293: How to Find Your Moving Message

Is your message really hitting home? Maybe you're struggling with how on earth you sum up your life's work in one message, because that's really, really hard to do. Maybe you talk to multiple audiences and you're not quite sure what to say to who, when. Well, here's the deal. We need to help you find your moving message. Let's go. 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. Thanks so much for being here. My name is Sally Koering Zimney. If you don't know me, I am your speaker coach and I help empower purpose-driven, big-hearted entrepreneurs like you to leverage the power of speaking so you can grow your impact and your authority and finally leave the frustration and time suck of unrecognition behind. In other words, I help you step up front with more confidence and clarity. Are you ready? Let's dive in because today on the show, what is moving me is your moving message. What is your moving message, you ask? Well, the moving message is this trifecta of 3 really important considerations that you want to think about as you put together any message, but especially for your signature talk, a core message that will help you speak with more resonance to your message, make sure that your message is on point, and help you become the go-to, a known quantity in your industry. And if you don't have your moving message figured out, you're probably off the mark in some way or another. Because this trifecta will help take you from an expert topical speaker to a thought leader, and that is what we are going for. Now, this episode is, is a deep dive into this moving message exercise that is a part of the Get Started with Speaking guidebook. That is a new resource that just came out recently, and this moving message exercise is one of my all-time favorite things to do with people because It pushes us to step out front in a more personal way, a more authentic way, and make sure that we're not just saying what everybody else is saying, but really finding our own personal unique approach and owning that in a powerful way. And that's important because as speakers, we are thought leaders. We need to embrace this idea of thought leadership. Speaking is persuasion, right? So making your perspective distinct and owning that perspective, it's essential if you wanna become known in your industry. I don't think there's anything wrong with being an expert, kind of topical know-how speaker. Those can be in high demand sometimes, and sometimes they pay pretty well. And those are people who just share with you the how-tos. Here are the kind of insider secrets on things. And I do a lot of that, and it's important, right? Because we're giving people valuable information. But that's not how we become a known quantity in our industry. It is not how you become a keynote speaker. It's not how you get on those biggest stages. We can still offer valuable how-to information as a part of a signature talk and as a part of being a keynote You don't have to just talk about ideas and those big highfalutin things, but there are a lot of how-to speakers who never step out front with their perspective and their moving message. And that's what we are going to do. So number 1, you've gotta make sure that you have your guidebook. Now you can grab that over at bmoov.com/gss if you don't have it already. And if you don't grab the guidebook, you're still gonna get a ton out of this, but there's so much good stuff in this guidebook that you're really gonna wanna do it. Now, once you have it, you're gonna see in the book that one of the first things that I talk about in there is identifying your moving message. And this is really a triple Venn diagram. It's 3 circles coming together. Now this Venn diagram is a goodie because it's a triple. The first circle is you, right? Who you are. The second circle is your audience, who they are, right? And then the third circle down here, that's your purpose. So let's talk about each one of those a little bit more. So you, that first circle, that seems pretty obvious, right? Because you are a speaker, you're up there, you're sharing. Your expertise, your ideas. You know, speaking is really personal. It's your stories, your what, you know, how did you get to where you are right now. All of this is pretty obvious. Importantly, your talk should feel authentic to you. It should be different than my talk. If we were given the same script, you would do it differently than I would. There'd be parts of that that you would change, just like there'd be parts of it that I would change because we are different people and we have different perspectives. We're gonna bring different insights into this, different stories. We're gonna show up differently in our bodies. All of this matters when you think about who you are and how you show up. And the clearer we can be about who you are and what you in particular have to bring to the moment out front? Well, the clearer other people can be about whether or not you are for them or they are for you. And that's really good because you're not for everybody and everybody's not for you. Unless, unless maybe you're Oprah and then, then you're magical. A word that I like to use when we're thinking about who you are and how you show up in this moving message is the word distinction. Or differentiation. What makes you unique, especially when you are in an industry where there are a lot of other people who are also out there talking about maybe even something similar. So how are you different from them? And what are your ideas? How are your ideas different? Where do you zig where everybody else zags? That's really powerful to know because you want to lean into what makes you different, your distinctions and your differentiations, which is the same thing as distinctions, but I still like using both of those words. Now, thinking about you, the you part of the Venn diagram, that's just where we start, but it can't be all we think about, of course, because we speak to people, and the whole point of speaking is to talk to others and move them somewhere. We don't just want people to sit there and passively take it in and go, uh-huh, and walk away, right? We want to do something with this interaction. So essentially we are persuading with our talk. So who are you persuading? Who is this for? What do they need? And what do you in particular offer to them? What are their challenges? What's the situation that they find themselves in right now? What are their needs? What are their ideas? What are their preconceived notions that they maybe even have about you? About you or your topic or your idea. The more you know about your audience, the better. Now, this is another kind of no duh situation because we always talk about you gotta know your audience. Who's your audience? Know your audience. And yes, of course, we're gonna think a little bit about that, but I want you to think about what happens when those two circles come together. What you in particular bring to this moment and where that overlaps with this particular audience. So what is it that you in particular can offer these folks based on where they are at and what they are struggling with right now? So that little magical combo is where you want to focus your energy, because it's a pretty powerful combo. Now, a few things to note here. If you talk to multiple audiences, so people say to me a lot like, well, Sally Koering Zimney, I don't just talk to one audience, I talk to lots of different audiences and I don't really want to choose. And what if I choose the wrong audience and I build this whole talk for this audience and then this opportunity comes up over here? And here's what I would say to you about that. I want you to focus on your ideal audience. Who do you love talking to? Who, if you're like, if I could talk to any group, who is that? Because any talk, is aspirational. As we are building it, this is theoretical, it's aspirational. Let's build it for what you want to be doing, who you want to be talking to. And maybe you want to ask yourself, uh, not just who you love talking to, but who needs you? Who might pay for you to speak to them? Especially if that is important to you right now and you want to build speaking as a revenue generator in your business, because why not, people? Let's do it, right? Where the low-hanging fruit— like, maybe there's a bunch of people who have been asking for you to speak to them. Well, maybe you're like, well, let me build something for that low-hanging fruit opportunity. And maybe you can find some low-hanging fruit that you love to talk to and who needs you, and they'll pay you well. Well, winner winner chicken dinner. Let's do more of that, huh? Aha, totally. Okay. Now that may not be the ideal scenario for you. So if you are finding yourself in this situation where you talk to multiple audiences and you're not sure what to do, all you have to do is choose. Just pick one to build your moving message around. And then you know what you can do? Because here's what's so cool about a signature talk is You don't just use it with one audience. You turn around and you apply it to different audiences and customize it for them. Every audience is a little bit different, right? Every situation is different. So every talk is gonna be customized, including who your audience is, what time of day it is, how tired they are, what they just got done doing, where they came from, where they're going to next. I mean, there's a lot to think about with audience, so you might as well set yourself up for the ideal scenario because you're gonna be customizing it anyway. We've got two powerful Venn diagrams. We've got you and your audience, how you in particular can help and work with and empower and move this particular audience. But we cannot stop there. Most people stop there. They're like, that's what I'm thinking about. Me, my audience, how I can serve them. When you do that and you stop there, you end up in expert zone versus thought leadership. We are moving you into thought leadership zone, persuasive speaking. Persuasive speaking needs us to add one more layer on that third circle on the bottom, and that is purpose. Purpose is perspective that meets the urgency of now. That is your perspective, what you think, what you have to say, your commentary, your point of view, your insight meeting the urgency of now. So that last circle is really all about— because my assumption here is that your business and your idea is rooted in your purpose. So another way to think about your purpose is your business. Right? Your idea, what you have to say and why it's needed. Now, this is the part that is opinion, it's perspective, and it's the part that some people shy away from because they don't want to make waves. They don't want to say something that other people might react or respond to, but that is truly what thought leadership is. Is to put our insight and perspective out there, knowing that not everybody agrees with it, but you're there to help move them in one direction or another. What's going on in the world right now that demands this message? Because truthfully, your business should be situated in the urgency of now. That's marketing. Why is this a need? Because without the why, this message, it just, it doesn't fly. This is the why. This third little piece right here is your why. So we have you, we have your audience, and then we have your purpose. And that little trifecta there is your moving message. Now there is a lot more in the guidebook along with this moving message piece, but this, this episode is a great deep dive on the moving message. So I'm gonna actually, I hope that everybody who has has the guidebook listens to this episode because it really explains it in depth and in a way that will help you make sense of that one stop on the guidebook. But if you heard last week, we talked through those three big areas, the signature talk, your skills, and the scaling. And for the next few weeks, I'm taking one thing in each of those sections and doing a little bit of a deep dive into an element in the guidebook so that you can really get the most out of this guidebook. My goal here is to take more people from this place where they're like, well, I'm kind of speaking, I'm kind of doing it, to getting serious about your speaking, to really leveraging it and getting you out front as the thought leader that you are. And all of this is leading up to our fall launch of the Signature Talk Studio. You've probably heard me talk about it before, my friends, because this is going to be the fourth cohort of the Signature Talk Studio. Doors open on October 7th, so know that that is coming, which is always an exciting time because I get to meet more speakers and help them launch their signature talks out into the world. It's pretty awesome. For now, I hope that you will go grab this resource to help you take the next step in your journey to become a capital S speaker. Head to BeMooved.com/GSS. Thanks again for joining me on the show. 300 episodes. We are almost there. So how should we celebrate? What do you think? What, what should we do? I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear what have been some of those aha moments that you've had for yourself over the last 300 episodes. Maybe a favorite guest that we've had on the show or a favorite moment or a moment when, you know, I shared some outtakes that reminded you that nobody's perfect. I want to hear from you. So send me a message over on Instagram. I'm @sallykoering_zimney_bemoved or send me a message over in the emerging Speaker Society and join me over there too, or pop over on my homepage and send me a note. Anyway, you can, you can find me. I'm kind of, I'm on the interwebs. It's not hard. It's not hard to find me, but I'd love to hear from you. And one final request I have before we wrap up is to, if you would be willing, if you haven't yet, to please head over and leave a rating and review. If you are loving this show and you appreciate all the value that I do my very best to pour into every week to you, I, I really appreciate a rating and review over there so that more people can find the show. And a really simple thing that you can do to help grow this movement of speakers so that we can get out of boring speaking— no thank you— to speakers who are embracing their authentic voice and using it to move their audience and move the world, well, we need to share so that more people can find it. So if you want to share something that I share on social, that would be awesome. Or take a screenshot if you're listening to this right now and post it on your favorite platform. Or maybe you just want to forward one of the emails. So if you're not on my email list, make sure you come join me. Over on the email list. If you download the Get Started with Speaking guidebook, you'll be on the email list. You could just forward one of the emails that you get. However, there's lots of ways to do it. But if you think of somebody in your life who wants to step out front as a thought leader, well, this is the place for them, and I'd love to help them take that step. All right, my friends, thanks for joining me here on the show. This moved me this week. What is moving you? Boop boop boop. Grateful for you guys. See you next week. I couldn't say that with seriousness. Without the Y, the message doesn't fly.