PERFORM: Putting on Your Best Show... how Girl Scouting has affected their lives, as well as how we can do better, the Board is able to stop and refocus on our true pur- pose. Everything we do needs to benefit girls. The visual creates a visceral reaction and causes people to take our mission to heart. A byproduct is an opportunity for these wonderful young women to gain confidence in speaking before an audience. "I've found illustrating my point with metaphors and telling personal stories are other fantastic ways to help people grasp messages quickly and entirely. The moral points of fables make an impression because they're in story form." 149 Take Them at Hello There are many exciting ways to capture an audience at the get-go. Though, unfortunately, in my experience the most- often-used opening statement sounds something like this: "Good morning. It's a pleasure to be here today," which is followed by a laundry list of housekeeping details and ground rules for the presentation (please turn off cell phones, restrooms are located here and there, there will be two breaks lasting 10 minutes each, and so forth). And I can guarantee you that, in this 500-channel, multitasking, barely-listening universe in which we live, if you start your meeting with nothing substantive you will deplete the room of anticipatory energy. Let's revisit the show business analogy. Say you bought a ticket to a show a year ago and the day of the performance has