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Most people assume the purpose of speaking is to convince and persuade. We hear it all around us that the purpose of speaking is to land the point, win the room, and leave with agreement neatly in hand. But the longer I’ve worked with speakers as a speechwriter and speaker coach, the more I’ve watched smart audiences quietly resist well-crafted arguments. This is why the more I write for big stages and seen my clients success, the more I’ve come to believe something radically

You’ve spent weeks crafting your talk. You’ve got an opening story that makes people tear up (or at least blink slower). Your slides are sleek. Your closer hits hard. And yet, something’s off. People say, “That was great!” but they can’t quite tell you what they got out of it. Your stories are landing, but your message is drifting. You’re getting applause, not impact. That’s the red flag. That’s the moment to ask: Does this talk have a throughline? Or just a highlight reel?

Emotion guides the audience from where they are to where you want them to go.  If you try to start with inspiration but haven’t earned their trust or curiosity, it won’t land. If you push too hard too early, they shut down.

Why we need to move beyond storytelling to story shaping if we want to create resonance and impact.

Interested in learning more about speechwriting and public speaking courses? Find my courses here .    Coming up with an idea is easy. Coming up with the idea is impossible. So, how do you come up with an idea that will captivate an audience and move them toward something? I find that there are generally three approaches to generating ideas: the hunter, the gatherer, and the explorer. First, the hunter is out searching for something. They have something very specific in mind