“My chief feedback (and only regret) after the Oratium coaching was that I did not have an upcoming presentation in which to put these principles into practice."

 

- President, Leading US
not-for-profit

 

Why Winston Churchill? - Not what you think

The perfect emblem

 

Surely we chose Winston Churchill for our logo because he is widely recognized as one of the greatest orators of the 20th Century? Obvious but wrong.

 

We chose Winston Churchill because, paralyzed by 2 serious speech impediments, (a lisp and a stutter) he had little natural gifting, and yet he trained himself to be the greatest speaker of his, and maybe any other generation.

 

Churchill did what ALL great speakers do. Recognizing he could not be a master of everything, he diagnosed and minimized his weaknesses (physical limitations), while at the same time, discerning, developing and accentuating his great strengths (the most extraordinary mastery of language, and the use of humor) Objectively Sir Winston did not have great skills of ‘delivery’:- his greatness came from the leverage of other strengths, particularly the skill of ‘messaging design’.

 

Churchill does not stand for great oratory. He stands for the fact that great oratory can be learned. Weaknesses, even the most severe, can be overcome, strengths can be accentuated. Extraordinary can be attained.

 

 

 

 

Ponder the impact of these words at a time of great national darkness:

 

“But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

 

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”

 

- Winston Churchill. Extract from a speech to parliament.
June 18,1940