The one person who should not write your keynote

100% TRUE: A CEO told me that every year, he farmed out the first draft of his annual keynote speech to a board member. When he received it back, he re-edited the whole thing because it didn't reflect his point of view.

Here is the the number one most important speech of the year for your company -- everything riding on these 30 minutes in front of hundreds of franchisees, investors, and board members -- and you don't even agree with the guy who wrote it?

The most successful keynotes are not drafted by anybody who has a financial stake in the company. It comes down to a writer who interviews the CEO multiple times to get the keynote's foundation of the story they will tell -- not only what is going on now, but where the company is heading.

They coax the anecdotes, inner observations, personalized turn of phrases and words into making something that not only sounds intereresting, but the CEO!

On that "sounds interesting" part: if you're going to drown your audience in nothing but data and charts for a half hour, don't expect anybody to stay awake.

Great keynotes -- accompanied by clever, sharp visuals -- take an audience on a personal journey that everybody can relate to, one with enlightenment, obstacles, laughs, and crystal clarity. And they sound like nobody else but the CEO.

You will never get that from a board member writing your first draft.