Executive Storytelling
Vade Strategies works with CEOs, founders, and public figures on the full arc of executive storytelling. From the words on the page to the presence in the room.
“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.”— Maya Angelou
Vade Strategies was built on a simple conviction: the most powerful leaders in the world are defined by how clearly they communicate. Not by their accolades. Not by their exits. By the words they choose when the stakes are highest.
But great communication is more than clarity. It is strategy, knowing what you are trying to achieve. It is storytelling, knowing how to make people feel it. And it is presence, a deep respect for who is in the room, what they need, and how you meet them in that moment. All three, together, are what make a leader truly memorable.
We partner with a small number of founders, executives, and public figures each year, working with deep discretion and uncommon craft to ensure their voice commands the room, the page, and the record of history. Vade — from the Latin vade mecum — means the trusted guide that goes with you. That is what we are.
Before a word is written or a slide is built, the story has to be right. We work with leaders to excavate their point of view, sharpen their positioning, and build the core narrative that anchors everything they say — in any room, for any audience, at any stage of their career.
The written record of who you are and what you stand for. We ghostwrite books that become career-defining works, craft speeches for TED stages and investor days, and develop the op-eds and essays that establish your voice in the publications that matter.
The best words in the world fall flat without the presence to deliver them. We prepare leaders for their highest-stakes moments — coaching the body, the breath, the pause, and the command that turns a good speaker into one the room cannot look away from.
Maxie McCoy
Partner, Collaborator & Storyteller
Maxie McCoy is a Wall Street Journal bestselling ghostwriter and author whose work spans executive narratives for Fortune 500 leaders and celebrities, to books including Daisy: A Novel of Juliette Gordon Low and You’re Not Lost — named by Apple Books as a best read for finding your purpose. Represented by UTA, Maxie has built 100k+ learners through LinkedIn courses, a weekly newsletter over a decade running, and a body of work featured in Good Morning America, Cosmopolitan, Fast Company, CNN, and beyond.
Judy Walsh
Partner, Collaborator & Storyteller
Judy’s executive coaching and communications training take her around the globe and into the Zoom screens of leaders learning to command any room. A co-founder of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, she continues to work with the Presidio Trust and the National Park Service on giving beautiful meaning to urban parks — because she is, at her core, a Pacific Northwest product and a San Francisco Bay sailor who is always best out of doors. She has also survived a stint in the United States Senate, the San Francisco Mayor’s Office, and the Board of Supervisors. Three rounds of politics, she will tell you, are quite enough.
Ask us about the time we…
We take on a small number of engagements each year. If you are building something worth saying, we would like to hear about it.