This Moved Me

I remember watching this really famous speaker once tell a story that I KNEW she wasn’t ready to tell yet. It was too much - too powerful, still - still too emotionally raw… 

(And I’ve also seen speakers who are so far beyond their stories - that it doesn’t have any emotional resonance left. They’ve told it too many times, it’s lost its power for them… there’s no emotive connection left. It’s been used up. )

What struck me was that she was telling the story because she NEEDED to. It was a part of HER healing. And that’s not nothing. 

Would I recommend it? Nope…. 

There are those stories that we’re just not ready to tell yet because we ourselves aren’t healed enough. Listen to that instinct. It may not be ready yet. It might be too raw. 


So how do we know when a story is ready to be told?

Direct download: 192_On_Knowing_When_Your_Story_Needs_to_be_Told__mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:30am EDT

Credibility is getting in the way of you sharing your story. 
 
 
What will they think of me if I share that one experience that doesn’t put me in the best of lights? 
 
What if I talk about how I failed? 
 
what if I share my biggest mistake?… will they still respect and admire me?
 
 
Even though we’re told again and again - Queen Brene, you are PREACHING THIS - that people appreciate and admire the bravery of vulnerability… 
 
Especially in a work context, too many of us - to protect our credibility - stop short of sharing what’s real. 
Direct download: 191_On_The_Problem_with_Credibility_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:30am EDT

So - today’s episode is getting us ready for that course… in the first episode of the series we talked about what an origin story is… and last week we talked about one of the biggest myths that keeps us from really sharing who we are and what we think… 
 
TAKING THAT ME ME ME (or what can sometimes FEEL like me me me) and turning it into US US US. 
 
Taking the personal, individual, specific…. and finding the universal in it. 
 
Which is THE POINT of sharing our stories. 
Because of course it is NOT to just talk about ourselves. 
We want our audience to find THEMSELVES in OUR STORY. 
Direct download: 190_On_Making_Your_Story_Matter_to_Others_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:18pm EDT

So today’s episode is based on a conversation I had with one of my speakers, who has also been a guest here on This Moved Me… I’m a HUGE fan of his, and he’s doing such important work. Tony Loyd. He’s the host of the Social Entrepreneur podcast, and he’s really building up his speaking work, because he’s so driven to get his ideas out into the world. He is NOT interested in getting HIMSELF out into the world… he’s

So he’s a very typical - what I call - unspeaker. Despite the fact that he’s incredibly experienced - he’s been in the C-Suite, he’s been up on front of audiences for years - he still has a level of self-doubt or fear or myths that get in the way of him fully owning the moment and… to the point of my show today… his story.

(By the way, EVERY SPEAKER struggles with this… unspeakers just admit it, and vulnerably walk into their efforts to change it… which is what makes their talks so compelling, authentic, and moving…)

So when Tony and I sat down to work on his 2nd TEDx talk… he shared that he wasn’t as happy with his first talk as he wanted to be… it was good, great response… but he also knew he could do more, dig deeper (unspeaker!)… And he mentioned - so honestly - that he knew he needed to share more of his story… but he was afraid.

Of what, I asked?

That somehow sharing about HIS story made it about him. All me me me, he said.

Which is a myth of our origin stories - or ANY story we tell. If it’s our story, the point isn’t to talk about US… the point is to open up the connection between the experience, and the idea.

Direct download: 189_On_What_Might_Be_Holding_You_Back_from_Sharing_Your_Story_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:25pm EDT

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