My Story
I'm MarQuis Fair and I am the Founder and CEO of Strategy to Stage.
For most of my life, I have been standing in one room or another. Sometimes those rooms had conference tables and helped "important board meetings. Sometimes they looked like community centers that doubled as rehearsal spaces.
Other times, they were after hours meetings with the C-suite executive I supported.
Sill others., I was in backstage corridors with actors or on brightly lit stages. Sometimes they were Zoom rooms with faces stacked in tiny squares.
Different rooms, same question every time: How do I show up fully here?
(That question (and I love questions!) is at the heart of why I started Strategy to Stage.
A bit about me - I am an executive assistant by trade, a performer by training, a storyteller by instinct, and a coach by calling. For more than two decades, I've worked alongside c-suite executives, senior managers, thought leaders and decision makers. I ve seen talented, creative, SMART friends and colleagues struggle to communicate ideas they deeply understood. I've also unfortunately been in the room and seen confident professionals lose their footing when all eyes turned toward them.
At the same time, I've spent over 30 years on stage.
Acting. Singing. Directing. Listening. LEARNING.
Learning how presence actually works when the stakes are high and the audience is paying attention. Theater teaches you something no spreadsheet or slide deck ever can.
People do not follow perfection. They follow their gut. They follow clarity. They follow someone who knows where they are standing and why.
Strategy to Stage lives at the nexus of those two worlds.
My professional career has been rooted in executive support and organizational leadership. I have spent more than 22 years as an executive assistant, partnering with leaders across sectors, especially in nonprofit and mission driven organizations. I have been in the room for high pressure conversations, board meetings, donor pitches, staff transitions, crisis moments, and quiet wins that never make it into annual reports. I understand how organizations actually operate because I have been inside them. I understand the politics, the pacing, the constraints, and the emotional labor that leadership requires.
What I also understand is that technical expertise is only half the job. The other half is communication. How you speak when the script changes. How you listen when the room shifts. How you adjust when your carefully prepared message meets a very human audience.
That's where my theatrical background comes in.
Theater taught me how to read a room before a word is spoken. It taught me how breath affects voice, how posture affects credibility, how silence can be more powerful than speech. It taught me how to stay present when nerves show up and how to channel energy instead of fighting it. Most importantly, it taught me that performance is not about pretending. It is about revealing the most grounded, honest version of yourself in service of the story you are telling.
When I began coaching colleagues informally, helping them prepare for presentations, interviews, or difficult conversations, I noticed something. Once people realized they did not need to become someone else to be effective, everything changed. They stopped trying to sound impressive and started sounding clear. They stopped performing confidence and started embodying it. They stopped fearing the room and started partnering with it.
This practice, this dream of mine exists to help people communicate with presence, purpose, and humanity.
Whether you are an executive, a manager, a facilitator, a creative, or someone stepping into visibility for the first time, my work is about helping you feel at home in your own voice.
I am not interested in teaching scripts that fall apart under pressure. I am interested in building skills that hold up when things go off script.
My approach blends executive communication coaching, performance based techniques, and real world organizational insight. I work with clients on storytelling, on camera presence, public speaking, facilitation, interview preparation, and leadership communication. But more than that, I help people understand what is happening internally when they communicate. The inner monologue. The nerves. The habits. The assumptions we carry into rooms without realizing it.
Because once you understand that, you can change it.
I started Strategy to Stage not because I wanted to add another coaching brand to the world, but because I saw a gap. Too many professionals are told to be polished without being taught how to be present. Too many leaders are expected to inspire without being given tools to connect. Too many brilliant people are left to figure out communication through trial and error, often at the cost of confidence.
I wanted to create something different.
As a Black, gay man working in executive spaces and on stages, I am deeply aware of how presence is perceived differently depending on who you are and where you stand. (The stories I could tell YOU!)
I do not believe in one size fits all coaching. I believe in meeting people where they are and helping them move forward with intention. My goal is not to erase personality. It is to amplify clarity.
When you work with me, you will not be asked to perform a version of leadership that does not fit you. You will be asked to understand your strengths, your habits, and your patterns. You will practice. You will reflect. You will build confidence that feels earned because it is.
Strategy to Stage is for people who know they have something to say and want to say it well. It is for organizations that care about how their leaders show up. It is for professionals who are tired of shrinking or overcompensating and are ready to stand comfortably in their own authority.
I believe there's a storyteller in all of us. The question is whether you are actively shaping it or reacting to it. My work is about giving you the tools to shape it with intention.
Because when presence meets purpose, communication stops being a performance and starts being a connection.
And that is where real impact lives.
I can't wait to get to work with you and help you to tell your story and show up as your most authentic self. Thank you for trusting me.
