“LGBTQ+ Education is on Us – or We Will Lose People We Care About”

FORMAT: Speech

CLIENT: Two speakers: speaker 1 (a senior director) and speaker 2 (an executive) at a North American company with 65,000+ employees

INDUSTRY: Automotive

OPPORTUNITY: To celebrate and honor Pride Month in June

CHALLENGE: To move colleagues from confusion, fear and silence to personal responsibility by sharing a vulnerable family story that urged everyone to learn, speak up and create a workplace where LGBTQ+ teammates can live openly and safely.

SERVICES: Speech strategy/alignment to corporate strategy, planning, interviewing, research, message and framework development, speechwriting, line editing, executive speech coaching

APPROACH: Build the speech around one honest family story and use it as the context for everything else.

Encourage speaker 1 to tell the journey from confusion to support; speaker 2 would then frame it for the workplace and keep tying it back to colleagues’ responsibilities.

Storytelling is central: The talk moves like a narrative with tension, turning points and resolution, and then shifts into a clear, direct call to action for coworkers.

The two speakers interact almost like a relay team, with speaker 2 setting up speaker 1’s family story, staying on stage as quiet validation; then, speaker 2 steps back in later to widen the lens from speaker 1’s life at home to life at work.

Standout techniques include vivid, concrete detail; short, punchy lines; repetition and contrast (“be open” and “get educated” or “close your mind and look the other way?”) and frequent “you” language that puts the weight of choice on the listener.

SAMPLE: Request a copy of the speech

“Thanks … you made all the magic happen.”

SPEAKER 1
Senior director at a North American company with 65,000+ employees