In this episode of the "This Moved Me" podcast, host Sally Koering Zimney answers a listener’s question about how to edit a talk when every part feels essential. She frames editing as a painful but necessary discipline, urging speakers to be brutally selective and to view cuts through the lens of the audience’s capacity and emotional experience. Sally recommends seeking external feedback, repurposing excess material for other formats, focusing on a single core message, balancing story and data, and treating editing as an iterative process that continues after each performance. Throughout, she emphasizes that a talk moves people not through the amount of information but through the feelings it evokes, and that letting go of “precious” content can ultimately serve the audience better.
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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 is another Q&A— I keep wanting to say Q&A Tuesday, but which doesn't make sense for many reasons. One, it's what Marie Forleo says, and I think Marie Forleo is awesome, so it's just in my head that's what I want to say. And secondly, it's not Tuesday, so that makes no sense. Let's not do that. How about it's just Q&A time? Minnie moved me. I don't know, I need a better title. I know a lot of you guys are title people. If you've got a better title for my Q&As, let me know. That'd be awesome. Okay, so last time we did a Q&A on the show, we talked about— what did we talk about? Oh, we talked about Q&As. That's right. It was a Q&A about Q&As and how to make them better because a lot of you hate doing Q&As, which I totally get. So we talked about that a little bit. This time, this Q&A is a question I got about editing. It says, I know I need to cut some of my talk, but I hate to lose any of this material. It's all important to me. How do you decide what to cut? Ooh, that's a good question. That's a great question, and it's so important. I feel like one of the most important things that we can do in content development is edit. The art is in the editing, just like with any good book or a good movie. It's all about how not just what you put into it, but what you take out and how that affects the shape of it. So what I say a lot with my clients and in my workshops is to edit until it hurts. And when it hurts, you know you're getting somewhere. You know you're like really getting to the core of what you're talking about when it really hurts, when you're like, I don't know, I can't figure this out and I don't want to lose that, right? If you feel that way about everything, then you just need a little perspective. So here are some other things that you can do to help you figure out what to do when it hurts, but also how to get there. So most of the time, people are actually giving a talk on a bunch of things rather than on any one thing. And editing is a discipline, and you've got to be brutal with it. So First thing you can do is really get some outside perspective. I know all of this, this is your babies, right? This is your creation and everything is precious to you, but you have to think of it from your audience's ears. What can they actually take in? Remind yourself that you can share this content in a different way. It doesn't all have to be in this moment right now or with this particular audience. I once had a client who finally let go of some content if, if we found another way to share it with that audience. So instead we put it in a one-pager that went home with that audience, and I thought, okay, that's great. That's much better material for a one-pager anyway. It was very in-depth and meaty, and what I was trying to convince her about was that that's all important stuff, but, but for a verbal a talk, a live speaking moment, that information isn't right for this. So really thinking clearly about what does your audience need right now and what is right for a speaker-audience connection, because there are a lot of things that are great but not great for speaking. So, uh, and then getting really, really clear on what that one thing is that you're saying and then be really disciplined and brutal about what fits in there and what doesn't. And keep in mind, your audience will remember so little of what you say, which I know feels so antithetical to my belief that a talk can move the world, but it doesn't move it with information. We are moved by how we feel. We are moved through emotion. So how do you want them to feel? And a lot of the times audiences walk away feeling overwhelmed and bored because they've stopped tuning in and they've— they're now checking into everything else going on in their lives. So to help them feel connected and really present with what you're talking about, we have to edit. And get really, really brutal. Get tough with yourself and cut. Oof. And if you're trying— if you're struggling trying to figure out what exactly to cut, here is a thought: to look at it as a whole rather than in its teeny tiny parts. Rather than saying, well, I love this line and I love this little part right here, but really looking at the whole of the talk and the balance of that talk. How is the flow? Are you sharing enough story versus data? Where's the light parts and the heavy parts? How does it move from one thing to the next? Kind of looking at it that way, because when you can cut a chunk, it's going to help you greatly when it comes time to integrate all of this into your body. So think of it, look at it from that perspective if you're really struggling and you know you've gotta do some big cuts. Look at it that way and then don't look back. Don't try and salvage teeny tiny parts from all of it. Say goodbye and tell yourself, that is for another time. I will save you for another talk. I just get to tell another talk on something else there. Because you could probably take that one idea that you don't wanna let go of and build a whole nother talk on that too. That's kind of how this works. Because finally, the last thing I'm gonna leave you with is that editing is iterative. As you do it and you get feedback and you learn, you will find new things to cut and you will find new things to add, which means that you've gotta go back in and edit. It is an ongoing process. You are shaping and pruning and really trying to curate the experience that your audience has. It's a discipline, and you've got to stay on top of it and be brutal about it. Okay, so I hope that helps. Um, and remember, all of this is precious, but not necessarily to your audience. So really think carefully about what they need and what they would appreciate and what they can take in 'Cause it's way less than what we imagine, especially as we struggle with wanting to be experts and wanting to prove ourselves. All of that ego stuff really gets in the way of serving your audience. All right, that is it. Okay, cut. Get brutal. Be tough on yourself. Be tough, be tough with your precious. Babies. Save them for another time and your audience will thank you. And I thank you! Woohoo! Alright, that's it. Mini Moved Me Q&A. Cut, cut, cut, cut. And this is a cut. And cut. And drink your chai. Hey, Movers! Hey! I sound like a game show host. Hey! Hey! Hey!
