Uplift Your Voice: Media Maven Ashley Bernardi Teaches How to Inspire Others to Take Action

You may be a leader or luminary with an important message to share with the world, but learning how to speak about your ideas and inspire people to take real action requires an entirely different skill set than writing them down. Media relations expert and media trainer Ashley Bernardi describes how to take a heart-centered approach to finding your voice and using it to uplift the world.

As the founder of boutique media relations firm, Nardi Media LLC, and a former network TV producer and TV host, Ashley Bernardi’s dedication as a media relations expert and executive media trainer is driven by her passion to fortify the voices of entrepreneurs, business leaders, authors, and more, in order to help them gain the clarity, credibility, and confidence to uplift the world through their work.

In the last decade, Ashley has helped literally hundreds of speakers from as many walks of life, giving them the extra push to find their voices and spread their ideas—everyone from award-winning author Jessie Kanzer to performance coach and mental health advocate Colleen Ryan Hensley to dClutterfly’s Tracy McCubbin.

These women had one thing in common when they turned to Ashley: they knew they had powerful messages to help make the world a better place, but they also knew they could deliver those messages with greater power and conviction, if only they might discover how. Under Ashley’s training, they soon discovered that they had a responsibility to share those messages, in a way where they would be remembered and understood for what they were truly saying.

In fact, Ashley’s gift for transforming experts and their messages was hard-won, sparked by a tumultuous personal journey of her own. At the age of 11, she lost her father to a sudden heart attack after trying to save his life. From that tragic moment forward, Ashley also lost something else: her natural voice. Silenced by trauma, she grew into something of a workaholic, diving headlong into her work as a network TV producer, booking hundreds of experts on her national show. With newbies and media-savvy interviewees alike, she always worked overtime to find new ways to extract their stories in an inspiring and engaging way.

Ashley became a black belt at handling some of the most tragic stories ever told—personal accounts of massacres, parents of murdered children, survivors of deadly illness. By all accounts, Ashley was a capital S Success—there was just one story she had yet to face: her own.

“I’ve been producing news stories since a child and knew early on there was a deep calling in me to help others share their stories by using their voice” explains Ashley. “Yet, it wasn’t until I was hit with a life-altering illness that I needed to become my own student, and gained the awareness to use my voice to help others.”

Authentic Power: Give Yourself Permission to Feel is now a multi-award-winning book that has helped thousands of people discover their inner voice and authentic power. At the book’s core are the lessons, skills, and tools Ashley has used to train authors, thought leaders, companies, and more, both on- and off- camera. These tools work in tandem, all toward harnessing the power of verbalizing any genuine story. It’s a power that anyone can respond to—individuals, small groups, and mass audiences—especially when super-charged by the heart-centered approach.

When she entered into a horrific battle with Lyme Disease, she knew once and for all that she had to face her own journey head-on. Through healing and working with a life coach, she was, in a sense, forced to become her own client and dig deeper into the how and why of silencing herself. Along the way, she uncovered more than just her own voice—she was able to trace the steps that led her to self-empowerment, so that she could share these tools with others.

“So many people, women especially, feel silenced or believe that staying silent will lead them to success, when in fact, the exact opposite is true,” explains Ashley. “You need to be able to share with confidence—it’s a responsibility. I found that taking a heart-centered approach to verbalizing your story allows it to act like a kind of thread, tying you and how you are remembered and relatable to your audience. The heart-centered approach is especially effective while you’re building your own platform, whether it’s opening a new business, selling more books, or simply inspiring others with your message.”

Today, Ashley’s Heard from the Heart Framework acts as a comprehensive set of tools that fuse her media training and life coach experiences, so that anyone can learn to share their story with clarity and confidence. The process involves mastering the art of storytelling and learning to communicate in a way that is positive, uplifting, and inspiring all at once. Here are just some of the framework’s proven steps:

Step 1: Journal Your “Why”

• Sit in a quiet, safe place free from any distractions and allow your mind to strip away any stressful thoughts happening in your day-to-day life. Take a couple of deep breaths to help you wind down and ask yourself: “What story do I want to share with the world?” “What is my purpose in sharing this story?” “How might my story help others?” Then ask, “Why is this moment the right moment to share my story?”

Step 2: Love your Voice

• Take two minutes to write a gushing love letter to yourself, all about your voice. It might feel strange at first, but you won’t be able to share your voice if you truly don’t love it. Once you’ve written your letter, read it to yourself out loud. Ashley also suggests recording your love letter and listening to the playback, with an open heart. You will always be your biggest cheerleader, and you need to hear it from you first.

Step 3: Tell a Story

• Clarifying your message is one thing, but weaving your message into a clear story is another. Stories are what people really relate to. It’s what they find comfort in and where they go seeking answers when they need them most. In part, this is because stories have lessons and outcomes. Even more importantly, stories are driven by a main character—precisely the POV you’ll need to promote your business, spread your message, or sell your book.

Step 4: Harness the Power of Positive Language

• When telling your story, steer toward positivity, and away from negative phrases such as “I don’t know,” “I can’t,” “I won’t,” and “I shouldn’t—they only cause confusion! Ashley has a list of what she calls “power words” to incorporate into your story, those words that help you move your message forward in a constructive way. Bolster your language with empowering words and phrases like, “I’m motivated by…” “I’m fascinated about…,” and “I’ve demonstrated that…”

Step 5: Practice your Message Out Loud and Often

• Remember, the way we write and the way we speak require two different skill sets. Build your verbal communication skills by practicing out loud for 15-20 minutes at a time, as often as possible. In addition to taping yourself, practice in front of a friend, a family member, or a colleague—someone you can trust to give you genuinely constructive feedback.

All these steps are just a small sample of the Heard from the Heart Framework in action—a methodology that has proven successful for hundreds of pros.

Whether you are an author or entrepreneur ready to launch a book or a brand, or you are an individual with a keen new idea that you feel will help the world, you too have a responsibility to share that message, and you need to do it in a way where you are remembered and understood for what you are really saying. You need to develop the speaking powers that will inspire people to act.

To learn more about Ashley and her work, and how she can help you empower your voice, visit nardimedia.com.

Article written by Mindful Agency