127: On One Way Creativity Works - a Story

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 we're waiting for everybody to figure out the alphabet.

Once upon a time, there was a savvy businesswoman. And just to be clear, if the aforementioned definition didn't make this clear to you, let me— this isn't about me, though I have been here many, many times. Okay. This savvy businesswoman had a talk to write. It wasn't a long one, and it was for a cause she was especially passionate about. It shouldn't have been that big of a deal, except that she wanted it to be awesome. She wanted it to impact people. She wanted it to be a moment that people would remember.

Which is a great place to start. I mean, let's all start there, right?

So every night she snuggled into bed and pulled out her laptop. She had a cup of tea and some determination. She had put the rest of the day aside for this moment. She opened her computer to her word processing program and nothing happened. Um, let's see, how should I start? Well, I guess there was that one time— no, no, no, no, no, that wouldn't work.

Ugh.

She stared at that white blank page, and that white blank page stared back at her. It was a standoff of the creative type. She did this for several nights until she realized that that's not how this is gonna work. You can't force it, which is often inconvenient and always a problem when there's a deadline involved. So she let it go for a few days. She went on with her life. She gave up in the best way possible because a few days later she was driving in the car and something hit her. The aha moment. And as she was driving down Highway 101 of all places, an idea. She knew these things, these ideas are finicky little buggers. So to capture it somehow, she started to talk it out, out loud in the car to herself, and things started to click. Yes, this is what she was going for. By the time she pulled up to the stoplight, talking away to herself in a flurry, she turned to see the teenage boy in the car next to her. He looked concerned. She laughed. Creativity isn't always pretty, but it feels great when it's happening to you, people. When she got back to her office, the words flew onto the paper. And the best part was she'd already worked out some of the kinks in the car. Cars are an amazing place to create, my friends. The lesson: creativity works in whatever way it works. It often works in whatever way it wants to. And often when we're doing something else, thinking about something else, like when we're mindlessly driving down Highway 101, for example, or taking a shower or making dinner. We can't force it, and it's why we live and breathe our talks for a while as we're creating. Our brains are literally processing all of the input and ideas and wonderings and resources, trying to make new sense of it, synthesize it with our particular life. And it's a magical process, a magical moment that usually comes after a lot of frustration and stuckness. And here's an idea: next time you're in the car and the idea strikes you, start to talk it out. And even better, turn on your voice memo app and capture all of that brilliance in the car. I have gotten the meat of a talk or two written by talking in the car and turning on the voice memo app, because otherwise I would never remember it. Until next time, Movers, keep talking to yourself in the car. Or totally freak out that teenage boy in the car next to you.

Happy December, movers! We are almost to the end of 2016. 2017, good riddance, I tell you! And I am personally so excited to be looking ahead to exciting things happening in the new year coming up soon. So many, so many plans. I've got too many ideas, really, and that's my challenge, is to really focus in and try and see just a few of the ideas to fruition instead of all 30 of them a little bit. Which is what I tend to do. I'm working on it. I'm working on it. Just being honest with you on that one. So one of the ideas, which I talked about a little bit this fall, is a Movers Lab. And I'm going to put together a new cohort of the Movers Lab this spring. So if you are someone who has a talk, but maybe you're not thrilled with it yet, maybe it's a new talk that just needs an audience or some coaching and some support with a small group of people all together will get away for a few days and workshop each other's talks together. You'll get some one-on-one attention from me, but also some really investment and feedback from the other people who are there. If that sounds intriguing to you, check it out on my website. I'm offering a new program, new cohort this spring, dates to be determined. So I'm really looking for input from you guys and finding the key people and then we'll figure out dates. So let me know about that. I'm also starting a pilot program called TMM Quick Coaching because honestly I get requests from people often who are like, "Hey, I'd love for you, would you look at my talk and send me some feedback?" And I love doing that, I really do. But of course that's challenging for me because this is my work and this is what I do. So I thought, you know, for those people who coaching partnership doesn't make sense because that's an intensive experience and an investment. If that is not where you're at but you still want some mirroring, some coaching, some feedback to help you take the next step and keep improving, then this might be a really cool thing for you. Um, and because I'm piloting this program, it's free right now. So all you have to do is send me a video please no more than 30 minutes of you talking, 'cause otherwise I'm not gonna have time to do this, but send me a video of you doing a talk or a training or maybe you're doing some video work, whatever it might be. I will then send you some feedback. I'm still feeling out exactly how this is gonna work, so part of the deal is I'll give you some feedback and you can then give me some feedback about how this is working. But right now it's free, so I would jump on this opportunity right now if this is something that you're interested in. It's called TMM Quick Coaching. Send me an email if you want some more info, and you're gonna send it to info@thismovedme.com because that makes sense.

Great.

And you can find out more about the Movers Lab on the website, thismovedme.com. Okay, and lastly, because you're listening to this podcast and I've been publishing kind of every other week, I've got so much great content coming your way. I'm really really pumped. Some awesome interviews coming up with, for instance, Jan Scholting from SlideMagic and IdeaTransplant. He's amazing, talking about slide design and how we, like mere humans, can do it better and learn from the very best so that we can, in the everyday, make our slides look better. And Jason Jaegard, who's an author, coach, keynote speaker from Novus Global. Oh my gosh, I saw him speak and I was like, yeah, he's amazing. And he really talks about key mindsets for making a real difference and getting beyond our self-limitations. That's his thing, is really pushing and challenging people, and he did that for me. And I think that mindset is really important for us as speakers. So I asked him on the show and we had an awesome conversation. I cannot wait to share that with you. In fact, I think that's how I'm going to kick off 2017, because it's a new year. Let's do this! And there's more! There's more. I love the end of the year. Usually lots of top 10 lists, some Q&As coming your way, all kinds of good stuff. So stick with me. As always, I'm so grateful for you joining me on the journey. The next episode will air next Monday, special Q&A episode. So if you have a question for me, I wanna answer it. So send me your question to info@thismovedme.com. Where you at, what are you struggling with, what have you been wondering about, maybe something I've talked about that you want me to dig into a little bit more, whatever it might be, I'm here, I'd love to take it on. That's it for me. Gosh guys, until then, keep moving the world with your talks. I'm here cheering you on.