Category Communication

How Telling a Hard Story Can Change the Storyteller

Last week, for the first time in my life, I sat at a table and promoted something to strangers — my late wife Uzma's memoir. I'm not sure I could have done it two years ago, even after five years of grief counseling. What changed?

Years of therapy prepared me to write an award-winning speech about lessons I learned from Uzma. And the act of crafting that speech became its own form of therapy. A virtuous circle. Here's what I learned about what happens when you finally tell the hard story you've been carrying, and why it matters for every leader who has a story they haven't told yet.

Why Your Speech Must Reveal Something About You

Whatever your message, someone has said it before. And someone will say it again. But when you say it with your story — your thoughts, your memories, your joy, your pain — that's when it becomes unforgettable. The final installment of this series covers the last two lessons: show yourself, and have fun. Together, they explain why ChatGPT can write a speech about your topic but can't write your speech, and why both showing yourself and having fun are indispensable to becoming a voice that moves.

Why You Can’t Practice Your Speech Without Saying It Aloud

Someone told me they practiced their speech while walking their dog. "Do you say it out loud?" I asked. "No," they said. That's not practicing — that's thinking. Part 3 of the series about lessons I learned from my Toastmasters contest last year covers two lessons about preparation: practice aloud to find the words make you stumble, and rehearse with real people to find out if your message actually lands.

How Saying Less Can Make You More Persuasive

Would you pay four people to do a job one person could do better? So why do we do that with words? Part 2 of this series covers two tightly linked lessons: make every word earn its place, and tell the truth without being boring. Together, they explain why cutting 44% of the words from one paragraph made it hit harder — and why a CMO's no-brainer proposal to imrove care took a whole year to make happen.

Your Speech Has Only One Job – Serve The Audience

Last year, a 7-minute speech took me to the semifinals of the World Championship of Public Speaking. Along the way, I learned seven lessons about communication that apply far beyond any contest stage. The first and most important: your only obligation when you speak is to the people listening. Not to your ego, your thoroughness, or your desire to be complete. This is Part 1 of a four-part series.

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