161: MMM - On a Simple Trick to Jump-Start Your Talk-Writing

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 Koering Zimney, and oh my gosh, it's been a while since we've done a mini Moved Me, but here we are doing a little mini Moved Me because I've got Lots of new content coming down the pipeline for you, really organized around 3 main ideas in terms of what we need to understand and embrace and know to create talks that move the world. Those 3 main ideas, and this kind of a no duh, I suppose, but here they are. The first is how we create content and the content that we create, so it's really around content, what makes it compelling, how do we make it clearer, how do we bring ourselves into the content, how do we find our own voice. So it's really all about content. And the second piece is all about delivery. How does that content then live in your body? Because we are not writers, we're speakers who sometimes write in order to speak, but that is our art form. How does it live in our bodies, in our voices, so that it can be connected to the people in the room. All right, so we've got content, we've got delivery, and then the third piece is all about mindset. Aha, that's like my favorite. Actually, they're all my favorite. Whatever I'm working on tends to be my favorite. But mindset is one of those pieces that we don't talk about enough. We talk about fear and we talk about overcoming your fears, but really it's much more than that. How do we embrace the opportunity and believe that we can do it? Which sounds a little hokey-pokey or hippie-dippie or something, I don't know. All I can tell you is that every single speaker I have ever worked with, regardless of how talented how skilled, how experienced, how fantastic they were, they struggled with finding a speaker's mindset. And what I can tell you is that you could have great content, you could practice your delivery, but if you up there, while you're up there, are not really believing that you can own this moment, not only will you not enjoy the experience nearly as much, but your audience will feel that. And so it doesn't have the impact that we want. So we cannot forget about mindset. Content, delivery, mindset. And right now in my content world, I'm focusing on content because I think it's meaty and there's a lot to pull apart here. And so I wanted to start today with the simplest tool I use to help jumpstart my start. If that makes any sense. Right, so the simplest secret tool that can get us from feeling stuck and overwhelmed and just like kind of lost in our own big expectations. How do we move and shift ourselves out of that into action, into starting, because of course the best way to start is to just start, which sounds really easy, but when you are stuck and staring at your computer and just like hoping that something brilliant comes out, and it doesn't because staring at your computer doesn't help brilliance come out, this tool will help you. Okay, so I've created a worksheet of this tool that you can find over on my website So if you go to thismoveme.com and go to the blog, you'll see this blog post, and at the bottom is a way for you to download this very simple tool. I call it the 5-point outline. It's not brain science, it's pretty simple, but it just gives you a high-level view before you get lost in the mire and the details of word choice and, and kind of losing yourself in the writing process, we're gonna take a big step back and think of it from a really high level. What are the key stopping points on this talk? Now, really something important to keep in mind is that this is just a starting place. I guarantee you that it will change. It should change, right? But this gets us started, and the, the Outline is very simple. It's this: what is your opening? What are the 3 key points that you want to make? And what is your close? So that's 5. Okay, now I don't want you to get too lost into, I don't know what my opening is, what should I start with, what should I do, um, you know, what's my thesis, how do I connect it to the audience, what's the story I want to tell? Like, there, that will come, that will come. All I want you to do is write something down and not write it out, but I want you to write out what it is that you will do. So for instance, let's say you're giving a talk on— I'm just gonna make this up right now— let's say you're giving a talk on positivity. Okay, I was working with somebody last night who's giving a talk on positivity. Okay, And you know that it's about positivity, okay? So I want you to start by saying, okay, what is the point of my talk? The point is not positivity. The point is I want people to be more positive. Okay, so that's a totally fine starting point. You want people to be more positive. All right, then you're going to think about your introduction. What could I do for my introduction? Hmm, okay, I think I'm gonna tell a story. That's a great default position to start with, by the way. Just think in terms of stories. Okay, I'm going to tell a story of a time when I myself realized how important positivity is. Okay, you guys, whatever I am saying right now, just translate it to your own topic. All right, you're not gonna write out the story right now. All you're gonna say is your— the time when you realized that how positivity was so important was like when you were in high school on the basketball team. So just say high school basketball team. Done. Done with your opening. Now you've got 3 points to make. I always default start with 3 points because 3 is a magical number. People tend to remember 3 points. It's much harder for them to remember 4 4 or 5 or more, okay? But if you've got more, that's too many. So default at 3, and as your content develops, it might evolve and change, and that's cool, okay? That's what I love about this is that every talk is different and kind of finding the right thing for each talk and each person is different every time. But this is a great place to start, okay? So now you've got 3 points that you want to make. Let's say the first point you want to make is that it's psychologically sound. This is not hippie-dippie mumbo-jumbo baloney, that there's real research to this. Okay, so just say psychologically sound or scientifically sound, something like that. Okay, the second thing that you've been thinking a lot about around this positivity thing is that it's good for business. All right, most people don't think about that, but that's a surprising point that you would like to make. Okay, just write good for business. And the third point that you want to make is that it will improve the world or improve the community or improve your life, something like that. Like it actually makes a big difference to you personally and to the world. Good for the world. Just write that. Okay, so now you've got three distinct ideas that essentially capture some of your ideas. Now, you may have more than 3, but I want you to just choose the best 3 right now and try and clarify the distinctions between them. All right, don't spend too much time on this, but you're just like high-level, throw it on the wall. Okay, scientifically sound, good for business, and good for the world. Cool, okay, and now your close. The beginning and the close tend to be really hard because you want them to be strong, and the close will often develop as things go on, but the close, just like, what is your closing statement? What is the final thing that you want people to know? Or maybe there's a story that you know is going to be especially moving or touching for people. Well, throw that in there, okay? All you're doing is throwing some things on the wall and starting there so that when you do sit down to write, you're not sitting with no idea on where to go. Now you know where your stopping points are, and you're just gonna start. You're gonna say, okay, I know that my starting point, I'm gonna tell a story about the high school basketball team, all right? Gosh, now I feel so much clearer in terms of where I wanna go. The other thing that is powerful about this 5-point outline is that it forces you from the very beginning to get a little choosier about what you're including and what you're not including. Editing is such an essential, crucial part. I've said this a lot, but it is such an essential part of creating a talk because it does help you refine and define your voice, and it helps you make distinctions and It helps us be clear about what's most important. And the biggest mistake I see speakers make is trying to say too much in too short a time. And we want our talks to be as short as they can in order to get the point across. And most of the time they can be pretty short. We do not need to be giving super long talks. Most people can't take in that kind of information, and so we've got We gotta help out our audience and make it really crystal clear for them. So that is our job, and this 5-point outline is going to help you make those first crucial slashes and decisions on what is included and not included. Now, I'll say, you may decide down the line, "Actually, I wanna go back to this one idea, and turns out I've got more passion and more fire underneath this other thing, so I'm gonna include that," you know, Things are gonna change. It's a process. It is a creative process, and my hope is that this 5-point outline really helps you get started on the journey. Alright, so once again, if you want to download a little worksheet, a guide for this 5-point outline, very simple one-pager, you can go to my website, thismovedme.com, check out the blog, and you will see this episode. You just search 5-point outline and voilà, there it will be. And you can download it and because it's something and I want you to print it off and write on it, okay? Most people can't do the kind of thinking they need to do in front of their computers. It accesses something different when we put the computer away and think out loud. Either write it up on, you know, a whiteboard or pull out that sheet of paper or grab some markers or crayons or something, but, but it will get the juices flowing a little bit more for you. Okay, I hope this has been helpful for you. Would love to connect in with all of you. If you are not yet subscribed to this podcast, I hope you will do that now. Clicky-click on that little subscribe button wherever you are listening to this show. And of course, I will be talking about this very simple tool over on the This Moved Me Facebook page. So if you are a Facebook-y person and can hop in with me over on the Facebook page, Facebook.com/thismovedme, I'm going to be doing a little talk about this on Monday live, and I would love to hear your questions, see if we can help spread the word about the 5-Point Outline so that more people can create talks that move the world. So that'll be Monday. I'm really excited for it. All right. Thanks, team. This moved me. I hope it's moving you. Let's go. Let's get out there and create some talks that move this world of ours.