A speechwriter for former President Barack Obama spoke about his new book on communication and speech writing at Gelman Library on Tuesday.  

Terry Szuplat — a speechwriter who served as the Deputy Director of the White House Speechwriting Office during Obama’s second term and worked as his foreign policy speechwriter throughout his presidency — discussed leaving an impact on others through communication and effective speechwriting. The College of Professional Studies hosted the event, which was also recorded as a live episode of “Chief Influencer,” a podcast cosponsored by the college that interviews successful leaders across a variety of industries. 

Szuplat said his new book, titled “Say It Well: Find Your Voice, Speak Your Mind, Inspire Any Audience” is meant to serve as a guide for communicating effectively. He said he traveled to over 40 countries with the former president and is now an adjunct professor of speechwriting at American University. 

Liesl Riddle, dean of the CPS, introduced the podcast’s host Anthony Shop, who received his Master of Business Administration from GW. The podcast previously featured guests like Ben’s Chili Bowl founder Virginia Ali and Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ). 

“Anthony is a true influencer in the marketing and communications world,” Riddle said. 

Shop introduced Szuplat as a “master storyteller” and said his book has been praised as an “invaluable guide” for those who want to speak with confidence. 

Szuplat said he grew up in Massachusetts listening to records of former speeches given by former President and Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy. 

“Other kids would be outside playing, and I’d be inside listening to speeches by John F. Kennedy,” Szuplat said. “And I didn’t know words like cadence, rhythm and poetry, but even as a kid, I knew there was something in those speeches that was different, that appealed to the best in us.”

He said while he didn’t agree with 100 percent of the decisions Obama made, his job was to ensure that the president felt comfortable giving the speeches he wrote. 

“What we’re trying to do is provide a script that is the speech that they would give and write for themselves if they only had time to do it,” Szuplat said. 

Szuplat said he wants the book to provide insights not only from himself but from Obama as well through the inclusion of private conversations he had with the former president, which he said he is “grateful” to Obama for allowing him to include. 

“I hope that every chapter, you feel like you’re having a conversation with Barack Obama about writing and communication,” Szuplat said. 

Szuplat said he also included stories of ordinary people going “viral” through effective communication to make the book more tangible. Szuplat said although many often think of Obama as a naturally gifted speaker, he wasn’t born with the gift of public speaking, but rather had to work for years to be able to speak at the level he did during his presidency. 

“When he was a 20-something-year-old community organizer in Chicago, he had to stand up, give a speech to a bunch of philanthropists to recruit some donations to support his work, and he froze up, and he stammered,” Szuplat said. 

Szuplat said part of what made Obama such a great speaker — and what has the potential to make anybody a good speaker —  is that he was forced to grapple with his identity, ultimately leading to Obama’s famous speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

“I think because of his own unique identity, his racial identity, he was forced to kind of think about himself more deeply than most of us do throughout his life,” Szuplat said.

Another part of Obama’s success, Szuplat said, was that he regularly met with his team so that they could understand how he preferred his speeches. He said Obama never raised his voice at him once throughout their eight years working together. 

“Speechwriters are not mind readers,” said Szuplat. “You can’t send your comms team in a cave and expect them to produce beautiful content that aligns with your voice, your vision, your values if you never tell them what your voice, your vision, your values are.”