Marian Calabro was the guest speaker at the University of Delaware's Historical Literacy Conference in 2010. She is pictured with Professor Francis O'Malley.

Speechwriting, Speech Editing, and Workshops in Public Speaking 

Whether you're facing a major address or a casual talk, consider these time-tested tips:

1. Write and deliver for the ear, not the eye. Readers have the luxury of rereading. Listeners have to catch your message as it flies by.
2. Make your first point short and sweet. And make it early, to reassure your audience that you won't waste their time.
3. Contact Marian Calabro to craft your message — or to turn your raw first draft into polished gold.

Don't worry if your deadline is looming. I'm accustomed to working with executives and managers who have little prep time. Bring me your bare-bones theme, your pile of notes, or your rough draft. I'll transform them into spoken words that sing.

I also do keynote speaking — most often I address business groups on ways to use history in marketing (see testimonial at right from the Women's Business Forum) — and I offer a three-hour interactive workshop on the Basics of Public Speaking. That workshop has been warmly received at Columbia University Human Resources Department and elsewhere.

Memoirs

A corporate history client once blurted out a statement so true that I copied it onto an index card which still hangs near my desk. "It's easy enough to go into a store and buy a book off the shelf," Jody said. "But until you worked with us, I had no idea of all the details involved in creating a book from scratch."

Unearthing the story, crafting an organized narrative from raw material, finessing all the details — that's what my colleagues at CorporateHistory.net and I love to do. We do it for businesses, and we do it for business owners and executives who want to leave a written or visually recorded legacy.

Our book Melwood: A Story of Empowerment, co-written with President Emeritus Earl Copus, is a great example. (Melwood is a private nonprofit agency that serves adults with developmental disabilities.) The first half is a memoir of Melwood's growth in the past 40 years, as seen through Earl's eyes. It's packed with human-interest stories about Melwood's clients — their jobs, their relationships, their overcoming of obstacles — along with a few tales that Earl tells on himself. In the second half, he shares his hard-earned wisdom on running a not-for-profit organization.

If you're intrigued by the notion of combining your personal and professional story, contact us. We'll help you explore the possibilities — and together we'll create a book or DVD that you just can't buy off the shelf.

"Thank you so much for a wonderful presentation and discussion. Every member of the audience was inspired, entertained, and motivated to incorporate history into our own businesses."

— Maria Evans, President, Bucks County (PA) Women's Business Forum

"Thank you for the outstanding speech you wrote for our client, the CEO of [a college in Virginia]. Writing speeches is difficult enough, but in our case the problem was compounded...we were invited in to work with the client just two weeks before the speech was to be given, and by her own admission the CEO was not quite sure of the messages she wanted to deliver.

"To think that you were able to rally around the many challenges of this assignment and deliver a finished product that was both inspirational and heartfelt was truly amazing. Not only did you manage to present the tone and content everyone was hoping for, you actually led the process, forcing the CEO to focus on the issues at hand and prioritize her messages.

"The task we presented was major, and you embraced it with both great professionalism and a sense of humor."

— Bill Deeter, President, Deeter Strategic Public Relations

"Creating a book is no easy task. Yet by working with CorporateHistory.net, it became an endeavor of excitement and love. Marian Calabro was an invaluable organizer and writing partner. She became a friend to Melwood as well, embracing our story as if it were her own and easing all of us through this challenging process. The book's positive reviews owe a lot to her skills and commitment."

— Earl Copus, Jr., President Emeritus, Melwood

Company Histories, Book Writing, Speechwriting, Editing and Publishing Services