Enjoy these FREE executive communication audio podcasts from Vital Speeches of the Day. Come back often as new podcasts are added weekly!
November 9, 2010 COMMENTARY: Insights from Leadership Communication Days (Part Two)
Curiosity killed the cat, but for a speechwriter, curiosity must be cultivated. (1 min.)
October 27, 2010 COMMENTARY: Insights from Leadership Communication Days (Part One)
Yes, execs are still as dopey about media as they ever were. (1 min.)
October 14, 2010 COMMENTARY: Attention! How to grab the audience in six sentences
Vital Speeches editor David Murray reads from a speech that accomplishes half its total job in the first minute. (2 min.)
October 4, 2010 COMMENTARY: When it comes to speech openings, polite is rude
Don’t confirm your audience’s suspicion that you’re more interested in looking good than in communicating. (2 min.)
September 23, 2010 COMMENTARY: What to take into every client meeting: An opinion!
Speechwriters who ask the speaker, “What do you want to talk about?” are like mechanics who ask the driver, “What do you think is wrong?” (1 min.)
September 6, 2010 COMMENTARY: What can Vital Speeches do for you?
Vital Speeches editor David Murray queries executive communication professionals, speechwriters and other rhetoricians on their needs, and how we might fulfill them. (1 min.)
August 27, 2010 COMMENTARY: Bill Lane to appear at "Leadership Communication Days"
Just good are your best practices? Run them by the longtime speechwriter to G.E. CEO Jack Welch. (2 min.)
August 17, 2010 AUDIO CONFERENCE PREVIEW: Advice for a young speechwriter
Speechwriting wunderkind Caryn Alagno shares the single most important thing she needed to know to go from scared rookie to star speechwriter. (4 min.)
August 11, 2010 COMMENTARY: How to get into Vital Speeches
Six suggestions to set your speeches—and your speaker—apart from all the rest. (1 min.)
July 28, 2010 CONFERENCE PREVIEW: “Leadership Communication Days” to galvanize exec comms community
Reserve a seat at the first-annual gathering, sponsored by Vital Speeches of the Day and hosted by Pfizer leadership communications director Grant Neely. (1 min.)
July 7, 2010 COMMENTARY: A rant on dull blogs written by freelance speechwriters
“It’s better not to blog, and be thought a platitudipuss,” says Vital Speeches editor David Murray, “than to write a blog and remove all doubt.” (1 min.)
June 25, 2010 COMMENTARY: One serendipitous speechwriting career
Listen to this guy’s path to speechwriting safety, and then take us down your winding career path. (3 min.)
June 16, 2010 COMMENTARY: Why don’t executive communicators get serious about executive placement?
New study reveals old reality: Executives and their communication are vastly underequipped to identify the best venues for strategic speeches. (2 min.)
June 9, 2010 COMMENTARY: How not to get into Vital Speeches (Part Three of Three)
People always ask Vital Speeches editor David Murray how to get into the magazine; it’s easier for him to give them mistakes to avoid. (2 min.)
May 31, 2010 COMMENTARY: How not to get into Vital Speeches (Part Two of Three)
People always ask Vital Speeches editor David Murray how to get into the magazine; it’s easier for him to give them mistakes to avoid. (2 min.)
May 24, 2010 COMMENTARY: How not to get into Vital Speeches (Part One of Three)
People always ask Vital Speeches editor David Murray how to get into the magazine; it’s easier for him to give them mistakes to avoid. (2 min.)
May 14, 2010 AUDIOCONFERENCE PREVIEW: The one non-negotiable key to executive communication
Without sufficient access to your speaker, you will never (ever) create substantive executive communications. The good news is, there’s more than one way to get the access you need. (2 min.)
May 6, 2010 READINGS: Truculent CEO makes bold case for big business
TelestraClear CEO Allan Freeth grabbed his audience by the shirts and didn’t let go. Editor David Murray reads the introduction of this week’s Vital Speech of the Week. (3 min.)
April 29, 2010 INTERVIEW: On how to improve your public speaking
On behalf of her audience of business executives, radio host Jacki Semerau picks Vital Speeches editor David Murray’s brain on how to make a difference via public speaking. (24 min.)
April 23, 2010 COMMENTARY: You say you don’t need credit for your writing? B.S.!
Vital Speeches editor David Murray rudely opines that speechwriters who claim they have no authorial pride are lying to themselves. (2 min.)
April 15, 2010 COMMENTARY: The most productive five minutes you’ll ever spend
How to become totally wired into the executive communication world: In five minutes and for free. (1 min.)
April 7, 2010 COMMENTARY: “First, get a stove”—the recipe for effective executive communications
Vital Speeches editor David Murray says that the first key to having a good executive communication program is...having an executive communication program! (1 min.)
April 1, 2010 RHETORIC FORUM: On “speaking with the enemy”
This Jimmy Carter speech shows how memorable it can be—and how powerful—when a speaker dares to tell an audience of naked emperors that they have no clothes. (1 min.)
March 26, 2010 INTERVIEW: On the rigors of simultaneous speechwriting and book-authoring
Speechwriter Jeff Shesol book has a new book out called Supreme Power. How on earth did he research a “stunning work of history” while keeping up with his workaday speechwriting clients? We asked him. (12 min.)
March 18, 2010 INTERVIEW: On a new "Concierge Thought Leadership Book Program"
CEO Steve Wilson says our criticism of FastPencil is mostly semantic, and adds that his services is a potential boon to working ghostwriters, rather than a threat. (12 min.)
March 11, 2010 COMMENTARY: Does your client actually want to communicate with the audience?
Speechwriting gurus say a speech needs a “call to action”? First, says Vital Speeches editor David Murray, it needs an “intent to communicate”! (1 min.)
March 4, 2010 INTERVIEW: On How to Teach Speakers How to Be Charismatic
Hilari Weinstein says she’s more than a speaking coach—she’s an authenticity coach, who teaches speakers how to find their own magnetism. We give her a good grilling. (6 min.)
February 22, 2010 EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION FORUM: How to classify the various species of executive?
Executive communicators need to serve different levels of execs via different means. But how to tell who’s who in the zoo? One executive communicator has created a filing system. (3 min.)
February 15, 2010 INTERVIEW: On executive communicators’ least favorite subject, venue management
Speaker forum and leadership conference expert Terry Catchpole explains why it’s so difficult to keep track of the venue landscape, and offers useful suggestions on how to go about it. (7 min.)
February 4, 2010 EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION FORUM: How to avoid becoming a h-h-h-h-glib writer
Vital Speeches editor David Murray dares to ask, and his speechwriter correspondents dare to answer: How do you avoid becoming a hack? (4 min.)
January 28, 2010 INTERVIEW: The Day After—Analysis of President Obama's State of the Union Address
The stakes were high for this year’s State of the Union address. We ask speechwriting impresario Dan Gerstein for a rhetorician’s take on the big speech. (8 min.)
January 14, 2010 COMMENTARY: A cry for help
Vital Speeches of the Day editor David Murray has promised to deliver “goose bumps” in his session the 2010 Building and Protecting Reputation Conference in Phoenix. Help him pull it off! (2 min.)
January 6, 2010 EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION FORUM: What does it say on your business card and why?
What should a speechwriter be called? (Or is the question, What should an executive communication professional be called?) Vital Speeches editor David Murray wants to know. (1 min.)
December 31, 2009 COMMENTARY: A Happy New Year to Vital Speeches readers
Editor David Murray thanks readers for their help in turning Vital Speeches of the Day from a magazine into a community—and expresses his hope that the community will continue to grow in 2010. (1 min.)
December 10, 2009 INTERVIEW: Public speaking gurus are people too
Speechwriter and speaking coach Nick Morgan points out the mistakes of the best speakers in the world—and offers them tips for improvement. (9 min.)
December 2, 2009 INTERVIEW: Was Obama's Afghanistan speech any good? How to know
Veteran freelance speechwriter Jeff Porro offers four keys to evaluating the effectiveness of President Obama’s speech on Afghanistan—and of any other speech you hear. (8 min.)
November 20, 2009 INTERVIEW: On what really determines the effectiveness of a speaker
In the second of a two-part interview with public speaking guru Tom Mucciolo, we talk about his research on what turns audiences on, and what turns them off. (12 min.)
November 13, 2009 INTERVIEW: On Steve Jobs' speaking skills, with speaking coach Tom Mucciolo
Steve Jobs is being widely lauded as the best-speaking CEO in the world. Does that make him a great speaker, or just the tallest midget in the circus. We get answers from a top speaking coach. (12 min.)
November 2, 2009 INTERVIEW: On the “tremendous” pick-up in the executive-communication job market
Executive-communication recruiter Julie Jarrett, of Heyman Associates, tells speechwriters how to begin exploring the green-shoot-rich job market. (6 min.)
October 21, 2009 COMMENTARY: Sometimes CEOs really actually do “get it”
One way to water down the communicator’s conceit—that we’re more evolved than the people we write for—is to regularly read the “Corner Office” column in The New York Times. (2 min.)
October 16, 2009 VITAL SPEECHES FORUM: How many truly “vital” speeches are delivered in any given month?
If Vital Speeches is going to overflow with fascinating speeches, I need readers to send me more than just the speeches they write. (1 min.)
October 9, 2009 INTERVIEW: Who are the top 10 business speakers?
Executive communication guru Nick Morgan defends his choices and invites his fellow speechwriters to share theirs.
September 30, 2009 SPEECHWRITERS’ TALES FROM THE FRONT: Never let them see you sweat.
Speechwriting veteran Alexander Tsigdinos tells about the time he had to get the Austrian prime minister to stop speaking in time for his chairman to start... (4 min.)
September 24, 2009 INTERVIEW: SPEECHWRITERS’ GOAT, OR DEMOCRACY’S HERO? with Matt Latimer, author of Speech-less
After a foray into presidential speechwriting didn’t turn out like he planned—dreamed, actually—Matt Latimer sought to expose his former boss, and his colleagues, and all of Washington, for what he saw them to be—good, bad ... and ugly. But did he consider the effect on his speechwriting brethren? We asked him. (9 min.)
September 18, 2009 COMMENTARY: Chasing greatness: the only career strategy
Maybe an engineer can have a good career despite working for a series bad companies. For executive communicators? No such luck, suggests Vital Speeches editor David Murray. (2 min.)
September 11, 2009 SPEECHWRITERS' TALES FROM THE FRONT: Sometimes even combat pay isn’t enough
New York freelancer Doug Garr tells a horror story about a six-month speechwriting assignment that turned into a prison sentence—until he tunneled out. (3 min.)
September 2, 2009 INTERVIEW: TALES FROM THE FRONT, with Mike Field, speechwriter at Johns Hopkins University
Speechwriters typically have the job security of pro football coaches. So how has Mike Field managed to survive four presidents over 17 years at Johns Hopkins University? He shares his secret with us. (4 min.)
August 27, 2009 INTERVIEW: Boe Workman, AARP’s longtime speechwriter
After almost a decade of writing speeches for former AARP CEO Bill Novelli, Boe Workman edited and bound those speeches into a 570-page paperback book, titled, Voice of Social Change. We asked him why he embarked on the ambitious project—and whether other executive communicators ought to do the same for their bosses. (7 min.)
August 21, 2009 COMMENTARY: Mister Rogers, Mr. Communication
In 1969, Fred Rogers was looking for $20 million for his fledgling children's show. In five minutes he turned a skeptical senator into his biggest fan--and he got his dough. Watch the man work. (1 min.)
August 14, 2009 INTERVIEW: Brian Jenner, UK Speechwriters' Guild founder
British freelance speechwriter Brian Jenner has taken it upon himself to organize speechwriters in Great Britain into a UK Speechwriters’ Guild, for purposes of networking professional development. We asks him how the group is coming together. (10 min.)
August 7, 2009 COMMENTARY: All your client, all the time
Vital Speeches managing editor David Murray invites executive communicators to tell us how (in the dickens) you keep your client relevant across the infinitely refracted social media marketplace. (2 min.)
August 3, 2009 INTERVIEW: Adam D’Luzansky
The editor of the lively and instructive Podium Pundits website explains why former Democratic and Republican presidential speechwriters came together to blog about rhetoric. (9 min.)
July 22, 2009 TRAINING: Authenticity-It Takes Practice
In putting together a public radio story recently, Vital Speeches editor David Murray learned a hard lesson about the value—and difficulty—of sounding like himself. (2 min.)
July 18, 2009 INTERVIEW: Fraser Seitel
PR guru Fraser Seitel counsels speechwriters on how to survive (even thrive) in a miserable economy. (14 min.)
July 13, 2009 INTERVIEW: John Barnes
Veteran speechwriter John Barnes shares the lessons he learned during a stint on the job market during tough times. (13 min.)
July 7, 2009 INTERVIEW: Joe Duggan
Former George H.W. Bush speechwriter Joe Duggan discusses his provocative recent lecture, “Life After Liquidation of the Fourth Estate.” (22 min.)
