Module 3 of 5
Craft clear, compelling messages. Public speaking fundamentals. Storytelling as a leadership tool.
In 8 minutes you'll learn to turn what you know into words that move people to feel and act — the oldest leadership skill on the continent.
The Blank Page
1 / 5 · 2 minFatou, executive director of a women's cooperative in Dakar, Senegal
Fatou's cooperative has 340 members and runs three revenue-generating programs. She has been invited to speak at a regional development conference: 8 minutes, 200 attendees, potential funders in the room.
She knows the work deeply. But sitting down to prepare, she faces a blank page and a familiar dread. She has spoken in community meetings her whole life — those feel natural. This feels different. More formal. Higher stakes. She worries she'll say too much, or too little, or that she won't look like she belongs at a conference with people who went to graduate school.
The real problem
Fatou's problem is not what she knows. It is how she frames it. This lesson gives her — and you — the tools to communicate in a way that moves people to feel and act, not just to understand.
Here is the truth Fatou is about to discover: she is not a woman speaking from a deficit of Western communication training. She is a descendant of a communication tradition older and more sophisticated than PowerPoint.
Aristotle described three elements of persuasive communication. Which combination is correct?