The Persuasion Playbook Keynote by sally zimney
Without story, your pitch falls flat. Your customer cares less. Your team checks out. Your best ideas don't stick. The distance between informing people and actually moving them is where leadership lives — and most people have never been given the tools to close it.
The good news? Your brain is literally wired for story. A few simple shifts can change everything — and they're simpler than you think.
You already know your stuff.
And yet — something isn't landing.
You can have the most brilliant strategy in the room and still lose the room. Not because your idea isn't good — because without story, ideas don't travel. They don't stick. They don't move people to act.
This is the influence gap: the space between speaking and being heard, between informing and actually changing behavior. Organizations lose millions in stalled initiatives, unaligned teams, and messages that land flat — not because people don't care, but because nobody taught them how to tell the story that makes people care.
The Persuasion Playbook closes that gap. Through the neuroscience of story, practical frameworks, and immediately applicable strategies, audiences walk away knowing how to make their message impossible to ignore.
This Keynote
is perfect for:
01
The Challenge:
Change initiatives that don't stick; teams that aren't aligned; messages that don't move people
Corporate leaders & HR
How Sally Can Help:
Practical story frameworks for internal communication and leadership influence
02
The Challenge:
Pitches that don't land; deals that stall; prospects who go quiet after a great meeting
Sales teams
How Sally Can Help:
Story as a sales tool — specific, applicable, immediately deployable
03
The Challenge:
Content that informs but doesn't convert; messaging that's clear but not compelling
Marketing & communications
How Sally Can Help:
The neuroscience of why story works + the M-M-M framework to build messages that move
04
The Challenge:
Finding and owning your voice; your story as your most powerful currency
Women's ERG / leadership
How Sally Can Help:
Permission to lead with story — and tools to do it authentically
05
The Challenge:
Pitching ideas that don't land; selling work that deserves more traction
Entrepreneurs & creatives
How Sally Can Help:
Making your ideas impossible to overlook and your business impossible to ignore
Persuasion happens with emotion — and the near-perfect container for emotion is story. Your brain doesn't just respond to story; it ignites as if you were actually there. That's not a metaphor. That's neuroscience.
The Core Insight
The M-M-M Framework: Moment → Meaning → Move. Every powerful story has a specific moment in time, a meaning that connects it to your audience's world, and a move — what you want them to do next. Sally teaches this framework in a way that's immediately applicable to any message, any audience, any context.
The Framework
- Understand why self-doubt grows as your career does — and what it's actually telling you
- Identify your specific delay story (perfectionism, imposter syndrome, fear, or judgment) and rewrite it into action
- Build rejection resilience and self-trust — not just for the spotlight, but for the daily stuck moments
- Master the #ShowUpAnyway practice that gets you from hesitation to doing — faster
The Takeaways
keynote Testimonials
"Sally had an outsized impact on the community of professionals who attend our conference. She simply exudes authenticity — she is just so obviously being herself in front of our audiences. That has been an inspiration to them."
— Rick Altman, Conference Producer, The Presentation Summit
— Keynote Audience Member
"Simple easy steps to remember in order to engage the group you are speaking to. People like STORIES. It's relatable. And when listeners relate to you, they tend to like you."
"Thought-provoking and energizing. Lots of good nuggets to incorporate into future presentations."
— Tyler Hatton, Keynote Audience Member
"Great Roadmap on How to Craft and Deliver High-Impact Stories! Few skills have the power to effect change like storytelling, and Sally Z does a wonderful job of illustrating that."
— David G. Johnson, Speaking Story reader
"Every CEO should read this. Leaders need to be better storytellers. Even if you never plan to get on a stage, read this book because it will help you be a better communicator in everything you do."
— Denise, Keynote Audience Member
"The MMM Framework is something I utilize often. Emotion is often removed from business so I enjoyed this and feel it will be valuable going forward."
— Kearsi Gordon, Keynote Audience Member
