499: Cody Keenan - Working With The Most Powerful Person In The World, Taking Big Risks, & The Art Of Speechwriting

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Ryan Hawk

Business, Careers, Management

4.9 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2022

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Receive a carefully curated email from me... Each Monday morning to help you start your week off right...

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12 https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

Cody Keenan has written with President Barack Obama since 2007, working his way up to chief speechwriter. He's been named the "Springsteen" of the Obama White House, even though he can't play an instrument, and Obama calls him "Hemingway." His first book, Grace, became an instant New York Times Bestseller.

Notes:

The use of productive paranoia. Cody said, "I was so afraid to fail that I would do anything to succeed." – We can use fear as fuel…
Storytelling – As a speaker, it is our job to help the people in the audience see themselves in the place of the hero in the story. When you're preparing for your next team meeting or town hall address, think about that and how you tell the stories that you do.
Singing at the Eulogy in Charleston - If you want an A+ performance, you have to choose to go for it. You can get a B by playing it safe, but you won't perform with excellence unless you have the courage to go for it.
In less than 10 years, Cody went from mailroom intern in Congress to chief speechwriter in the White House.
My goal is to "write a speech that sings."
'In less than 10 years, I went from mailroom intern in Congress to chief speechwriter in the White House,'
President Obama said he relied "on Cody not just to share my vision, but to help tell America's story." "He's a brilliant writer. He's relentless."
The first speech Cody wrote was for Senator Ted Kennedy. Right after President Obama's 2004 Democratic convention speech that put him on the map. You write: "To see someone else speak words I'd written sent electricity right up my spine and out my hair."

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by one of my favorites it is story worth story worth is an amazing
0:07.9	gift for you and your loved ones essentially what it is as you sign up for story worth and they
0:15.4	help you supply a loved one with a question a week so from my case I did this with my dad
0:22.8	and story worth would send him one question per week and he would answer them and sometimes even
0:27.9	add some cool pictures to make it more visually appealing to go along with his amazing writing
0:34.5	and then at the end of 52 weeks story worth puts this together in a beautiful book which I now have
0:42.2	on my bookshelf is at home along the way I also got to read my dad's answer so this is something
0:48.4	that my family will treasure forever you actually printed a number of copies and gave them to
0:52.7	each of his kids I would highly encourage you to do this I even got to ask some of the questions
0:58.5	each week for story worth so to take advantage of this amazing offer that they've put together for
1:04.2	you go to story worth dot com slash leader you'll get ten dollars off your first purchase that
1:11.7	story worth dot com slash leader welcome to the learning leader show presented by insight global
1:24.0	I am your host Ryan hawk thank you so much for being here text hawk to 66866 to become part of
1:33.9	mindful Monday you along with tens of thousands of other learning leaders from all over the world
1:40.0	will receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off
1:46.4	right you'll also receive the tales about how my book the pursuit of excellence will help you
1:51.9	become a more effective leader text hawk to 66866 now onto tonight's featured leader Cody Keenan began writing
2:02.1	with president Barack Obama in 2007 ultimately becoming his chief speech writer in the White House and
2:10.6	his post presidential collaborator he now teaches speech writing at Northwestern University and
2:17.2	he was named by british gq as one of the 35 coolest men under 38 and a half interesting list he's
2:26.9	also the author of the instant new york times best selling book called grace during this conversation
2:33.5	we discuss why all leaders should have a writing practice then the art and science of writing and
	...

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