What to Do BEFORE You Write Your Talk

In today's video, we are going to look at 3 things that you need to do before you even sit down to write. Don't just sit down and write. Don't just kind of hope that inspiration comes from the heavens. Sometimes that happens, but most the time there's a little pre-work that we've got to do. Unless you want to waste your time— we don't want to do that, of course you don't want to do that— watch this video and learn a better way. Hey everybody, my name is Sally Koering Zimney. I'm a speaker coach at Be Moved, where our mission is to create talks that move the world. I help purpose-driven entrepreneurs and changemakers like you leverage speaking in your business so that you can grow your impact and your influence. You can unleash your authentic voice, step on stage with courage and clarity, and finally leave self-doubt and obscurity in the dust. And as always, I would love to have you come along for the ride with me here at Be Moved. So if you want weekly inspiration and insight and tips into how you can move your audience more effectively, hit that subscribe— I always do that wrong— oh, there it is! Hit the subscribe button down below where there's a bell or something, I think.

I don't know, I'm kind of new to this, but Just come along for the ride.

It's gonna be fun. So here is the experience I have with most of my speakers when they come to me wanting to write a talk, because that's what I do with them. I help them write the talk and then I help them deliver the talk, and then they go and wow people and it transforms their life. I'm not even being dramatic here. But first they come to me wanting to write their talk and they've got an idea or they've got kind of a topic, this big, big, big idea. But let's say they come to me and say, I wanna write a talk about the importance of eating organic food. Cool.

Okay.

And as we're talking, I'm thinking, is this about buying it? Is this about the impacts of organic food on the body? Is this about health benefits? Is this about the industry, about farming practices? Is this about labels, about natural food versus organic food? Is this about nutrition or dietetics? Or—

you guys, I just riffed on that.

I don't know anything about organic food except It's in the grocery store and I buy it when I can. Okay, okay, Sally, I get your point. I want it to be about buying organic food. Okay, is it about where to buy it, how to buy it? Farmers markets? Is it about farmers and the impact of buying organic food on farmers and imperfect produce? It could be about a million things. And you're like, oh yeah, yeah, you're right. It's about the importance of buying organic food at the farmers market. Awesome. Is it about the impact on the farmer's life? Is it about the people who go there? About what it says about them, about us as a country? Is it about the things that you can get there? Like what to get there, the best things to get there, when you can get them there? Hmm. So imagine you coming to me as an expert and you have now a million things that you wanna say. 'Cause the reality is, especially when we are developing our signature talk, we find ourselves in this moment where we're like, we want this one talk to say everything that we believe in, to encapsulate everything. So I'm just gonna tell you right now, it can't, and we don't want it to. We want it to share one powerful idea, and of course we want that one idea to like hit right on the nose of who you are, what you believe in, what this is all about. Gotta do a lot for us. It's got to be a heavy lifter, but we don't want to just throw in the kitchen sink. That is a big, big problem, and it won't help you. It's not gonna be a good talk. Most of the time people come to me and they have a talk, but really it's several talks are in the talk. And when that happens, we miss out on creating a really pointed, memorable, clear talk that moves our audience, makes a difference, that helps us become known as a thought leader around one idea. So topic clarity is really, really important. It's essential not just for our business and for the impact we want to have, but also creating an effective talk. Like, on the little scale, we've gotta narrow it down. We're gonna get really really clear. Now, before we can do that, there are a few things we have got to do.

Now, I had some amazing speakers with me in the Signature Talk Studio Experience this past summer. Really incredible people. But too many of them got stuck in the ideation module, which is module number 1. Now, they came in ready to create a talk but didn't have a clear enough idea on what they wanted to do their talk on. They needed a clearer talk topic. And so, so to do that, I'm opening up a free Facebook group called Move Your Audience. Now, this free Facebook group, we're going to be talking about all things Move Your Audience, but in particular, we are going to be getting geared up for a 5-day challenge that's going to take place in there the beginning of October, and it is all about helping you get clear on your talk topic. Now, even if you don't join us in the studio, which is okay— I hope you will, but Even if you don't, that's gonna be super powerful information for you because it's going to help you use your voice in all kinds of different ways. Link is below. I want you to come join us in the group, join us for the challenge so that you can get clear on your talk topic. Before you can even do that, so we're like, back it up, back it up, back it up, back it up, back it up. Okay, yes, we're back. Before you can even do that, there's 3 things. That you need to do so that you can get clear on your talk topic. And the first thing is to reflect. Yes, I want you to reflect. I want you to reflect on who you are. I want you to reflect on your business. I want you to reflect on your audience, to spend some heart time with all of those ideas. Developing a talk, if you want it to move people, if you want it to have an impact, if It's deep business. It's gonna challenge you. It's going to ask you to reveal some truths that maybe you haven't been thinking about. You're gonna get really clear on your particular point of view and what your audience in particular needs and what they need right now. And of course, we want that to help elevate your business as well. That's pretty powerful trifecta if you can find the space that hits on all of those things. But to do that, you've got to create some time and space to reflect. So I was on a call with 3 of my students from STS from the summer, and I asked them, if you could choose one word to describe the process of creating your signature talk, what would it be? And their 3 words were developing— in other words, it developed them personally— empowering, and catalytic. Dang, catalytic.

Lilith, I love that.

Now these are big words. These are words about change and transformation that reveal some depth, my friends. And there is a reason why those words are all about personal development, because it took some reflection to get there, my friends. That's why, oops, wrong way. That's why it's number 1. You need to reflect, make some time and space to reflect before you sit down for topic clarity. Now, I have some awesome exercises that can help you in the process of getting clear on your talk topic and making space for you to reflect. So if you want some of these exercises, I hope you'll join us over in the Facebook group. Go to bemoove.com forward slash, what did I just say? Go to bemoove.com/jumpsuit. Start Kit, because it's going to help you jumpstart your next talk. Mm, awesome. Now, some resources that are gonna help you along the way. Number 1, if you haven't yet taken the Speaking Superpower Quiz, I hope that you will. Go to bemoove.com/speaking-superpower-quiz, and it's gonna help you get a little clearer on how you show up, how you use your voice, and how you can bring that more effectively out into the world. Also, there is a whole series of videos on my YouTube channel, which I'm assuming you're there right now, so like somewhere around here. There's a playlist. In that playlist, it's gonna help you take a little deeper dive into your results and how you can bring them to life. And then of course there's the Jumpstart Kit. bmoove.com/jumpstartkit. And we're gonna help you jumpstart your talk. All right, now the second thing that you need to be doing before you can even sit down and think about topic clarity is to get and stay inspired. We can't just create brilliance out of nothing. Like, we have to fuel our soul, fuel our mind, fuel our hearts. It is a constant job. When we sit down to write our talk and we're like, um, I gotta figure out what I want to write about, like, you can't just demand the genius to show up in the room. You've got to cultivate it and bring it because you never know what's going to find you. But if you start going out and looking for it, on a consistent basis, not just when you are under the pressure of a writing deadline, because that's hard to be awesome in the writing deadline, but if you're doing it consistently and you find ways that fuel you and bring you brilliant ideas and quotes and data and stories and you look for them and it fuels your creativity, then when it comes to the moment where you've got to sit down and start putting this into action, you've got something to work from. Now the trick here is to be collecting and capturing all of the time. That's right, all of the time. And what I would say is don't turn off things that have nothing to do with your talk because sometimes we find the most insight and brilliance in parallel ideas that are not directly related to our talk topic. Talk, but that might be an insightful metaphor or meaning in a fun new way, or a novel idea exists parallel to your talk topic. So don't just be looking here. Kind of open up your blinders a little bit and take the inspiration where you see it, where you can go find it, in all kinds of different ways. Now, the third idea that I want to make sure that you are doing before you sit down to get clear on your talk topic is to gather all of that inspiration, to gather up your notes, to gather up your ideas, and to bring them close to you so that you have them there. I want you to find the things that move you, right? That is, that is what we're trying to do. We are all about moving our audiences, and how we'll know that our audiences will be moved is if it moves us. So we've got to pay attention to how things strike us and how they feel. So sometimes, and you know, it's sometimes we just get so used to our own brilliance that— our own brilliance— but sometimes we get so used to the inspiration and the ideas that are around us all the time that we kind of forget how incredible they are. So sometimes it's good to just put some things away, but when you come back to them and you start gathering them up and you're looking through your notes and you're like, I love that story, I forgot about that story. Oh my gosh, or oh, I forgot about that data point. Oh my gosh, look at this vision board. Whatever it is, you have probably, hopefully been collecting and capturing things all the way along, and now it's time to gather them up and put them in front of you so that you can look for patterns. Look for what feels most needed right now for your audience, for your business, and for you. Now remember, this is an exploration. This whole process is truly an exploration and it requires time and effort. Sometimes it requires anti-effort. You know what I mean by that? Like sometimes inspiration only strikes when we step away from it. So that's why we've got to make time and space to reflect and to let our brain wander a little bit. We're gonna reflect, we're gonna look for ways to get and stay inspired and we're gonna gather all those things together so that they are there for us when we need them. Now, if you have found this conversation helpful and you want to do a deeper dive into your talk topic clarity, I hope you will join us at boommoved.com/jumpstartkit. It will give you exercises that you can do. It's gonna give you access into this Facebook group where you can take part in in our Talk Topic Clarity Challenge. It's gonna get you ready to dive in and finally create that signature talk because I know you want to utilize speaking to leverage your business and to create a bigger impact and to grow your influence. And I think those are important enough things right there. Okay, so I will see you at bemoove.com/talk Jumpstart Kit. So great to see you here. Thanks for joining me here on Be Moved by Sally Koering Zimney Z, and I will see you next week with another video all about how to create a talk that will move this world.