This Moved Me

Hey everybody! I’m so excited to be with you today - mid-way through my Signature Talk Studio launch… The cart closes on Thursday so I wanted to address one of the big needs and questions I’m getting about the course…

Like - In the time when so much of our work is done virtually…why would I invest in creating a signature talk? What’s the value of a signature talk when we can’t be live with people for awhile?

Well - besides the fact that event planners are now booking speakers for 2021 (so now is actually the PERFECT time to work on your signature talk!… cause when they opportunity knocks you want to be ready!) -
But there will also be lots of opportunities to share that talk virtually, before 2021 - and after.

According to an April 2020 survey of 1,776 PCMA event planners, 66% have postponed their events – and 7 out of 10 respondents have moved a face-to-face event partially or fully to a virtual platform.
And your signature talk is the core of ALL of your messages that you share - whatever the context. So - having a signature talk prepares you for the eventual live talk as much as it does the virtual one.

But of course - taking your talk virtual does require a little intention.

So I want to share with you some key concepts you need to embrace in order to take your talk virtual.

Here are some of the basic things you need to think about:


#1 - ADJUSTING CONTENT
If you’re shifting your talk to virtual, that means you have to think about what content is NEEDED and what WORKS virtually. Those are two different filters, but you need both in order for your content to work virtually.

For instance - Let’s say you’re a Coach, and work with leaders to help them execute on their goals…
your audience might really NEED for you to talk about the nitty-gritty details of what a good plan and what execution details look like
but what WORKS in a virtual setting might be something more like the going over the FRAMEWORK before diving in. You might be able to get into more details in a live workshop or keynote setting - but when you're virtual, you want to use an even higher bar for what you share, because people’s access


Now - 80% of the time - what you are sharing in a LIVE keynote will work in a VIRTUAL setting. But I really want you to ask yourself - what is NEEDED and what will WORK, virtually?

#2 - ADJUSTING CONTEXT

So this is where you want to think about how you can adjust your space - and create the context through which you are still curating an EXPERIENCE for your audience!

A little intention here goes a long way.
Making sure you can be SEEN, HEARD… and UNDERSTOOD. That your lighting is coming AT you (not from behind you), that you can be heard without too much distraction and that you are making sense and are understood by your audience.


As with a live experience - DISTRACTION is still the bar!
But here’s the real deal…Vs. in the content area, we have to use a really HIGH bar for what makes it into a virtual presentation - in adjusting your context, distraction is a much LOWER bar in a virtual setting. In other words - it’s so easy to get distracted in a virtual setting. To get distracted by how your own face looks in Zoom, or what that one sign says over your shoulder, or the bing of a new email coming in, or that an instagram like or the children coming in the room, or …

OMG -

So the more we can do to FOCUS our people’s attention where we want it to go - the better.

We cannot CONTROL their attention - but we can do what we can to FOCUS it.
Try things like
keeping your background and what your’e wearing simple, so it doesn’t invite in questions or thoughts that take your audience somewhere else… unless, of course, that’s where you want them to go!
Testing your tech and equipment so that doesn’t take the focus away
And being really intuitional about where you want your audience to be looking - and direct their attention there.

 

#3 - ADJUSTING CONNECTION

The third part is in creating connection with your audience is in ADJUSTING CONNECTION.
There are two ways I want you to think about this:
1 - in CREATING connection, based on how you deliver your talk. With content that resonates…. stories that deliver powerful ideas and really potent insights that your audience NEEDS. That does a lot of work for you in terms of connection!

We also CREATE connection by how we approach with our mindset…by imagining a friendly face beyond the camera, and even if you’re speaking to en empty auditiorium or room, remembering that there are real people watching you right now…you are not just talking to yourself

It’s up to the speaker to reach out beyond the camera to make that connection…

But the other piece is in ASKING FOR connection from your audience. And that is using the tools at your disposal that are particular to virtual engagements!

It’s about using the chat features, polls, CTA buttons
It’s about making your face visible as much as possible, and not hiding behind your slides and screen
It’s about utilizing the parallel ways to communicate! And this opens up all kinds of possibilities!

Turns out - when you’re speaking virtually - your emails before the event are the equivalent to the first moment you step out on stage in a live event…the experience has just expanded outside ’the moment in the room’- it’s now about your materials and your communication outside the event even more so!

With all of this…the bottom line is this: -The heart and core of your signature talk helps you step into these moments having 75% of your work done…
THEN - you have to sort through these filters…
How can I adjust my content for this moment?
How can I adjust the context, and set up my audience for the kind of experience I want them to have?
How can I adjust my strategies for connection - so that my audience can feel my intent, care and purpose?

I have to say…I cannot wait for the crackle and joy and thrill of live events again…but in the meantime, I’m enjoying all of the way sin which we are creatively bringing our voices to our audience in these new ways. It’s beautiful, inspiring - and most importantly - impactful.

SIGNATURE TALK STUDIO:
And if you’re someone who wants to step into these signature talk moments - live or virtual - but you need to create that content! - I’d love for you to join me for the Signature Talk Studio course that closes THURSDAY! Just a few days left to enroll, and I’d of course love for you to come be a part of it.

Really quickly - let me highlight what’s going to be so awesome about this course…because by the end of it, you’ll have a signature talk you can pull out of your back pocket to use in nearly ever context…
Here’s how we’ll get you there:
it’s a step-by-step process from beginning to end… helping you move through creative blocks, stay accountable to a timeline, and also make room for the creative genius to come and fine you when she’s ready (and keep showing up, even when she doesn’t)…
3x we’ll get together for a half-day “studio salon” where we’ll workshop your content and delivery, you’ll get expert feedback from me - and connect with your peers
The course will live on Movers-U this amazing platform where the community ALSO lives… and I have to say? That community in there fills me up each day - with their support, questions, and all the ways in which they’re sharing their voices and making a difference in the world…

I know that most of the people who come to me don’t want to be full-time professional speakers…they want to utilize speaking as the power=house approach to make a bigger impact, and to make their mark. To influence, engage, and be recognized as the thought leader they are.

If that’s you - I’d love for you to come join me! You can learn more at bemoved.com/jointhestudio

Alright, my friends! Next week I’m sharing an AWESOME interview with David Scott who’s a phenomenal speaker and truly knows how to bring the WOW in his delivery! He is a marketing expert and author - and has spoken all over the world from Tony Robbins’ stage to Asia and back again. I loved this conversation, and cannot wait to share it!

Until then - head on over to bemoved.com/jointhestudio to join me in this epic experience!
This moved me.. what’s moving you!?!?

Direct download: TMM_234__Audio.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

I’m thinking back on the thrill of getting a request to speak. 
 
Especially when those gigs are a few months away, it feels like you’ve got all the time in the world to create your talk. 
 
A month out - you think - I should work on that - but I still have some time. I’ll get to it… later.  You know, waiting on that brilliant spark of inspiration.
 
And then suddenly you’re two weeks away, and panic sets in. No brilliant spark of inspiration - just a rock in the gut, realizing you’ve got a lot to do in a little time - and if you want to do this well you probably should have started… YESTERDAY. 
 
The next two weeks are miserable. Stressful. You’re snapping at the people around you, staying up too late, not taking care of yourself (cause you’re doing this ON TOP of everything else… 
Why does everything always happen at the same time, you ask yourself?!
 
And then - the moment comes - and you step out front… and instead of feeling like a rockstar cause you’re totally prepared - you feel scattered, scared, and know this whole thing could have gone better… IF. 
  1. If you had something you were working off of, instead of starting from scratch each time. 
  2. If you had given yourself more time, and weren’t rushing the process. 
  3. If you weren’t trying things out on the audience - and instead had pursued some outside help to get feedback, some guidance… and maybe even some encouragement.
 
Imagine what having a talk that is DONE and READY and in your back pocket can do…
  1. It can save you time, stress, and all of the pulling out of the hair that seems to always - but doesn’t need to - accompany creating a talk you can be proud of.
 
We never WANT that, until we’ve just experienced the NEED for it, which is typically after we didn’t do it. 
And then we get lulled, once again, into complacency.
 
Now I’m NOT saying that having a talk in your back pocket means you offer your audience a cookie-cutter approach.
Each talk - each audience- each context - is different.
 
But instead of starting from scratch - you’re starting from 75% awesome.
You have your core stories - and you’ve developed the key points they make.
You have a WOW beginning, and a solid end. Instead of experimenting every time…you know it works. (Gosh, what a relief!)
 
This is what it means to have a powerful Signature Talk in your back pocket that you TRUST - that you can lean on - that you’ve worked hard on and that will work hard for you.
 
So what I want you to do…is I want you move ‘creating your signature talk’ to the top of your to do list.
Maybe you’ve got some extra time on your hands?.. hello, pandemic.
Maybe you’re juggling a million things - and home schooling - AND trying to keep your anxiety at bay…hello pandemic.
Either way - we can move speaking up the list - because we always do what's most important.
 
If you want to make your mark - be known in your field as a go-to expert - and influence, move and impact your audience (whoever they may be)…then investing time and energy into your talk is one of the most powerful things you can do.
 
And the good news is that over the next few weeks I’ve got some awesome resources coming your way to help.
 
#1 - A free masterclass called - the TED Worthy Talk Map that outlines the 5 steps of creating your signature talk so that you can actually HAVE that talk in your back pocket when the moment comes, and you can start to create the demand for your message and yourself as the go-to expert on it. We have a few more dates for this masterclass - and all you have to do is go to bemoved.com/tedworthymasterclass to register
 
In this masterclass I’ll be sharing the 5 steps in the process of creating your signature talk - which is the exact process and approach they’ve used with my speakers 1:1 over the last 20 years…and now I’m sharing that process with you! My hope is that I can inspire as many of you as possible to create that talk and step into your space and place as a thought leader and change-maker!
 
And - if you’re someone who’s really ready to dive in, my Signature Talk Studio course opens on THURSDAY!!! And can I just tell you?! I’m so so so so excited…
 
This is going to be epically awesome -
not only because it gives you a process to walk through the creation process from beginning to end
but in that process are built in bite-sized wins along the way so you know you’re on the right track
and you can finally FINISH that talk feeling proud.
 
And - because it’s not just a course - but it’s also a community, and coaching. I’ve added three half-day “salons”so we can workshop your stuff, together. <3
It’s gonna be awesome.
Direct download: TMM_233__Audip.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

When I was in grad school studying persuasion (yes, that’s a thing), I was at this 10-day residency intensive, where we did an incredible deep-dive into our subject areas with the help of these incredible professors and mentors. In those 10 days, we had to create our plan for the semester… and it was INTENSE. And because I’m an ideas person, I had a bajillion of them… Lots of ideas - lots of hard work - but focus? Not so much. My brain would swirl, and I’d start down one path and then question where I was going and then wonder what I was doing and then veer into another direction. Every day I’d show up to my mentor’s office and say “I’ve got it!” I’m going to do this! - … and then I’d spend a day getting inspired by someone’s talk or a discussion with some brilliant professor - and I’d be off in another direction.

Every few days I would freak out and say - I’m not going to get there! I’m not going to figure it out.
And my awesome mentor would say - “Trust the process.”

Kind of like when I was in theater and we’d be putting on shows… and a few weeks from opening i would think - “we’re never going to get there. This is a mess.”

My directors would say - "Trust the process."

I mean - work hard - invest yourself fully - but TRUST.

And we would get there.

When I gave my dream TEDx talk…
There was a moment - about 10 days out from the talk - where I thought…This is horrible. This is the worst. I’m the worst. Do I even know what I’m talking about!? I’m about to crash and burn in this field where I’m supposed to be an expert…
But - I kept at it - moved through it - and got to a place where I was so proud of what I have created.

Believe me, I had to say my own advice back to me a hundred times:
“Trust the process”
“Trust the process”
Trust the process

Because creating a talk is a PROCESS.
You can’t short-cut it, because it’s a process of DISCOVERY, and gaining clarity only comes from working the process.

Here’s how it goes:
We create - we refine - we share - we experience doubts - we push through and share again - and refine again - and create again - we wade through a season of fears and doubts and THEN we experience beloved CLARITY AND AHA’S AND what my husband calls “illumination.”

We can’t get to illumination without the PROCESS.

So - As you bring your talk to life -
in ANY CONTEXT -
virtual, live and in person, through a webinar or keynote or podcast conversation…

You must FIRST go through the process.
And when you’re in those moments of doubt - questioning everything -
"This isn’t working, won’t work, this is dumb, I’m dumb, I hate this…" -
know that as long as you’re working the process - the process is working in you.

Direct download: TMM_232__Audio.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

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