Bad writing is killing your speaking career

Unpopular opinion alert …

To be a really effective public speaker, you’ve got to be a compelling writer first.

I know. I know. This coming from a guy who will publicly admit I’ve never written a speech down word for word, a guy who spent a decade doing improv because I hated memorizing lines (I also hated performing other people’s writing, but that’s for another day, and someone who teaches public speaking in order to pay the bills (honestly, baby formula is pricey).

But it’s true — my favorite people to listen to on stage (and even on screen) are the people who can write well.

In writing, we argue with our ideas. We chew on theories, taste our opinions, and imbibe our insights. We are forced to figure out what we mean, what we don’t mean, and the space in between the two to let the audience wonder in to our mind space of perspective and point-of-view.

Part of the challenge when people start to speak before learning to write is that it all becomes messy. It all starts to happen in front of other people. Or they simply write a speech down (usually via Powerpoint) and then stand up to share whatever it was they prescribed themselves to say ahead of time.

It’s usually boring. It’s usually informational (and thus a commodity that can easily be replaced by the latest blog post on the 7 ways to XYZ yourself to success). It’s usually fleeting.

Great speakers have already done the work to argue with their ideas on paper before they get on stage.

I’m not saying you can’t get some applause and an invite to speak somewhere else — I am saying that you probably become relatively replaceable when the next pop-tart infotainment speaker comes to town.

And I’m not even suggesting you write your speech down word-for-word (pssst… I don’t do that). But I know that if I spend the time to get really comfortable with my ideas, to write them down, read them again, edit them, and wrangle them into shape — that when I finally open my mouth, I will have something worth saying.

This is why I force myself to write (mostly) everyday. The words probably won’t end up in a book. The words will rarely end up on stage.

But the words end up informing my thinking — and that is why I get paid to speak.