Ashley Stahl runs Wise Whisper, a boutique speaking agency that's helped hundreds of clients craft their signature speeches and get placed as speakers on hundreds of BIG stages around the world, with many clients specifically getting Wise Whisper’s support for placement on the TEDx stage. Ashley is also the international bestselling author of YOU TURN: Get Unstuck, Discover Your Direction, Design Your Dream Career, host of the You Turn Podcast (ranked on Apple in the top 100 mental health shows in the US) and a keynote speaker with a top 100 most viewed TEDx talk on YouTube. With a Master’s degree from King’s College London’s Department of War Studies, as well as a Master’s in Psychology from University of Santa Monica, Ashley started her career in counterterrorism and learned speech writing while working for the government.
Ashley Stahl has helped hundreds of clients craft signature talks and land stages around the world. A former counterterrorism officer at the Pentagon and international bestselling author, Ashley's own TEDx Talk, "How to Figure Out What You Really Want," has surpassed 10 million views and sits in the top 100 on the TED channel. That single talk generated $2 to $3 million in consulting revenue, five book deal offers, and launched a speaking career that has taken her from $5,000 to $30,000 per keynote. She joined the WIE Suite for a masterclass on the craft, strategy, and business of speaking, and what it takes to build a talk worth giving in the first place.
The most common mistake speakers make is defaulting to what they know rather than what only they can say. Ashley's central premise is that a compelling talk does not require saying something no one has ever heard. It requires saying something in a way no one else would say it.
"Original thinking doesn't mean it's never been said before. It means it's never been said in the way you're saying it."
Her test for original thinking is practical: ask the people closest to you, clients, colleagues, friends, what you have said that actually changed how they think or act. Not everything you say lands. A few things do. Those are the seeds of a signature talk. She pushes back against the pressure to identify one big idea, arguing that it is far more useful to ask: which topic do you have the most original thoughts about, and which one aligns with where you want your career to go?
Ashley's speechwriting framework at Wise Whisper breaks a talk into three distinct components, each doing a different job.
The bones are the structural elements: a powerful opening, two to three signpost points grounded in original thinking and data, and a close. The soul is what the talk is actually about beneath the surface. A talk about racism in the banking system is also, at its core, about fairness, about people feeling othered, about justice. Those are the themes that make a niche subject universally resonant. The heartbeat, the message, comes last, and Ashley is deliberate about the sequence: write the talk first, then let the message emerge from it.
"A mistake a lot of speakers make is they try to have a message and then write the talk for the message. Throw that away. Ask yourself what is the best topic based on your goals and where you have the most original thinking. The message will find you."
Ashley is emphatic on this point: the opening story is not a preamble to the real talk. It is the talk's most powerful moment, and it should consume roughly 25% of your total time. It also does not need to be obviously connected to your topic. Her own TEDx opens with her father receiving a ransom call, believing she had been kidnapped, and it is a talk about figuring out what you want in life.
"What does a story about my dad getting a phone call that I was kidnapped have to do with figuring out what you want? The answer is actually very little. But I was able to draw the thread."
The standard for a strong opening is sensory immersion, not summary. The goal is to bring the audience into the moment so completely that they can see the room, feel the tension, and experience the story alongside you. She offers two paths: the wild, unexpected story that grabs attention immediately, or the deeply personal, vulnerable story. In both cases, the guiding principle is the same, drawn from Martin Scorsese: what is most personal is most creative.
Counterintuitive advice from someone who makes a living on the power of words: your title should be SEO-optimized and straightforward, not clever. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, and meeting bookers actively use it to find speakers. The title that moves people is in the talk. The title that gets the talk discovered is the one that answers what your ideal audience is already searching for.
"You want your title to be something that your ideal listener is Googling at 2 or 3 in the morning when they can't sleep, and that you're the solution for them."
A psychedelic researcher who came to Wise Whisper wanted to name her talk "Mushrooms Eating Death." Ashley redirected her. The idea is striking. The title needs to work algorithmically first, emotionally second.
A signature talk, done well, is one of the highest-leverage assets a founder or executive can build. Ashley's own trajectory is the proof: one TEDx talk drove the majority of her coaching leads for years. A client who practiced his TEDx at a gala raised $2.6 million in donations, accidentally, simply because he had a talk ready and a room willing to listen.
"Getting on a stage and really sharing from your heart in a powerful way is one of the most potent things you can do to make a huge impact in your career long term."
Her advice for founders specifically is to focus on captivation first and brand messaging second. If a talk moves people, they will look you up. Your speaker bio, the 82 words visible beneath a TEDx video before the read more button, is where the business introduction lives. The talk itself just needs to be unforgettable.
