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Expert Speechwriting Tips: Compose Your Speech Out Loud

Expert Speechwriting Tips: Compose Your Speech Out LoudHow do you determine the appropriate tone and style for your speech?

To determine the appropriate tone and style for your speech, say it out loud, record it and play it back. Consider your audience, the purpose of your speech, and the desired outcome. Use language that is clear, concise, and engaging to effectively convey your message.

The Rhetorical Nature of Crafting an Engaging Speech: The Audible Approach

How does one harness the power of effective speech writing to capture the audience’s attention? The key lies not just in the words on paper, but in their audible resonance. It’s the same way President Barack Obama captured our attention or how a best friend’s wedding toast left us teary-eyed. The heartbeat of public speaking is in the spoken word, and that’s where your great speech should start.

Imagine taking the stage, armed with a seemingly brilliant script. As you delve into your narrative, the audience’s attention seems to waver. A joke that seemed great on paper receives mere crickets in response. It’s not that your content lacks value. It’s that the content of the speech was crafted for the eyes, not the ears. Unlike a research paper, where longer sentences and intricate jargon might flourish, a speech demands brevity, clarity, and rhythm.

This is where my experience as a senior speechwriter comes into play. To ensure an engaging speech, it’s crucial to embody the content, to feel each word, and hear its impact. Composing out loud is your first step to creating not just a good speech, but a great one.

“The single most powerful tool for gaining a competitive edge is also the most overlooked: your voice.” – Maria Popova

Having set our minds on the importance of crafting speeches out loud, it’s time to delve even deeper and understand the ways it ushers in a gamut of benefits armed to empower your speech writing process as well as the delivery process. So, let’s shed some light on the topic.

Uncover the Speech Writing Benefits of Composing Speech Out Loud:Why Compose Out Loud–catching more than grammar?

If you’ve ever tried singing a song differently than it’s typically performed, you’ll understand just how vital rhythm is. Speechwriting follows the same suite. The commas, the pauses, the emphasis… these aren’t simply features of language, but the very threads that weave your story together.

When you compose your speech out loud, you engage directly with these rhythmic components, granting yourself an opportunity to feel the beat of your words as your audience will. This method also provides an important opportunity to identify phrases that might seem great in writing but don’t quite work within the spoken context. By using more nouns and verbs instead of adjectives, you can create a stronger and more impactful speech.

Therefore, the value of vocalizing your speech during its composition phase cannot be underestimated. It helps you experience pacing, emphasis, and tone just as your audience would. This enhances your speech’s effectiveness and ultimately ensures you connect more powerfully with your listeners.

A Speechwriter’s Dos and Don’ts of Composing Out Loud:

When it comes to composing out loud, there are several practices you should keep in mind and others you need to avoid to ensure a compelling, engaging speech. Let’s dive right in:

The Do’sPractice Active Visualization: As you compose your speech, imagine your audience. What are their reactions? What points will grab their attention? This technique can help you craft a speech that will truly resonate.Listen to Your Intentions: While composing, articulate your thoughts out loud. Listen to what’s coming naturally from your mind and your heart. Sometimes, the best speeches come directly from unfiltered thoughts and feelings.Trust Your Instincts: The mere process of vocalization can reveal tones, emotions, and connections that were otherwise hidden. When you stumble upon such moments, trust your instincts and incorporate these elements to your speech.The Don’tsDon’t Rush It: Composing an engaging speech doesn’t happen instantly. Resist the urge to rush the process. Take your time to develop ideas, arrange them meaningfully and articulate all elements right.Don’t Curb Your Emotions: Public speaking is as much about emotions as it is about delivering content. When composing out loud, never suppress your emotions. Welcoming them into the process can lead to a more passionate and heartfelt speech.Don’t Ignore Feedback: If you are composing out loud in front of others, be open to feedback. Constructive criticism can only refine your speech and delivery.

Remember, an engaging speech doesn’t merely inform—it entertains, persuades, and moves. Create from your heart, practice listening to yourself, and keep refining your craft.

Three Speechwriting Tips to Crafting Out Loud:Speechwriting Tips #1. Brainstorm with Authenticity and Clarity:

Before diving into the type of speech you’re about to craft, engage in vocal brainstorming. Speak your thoughts freely, jump from the beginning to the end, employ personal anecdotes, or even start with the main message. Recording this process allows you to capture raw emotion and genuine ideas. When transcribed, these snippets can be the backbone of your speech, adding much-needed authenticity and organization with a speech outline.

At this stage, forget about grammatical exactness or final copy. It’s about fishing for those hidden gems of thoughts and observations that can truly differentiate your speech from the rest and introduce new ideas. Clarity, however, remains crucial. Make sure your ideas aren’t lost in a sea of words. Aim to present your thoughts distinctly, allowing you to discover what genuinely resonates with you.

“Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Applying Emerson’s words to the art of public speaking, let’s dive deeper into the importance of composing speeches out loud and the unique power they hold. In essence, composing a speech is akin to creating a piece of music or an eloquent ballad. The rhythm, the pauses, the modulation of your voice – they all contribute to the symphony of your words, captivating your audience and encouraging them to connect with your narrative and be open to persuasion.

Auditing Your Speech’s Echo: Sound Matters

The speech’s content is, undoubtedly, paramount. However, did you ever stop to evaluate the sound of your speech? When you lend your voice to your thoughts, your audience feels a tangible difference. It’s an element of communication often overlooked: sound creates an ambiance, sets a mood, and drastically impacts the effectiveness of your message. By practicing and rehearsing your speech, you can ensure confident and effective delivery, paying attention to your tone, body language, eye contact, voice modulation, and timing.

Your Speech: An Emotional Symphony for Persuasion and Action

When you choose to compose your speech out loud, you tap into a reservoir of passion and emotion that silent composition may miss. Every speech has its highs and lows. One moment you’re scaling the peak, the next you’re diving into the valley. These varying narrative structures create an emotional journey for your listeners, which you can amplify via vocal composition using the active voice.

“Language is much closer to film than painting is.” – Sergei Eisenstein

This quote reiterates how different mediums bring nuances to communication. When you compose your speech out loud, it parallels the process of filmmaking, where one scene flows into the next, enhancing your narrative’s flow, rhythm, and emotional landscape.

Speechwriting Tips #2:. Write, Vocalize, Revise:

The cycle of composing a speech involves a repetitive process of writing, vocalizing, and revising. Developing a speech out loud helps you catch awkward phrasing and unclear ideas. Speaking your words out loud adds a new dimension to the experience. You can discover how consonants click, vowels vibrate, and phrases fluctuate, allowing the rhythm and pace of your speech to naturally emerge.

On vocalizing your words, be your own critic. Listen critically. Do the sentences flow? Do the words sound engaging or monotonous? This is your opportunity to refine, reduce redundancy, and optimize every element of your draft.

Revision is an integral part of this cycle. It may feel overwhelming to let go of points that you worked hard on, but remember that composing out loud helps you to create a more engaging, compelling, and authentic speech. It’s not necessarily about the quantity of words, but the quality of good writing and the story being told.

“If you can speak, you can influence. If you can influence, you can change lives.” – Rob Brown

Creating powerful speeches isn’t just about what you write, it’s about how you say it too. When you practice your speech out loud, you find out how it really sounds, not just how it reads.

Consider the music of language; it’s the melody of vowels and consonants, and the rhythm of sentences and pauses. These elements only become apparent when a speech is vocalized.

Why Finding Your Rhythm Matters

Just like in music, rhythm in speech has profound effects on how listeners perceive and process the information. A sound, no different than a symphony, can elicit vivid emotions and provide a rhythmic backbone to underscore your key messages.

“Public speaking is not just about relaying information, it’s about influencing emotions.”

Personal Connections: The Harmonious Notes

Tone, inflection, and emphasis – these are the harmonious notes of your vocalized speech that add context and clarity. Composing out loud lets you discover how to use these tools to hone your message while creating a personal connection with your audience.

Creating a Fluid Speech: The Ebb and Flow

When you speak out loud, you instinctively use the natural ebb and flow of language. Most writing styles, however, focus on grammatical correctness and formal structures. Practicing your speech orally can help you break away from these conventions, creating a free-flowing and engaging discourse.

Feeling Your Speech and Alliteration : The Resonance 

Your speech ought to vibrate with your own essence. Composing out loud allows you to feel the resonance of your speech, ensuring it aligns with your own character and purpose. This process makes you more comfortable and confident when delivering the final performance.

So you see, your speech isn’t just an assortment of words and ideas, but, like a melody, it’s a symphony of rhythm, harmonious notes, ebb and flow, and resonance that is best composed out loud.

Speechwriting Tips #3. Rehearse with Purpose:

Last but not least, the final step in composing a speech out loud is to rehearse. Rehearsal is not just about memorizing the script, it’s about internalizing your message and connecting with it deeply. It helps you refine your delivery and get comfortable with the flow of the speech. This level of preparation helps you convey your message confidently, authentically, and compellingly, turning your speech into a captivating narrative rather than a monotonous reading.

Rehearsing your speech is not about striving for perfection; it’s more about achieving a level of comfort and familiarity with your material. Remember, more than just knowing what to say, it’s essential to consider the emotional resonance of your words. The way you deliver each line can dramatically boost their impact and stir your audience’s emotions.

There are different ways you can practice your speech. Here are a few effective strategies: and more speechwriting tips.

The Mirror Technique:

It’s not called the mirror technique just because you’re using an actual mirror (although you might). The mirror is metaphorical. When practicing your speech aloud, pay attention to your vocal delivery and body language. Is your enunciation clear? Are your hand gestures natural? How’s your eye contact? These elements are just as important as the words coming out of your mouth.

Recording and Playback:

Using a recording device – most smartphones have one – is another invaluable technique. It allows you to hear your speech as your audience would. When you listen back, take note of areas where your speech might have been unclear or you may have rushed. Additionally, it can be beneficial to observe your speech visually as well, so consider using a video recording.

Practicing with Peers:

Just as it suggests, this involves practicing with a group of peers who act as your audience. Ask them for feedback. Are there areas they didn’t understand? Did anything jump out as particularly engaging or boring? This method provides “live” feedback and can help you anticipate audience reactions.

These are just a few of the techniques for practicing your speeches, but remember, the ultimate goal is for you to be comfortable and confident in delivering your message.

Conclusion: 

Bringing it all together, it’s clear to see the immense value of composing your public speeches out loud. Through this innovative approach, you achieve a deep level of authenticity, create emotional connections, and tune into the rhythm of your speech. Each word, each pause, each inflection becomes a purposeful note in your grand symphony. Additionally, resources such as Pearlman, who has endorsements from two public speaking groups, the National Speakers Association and Toastmasters International, and Richard Dowis’ book The Lost Art of the Great Speech, can also be consulted for further guidance.

But remember, your voice isn’t just a vehicle for your words. It’s an orchestra that weaves a tale, evokes feelings, and incites action. Make it resonate, make it echo, let it sing your truth. And when you step onto that stage, trust in the work you’ve done out loud. You’re not simply reciting; you’re performing a piece you’ve crafted, honed, and come to know intimately.

In closing, public speakers, never underestimate the power and potential of composing your speech out loud. It’s often the missing key, the tool that turns an average speech into an unforgettable experience—for both you, and your audience.

Speech Writing Services: Make Your Moment Unforgettable

Unforgettable Moments: Speech Writing Services Made EasyHow do you choose the best speech writing service for your needs?

When choosing a speech writing service, consider factors such as their experience, reputation, and customer reviews. Look for services that offer customization options, provide samples of their work, and have a team of professional writers. Additionally, compare pricing and ensure they can meet your deadline.

Speech writing services for more than CEOs and Presidents:

When I think of a “speech writer,” my mind goes back to Sam Seaborn (played by Rob Lowe) on the show The West Wing. He’s a confidant to President Bartlet, working tirelessly in a small office to set the strategic direction of the administration. That show created a myth around speechwriters—that they are only for high-powered government officials and CEOs. Yet not every speech is a conference keynote or State of the Union speech. Oftentimes, you are putting a speech together for a wedding, a retirement, or end-of-year company speech. A speechwriter can help you with the words and public speaking delivery of your speech, whether you need to write a persuasive speech or best man speech. Any special occasion speech requires careful and purposeful preparation to ensure that you will be remembered.

Or, you need help with polishing up a document beyond a speech: an important email, a press release, or a new proposal. A well-versed writer can help in those contexts as well. This guide will help you determine if you need a speech writer and how to vet the one you want to work with. Even if you and I aren’t a great fit, I can recommend other writers to help you out with speech writing services.

Identifying Your Professional Speech Writing Needs

First, figure out how important the event or communication is to your target audience. Even if it seems like a routine email out to the company or a five-minute speech, know that your words carry extra weight given your position. Even the smallest of communications can affect employees and volunteers within your organization. A sounding board before you send that email or give that speech can help with ensuring that an unintended message doesn’t go out. The writing process is never easy but when you have a partner, it all becomes easier.

Second, do you need help with a draft, a copy edit, or a substantive edit? If you’re happy with your message, you may need someone to simply look it over for spelling and grammar. However, if you’re stuck on the blank page (I’ve been there numerous times) or the ideas aren’t flowing, reach out to someone who can provide objective and unbiased advice. Speech writing services go beyond the initial draft but can include feedback on a current draft.

Third, do you need to practice your speech? We can set up a time to run the speech over Zoom and provide feedback on it. Saying it out loud and receiving feedback is the easiest way to catch areas to change.

Speech writing Services: Finding the Right Speechwriter (vs. a Copywriter):

The easiest way to find a writer is to ask other writers who they recommend. It’s similar to auto mechanics. Most mechanics can fix basic issues with a car, but if you have a high-end model or something that only the dealership can fix, you need an expert. Same with writers. You wouldn’t reach out to a novelist for help on a resume. Similarly, some people reach out to copywriters for help with writing. While this is a great start, and many speechwriters are also copywriters, you may be limiting yourself to someone who writes solely for Google Ads or advertisement copy.

Online services like UpWork are tricky to work with. First, most of your communication is limited to that platform and the service takes an incredible chunk from the writers on the platform (15%-20% at times). This causes inflated rates and a transactional relationship.

I prefer to work with clients on ongoing projects—whether that’s a series of speeches, a mix of speeches and professional communication, or long term projects like a keynote speech (or even a book). This approach allows me to calibrate the speaker’s voice and style over numerous projects to understand their approach to the communication project.

Evaluating Eloquence: Portfolios of Professional Speech Writers

Every great writer is going to have a portfolio. Ask for it. Even ones starting out will have sample papers from college or from initial client projects.

When reading the portfolio, ask the following questions:

Is there a clear sense of narrative among the projects?Can the writer write in a different voice for each project?Will the types of speeches they wrote mesh well with what I want to do?Even if the writer hasn’t written in my field, can they do a data-driven presentation? A narrative-driven one? A TEDx-style one?The Initial Consultation with Your Professional Speech Writer

The best speech writers pick up the phone and talk to the client before beginning the project. They want to know if the relationship is going to be fruitful and meaningful. It’s a two way interview, with the same questions in mind for both writer and client:

Are we going to work well together?Is the revision process going to feel like pulling teeth?Is this person available for questions and back and forth?Is this a one-time project or are we going to keep working together to create even better projects down the line?Is this someone I can rely upon?Understanding Pricing of Speech Writing Services

Here are ways in which I’ve seen writers price their services, each has pros and cons to it. I’ll explain my hours-package at the end.

Flat-fees:

Typically, the writer quotes a flat fee for the project and determines how many rounds of revisions are included in that fee. Typically, it’s done by the minute of speaking time for a speech. You can calculate that by assuming that the average speaks around 135 words per minute.

Pros: One easy fee that makes invoicing easy for both sides; no need to worry about billable hours going up like with lawyers and consultants.

Cons: It’s hard to gauge how much work might go into the speech—is it research-intensive or more narrative driven (think TED-talk vs. wedding toast)? Revisions get tricky as sometimes the speech is a great upon delivery of a first draft but sometimes clients want to nitpick every single word.

Hourly rates:

Here the writer charges an hourly fee and bills the client according to the amount of time worked—phone calls, emails, research, writing, editing, etc.

Pros:

In this model, the writer’s entire time on the project is compensated. This is more fair overall and you don’t get into the trap of doing too much work on a fixed-cost project.

Cons:

Hours can run up without clear benchmarks or stoppages. Similar to when you get your car serviced, you get the initial quote, the mechanic finds more issues, has to order more parts, and the service hours pile up.

Retainer or Packages Structure:

In this model, you buy a block of hours for a project or series of projects. You pay an initial fee and that covers the set of hours that the writer will work.I prefer this model as it allows for the establishment of a long-term relationship.

Pros:

You get an up front fee and invoice that clearly marks out the amount of time that the writer will work on your project—anything left over can be used for future projects.

Cons:

While the model is not perfect, the initial project may take up more hours than allotted. However, you can evaluate what the writer has accomplished after the initial block of hours and decide to continue working or finish the project on your own.

The Collaboration and Feedback Process

It’s important to outline the collaboration and feedback process you’ll have with your writer. Answer these questions up front in the initial call or early on in the process so that expectations can be set well between you and your writer for any speech writing services engagements:

Which hours of the day can your writer be contacted?What is a reasonable length of time for revisions to a document?How do you give feedback and how does the writer like to receive feedback—over email, over the phone, written comments?Sealing the Deal: Confidential Aspects of Hiring a Professional Speech Writer

Confidentiality is paramount when working with a writer. However, what makes this hard is asking the writer, “Who have you worked with?” The best ones will most likely tell you general titles and professional profiles—e.g. A Fortune 500 CEO who needed a keynote speech for a conference.

However, while it is assumed, confidentiality should be a key portion of the contract signed with your writer for speech writing services. For inclusion of work in a portfolio, a writer should get the permission of the client and remove any identifying references to their name, profession, and speech (as those could locate the speech easily if it’s on YouTube).

The Value of Building a Long-Term Relationship with Your Speechwriter

Above all, what matters most is the long-term relationship you develop with a writer. Even if you need help only a few times a year, having someone in your corner who knows your voice and perspective can be quite valuable. You will want to establish that expectation early on to have a “go-to writer” who can help in a pinch or time of need. Using the hours-package model above for speech writing services ensure that you will have a writer on hand when you need it.

Speechwriting Next Steps to Hire a Professional Speechwriter:

Let’s chat about your next set of projects that we can work on together. I’d love to hear from you and what you have planned for this year and next. We can work together to create a communications strategy for all of your written and spoken work. Beyond speech writing services, I can help with writing important emails, press-releases, and even full-length books.

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Retirement Speech Writing Tips and Examples

In his book Retirement: Your New Beginning, Sid Miramontes introduces retirement as akin to “closing the book on one chapter in order to begin the next.” Accordingly, you can think of retirement speeches as the closing pages of a chapter, and like in any other book, you want to end it with a bang. You want it to be the most memorable farewell speech filled with fun anecdotes, fond memories, and positive energy. Worry no more because this blog will walk you through the ins and outs of retirement speeches complete in all facets: content, scenarios, and examples. As Daniel Webster puts it long ago, “no man not inspired can make a good speech without preparation.”

What are the basics of retirement speeches?

Before we delve into the art of preparing retirement speeches, there are a couple of fundamentals you need to consider for any moment wherein you need to deliver a retirement speech:

Qualities of the Best. The best retirement speeches possess the best retirement stories. These stories honor the people who supported them and motivate the audience by drawing lessons from such stories. Those lessons need to be reflections of a shared experience and must be intergenerational in that they speak to the future generations. In the process, the speaker must strike the delicate balance between what is practical and what is emotional thereby avoiding hyperfocus on the latter. At bottom, the most effective retirement speeches are prepared by tapping into creative energy, delivered in accordance with the rigors of public speaking, and concluded on a positive note.

Length. There is no hard-fast rule on how long retirement speeches should be as it often relies on the flow of the program or event. Nevertheless, it is optimal to have at most a ten-minute speech comprised of 1,500 words.

Structure. The go-to framework is the “story and lesson” structure wherein you incorporate three medium-length stories as a launchpad to the lessons, which are often in the form of career advice, you learned and want to impart to the audience:

OpeningStory #1Lesson/AdviceStory #2Lesson/AdviceStory #3Lesson/AdviceClosing

Opening. At the very start, you must avoid the common mistake of an introduction filled with nothing but welcome, thank you, and acknowledgment. Instead, use this as an opportunity to lay down the larger themes that will drive the entire speech such as the values of hard work and camaraderie, among others. Another way to make the most out of your speech’s opening is to jumpstart the storytelling by sharing an attention-grabbing anecdote that will serve as the hook that will capture the minds and hearts of the audience at the outset which must be sustained by the speech’s middle section.

Middle/Storytelling. Although it is your moment, it is better to share stories about your career as it relates to others such as how your colleagues played an impactful role in your growth. Use the body of your speech as a capsule of stories not just about yourself but about the lessons you learned from others and which you want to impart to others as career advice to them, especially for the next generations. This is, after all, public speaking anchored on influencing other people.

 Closing. This is where you wrap up all the stories and lessons that you have shared into a concluding takeaway for the audience. Like the opening, keep it as short as possible to be impactful as the closing is often what the audience will remember from your retirement speech.  

In sum, retirement speeches are farewell speeches for a retirement celebration. It is a celebration of all the favorite memories and positive experiences that are best communicated via fun and profound anecdotes. One must craft it sincerely and creatively in the same way that it must be delivered confidently and competently, hence the centrality of the content—what must be said.

What do I say in my own retirement speech? 

Now that you are retiring, it is the moment where you want to look back at your career for all these years and exude from that experience, all the anecdotes, lessons, and thanks you want to express to the audience. Thus, retirement speeches often feature a contrast between when you began your career and now that you are closing it. It is in that tale of change that you will derive meaningful anecdotes that are meaningful either because they are personally special or because it is a reservoir of lessons. The lovely memories are those that you will miss the most when you finally retire while the profound lessons are those that you want to be passed from one generation to another, even if you have already retired. Ultimately, a retirement speech is an articulation of your legacy shared not only by yourself but also by others: your friends, families, and colleagues. Never forget to acknowledge them even if it is already in the closing section of your speech.

But what if it is not you who is retiring?

What to say in a speech for someone retiring?  

To speak about someone retiring is to honor that person as well as the event for that person. That entails speaking about their achievements and contributions creatively told through anecdotes that may be poignant or funny. These stories may also be reflective of the retiree’s positive personality which could form the core of what you will be missing when he/she is already retired. Looking forward, you may also remark on how the retiree is a role model for the generations to come. Underlying all these components are heartfelt expressions of appreciation and gratitude wherein you need to consider two Ws: who and what are you thankful for.

After the generic basics of retirement speeches, we are now ready to delve into the specifics of retirement speeches especially as it relates to the identity of the retiree as well as the nature of the retirement event.

Specific Retirement Speech Scenarios

Although retirement speeches follow a seemingly common structure, each scenario possesses particular nuances that need to be accounted for and incorporated into the speech. The following are the most common scenarios:

Retirement Speech for a Colleague. Remember Steve Carell’s last episode in The Office wherein his character Michael Scott is leaving their paper company Dunder Mifflin. Various moments of this episode showcased how to bid farewell to a retiring colleague. Do you recall their final song entitled “9,986,000 Minutes”? That refers to how long Michael worked in the office. This sets the perspective and context of the retiree’s career as well as work experience. And then each of them sang about what Michael has done to them. This is an illustration of how one speaks of the impact of the retiree, may that be personal—contribution to one’s life—or professional—contribution to the organization or institution—as these are at the heart of the retiree’s legacy. Essentially, it is answering the question: what will you miss the most about your retiring colleague once he/she finally retires? This culminates with your summation of the retiree’s career or legacy on the most positive note. In that episode, Jim Halpert tears up and uttered the words: “what a great boss you turned out to be. The best boss I ever had.” As the speech could go on to cover potential next chapters of the retiree’s life in cognizance that retirement is not the end but a beginning, you must not forget the importance of getting in touch which bolsters the sincerity of everything that has been said. As the chorus of that final song for Michael’s farewell to the office puts it: “remember to call!”

How about if the one who is retiring is your friend or more so, a part of your family?

Retirement Speech for Friends and Family. While the basic components of a retirement speech also apply in this scenario, a retiring friend deserves more than that in recognition of the personal bond you have forged for all these years. Thus, speaking about your retiring friend will take the form of a more casual and personal approach. At times, this borders on humor since friendship carries with it the wealth of all kinds of memories—both the happy and the sad ones—that you have confronted together and which only made your friendship stronger. The same is true for speeches about a retiring family member yet the key difference lies in how personal it would be—speeches for family tend to be more personal than those for friends. As expected you’re your closeness as friends or as a family, remember to make the anecdotes and memories as vivid as possible not only as a way of recalling the past but savoring the present moment as a culmination of all these years.

Retirement Speech for those in Service.  Those in the vocation of serving the people, such as the military and teachers, are often special addressees of farewell messages and speeches primarily due to the nature of their careers. Words of sincerity and profundity are only fitting for their sense of duty, honor, and selflessness. Accordingly, these are the larger themes that must govern the retirement speeches for these professionals in the service industry. Central to any retirement speeches for soldiers and police officers are the acknowledgment of their bravery and dedication to keeping the community safe and secure. For teachers, on the other hand, expressions of gratitude for their altruism and compassion in molding the youth alongside the vision of a better future which is perhaps the best gift a student can give to his/her teachers.

Here are some examples of retirement speeches.

Some Examples of Retirement Speeches

To better grasp this guide, the following are three key examples of effective speeches for retirement that you could use as an inspiration in crafting your own:

Jeff Bezos’s Farewell Letter to Amazon.  When Jeff Bezos stepped down as Amazon’s CEO, he left a heartfelt letter to his employees whom he referred to as “Amazonians.” What made this farewell letter effective is that it encapsulates most, if not all, of the aforementioned basics of crafting a retirement speech. There is the tale of change for contextualization wherein he wrote “This journey began some 27 years ago. Amazon was only an idea…” towards “Today, we employ 1.3 million talented, dedicated people, serve hundreds of millions of customers...” And then there are the lessons he learned from this journey which now form part of the shared culture of Amazon spearheaded by innovation. From reminiscing, Bezos turned this into a battle call for the future with his concluding takeaway and reminder to the Amazonians: “Keep inventing, and don’t despair when at first the idea looks crazy. Remember to wander. Let curiosity be your compass.”

President Bill Clinton’s Remarks on the Retirement of General Colin Powell. President Clinton’s remarks for the retiring General Powell are an effective embodiment of a retirement speech for those in the service industry. At the outset, Clinton laid down the principal theme of Powell’s life and career in the military: “Today, a grateful Nation observes the end of a distinguished career and celebrates 35 years of service and victory.” In both the personal recollections, such as the encounters and the meetings, and profound statements, like “a rock of stability in our Nation’s military during a time of profound change”, it all redounds to Powell’s retirement event as an honor and thanksgiving for his service. This culminated with these concluding words: “Your reward is a grateful Nation and a bright future. Your reward is a stronger Nation, safer and better today for your sword, your courage, and your skill. From the bottom of my heart, on behalf of every man and woman, every boy and girl in this great country, I thank you and wish you Godspeed.”

 Jimmy Kimmel’s Tribute to David Letterman.  As a legend in late-night television, Letterman is very much deserving of the best heartfelt tribute which came from Kimmel. What made this tribute notable is that Kimmel harnesses Letterman’s personal impact on him as a microcosm of the retiring host’s great career. He looked back at when he started watching Letterman when he was still a kid throughout college and his television career. Perhaps the words that tug at the people’s heartstrings the most are these: “Watching ‘Late Night,’ not only did I learn how to do everything from Dave, the reason I have this show is because the executives at ABC saw me when I was a guest on Dave’s show and hired me to host this show.” Kimmel capped this off with the simplest yet the most impactful line: “Dave is the best and you should see him.”  

As you can see, it is challenging yet fun to craft and deliver retirement speeches primarily because you earnestly seek to honor the retiree in the best way possible as much as you want to honor all the people who played a meaningful role in your career if you are the retiree. As you now prepare to pen and perform your retirement speech, always be guided by these words from William Jennings Bryan—”eloquent speech is not from lip to ear, but rather from heart to heart.”

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7 Wedding Toast Ideas Brainstorming Prompts

The Best Tips for Writing an Unforgettable Wedding Speech or Toast

Whether you’re the bride, groom, or a member of the wedding party, it can be stressful to write and deliver an outstanding speech at someone’s wedding. After all, your audience will be asking themselves Did they like my speech? Did they understand how much I love them? Did they appreciate all the hard work I put into this speech? To help you write your own wedding speech or toast, here are five tips on how to write an unforgettable one.

What’s your story?

Wedding toasts are a great opportunity to tell a story, which can make your toast even more memorable. Think of your wedding toast as an anecdote you might tell at a dinner party about something funny that happened when you met and fell in love. If you need some inspiration, check out these wedding speech examples to help get you started.

Think about the bride and groom in your wedding toast

What is it they love most about each other? Why do they love each other? What would you say are their best and worst traits? Now, think about what you’re going to say when it’s your turn at the mic. Keep in mind that some wedding speeches can be as short as five minutes, while others can last as long as 20. Formal weddings may call for a more drawn-out speech, while casual weddings may call for something briefer.

Plan your wedding toast

Write down some wedding toast examples. If you’re struggling with what to say during your speech, look at example wedding speeches online for inspiration. It doesn’t have to be long; even a short speech is memorable if it has a beginning, middle and end. Your goal is to lead up to some kind of emotional high-point that gives people something they can think about later on in their lives.

Structure your story

Whether you’re planning to deliver a traditional wedding speech at your best friend’s nuptials or simply want to raise a glass to toast your sister and her new husband, you’ll want to structure your words carefully. The most memorable wedding speeches or toasts weave together both stories and action in ways that will leave friends and family reeling.

Use examples from their relationship

Your best bet for a truly memorable wedding speech is to look within your relationship. Some of my favorite wedding speeches are those that don’t try to say anything too profound—they just share great stories from your love story. Start out by looking at some wedding toast examples—there are tons of inspirational and heartfelt speeches you can use as a guide! To get even more ideas, check out some great wedding toast ideas on Pinterest.

Inspire others with personal anecdotes

This is your chance to share stories about how you and your partner met, your first date, favorite moments from your relationship, etc. Keep it short—two minutes tops—and make sure it has a clear beginning, middle and end.

Add humor and show emotion

Wedding toasts are usually formal and full of pleasantries, but they should also be heartfelt. When you’re writing your speech, add a personal touch by telling a story about how you and your spouse-to-be met. Or talk about how much your partner means to you now—it’s likely to mean more than just generic words about love and marriage.

Take breaks while you’re writing

Staying focused on your wedding speech for an extended period of time can be difficult, but taking short breaks throughout your speech-writing process can help you stay inspired and produce a more impactful speech. During a typical wedding toast, you may have to talk about nearly every meaningful relationship in your life. That’s why it’s important to write down as many memories and stories as possible while they’re fresh in your mind.

Practice, practice, practice!

The best way to prepare is by getting a bunch of wedding-toast examples and reading through them. Then, take one, change it up with your own flair, and read it out loud. Pay attention to how it sounds—and don’t be afraid to let a friend listen, too. Practice until you can say what you want in five minutes flat.

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What To Say In a Wedding Toast

Listen to the full episode of Toastcaster Communication with Greg Gazin on what to say in a wedding toast here or find snippets of the best parts below.

During the show, we discuss:

How to include humor in a wedding toastHow to start a wedding toastHow to work with a speechwriter when writing a wedding toastHow long should a wedding toast be, and how many words is 3-5 minutes?What are some of the wedding toast takeaways from the book, “Toast: Short Speeches, Big Impact?”

What are the basics for how to start and what to say in a wedding toast?

How to give a toast at a wedding
Including jokes in a wedding speech
Tips on how to start a speech at a wedding

What to say in a wedding toast (rough transcript)

You think about toasts, there’s a science behind it, but there’s also a little bit of an art.

And when we think about toasts quite often, I’m sure for most people, the first thing that comes to mind is the wedding, wedding season is coming up or perhaps, maybe a retirement someone’s giving a toast to someone who’s retiring, but there’s also other occasions where you would have.

Oh, sure. I think of birthdays and anniversaries, bat mitzvahs and bar mitzvahs.

I think of promotion ceremonies or award speeches. Those all fall into the toast category, ceremonial speeches, it’s interesting. I guess you could say that they all fit into this one category, which often leads to raising a glass.

Yes, 100%. I liked that a lot.

And it also comes down to the goals too, of the toast where you want to honor the person and honor the event. If you’re doing that with a speech, it’s most likely a toast.
 
Oh, excellent. That’s a good it’s a good rule of thumb. Of course. I’m thinking when you go on YouTube, what is toasts quite often, you think about, okay, here’s the best man gets up to give a toast to the groom or the toast to the bride and groom and things go terribly wrong. Sometimes they’re telling horror stories and blah, blah, blah. Again, could you maybe just elaborate a little bit more on what the purpose of a toast is?

Sure. I think very often people get a toast confused with a roast, and I think that’s the downfall of too many of those YouTube fails that you see quite often where someone has had too much to drink too little preparation, and they just start letting loose thinking it’s the beginning of their standup career.

And that’s just a recipe for disaster at that point.

So obviously you’ve written many toasts and you’ve heard many toasts when you listen to one and you hear one and you say to yourself, this was a great toast.
 
What is it that makes for a great toast?

I think a lot of the times, it’s the storytelling that happens within the toast.

If you can find great stories that honor the person that you’re toasting, then you’re going to have a really good speech put together. And what I mean is, telling those favorite stories about the person, when were they there for you in your life? When did they help you out? When did they show courage?
When did they show their best selves?

If you can find a story that tells those qualities of someone, that’s what I know the toast is going to be really good.
 
That’s interesting because it seems quite often the first thing that people will do is they try to go for that big laugh they do. And it almost always never works for whatever reason.

It’s that one liner that crude, joke they found on the internet or the joke we’ve all heard before. It’s almost always gets like that polite laugh. That, people give just because they know it’s a joke, but it really wasn’t that funny. But yeah, going for a joke right off the bat is almost always a recipe for disaster, unless you’ve, you’re a polished standard comedian, then maybe you can do it pretty well.

But for most people, I would say at least introduce yourself. Tell us who you are, how you’re related to the person that you’re toasting. And then tell us one great story. And that’s a much more effective way to start.

Yeah, I learned the hard way in my younger years, I would get up and I was always told, just tell a joke, warm up the audience.

And I would tell something that would fall. Really flat. But one time I actually had a very good opportunity. I had a friend of mine who was getting married and our connection when we were growing up together was the love of music and the love of records. And so he was in Montreal. I was in Edmonton, Alberta in Western Canada, and I traveled to the wedding and I remember opening up with a huge apology.

And I pulled out this record that I’d picked up at a used record store and it had a chunk taken out of it!

If someone is asking you to write a toast for them, how do you go about writing one?

How do you write it in such a way or create it in such a way that it doesn’t sound like it was written by somebody else?
is there a typical time for this process?

What is the toast writing process like when working with a speechwriter?

If someone is asking you to write a toast for them, how do you go about writing one?
 
So we start with a brainstorming survey. I have a set of questions depending on the occasion for the person to answer.
 
And these are some of the questions that I mentioned earlier. What are your favorite memories of this person? What have they truly been there for you? What have they made you laugh? When have they really shown who they are in the best way possible? And I send those questions over the person fills out the survey.

And then the speaker sends it back to me and we get on the phone and we talk about the answers in depth to what the person has written. And that helps me hear their voice, hear their intonation, and also just drill down a lot of the answers. And as a result, I’m able to take what they said and take what they wrote and turn it into a toast based on a few structures that I like to use that helps shape the story that they want to give and tell in the toast.

Wow. That’s interesting. So not only do you listen to the answers, you also listen to how they feed you back those answers ’cause that was my next question. Is that, how do you write it in such a way or create it in such a way that it doesn’t sound like it was written by somebody else? Like someone might say that doesn’t sound like me.
 
We also trade the draft back and forth up to three times. So the person can go in there and edit it and they can change words and phrases around and say, this is how I would say this part, or this is how I would do this part. So it’s a lot more of a partnership rather than me just writing a speech and saying, here you go, give it.
 
It’s very much a back and forth between the speaker and the client.

I know obviously it depends on how long it takes for people to answer the survey, but how long is there a typical time for this process to take?

If it’s a toast and and it’s five to seven minutes, probably around two weeks. If the speech is longer and requires research, then it’s a month.

That long, or that short dependent on your timeline, I’ve done some and only a few days before, but rush jobs are never too great. But I think an average of two weeks is what I can typically do if pressed for time.

How long should a wedding toast be?

How can we calculate the number of words for a wedding toast?

How long should a wedding toast be?

So after all that’s said and done, if someone is looking at the written form, how many words are we looking at roughly?
 
It depends. The way I calculate it out is the average human takes about 150 words per minute to speak. I will just do the math depending on how long it is they need to do a speech. So for talking to three minute toasts, that’s 450 words, five minute toast is a 750. So that’s how I just give a good ballpark as long as I am plus or minus within 100 words within the time limit. I know that we’re going to hit our mark almost on the dot.

What are some of the key wedding toast takeaways of the book, Toast: Short Speeches, Big Impact?

What are some of the key wedding toast takeaways of the book, Toast: Short Speeches, Big Impact?

What are a few key tips or a few key takeaways that you can share from the book.

Obviously you can’t go through everything, but there are a few things that maybe you could pull out just to get people thinking.
 
If they’re looking at getting into writing their first toast, first, what you want to do is honor the person and honor the event. Second. You want to make sure that you’re telling stories. Third, you want a well-structured speech, even if you’re just going to be speaking for three minutes, having it well-structured is still going to help you immensely fourth, take the time to really think about what you want to say and what you want to write.
 
And balance the amount of time you’ve written the speech with how much time you need to actually prepare and rehearse it too often, we let preparation and rehearsal fall by the wayside and that’s going to take an otherwise great speech and tank it. So instead you want to make sure that you’re budgeting time in five minutes throughout the day of little moments where you can practice your speech, whether that’s in the car, in the shower.
 
Before you go to bed, lunchtime, just all those little moments where if you take them and you practice your speech, you’re going to be in a much better spot on the big day than trying to cram it all in at the last minute
 
is reading a speech. Okay. Or reading your toast, I guess I should say  it is. If you have rehearsed it to the point where you don’t need to read it. There’s two people I think of in this scenario, there’s the person who wrote their speech the night before and is just reading it line for line without making any type of eye contact with the audience or doing anything to amplify the sentences on the paper.
 
I think that might not be the best way to go about it. What I would do instead. Rehearse it so much that your notes are there just as backup, rehearse it so much that you can give the speech as if you didn’t have the notes in front of you. And you’re just using them in case you get lost a little bit. So you want to internalize your speech rather than just read it word for word off the page.
 
And you want to get your timing down as well, because I know that I remember once being at a wedding where I know there were a number of people that were supposed to give speeches. And I think the first or second person who gave a toast, O M G just, it went on that. It seemed like a Ted talk.
 
Yeah. Watch out for that.
 
You want to stick to about five minutes for your toast. Given how many people are speaking at a wedding, keep it at five minutes and no one’s ever going to complain that a speech was to.

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How to Write a Retirement Speech

Intro: Speech Writing | How to write a thank you speech for retirement

This guide will help you write a retirement speech for yourself or for someone else that is retiring. The principles of both speeches are the same: Honor the person, and honor the event.

The goal of this guide is to help you first generate ideas of what you want to say, to look at examples of retirement speeches, and to create a structure you can use to make it easier to write the content for the speech.

This guide will also address retirement speeches for specific people like bosses, coworkers, and teachers, along with specific occasions such as military retirements or when the retirement wasn’t your choice. It may be helpful to have a Word doc or Google doc open during this blog post to jot down ideas for your retirement speech or the one you’ll give to another person.

Example Retirement Speech

Let’s first look at an example retirement speech that hits every note. You can find the text over at the Retirement Manifesto blog.

This speech excels in that it…

Focuses on lessons learned during a lifetime from work and familyEach lesson headlines its short sectionsThe speech has a mix of practical and emotional advice–”saving early” vs. “finding someone to love unconditionally”It uses stories in parts but doesn’t shy away from quoting a cool fact or statistic; we get insight into his career and his familyWhen necessary, the author, Fritz Gilbert, quotes others as he did with Jim CollinsIt focuses on gratitude for the lessons learned–but it’s not a speech that looks backward but instead provides advice for the future,

“What I do care about, however, is that each of you does all that you can, while you’re still working, to ensure that your retirement will be the best retirement you can build. If there’s nothing else you remember from my retirement speech, it’s my hope that you remember the importance of designing your own retirement, and that you never accept anything less than the best life has to offer, whatever that means to you.”

What should I say for my speech?

Using the lessons above from Fritz’s speech, we’ll answer some frequently asked questions in this section such as:

What to say at my retirement speech?How to thank my wife or husband during the retirement speech?How to thank your family in a retirement speech?I am retiring after 40 years, speech ideas?

Let’s break the answers down by the two goals stated earlier: Honor the Person and Honor the Event

Many speakers, especially humble leaders, do not like talking about themselves. They feel that it comes off as boastful and bragging. Instead, you can still talk about yourself but in a way that demonstrates how people in your life have contributed to your success–make it about those who helped you along the way.

Honor the Person: Use the following questions to brainstorm what to say in your retirement speech:

What lessons have you learned over the years?Who or what experiences taught you those lessons?To whom are you grateful for being in your life? How have they made you happier?

Honor the Event:

The second set of questions concerns the event itself–the speech and the meaning of retirement.

What does this event signify with so many of the people in the room (or on Zoom) attended? Why are you grateful for the people who attended?What does retirement mean to you? What’s next in your life?What advice can you give to the generation that follows after you? If it’s a work-related event, who is taking over in your place? What do you want them to know?What to say for a retirement speech for someone else?

You might not be ready to retire but people in your life are and you want to say something that shows your appreciation. For this section, we’ll focus on what to say at a retirement party for someone else that you love. it’s also how you would write a testimonial speech for a retiring person.

The secret is that the questions are similar to the ones you’d give at your own retirement speech but instead you want to focus on what the person you’re honoring means to your life.

Here are some questions to help brainstorm some thoughts for a speech for someone who is retiring:

Honor the Person:

What lessons has the retiree taught you? They can be small and funny or large and meaningful.Why are you grateful that the person was in your life?What actions has this person done that others should know about? When were they really there for you?How is the world a better place because of this person?How can all of us lead better lives because of the example set by the person retiring?

Honor the Event:

What does retirement mean to you? Why is this particular occasion so special?Given who is in the audience, why is it important that certain people are present? What do they mean in the life of the person retiring?

Do Now: Retirement speech brainstorming:

If you haven’t already, choose a section above and write down the answers to the questions as they come to you. Don’t worry about structure yet, we’ll talk about that later. The idea is to do a brain dump so that you can have pages full of ideas from which to choose. All of them might not make it in, but it’s better to write first and edit later.

Speeches for Specific People:

Many people ask for specific advice for different types of people in their lives when it comes to retirement speeches. The most commonly asked for include bosses, family members, teachers, and leaders, that the person giving the retirement speech looks up to. We’ll also handle a few scenarios where it’s tough to write the speech such as when you don’t particularly like the person or don’t know them all too well.

Bosses: How to give retirement speech for boss | How to organize speech for boss’s retirement

Bosses can be a tough group to give a speech to–you want to impress them, their boss, and others in the company. Use the guidelines above from “writing a retirement speech for someone else,” to guide you.

Some additional questions could be:

How has the boss shaped you professionally?What professional lessons have the boss taught you? Which personal lessons have the boss taught you?How is your company better off for having this person work for them?What hobbies do they have that you hope they’ll do more of in their spare time?

But what if you don’t like your boss?

Not everyone does and that’s one of the questions I’ve fielded as people have asked, “How to write a retirement speech for a boss retiring that you don’t like?”

Use the strategy that many job seekers use in interviews when asked, “What is your greatest weakness?” The trick is to take something negative and turn it into a positive, e.g., “Sometimes, I can be too dedicated to my work” or “I’m too much of a perfectionist.”

You can do the same thing with your boss–imagine they were in an interview and had to answer, “What is your greatest weakness?” but chose to spin it like a crafty job interviewee.

“The boss is too demanding,” becomes, “They have high standards.”

“The boss doesn’t deal well with other people,” becomes, “They are all business.”

“The boss doesn’t have anything else going for them except work,” becomes, “They put the job before everything else.”

If you find it too hard to write the speech, opt to not give one at all or keep it as short as possible. You may even want to look up short toasts (like a few lines long) that you might see at a wedding and use one of those instead. Here are some Irish Toasts that could be adapted or used straight-out if you have to say something.

Colleagues and Coworkers:

The same advice for your boss can be applied to speeches for your coworkers such as when a sales guy is retiring or the retirement speech is for a coworker or colleague. In these instances, if you know the person well, you can be more casual in what you discuss and talk about.

Ideas for a retirement speech for a coworker or colleague:

Are there funny stories that you can tell about the person?What was their first day on the job like?How have they changed over time?Why will the company miss them so much?How have they changed the company for the better?How have they made your life better? What will you miss about them?

Friends and Family:

Another common category for retirement speeches is when it comes to friends and family–often the people invited to the retirement party.

People ask:

How to write a retirement speech for a friendhow to write a retirement speech for a best friendHow to give a retirement speech for your aunt or other members of your family?How do I give a short speech about my dad’s retirement party?What about a wife’s retirement speech for a husband or any spouse for another spouse?

For retirement speeches for friends and family, much of the same advice applies but you can get more emotional and don’t have to worry about being “all business.”

For ideas relating to giving a retirement speech for friends and family members:

What has this person meant to you over the years?What personal lessons have they taught you?How are you looking forward to how they spend their retirement or next job opportunity?What stories can you tell about this person (good ones!) that others don’t know?Why are you grateful that this person is in your life?

Service Professions:

For teachers, firefighters, nurses, police, and the military, these professions seem to get an extra notice during retirement speeches due to how long the people in them serve and the nature of their work. Follow the retirement speech advice given previously but also think about the following questions:

Retirement speech ideas for teachers, nurses, military, police officers, firefighters, and all service professions:

How is the world a better place because of this person?How are the citizens and students this person serves safer, smarter, more well protected, because of their efforts?What are your favorite serious and funny moments that this person has had?Why is their profession so important? If this person hadn’t entered this profession, how would the world be a worse place?What have you learned from watching this person work? How can we take the lessons from their work ethic and apply them to our own lives?Retirement speech examples

Before we get to the speech’s structure and flow, let’s look at a few examples for more inspiration. The following examples are all quite famous people but ones we can learn a great deal from how to do a retirement speech. You might not feel as though your life is similar to that of a Senator or Pro Football player but the idea is to look for which aspects of their life they chose to focus on when giving their speech. Not all of the speeches will be upbeat–some were given at moments when the person didn’t want to retire or felt like they had unfinished business. You might be facing a similar situation and that’s OK–it’s still worth it to tell others how you feel.

Two other speeches might not seem like “retirement speeches” but they are in a sense: Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture and Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech. Both were given near the end of their lives and contain the same type of advice you might hear in a retirement speech.

For the Youtube videos, there is often a transcript–look for the three dots below the right bottom corner of each video and choose “Open transcript.” This is helpful if you want to see YouTube’s best attempt at machine transcription (which is often quite good) and if you’re like me and can read much faster than listening.

Retirement speech example videos:

Peyton Manning

Watch it for: Gratitude towards those that came before him

Andrew Luck

Watch it for: How to talk about a difficult decision

Kat Renaker

Watch it for: Honoring someone else–a former student honoring a teacher

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Michael Mullen

Watch it for: How to honor family members and to mix humor and advice

Professor Patricia Cleary Miller

Watch it for: Brevity and humor

Jeff Flake retirement speech

Watch it for: How to tie what he did to a larger purpose (Democracy)

Kobe Bryant

Watch it for: Mix of gratitude, motivation, and looking towards the future of the next generation

Judy Middeler

Watch it for: Relaxed delivery, great stories of time in teaching

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture

Watch it for: Great storytelling and bringing out examples

Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement speech

Watch it for: Great structure, three stories that are all connected

How to make a retirement speech: Writing the Retirement Speech

This final section will deal with tips and ideas on how to write your retirement speech. The examples above all carry some of the same themes and ideas on how to write a great retirement speech.

Qualities of the Best Retirement Speeches

First, they use stories to honor the people that helped them and to motivate their audience.

Second, they draw lessons from those stories.

Third, they use those lessons to give advice to the next generation.

Fourth, they balance out practical and emotional advice–often erring on the emotional side.

Fifth, they focus on the positive as much as possible–it’s not a time to reopen old wounds.

Retirement Speech Length:

Often people ask, “How long should a retirement speech be?” I would put the answer around 10 minutes for most speeches but if it’s a large event honoring you, go no longer than 18 minutes. Consider it similar to a college commencement speech. No one was ever accused of giving a speech that was “too short.”

Humor in a Retirement Speech:

To add humor to a speech, rather than try to tell a joke that might fall flat (how not to start a retirement speech), tell funny stories. Even if the story doesn’t come off as humorous, it will still have a point. Some people look for good one-liners or tired jokes about retirement–we’ve heard them all before.

Retirement Speech Structure, Opening, and Closing:

In this last part, we’ll talk about structure and in turn, how to start a retirement speech and how to end a retirement speech.

One of the easiest structures to adopt is the “story and lesson” structure. Each section is a short story with the lesson either at the beginning (like Fritz and Randy Pausch did) or at the end (like Steve Jobs).

You can include 3 medium-length to longer stories or multiple short stories 5 or more. It’s up to you. The goal is to use each story to tell a lesson to the audience.

Another structure is to build your speech around thanking specific people or groups of people. This can get tricky if you leave someone out–so be sure that everyone who needs to gets a mention.

You can also mix the various structures to have parts where you thank a person and other times where you tell stories. It can be fluid.

To start a retirement speech, it’s usually best to welcome people to the event. You can acknowledge a few important guests (like your spouse and family) but don’t fill the beginning with all thank-yous as it will tend to get boring.

To end a retirement speech, one easy way to do it is with a short toast or a quote from someone else as the toast. Short toasts can be found here as a starting point.

To hold the speech together, you may also want to include a theme–some large idea that everything relates back to. Brainstorm a title for your speech and that should be your theme.

Retirement Speech Guide Conclusion:

Now it’s your turn to put the advice together into a speech. Use the questions in each section to brainstorm what you want to say. Look for common themes and use stories to get your point across. Draw lessons from what you’ve learned and talk about the people along the way to whom you are grateful. Draw a larger lesson by talking about the meaning of retirement and its connection to the organization that the person is leaving. Finally, use the example speeches as your own source of inspiration where you can model what you want to say off their structure and format.

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Retirement Speeches: 7 Writing Prompts for Better Brainstorming

Retirement speeches are a chance for you to reflect on your time in your role and what you learned and can teach others. They are an opportunity to thank the key people in your life and work who made who you are today. Retirement speeches are a way to give your “last lecture” as popularized by Randy Pausch. This article will help you brainstorm the ideas for your retirement speech to ensure that you say just the right words.

Some speakers get tripped up with retirement speeches when the focus is too much on them and their story. It is natural to not want to talk about yourself or brag about your accomplishments.

But I want to reframe that goal for you if talking about yourself in a speech is an obstacle. Instead of viewing this as an opportunity to brag or pontificate unnecessarily, view it as an opportunity to show gratitude to others and to use the events in your life as lessons that others can learn from and better themselves.

Use the following seven writing prompts to help brainstorm those ideas and craft a retirement speech that helps others into the future.

Prompt 1: What lessons have you learned in your life? What stories of your life illustrate those lessons?

Prompt 2: Who along the way was instrumental in your character development? A teacher? A parent? A friend? A mentor? A colleague? A son or daughter?

Prompt 3: What advice would you have wanted at key moments in your life that you can now give to others? For example, when you graduated high school, took your first job, married your first spouse, had your first child, or dealt with your first crisis, what do you wish you had known at those key moments?

Prompt 4: What and who are you grateful for? Why? Which moments or people in your life have changed you for the better?

Prompt 5: What do you plan to do with your free time now that you are not working or not as much? What do you hope to accomplish?

Prompt 6: Are there quotes from books, movies, songs, or famous people, that sum up the lessons you want to teach? Can you go beyond the overused cliché quotes and find the ones that resonate with you and your life?

Prompt 7: If you knew this was the last moment to say something to the most important people in your life, what would you say?

How to use the prompts for your retirement speech:

Each prompt is meant to get the ideas flowing. If one is not
working for you, go on to another. This is simply an opportunity to brainstorm.
You can use the prompts as an organizational structure where you touch on each
one throughout the speech but it is up to you to determine the right order. Use
each prompt to first generate the ideas you want to talk about, and then on
subsequent drafts go back and organize them into a structured speech or essay.

For further inspiration and examples check out the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Fritz’s Retirement Manifesto speech

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End of Year Company Speeches: 7 Brainstorming Questions

It’s time for end-of-year bonuses and holiday party speeches and toasts by CEOs and team leaders. While you should definitely keep your remarks short (and ditch any powerpoints with flow charts), you should also come prepared with what to say than trying to wing it. Here are some questions that can help you figure out what to say in your toast to make it memorable. You don’t need to include the answers to each and every one—just use each one as a jumping-off point to get the creative juices flowing.

What has your team been successful at accomplishing?
Celebrate wins both big and small. Maybe you landed a major account or a pitch went well. Think back to moments earlier in the year that may have escaped recent memory.

What are you looking forward to for next year?
Paint a picture of the upcoming year. Rather than list of a bunch of talking points or projects, talk about what the next year will look like for you and your team when you’re successful. If something big is coming up, talk it up.

What are you grateful for over the past year?
It’s easy to get lost in the daily deluge of emails and memos and forget to show your gratitude to your team. This is the perfect time to praise the people you lead and show your gratitude for their hard work. Choose specific instances to make this more meaningful than just saying, “I’m really grateful for your hard work.”

What are some things that your employees have accomplished or done regularly that you hadn’t always recognized in the past?
Sometimes small things that employees and team members have gone unnoticed. See if you can find times when someone really stepped up. Other times, you have team members that do things well consistently that it seems like second nature. Make sure to recognize those efforts, too.

What were some of the funnier moments from the past year that your team still talks about?
Effective teams and companies seem to have endless inside jokes. This is the perfect time to bring up the funnier moments from the past year provided they aren’t embarrassing to anyone. If you can handle, throw in some self-deprecating humor to show some humility as a leader.

What makes you want to come into work each day and work with your team?

The best way to show gratitude to your team is to tell them exactly why you are excited to come into work with them each and every day. Very often, great coworkers make tough jobs bearable (and the opposite is very well true).

Did something go wrong that you can spin into a positive outcome?

Sometimes a given year isn’t “the best we’ve had yet as a company.” There may have been some bumps along the way. Is there a way to turn anything negative into a positive? At the very least, you can touch on the lessons learned from any failures or hurdles along the way.

End of year speeches are a time to remember the great stuff from the previous year and to look forward to the next year with great expectations. Rather than laying out new company policies or long lists of “initiatives,” take the time to show your gratitude and end the year on a positive note. Your employees will thank you for your brevity and grace.

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Tips on how companies can work with external speechwriters

My role in working with companies is when the CEO or president needs help putting together a speech. Usually it’s for an important event and the current staff members just don’t have the time to help put it together or want an outsider’s perspective on the speech.

Here are some ways to make the process easier when hiring an external writer to help the speaker prepare:

More information rather than less

Writing a speech for a first-time client is tough. It’s the beginning of a relationship and not knowing a speaker’s style or what they want to convey is incredibly challenging. Provide more information early on to the writer rather than less.

Connect with people who have specific research or expertise

Similarly, if the speech is technical in nature or complex, connect the writer with people in the organization who can speak to particular topics. There might a tricky financial arrangement or challenging science concept that needs to be accurately explained. Find the people in your organization who can answer the tough questions that the writer may have.

One voice on the speech and edits (input welcome)

It seems that as the importance of a speech grows, more people want input on the speech. I understand that concern but it’s hard when everyone wants a hand in crafting the individual lines and paragraphs. When everyone is allowed to edit a document, the resulting speech will have many voices rather than one. To fix this, allow the main speech writer to be the sole author and editor of the speech to ensure that the style and tone are consistent throughout.

Past speeches of the speaker are helpful

Sometimes the speaker is busy and cannot be on the phone much with the writer. That’s not a problem as long as past speeches, whether written or recorded, are available. The writer needs a source to help guide decisions on content, tone, and style. Some speakers like short and simple sentences when they speaker whereas others like longer ones. These small choices will affect the overall speech that the writer creates.

Face time/call time with the speaker

When possible, the speaker should be on the phone with the writer or at least be able to meet in person. This can be a tall order for those that are busy but it’s indispensable to hear how a speaker views a particular issue and how they want to express their thoughts. It’s equally hard for a writer to write a speech for someone they never get to talk to in the end.

A generous timeline for revisions and working through

I have been contacted on short deadlines for speeches and those are the toughest jobs. In the beginning of a speechwriting relationship there should be ample time to go through revisions and calibrate the writer’s style to the speaker’s expectations.

More communication rather than less

Running through all of this advice is the common thread that more communication rather than less is the ideal setup when working with an outside writer. The outside writer can provide a unique perspective but needs to know how your speaker and organization view the issue. A common dropbox or google drive folder can become wonderful resources that contain all of the materials needed for a speech.

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