Executive Communications & Storytelling

I help executives, experts, and communications teams turn complicated and partially formed ideas into clear, engaging messages. Once we find the core story, we can shape it into speeches, presentations, corporate narratives, and copy that people can understand and remember.

The work can begin with a rough idea, a dense set of facts, or a draft that isn’t quite *there* yet. We work together to identify the molecular structure of the real message, determine what the audience thinks they want, what they really want, and what they need.

From that foundation, we build a strong narrative while refining the language and delivery without sanding away the speaker’s voice.

If you give a great PowerPoint presentation, people might remember the presentation.

If you tell a great story, people will remember YOU.

Corporate Experience Meets Live-Performance Craft

I spent five years as director of digital communications at Time Warner, translating complicated technical and corporate information for customers, journalists, executives, and internal teams.

I’ve also spent 18 years writing and performing storytelling and stand-up comedy, with work featured by This American Life, The Moth, and PBS. That experience taught me how to earn and keep an audience’s attention, find the human core of an idea, and recognize when something that works on paper won’t work with actual people.

I bring both sides of that experience to my work with organizations including CGI, the Inter-American Development Bank, InVision Communications, PagerDuty, and NYU.

I help executives and teams replace vague corporate jargon with direct, specific language. I can teach you tight, compelling storytelling and scrub the jargon out of your mouth like an angry nun with a bar of soap.

Selected clients and organizations:

Case Study: Earning Trust Without Giving Up Authority

In January 2020, InVision Communications was already an industry leader in producing virtual events. COVID poured jet fuel on that reputation, and by early 2021, SVP Jill Tanner led a team that had tripled in size—from roughly 50 people to 150—many of whom she had never met in person.

The company was preparing for its first in-person offsite since the pandemic struck. Jill had received feedback that she could come across as imperious, intimidating or distant. In her words, people sometimes reacted to her like “the principal’s coming.”

She needed to earn the trust of a much larger team without giving up the authority she already had.

A lot of people would try to solve that problem with a slide deck and a few jokes. But Jill didn’t have an information problem. Her employees needed the context that would help them understand who she was, how she had learned to lead and why complete composure had become such an important part of how she moved through the world.

Jill grew up with a single mother who had MS. After her older sister left for college and her father was no longer with the family, Jill became her mother’s primary caregiver while she was still in high school. Most mornings, she would bathe, dress and feed her mother, then hurry to school in time for cheerleading practice.

She learned to compartmentalize, stay composed and move quickly between taking care of her mother and living the rest of her life. Presenting herself as completely capable was how she made sense of the world and made sure she met everyone else’s needs.

That story was exactly what her employees needed to hear. It didn’t soften Jill’s authority or cause her to overshare just to give the appearance of vulnerability. It gave her team a way to understand the experience behind her leadership style.

We developed the story together, deciding what the audience needed to know, which details carried the meaning and how the personal narrative should lead into the business portion of her keynote. We then rehearsed until Jill could deliver it naturally, with the authority, humor and emotional precision the moment required.

The keynote crushed. By the time Jill turned to the business presentation, she’d earned the audience’s trust and had the room ready to follow her. Years later, members of InVision’s creative team still remember the story and what it did in the room.

Tell Me What You’re Working On

If you’re developing a speech, presentation, corporate narrative, or some other complicated message that just isn’t bearing fruit, tell me what’s going on and what the story needs to convey. I work on individual projects, ongoing engagements, and collaborations with communications teams.