Better Know a Member: Mintaro Oba

I started my career on the policy side of the State Department, transitioned into speechwriting by joining the firm West Wing Writers, and subsequently held senior speechwriting roles for the head of the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Secretary of Education.

One big thing made my transition into speechwriting possible.  My alma mater, American University, offered an excellent speechwriting course taught by Robert Lehrman (former chief speechwriter to Al Gore) and Jeff Nussbaum (now a former senior speechwriter to President Biden).  They made me feel early on that I might have some real strengths as a speechwriter, and helped me gain credibility in the field.  

Who has had the biggest influence on your career?
The people who had the biggest influences on my career were the mentors who believed in me and helped open doors for me at a time when I was relatively junior and unproven in my professional life.  MaryKay Carlson, a senior U.S. career diplomat who is now the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines, completely changed my life by fighting for me to have the rare opportunity to serve on the Korea Desk at the State Department right out of college.  That set the stage for the rest of my career.  And Bob Lehrman and Jeff Nussbaum made it possible for me to transition into speechwriting and really hit the ground running in the field

What is your proudest career moment?
Too many proud moments to count.  Ben Stiller once praised a speech I wrote.  A foreign president did as well.

But really, some of my fondest moments are when a speech I wrote helped someone or some group of people feel seen or heard.  Recently, I wrote an introduction for a school district superintendent, and even though it was only a small part of a much bigger speech, I spent so much time researching this person to find the really concrete, personal details that highlighted his values and story.  

Later, that superintendent said the introduction was so warm and personal it was as if his mom wrote it. 

It only takes a little bit of extra research to make someone feel really recognized through a speech.  Often, it takes a speech from good to great.

What is your your secret weapon (a process, technique, or other method you swear by)?
I don’t know if it’s really a secret weapon, but I’m a firm believer that the ability to craft a killer conclusion is underrated in speechwriting.  I spend more time on the conclusion than most speechwriters.

My rule is that the opening is for managing your principal, while the conclusion is for managing your audience.  Based on the opening, your principal is going to form an impression of whether the speech draft sounds like them.  Your audience might be more influenced by the final impression they have of the speech.

But too often, I see a speech nail the opening – only to lose steam at the end.  That’s unfortunate, because if you’ve lost your audience at any point, you can get them back at the end.  I’m extremely deliberate about using storytelling, Chekhov’s guns, and rhythm to craft conclusions that feel like a crescendo, not a whimper.  Ideally, the conclusion is so distinct it can be clipped for social media and other communications products.

How have you grown throughout your career?
Every leader I’ve written for has left me with something new in my speechwriting arsenal. 

Before I was the speechwriter to the head of the IMF, I was not someone who liked to use quotes in speeches.  I saw it as a crutch – something to deploy when you don’t have confidence in your own authority as a speaker, or don’t have the stories to make your speeches more concrete.  

But what I saw from the head of the IMF was an incredible ability to use a quote as a starting point for an extended metaphor or theme that others in the room would keep referring back to – thus informally defining the agenda for the conversation.  Even though I don’t write for her anymore, I now use that quote-based approach to speeches more often when I think the situation calls for it.  

Another example: my current boss, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, is someone who does a lot of codeswitching and culture switching in his speeches.  He will draw from his Latino heritage and identity, and switch between Spanish and English to emphasize certain points.  Collaborating with him on those speeches is something that has made me more adaptable as a speechwriter, and I’m hopeful it’s something I’ll carry with me in future roles.

Who is doing work that you admire?
I’d love to highlight my fellow speechwriter at the U.S. Department of Education, Ashley Mushnick.  She is an enormously talented writer with a particular gift for speeches that punch hard, hit memorable soundbites, and incorporate humor.  She’s responsible for some of our very best speeches.  Funny enough, we are both graduates of American University and have taken different versions of the same speechwriting class.

How has the field changed since you started?
When I started in the field, speechwriting could feel like a total black box.  How could you get into the field?  Where could you get the right experiences?  How could you get the necessary skills and credential yourself?  For too many aspiring speechwriters, the answers to those questions weren’t obvious.  And it felt too often the case that you had to know someone important, be really lucky, or benefit from some privilege to get your foot in the door.

In the years since, there has been important progress in the field – though there is much more needed.  I’m proud that an organization I co-founded, Speechwriters of Color, has played a role in creating more formalized, transparent pathways into speechwriting.  There are more speechwriting classes.  There are more avenues for networking and mentorship.  There are more women and speechwriters of color in positions of seniority and power.

Where outside of work do you take lessons from?
I love going to museums and reading all of the exhibit captions.  It often inspires a story or example I can use in a speech.  Various hobbies from my past and present have all given me useful perspective.  Standup comedy gave me confidence as a speaker; once you’ve had the experience of trying to make an apathetic or even hostile room of people laugh, no public engagement will ever seem that daunting.  Overall, I think speechwriters benefit from a constant hunger to learn new things and explore new experiences.

What non-work thing do you love the most?
Right now, I am obsessed with crosswords.  I would say I’m an excellent solver and a middling (to be overly generous to myself) constructor of crosswords.  But the need to articulate a creative theme within structural constraints, while deploying wordplay and incorporating interesting words to fill the grid – that has significant parallels with what it takes to make a great speech.  Also, I love cats.

Mintaro Oba is currently the Chief Speechwriter to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.