265: The secret to connection in a virtual world - with Lauren Ready

One of the biggest complaints that I hear from my speakers again and again as we sit in this virtual world is, "I feel so disconnected. I don't know what's happening on the other side of this camera, and it just feels wrong." And they're not wrong about it. It is super, super challenging, and yet connection remains. The most important thing that we can create as speakers with our audiences. So how, how do we do it? Let's dive in. Hey movers, it's Sally Koering Zimney 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 to This Moved Me, a show all about the art of moving your audience. Hello, my name is Sally Koering Zimney. I am your virtual speaker coach and I empower purpose-driven entrepreneurs and changemakers like you to leverage the power of speaking and the power of your authentic voice and your story so that you can finally leave self-doubt and obscurity in the dust, so we can finally move your audience and the world with your talk. So today on the show, I'm really excited to be introducing you to Lauren Reedy. Now, Lauren is an Emmy Award-winning producer, videographer, documentarian. I mean, Lauren's amazing, and this is so exciting that I've got her on the show with me. She also happens to be one of my speakers, and I'm so excited to highlight her for you. So Lauren started her career actually as a TV reporter. So she was in front of the camera doing all of the things that TV reporters do, but she ultimately felt a pull to tell the stories that weren't making the front page of the newspaper or the headline at the 10 o'clock news hour. She wanted to tell the stories that weren't being told yet. So she stepped behind the camera and started producing those stories, telling those stories, creating events and using video in that powerful way. Well, now in the land of the pandemic and beyond, she has embraced the role as virtual event producer. And so she has a really unique perspective for us today. It is as the speaker, as the messenger, as the storyteller and the narrative and the narrator, but she also has the perspective from behind the scenes as the producer, as the little puppeteer, whatever, right? And so I'm, I'm really excited to pick her brain about what really works from a producer's perspective in terms of the virtual experience, because she's seen it all. So we're going to focus our conversation today on how some of the speakers she's worked with have really been able to overcome that challenge of connection, how they've been able to make it feel personal and inventive and interesting and different, and not just that we're slapping what we'd normally do in person in front of a camera, because the bar is higher than that, my friends. Now, before we get into the show, I want to take just a moment and talk to you about the show's sponsor today, and that is my Movers U membership experience. This online program is really here to support you in all of your seasons of speaking, from content development all the way through to scaling your speaking business. In other words, making money with your speaking, which, that'd be nice, right? So each month we add some elements to the library of resources, and it's already a really full library. And what's really cool is that those resources are truly exclusive to Movers U. Now, today's show is a sneak peek into this month's masterclass inside Movers U, this conversation with Lauren Reedy. Now, the entirety of the conversation exists over in Movers U, but I'm sharing with you a glimpse of it. And if you want the full deal, you gotta join us over in Movers U. In the full conversation, Lauren talks with us about all the essential tech prep required to really speak well virtually, um, the conversations you need to be having with your event producer, how to create a seamless and really successful virtual experience as a speaker, and importantly, how to work well with your event producer. Um, that's something we don't talk about enough, but it's really, really important. Now, all of that is only available in the Movers U membership experience. So I have to tell you, this community is so special. I really, I love it so much. And the people in there are really incredible. They're super talented. They are so focused on bringing their voice to life in such a meaningful and powerful way. And they care about each other. I mean, this is a dream come true to be able to create this kind of experience for you. So I hope you'll come join us. There's a lot of support waiting for you over in Movers U. You can learn more about the membership experience at bmove.com/joinmoversu. So it's bmove.com/joinmovers and then the letter U. Okay, let's get on to the show. The surprising truth about how to really create connection in a virtual world, even via Yeah, so here she is, Lauren Reid. You have this really fascinating history of being in front of the camera as a reporter and a newscaster, and then now you're producing virtual events. So part of the reason I wanted to bring you onto the show and, and get some time with you is to dig into your perspective of what you have seen now as a virtual event producer, because you bring with it the experience of knowing what works on the front end. And what I really want to hear is what you've seen that's worked really well.

A lot of the work we do is to produce, say, a gala video that runs at your in-person event. So when in-person events were canceled, so was that work. Yeah. But what we started doing is saying, well, how do we think differently about events? It's made us have to rethink everything.

Yeah.

And that's what has been really fun and rewarding for me and my team is to see how we, we take this really cool event that we knew was awesome and had hundreds of people in the room, lots of food and drink, all that stuff. And we condense it down to an hour broadcast. That tells stories and makes you feel like you're in the room even if you're just at home.

Yeah.

And that takes a special skill set and a special gift and a willingness to let go of what you know has always worked. And I think that's probably where speakers are right now is this tension between I know how to speak on stage, I know how to use my hands and walk here and do this, but now I'm in front of a camera and there's no audience. And they're not laughing at my bad jokes. And I don't know what to do next. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So that's, and we're going to be here for a while. Yeah. Yeah.

It's going to be a while before large group stuff gets cooking again.

So one of the things that I loved about a speaker we had, um, he had a PowerPoint and his content was amazing, but he just leaned into the fact that he was, you know, at his his parents' house on the East Coast, and he was in front of their fireplace, and his laptop was on, you know, 3 books or whatever. And yeah, he just said like, I'm so happy to join you from my parents' house today. Yeah. And this is, you know, he leaned into where he was at instead of pretending like he was in a nice studio that was, you know, produced by a big production company. And I think that, that goes with the authenticity of your talk, but leaning into where you are. And saying, I'm so happy to join you from my living room. Right, right. Yeah, we don't, we don't have to pretend like we all have our own studios, right?

Yeah, I mean, at one point in my professional life, my office was also the studio that was set up beautifully, and now I share it with your husband, right? And my 3 kids are Distance learning right there.

I mean, you just lean into that and you just say like, hey, my kids are learning. I bet your kids are learning. Let's all lean into what that is. And I think that's important. We can't pretend like we're not living in a pandemic.

Right. And it brings us into the same space because it's emotional recognition. Everybody's like, oh, yup, lot of together time.

Oh, I feel you, Sally Koering Zimney. And then that makes you relatable instantly with your audience. And you would do that in the room in a very different way. You know, you would relate with everybody in the room probably by telling a story or, you know, saying you have kids or whatever it is. And so doing that by just being real about where you are, I think, has done really well for us. We had one speaker who had like, you could hear that there were children's feet in the background of her talk. And she was like, "It's lunchtime." You know? You just lean into that.

I love that because all of a sudden, I know more about who this person is. And we cannot be, even virtually, I think virtually all of a sudden, what I've seen that has not worked well that I'm like, ugh, is people feel like, OK, now I've got to be PowerPointy. Now I've got to be more buttoned up, more like, mm, because it feels so much more businessy instead of personal and connected. I love the idea of your speaker saying, "It's lunchtime, there's the kids," you know, because now I know more about who she is and I recognize that, I can envision it in my head. There's—

Right.

And it brings us into the same space together and connects us personally. I just don't want people to mix up virtual and I'm sharing my screen and now I become a tiny little box on the side instead of being the core messenger that comes from the person instead of coming from the technology. You know, the technology has to be the avenue.

Exactly. And, and that's the story. And what you're saying is the thing that really matters and how you do it, as long as it looks good and sounds good is, is, you know, a varying level of, you know, how it should look.

And it's such an important reminder of how powerful our vulnerability is. People recognize our humanness in each other when we're vulnerable, and we can't just be content experts because nobody ultimately cares. If they don't care.

You know, the one thing I've learned this year, I think we've all learned, is that we're all human. Like, all of us. We've all seen inside each other's homes. Some of us have seen inside each other's bedrooms because that's where our office was first set up. There's just all kinds of curtains that have been peeled back this year. And I think that is where some of us are fearful of that because we have this brand, we have this way to be. It goes back to the TV conversation, right? I have to be like this because this is who I am.

Yeah.

And I think it's time that we acknowledge that we're all in that place and just let it be that way.

Super powerful. That is real. And I think that is where a lot of us are at in this virtual world, is we are being really challenged to show up. And camera, virtual, I mean, this is inherent in a lot of what we've been talking about, but for years I felt safest on stage. I can be super vulnerable on stage. Getting on camera, all of a sudden I'm like, this— the self-criticism, the self-talk changes, the self-consciousness, all the— it all of a sudden became less about my audience and more about me. And it took me a long time to shift out of that and to even consider video as an important tool in my business. And luckily I have now. I mean, it's a journey, it's a journey, it's not over.

But you have, you have so embraced it. I mean, I've seen it in this year how much you have embraced it. Yeah, not like you had a choice, but right, you said, all right, I'm gonna learn this and I'm gonna do it. And I'm gonna iterate. It's funny because I'm used to talking to a camera that doesn't talk back. That's what TV news is, right? So you look into the camera, you smile, and then you count to 5 and you're done. And that's essentially what everybody's doing right now. They're talking to an inanimate object that does not react to them.

Well, it strikes me, Lauren, as you're talking about all this, how opportune your experience has been and that it's led you to this really incredible place that brings your, um, authority out front, back to the forefront with the experience of serving people through story, through tech, through video, through production, All of those pieces that, by the way, Emmy Award-winning.

And we were just nominated for 4 coming up just last week. We were nominated for 4 more.

What?

Yeah.

Round of applause.

Shut up. So proud of my team. Yeah. So proud of my team. Why are you not telling the world this? This is what I'm getting. I'm learning, Sally. I'm learning right along with, like, and The coolest part about this stuff though is that two of those projects, Sally, we leaned into the pandemic and the lack of face-to-face and the technology we had and produced stuff anyway and didn't sit back and say, we can't do it because we can't get together. We said, well, what can we do because we can't get together? And that's so cool to be able to see that we did something when we were all home and that it's resonated with other people.

Well, huge.

You know that, but I wanted to say one thing. Thank you so much for all the kind words you said. I am a firm believer that every experience we have in our career is preparing us for something else.

Mm-hmm.

And all the things you just said, you just sort of brought it back in a way that I haven't even really realized yet, but all the experiences I had before this year helped prepare me for this year. Even the bad ones, even the ones that I'm like, oh God, I had to do that. We'll look back on all of this and say, I'm so glad that I learned how to talk to a camera. Yeah. I'm so glad that I told people I was in my living room.

That's so true. It's been a lot of struggle and it's been hard in a lot of ways, but I completely agree with you. This is taking us somewhere. And the tools and the skills that we are learning in the struggle are not for nothing.

Like they say, high five! Well, this has been very energizing for me. I hope that the folks that are listening feel the same way and be like, all right, what can we do in our own way to put these things into practice?

Okay, well, Lauren, since you are in the— I totally agree with you, but I want to invite you to invite other people into more of your voice. So you're stepping out front, you're bringing your authority back out front. So how can people connect with you?

Sure. I am all over Instagram. That seems to be my favorite medium right now. My Instagram handle is @pwrblond, P-W-R-B-L-O-N-D. It's my AOL screen name. I just can't—

I love it.

And then my Business page is Forever Ready LLC, @foreverreadyllc, and every Friday at 1:30 Central, I do a Facebook Live and a YouTube Live called Feel Good Friday. I started doing that when we were quarantined because I felt like I didn't know what else to do except be positive. And so we've been doing this show every Friday where we have, we run some, some of the creative pieces we put together, we run positive stories that we've done for our clients, and it's been empowering for the team because they create stuff just to create. So that'll be live, live on Friday at 1:30, and it's— that's been really empowering for me. You say, you know, you don't know who's watching, act like they're there. So those are some ways you can connect with me at laurenreedy.com as well.

Oh my gosh, so cool. Okay, now when you say Lauren Reedy, if people are just listening right now It's R-E-A-D-Y.

Yes, and my company is Forever Ready, so I go by whatever people call me because it's confusing. And I've been married almost, uh, 10 years and I still sometimes forget whether it's Reedy or Ready.

Oh my God, it's so funny.

It's just how it works.

Well, thank you so much for joining me and for sharing your story, your insight, your expertise. This was really fun for me because we've been connected for a long time and we've been working together now in the Signature Talks studio and it's been such a delight that I was like, Lauren, come on, Lauren, and you jumped in and I cannot wait to see what we create. We're just, we're in the middle of it right now.

Yes, I'm very excited to see what comes of it.

Me too. But it's been, it's been so good to have you in the group and have your insight and expertise offered to everybody in that crew as well. So thank you, really.

Well, thanks for all you're doing too, Sally. It's nice to have somebody sort of pull me out and say, come on, I know you want to. Yeah, I know you want to.

You, you have a story to tell. You have an important message to share. Because I do, I believe everybody does.. And that finding what that is, is, is a process, but it's self-development, it's leadership development, and it can have a big impact on the world. So let's—

there you go, you're doing it! Giant mic drop for the podcast. Thanks for having me.