As I head off on break for a few weeks to take some down time with family and to celebrate Christmas, I wanted to share an excerpt of the beautiful book Becoming Naomi Leon (by Pam Muños Ryan). Naomi - a young girl - along with her brother and Gram - head out to find their father in Mexico. Santiogo, her father, is an artist. And so is Naomi. And, like the process of creating her soap carvings - Naomi is also in the process of discovering herself. They are connected - our creations, and ourselves.

(Listen here for the full excerpt.)

"Each piece has a personality. Sometimes you can look at the wood and see exactly what it might be. The promise reveals itself early. Other times you must let your imagination dictate what you will find."

Sometimes our talks go through a similar process. Sometimes the magic is revealed to us early. And other times, we have to keep carving until finally it makes itself clear.

It's sometimes challenging, sometimes scary - and sometimes magical, easy, fated.

This time of year more than any other, I like to believe in the magic. 

On this week's Mini Moved Me:

I talk about holding space. 

Several weeks back, a Twitter follower and listener sent me a message and asked me to talk a bit about "holding space" as a speaker. He then sent me to this blog post written about the concept, and suggested I have the writer on the show. Which I did! 

At first glance, I wasn't exactly sure what my new friend Jeffrey meant by "holding space." 

But after reading Heather's blog post, I came to this: (Listen to hear more!)

Another amazing find by my hubs, Andy:

Several weeks back, he came home from a conference and said, "You've got to have this woman on your show." So Cecily and I talked - and she asked me a really good question (which, as it turns out, is a backbone of her work): "What was at work when it was working? What did he like about it?"... well, he didn't say.  (For those of you who know Andy, you might be laughing now. He sometimes doesn't say much.) But when I went back, he said, "she was compelling, interesting, engaging - on a PANEL!  That doesn't often happen."

Well, the truth is that Cecily has an incredibly rich and interesting life - and brings it all to her work as a futurist and speaker. Her goal is to create experiences that can reinvent - ourselves, our audience. So, we talked about that! And, she said, like, a million things worth writing down. I tried to capture them all here for you. ENJOY!

On this week's Mini Moved Me:

There have been many times when I'm working with folks who want to share a long list of things with their audience. And I have to ask:

Do you want them to remember every little thing on this list?

Or, do you really want to communicate something about the list as a whole?

Most of the time, it's the latter. ("We're doing all kinds of things to market"; "We're making all these improvements"; "I see so many opportunities for growth," etc.) Which makes sense, right, cause audiences don't/can't remember too many details. 

But even knowing that people won't remember the details, it's hard not to indulge in them. It feels responsible, somehow - like, we might not be giving the work the credit it deserves to fly through them. 

But here's the deal:

The audience won't remember details, but they do remember feelings. 

Focusing on the whole of the list - and the feeling behind it - is called sharing  "the laundry list."  

Ya know, throwing them all together into the laundry basket kind of thing to give the ESSENCE of what you're saying, vs. the specifics on the list.  Throw them all in there, and zip through it. Focus on how you want them to feel about it, vs. walking through each little thing on the list. (They won't remember them anyway.)

Today's show focuses in on facilitating, as well as speaking.

A few months back a listener (Hi Jeffrey!) reached out to me on Twitter asking me a wonderful question about holding space - and then suggested I read this article about the concept written by today's guest, Heather Plett.  (He then went on to suggest I have her on the show!) I read the article - was moved - and asked Heather to join me for a conversation. It felt like a meeting of the minds! Heather is a facilitator, practitioner, speaker and incredibly wise guide. (I wrote down quote after quote after quote... ) She understands deeply the 'why' behind our work as speakers, which is that we can create meaning.  That is not a small thing. Thanks for reminding me of this, Heather!

On this week's Mini Moved Me:

I don't consider myself a brain expert (which is why I'm friends with awesome people like Erin Walsh from episode 004!) - but I know this:

Our pre-frontal cortex is really important in growing up, acting like an adult, making good decisions and generally being a responsible human.

But it's super un-helpful in creating things. 

Nearly twenty years ago, I was a theater major at the College of St. Benedict/St. John's University here in Minnesota. There I met some truly incredible people - one of whom I am sharing with you today! John Sandahl is a speaker, life coach, facilitator, and international ultimate frisbee player. John and I have worked together at Youth Frontiers for the past decade or so - and in that time I've coached John, and learned from him. I've watched John become a speaker, right before my eyes. And a good one at that. He brings his wisdom and guidance - and playfulness! - to all those he speaks to and works with. So, I was so excited to bring him on the show and talk about developing mastery.