122: Josh Johnson - On Connecting Through Video

Hey everybody, and welcome to This Moved Me, a podcast about creating talks that move the world. With me, your host, Sally Koering Zimney. Together with some fabulous guests, we will have a casual conversation about the art of public speaking, because a good talk can move the world and it'll be fun. Yeah, I would think making alien cows meaningful. That's not a small task. I love your giggle. Wow. Oh my gosh, so waiting for everybody to figure out the alphabet. Hey Movers, it's Sally and I'm back. It's been a few weeks. It's great to be back. I'm thrilled to be here. So sitting in front of the microphone again. I missed it, but I'm busy doing lots of other things right now, and I've got an awesome interview for you today with the energetic, joyful, spirited Josh Johnson. I can't wait for you to hear this interview. And before I tell you about that, I want to tell you about a few other things I've got going on. If you are local here in the Twin Cities, hopefully you know already about the Changemakers that my husband Andy and I are hosting on November 17th. Super excited about that. He's gonna do a morning session all about creating more change, like when we get stuck, we're working on an idea, we're working as a team and we are stuck, how do we get unstuck? And as an improviser, he brings in some of those ideas for us as creative people or people who are are creative but maybe don't think we are, like how can we do more of the work that matters? And he comes at it in such a thoughtful way because aside from being an improviser, he's also an operations person and a productivity guru. So it's this really powerful combo. So that's what he's doing in the morning and then in the afternoon I'm doing a workshop about how we can bring that change out into the world, how we can use our voices more to share our messages and our ideas in a way that feels authentic and true. So I'm super pumped about that. And so if you're local, I hope you join us. I've got information on our website, thismoveme.com/changemakers-day. So check that out. The other thing, whoo, this is a big deal. I'm really excited. Oh my gosh, you guys, I have an opportunity to bring to life something that I've been dreaming about for a long time. Something became really clear to me last spring, and I had this vivid vision, and I said, "Okay, I've got to do this." So I put a date on the calendar, which is always the first step in making something happen. Give yourself a deadline. And that deadline is November 30th through December 2nd. I am putting on a small, immersive, intimate, community-driven, connected retreat for 5 speakers. 5 speakers who right now have a talk that they're not super happy with in whatever way. Maybe it's you can't quite finish it. Maybe you just— it's the talk that you give, but something about it isn't clicking. You're not grooving with it yet. Maybe you, yeah, just like you, you have to give this talk a lot and it's not you yet. Whatever it is, there's something about it that's not working. We're going to workshop it together and we're going to be at my parents' beautiful cabin in northwestern Wisconsin, which is about 2 hours from the Twin Cities. And I cannot be more excited about the kind of growth, the sort of experience that we will have together over those— that Essentially 2 days. So pumped about it, but I only have room for 5 people. So if you are thinking right now, oh, that, that would be, that'd be kind of cool, or, uh, yeah, I would love to get some insight and feedback from this collective group of people. You'll get one-on-one coaching with me, you'll get group coaching, and my gosh, super exciting. And I'm really thrilled. I'm really thrilled to be doing this. And so I only have room for 5 people. So you've got to go check it out on my website and sign up or send me a note and let me know that you're interested. Even if you can't do it this time, but you're interested in the future, I need to know because if there's real interest here, then I'll schedule a handful of them. And there might be an application process involved.

I don't know.

But right now I've just got a date and I've got 5 open spots. So the first 5 people who come to me and are able to get there and have a talk and can commit to this and invest in it, then I'm with you and let's do this. But you gotta reach out to me, let me know. You can even just send me an email, sally@thismovedme.com. That'd be great too. Okay, third and final thing. Holy cow. Talking a lot before I get into this awesome interview, but I have so many exciting things going on. Third and final thing is I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to be a part of this Client Growth Masterclass series, which sounds super fancy, and it was fun. It was hosted by this spunky spitfire woman named Nancy Ganzekaufer, and Nancy is a small business coach for women. And so she's pulled together experts out in the field who have something to share to help her clients grow their business. So she invited me into this masterclass series to talk about how we can use speaking to do that, uh, to establish ourselves as authority, to make real connections with new people, and to grow our client base. So it's awesome and it is available now online. You can go to thismovedme.com www.sallykoeringzimney.com/client-growth-masterclass. One word.

Masterclass is one word.

So check that out and that will take you to a link where you can sign up for this free online event and there's other experts that you can listen to too. So if you are a woman and a small business owner, you should go check that out because it's free and it's me.

Woo!

So there we go. Okay. That's the business side of things. All right. November 17th, Changemakers Day here in the Twin Cities. Come sign up. I'd love to see you there. Secondly, we've got our Movers Lab retreat up in Wisconsin. If that is something you're thinking about, even thinking about, send me an email and let me know. We can talk more. And third and finally, the Client Growth Masterclass series, this free online event. Nancy Ganzekaufer. It's pretty awesome. She is fun and I think you'd like her. So check that out. Now on to the interview portion of the evening. And Josh Johnson is a friend of mine. I've known him for years and I've coached him as a speaker. But the reason why I brought Josh— Josh— the reason why I brought Josh on the show is because he is a YouTube vlogger and has grown his audience tremendously over the last few years. He's got 30,000 people subscribed to his page and it's growing every day. And what I so respect and admire about Josh and his work in this is that he brings himself fully, authentically. And I have to say, like, I'm super comfortable in front of this microphone now and I love being on stage, but being in front of a camera still doesn't feel natural to me. I'm working on it. And this is an area that we all have to get better in because of Facebook Live and Periscope and, um, I mean, live video will become the, I think, a huge medium, even bigger than it is, aside from the fact that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. So, we need to be on there if we want to be seen as experts and we want to bring our messages out into the world, and we do. So, I'm dabbling in it and Josh has more than dabbled. He's learned a ton and so I wanted to bring him on the show and talk about what it's like and what he's learned and what we can do to make that connection through a camera the same way we do on stage. So I'm really excited to share with you Josh Johnson. Okay, Josh Johnson. I can't wait to like—

are we officially starting now or did we already start?

We already started, dude.

Oh, oh, no.

You know how this works.

Yes, I know how it works.

You know, we're just hanging out and people get to listen in.

That's exciting.

I know. Who wouldn't want to listen in to Josh and Sally just hanging out?

I know, I know, right? I would.

Well, so obviously we go back, not way back, but we go back a handful of years.

4 years.

4 years.

4 years.

To be exact. 4 years.

Yes.

I've had the great honor of coaching Josh Johnson as a speaker.

This is true.

This is true. And you, in your own right, have this whole other world that you've created. Mr. YouTube. Geocaching, and you've really built this following in the YouTube world.

Yes, yes, it's interesting because, um, I think a lot of the skills that you bring to speaking can also be used in, in YouTube, in talking to a camera, in building an audience, in building relationships, kind of one-way communication. And essentially, you know, when you speak, it's, it's one-way communication as well. It's just the only difference with YouTube is that you don't see them, you just look into the lens of a camera. But yeah, there, there is some crossover there with speaking to people on a stage and speaking to a camera.

Well, I'll be Josh Johnson, let's talk about it.

Why not?

All right, so I mean, like, when you first started, when you got into this, you've been a speaker for a long time, so when you first got into the YouTube world, like, what was that transition like? Because I find— I mean, I'm, I'm gonna step into this YouTube world and I'm nervous about it because it feels like a completely different animal to me.

Yeah, I mean, it— yeah, it is a completely different animal, but again, there's so much crossover. When I initially got into it, when I decided to start putting videos of myself on YouTube, it was very much an accident. I was realizing that I was missing Yeah, I realized I was missing much of the moments of my kids growing up, and I wanted to document them. So I literally found one of those flip cameras on Craigslist. I don't know if you remember flip cameras. It's just like a little video camera. Yeah. And, and I bought one from a guy in a parking lot in Wood— in Woodbury. And I decided to try it out because, um, I was just like, oh, I'm gonna test it out to make sure the thing works. But one of my hobbies is geocaching, and if your listeners don't know what that is, it's essentially like a worldwide treasure hunt using GPS technology and using a little app on your phone to find these little boxes that people hide all over the world. In the short of it, there's 3 million boxes all over the world in countries all over the world that people have hidden, and it's kind of like a little scavenger hunt. So it's a hobby that I'd done for a long time, so I thought, oh my gosh, I'm going to turn the camera to myself, and I'm going to start recording record myself finding a geocache. And that happened 5 years ago. And let's face it, like, talking to yourself in a camera, you know, is kind of an odd thing, especially to do in public, because I do this in public a lot too, and I get a lot of strange looks. But it took me several years to sort of figure out how to talk to people, because essentially you're talking to a camera, but you're not talking to a camera. Inside that lens, well, as, as of right now, there are thousands of people listening, watching my adventures. So that's sort of how I got into it, it was by accident.

Wow. I mean, I, I'm imagining you because I've seen enough of your YouTube shows or your videos to know that, yeah, you are like walking through a huge you know, crowds of people sometimes, and you're just going for it. I mean, that's one of your characteristics as a speaker and as a human is like you're just 100% in it, 110%. You go for it. It's what I love about you.

And so— Yeah, go big or go home.

Yeah, but does it require that sort of like shamelessness, you know? Yeah. Unself-consciousness.

Yeah, I'm, I'm aware, like, I still feel— I've done this for years, I still feel, can feel a little awkward publicly vlogging myself. But the one thing that I keep telling myself when I feel those nerves is that the people I'm talking to on my camera at that moment are way more important than the, the weird looks I get around me. Oh, and so, and so It's like people don't realize it when you're doing it, that, you know, they think I might be FaceTiming my grandma when I'm actually talking to thousands of people literally from all over the world. And I just keep that in my mind, and I remind myself of that, and then I'm like, all that stuff around me just kind of fades away, right? So it's kind of a mind trick. And I think as speakers, like, we do, we do those mind tricks to sort of ease our anxieties. Absolutely. Whatever, whatever our anxieties might be speaking.

Absolutely. I mean, I think the, the strength of your controlling your mind is a huge asset as a speaker. So I know that those same mind tricks are needed as a video person. I just need to learn what my— what, what crops up in my mind as I'm doing it. And like what I need to get over, you know? And I think, whew, I don't feel anymore as a speaker, I don't feel self-conscious. I'm not worried about once I'm up there, I feel so confident in my skills and what I have to say that I kind of let go of that, which is so important because if we want to be our authentic selves, our authentic selves. Like, we really have to let go of, like, the little 7th grader in us.

Oh, totally. The fear of rejection. I mean, that's a big thing. It's one thing to sit down in your living room and record yourself because there's always a sense— for some weird reason, there's a sense of rejection that that camera is going to reject you. And it's an inanimate object. Like, it's not rejecting you, but for some reason, people really get stumbled up sometimes. They can be the most incredible speaker in front of hundreds of people. You get them in front of the camera and they can freeze up. And that's just, that's just weird and interesting all at the same time, I think.

So why do you think that is? Like, why does that happen that it feels so different? Because if you're a communicator in the modern age right now, you've got to be able to do both because The media expects it, you know, even on Facebook at this point, it's turning into video. So yes, all these avenues are opening up where we've got to be able to adjust and bring our stories and bring ourselves to all these different levels and all these different ways. And even though I've done a little bit of camera work, it just has never felt like home to me the way the stage has. So why, why is that, do you think? Like, and what could— what can we do? Like, if, you know, you're, you're talking to me and I'm shifting into also adding video into my world, like, coach me for a minute here, Josh. What, what do I need to do to help make that transition?

Well, I think a little bit has to do with, with some of the mind tricks you play. I think just because there's a camera in front of you, you can feel like you're not talking to anybody when you know you are. But I think it's, it's different because you— if I was sitting with you at a coffee shop, I would look you in the eye and I would get verbal and nonverbal cues from you. The camera gives you absolutely nothing. So the tough thing is you so want to connect in authentic way with the people that are watching, but you're getting nothing back from that camera, right? So I think that is the tough thing. But the thing that I've realized is that honestly, this is— it's not an easy solution. It takes time. Because what happens, you put your first video out on YouTube, you, you check the comments, you get maybe 30 views. First of all, you're like, oh, 30 people watched it, nobody responded. Okay, then you're down the road and now you've posted 50 videos, all of a sudden you started to build a community. People are starting to respond. You start seeing some of the same people comment, just like on a podcast where I'm sure you get tweets and feedback. And all of a sudden now, oh my gosh, now there are people, there are actually people behind that camera. And I think that's when you establish sort of your voice and who you are on camera. I think all of a sudden you're like, I am no longer talking to a camera. I am talking to people. And I think when you sort of make that mind shift change, I think that helps. So honestly, as far as coaching, I think it just takes time. I mean, if you watch my first video, it's, it's really bad. Like, uh, you know, technically bad, right? The camera's too close to my face, I'm— the camera's jiggly, right? But now I think hopefully when you watch my videos, it comes across as, hey, I'm your friend and I'm hanging out with you. And you know what? We're going geocaching together. That's how I treat it now. And that just took— that took 5 years of time. Well, not 5 years, but that's where we are now.

Right. 5 years later, you feel like you've— you are now—

you have a connection. Well, no, I have not mastered it, but— but I have— but I feel like I have a connection that when I talk to the camera, I'm talking to somebody and those people will talk back to me via comments. Whether it be Twitter, comments on YouTube, what nice emails I get all the time. I mean, I hear some amazing stories. I mean, talk about moving people. You think, you think going out to the woods and, and just finding little boxes would be just sort of trite, but there's like a greater, greater purpose to why I do it. I don't do it just, just because, um, it's my hobby. I really do it— speaking of your podcast name— I do it to really move people. Like, I have a goal to move people. So I hear some incredible stories. Like, for example, I was at a geocaching event. This young boy comes up to me with his parents, and the story of this boy was that he had been going through chemotherapy. He had cancer, and he spent a ton of time in the hospital bed. And while he was in the hospital bed, he told me that he watched my geocaching videos. And then when he got out of the hospital, the doctor wanted him to exercise. And so by watching my videos, he was inspired to get out and go hiking and find geocaches with his parents, and that's how he got stronger. I mean, are you kidding me?

Like, that's awesome.

So, you know, stories like that, you get emails like that, you start meeting people like that, and you realize this is bigger than— yeah, you know, just me sharing a hobby. Like Hopefully I'm inspiring people to be better or be whatever they're passionate about, whether it's geocaching or whatever, that they, they do it with everything they've got. So that's, that's cool. I mean, yeah.

Plus, I think you're, you are, you know, we've talked a little bit, you and I have talked a little bit about, you know, the Pearl Button, finding your thing.

Yes.

And knowing what that is. Because that is your strength and that's— you want to make sure that's wholly present whenever you're, you know, in front of a camera or up on stage. And I do think you spread and share joy because you are such a joyful person and you bring so much like energy. I think you and I talked about the word energy at one point.

Yeah.

But it's more, it's more than just like crazy energy. It's like there's a joyfulness to, oh, we're gonna go do this thing today, you know, and this kind of goofiness to what you do, which just makes people happy. Yeah, you know, and that is not a small thing.

Yeah, well, thank you. There, there's a certain amount of entertainment too, you know. There's a certain amount of entertainer part of me, myself, or, or any speaker. It's like people want to, want to listen, you know. And most of my experience has been working with youth, and it's always taken a little bit more than just, you know, you know, just conveying the information. I've always tried to, try to have some sort of hook or X factor or something that I have that will set me apart and surprise people. I love that mini podcast you had about surprising people. I hope when I'm in front of people that I surprise people. I don't want to be just like a run-of-the-mill sort of speaker. I've seen a lot of that. You know, Sally Koering Zimney, one of my talks, in the middle of my talk, I do a junior high Elvis impersonation. It's like, who would expect that to happen? But hopefully that's memorable and they walk away, hopefully they walk away with more than just like, "Oh, he did Elvis." Hopefully they remember the message and the reason I did it, but there's this a certain amount of entertainer to make that connection, I think.

Well, and I think what's kind of underlying all this, and as I think about putting myself out there more, there is this— it's no longer— it doesn't feel like the safe zone. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Like, I know that if I really want to have an impact I have to get out of the safe zone. And I feel really safe in my little podcast zone right now. But I know when you step out into a larger— obviously YouTube is the second largest search engine out there behind Google. I mean, people go to YouTube to look for things. They don't just go to Yougle.

Yougle.

Google. Yougle. Oh my gosh. It's really you, girl. Oh my God, I love that, actually. Anyway, oh my God. So, you know, it does feel like you're stepping into this new world. And have you experienced, like, when you step out into that world and you've been living there for a while, like, Um, you know, have the haters come? Have you had to experience any of that?

Oh yes. I mean, I think— I tend to believe, or I tell myself this, that if there aren't critics of what you're doing, then, then often I don't think you're necessarily maybe taking enough risk. Um, so I will have— you know, YouTube is a wonderful place for, for people to write rude, cruel, mean comments. But I, I think sometimes I delete them if they're really awful, but sometimes I leave them on there because as there's something I did to invoke an emotional response.

Yeah.

Even if, even if it's negative, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm just gonna own what, who, what I'm doing and who I am. I'm not gonna change, but I, there was something I did to invoke some sort of emotion, even if it was a negative emotion. And I don't necessarily think That's a bad thing. So yes, but that's tough because you have to sort of get, um, sometimes thick skin. And, uh, sometimes, sometimes if it's a kid— and let me say, on YouTube it's usually kids that are bored and, uh, trying to just, you know, figure out ways to get, you know, get responses from it. I usually ignore it, but if it's a kid, especially if they have videos, I will go, I will go all youth worker on them. And I— they won't expect it because they're used— they're used to people retaliating back in a— in the same way, in a cruel, mean way. So, uh, quick story, like, I, I will, um, you know, a kid will write something mean or something, I'll go to their channel. If they have a video, I will say something like, hey, if, you know, if you want to make friends and if you want to grow your YouTube channel, I'm going to encourage you to tell people what you like about the videos, not what you don't like about the videos. And that's the way that I could I grew my channel is making friends on YouTube, and that usually I'll get a response because they're not expecting a response, because most times— and all of a sudden I'll get responses from some kid and they'll go, oh, sorry about that, right? Then they'll say, then they'll say, will you subscribe to me? So, you know, so I'm like, and then I'm like, no, I won't. I'm not gonna go that far, okay, buddy?

Maybe, maybe after you've changed your tune a little bit, bucko.

And I've, I've, yeah, I've even had some trolls as adults. I had one troll, um, that just wrote a very thoughtful, cruel, mean, uh, comment. And I responded to him in a private message in a sort of a thoughtful way. And I didn't hear from him at all. And then I'd say 8 months later, I got a long response from him telling me that, that he was bothered by the fact that I seem to have so much joy. And his life at the time was so sad, and he was essentially jealous of, of my life, and he was taking it out on me. And he apologized, and he said I was one of the— I was one of the only people that, you know, in that time of his life that gave him a kind word instead of a horrible word. And I was like, oh gosh, like, usually I ignore the trolls, but I mean, you know, it's humans, right?

Like, they are humans. Yeah.

They're humans and they're probably dealing with some rotten stuff. So.

Wow.

That's a long way to answer your question. So yes, there's haters. I mean, you put yourself out there, you put yourself out there for the world to critique.

But I think it's a reminder that if we are going to do this work as a speaker in whatever way, as a communicator, and I'm telling myself this too, you have to take big enough risks that you might piss some people off.

Yes.

And right. That has been a refrain I've been telling myself since high school. Like, yeah, I really just want everybody to get along and I want them to like me, right? Oh, yeah.

I mean, right. I mean, it's the— I think that's the number one fear of a speaker, like I said before, is fear of rejection. So you put yourself out there on YouTube and people start rejecting you. You're like, I'm not going to do this, you know? But I think it's worth it. I mean, think about it, Sally. It's like myself, like I'll speak in front of 150 kids, you know, try to move them in some way for some, you know, to be better than them, you know, better or whatever it may be, have more courage. But I'll put a video up on YouTube and within a week I can get— and I'm not trying to brag, I'm just saying the power of social media— I can get 3,000 eyes on that thing. Yeah, 3,000. Yeah, what an opportunity, what an opportunity, right? That we have. And so why not? Why not utilize those things?

Right. So we got to just go for it. Dig in. Right? Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. So what are your biggest lessons learned in this that you would want to pass along to me or anybody who's thinking about really embracing this new video mindset?

Mm-hmm. Um, one of the things you taught me, Sally, and I really bring it into my, to my videos, I try to, and video is the perfect venue for this, is when I'm speaking, I sometimes have the tendency to just explain things and not really show, show things. I'm always reminding myself, show, don't just tell. Show, just don't tell. And so Instead of explaining things on video, I will use B-roll to show what I'm talking about or of course using stories. What a great venue instead of just sitting in front of a camera and explaining something to be able to show what you mean through whatever B-roll or whatever it may be. That's one of the lessons I've learned is there's too many videos out there of people just talking to a camera. I mean, you have all these other tools to be able to show what you're talking about rather than just tell. So that's one of the things I think I've learned. I've also learned it just takes time. Like I said before, it takes time to build an audience, A, and it takes time to build those relationships and your persona, sort of your camera persona. One of the things that's really challenging, I think, for all YouTubers. The man that was— I can't remember his name. He was a magician. He was on your show recently.

Oh yeah, Jared Sherlock.

Yeah. I mean, he's a performer and I think he talked about something that I think anybody who's a speaker can relate to, but certainly on YouTube, is how can you be your authentic self but still make yourself a little bit larger? Than you are, right? And, and to find that balance. And I, I struggle because sometimes I think people watch my videos and they're like, is this guy the— you know, is this guy for real? Is he really—

yep—

this excited about geocaching?

Yes, he is.

I am, I am. But, but in complete honesty, like, if you and I were to go out in the woods and start geocaching, I wouldn't be like, hey Sally, we're gonna find this geocache, right? You know what I mean? Like, I would I wouldn't be that way. And that's not— I'm not saying that's how I am on camera, but how do you do that? How do you— how— because nobody wants to listen to a boring speaker on video like, hey guys, um, I'm out here in the woods and there's geocache right over here, so let's go. Quiet, we're in the woods. I know, right? That— that— there's nothing about that that sets you apart, you know, from, from all the other people that have just happened to want to shoot a video. You have to leverage a bigger part of yourself. The tricky thing is you want to be authentic. To find that balance, I haven't really figured that out, but just being aware of it and sometimes I have to remind myself, "Okay, Josh, just talk to the camera like a normal person." You don't have to always Talk to the camera like there's thousands of people watching, which there are, because essentially you want— the person that's watching is watching it by themselves, so you want to make that connection. Finding that balance.

I think that's one of the things that you can translate really well from the world on stage as a speaker and then as a YouTuber is that I want every single person in my audience to feel like I'm talking just to them. And so even if there's 500 people in the audience, I want it to feel like that sort of connection. And so in some ways, really honing that skill in the video world might benefit you as a speaker as well.

Oh, totally.

Have you noticed any other things like that where you're like, you know, I've learned this from doing my YouTube work, and I've translated into my work as a speaker. It's benefited me over there.

One of the things, and you alluded to it earlier, was using all the tools of my physicality and my body to communicate. I know one of the notes that you gave to a speaker once, I heard you say, let— when, when you gesture with your hands, let let the words just emanate out of your fingertips. And if you ever watch my videos, I mean, you will see, I will be holding my camera with my left hand and you will see my fingers just so intense, you know? And it just, I think it communicates, it just communicates passion. Just thinking about not only with the words you're saying, but your face and smiling. Gosh, if I had one piece of advice, for speaking or YouTube especially is smile. Smiling makes you so much more disarming to the audience and people look at you. There's psychological studies that say people that smile on camera are more trustworthy. There's research on YouTube that thumbnails, and you know what a thumbnail is, right? It's that little picture you see. Thumbnails that show more white, the whites of your eyes, are more likely to be clicked on because you are perceived to be more trustworthy because they can see the whites of your eyes. Wow. And so I'm thinking, to answer your question, to think about speaking, it's like smiling, looking at the kids with a, you know, wide open eyes, you know, gesturing with palms down, not palms up or pointing. Palms down, uh, palms up are so much more disarming. And trustworthy. So I— if you watch my videos, my— I tell myself, palms down, it's so much more disarming and people will connect with me more. So those are a few, like, a few, like, tips. But one of, one of the other things too is, is as far as making a human connection, like, it's okay to make mistakes and show mistakes. A lot of, a lot of YouTubers, you know, editing is your best friend. Right? Yeah, when you're doing video. But every once in a while, I'll leave in some ridiculous mistake or some horror, you know, like if I say a word wrong, like what do you say, like YouTube-ogle or whatever, you know, like leave that in because that makes you human. It makes you human and it builds more authenticity and more connection because you're willing to be authentic, right? And I think another thing is vulnerability. And I've learned, if you watch my videos early on, it was all about geocaching. And the more and more, the longer I've gone, I've realized the way I'm making deeper connections is allowing people more into my life. So now I make more than just geocaching videos. They get a glimpse of the rest of my life to see, oh, there's more to this person than just going out geocaching all the time. And I think that translating that to speaking is, As you— everyone knows, our personal stories are so powerful, and the more vulnerable we're able to be in front of people, whether it's on YouTube or in front of an audience, I think obviously connection's going to be there as well.

And people just want to know who you are, right?

Right. Is this person a real— a real person? Is this— is this the type of person I want to hang out with?

Right.

You know. Right, like, like when I hear Rob Bell speak, I want to hang out with him because I'm like— because he's connecting with me. It's like he's talking just to me, right? Gosh, that should be the goal, I think, with YouTube as well as when speaking on stage, right?

Totally. All right, Josh, you know what time it is.

What time is it?

It's time for your This Moved Me moment.

Oh cool. Are you gonna go first or should I go first?

You go first. I'm just feeling, feeling like you should go. You're on a roll.

I didn't want to pick this out too early because I wanted to wait for something to move me, you know, spontaneously, because I could pick a lot of things.

Yeah.

So I was scrolling Facebook, I think it was this weekend. I don't know if you saw this, but in the news right now, current events are gorillas, primates, monkeys, right? They're in the news right now.

Yep.

And there was a video of Jane Goodall. Y'all, you know Jane Goodall, right? The— oh yeah, Gorillas in the Mist, you know, chimpanzee trainer or whatever.

Yeah.

And she was out in the jungle and she was releasing a chimpanzee back to the wild. And the chimpanzee, you know, she opens up the gate, the chimpanzee gets out, she gives the chimpanzee time. There's some other people there kind of, the chimpanzee kind of ventures out a little bit, and then the chimpanzee jumps on the box and all of a sudden turns to Jane Goodall and just gives, just embraces her and just gives her a little hug, like a long heartfelt hug.

Oh, that's so sweet.

I know, literally, probably, you know, a good embrace for a good 15 seconds, and then he just jumps off the box and heads into the forest and says goodbye. Wow. And that moved me. I don't know why. I was trying to think about why it moved me.

Yeah.

And I'm just like, like, Jane Goodall, whatever she's doing— speaking of moving people and keeping connections— like, right, for some reason that monkey knew that she cared about them. Even it was an animal, she, she knew, or the monkey knew And just the fact that it did that, that's just amazing. Amazing. I don't know.

I mean, I think I've seen it and I remember also being moved by it. And I think part of what moved me about it was that it was such a human thing to do. Right. Like it was like, oh, we are not that different.

Right.

And I think there's the universal tie is that we as humans think it is just us. Yes. And of course, there's this animal that— and Jane Goodall has devoted her entire life, devoted her entire life to these animals. And that was a human thing to do, to come back and hug her and essentially say thank you. You know?

Yeah.

And so it's startling. It's like, oh my goodness, what else do these animals feel that's like human-like, right? That we don't think about.

And maybe it wasn't just that— maybe the hug wasn't just for the chimpanzee, but the chimpanzee knew that that's what Jane needed. You know what I mean? Like, she would— the, the the primate was speaking the human language, right? Which is just fascinating. That's just fascinating. I know. Talk about communication. Amazing.

Pretty cool. Well, my This Moved Me moment is something when I saw it, I was like, oh, I'm gonna save this for Josh's show.

Oh, great.

Yeah, cool. Because I think if you haven't seen it yet, I think you will love it. So, okay, I— it was a video that came across my YouTube or my, um,, Facebook feed, and it's a group called Postmodern Jukebox.

Okay.

Have you ever heard of them?

I'm not sure.

Okay.

Well, I don't think so.

They're a musical group, and they took the song My Heart Will Go On, like from the Titanic.

Okay.

And turned it into like a 1950s tune. It's so good. It's so good.

Yes. I've seen others. I've seen other videos like that, but I don't know if I've actually seen My Heart Will Go On.

Yeah. What I loved about it is it just turned this really slow, heartbreaking, sappy song into this 1950s get up and dance. Yeah.

That's funny.

It's so great.

I'm look— I'm looking at their YouTube channel right now. There's— there's Sweet Child of Mine from Guns N' Roses. Yep. There's Hollaback Girl. There's Time After Time. Oh, Time After Time. There are so many. Grenade. Oh, nice. Sally, you just gave me hours of entertainment now.

Good. I knew you would love it. I knew you would love it.

Why did it move you? Why did it move you other than just the fun of the music?

Well, yeah, I mean, aside from the fact that they're incredibly talented, I think what moved me about it is I love when people take one thing and turn it into something else and just discover this whole new artistry in it. Because I don't think most people would imagine that song in particular becoming a jukebox kind of song.

Yeah.

That just is like, woo, yeah. They're like moving.

That's cool.

You know? So yeah, any time people have that much talent and they just see something that didn't exist before and create something new out of something old, I love that.

Yeah. I love that. You know, as you know, I'm, I'm involved in the high school speech world. I— my daughter's in speech, and, and I judge speech, um, competitive speech from time to time. And I love the informative, the informative round. They're, they're supposed to sort of inform you on a topic. You know this very well. But the ones that are the best are they take the simplest thing and they make it into something fantastic, right? And, and make you look at it like something you've never seen before. So like, there was one girl who did Her topic was the staple, or not the staple, the— no, it was a staple. I'm sorry, it was paper clips. What? Her informative was about paper clips.

Oh, I love it.

And she took it and she made you think about paper clips like you would never think of them before. Like, it was amazing. I mean, I wish I could give you examples, but, um, but so I think that's something that good speakers do, is, right, they, they make you think of things in a way that you've never thought of them before.

Totally.

That's hard work. I wish I could do that better.

You can.

I can. I believe in myself.

And I think that's a good place to end. Josh believes in himself. He can do better. I'm gonna get on YouTube.

Do it, Sally. Oh, I'm gonna cheer you on all the way. I'll comment. I'll comment on every single one of your videos and I'll give, I'll give thumbs up to every one of your videos.

Okay.

So, you know, there's somebody out there approving of that, of that risk. Somebody approving of that risk.

Come find me out on YouTube.

Oh, Sally, before we go, I just want you to know, I've really, I mean, I know you personally and I have always enjoyed our chats, but, um, what you're doing here with the podcast is very valuable. To, uh, myself as a speaker as I do this every single day, but also on YouTube. There's so much, um, I'm taking from it myself. So thank you for what you're doing.

Of course, thanks for joining along with me and jumping in and having this super fun conversation, which I knew it would be. It's like, let's take a little of Josh energy, a little Sally Koering Zimney energy, and put it together and like Awesome combo. Awesome combo. Not a, not a bad explosion, a good explosion.

No, good explosion.

Hey movers, it's Sally Koering Zimney. Thanks for listening to this episode. Hope you enjoy that conversation with Josh Johnson. He's a favorite, super fun, and, uh, he's done some really great cheering on of this work at This Moved Me. So thanks, Josh. I hope you feel the love too. I hope everybody goes and checks out the Geocaching Vlogger because he's a lot of fun. And if you're wondering like, where is she recording this? It's very noisy. I'm recording it in my car with my family. They're all sitting around. Everybody say hi! Hi! She's not driving! Hi! I'm not driving, don't worry. Andy's driving and it's raining. We're not gonna die! And we just got back from a weekend at the cabin, one of my favorite places in the world. And the cabin is also, also happens to be the place where I'm hosting the Movers Lab retreat experience. So if you haven't looked at what this is and gone to my website and checked it out, it's going to be an amazing retreat experience for 5 speakers who want to improve their talk. A particular talk that they're working on. We will dig deep together, and I'm super pumped about it. So if you're remotely interested in that, let me know, because it's a beautiful space and it's a— it'll be a great getaway and also a great time to improve what you're doing, and with great people. Yay! So many great things with that. And, uh, What else? We've got a big Changemaker State Conference coming up. I talked about that in the intro, but Andy's right here and I think he's great and he's gonna do more greatness. He's gonna do the morning session, I'll do the afternoon session, but come for the whole thing. Why not? It's like a double whammy awesomeness. Um, but you know, I'm married to Andy, so obviously I think he's pretty good. But, um, you know, there's 3 other people in this car whose words you might get more honest answers from them. Who knows? What do you think? How about Maren, my oldest? Maren, what do you think? Do you think the Changemakers Day event will be good? Maybe. Okay, Luke, what do you think? If there's only going to be adults, it's going to be a terrible time. Don't come. And Harper, how about you? Oh, she just shook her head. Nope, she's not gonna say anything. She agrees it's gonna be a terrible time. Oh my gosh, according to my 3 children, it'll be a terrible time. But, uh, honesty, people, uh, don't take their word for it. I think you better come see for yourself. Changemakers Day, November 17th. We'll see you there. Will there be cake? Cake? Can I come? Cake? If we serve cake, you can come. Yes! Do, do, do, do, do.