TJ Walker argues that great public speaking comes from meticulous scripting and preparation, not natural talent. He uses Ronald Reagan as his example: Reagan became a master communicator by spending months with speechwriters, iterating drafts, and obsessing over details like adding contractions to sound natural.
Chapters
People thought I was a natural. They thought my genial attitude just made it easy for me to give a great speech or do well in a media interview. It wasn't quite that simple. They thought it was my background as an actor that did it. Well, partially what I learned in my acting days is it's all about the script. If you have a turkey of a script, it doesn't matter how good the acting is, the movie is going to be awful. So I learned at an early age, always read the script, always look for good scripts. When I moved to the White House, I had the same approach. Now, at this point, I wasn't following someone else's script. I had to figure out where I wanted to lead the country. But I didn't take a hands off attitude with the scripts of my speeches. So when I had a major speech like the State of the Union address, I would spend months in advance time with my speechwriters, meetings, talking about ideas, messages, concepts. I would then get intimately involved with every draft. They would send me drafts. I would read it carefully. I would make copious notes on the sides. They would incorporate these changes. Sometimes it was just as simple as putting in contractions, because real people talk using contractions. They don't say I will, they say I'll. And it was a back and forth collaboration, constant refinement, until my speech. The script of my speech was exactly the way I wanted it. This that's why I was able to give a great speech. Not because of any natural inborn acting ability, but because of my respect for the scripting process and my involvement with the scripting process. My name is Ronald Reagan. Reagan indeed was the master communicator. He was known as the great communicator. But not enough people realize it was because the sheer amount of time and effort he put into it. There's the popular perception that he was lazy or intellectually lazy. And he did in fact take naps and was not known for working late at night in the Oval Office at least. But when it came to how he presented himself, how he communicated, what he did with his speeches, he was not lazy. He put in a lot of time and effort and it showed. It showed for Reagan. It can show for you too. But you have to put the time and effort into it.
