Posted At : September 19, 2008 7:57 PM | Posted By : Judette
Related Categories: Public Relations Trinidad and Tobago, Speeches,

It’s tough to start a speech. Often it is only at that moment you realise that the dogs need walking, your teeth need brushing and the plants need their water. Okay, I admit it, procrastination works sometimes but I find what helps the most is to ease into the writing zone by doing something related to my topic.

I might pull up a few web sites to get a new perspective on the speech I’m writing. I might sketch a draft with the points I will need to make. And yes, I may even water my plants, not mindlessly however, I’ll hold the garden hose and think about that darned beginning.

That’s never easy. There’s is no ideal way to start a speech. You could begin with a question, a story, a humourous situation. Or you could begin matter-of-factly with something that is relevant to the audience.

Some years ago, I was asked to write the CEO’s speech for the visit of Rudolf Guiliani at a Leadership Conference hosted by CLICO. Kidnapping was the crime du jour and everyone was scared. My audience consisted of government ministers, clergy, CEOs, students, ambassadors, selected citizens and I wanted an opening that tied them all together.

This was my beginning:

“Ladies and gentlemen,

This was not the speech I intended to give today. I intended something else. For the last several months I have taken every opportunity to talk about the soul of our country. Something is deeply wrong, I would tell anyone who cared to listen. And I was not talking about the partisan mudslinging or the apparent colossal divide between the have and the have nots, the Africans and Indians, the UNCs and the PNMs, the rich and the poor. Instead, I was talking about something deeper, something more troubling something at the core of who we are.

I was talking about the soul of our democracy, the spirit of our freedom.

Freedom, the essence of the word itself, is the power of self-determination, the condition of being unrestricted, the state of being free to act. And the spirit of our freedom, the soul of our democracy has been dying, drowning in a rising tide of uncertainty and dread.

And I wonder is it the lack of leadership that has been sinking us into this state?

This was not something I came to quite casually, by the way. It has been growing concern in our country for several years now, leadership not only of our nation.

But leadership in our businesses.

Leadership in our churches.

Leadership in our schools.

Leadership in our homes.

It now seems that there are too few of us, too few leaders who are willing to set personal examples of commitment, courage, hard work and adherence to high ethical standards when it comes to how we shape our institutions and how we relate to the larger society. ……”

There was no humour here. Just the use of storytelling that connected with the emotions of the audience. Speechwriting is a craft that requires the usage of specific techniques for your words to really shine. Like everything else the more you practice it, the better you get.