In this podcast‑style reading of Chapter 1 from her book Speaking Story, Sally Koering Zimney explains why stories are the most powerful vehicle for change. She opens with a vivid memory of speaking to a restless 150‑student 7th‑grade gym, where her usual performance‑based approach failed to engage the teens. In that moment she pivoted to a personal story about a student named John, whose courageous admission of feeling hurt transformed the classroom atmosphere and demonstrated the magnetic pull of narrative. Zimney then broadens the lesson, recounting her own activism during Minnesota’s 2012 same‑sex‑marriage ban, describing how sharing the love story of a same‑sex couple (Stephanie and Morgan) helped humanize the issue and contributed to the ban’s defeat. Throughout, she argues that stories are the currency of empathy, connection, and revolution—essential for any leader, speaker, or mover seeking to shift minds, whether in a school, boardroom, or societal movement. The episode also promotes her Unspeaker Simple Storytelling Audio Course and the Be Moved Institute’s two‑day leadership experience, inviting listeners to deepen their storytelling toolkit. The piece ends with a call to action, urging listeners to reflect on what moves them.
Chapters
Brain science is cool, and that's why we use some brain science. Hello, hello, hello, amazing movers. That's you. You're listening to this. You are a mover. Welcome to the Speaking Story audiobook, available to you completely free right here on the podcast, on YouTube. Every week we drop another part of the book, Speaking Story. That was written by me, Sally Koering Zimney. I am a keynote speaker, a coach, and an author of this book called Speaking Story. I'm making sure that you can get it for free right here. The ad-free version will be over on Audible, so you can always go over there. But one of the things that's cool about doing this here on this podcast feed and on YouTube is that I get to give you just a little bit of context about what each of these sections what it means because the truth is the book is a few years old and the audiobook is also a few years old, and the world has changed just a little bit. So my role here as the speaking coach, really that is the perspective that I bring to this book and to this audiobook and this time together, It is a bit of an obsession of mine that I cannot escape. I truly cannot move through life anymore without thinking about how we can move each other. Picture this: 150 or so 7th graders, a smelly gymnasium, because that is what happens when you get 150 adolescents in the same room together, and me trying to convince an entire class, teenagers or almost teenagers, to treat each other with more kindness and respect. Despite, at that point, despite me already being an award-winning speaker and obsessing over the beauty of my script, I could not pull them in. The way I needed to if I wanted my message to land. And I tell you about that moment in this chapter, and that moment changed everything I thought I knew about speaking. And it's truly where, not just where this book begins, but where my journey in discovering why stories are so powerful began. And why I'm here, why you're here. So I always think fondly of those 7th graders who at one point just looked at me like, "What are you talking about, lady?
Move along.
Hurry up. We're bored. We don't care. We don't care, lady, what you're talking about." It was what I needed to get past the performance and say something real.
So let's dive in. Hey everybody, and welcome to This Moved Me, a podcast about creating talks that move the world, with me, your host, Sally Koering Zimney. This complimentary listening of this speaking story audiobook is brought to you in part by the Be Moved Institute, or as I lovingly refer to it, BME. Leadership almost always comes with a microphone, movers, whether that's a meeting, a presentation, a tough conversation, a keynote conference opportunity that you have.
I mean, even if you would never call yourself a speaker or a storyteller, you are one.
You just might not have the tools that you need yet. Or the support that you need yet. And that's why I created the Unspeaker Simple Storytelling Audio Course. It's like having me right alongside you on your walk or in the car on your commute, and it guides you through simple, powerful exercises to find the leadership stories that are already inside you and that will move your people. It's $49, but It's truly priceless, and I'm really excited to give you the opportunity to come join me over there. All you have to do is head to sally-koering-zimney.com/unspeaker to get started. And while you're there, join the waitlist for the Be Moved Institute, an incredible 2-day experience where we are giving corporate leaders the tools to present with power and clarity and authenticity and support. Now let's get into the chapter. Chapter 1: Stories are the Tool. The stories we tell literally make the world. If you want to change the world, Then you need to change your story. Michael Margolis. I was standing up in front of about 150 7th graders. It was as smelly as you might think and as frustrating and as difficult, but it was also so much fun. 7th graders are the most amazing combination of heartbreaking and uplifting, and I love speaking to them because if you can win their trust, they will go with you 100%. I was speaking for Youth Frontiers, a national youth-serving organization, and it was our job to show up and convince an entire class of teenagers to treat one another differently. We talked about big universal ideas like kindness, courage, and respect in large group activities, small group conversations, and two 20-minute TEDx-style talks. It was a week of camp all jammed into one day. That day I was speaking about courage. As you can imagine, 7th graders are not so into courage, although I think it takes a lot of courage to be a 7th grader. I remember standing at the front of the packed gym, microphone in hand, feeling this sense of disconnect. The students were squirrely, looking behind me, turning to their neighbors, just being really chatty. I was pouring my heart into these big ideas, and I wanted so badly for them to take in these messages. But in that moment, it was painfully obvious that they didn't give a crap about courage yet. They didn't really know what it looks like. They didn't know what impact it could have on their lives. They didn't know why it would ever be worth the risk. And why should they care? My simply telling them to care is just another adult telling them what to do without showing them why they should do it. Every parent on the planet eventually learns this hard lesson. And these 7th graders were not with me. So I made a game-time call. I skipped past the next 5 minutes of what I'd planned to share, which were some seriously powerful one-liners that they weren't going to listen to anyway, and jumped right into a story about John. John was a student I had met a few weeks back at a different event. He was one of those kids who was so excited to spend the day with us. He came in with so much energy and a positive spirit, and as an adult, I was like, "Aww, what a sweet kid." I immediately loved him. But thanks to the unique perspective I had from the front of the room, I also noticed that John was alone a lot. He sat by himself during lunch. Nobody would sit with him when we gathered in a large group. I had a feeling that John was having a rough time at school and didn't have a lot of friends. At the end of this retreat experience, we invited the students to walk into the center of the room and share how they're gonna act with courage more in their lives. The first student to get up was John. He walked to the middle of the room, picked up the microphone, looked around at his classmates, and said with a shaking voice, "I hear what you all say about me. I want you to know that it hurts, and my act of courage is to ask you to please stop." And the whole feel of the room changed. Talk about an act of courage! John's classmates responded in the most beautiful way by supporting him, making commitments to change, and even being more present with him. It was a remarkable moment that I will never forget, which is exactly why I decided to share that story with my squirrely 7th graders. As I talked about John and his act of courage, our whole room changed. The students were quiet and leaning in. I could almost see their brains processing, empathizing, thinking, wondering, "If that was me, would my classmates respond like that? How would I respond if the John in my class got up and did that?" I felt the sense of focus and commitment, and I thought, "Wow, story is so Powerful. It became clear to me in that moment that story is how we get those big, beautiful, important ideas into the 7th graders' hearts and minds, even when they are initially resistant. Without story, our messages don't have a chance. Whatever change you want to make, whether it's a new product, a new program, a different way of being, a new policy, an innovation, or a stand you want to take, The revolution or change you want to make needs the tool of story to work. Take, for example, the rapid pace of change in the realm of LGBTQ+ rights over the last two decades. That change was fueled, very intentionally, by stories. Here in Minnesota, where I grew up and am now raising my own family, there was a proposed ban on gay marriage during the 2012 midterm elections. At the time, I had 3 young kids, and I felt deep within me that I wanted to protect the rights of my LGBTQ+ friends and family. So one day, between toddler music classes and storytime, I took my littles to the Say Yes to No office to grab a yard sign to proudly display my support. Now, I have strong feelings about things, but I'm also a proud Minnesotan and a do-getter and people pleaser, and well, I don't like conflict. I don't love the inherent divides that are created when we publicly say, "This is what I believe" through a sign or a button because, of course, humans are more complex and nuanced than what most signs or buttons can fairly communicate. It puts us into distinct camps against one another instead of finding common ground. But on this issue, I knew I needed to overcome my desire to moderate and people-please in order to protect the LGBTQ+ community. So I grabbed that sign and explained to the kiddos that we would be putting it in our yard because love is love, and if two women or two men love each other, they should be able to get married to show their commitment, and the world should understand their commitment to each other as well. You know Stephanie and Morgan?
I asked my kids.
Yes, they love our friends Stephanie and Morgan. They love each other and deserve to get married, I said, just like me and Daddy. They get that. Mom and Dad are married and they love each other. Morgan and Stephanie love each other, so why can't they get married? It's the universal love story of two people wanting to commit their lives to each other and to have the world recognize and understand their level of commitment. As we were leaving the office, one of the workers handed us a flyer encouraging us to talk to others about why we support stopping the ban. On the flyer, they shared their core strategy, and it went something like this: Share your stories. Share about the people in your life who are and have been affected by laws like this. Share your values around marriage and how those values are the same ones that lead heterosexual couples to want to get married. In other words, it was asking us to tell the love stories of these folks because underneath the categories and divisions is the same story. We met. We fell in love. We longed for a deeper commitment, and we invited the world to recognize that commitment as we build our life together. Minnesota defeated the ban on gay marriage, thanks in part to story. That same approach has been used again and again to humanize issues where people stand staunchly in disparate camps. The more stories we tell, the more change happens. Because once you know the story of Stephanie and Morgan, you recognize your own love story in theirs. And though that particular story is about love, this is not squishy stuff we're talking about. Stories are at the heart of every idea and human aspiration that has ever existed. Behind the mission to Mars? Story. Behind every fictional and nonfictional writing project? Story. Behind your bold new idea? A story. Stories are the currency of empathy, connection, resonance, and trust. Stories can create and dissolve business partnerships, tap into innovation, or alienate and exclude through fear. Stories are the tool of the revolution, whatever revolution you're working on. Whether your world is 157th graders, a business conference room, the TEDx stage, your words and stories are what will move it. That's the end of this chapter of Speaking Story. If you want to keep listening ad-free, you can find the full audiobook on Audible or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube. And if this chapter stirred something in you, if it, shall we say, moved you, let me suggest that you start with the Unspeaker Simple Storytelling Audio Mini Course. At Sally-Koering Zimney.com/unspeaker. All right, movers, this moved me.
