“We Need to Recognize and Affirm the Voices of Women”

FORMAT: Speech

CLIENT: Executive at a North American company with 65,000+ employees

INDUSTRY: Automotive

OPPORTUNITY: To celebrate and honor Women’s History Month in March

CHALLENGE: To confront the persistent pattern of women’s ideas being ignored, minimized or appropriated in business settings and move the audience to actively recognize, trust and elevate women’s voices.

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 clear, personal and company stories that make the issue real; use these stories to lead into a simple call to action for the audience.

Rely heavily on storytelling, repetition of key phrases (“taken as a whisper,” “recognize and affirm the voices of women”), contrast and direct questions so listeners could easily follow the thread and see themselves in the situations she described.

SAMPLE: Read the speech, which won the 2023 Cicero Speechwriting Award in the Leadership and Management category

“(Your) story prompted me to make a commitment to myself … I will listen for ‘whisper voices’ and call it out to ensure ideas are heard and considered.”

AUDIENCE MEMBER
North American company with 65,000+ employees