223: Movers Live - Video Q&A with Josh Johnson

Hey movers, it's Sally Koering Zimney with Be Moved. Let's go create some talks that will move this world.

We're going to talk with amazing speakers, share tips, tricks, resources, and we are going to be moved so that our audience can be moved.

This moved me.

What is moving Hey Movers! Welcome back to another episode. This is a bonus episode and I'm sharing with you the audio from my Movers Live event that was last week. If you have not yet followed me along over on Crowdcast, I'd love to have you do that. That's where all some really fun live video stuff is happening. Crowdcast.io/Movers. Sally Koering Zimney. And once or twice a month I'll hop in there and take your questions live. And last week I brought on screen with me my friend Josh Johnson, who you will hear from in a little bit, to talk with us about how he has embraced video. He's a YouTube vlogger and he does geocaching, which is a funny little niche a niche, a niche, however you wanna say it. And Josh is super fun and has some really great insights for us, little tips on how to really make the most of your video experiences and really how to get over your own self-consciousness so that you can bring yourself fully to the moment, which we've gotta get out of our own way. If we are gonna live in this world, at least for now, Video is not going away, so this is a valuable skill for us to be stepping into and practice for right now. And there is a lot that we can do to make the most of this time that we have with video. So I'm really excited to share with you, this is a new thing that I'm doing. I'll be doing the Movers Live and then share the audio with you here on the podcast. And I'm also gonna be sharing it out on YouTube. So some new stuff coming here from Be Moved. As much as this time has been difficult, and it for sure is. There's a lot that's hard about it. I am feeling so driven by creating things that you need right now. My hope is that this is all really helpful. It is helpful for me to be driven by my purpose right now. It is— it makes this process feel like we all have a part to play in this. And, um, so thank you. Thank you for letting me be a part of your journey and let me know how I can help and what you need. And my hope is that today this conversation with Josh is going to help you. Uh, I also take a few questions. You'll hear this up front. I take a few questions from folks about their struggles with video and how we can step into that more. So a little bonus episode for you from Movers Live. And Josh Johnson.

Hello, hello, hello, hello, my friends! How are we doing? Welcome to Movers Live! We're in a little different setup today, as you can tell. I am not standing behind my beloved teaching table is kind of what I call it. I love to stand back there and I've got my little studio. I'm in the other side of that same room right now because my husband, who is now working from home, is using that space as his desk. So we are adjusting, we are making it work. I'm sure you understand. Oh, we are all in make it work mode, aren't we? That is what is happening. We are making it work. Oh my gosh. Okay. We are focused right now on bringing our voices out into the world, on connecting with our audiences through video. Kind of like what I'm doing right now with all of you. And Truth be told, anybody who is out speaking right now is doing this. Okay, so I know this is a huge need. Last week, if you missed it, I did a webinar about some really important basic things that we can be doing to communicate more confidently via video, to connect with our audiences via video, to still have it feel authentic and true for us to not feel too overwhelmed by some of the things that can make video communication a little more complicated. So if you haven't seen that yet, just head to my, my Crowdcast page, which is crowdcast.io/sallykoeringzimney, and you can see it on there and you can watch on replay, or you can join me next week when I'm doing— it's like pressing go on that same webinar, but giving another chance for people to come and pay attention. And pay attention, participate was really the word I was thinking of, live, if they would rather do it live. Because sometimes being live like this is super fun, because you can throw out questions and interact, and I can respond to you in the moment. So if you're new to Crowdcast, take a look at all the options on the bottom of your screen. You can ask a question. Sometimes I put up a poll in there, and you can also, of course, jump in the chat, which I hope is what you do. So here we are on Movers Live, and I want to start with a This Moved Me moment. That is how I always start my shows, and actually on the podcast, it's how I end my shows. But it's when I'm doing it live like this, I want to start it because I really want us to stay as leaders, as entrepreneurs, as changemakers, we have got to stay grounded in what moves us. Because ultimately, the idea that we're talking about is about the human condition. It is about the way we experience life. And so for us as leaders, we have to stay really connected to ourselves as human beings and what moves us. So I'm going to share with you something that has brought me delight again and again and again over the last 2 weeks, and that is somebody started a Facebook page called, I wanna get the name right, Virtual Social Events/Flatten the Curve. And what it is, is it's like this crowdsource of amazing virtual events that are happening all throughout the world. And some cool things are in there, like, was like take a video tour of this famous museum and it's concerts. And it's authors doing their, you know, reading story hour every day. And it's all the things that you've probably seen, but it's in one place. So they're collecting it and you have got to go check out this Facebook page. It's free and it's super, super fun stuff in there. I'm like overwhelmed by all of the things that we could be doing right now. There's a lot. There's a lot.

Okay.

So if you are here, whether you're live or you're watching this on replay, I want you to hop into the chat. And I want you to let us know what has moved you recently. What is something that has moved you? Okay, so share it in the chat so that we can continue to be moved ourselves, and then we can move our audiences. Okay, I've got a few questions I want to answer. People have sent to me that I will tackle right now, and then we're gonna bring Josh Johnson on screen to talk about his experience and ideas and thoughts for us as embracing video, because he himself is a video guy. Okay, so I'm really excited to hear from Josh. Great, so let's start. I've got the first question was from my friend Tony, and Tony had a question about how to handle chats that oftentimes, especially if you're doing something like Instagram Live, the chats are literally happening right below your face, and sometimes it's really hard to focus on what you're saying and communicate and not respond to what's happening in the chats. And you're also really excited when somebody hops in and you're like, "Hey, so-and-so!" But it really interrupts the flow of your content and the way in which you're trying to communicate and connect with people. Because remember, as we talked about in the webinar last week, we've got to think about this as something beyond the present moment, which is why when I'm doing this right now, I'm thinking about not just the people who are showing up here live, I'm thinking about how this will work as a replay because oftentimes that's how people experience video. For them, it's going to feel in the moment, but for you as the speaker, you've got to remember that it lives with each watcher with each audience member in their own present moment, not necessarily your present moment, if that makes any sense. So when somebody hops in, you don't wanna necessarily pull all your focus and attention there. Okay, it's hard not to do that. My suggestion for you, Tony, is to pick a time when you will pay attention to the chat and say, okay, I'm gonna go to the chat now. And then you can interact with what's happening in the chat. But, and then maybe at the very, very beginning as people are joining, that's a great time for you to call attention to the people who are there. But you don't, you don't want to be held hostage to what is happening in the chat. You are in control of the flow of the content of the message. So sometimes when I'm working with speakers, we talk about the con, okay? And the speaker has the con, and the con is a It's a sailing term. It's the person who has control of the ship, right? They've got the wheel, got the big, the big wheel that steers the ship. There's probably a technical term that I don't know. Okay. But whoever has the wheel has the con. You have the con, even via video. Okay. And when you shift your focus and attention to the chat, you're giving the chat the con for the moment. Okay. And then you can pull it back. All right, so wherever you shift the focus and attention to, that's where you're moving the con or the control. All right, and you get to decide where it goes and when it comes back. Okay, I hope that's helpful, Tony, about the chat and the interactivity. You've got to control when and how it happens. Okay, the next question is from Brandon, who really came to me because he was really excited to do a lot of speaking this year. And then essentially what happened is all these events got canceled. And so now he's trying to reimagine, how can I lead in my space? How can I influence and persuade? How can I be visible and be present? And of course, video is the way in which we're going to be doing that, at least for the next few months. Okay, so I wanted to give you some thoughts about how to use your voice via video, Brandon, because it doesn't have to necessarily be in the, like, a keynote or a conference or an event type space. What I would suggest is you, you take your keynote content or the, the talk content you were really excited to share And instead of it being a 20-minute thing, you're going to chunk it out into much smaller content pieces. Okay. Because my guess is within that talk, you've got 3 or 4 chunks of content that you can use, maybe more, maybe less, depending on what, on what you were building there. Okay. But you want to essentially build your content around one single idea that you want to be known for. And Brandon, I know you well enough to know, I know what your platform is and it's around good news, okay? So what I would like to see you do, especially now, is to think about how your message relates to people right now, okay? Not this like far-off keynote talk that you were hoping to give at some point this year, but like, what is the message people want to hear right now? And do some writing and development around that. My guess is you'll pull some of what you've got from your keynote, into it. And it will be related because of course it's related to, you know, your overall topic. But why, why is it so important right now? A podcast is dropping tomorrow about how to reorient our messages around the importance of right now. Like, how do we adjust our content to relate to the needs that our audience has right now without having to like start over and start from scratch. So that episode lands tomorrow. And I think it's really, really important because we are all, you know, we have a core area of expertise and idea that we are bringing out into the world, but we have to make sure that it's relevant to what people are thinking about and working on and worrying about and struggling with right now. Okay. So Brandon, what I'm thinking about for you is who doesn't need good news right now? I think everybody could use some good news. And so I think what we have to do as content creators is figure out what the urgent need is for your people and then how you specifically can attend to that need, how you specifically Not just anybody. I mean, I think it's tempting right now to put out a post about working from home tips. It's very tempting, but if that is not related to your particular expertise, then I think it ultimately can eat away at your credibility. Okay. So, um, tomorrow I'll talk with you more about— in the episode, you'll hear more about this like little audience Venn diagram and how you can and find that special little slice between your particular expertise and the needs of your audience right now. And our job is to really tune into what they are. And that little magic space in between is where the power comes from. Josh, I see you, and I'm going to pull you up in just a minute. I've got one more question to answer for Jen, and then I'll pull you on screen, which is going to be super fun. Really excited about it. Okay, so Jen asked me about what happens to body language. How can we still bring the effectiveness and the power of communicating with our bodies when so often videos tend to be like, right, like this one, head up? Well, if you're watching me, you can tell this is still a full body experience. It's different than standing up. My preference is even when I'm doing video to stand up. Okay, and if you are on the phone and you stand up, you communicate differently than if you are sitting down. Okay, so our job as speakers, even when it's video, is to not think of ourselves as a talking head. We still have to engage fully because we communicate more fully, more effectively when we are using our bodies. And I am somebody, like you can tell, I like, I can't not move. Right now, if there was, if I was like doing a TV interview, right? Part of what you have to do is calm your body. So it's not distracting. But on the other end of that spectrum is, are people who are just talking. They've got words in their head and it just comes out of their mouth. I don't believe those people.

Right?

Because when we feel something, we say it with more than just our words and our head. Like it is a full body experience. And so you need to create the kind of space and conditions that allow you to still express yourself fully. Okay. I think we can do videos with more than just our heads. Although I think there's some like intimacy and closeness like that. I would just play with it and see what feels most comfortable for you, Jen. Um, But even if you're just seeing from here up, you can tell when somebody's using their body and when they're not, when they really feel what they're saying and when they don't. Okay, so even if you only see from here up, you still have to communicate it fully with your body. Okay, so we're gonna look, experiment with sharing more of our bodies. That sounds really weird, but not just being a talking head. We're going to remind ourselves that anytime we're communicating, we are communicating with our whole bodies, even if you only see from here up. Okay, we have fuller expression when we use our whole bodies. And I think those were my two points. Turns out there is no third. It's just those. Okay, Jen, I hope that was helpful. Those are some awesome questions. Keep them coming. You can send them to me on my Instagram, @bemovedspeaking, or you can reach out, respond to an email, or you can throw it in the chat here or put it in the question thing. And if I don't get to it now, I will save it and get to it on my next Q&A, which will be in a few weeks. Okay, now we've got Josh here. I wanna bring Josh on screen.

Hello.

Yay! Hi, Josh.

Hi, I wasn't sure if this was gonna be like a recording for a podcast anything. So I'm not wearing very professional things, but I am wearing my icy sweatshirt.

I think it's perfect. I love it.

In my home office where everybody else is right now.

Oh my gosh. I know. I was just on a meeting with another client a little bit ago. And in the middle of it, of course, her toddler, she's like, I'm sorry, I gotta go. My Elizabeth, she's like, Elizabeth just locked herself in the bathroom. It's like, oh no.

It has been, it has been fascinating to watch people in their, in their homes trying to balance, balance all of life. And I, it's actually warmed my heart to see how understanding and accommodating and caring, particularly my coworkers, have been just to try to like do everything in this sort of new reality for however long it goes.

Oh gosh, I know. Yeah. Especially your coworkers. And I know your coworkers because I used to be a coworker.

Yes, you know my context very well.

I do, I do. And, um, so Josh, I, I wanna kind of get right to this because we can do a full-on podcast conversation another time, which I would really love. Um, but let me just give people a little bit of a primer on you. So Josh has been a speaker for a really long time, a youth speaker mostly, right? But not always. Correct. You also speak about geocaching, and that is what your YouTube channel is all about, right?

Yeah, I'm a geocaching influencer. So talk about having a focus niche or niche. Geocaching is just like a high-tech sort of treasure hunt where people look for hidden containers that people have hidden all over the world. There's an official website for it, but I've been doing that for like 12 years, and I've been doing my YouTube channel and all the other places now for about 9 years.

So nice.

Okay, in front of the camera a lot.

Yes. And what I love about and why I wanted to bring you on here is that you— the camera has not dulled your spirit at all.

Okay.

And sometimes I think the cam— for some people, they like, okay, now I've got to like get more refined and, and they get a little more self-conscious and it ends up dulling people's spirits and it's like totally different for you. I feel like you come alive in front of the camera in a really awesome way. And that's what I want to see more of. I think that's what's interesting is to, we want to feel like we know you and whoever you is, right? We want to feel connected and we do that by someone's spirit really coming through the camera. So, Would you talk about that a little bit of like, were you always that free and open in front of the camera or was that something that took a while to develop?

Absolutely not. If you watched my very first video about 9 and a half years ago in front of my flip camera, that's what I used back then.

Yeah.

Totally not used to being not awkward in front of a camera. It is something that I really believe, at least for me, has taken a lot of practice over the years. And there is that awkward moment in the beginning, depending on where you're at, when you don't necessarily have an audience or your audience is very small. So when you're talking into that lens, it's like, "Who in the heck am I talking to?" So depending where you're at, it's very hard, even with normal speaking, it's like, can you imagine speaking to an empty audience and not knowing who you're talking to or the context of it? So, so with the time of just practice of literally like getting used to looking into that lens and, and figuring out who exactly am I talking to? That is, it's taken, the skill has taken practice, but also just understanding the audience and that everybody's different. And I'm sure the people that are watching this right now, like they're probably, some of them have huge, maybe online presence and some probably have maybe none. So, so those two factors have taken time and practice.

Yeah, totally. And we were just talking before I pulled you on screen, I don't know if you heard this part, we were just talking about how to speak to the urgency of now with your audience, like take your expertise and make it matter to people in the moment of now. And so I'm curious for you, how have you shifted your message for your audience in this time where, you know, I mean, geocaching, you can still geocache, right?

In some places. In some places. It's so funny because I've been continuing to do my videos and I have a worldwide audience. And so people in context, people in Spain and Italy that are watching my videos, they're watching me, they're like, what are you doing outside?

Yeah.

You know, so even just having that awareness, I mean, from even from state to state here in the States, it's very different. So I've gotten people like judging me like, you should not be outside, you should not be touching things, to like other people that are like, oh my gosh, like people are, at least in the state of Minnesota where you are, like I feel like people are outside more with their families, keeping their distance, and it actually just like warms my heart and it actually fits with the mission of why I do what I do. So the reason I put my videos out is to inspire people to go outside, get off their couch, particularly people that are love love technology because there's a technology aspect of it. Geocaching is like a mix of tech, technology, and also outdoors.

Yeah.

So right now, people, a lot of people have more time. A lot of people want to get outside. So for me, as far as my personally, for me, my influence and my growth on all my platforms, especially TikTok, and I can talk about TikTok for a while. Has grown, like, these last 2 weeks has— I've seen more growth online in the last 2 weeks than I have in, in months. Wow. And so I really think, you know, I love that you're talking about this because I think we have a unique opportunity right now to reach maybe people that we haven't reached before, just by nature of people being on their phones more, being on technology, but then also accompany that with like extra time for some people.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm feeling the same thing. It's really interesting, this, this shift in focus on video. I've, I've had to learn to embrace video. I'm— live audiences are always gonna be my first love, but, but because I have grown and shifted, become comfortable on video, I'm like, everybody can do it. Okay, anybody can do this. It is not, we think it's sort of an elitist for special few kind of people. And it's really not true. It is about the development of our own self-confidence. And I think there's like a lot of self-acceptance that has to come in the journey of video of like, guess what? This is me, this is it. And the stage, we're protected from that in some way. In video, you kind of have to come face to face with it. And I did that little play on words that I didn't mean, but like, there's a really interesting personal development process that I think happens in this too. Does that resonate with you too?

Oh yes, totally. And my medium, early, mostly early on, was edited videos. So there's a, there's a safety in that too, of like, I can just talk, talk, talk, and then I can just cut out all this. I cut out all my insecurities. I can cut out everything I say, "Um, uh," you know, some safety in that. So even for me, the process of going from edited to live is very, very vulnerable because I can, I can curate, I can curate whatever I want to give people through the edited version. But like, right now, as we're speaking right now, what you see is what you got. And then there's this insecurity, like, who I present in the edited version, I want to be consistent with that. That's who I really am. And but like, it's different. So they're like, oh, you know, so yes.

Isn't that— yeah, this is a really fascinating conversation. And I love this idea of live. I love that we're we're here live together and that we're letting, we're kind of accepting the ride that we have been given right now, right? The fully present moment, the technology, you know, the foibles that happen, the struggles, the like, you know, something happens in your background or mine, or, you know, I love the excitement of that. I think it's And it's really interesting and engaging for people, but it takes courage and bravery on the part of those of us who are like, okay, I'm going to step up front. And so one of the things that I'm feeling most excited about is all of the same things that I'm telling my speakers and have been telling them for years around authenticity and connection and courage. It's like amplified and needed even more. On video, because especially when we're showing up in these moments, like, our people have other options right now. They could be watching us and they're doing 3 other things, right guys? Right? That's what I do too, because we're busy and we're trying to do all that. So having the sort of compelling, clear, but authentic content is the thing that's gonna pull people into you. And it's just, it's like acute in a way that it isn't on stage. So I'm feeling really driven and excited about this. And I think that for a lot of us, what we have to think about is where our passion and where the world needs right now meet.

Yes.

And that place, we've gotta just, go full on into to serve the people that we are here to love up and serve. And, and, um, and that space can be really exciting because it's so needed right now.

Yes, totally.

Oh gosh, I just talked a whole bunch. I'm really sorry. I just got really excited there for a second.

No, I love it.

I got really excited there.

And, you know, and we're also, as far as live goes, we're at a unique place, especially these last 2 weeks, because everybody's at home. So the bar, the bar for tech and lighting and like the playing field has been, you know, evened out where people that are used to, you know, being in maybe a studio or somewhere else or having their fancy equipment available, like that's all, we're all on the even playing ground. And so, and yeah, the authenticity, I mean, we have, We have a full studio right here in front of us. And really, that's enough. If any of your viewers or listeners are thinking, "Oh gosh, I need to have the right lighting, the right camera, the right sound," like, it doesn't matter, I don't think, right now. What matters is like your heart, like you said. What, what is, what can I bring to the situation, the world right now, in my niche or niche that can inspire and, and move?

Totally. So I'm really glad that you said that. We have just like a few minutes left, but I wanted to point out and underline that, that the technology does not have to be complicated. Can you say a little bit about that? And if there are a few tips around the technology besides just press go.

Yeah, I think lighting is important. This is just very practical, like, and I don't own any lights at all. If you don't have a special lighting, like a circle lights or whatever they are right now, like just get in front of like the natural light, get in front of the window. Lighting is so key. But other than that, and, you know, maybe invest in a little $10 little tripod for your phone just to keep it steady. But again, I don't think people need to be hung up on the tech part. Just make sure you're seen and make sure you're heard just like you would be on a stage. So that, I guess that's like square base, like tech stuff.

I do think that the openness, people are way more open to the technology not being awesome. And in some ways I think it's friendlier for your audience. I think it's more inviting. The, it can feel a little off-putting for some people, you know, and it truly depends on your audience. If something is overly produced, it can feel a little not of the moment and not real in some ways. So something to think about there. Love that.

Yes.

Okay.

Josh.

Yes. This is a quick little bit from you. Thank you so much for taking some time to hop in here. I know life is crazy. You've got kids at home, a busy job that you guys are— I know my heart is just going out to everybody at Youth Frontiers right now, um, because you're not able to hang with kids, right?

And that's hard.

That's pretty hard for sure. I hope—

so great to talk to you. Thanks so much for inviting me in.

Hey movers, thanks so much for joining along with me today. I hope that there was some helpful stuff for you. As we are embracing this virtual world at the moment, know that these skills are gonna be so powerful and useful for us. Whatever happens next, we will get back to our live audiences, and gosh, I I can't wait for that. I think it's gonna, it's gonna be like the most beautiful reunion. We can all be together again. But know that video is not going away, and you are up-leveling some really important skills for wherever your business is at right now, wherever your idea is at, where you are at as a leader. This is really powerful stuff. So thank you today Josh for joining me on the show. And I would like all of you to go to Crowdcast and join me over there so that you can watch live our next show as we bring that out to the world in just a few weeks. So head on over to Crowdcast, crowdcast.io/sallykoeringzimney, and register for the next Major Signpost. Thanks, my friends, and we'll see you next week.