In this year‑end episode of her show "This Moved Me," Sally Koering Zimney reflects on 2020 through the lens of her personal word for the year—"leap." She recounts how the pandemic forced her to rethink big plans, deepen her service to her audience, and embrace humility. She shares three concrete lessons: (1) plans only get you so far; (2) serving an audience means listening to their pain and adapting; (3) humility is essential in the face of systemic injustice and personal powerlessness. Sally then lists a series of light‑hearted favorites that helped her survive the year—TV show Ted Lasso, podcasts (Unlocking Us, SmartLess), an oat‑milk honey latte, a Full Focus Planner, kombucha, and Instagram accounts that brought daily joy. She moves on to the "this moved me" moments that left a lasting emotional imprint: artists creating new work during quarantine (James Corden’s Dear Evan Hansen performance), powerful leader statements after George Floyd’s murder (Killer Mike, the Atlanta mayor, Nikole Walters), her personal experience at the George Floyd memorial, and a Black musicians’ rendition of "Redemption Song" that moved her to tears. Throughout, she emphasizes the power of sharing one’s voice and story to move the world, invites listeners to reflect on what moved them in 2020, and ends with a hopeful call to keep sharing authentic narratives into the new year.
Chapters
In January of 2020, I announced to the world that my word for the year was leap. I was so jazzed to leap, you guys. I mean, I thought it was going to be a year of excitement, of big dreams and big action and go, go, go! January 2020, leaping is fun. December of 2020. Leaping is necessary. Not always fun, but necessary. Leap began to take on totally new meaning for me here in 2020. This brutal, this powerful, this learning year, this growing year, this unavoidably real year has pushed me and many, many others to really take on a leap and embrace discomfort, embrace the unknown, really understand the meaning of risk in a totally new way this year. And though this Enneagram 7 would like nothing more than to just look off into the bright, beautiful future and really not spend any more time thinking about 2020. I know there are moments and experiences here in the last year that I need to pause and recognize and take in the lessons and the moments that have moved me and moved us collectively. Because it's changed us, and that's what this is all about. Hey movers, it's Sally Z with Be Moved. Let's go create some talks that will move this world. We're gonna 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 you? Hey everybody, welcome back to This Moved Me. My name is Sally Koering Zimney Zimney, and I empower purpose-driven entrepreneurs, coaches, and changemakers like you to embrace speaking as a powerful tool for your business to help you unleash your authentic voice and share your story so that you can have a bigger impact. And this is This Moved Me. This show has been around for a long time, many years. And just in the last year, I have brought it to video. That's one of the big changes that happened here with me and my business in 2020. And what I want to do is spend a little time with you you looking back at 2020? What are some of the other big learnings that have happened for me personally in my business, but also for all of us collectively? Because, whoo, I mean, if the universe was trying to get us to learn something, we clearly needed to learn these lessons. I, I don't even I mean, how does one sum up 2020? Like, is this even possible? No, it's— I'm still— we're processing. We're gonna process. We're gonna— we are gonna be processing this year, decades. I mean, history. I just— I can't eat. I can't. It's— it— there— it— I there is so much to process, so much to process in 2020. And that's not, that's not it. That's not what we're gonna do. I'm not gonna just spend this whole thing processing 2020. Nobody needs that. It's not therapy. I need a therapist if I'm really gonna process 2020. But I do think it would be fun for us to dive into some of the big learnings of 2020. I'm going to share with you some of my favorites in 2020, and then I'm going to share with you some of the "this moved me" moments that I have experienced for myself and that, uh, I noticed moved a lot of people as well. So let's start with the learnings in 2020, the top 3 learnings in 2020. The first one is that plans only get you so far. Because I started with such big plans in 2020. I launched a new brand in 2020. I launched a course in 2020. I launched a membership in 2020. I did a lot of launching, a lot of leaping, a lot of big things, but none of it went the way I expected it to. None of it did. And that's kind of a universality of 2020. Nobody expected this. Nobody expected this. So it was a good reminder as we start a new year. I've got more big plans. I'm a big dreamer, a big planner, uh, and just recognizing that things might change. Who knows where we're gonna be in a few months? It's better. We're gonna be It's going to be better. We're going to be in a better place, but you know, the second big lesson that I learned in a new way is what serving my audience really means. I mean, what it really means. This is something I've been talking about forever, that that's what we do as speakers is we are here to show up and love up our audience. Well, when the pandemic hit, and I was getting emails and messages from people whose lives were completely turned around. Like, $70,000 in speaking fees gone like this. I mean, that's pretty awesome to have $70,000 of speaking fees coming in, but if that's your revenue and it just got taken away, that was big. And it threw everybody for a loop. It absolutely did. But what this pandemic also allowed me to do was to tune in in a deeper way. What are the needs? We were in pain, all of us, in all kinds of ways. It gave me a chance to sink into that pain more. Listen really carefully to what you're struggling with, what my people needed, so that I can show up and serve them even better and even more thoughtfully. And I changed what I was doing in a lot of ways based on that listening and based on those needs and based on that pain. The third big lesson of 2020 is a big giant dose of humility. Remember all those big plans I was talking about and how nothing really went the way I expected it to? Yep, that was a big learning. A big learning around racial equality, equity, where we really are as a country, the state of our politics, that we live in this world where people live in literally two different realities. And I am just one little person. There's something I can do, but there's only so much I can do. And feeling really powerless to change things. Humility in my plans, humility in how much I still have to learn, humility in how much we all have to learn, humility in learning to let go. And to trust. And I'm gonna be learning this lesson for a while, I think. Okay, let's talk about favorites. Favorites are usually something I don't like picking favorites because I like a lot of things and for lots of different reasons. But here are some of the favorites that I've discovered in 2020. My favorite TV show, Ted Lasso. Aw, Ted, you are the best. Best. That last episode where they talk about how hope is gonna kill you, I just, I lost it. I lost it. It's so good and I really needed it. I was watching it right at the end of this big launch I was doing and I was just working so hard and there was so much hope involved and I was like, I'm gonna hope despite— oh, Amazing. Right where I needed it. All in the feels. So good. So, so good. My favorite new podcasts this year were, of course, surprise, surprise, Brené Brown's Unlocking Us. Love it. In the last few weeks, I've discovered this new show called Smartless. It's delightful and funny. Justin Bateman and I can't remember the other guy's name. Oh, that's bad. What are their names? What are their names? If I had my phone in front of me, I would look, but I don't. Anyway, it's a great podcast. This new coffee drink, you guys know I'm new to coffee in the last few years, but my new coffee drink that I discovered like in the last month, that, ooh, it's really, really good. Oat milk honey latte. I got the recipe from Pinch of Yum. I'll include the link below. It's really good one. I kind of felt like I should share a book, a favorite book, but the thing is I listen to books more than I read them because at night I do read. I read every night. I love to read, but the books I read at night are all like escapist fiction. And I have been working through the Outlander series for years. I— there are so many books. I'm a fast reader, but when I read at night, I just, I zonk out after a few pages. So it's taking me forever. I, I'm— I don't— I couldn't even tell you what book I'm on, but it just keeps going. I'm really hoping to finish that soon so I can read something else. I discovered kombucha this year. Well, that's kind of fun. My new habit: using my new Full Focus Planner. My friend Tiffany gave this to me about a year ago. I really like it. I am a note-taker. I like to write all the things. It's not a real neat planner, but I like that it's a daily go-to and I just keep it with me. And yeah, it's markers. I like the markers. I like the colorful, but it makes me feel like when I fill this out, I feel like I can do this. I can do this. I have a new daily delight here in 2020, and if you have not discovered the Rambling Redhead, Jen Todrick, on Instagram, go ahead and find her now. She is delightful. She is hilarious, and her 2-year-old daughter, Vivi. I got you. Thank you for making me laugh every day. You have been a highlight for me, which is kind of sad, but it's true. And then there is another Instagram account. If you want social media distraction, you have got to check out the Doodle page where the baby sleeps with the doodles, like cuddles. It's like the doodles, their blanket, all these sweet doodles, and I have a doodle. I cannot even, it's, it'll make you want to go get a doodle, so just be warned. All right, now a lot of those were really frivolous. In fact, I think they were pretty much all frivolous. We all need a little frivolity to get through the day, but I also want to share with you my top 3 "this moved me" moments. Moments that I'm still thinking about, that struck me, that moved me emotively, And there were so many. I put them in some buckets. So the first bucket is all about how artists stepped up to do things in totally new ways. And I'm thinking in particular of this moment where James Corden, who I love, love, love— I think he's just has so much heart and I love how he shows up— he invited in the Dear Evan Hansen— and please tell me you've watched that musical, it is just all heart— so he invited in the Dear Evan Hansen cast to sing. And it was at the end of March and we were all in the thick of the first phase of this quarantine. And it moved me. I'm also thinking about how so many leaders stepped up this year and gave us a needed shaking with their words. I'm thinking about after George Floyd was murdered, and there were so many leaders who shared vulnerably and powerfully and authentically and boldly and bravely I'm thinking about the moment with Killer Mike and the Atlanta mayor and his passion, his anger. I needed to hear what he had to say. I'm also thinking of Nikole Walters and listening to her share about her fear. I needed to hear that. I live in Minnesota. When my family and I walked the intersection where George Floyd was killed and the memorials and the words and the art and the murals and the poems. And I was grateful that I could be there and so sick that it's a reality. But I'm also thinking of this favorite moment when I got to watch this group of Black musicians share their instrumental rendition of "Redemption Song." This version is one of the most joy-filled, wholehearted performances It's so simple, and they're not even performing. They are just enjoying playing. And I think partly because they themselves are Black musicians singing this song about redemption and finding such joy in their art and getting lost in their art. It was like the happiest, saddest moment I was left crying. I couldn't, I couldn't stop crying because it was just so beautiful to see their joy and to feel the transcendence happening in the moment. Oh, it was so good. It was so good. Those are just the ones that bubbled up for me right away because 2020, it has been A hell of a year. It's been truly tragic, challenging, revealing. It's been clarifying. It's been lonely. It's been pretty depressing, historical, heartbreaking, infuriating. It has been relentless. Oh, those are just a handful of the descriptors that I could use for 2020. But I also have to admit that maybe even because of how dark this past year has been, I saw people rise to the occasion in ways that, that really truly leave me in awe of the human capacity. Artists and creatives and authors and musicians and leaders and and kids. So of course my question for you is, what has moved you this year? What has brought you a moment of respite in a year of pain, in a year of despair? What has brought you hope? Or even maybe what's needfully gotten you closer to some pain that maybe you needed to feel. As I was looking back through all of this over the last few weeks, as I was preparing for this episode, what I realized is that I needed to remind myself of this really important lesson, and that is our voices. Our stories. Those are the moments that really moved me. In every single one of those instances, it pulls us out of our defensiveness and it pulls us out of our apathy, and it's really truly what can move the world. So my hope for you as we wrap up 2020 and we step into a new year, I hope that this next year is good to you and it's good to all of us. And I think the way that we're gonna do that is by sharing our voices and our stories. And I'm here for it. I am here for it. And I'm so grateful that you come along with me on the journey. I'll see you all next year. Bye-bye.
