I'm Alan Olga and this is clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating. Fortunately, I had about eight years worth of stories of working with President Obama.

Most of them are not in the book because most of them don't you know they're funny they're entertaining

they're wild it's kind of like an episode of out of VEP sometimes but the story didn't

necessarily help teach a lesson in the purpose of the book is to help people become

better communicator.

So it's about, yeah, figuring out which stories are actually relevant to your audience.

And Obama talks about it in the book, this moment of connection that you have between the speaker and the audience. It can be a very beautiful

moment, but in my case it took me until I was almost 50 years old to kind of get there.

That's Terry Souplatt. For eight years he wrote speeches for President Obama. Today he applies much of what he learned then in helping others

with public speaking, how to craft a speech,

how to connect with the audience, how to overcome the sheer terror of standing in front of dozens

or hundreds of people. He now shares those lessons in a new book called

Say it well. Find your voice, speak your mind, inspire any audience.

Well what is and inspire any audience. Well, what an interesting book.

You've really studied this subject and presented in such a personal way.

I love the section on finding your voice and say only what you can say.

When people come to me and ask me for help with their speeches, the first question they always

ask is, you know, what should I say? I don't

know what to say. I've been invited to speak at such and such an event. I don't know what to say. And the best thing you can do,

again, as you say, to say the things that only you can say, you know, chances are you're probably not the only speaker that day,

you're at a conference, you're probably not the only one giving a eulogy, you're giving a toast

at the wedding or the event. You're one of several people but no one else can

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