NEW COMPETENCE. NEW COLLEAGUES. NEW CONFIDENCE.
You’ve had tough assignments before. But nothing like this.
Now you’re tasked—with little or no training—to write speeches for someone whose pay grade is well above yours. To represent DoD to all kinds of audiences. To capture the voice, thoughts, and intonation of a boss who, just months ago, you’d seen only from afar.
Above all, you don’t want to let down millions of men and women in uniform. They watch DoD’s leaders from tents, ships, missile silos, and a thousand other places around the world. They look to their leaders—and therefore to you—for information and inspiration. What you write matters. And you know it.
Fortunately, there’s now training to help you.
We invite you to attend Military Speechwriting Training Online, August 13-16, 2024. Convened by the Professional Speechwriters Association, it’ll be taught by two seasoned, professional speechwriters—both retired military—who have written at the highest levels of DoD. Joining them will be the executive director of the PSA, who lives and breathes speechwriting every day.
AND A SPECIAL GUEST THIS YEAR: We’ll be joined for day four’s “office hours” session by the current director of speechwriting for the current Secretary of Defense, Lloyd J. Austin. You can ask him anything.
Active Duty, Guard, Reserve, veterans, civil servants, and others writing for military leaders will find value and benefit from this training. We’ll review all the fundamentals plus look at a variety of military speeches, giving you a chance to evaluate them against what you’ve learned and share your thoughts with one another.
Your new tool box will include:
- Hitting the Target—Learning to triangulate the audience, purpose & message of every speech you write.
- Mastering the Intro, Body, & Conclusion—Hooking your audience from the get-go, marshaling a persuasive argument, and wrapping up with a powerful call to action.
- Storytelling—Understanding the science behind the story (hint: mirror neurons) and how your boss can tell them in a way that will stick.
- Making the Boss Look Good—Learning how to be an effective and trusted coach, advisor, and staffer, plus how to make the best use of scarce time with busy people.
- Little Tips that Translate into Big Wins—Learning a number of tricks ranging from compiling your speaker pre-brief to formatting the delivery copy so you’re ready for prime time, every time.
- Special Events and Assignments—Writing for changes of command, retirements, congressional testimony, video messages, talking points, and more.
AGENDA
Prepare yourself for 4 sessions of active instruction and hands-on learning designed to cover every aspect of military speechwriting. Along the way, you’ll grapple with the material by analyzing past speeches and discussing your findings with peers.
Sessions commence at 13:00 ET and conclude at 14:30 ET.
DAY ONE: FOUNDATIONAL SPEECHWRITING CONCEPTS (August 13)
Grab some coffee and hang on as we dive into the three fundamental concepts you must explore before putting your fingers to the keyboard. They include:
- Analyzing audience demographics.
- Identifying the purpose of the remarks.
- Creating key messages that will stick long after your speaker has left the podium.
We’ll also discuss that ever-present challenge: connecting your strategic communication goals to each event, so that each speech has a real target to hit.
DAY TWO: STRUCTURE AND STORYTELLING (August 14)
In this session, you’ll learn how to build a speech, beginning to middle to end. You’ll walk away knowing:
- The key components of every intro, body, and conclusion as well as what each must accomplish.
- A structure that works for every speech: Monroe’s Motivated Sequence, which takes audiences where you need them to go whether the boss is speaking for 50 minutes or 5.
- How to marshal a cogent argument with ample evidence, so you can convince even the skeptics in the audience.
- And all about storytelling: The science behind what makes stories so powerful, the elements needed to make even a short anecdote compelling—and how to deal with the speaker who’s a reluctant storyteller.
DAY THREE: SPEECHWRITING, IN REAL LIFE: PRACTICAL PARTS OF THE JOB (THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH SPEECHES) (August 15)
For a speechwriter, good thinking and writing are table stakes. Speechwriters who succeed in their work (and come to love it) master a whole set of skills that you’ll learn today:
- How to make the boss look good by being a careful fact-checker and a fully supportive speech staffer, including how to best prepare the boss to walk onto the stage well prepared and confident.
- How to make the most of your time with the boss when the 30-minute meeting about the big speech shrinks to three minutes (or the gatekeepers don’t want to let you in).
- How to win the boss’s confidence to become a trusted leadership counselor.
- How to handle the huge range of special events including everything from congressional testimony to retirement ceremonies. Have other specific, hard-to-handle types of speeches? We’ll field your questions.
DAY FOUR: OFFICE HOURS, WITH THE MILITARY SPEECHWRITING SCHOOL FACULTY *AND THE DIRECTOR OF SPEECHWRITING FOR THE CURRENT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, WARREN BASS* (August 16)
- A highlight of the course. Expect a candid, freewheeling discussion that’ll put your remaining doubts to rest and send you forth with professional confidence—as a speechwriter.
- Get to know your fellow speechwriters—you can become valuable expert contacts for one another.
- Have other challenging products to write that aren’t speeches? Of course you do! When they say, “give it to the speechwriter,” you’re suddenly the expert in all kinds of ghostwriting. Let us know which ones you liked to discuss.
- Ask the speechwriter to the current Sec Def anything. He’ll join us for the whole 90 minutes.
At the end of the course, you’ll walk away with the know-how to become a confident speechwriter—and a Certificate of Completion to show for it, as well as a six-month introductory membership in the Professional Speechwriters Association.
FACULTY
Rosemary King
Rosemary King, PhD, is a sought-after leadership communication consultant. She served as speechwriter for Defense Secretary Robert Gates and two chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers and General Peter Pace. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
Sue Ross
Sue Ross is a 1983 Air Force Academy graduate, retired Air Force colonel, and pilot with over 3,000 flying hours in four different aircraft. She led the speechwriting team at the Pentagon for General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sue has a master’s degree in English and graduated from Leadership Pikes Peak’s Signature Program class of 2007. She owns Sierra Consulting, providing speechwriting and communications consulting to corporate, government, and nonprofit clients. She is an adjunct faculty member at Colorado Technical University and Pikes Peak Community College. Sue served on the United States Air Force Academy Board of visitors, and currently is a trustee with the Falcon Foundation. Sue volunteers with Fostering Hope, an organization that supports foster families.
Warren Bass
Warren Bass is director of speechwriting and senior adviser to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III. Before joining the Biden administration in 2021, he was a senior editor at The Wall Street Journal, working on Review, the paper’s weekend ideas section. From 2004-09, he was a senior editor at The Washington Post. He has also previously served in government at the State Department and as a member of the professional staff of the 9/11 Commission, where he was one of the many writers and editors of the commission’s landmark final report. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University and is the author of Support Any Friend: Kennedy’s Middle East and the Making of the U.S.-Israel Alliance (Oxford University Press).
David Murray
David Murray is executive director of the Professional Speechwriters Association, and editor & publisher of Vital Speeches of the Day, which publishes the most important speeches in the world. He is author of the new book, An Effort to Understand: Hearing One Another (and Ourselves) in a Nation Cracked in Half. And with Army Lt. Col. Mark Weber, he cowrote the New York Times bestseller Tell My Sons: A Father’s Last Letters.
HOW IT WORKS
Military Speechwriting Training Online is conducted via Zoom Webinar platform.
Before each session, we’ll email simple directions to join the webinar. And after each session, we’ll email a link to the recording.
Please email Benjamine Knight, PSA operations director, with any questions.
Or call 312-585-6383.
FAQ’S LISTED BELOW
Q: What is the cost of this online training program?
A: Military Speechwriting Training Online costs $995 for the four-day course. PSA members receive 25% off your purchase.
Q: When is the deadline to sign up?
A: The deadline to register is Monday, August 5, 2024.
Q: I’m registered for Military Speechwriting Training Online. What do I need to do to prepare for the training?
A: The first session in this 4-day series will be conducted on Tuesday, August 13th at 1:00pm Eastern. Registered participants will receive email notifications in early August with instructions on how to join the series, as well as pre-session materials from the instructors.
Q: What online service or platform do you use for the webinars?
A: The sessions will be conducted via Zoom Webinar. There is no need to download any software. Upon joining each webinar session, you’ll be prompted to open the Zoom launcher via your web browser window.
Q: Is a camera required?
A: No, a camera is not required. In fact, cameras are not enabled on audience members. Only individuals with “panelist” or “organizer” designations have this broadcast capability.
Q: How long does each webinar last?
A: Each session consists of 90 minutes of instruction, with opportunities for Q&A throughout. Sessions will never run longer than 1.5 hours.
Q: I know I will miss one of the classes. Will I be able to view a recording of the webinar?
A: Yes, each session will be recorded and provided for participants to review by weblink.
Q: I have a busy work schedule. Is it possible to catch up on the webinars in the evenings?
A: While most recordings are ready for us to share as soon as that same afternoon, some take longer to prepare, due to file size. These recordings will be available the following day, at latest.
Q: For how long is the webinar recording valid after the session?
A: The recorded sessions will stay accessible one month after the series ends–so, until September 30, 2024.
Q: Am I able to share the sessions with other coworkers?
A: Military Speechwriting Training Online is priced and designed for individual participants. Only the registrant will receive notifications/reminders as well as the Certificate of Completion and 6-month introductory PSA membership.
REGISTER
$995 to register for Military Speechwriting Training Online, August 13-16, 2024.
Phone registrations please call 312-585-6383.
Registration deadline = August 5, 2024
Military Speechwriting Training Online is conducted via the Zoom webinar platform. Before each session, we'll email simple directions to join the webinar. And after each session, we'll email a link to the webinar recording.
Cancellations Policy
No refunds on cancellations less than 30 days before the event. Within 30 days, your payment will be credited toward a future Professional Speechwriters Association event.
$995.00