Hello, Reader!

Here’s how most of the high-stakes presentations I coach begin.

✅ A capable leader.
✅ A real problem.
✅ Forty slides.

She’s done the work. The analysis is airtight. She could defend every number in her sleep. She's ready.

So she presents. People nod. Someone says “great work.” The meeting ends.

And two weeks later nothing has changed. No decision. No budget. No movement.

So she does what capable people do. She goes back and adds more data.

[refer to Sound familiar? gif above 👆]

That's what we do before it feels like the responsible move. Especially if you’re a woman who learned early that you’d better bring the receipts. More proof. More backup. More slides.

But the problem was never the proof.

The problem is that nobody was moved to act in the moment...or remembered to act later.

Economists tested this. They gave people the same information two ways, as data and as a story, then checked back a day later. The numbers had lost 73% of their impact on what people believed. The story had only lost 32%. In just one day.

The bottom line...

Stories are engaging and moving in the moment.
And sticky beyond it.

And the thing is, most decisions don’t get made in the room. They get made next Thursday, in a conversation you’re not part of, by people working from whatever they still remember.

If all you gave them was numbers, that’s not much.

Data informs. Stories transform.

You need both. The number earns your credibility. The story carries it to the moment the decision gets made.

And no, that doesn’t mean opening your budget request with “once upon a time.”

The Strategic Story Formula

Here’s the structure I teach every leader I work with. Three moves.

✨ What.

One real moment. One person, one place, one thing that happened. Not “our customers are frustrated.” The customer who called three times on a Tuesday, and what she said the third time.

✨ So what.

The meaning. This is where your number goes. “She’s not the exception. She’s 40% of our call volume.” Now the data has a face...and the face has data.

✨ Now what.

The move. What you need from the people in the room, said plainly. A decision, a budget, a yes. The "call to action'" if you will.

Moment, meaning, move.

It takes 90 seconds. Use it in front of your 40 slides...or to replace 30 of them.

Always in your corner, ❤️

P.S. I just published an article called, The Story Advantage: How Strategic Storytelling Separates Good Leaders from Unforgettable Ones on LinkedIn. Check it out!
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P.P.S. If you're ready to leverage story in your leadership, you may need help building your leadership story bank. I created a free guide just for you.