Intentional Movement: How to Use Your Body to Tell the Story | Ch. 37

Why, why, why, why, why, why, why?

Mother trucker.

Hey everybody, and welcome back to speaking story that we are moving through part by part, chapter by chapter here on the show. This moved me. Whether you are listening on YouTube or you are here in your podcast feed, we are— I am And by we, it's like, it's like the royal we. We, we are all excited that you're here, but really I am so jazzed that you're here. It's me. I'm so excited that you're here. And as you may know, if you've been with us, we are in the final part and the last few chapters of this free audiobook series that we've been sending your way. And we are on today, chapter 37. Wild.

And it's all about intentional movement.

And as you get into this chapter, I don't really tell the story, um, that gives you a peek into Sally in high school, but you do kind of see the Sally in high school in this. Oh, just with one little quick anecdote, and I just feel like it's, it might be worth it for me to share a little bit more of this story. Is holding up in opposition to each other. The, the speech Sally I learned to be because I happened to go to high school where I got access to the best speech coaches in the country, bar none, and probably the best. I'm just gonna say it. They are the best speech coaches in the country. Things are named after them. Everybody who is anybody in the speech world knows exactly who my coaches are. Hello, Pam Wyckoff. I see you. Her husband Joe and Scott Voss and his whole team. I mean, so, I mean, I could not, I could not have lucked out more by just simply, you know, being born where I was born and getting to go to— this was the public high school that I went to. And I am so grateful. I can't even tell you how grateful. And I learned so much and I became quite a poised and polished speaker. And I think if you saw me speaking in high school, and I say this in the book, I mean, if you saw me speak, you'd be like, wow, my gosh, Sally, you're so poised. The reality is I am not. I am not. I can be. I learned how to be, but like me in my natural state, I'm just a little bouncier and a little goofier. And so, uh, in theater, my theater world, helped me get more into my body and get a little bit looser in that training. And my— and Speech Sally learned finesse and precision and skill and technique. And being— the reality is, as presenters and as storytellers and as speakers, we oftentimes think that we have to show up like Beach Sally Koering Zimney, very intentionally specific, perfect, no mistakes, very polished, specific in my delivery and approach. And, you know, there are maybe some contexts in which that is the expectation, but most of the time I think that that idea gets in the way of us being our real true human selves. And here's why I think this matters when we talk about intentional movement. Because even when you're like, okay, I've got this beautiful script, how it shows up in our body and how we move is the way that we express it in your unique way, given your body and how you show up. And your quirks and the way your body moves and everything. Like, the body is the part with where the expression lives and through which we connect. And so this is just a reminder that we can be intentional. You can make some choices about your movement so it supports your message without you being choreographed. That's the difference we're making. This is not about choreography, it's about intentionality. And, uh, if you take away that little bit right there, that I don't have to be choreographed, I do not have to choose when and how I'm going to do every little thing, but maybe there are some moments that you want to make sure you're standing in a certain place for. Or a moment when you wanna make sure that your message is underlined in a specific way by the way that you deliver it, great. That is a very different approach than every, every moment and every beat being quantified. I actually think that it's in the way of a true connection with your audience. So we're trying to chart this middle ground professionalism and intentionality without getting into robotic, unfeeling, disconnected perfectionists that I honestly don't think anybody wants to see and nobody would care about. So there we go.

Boop boop.

All right.

I'm really excited for you on this, just to really underline this idea and to step into what it means to to really leverage intentional movement and step away from choreography. Alright, let's do this.

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 the Speaking Story audiobook is brought to you in part by the Be Moved Institute, what we also call B.M.I. And I want you to hear something from Tony, former Fortune 500 executive who came to me at a real turning point in his life and his message.

You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you're not clear, If you don't come through clearly, then none of that matters. But in the end, are you connecting? Are you really moving people? And that's what Sally teaches.

Tony also said that working together brought him, his words, out of the shadows and into the light. That is the work.

And here's the thing.

Leadership almost always comes with a microphone, a meeting, a board presentation, a conference keynote you didn't exactly volunteer for. And most leaders have never had anyone actually help them find their story, not just polish their slides. And that's exactly what I built the Unspeaker Simple Storytelling course for.

It's audio only, so you can do it on a walk or in your car.

It's $49, just enough to get you going. And it is the fastest way I know to help you find the leadership stories that are already inside you. You can get started at sally-zi.com/unspeaker. And when you're ready to go deeper, come find us at sally-zi.com/institute.

Now let's get into the chapter. Chapter 37: Intentional Movement. So how do we really use the stage intentionally? Without being choreographed robots. I was trained in the speaking world by some of the best coaches in the country. This is not an exaggeration. My high school speech team was, and still is, one of the top 10 programs in the country year after year. At my alma mater, there's a wall of fame where any student who makes it into the national final round of speaking gets their picture hung. When I was in high school, there were about a dozen of us on there. Now it's literally an entire wall. I mean, I'm kind of old, but that's still an incredible accomplishment. My high school speech team was formative for me. It taught me skills that I use today and every day. I learned the nuances, finesse, and polish that come from continued practice, precision, and repetition. But I will admit that the speech world can be a little choreographed at times. Partly because it's an artificial situation. There are rules and you're being judged. It's very formal. And it can be fairly stylized as well, depending on the category you're speaking in. I spoke in a few categories during that time: Dramatic Duo, where I do a scene from a play with another person; Drama, where I did a scene by myself as multiple characters; and Original Oratory, which is a very formal version of what I do today, an original persuasive speech around one socially relevant topic. Let's just say that Speech Sally was way more poised than regular old Sally. Speech Sally had her speech uber-memorized. I knew exactly when I was moving and what I was doing with my body. If you had watched me speaking in high school, you would've thought, wow, she's so poised. I used to hear that a lot. Compare that to regular old Sally Koering Zimney, who, true story, was walking down the high school hallway during class one day reading a handwritten note by my high school boyfriend— again, I'm old— and didn't notice the gate halfway down between sections of the school, and bam, I was flat on my back on the ground with a giant welt on my forehead. I learned how to be formal, poised, and finessed, and those skills can be really useful when the context calls for formal, poised, and finessed. But honestly, most of the time when we're speaking, the audience is looking for more of regular ol' Sally. It was a process to let go of the formality, precision, and choreography while still taking advantage of the finesse and polish that comes from experience and that level of coaching and expertise. But this entire book has been a nudge for you to be more you as you share your story, an encouragement to be courageously and boldly in your body as it is right now, a trees on the power of letting go of what we've always believed speaking to be, aka speech Sally, and embracing a new kind of speaking, one that is seeking a deeper connection and creation with the audience you're talking to. I would rather you be messy and real as you speak your story than perfect and polished. Perfect and polished doesn't move your audience. Real, whether messy or not, does. But we still have these bodies, and we have to learn what to do with them and how to use the space, which leaves us with this question: How can we be intentional without becoming speech Sally, aka a choreographed robot? Choreography is very specific, sometimes called blocking in the theater world. It's basically Do this at this exact time, move here at this moment, and do this with your arms. That's kind of what Speech Sally did. Ironically, choreographed speakers often look disembodied from their content, almost like they're moving through the motions. But intentionality simply implies there are moments where I'm gonna use the stage in a specific way. I'm gonna make some choices. I'm gonna pay attention to my body. I'm not just going to be unthinking wandering willy-nilly. I'm gonna bring some intention to these moments based on what the important internally driven moments are and what is actually happening in the room. Let's say you started in downstage center, which is typically a great place to start. As you shift into a new part of your story, you wanna move away from center stage, maybe to stage right. Now, when some people move, because they want to make sure that they're really connected to the audience, they turn their body and walk to stage right, but they keep their head facing out towards the audience. It's not very natural. I call it beauty queen walking. Beauty queens are great, but we are not beauty queens. I mean, we're beautiful, but you know. Instead, to be more intentional with your choice but not robotically choreographed, what I want you to do is turn and look at somebody who's sitting stage right. Then, while you take a few steps, you speak directly to that person. Once you've landed in stage right, turn and look out at the whole audience. The intention comes from directing your energy specifically rather than in a general direction and taking directed steps versus wandering. But it isn't choreographed as in, Take 3 steps, turn your body slightly, look at that person for 4 seconds, then use your right hand to gesture like so. No thanks. Talk about taking the fun out of the moment. What you're not doing is wandering slowly or quickly around the stage without intention or thought. You simply want to turn and look in the direction that you're moving toward, pick out somebody to talk to over there, which will help you feel connected, intentional, and grounded, and talk to them while you walk. Then you turn back out to the audience. You're not wandering. You are making a choice. If you cannot be intentional, it feels uncommitted. And if you cannot commit to the movement or the gesture, if you cannot commit to be intentional about your space in a specific way, people will not believe what you're saying or follow you in your thinking and in the story. People follow commitment.

That's the end of this chapter of Speaking Story. You can find the full audiobook ad-free on Audible or subscribe so that the next one drops right in your feed. And if anything in this chapter stirred something in you, that feeling of "I have more to say than I'm currently saying," that is the feeling I want you to follow. The Unspeaker Simple Storytelling course is $49, and it is literally like having me in your back pocket on a walk. So start there.

Go to sally-zimney.com/unspeaker. And when you wanna go further, we are here for you at sally-zimney.com/institute. All right, movers. This moved me. What is moving you?

See you next time.