Public Speaking as Hospitality

A New Book with Sutra House

I am pleased to share that I have signed with Sutra House Publishing for my forthcoming book on public speaking, service, and hospitality. It’s debut will be some time in 2027.

This book has grown from years of speaking, teaching, listening, leading, preaching, writing, and standing before rooms attempting to meet listeners with relevant words and intentional presence.

Over time, I kept notes on teaching and speaking as they helped me to refine my teaching and speaking approach.

Speaking is not performance. Speaking is hospitality.

A host always prepares the place for listeners by studying and arranging the room, by managing the emotional self, by honoring the audience, and by delivering words as acts of service.

Meeting your audience isn’t about polish, charisma, or applause. Your speech is not about you, it’s about them, and with emotional maturity, intellectual clarity, and hospitality as your focus, speaking is not threatening because your focus is not on you, it’s on them.

Don’t bother learning to talk like TED; be a host, be yourself, and imagine yourself serving water to a thirsty person. My forthcoming book explores this service with three connected threads, or what I call quotients.

The Emotional Quotient of Speaking

Speakers with a high emotional quotient prepare and manage themselves and their ego. They understand the power of their presence and that their speech is not about them.

The Intellectual Quotient of Speaking

Speakers with a high intellectual quotient shape their thoughts, evidence, and meaning with the audience first in mind. The intelligent speaker ask themselves what their listeners need and if they can get it to them.

The Hospitality Quotient of Speaking

Speakers with a high hospitality quotient first prepare themselves and then they prepare the space to welcome the audience. They create an atmosphere hospitality by their attention, trust, and service.

Field Notes Toward the Book

In the months ahead, I will share short reflections connected to this work: speaking as hospitality, the speaker as host, listening as part of speech, emotional intelligence in public speaking, the covenant between speaker and audience, your authority for speaking, why failure is irrelevant, and how you are a better speaker when you realize it is not about you, and more.

I am grateful to Sutra House for receiving this project and helping to bring it toward publication.

The book’s working title, displayed above, may not be the book’s final title.

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Gregory Ormson will be sharing a series of field-building posts for his forthcoming January 2027 book on public speaking, service, and hospitality.