McLean Women’s Forum: A focus on how to lead

“Every Woman Has a Story” and that story should be told, according to Sam Horn, a communications strategist and author of six books on how to make the strategy your own.

Horn will have a chance to inspire 100 other women Friday as a keynote speaker at the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce Women’s Leadership Forum called, of course, “Every Woman Has a Story.”

One of her specialties is coaching women on telling their story, instead of recapping statistics. She calls that “the eyebrow test,”getting people to react with their eyebrows going up, instead of a blank slate on their faces.

"The eyebrow test is one way to create more effective communications,” says Horn who is the closing speaker at the daylong event sponsored by Capital One in McLean.

Other speakers at the event:

* Kim Lysik Di Santi, president of Total Strategy, who helps small business owners and entrepreneurs increase their revenues

* Wanda Alexander, president and CEO of Horizon Consulting, #312 on Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in America.

* Patricia Stevens, executive director of the Fairfax County Office of Public/Private Partnerships

* Rebecca Shambaugh, founder of Shambaugh Leadership in McLean and author of “It’s Not a Glass Ceiling, It’s a Sticky Floor.”

Shambaugh said she’ll be talking about “how women can be stuck but how they get unstuck from a sticky floor and prosper in their careers.”

Virginia Delegate Barbara Comstock, (R-Great Falls, McLean, Loudoun County) will help kickoff the event that will give its attendees and panelists plenty of time to network. Comstock is running for reelection in November against Democratic challenger Pamela Danner.

For more information, see the chamber’s website http://members.mcleanchamber.org/events/details/every-woman-has-a-story