January 12, 2021

2/3/20 speech:

Mr. ToastMaster; fellow Toastmasters; Distinguished guests: 

You grow up in a small Midwestern town, in a modest house, surrounded by family who are ravenous consumers of books, magazines, all sorts of information.

…a father who sells insurance and in his free time reads military history — so much military history you expect to come home and find him loading a musket in full American revolution uniform.

…a mother who, by day, teaches nursery school and at night reads bestsellers, magazines, and solves crossword puzzles in heavy ink.

You grow up in this “information junkie” environment, believing this is how the world is — isn’t everybody sitting around reading, or talking about books at the dinner table, all the time? 

One day when you’re 15, your high school English teacher assigns you to keep a personal journal, a daily diary of your thoughts. 

And that’s when it hits you: “I will be a writer!” 

I majored in journalism and business, which led to working in and around Chicago sports media for a decade.  

(In that time I also met and married, my wife, who’s from Houston. Today we have three sons and have lived in Austin for 25 years.)

TODAY I am a writer for a living.

Not a big-time fiction writer or even a journalist — but rather a working writer for hire. A freelancer. A hired gun.

I help technology clients and a large state university effectively communicate their respective messages … I’ve also written a non-fiction book about trains, and even a humor book.  

What I’ve discovered is: Writing for a living can be cool.

  • Writing has enabled me to be around amazing technologies, to interview professional athletes, and even co-pilot a freight train

I have also discovered: Writing for a living can be terrifying. 

As a freelancer you must hustle and constantly “sell” your ability to communicate to someone who will hire you to do it.  

Some months are better than others. But the rewards, when they happen, are arguably more satisfying. 

Some key things to note while writing are:

1. In this digital era, most impressions today are made via text, email, or PowerPoint. Therefore we MUST write as well as we can, always.  

2. Number two, choose action verbs and active voice. Listen to the difference between:

   • “Mistakes were made”; and, “I made a mistake.”

3. THIRD item is REWRITE: Steven King:  On writing: When you write a story the first time, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite it, your main job is taking out all the things that are Not the story.

GOOD ADVICE, and anyone who’s ever written a speech can totally relate. 

You work for many years as a writer. 

You ply your craft, looking for ways to do what you enjoy for people who have practical needs for good strong messages.  

Among other things – You write speeches for executives. Oddly enough, you’ve never really given one yourself. 

Until 2020, the year you decided to get better at public speaking… and until now, when you hear the words you write, come out of your own mouth.

[Text of speech delivered Feb 17, 2020]