. Which was more than 30 years long.)

But the work is more challenging, rewarding, and important than ever before.

Did I enjoy writing keynotes? Yep. Do I miss writing so many? Nope. Because like in lots of professions, what speechwriting/executive communications has grown into is even better. Today, we’re counselors, influencers (not in a gross way), and creators.

So I’d encourage concerned executive communicators to stop comparing your job today to what it was five years ago and instead help shape what it can be five years from now.

And to any young writer wondering whether it’s worth the effort to try and talk your way into this world, I promise it is.