In this solo episode of the "This Moved Me" podcast, host Sally Koering Zimney reflects on the challenges speakers face when creating new content, especially during crunch time. She shares a vivid canyon‑tumble metaphor to illustrate the chaotic, bruising but ultimately rewarding journey of developing a talk. Sally emphasizes the importance of "trusting the process" while acknowledging the temptation to reject it, and she outlines the coach’s role: meeting speakers at the bottom of the canyon, helping them sift through the mess, and guiding them toward a clear, authentic message. She argues that struggle is essential for depth and authenticity, warning against overly formulaic shortcuts. The episode closes with announcements about an upcoming interview with speaker Tamsen Webster, the imminent launch of her new website and online courses, and a call for beta‑testers, providing listeners with concrete ways to stay engaged and support their own creative work.
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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 wait for everybody to figure out the alphabet. Hi Movers, it is Sally and welcome back to another episode of This Moved Me. I feel like I say that every time. Do I say that every time? I think I do. Let me know, you guys. Tag me, let me know. "Yes, Sally, you say this every time." But that's the truth. I'm really glad to welcome you back. Hopefully you have been with me on the journey, your speaking journey and my journey here on This Moved Me. And today we are gonna talk about how hard it is to create new content, the process of creation, because I'm in crunch time right now with a lot of my speakers. It's the end of the school year, which typically means it's crunch time. It's fundraising event time. It's getting ready for conferences that happen in the fall time. It's those big corporate meetings that happen in the summer. It's squeeze it in before the end of the school year time. And there has been a refrain that I have heard louder than I've heard before. And maybe it's because I'm working with more speakers than I've ever worked before, but it has been echoing around in my head. And that refrain goes something like, "Wow, this is hard. This sucks. This is taking so much out of me, Sally. Is this how it's supposed to feel?" I did once have a beloved client say to me, with so much love, and I love her so much, that I had to laugh when she said it to me, but she turned to me and she just said, "Ugh, Sally, I hate you for doing this to me!" And I laughed because I knew that I was pushing her, but I also knew she was doing exactly what she needed to do, and that we were doing such good, big, important work. And I loved her honesty. It felt strangely right. Because there is a moment in the process with every speaker when they look at me as if I have betrayed them somehow. And the only thing getting us to the endpoint is trust. Trust in me, for sure, because they're like, "Where are you taking me? What is happening here? Uh, I don't like this. I don't know where we're going." But also trust in what I affectionately call "the process." That is a well-worn phrase. I've heard it a lot. I use it a lot. "Trust the process." It— ugh, sometimes you just want to punch "trust the process" in the face, but there it is. It's not something that you want to hear when you are in the middle of the process, but then of course that is the time when people say to you, "Trust the process." But I can say this, about the process. That when you're at the point of trusting the process, in that moment where you just wanna punch it in the face, you have two options. You can either stop, or you can keep going. Which sounds like, "No duh, of course, Sally." But those are your options. And if you keep going, you will get to the other side. It's kind of like this, okay? I was thinking about this metaphor. So I'm often, as the coach, standing next to my speaker on the edge of what feels like this big, beautiful canyon. And on the other side is this vision of what your talk will be. Okay? But there is this big gaping space between where you are and where you wanna go. And when I know you're ready, I will either say, "Okay, jump, start, go," or sometimes I'll give you a little push, and you go tumbling down this hill, rolling head over heels overhead. And as you're tumbling, you're remembering stories, you're throwing out quotes, there's lines, there's ideas, there's phrases. It's like tumble, tumble, tumble, all this stuff is happening, and it's just digging up the soil, and it's bringing all these things to life, and it's overwhelming. And then it stops, and you get to the bottom, and you're like, "Where are we now? What just happened? Where do we go from here? And why? Why did you push me here?" But here's what I want you to know: as your coach, I will meet you at the bottom of this canyon. Because as As the coach, I've been to the bottom of the canyon many, many times, and there's kind of a well-worn path that I know where it is, and I know how to take there. And I don't need to give the talk on the other side, so I don't have to dig up the soil and get down the canyon the same way you have to get to the canyon. So I wander down there, usually much more calmly, and I watch as you tumble. And don't worry, I make sure that the time and place where I push you, it's not too rocky or too dangerous, and I know that there is a soft landing at the bottom, because I also know that you somehow have to get there. You have to get to the bottom of the canyon. And once you get there, you look at me with these bewildered sometimes wild, often really tired eyes, sometimes with panic, and you look at me and you say, "This isn't going to work. We are never gonna get out of here. We are never gonna get up to this place that was just a vision, was just an idea. Like, I don't think I can do this. I don't think we're gonna get there." But here is another way to look at it. And as a coach, what I try and do is say, "I hear ya. You've just been through a lot. You just tumbled down the canyon, which hurts. It's bruising. But look at all this stuff you just dug up. Look at this beautiful quote. And I heard this in this story, and I see, I see the way up." because it's amazing what you can see from the bottom of the canyon, how many places you can go from there. Like, it's clearer how to get up from the bottom. It offers perspective and clarity about how to create what you're gonna create. There's no easy bridge across the canyon. Well, okay, that's not true. Sometimes Sometimes people offer a bridge across the canyon. "Here, take this shortcut. Here is this well-used formula." And truth be told, I have some formulas too, and they can, they can get you across faster, but without the tumbling— well, without the tumbling, it's gonna come across as formulaic, too easy. Audiences can feel what you've been through to put this together. Not that they want to have a sense of how hard it was, but they can feel in the content how deeply you dug. Getting dirty— okay, that sounds bad— but rolling to the bottom of the canyon is how you discover what your talk is really all about, what it's actually all about. It's how you dig deeper. The easy path is too easy to create something meaningful and transformational and moving. It only works if you also tumble down. Because when you get to the other side of that creation, the view is magnificent. I mean, you, you really appreciate how spectacular everything is, and how it really looks. Not just how it looks from the end point, but appreciating how you got there from the bottom of the canyon, from the other side, before you took the leap, or before I even pushed you. The experience of creating it is the thing that reveals the wisdom that you have to share, the truth underneath the truth, the clarity of your voice, and your point of view. So I guess this is a message for all of you as you are out there in the midst of the hard work of the tumble, in the midst of trying to get to the place of clarity before you start putting it all back together and finding your way back up the canyon. It is worth it. It is worth it, because the moment you can stand on the other side and share your message with the world. That is so cool. That feels like a really inadequate, a really inadequate synopsis. But I just think it's so cool to watch my speakers pull something real out of themselves that they didn't know totally existed. And the only way you can figure it is to go through the process of it. So all those formulas and easy bridges, if they don't take you down into the canyon a little bit, those bridges aren't going to really get you to where you want to go. So, movers, if you are out there right now creating something new and feel like you are just in the thick of it, that you are tumbling down into that canyon, take heart. This is not for the faint of heart, and you are doing it. And all of this work will be a boon for you, and will help you offer something real and precious that is true for you, and that will have an impact on people. So for that, I am cheering you on. Oh yeah! All right, that's it for me. All right, Movers, next week on the show, I've got Tamsen Webster joining me for an interview. She is a spitfire. I love her. She's awesome and brings years and years of professional speaking with her into our conversation. So I'm really excited to share her with you. So stick with me. And as you know, last week, I told you I was T-minus 1 month to my new website. So that would mean this week it's T-minus 3 weeks! Ah! Oh my gosh, I'm excited. Well, thereabouts. Thereabouts, because, you know, the creative process. Weren't we just talking about this? We're in the throes of it. We are tumbling down into the canyon. But I trust and know, I have a clear vision of what is on the other side, and I cannot wait to get up there and share it with you. And when I share this new website with you, there's going to be some online courses that I want you all to join me for, especially if you're creating something new, some mini courses. And I'm looking for a few beta testers. So if you are somebody who would be willing and interested in jumping in with me and giving me feedback and helping make sure that it is on point with what you need and what is helpful, and so I'm answering your questions well, then you let me know. Reach out to me. On Twitter @thismovedme, Instagram @thismovedme, Facebook, you know, you can find me. Or on my website, hop on my website, thismovedme.com, send me a little note. All right, movers, thanks so much. Hope you enjoyed the show. See you next week. Keep going, get up the canyon, but first you gotta get down. First you gotta roll your way down. It can be dizzying, bewildering, but don't Don't worry, I will meet you at the bottom and we will find a way out. Rock on! Hey Movers, it's Sally, and man, it's sounding echoey in here today. Hmm. Oh well, going with it.
