Known as the “Win Coach,” she is the founder of Engage to Win, which helps conservative clients master the art of persuasion.
Independent Women’s Forum is pleased to announce that Melanie Sturm, the Aspen-based “Win Coach” who teaches conservatives how to be more persuasive, is the latest entry in our popular series of Champion Women profiles.
Sturm is the founder of Engage to Win and has worked with assorted candidates and nonprofits, as well as business and movement leaders, to help them win people over to their ideas. Her client list includes Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who turned to Sturm for winning messaging on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law in 2017.
“Margaret Thatcher was only partly right when she said, ‘first you win the argument, then you win the vote,’” Sturm tells IWF. “First you must win the audience’s trust.” Earning credibility by saying things that resonate with others is the basis for Sturm’s “Six Powers of Persuasion.”
Before you get anxious that the Sturm wants you to turn your brilliant ideas into mush, she doesn’t. Instead, she shows clients how to make their voices heard “beyond the choir,” enabling them to attract “persuadables,” neutralize “hostiles,” and unite “friendlies.”
While Democrats humanize issues by framing them in terms of people’s lives, Republicans fight for or against things without explaining how they promote human well-being and a fairer society. “My son says I’m in the business of teaching Republicans to talk like Democrats,” Sturm says laughing.
Sturm, a Tufts graduate who worked with the late Midge Decter to promote conservative ideas on campus, enjoyed a career in high finance, working in New York and London. She is married to Marc Zachary, a USC graduate in finance and business, who was managing the iconic Aspen restaurant Little Annie’s (“of blessed memory,” says Melanie). They have one son, aged 20. Melanie’s formal adventures in persuasion started with a column for the Aspen Times.
We know you’ll enjoy meeting Melanie—and may pick up some helpful tips from her.
