A sign how much I enjoyed a book are the sticky notes after I finished reading it… see here my copy of Terry Szuplat’s Say It Well.

It’s so wonderful to read on a topic I suppose to know *something* about and getting all inspired and excited again! There is a lesson here: always be open to learn and expand your horizons, especially on topics you’re familiar with.

Not just what the book teaches us on communication (and it’s a LOT) but also how.
Terry takes readers on a journey from the conception of a speech or presentation to the delivery, with anecdotes from the Obama White House, his own story (beautifully vulnerable) and presentations from other speakers (perhaps sometimes lesser-known speakers, but no less impactful!) –  I found it easy to read… and difficult to put down.

Some of the highlights for me:
* Scope it out – 10 questions to ask before any speech, I especially love the question ‘what do we (speaker and audience) have in common?’
* What a speech really is…  a performance, but “the ability to deliver the performance that only you can deliver”.
* Follow the BBQ rule (if you don’t say it in at a BBQ with friends don’t say it in a speech)
* The three questions to determine to use a statistic in a speech or not
* And finally: the power of hope, the only way to end a speech: that progress is possible, with a cautionary note on ‘being disciplined’

Highly recommended!

#BookRecommendation #CommunicationSkills #EffectiveCommunication #SpeechWriting #SayItWell