Have you been giving reports to your executive team or board and now you need to speak more creatively? Perhaps you’ve been called on to motivate your employees at an annual meeting, inspire your donors at a fundraising event, or share your origin story at a networking gathering. Do you know where to start?

If this sounds like you, you aren’t alone. Many professionals start speaking in the board room delivering the latest data. It’s all about numbers and graphs, or the latest research. Making the transition to developing and delivering a narrative that informs, entertains and inspires can seem daunting.

Here’s the good news – you already know how to deliver value to your audience. You meet their expectations for content and no doubt do it secure in the knowledge that this is important information for them to have. You have this to build upon.

Your next step is to engage their hearts, their hopes and their aspirations. It’s to ignite their belief that they CAN be successful in their endeavors. To do that, it’s important to answer these questions:

1. Where are they starting? What’s their current situation? What are their challenges? What does it feel like to be them?

2. What is possible for them? What do they hope for? What do they aspire to?

3. What is their first step? What is something they can achieve that can launch them in this new direction?

Here’s the secret – when you can step into someone else’s shoes and they believe you know what it’s like to be them, they assume you can help them get where they want to go. Assuming

you can help them, you become an answer to their problem, a way to fulfill an important goal or mission.

So, if you’ve been asked to go beyond that board room report and expand what you speak on and to whom, or have decided this is your next step, know that you CAN do it, and do it with ease and confidence. I would love to support you to make that transition. I can be reached at Andrea@AndreaBeaulieu.com.