Trump vs Kamala - How they prepare for speeches

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have drastically different ways of preparing for their speeches.

Let’s break it down.

Disclaimer: This is not a post promoting one approach or candidate.

Instead, there’s a lot we can learn from both approaches about how world leaders prepare to speak in front of millions of people all over the world.

Let’s start:

1. Kamala Harris.

Here’s an article from Axios that talks about how Kamala Harris prepared for her debate with Donald Trump earlier this year:

Kamala is a lot more meticulous about what she says in her speech, and she comes as prepared as possible.

Something else Kamala is frequently heard mentioning is her origin story. An article on Inc.com writes:

This is often done to show the audience that the speaker is similar and relatable to them, and can therefore understand their challenges.

Kamala is also a lot more strategic about her media appearances and what she wants to say and not say during the interviews.

Perception is everything when you’re in the public eye i.e how you want people to see you.

She’s a trained prosecutor after all and is no stranger to preparing and focusing on staying calm under pressure.

Kamala’s approach relies on lots of preparation, preventing as many ‘uncontrollable’ situations as possible and focusing on telling her story to relate to her audience.

2. Donald Trump

Preparation is the key to success for most of the best public speakers, athletes, and performers in the world.

Now that’s not to say that you can’t do well without it.

In fact, looking at Donald Trump’s strategy for his speeches is the exact opposite. He almost never prepares at all.

Donald Trump has done a significant amount of media interviews this year,

being featured on some of the world’s biggest podcasts, including the Joe Rogan experience. (An interview that got 20 million views in 24 hours.)

What’s interesting about this approach is that these interviews are up to 3 hours long.

Sure you can have questions submitted in advance and audit what topics are covered,

however you can be the best public speaker in the world but it’s impossible to script 3 hours worth of content.

Donald Trump’s strategy seems to be to focus on being ‘conversational’ and speaking ‘on the spot.’

It’s how he feels he connects best with his audience, and is in more control of what he wants to say in that moment.

Which approach ends up winning the election? Remains to be seen.

But you can take what you need from the way they prepare, and implement it into your own speech preparation