288: Finding Your Talk Topic

Here's my big question for you. Are you ready to create your moment-making signature talk? Yes, the signature talk that you can deliver again and again in any context and set you up as an authority, a go-to, help you make more money, grow your audience, all the things like a signature talk can do. Yeah, you're ready, but you're not quite what that single topic can be. I mean, how do you sum up your life's work in one talk? Well, I get it. It's hard. We're going to talk about it. Hey, movers. It's Sally Z 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 you? Hey everybody, welcome back to This Moved Me. If you don't know me, let me introduce myself for a quick moment. My name is Sally Koering Zimney and I empower big-hearted entrepreneurs like you to leverage the power of speaking so that you can grow your impact, your authority, and leave the frustration and time suck of under-recognition behind. You want to become a known quantity in your industry. Speaking is a really powerful way to do that, but you need a signature talk to do that. It's one of the core tools that I help my speakers develop And on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I am inviting you to a brand new workshop I'm offering. It's just 2 hours, an hour on Wednesday, an hour on Thursday to dive in and talk about your signature talk topic. I'm calling it the Talk Topic Intensive, which is not easy to say. So TTI for short. Now, if you have been following along with me on the show, you know we are in the middle of our Million Dollar Mission content. We're diving in all about money mindset stuff. We're going to get back to that message. It's really, really important. And it's really important for us as entrepreneurs and speakers to wrap our heads around this because speaking is incredibly powerful and profitable. If we don't let the limitations in our thinking hold us back from really stepping into the next bigger spotlight, that next bigger stage, and to have the kind of impact that we can really have with speaking. So we will get back to the regularly scheduled Million Dollar Mission programming next week. I've got an awesome interview with Tasha Booth coming to you. She is the CEO and founder of the Launch Guild, and she also has her own personal brand. She's a speaker, and her company just hit a million dollars last year. So I was like, let's talk about it, Tasha. She's amazing. I cannot wait for you to hear this interview. That's next week. But for now, I want to talk with you about talk topic clarity and how important it is and how difficult it is to get there. Because most people come to me, they think they know what they want their talk to be about. And you might have a general idea of what you want your talk to to be about. It's just like peeling the layers of an onion, and some onions are bigger than other onions, and it might take you a little bit to get to that one thing that you want to be known for that is particular to you and particular to where your audience is at and what they need and the thing that you can do that helps them with their particular needs. It's a beautiful Venn diagram when, when you get there. It's exciting. It's kind of thrilling actually when you hit on that talk topic because it can solidify your brand in a lot of ways. But getting there takes some effort and time and reflection. And in this talk topic workshop, TTI, the top talk, talk, talk, the talk topic intensive. TTI. In TTI, we are going to go through some of those exercises together to get you closer so that when you do sit down, you aren't wasting your time. My goal for all of you listening is to develop a signature talk that is repeatable, that is scalable, and that is profitable. And it's hard to do that if you aren't first clear on what your talk topic is. So this TTI is really for people who want to create a signature talk but haven't yet. Now, if that's you, you are probably stuck in one of two places. One, you might have no clue really what you want to talk about or who you're trying to reach. I mean, maybe you're a life coach and you generally talk about life coachy things, but That's a really big industry. It's a really big arena. It's going to take a little bit to get you narrowed down into your particular niche and your particular message. Or maybe you do have an idea of what you want to talk about. You, you maybe have already started giving some of these messages and it's getting narrower. You're getting closer to what that is. But what you found in the past is once you start creating, you discover— and this is not unusual, this happens all the time— people start creating and realize, actually have 3 messages in here and I'm trying to jam them all into one talk. Happens all the time. You're not alone. Now sometimes that's one talk with 3 points, but most of the time it's 3 different talks and you've gotta decide what is the one that can really hold me up, my business. What's the one I really wanna be known for? Some of the worries that people bring with them into this process that keep them from taking action and developing their signature talk. Sometimes they're worried about how to differentiate themselves. In an industry where there's lots of other people doing what you do and saying similar messages as you. So, I mean, how do you stand out in that scenario when there's a lot of other people doing something similar? That's a fair worry. Maybe you just haven't found your own language yet, right? There's a lot of people other people talking about this thing, but the language doesn't feel right for you yet. How do you create your own unique message? You might be struggling with what I've been talking a little bit about already, and that's just really narrowing your focus. Maybe you talk about a handful of topics. Maybe you're already pretty diversified in your message. Well, how do you choose what your signature talk is gonna be? Which one to really focus on and which ones you need to let go of. The process of discovering your signature talk topic can feel daunting. It can feel really, really challenging because we're asking a signature talk to do a lot. It's a lot of pressure for one talk, and that pressure usually comes out in the process as confusion and wasted time. So we want to avoid all the confusion. We want to do some pre-work to help get you to a place where you're like, yes, I got it, I know what my topic is, and I'm going to move clearly off in this direction. Now, no promises that it might not change a little bit as you continue to develop, but if you do some of this foundational pre-work, it's going to get you really far. Here's what you'll have at the end of those 2 hours. Now you will have clarity on your talk topic. You will know what those big aha moments are that you want to point to. You're going to have a handful that you're going to choose from as you are pulling together your signature talk. You're going to have confidence to finally put your fingers to the keyboard and actually create a signature talk that you can trust. That you can lean on that is gonna work for you in lots of different scenarios and set you up as a powerful part of your business. It's gonna give you momentum to get out front and be more visible because you will have this asset as a part of your business that you can pull out of your back pocket. So getting clear on your talk topic can unleash you out into the speaking world. In a really exciting way. So over these two days, we've got some really fun stuff that we're gonna cover, some great exercises that we will do together to help you get clear. And you will have a little homework between day one and day two, but day one is all about discovering what I call your moving message. So digging into who you are, particularly what is that specific thing that you bring to the table. So your unique message, it should feel very, very true to you. And discovering what your audience needs, who they are. I mean, this filter is so, so important. And part of it all is also getting really clear on who you are through your audience's eyes, knowing the kind of impression that you make. Your brand, your personality, what you want to really lean into as a go-to in your industry. And then making sure that we leverage this tool as a part of your business. So how does this talk fit into your message, your mission, your business, what you are doing, what you are out there in the world trying to do. When you can find the place where those three things intersect, That is your moving message. So we're going to dig into that together. And then on day 2, we are going to discover what your signature talk building blocks are. Now, these are the elements that I use in my Signature Talk Studio program to help build a signature talk. Now, if you join me in the program in October, October 7th, I think is when we decided to open the doors. When we open there, you can join in with me there, put all these signature talk building blocks to work to really insert them into the approach that I use with my speakers to build a signature talk. And once you learn that tool, you can use it again and again and again. It's pretty awesome. But first you need the building blocks, and it's really important that you spend some time doing some reflection and thinking about what those pieces are. So what your pillar content is. What are the key ideas that you want to talk about again and again? You want to be known for? What are those stories that help people connect with your message in a really human and vulnerable way? The bottom line is that if you plan on creating a signature talk anytime in the next year, then you need to come join me in this workshop. Bemoved.com/tti. I've got limited space available, but I'd love to see you there so we can get clear on your talk topic and get that signature talk rolling. Now, next week we are back to our Million Dollar Mission content. We have already committed to over $180,000 of impact together over in the Million Dollar Mission, and I hope you will come join us. If your name is not yet on the dashboard, you can sign up at bemoved.com/mission. Add your name to the list and I will send out a quick monthly email checking in on you, sharing some resources, and just nudging us all along so that we are creating a bigger impact, stepping onto the bigger stages, and really owning our place out front. So inspiring. So fun. I'm loving it. All right, that's it for me for now. I will see you all next week. Mata ne, Natasha Gould. Talk soon.