Movers LIVE: How a Signature Talk Can Transform Your Business

Hey everybody, welcome to Your Movers Live. I'm so excited that you're here, and here's what I want you to know: creating a signature talk is not for the faint of heart. You probably know that because maybe you've tried, but I want you to know it's worth it. And so I'm gonna share with you in this live stream 3 ways that your signature talk can completely transform your business and, dare I say it, your life. Oh my gosh, so exciting! I'm so excited that you are here right now, and I hope that you are here. If you are here, if you're joining me live, type something in the comments. Let me know that you're here and where you're coming from. Throw out your questions questions into the comments. And if you are watching this over on YouTube later, not live, hit that subscribe button. Let me know, um, that you're new to me. Say something in the comments. I'd love to hear from you. That's what makes this so much fun. That's why we are doing this thing called public speaking, so that we can really connect with our audience. So really jazzed to be here. This is such an exciting week. There is so much going on and it's really all about signature talks because a signature talk is foundational for your business. If you want to grow your impact and your influence, then you need a signature talk. You just do. Because for the reasons I'm going to talk about today in this livestream, but it's essential to have in your back pocket. And for those of you who are new here or new to me, let me introduce myself. Hello, my name is Sally Zimney Zimney, and I'm a speaker coach, and I help purpose-driven entrepreneurs and changemakers like you leverage speaking in their business so that they can step on stage with more courage and clarity and finally leave self-doubt an obscurity in the dust. And, uh, I show up here once a week on our Move Your Audience Facebook page, which is about to get really active because next Monday we start our 5-day challenge. And the 5-day challenge is all about helping you get a jumpstart on your signature talk. It's gonna help you get clear on your talk topic, which is no small thing. Even if you think you're clear now, once you start, you tend to find out that you're not as clear as you thought you were. So we are going to help you save some time by getting clear on your talk topic and building your core messaging building blocks, uh, your key stories, the key pillars, and then your key point or key topic. So lots of keys. There's a lot of keys in that. We need a lot of keys if we're going to build our signature talk. Oh my gosh, so today is all about 3 ways that the signature talk can transform your business and leverage you, your voice, and your idea to grow your audience and have a bigger impact and influence. So it's really important Okay, uh, my favorite part is working with people. The favorite part of my job is learning about people, all kinds of people from all over the world, and learning about what they believe in, what they want to talk about, why they are here on this planet, because that's really what drives us. To create a signature talk, right? We wanted to grow our business, of course. We wanted to grow our audience. And there's really tactical, strategic reasons to have a signature talk, um, to do that, of course. But what often drives us out past, beyond our reservations, our nervousness, is a sense of purpose, a belief like a recognition that somewhere back in your brain you're like, I have something to say, there is something I want to do in this world. And so a signature talk is really a platform for you. Speaking is such a powerful platform. So even if you do not consider yourself a speaker right now, and most people who come to me know that speaking's powerful and they want to step into that space, but they are not— like, the goal in life is not to become a professional public speaker. I mean, it'd be great to make some money speaking, yes, but their goal is really around their business, and speaking is one of the avenues through which they grow their influence, they grow their audience, and they grow their impact. That's what we are doing with your signature talk. Now, before we dive into the 3 ways that a signature talk can transform your business and transform your life, uh, if you are watching this live today, October 8th, 2020, tonight is our Signature Talk Studio Showcase. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. So We are highlighting tonight 6 of my speakers from the STS Experience, which was this summer. We wrapped up in August, and part of creating something new. So if you are like, I, I want to create a signature talk at some point in the next year because I want to speak more, I want to grow my audience, I want to have a bigger impact, I want to be up on that virtual or real life stage, I have something to say, right? If that is you and you want a signature talk, well, uh, part of what you have to do is give yourself a deadline. You gotta give yourself a deadline because what I can tell you from experience is speaking is one of those things that most people will not do unless they get booked, they've got a deadline, somebody's counting on them. It's too easy to avoid, and there's a reason for that. It's because speaking pushes us, but it's so valuable, so worthwhile, so important. So we need a deadline, all right? And that is what I have done for my speakers in the Showcase. We've got the deadline. It doesn't mean that everybody's done, but it means that they are pulling out from themselves this little nugget they're going to share with you in the showcase tonight. Now, some of them are sharing their whole talk, some are sharing just part of it for all kinds of reasons. Um, we had a new baby was brought into the mix here in the last week. There's a lot going on in the world and in my amazing people's lives. And so, uh, for all kinds of reasons, everybody's coming with what they have, and I'm I am so proud of each and every one of them. I cannot even tell you. I got all choked up this morning as I was putting together the final slideshow for it and the slides and the PowerPoint and oh, so good. I'm so proud of them. If you're watching, I'm so proud of you. And later tonight I will be back here. I haven't decided If I'm gonna do it from my— this is my kind of my cozy spot. This is where I do a lot of recording and live streaming. I also have a teaching table where I, I do more of my workshops and speaking, like big keynote speaking. And this feels like a stand-up. And what I would tell my speakers is, of course, I want you to stand up, but it's really not about me tonight. I am just the conduit and the MC tonight, so, um, I kind of want to keep it cozy for me and keep shining the spotlight on my people, but we'll see. I haven't decided yet. If you have an opinion, let me know. Okay, so let's dive into the 3 reasons and the 3 ways that a signature talk can transform your business. Okay, so, um, first of all, having a signature talk in your back pocket allows you to say yes to the opportunities that come your way without panic. And panic And speaking, for most people, tends to go hand in hand. Now, it's not that you won't have any panic or any sense of, oh my gosh, here comes a deadline, because let's be real, life happens. And when you have a signature talk, it doesn't mean that you are not adapting it for different contexts. So know that it's not like total rinse and repeat, because I've heard rinse and repeat speakers. It's uninspiring. But 85% of what you create in your signature talk, you can depend on, lean on, come back to. You learn a format and a structure that allows you to kind of take, um, if this story doesn't work with this particular audience, you pull it out and pop in another one. So it's this really powerful framework that helps you say yes without panic because you have something. You're not recreating from scratch every time. Oh my gosh, who wants to be done recreating from scratch every time? And there's a reason why it's important that you have a signature talk rather than bending over backwards and recreating from scratch every time. Okay, it, it saves you time, of course, uh, and we are business people and we are, uh, we are entrepreneurs and we are dreamers and we got a lot going on. So yes, it's very important that we not be scrambling from scratch every time. And I'm going to share with you as we keep talking here other reasons why it's important that we have something in our back pocket that we can lean on and depend on. So beautiful. Okay, so number one is it allows us to say yes without panic. But the second reason that we want to have a signature talk and that it can completely transform your business is that it allows you to easily adapt your message and personalize your message. So You might get a request to do a 3-hour workshop. Okay, well, when you have your signature talk, you can— when you have your signature talk, that's your baseline, and then you adapt it and can add to it, right? If you have a 10-minute slot Right? You can look at that and take a 10-minute chunk of it out. If you do a podcast interview, it's like, you know what your core stories are, you know what your key content pillars are. You can take that, that you've developed, that you can trust, that you know has been crafted well, and you take that and adapt it to that particular context and situation. Oh my gosh. So powerful. I really— most of us have these things, right? Most of us are doing the work of adapting and personalizing our message because you have to, right? You cannot take one thing and apply it the same way every time. But this makes it so much easier because it's all right there and it's already been vetted through the process. Of what belongs in your signature talk and your signature message and what doesn't. And the truth is, most of us are probably circling around lots of things, and we just need to, to go through the process of filtering out what is our point of view and what isn't. What is it that I want to be known for? The process of creating signature talk helps you land on that. And one of my speakers, Kevin, who you'll hear from tonight on the showcase, was talking about how powerful it was for him because he has been responding to requests every time, like, what do you want me to talk about? Yep, I can talk about that. Yep, I can talk about that. It was all about his expertise. Right? But it's different. A signature talk, instead of looking outside, what does everybody else want me to talk about? The signature talk says, what is it that I have to say? Now, part of the process of deciding on your talk topic is thinking about what do you have to say that aligns with your business? Because of course they're aligned, right? If we're an entrepreneur or business owner, If we are building our own thing, it is aligned. We just need to make those connections because it will help your business grow and establish you as a thought leader at the same time. So powerful. Oh my gosh. And Kevin was really talking about how transformative it was for him to look on the inside. And ask himself, what is it that I have to say? And then we take that message that is very personal to us and we can then much more easily adapt it to whatever audience we're talking to. So powerful. Oh my gosh. Okay. And now the third reason and the third way that a signature talk can really transform your business is that it helps you become known as a thought leader because it is your beliefs, your point of view, your expertise, your stories. And because it's so personal, you are speaking from your own life. And of course, you're talk— you know, you're incorporating stories from other people as well. It's not just all about you. But it is you up there. You're the one who's standing up there and saying, this is what I know. And the courage that it takes to do that brings with it expertise, it brings with it admiration, it brings with it an acknowledgment of leadership. Thought leadership, and that's pretty powerful. So that's why a lot of people have a TEDx talk on their bucket list, because whatever happens with that TEDx talk, the fact that you have been sort of selected as a TEDx speaker says thought leader, this person has something to say. And so Defining your signature talk is like defining your point of view. Now I want to say this because sometimes when I say that, people are like, whoa, it's gotta encapsulate everything, it's gotta completely like be the talk. And the truth is, no one talk can encapsulate everything. It just can't do that. We're asking too much of our talks when we do that, especially because you might have a signature talk right now, and then in a year it's going to evolve a little bit and it'll adjust and change, partly because the world changes. I just noticed my earrings a little— there we go. Uh, so it's not a forever thing, and you might have multiple signature talks. You might have a signature talk for this piece and this piece, but a signature talk is a thought leadership, put you on the map moment. All right, and I know that that's part of why you are here. It's part of why you're doing what you're doing. And if you're here with me in the Move Your Audience Facebook group, or you are checking this out over on YouTube, if you're watching this You have a signature talk in you. I'm one of those people. I believe it. I believe it. And so now it is time for you to start creating it. And we've got some really cool things coming up in the next few weeks that will help you actually put this into action. So I mentioned tonight is the showcase here, um, on Facebook. It's over on the Be Moved Speaking Facebook page. So I'll put the link in the comments and, uh, in the description so that you can find us if you're watching this on October 8th. If not, you could always watch it on replay because it's gonna be awesome. So excited. I'll probably edit out those chunks and put them up on YouTube for my people. So good. Um, so yes, so that's tonight. I keep kind of getting distracted a little bit. 'Cause there's so much happening. I'm like, la la la. All right, Sally, focus. So Showcase tonight, then on Monday, oh my gosh, 5 days from now, on Monday we start the Jumpstart Your Talk Challenge. Okay, it's like the pre-work. It's the pre-work to actually creating your talk. And surprise, there's pre-work that has to happen. Now you can not do it and then sit down and work on your talk, and that's fine. It's just going to be a little more painful and a little more time-consuming. So we are going to shortcut that experience, and I'm going to guide you through that experience so that you can show up to the creative moment and go, I'm ready, I've got my stories, I've got my pillars, I've got my talk topic, and all of that is ready enough for me to go. Press go, sit down and press go. Okay, so that's where I'm going to get you by the end of next week. It's a jump start. And then together we are going to dive into the Signature Talk Studio. It opens on the 21st. So just know that I'm going to be inviting you into that. I would love for you to come along. The people you see in the showcase tonight went through that experience with me, and there's more. Those are not all of the folks that went through it, but Those are, um, really the people who were like, I'm ready, let's do this. And so I'm so happy to give them a platform to share their talks with you. And it was an experience. It was amazing. I can't wait. And I want you to come join me in it too. Okay. All right. So showcase tonight, challenge starting on Monday and the next week. We start bringing you in to the sh— to the Signature Talk studio. Might need a nap before the showcase tonight, team. Oh my gosh, so exciting. I am thrilled that you are here, my movers in Move Your Audience. I see you. Thanks for coming. And I'll see you guys Tonight at the showcase. Have a great night. Bye.