In episode 189 of the This Moved Me podcast, host Sally Koering Zimney opens with personal updates about her new office, parenting three children, and a giveaway winner. She then shifts focus to the central theme: why many speakers—what she calls "unspeakers"—hesitate to share their origin stories. Using Tony Lloyd, a seasoned C‑suite executive and recent guest, as a case study, Sally explores common myths (e.g., "my story is just about me") and the fear of self‑centeredness that blocks authentic storytelling. She explains how a well‑crafted origin story connects audience and speaker through brain‑friendly mechanisms like mirror neurons, turning a personal "me" narrative into an "us" narrative that fuels idea resonance. Sally promotes her upcoming Movers U course, "Owning Our Origin Stories," detailing its format (video lessons, workbooks, live Q&A, email support) and invites listeners to enroll via a short link. The episode concludes with the announcement of giveaway winner Josh Rensch, who receives a Logitech Spotlight remote and a coaching hour. Throughout, Sally maintains a conversational, encouraging tone, urging listeners to dig deeper into their own stories to move the world.
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Hey everybody, and welcome to This Moved Me, a podcast about creating talks that move the world. Episode 189, on the thing that might be holding you back from sharing your story. Here's a hint. I think that, and I think that, and you know what, when I, you get the idea. 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. Good morning, movers! Woo woo! Oh my gosh, this may be sounding a little bit echoey in here. I'm in my new office, the kids are at school. Woo! It feels like freedom! Oh, kids, I love you. It was time. It was time and off you went. And they get out of the house a little bit earlier this year because they're walking, which, It's just a little extra freedom on both sides of the day. It sounds like I don't like my kids, but I do. I love them. They're amazing little humans. And whoo, it was time. They needed more stimulation and attention and routine and focus than I could give them as I was home and moving and trying to work and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, as somebody reminded me, you 'You had the kids, right? You chose to have 3 children.' I said, 'Yes, I did.' And here we are. So, but every once in a while, you know, it's like to talk about the reality of it, which is it's hard. Anyway, so I'm still getting settled in here in my new office. So every week it sounds a little bit differently as I play with this setup and try and make it smooth and easy and sound good. So, and I've got allergies, so if I sniffle, I'm really sorry. The allergies came with the third child, which is a whole nother conversation. That third kid, man. Woo! Just to pause right there for letting that sink in for all of you. There was a study once, I've maybe shared this, and this is a little bit off topic, but since we're going to go there, I'm just going there. There was a study once that talked about the level of stress in moms and how it changes with different numbers of kids. And the highest stressed mom is the mom of 3 kids. And here's why. And when I read this, I was like, oh, this is so, so true. With 2 kids, you kind of, you know, it's not that it's not hard, it's still very challenging, but you can handle it, right? Generally, if you have a partner right? It's, you're not outnumbered, right? And so you can handle it, right? You set a goal, you can reach the goal all together, you get organized. Generally, that's how it goes, right? And with 3 kids, you are, and this feels so true in my life, you are so close to getting your crap together, and I was gonna swear, but I decided not to do that today. And you can see it, you can almost taste it, it's like right there because that third kid just, you're overwhelmed, you're outnumbered. Yeah, listen to me, this is exactly what happens where you're like, I see what I could be doing, what it feels like I should be doing, but I cannot pull it together. That is three kids. And then four kids, why four kids? You'd think four kids, why aren't I more stressed with four kids? But what happens at 4 kids is you lower your expectations. Hey-oh. So that is the trick. But that is just not in my DNA. And so I have in front of me a life of almost getting it together. Oh well, that's how it goes. Anyway, here we are. I'm in my new office, which is coming together. It's just taking a little bit longer. And that is totally fine. So bear with me as we get this figured out. But I want to let everybody know the giveaway has been going for a few weeks. It closed last week and I was going to announce the winner today. So at the end of the show, I will announce the winner. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. So many of you joined in and shared it and it really was super fun to see that whole thing happen. It was kind of an experiment and I cannot wait. Whoever is this winner, you you're getting lots of really good stuff and some connection time with me so that we can help bring whatever you're working on to the next level. So I'm really jazzed about that. So stay tuned at the end of the show for that. And courses over at Movers U. Thanks so much to— gosh, so many of you have hopped in over there and expressed your interest. School started for us here in Minnesota yesterday. Um, So just now I'm like feeling like maybe I can get some more stuff up there. So there's gonna be more things happening over at Movers U. So I will let you know as that stuff happens. There's one course over there right now, the Get On Your Feet Challenge, so go check that out. And the next big thing on the horizon over at Movers U is a course that I'm developing called Owning Our Origin Stories, which is essential if we want to connect with and have our idea resonate with an audience. And a good origin story can do some incredibly powerful things. So today's episode is number 2 in the series all about origin stories as I prep for this course and prep you all for this course and invite you in to join me for that adventure that starts up in October. So if you know right now that you want to join in on the fun of this course, It's not just going to be video lessons with workbooks. I'm also going to be doing live weekly Q&A sessions with you. You'll have, of course, have lots of email access to me to help you answer questions and walk you through the process. There's going to be huge discounts to any other courses and some special bonus stuff that I'm really excited to tell you about as I finalize it. Which I'm working on. So there's some really good stuff coming and, uh, I'd love to bring you into that. So if that is something right now, you're like, ooh, I wanna know about this, or I wanna be in the loop on it, or I don't wanna miss it when it comes out, when that window opens. All right, so head on over to bit.ly/moversu-origin. Story. And once you sign up there, you'll be the first to know as the course goes live and as things fall into place. So I will keep you in the loop. Okay, so today's episode is based on a conversation I had with one of my speakers who has also been a guest here on This Moved Me. I'm a huge fan of his and he's doing such important work, Tony Lloyd. And he was on just a few weeks ago, so maybe you remember Tony. He talked a little bit about this, but Tony is the host of the Social Entrepreneur Podcast, and he's, he's really focused right now on building up his speaking work because he, he's driven to get his ideas out into the world more. But where the challenge comes in is Tony is not necessarily interested in getting himself out into the world, but those two things go hand in hand. So this brings up a little bit of internal struggle. He's very typical of what I call if you're new here on This Moved Me, what I call an un-speaker. And what I mean by that is despite the fact that he's incredibly experienced, he's been in the C-suite, he's been up in front of audiences for years, he's good at speaking, he still struggles with a level of, let's call it just self-doubt or fear or, you know, battling through some myths that get in the way of him fully owning his story, which is the point of today's show. And by the way, every speaker I've ever worked with, from professional speakers to people who are brand new and are like, "I hate this, get me out of here," every speaker I've ever worked with struggles with this. Unspeakers and the people who find themselves probably listening to this show, uh, admit it and want to do it differently. They want to vulnerably walk into their efforts to change it, which is what makes an unspeaker's talk so compelling, authentic, and moving. Like, that's what is so awesome about this is unspeakers are often the people who don't call themselves a speaker even though they speak, right? Because there's something about that label that just doesn't feel right. And, and I totally get that. There's a different kind of speaker that we're going for here, and what we're going for is the very thing that requires us as unspeakers to get vulnerable and to dig a little bit deeper. And Tony is absolutely that person, because when he and I sat down as I coached him on his second TEDx talk, he shared with me about his first TEDx talk, which He said he just wasn't as happy with his first talk as he wanted to be. It was good, he got a great response, but he also knew, like something in him knew that he could do more, that he needed to dig deeper. Hello, unspeaker. And he mentioned really honestly that he knew he needed to share more of his own story, but he was afraid. His worry was that somehow sharing his story made it about him. All me, me, me, he said, which is a myth of our origin stories, or any story we tell, that if it's our story, it's about us. But the point of telling our own story isn't to talk about us. The point is to open up the connection between the experience and the idea. Now, there are some speakers whose talks are me, me, me. Here's a story about my success, and here's another story about my success, and here's just one more. Aren't you learning so much about how to succeed? Yes. Like, ugh, no thank you, right? So if you are simply out to impress somebody else, like a me, me, me story, right? That's like, that's what that is about. We're out to impress somebody else. Our stories, if they're ours, they have got to be about us, of course, right? And the point is not to share about us. The point is to open up that connection between us and the audience, right? You, the speaker, and the audience. And stories, here's why it works, because stories are incredibly brain-friendly. We are wired for story. We know this based on the research, but of course, as a coach, I've seen it again and again. Stories are the things that pull people back in, that slow things down, right? And what's happening in the brain is we're opening up those mirror neurons, which is like the hardest phrase to say, mirror neurons. And the audience, if the story is told well, begins to see it in their brains, and it's empathy. So as soon as that happens, you are connected. And I call it the imaginative connection, and it is a superpower that we have as speakers, and we've got to use it really, really well. And origin stories, particularly origin stories, because origin stories answer one of the most important questions that an audience holds in their brain, which is why, why, why, why, why this idea? So origin stories are not just a powerful tool of connection to that idea, they're a powerful connection point to us. And we talk a lot about authenticity in this work as speakers, and authenticity can't happen until we feel like, as an audience, that we know you as the speaker. Which is what I told Tony that day as he wrestled with telling his own story. I said, Tony, you are not just the messenger of your idea, you are the idea. It comes from you, your experience, your insight, your moments in time. And so if we can hear those and see those in our brain and believe them, then we are about to do something awesome together, audience and speaker. So if you are feeling anxious about sharing your origin story because you're afraid it will be too all about me, I want to encourage you to dive in because the people who are aware of this concern and conscious about it, they are not the ones I worry about. Those are the people I want to push to dig in and share a little bit more. You know, we talk about the edge, sharing the very edges of our experience, and that those places are really where powerful things can happen. And that is the origin story. So next week, we're going to talk a little bit about how we take this me story and turn it into an us story. Which of course is the entire point. So let's first get past the hurdle that might be standing in your way as you're concerned about bringing yourself into the idea. Let's get past that, and then we'll talk about how to make the most of this powerful connection tool that we have in the origin story. All right, that's it for me. In a second. I'm gonna share with you the winner. Stick with me. We'll see you over on thismovedme.com where you can read these show notes and learn more about Tony and where you can connect with Movers U and join us over at bit.ly/moversu-originstory. Let's do this! And the winner— wait, no, try it again. Okay, now do it. And the winner of the Move Your Audience— wait, what? And the winner of the Move Your Audience giveaway is Josh Rensch! Congratulations, Josh! I'll get in touch with you. This is gonna be great. Oh my gosh, you get some really cool stuff. I'm happy for you. What does he win? He wins a Logitech Spotlight remote. He wins a free hour of coaching with me and with Daddy. That's pretty cool. I know, right? It sounds like others planned. I know it did, but that wasn't. So great. Bit.ly/moversu with the letter U, dash origin snorri, snorri, origin snorri. Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. Sniff sniff. Oh, I need a Kleenex so bad. I'm sorry, it was really gross.
