MoversLIVE: How to find your origin story

Switch it up, switch it up, switch it up. Where I'm going, stay on the fly. Just in time for the right way to go. I'm on the road, it's my time. Taking control of my life. I want to run the red lights. I've got to run this show. You always take me so high. You always make the highlights. I love the way we vibe up. You're like a xenophone.

Hello, hello, hello everybody!

How are you?

I hope doing great. Oh my gosh, let's do this! Welcome to our Thursday Movers Live. We're going live now in 3 places, so Let me know where you're at. Hiya, says someone on Facebook. I'm so glad that you're here. So we are live in the Move Your Audience Facebook group. We are live over on LinkedIn. Hello to LinkedIn. And we're live on YouTube. Technology is cool. Let me just say that. I'm so thrilled to be here with you today and to talk about origin stories. And I want to share with you a moment— hi, Jen— I want to share with you a moment with one of my clients many years ago. They hired me to help them, of course, tell their story of this amazing organization that they have where they work with people with disabilities to help them really use the power of the creative arts painting, dancing, music, acting to communicate more clearly, to be more connected. And it's an incredible organization. I love this organization. Well, of course, as they were out speaking, what I wanted them to share was their origin story, the why behind what they do. And it was about their son, Caleb. And the story of Caleb was the heart of their messages moving forward for probably a good year as people were starting to get to know their organization, to understand why their work mattered so much. And that is the beauty of the origin story. It reveals to everyone your why. It helps people connect with and create meaning, not just in a theoretical concept, but what does it look like for real? And the origin story is a beautiful way to connect with your audience because when you tell it well, they feel resonance. Okay, so we are gonna talk today, we're gonna spend some time today talking a little bit about How to find your origin story. Now, a few things about stories. When I talk about the power of stories in your business, I categorize them in a few different ways. I think there are 3 types of stories that you can lean on in your business and in your speaking more, and they're, they're important. So let's go over the 3 big ones for you.

Okay.

And because I've got my iPad, connected in, we're gonna get, we're gonna get kind of workshoppy here. Okay. We're gonna look at the 3 types of stories. One of them is origin, but we've also got a few others. Oh, let's not use that. We also have your everyday story. Okay. Those are the stories of the things that are happening around you every day. Now our lives are rich. There are story moments happening all the time. Are you tapping into them? These are really powerful, especially when you're on social and when you're launching, when there are those moments where you're like, okay, I want to leverage the power of story and connect people in, create meaning from those everyday moments. Okay? The everyday story is really powerful. We also can lean on our customer stories. Okay? Our customer stories are so important because Your customer story helps your audience say, "Oh yes, I recognize that. I've been in that situation before. You've helped that person, you can probably help me too." So your customer stories are the easiest to tell. They're the easiest to lean on because it's not about you. And I don't know about you, but there's lots of my speakers out there who are like, Yeah, but who am I? And my everyday life is boring. When you're thinking about everyday stories, but the customer stories, lean on those. They're easy to tell, but you can't just do these two things. These are important. Your everyday story is important. Your customer story is important. But if you do not embrace the origin story, and I'm gonna say stories. Your origin stories are the heart for people believing in what you believe in. So it is your purpose in action. So when I think about the origin story, what we're really talking about with an origin story is where did it begin? Where did it begin? And I want you to think about origin stories as the moment where things started behind any idea that you have. It's not just the big origin story behind your business, which is so important to have, but there is an origin story behind every single idea or statement that you believe in. Every moment, every meaningful part of your business, there is an origin story behind that. So I am often like, you know, blowing people's minds about, I'm like, speaking, speaking is everything. Speaking is when you're literally talking to more than just one person. That is a speaking moment and origin stories exist Everywhere. People tend to just lean on the origin story as like you've got one origin story in your business. I don't believe that. I think of an origin story as just where something began, where anything began. So right now I want you to think about a message that you need to be sharing with your audience. Okay? Let's think about the next time. That you are out in front of your audience. And now, once you do that and you've identified what that message is, what is the story that shows where that idea came from? Where did it all begin? Of course, that is the origin part of it. Where did it all begin? Okay, what I want to share with you in our quick live in the next 10 minutes is I wanna share with you 3 questions to think about and ask yourself that will help you identify an origin story for yourself, okay? So because as you identify these origin stories, they become core to your messages. They become the heart of a talk. They become the heart of you going live. They become the heart of how you are able to turn and face your audience and focus on connection rather than just focusing on all of your smarty expertise. We as movers, we're leaning into moving our audience, which means we're shifting away from just focused on expertise mode. We are leaning into stories so that we can really move our audience. Okay, so origin stories. What I want you to think about, if you're like, I'm not sure about an origin story, I'm not sure even where to start with this, I want you to think about a moment where you realized something critical to your business. Think about those pivot moments where it was like, oh, maybe you found a new way of doing something. Maybe you helped your, uh, a customer of yours realize something. Then you're like double dipping in your customer story and your origin story, but that's Fine. That is just tapping into two powerful things, right? So what is a moment that you realized something? For me, I think about one of the concepts that I share with my audience a lot is this idea of instead of rehearsing, we kind of throw out the concept of rehearsing and we talk about the stumble through. We embrace the stumbly awkwardness of a stumble through. And the moment I realized that we needed to change the way I think about that was with a client of mine. And they were showing up to our rehearsals, having rehearsed in ways that were not helpful for them. And I was like, whoo-hoo, no, no, no. I want you to show up with me in the messiest way because that's where we can create change. That's where we can start to shift your approaches and transform form the way that you speak. But if you just show up wanting to impress me, I'm never gonna see what's hard for you. I'm never gonna be able to shape the way that you are showing up and speaking. So instead, I want you to show up and stumble with me. I wanna help you learn how to move through those stumbles. We're gonna do that together. So that story, is the origin story behind the idea of my, uh, stumble-through approach as a coach. So what is a moment that you realized something? The moment is your origin story. Now, once we've identified the moment, we haven't necessarily, uh, like grappled with how to tell it well and when to tell it, but you starting to build out a library of powerful origin stories that you can then show up and share with your audience, depending on what it is that you wanna offer them. Yes. Okay. So we've got our first, um, first thought concept here, the moment that you realized something. Okay. Now I want you to think about a moment when you felt the harm of something. So for a lot of people, the reason why you started your business is because you experienced something that harmed you. Maybe that's an origin story that you need to share. What is a moment where you felt harm? I'm thinking of one of my amazing speakers who was just here with us. A moment where she felt harm inspired her to say, it can't be like this anymore. We've got to do things differently. And it started her journey. Now the harm moment is sometimes very difficult to tell, and there's a lot we have to navigate with harm stories, but this harm story is the origin of action for you. It's the origin of an idea. It's the origin of incentive. It's the origin of momentum. It's the origin of purpose. For you. So what is a moment where you felt some harm and what did you do about it, right? That might be the origin story that your audience needs to hear right now. Or maybe it's a moment where you saw change, experienced change for yourself, right? I think about moments where I've been sitting in an audience, and I felt moved, where I thought, "Ah, I'm never gonna look at this the same way again." That experience for me is part of my origin for why I do what I do in the way that I do it. I have lots of moments of change. I have lots of moments of harm. I have lots of realization moments, which is awesome. You don't have to just have one origin story. Every idea that you have, every moment of change, every moment of harm, every moment where you realized is an origin story for something, depending on what it is that you wanna communicate to your audience. Does that make sense? So these are not the only moments that could inspire an origin story. I think these are some of the biggest ones: a realization moment, a harm moment, a change moment where you experience change, where you saw some kind of change happen. All of these are about moments that have moved you in some way. Way. It's part of the reason why my approach is about moving your audience. It's part of the reason why we talk about, as speakers, our own movement, our own development as people, as humans. Because when we are paying attention to what is moving us, it's a powerful content development necessity for us to be inspired like that. But it's also the way in which we can show up in the moment and do something transformative for somebody else. Your origin story is often personal, it's often vulnerable, uh, and when we can show up and share that, we're tapping into some of the most important ingredients required to connect with and move your audience, for them to feel resonance. For them to have a sense of your why, your purpose, and does that align with them? Those pieces are part of the magic of stories. They're part of the reason why stories are so, so powerful. Tapping into your meaning, tapping into your purpose, tapping into resonance. So I hope these help you. Identify a few more stories, a few more origin stories in particular that you can share. And on— oh my gosh, I just panicked and was like, wait, is it this week? I have no idea what day it is today, clearly. But next Thursday, we have our free Story Impact event, and I would love for you to come and join us. It is a free virtual half-day event. We're not going to dig into the details like this, but we, what we are going to do is I'm gonna give you time to actually start developing some stories that can be the heart of your business, the heart of your speaking. Because if you are in business, and you are, here you are, if you want to lead, if you have a message to share, then you need stories to help you do that in the most effective way possible. Stories are the key to moving your audience. And so, uh, next Thursday, a week from today, we'll be wrapping up. It's from 8:00 AM to noon Central Time. Like I said, it's a free registration. You can do it right here, bemoved.com/storyimpact, and come join us. It is part inspiration, it is part information, right? I'm gonna give you some awesome tools, and then it's part workshoppy. We're gonna have you pull out a pen and paper. I'm gonna have you really start doing the creation of it so that you have the clarity and the courage to leverage the power of story in your speaking, to lean into it and truly do something transformative. That's what it's all about. All right, friends, thank you so much for being here. It's great to have people from all three platforms here with us today. Hello, hello! So jazzed that you're here. Say hello in the comments. If you have questions for me, reach out. I am here for you. But next Thursday, come join us for the Story Plus Impact event. Free, virtual half day. I've got some amazing speakers joining us. One of them who was here for a little bit, I don't know if Jen is still here. Jen Whitmer is joining us. Diana, uh, Wei Fang is joining us. I'm so jazzed to have Diana here. And Molly Ballant is coming as well. So, oh my gosh, amazing people. We are going to lean into all different aspects of the speaking part of your business. So right now, if you're like, I don't really have a speaking part of my business, you need to come. We'll help you get that going. If right now you've got some of that going but you aren't really leveraging it yet, let me know. We will do that together, um, and I'm gonna help you take the next step in your speaking. And if stories are not a part of how you're doing that right now, we're gonna change that together next week. All right, thanks everybody for being here, um, and I'll see you very soon. See you next week, 8 AM. Grateful you're here. Have a great rest of the day, everybody.

Bye-bye.