188: What is an origin story?

Hey everybody, and welcome to This Moved Me, a podcast about creating talks that move the world. Episode 188, what is an origin story? Good question. 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, just waiting for everybody to figure out the alphabet. Good morning, movers. It's Sally Koering Zimney, and I'm back with another episode episode here on This Moved Me. This episode is about your origin story. And before we get into that, I just want to give one last shout out about my giveaway that's happening, uh, the Move Your Audience Speaking Super Pack. And there's been a lot of excitement about it, which has been really cool. And today is the last day. So it's Wednesday. If you're listening to this on Wednesday, now is your chance to go check it out. I would love to have you. Part of what we're celebrating with this giveaway is launching my online platform, Movers U, and I'm baby stepping into it because that's what I can do right now. But I've got a million ideas and so many of you have popped in over there and I cannot wait to put more courses up there. There's only one up there right now. The Get On Your Feet Challenge, which is all about taking the script that you have. And I use that in quotation marks. You can't see them, but I am using quotation marks and whatever form you have your content in, we're taking that and getting you to a point of confidence and performance in a shorter, more intentional processed way. Um, and I will say the other day, my husband Andy, Um, which if you aren't getting my emails, you might not know this. So, but I have just added— side note, okay, I'm taking us off course for a second, off the course of the course. Um, so a moment about Andy. If you're getting my emails, you maybe saw this as I was sharing a fun little bonus that's a part of this giveaway. I have just added Andy as a bonus for the giveaway. You don't get Andy, but you do get some of his expertise and Andy has been on the show a few times. If you go back, gosh, long time ago, we recorded a series called The Creative Process because that is what Andy does. He is what I call— he doesn't really call himself this, but I call him a creativity and productivity guru. So essentially in his work as a consultant, he helps teams and leaders like you and I get unstuck and do more of the work that matters. And less of the stuff that doesn't, which is really honestly, I think my primary challenge as a business owner and with lots of big ideas and 3 kids and I want to be a good friend and a good wife and it's like there's so much. So I think it's not an accident that we found each other because we help each other in a lot of ways in that sense. Like, like, We all do with our partners, right? There's this yin and yang. So he's my yin or I'm his yang. He's my yang, whatever. Anyway, we were only 19 when we met. So honestly, I would never, when we were, which is crazy, but when we were 19, there's no way that I was like, this guy is a creativity and productivity guy. We were 19, but it's amazing how we have developed into these real opposites in some ways. Anyway, an episode for another time. But I am this creative tornado, and he is this strategic, methodical, really helps me focus on what matters. And he's creative too. Of course, you have to be creative to do that kind of work. But there's— he thinks about how. That's not really what I do. So, or I try to, but I'm not very good at it. So Uh, if you're curious to hear more about Andy, check out the Creative Process series that was, um, on the show a while back. But most importantly right now, he is offering as a part of this giveaway, an hour phone consultation, which would be awesome. If you right now are trying to launch something, you're trying to get something out into the world, but you're stuck, like you're overwhelmed with what to do. He can really help filter all of that and just help you take the next step. So he's really— the question that he likes to ask is, "What should I do today?" Which seems like a simple question, but it's actually really profound and really, really important. So when I was pulling together the giveaway, I was like, Andy, would you be willing to take an hour of your time and offer it to people? Because it can be so, so powerful. So anyway, This is another reminder to sign up for the giveaway, which is, let me give you the short link. It's a Bitly, bit.ly/tmmgiveaway. So if you haven't signed up yet, go do that now. There's all kinds of ways that you can amplify your entries, and the more you share it, the more entries you get, and that's all good. And there's all kinds of other stuff on the giveaway too. A Logitech Spotlight remote, which is the remote when I'm working with speakers and, you know, they don't have their remotes because life is busy. So I'll pull out that one and they're like, "Ooh, nice!" And it does, it just feels good. It's such a cool remote. And some books. There's my break a leg box that I make for my speakers before they go off and do like a big talk. I just want to send them a bunch of love. So You get one of those and a free hour of coaching with me, which I would love to do with you. It's just such a cool way to get to know people, and I love to hear about what you're working on. So those are all— that's all in there, but today's the last day. So this is it, last chance, go sign up, bit.ly/TMMGiveaway. Now back to my course. Well, I brought up Andy. So Andy and I were talking about the course and he told me the Get On Your Feet Challenge. And he was like, um, honestly, I'm not a big fan of that title. And I was like, uh, too late. It's out there. But what came out of that conversation was actually a great brainstorm on other ways to think about the impact and value and need of this, right? And the challenges. That lead us to needing to get on our feet. So I want to share with you this list as another way to think about why this is so important. So here we go. Ready? The dangers of winging it. Hmm. You might be preparing all wrong. Stop stressing out about the wrong things and stress out about these. I don't know how I feel about that one. How to get to confidence in your speaking. Take the stress out of your presentation prep. Swap your stress for confidence. And they are, mm, I like some of these. These are really good. It was a fun little activity for us. But here is the bottom line. I believe that rehearsing in a specific way helps you find your more grounded, physicalized, embodied voice, which is always more authentic than the voice that is simply like Speaking from your neck, brain to mouth. That is a lecture, my friends, not a talk. And if you, if we had a camera on me right now, if you were watching me, I am not just using my voice. Like, I am using my whole body as I speak because that is how you mean what you say. And yes, I am a gesticulator more than most, but, so I'm sure it would be like highly entertaining to watch this whole thing, but that's not how this works. So right now over on Movers U, The Get On Your Feet Challenge is a total steal for a few reasons. One, because I'm just getting this platform going, and so, you know, I want it to be really accessible and get it out there and share it with as many people as I can. But, uh, truth be told, I'm also working on upping my video game, and the video game right now is not super strong. So, um, right now I'm starting it low, but I will be working on that aspect of it, and the quality of that stuff is going to improve. That's one of my goals. But right now, the— what's on there, if you can get past kind of the low video quality, uh, the content of it, I, I really think, um, is solid and it will absolutely walk you to a point of more confidence and preparation for your talk if you can give it the time and follow the process. So go check it out. It's over at moversu.online. That's it, very simply. MoversU.online. So go check it out, or you can find it via thismovedme.com. Okay, so on to the show for today. I want to talk about origin stories, and in October I'm going to be sharing a new course over on MoversU on how to develop and own a powerful and authentic origin story. I am I'm so excited about because this is the course that, as I got feedback from all of you about what kind of course you wanted, this one kept popping up at the top. So that's what we're going to be doing, uh, starting today. I'm gonna start a series about the origin stories to kind of prep us for that course and to, uh, let you know, uh, if you— if this is something that you want to invest deeper in. Okay. Because this is complicated. It's intuitive in a lot of ways. It's very personal and it's challenging, but it is so, so important. So over the next few weeks, that's what we're going to be talking about, origin stories. And before I dive into those ideas around the challenges, around the importance of it, and to walk you through some critical steps in terms of how to do it. Better, I wanted to spend today talking about what it is. What is an origin story? Maybe you haven't heard that phrase before because it's a particular kind of story. Simply put, an origin story is the story of where something originated. It's like, duh, Sally Koering Zimney, right? But for our purposes, I want you to think about it as the moment where it all began. It is your aha moment, that moment where you realized something, the moment where you started on the path of where you are now. Now, if you think about your idea, the thing that you are speaking about or care about, the thing that you want to bring to the world, right, that, uh, may have many different aspects of an origin story, right? So when I think about my origin story, I— there's like 5 or 6 moments that, uh, depending on what I'm talking about, is my origin story. So it's— you don't have to have like the one, but you might have many. You might have half a dozen, you might have more, you might have 2 or 3, uh, For some of you, if you are advocating for something based on your own experience, so if you have been through something and now you're talking about that thing, your origin story is probably pretty clear and obvious. But for many of us, it isn't necessarily clear and obvious, and we have to do the work of digging into our past, reflecting a bit, finding those specific specific moments that clicked something open for us, that turned us on to a different path, a different idea, a different way. It is a moment of change, right? It's that aha piece. And of course, I think, you know, people struggle with identifying their origin stories because what they say to me is, "This is an idea. It's not a story. Like, there's this idea." But the truth is that all ideas are born in a story. Something happened to make something happen, and that is a story. And it is our job as speakers to create a story around that. So if you think right now that you don't have an origin story, that is not true. And it is your job to dig back into that and find those moments. And But most of us, we live through those moments and we don't pay attention to them. We're not pausing or reflecting back and finding the significance and meaning of those, and that is what speakers do. That's actually what makes you a thought leader, is for you to take something that seems ordinary, that seems just like everybody else and everything else, and find the significance in that, to layer on your insight and your ideas and to pull pull that out into the open for your audience. So your idea is not to fabricate a story, but to find it and cultivate the significance and meaning in those moments. Because though an origin story is, uh, about you, it's not about you, and it can't be. It is simply the first step in bringing other people into your idea, and it is the most important step because stories, as we know, are the most powerful bridge between two people. And there's this— there's lots of wonderful research about why stories can get us past and beyond our divides. And I can't think of anything more important right now than for us to be able to tell our stories in a way that brings people in, that resonates, that breaks down divides, that helps bring new insight into something that other people might disregard. And so I always start with the origin story when I'm working with a speaker, always, and really trying to get clarity on those moments because because it's challenging for people, for idea people, to talk in story. And which is actually what next week's show is gonna be all about, is dismantling one of the myths that keeps people from really owning their origin story and fully walking into it. So we're gonna talk about that a little bit more next week. But for now, my challenge and my hope for all of you is to think about what your origin stories are around your idea. Do you know what it is? And if you do, you know, I'm curious like where you're at with it, how it feels for you right now, are you happy with it? But if you don't have clarity on what your origin stories are, I want you to work on beginning to build that repertoire. If you don't have a storybook or where you're writing, writing down all your story ideas or capturing those because because if you're anything like me, they come and go really quickly. It is a must-do situation. So if you aren't doing that, go ahead and do that now. Now, if this is making you curious, if you're like, oh, I'm super curious what this Origin Story course is going to be and I want to stay in the know on it, you can sign up right here, bit.ly/originstory. /moversu-originstory. Okay, so that's a way to just let me know that you want to be in the know when that comes out and you want some more information on it. But there will also be a big yellow button on the show notes page over at thismovedme.com of this episode so that you can check it out. All right, which I would love. So let's do this. Okay. I'd love to see you over on the giveaway. Go check it out. Bit.ly/TMMGiveaway. I'd love to see you over at MoversU. Check out the Get On Your Feet Challenge. And I'd love to see you join me on this origin story journey. And I hope that I've brought a little clarity for you today on what it is and why it is So, so important. All right, Movers, thank you so much over the last few weeks for all your enthusiasm and your willingness to share in the journey and spread the word about what we are creating over here at This Moved Me, because it is honestly— it— I'm so grateful to be on the journey with you. This has been— this is a dream come true for me. I am living it, and I, and I'm so jazzed. I'm really, really excited about it. So thanks. All right, that's it for me this week. See you next week where we're gonna talk about something that gets in the way of us sharing our origin stories, because we got to get past it. We're gonna do it. We're gonna bring them to life. See you next week. Dela du!