How we write full-proof talking points… every time
Written by zoe ALEXIS WHITEHORN
You have a meeting with your board in an hour. You’re presenting at a conference in a month. Your executive director has a local news interview tomorrow.
And you’re staring at a blank page, trying to figure out how to condense years of work into a three-minute segment.
Talking points help you bridge that big-picture vision (the deep work! the passion!) with the specific moment you’re in, the audience you’re talking to and your goals.
Here’s how we do it.
the forthright way
When we help partners prepare for the spotlight, we use a tried-and-true approach to deliver punchy, memorable points.
Get clear on your exact goal. Stop and put down the proverbial pencil. Decide exactly what you want your audience to know, do or feel before you write a single word. Are you defining a new advocacy position, calling for action or introducing a new program? What do you want to happen next?
Start with your core messaging and slice away 🍕. Open your existing messaging guide. Pick the pieces that will help you accomplish your specific goals for the day. Ask: what best tells the main story we want people to walk away with?
Trust the power of three, and respect people’s memory limits! Cognitive science suggests that people generally remember about three ideas from a conversation. Use this as your guardrail! Ask yourself what the three most important things you need your audience to remember are. Then, edit and simplify. Ruthlessly.
Pair data with heart. Use a specific stat to build credibility. Connect it immediately to a human story to build connection and show the real-life impact behind the number. Wrap that data in a sticky story!
Read your points out loud. Sometimes, what looks good on paper feels awfully stiff when said aloud. You need to check that you sound like… well… a real person having a real conversation. Take the two versions below, for example:
❌ The foundation is dedicated to the ongoing pursuit of several new methods to improve the quality of local classroom environments."
This may be technically fine in writing, but it’s not at all conversational, and it’s a mouthful. You’d probably see a lot of heads cocked to the side with blank stares. But…
💞 We’re exploring exciting new ways to make our classrooms a better place for kids and teachers.This version is much more natural to say out loud. You'll get people nodding right along.
what this looks like
We recently worked with a foundation dedicated to improving local public schools. They have an incredible strategy, but their leaders needed a way to talk about it that felt natural at a neighborhood coffee hour and impactful in a room of school champions.
We *didn’t* write something brand new.
That would have felt disconnected from their hard work, their history and what people expect to hear from them. It would have risked losing trust and good-will.
Instead, we took their specific goals and made them meet the moment with crispy, usable, HUMAN talking points. 📣
This approach gives leaders the flexibility to focus on the specific story they need to tell that day – like a recent district success or a new funding milestone – while still connecting the dots back to the broader mission.
It ensures the conversation is of-the-moment without losing the thread of the foundation's core identity.
We know how much heart you pour into this work. Having a clear way to talk about it makes your job easier and your impact louder. When you have that narrative in place, every interview and meeting feels less like a performance and more like a conversation you can count on to do what it needs to do. 💛
About the Author
A VP at Forthright, Zoe has spent her career writing talking points for everyone from U.S. senators to superintendents to nonprofit executive directors, and today she’s sharing the very best way to get it done.
