This Moved Me

Matt Abrahams is a passionate, collaborative and innovative educator, author, and coach. He is a lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business where he teaches two very popular classes in Strategic Communication and Effective Virtual Presenting. Additionally, Matt is a professor of communication at De Anza College and an adjunct faculty member for Stanford University’s Continuing Education Program. Also, Matt coaches entrepreneurs from around the world on pitching their ideas as part of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business’s Ignite Program. Matt is especially interested in applying communication knowledge to real-world issues. In service of this goal, he published Speaking Up Without Freaking Out, a book written to help people present and communicate in a more confident, connected, and compelling manner. On the show, Matt and I talk about some key strategies to calm your body down so you can speak with more confidence and clarity - a need for ALL of us, not just the newbies or introverts. No

Speakers! If you speak at events - or pull together events - or attend events! - then you know that HOW an event comes together is really important. And it's way more complicated than most people think... I'm currently in Milwaukee doing a fundraising event with an awesome team of people who have consistently created and produced some of the most beautiful, stunning and powerful events I've ever had the privilege of being a part of. And so I've invited these 'all-star' event people into the conversation with me today about how to pull off a spectacular event program! Meet: Todd Hansen - producer and performer - who knows the ins and outs of doing this work well. And Sarah Gillund, communications guru - who oversees the consistent and beautiful messages that the audience experiences from the first moment to the last. (We're not talking table centerpieces. Just not my expertise, and I happily hand off front-of-house stuff to someone else) as much as we're talking about what happens 'on stage.') A good event can

AmyK Hutchens is a speaker, teacher, trainer, entrepreneur and business strategist - and spends most of her year traveling around the globe speaking about leading a more productive and profitable life. She's a business and life coach whose job is to teach from the stage! She's got dozens of impressive accolades that clearly state she is a powerhouse - both on and off the stage. But I love that AmyK came to me from a referral from my friend and guest here on This Moved Me, Jenny Evans. Jenny insisted that AmyK would be great - and she was! We talked about how we as leaders can't just shove the message we think our audience NEEDS down their throats; no, we have to wrap that needed message in what they want:

You wrote a shitty first draft. Congrats! Then you walked away. AWESOME! Now... now what? What do we do?   You've still got the kitchen sink, and it's all swirly-whirly and NOT CLEAR. How do we get a little closer to CLEAR??   Here's what you do:    

You've written a "shitty first draft" of your presentation. Congratulations! That's huge.   But now what?   Tune in for Part Two of this three part series to figure out how to jump-start your talk with content that resonates, engages and is authentically grounded in your story. 

How do you write the best (worst) first draft of your presentation? Along with being a theater major in college, I was also an English major. I loved loved loved being on stage (I know), but I also loved to write. Little did I know I was basically creating for myself the building blocks of my life now. All I knew then was that I loved them both and didn’t want to choose. (Funny how I rejected the idea of being a communications major. Nope, didn’t want that.) Anyway - I remember sitting in what was infamously known as being a really difficult writing class with Sister Mara. (It was a small liberal arts catholic college.) Sister Mara was a really tough grader - but a brilliant mentor and guide. The assignment was to come up with a metaphor for the process of writing… You guys - I LOVE METAPHORS! They are the best... so meaty, and you can create and assign so much meaning in them… and to me, that’s the best kind of meaning to find… in layers of other things, because it helps us FEEL those ideas more? - ya know?

Today I want to talk with you about audience. How do we prepare our content fora  particular audience?   It means that you are preparing a talk for a particular audience… and there are a few questions that I like to ask myself about my audience so make sure that it resonates..   That is the goal… When our content resonates - it connects. And that’s the whole point!   Resonance and connection is what we’re going for.   Our audience at its very core needs to believe that we know and understand what they’re going through, what they’re struggling with, why there there…   And then we need to have a clear understanding about how we in parciutlar can ease their way a little bit.   What is the thing that you can offer to them that attends to one of the things they’re struggling with.     We’r looking for the venn diagram of audience and speakers- where they and you you connect.   It has nothing to do with being similar - you don NOT have to be the same person or have the same experience in ANY WAY - In fact, if you'r

John Bucher – a very difficult to define man of many talents (and he likes it that way) – spoke at the STORY Gathering in 2017, where I saw him share his passionate voice about story and myth. What was so great about that whole thing was that even BEFORE I saw him speak, he had volunteered to be my guinea pig speaker at my live coaching workshop. I mean… who does that? Believe me – that's a rare thing, to vulnerably walk into that space with a coach you've just met. Well, movers, that act connected me and John for life! What l learned about John from there is that that's just who he is: an uber-smart academic who digs into the biggest ideas that we humans want to tackle, and brings them to his audience in meaningful ways. Aside from being a speaker, he's an author, podcast host, and teacher… and probably a dozen other things. Passion is his super-power. And in today's episode we talked about all the big ideas… like you do when you're talking with John Bucher…. Enjoy!

So - you’ve got a hefty first draft, and now it's time to edit your talk.   Knowing we want to get to clear and concise… AND - at the same time, say something NEW.   Finding the SIMPLE and still saying something TRUE and - in some way - NEW.   Whooo, that is a challenge!   And what the editing process in creating a talk is all about.   And it’s a CREATIVE PROCESS.   It’s not JUST - cutting out the stuff you don’t like/don't need.   It’s a process of digging deeper… and getting clearer on what you actually, really truly mean…   And our first drafts so rarely get there. Most of the time, it’s like skimming the cream off the top of your fancy coffee… it’s satisfying and sugary good. But that’s not where the big punch comes from. (Ha.)   When I gave my TEDx talk… the process of editing that puppy was brutal.   If you looked back on my drafts, they’d look in some ways like completely different talks… with a dslithly different focus each time, different emphasis. Every time I sat down to write, or talked it out, or

Hey Movers! On the show today we're talking about how to successfully shift our focus away from the words - and more into the DELIVERY that comes more authentically from our bodies. The words and content are often the 'safe' zone, and we can spend a LOT of time in there. Makes sense. Delivering it, especially in an "embodied" way, it becomes us more. It's a much higher-call, and it requires more from us. So how? What are some simple things we can do to get our words into our body more? Here are 5 simple ways to get the words more into your body:

Gillian Ferrabee - performer, speaker, Cirque de Soleil alum and talent scout... Gillian is an experienced and wise stage presence! When I got to see Gillian speak at last year's STORY Gathering in Nashville, I was so taken at how grounded and giving she was as a speaker. There was no pretense. No 'show' - even though she is such a skilled performer. She was present, in her body. So it was no surprise that Gillian talked about being IN YOUR BODY, and dealing with what happens to us as creative people when we are putting ourselves out there. She is full of insight - has the best giggle - and brings to all of us some essential reminders about the power of the present moment and how we as speakers can tune into it more.

Are you drowning in content-creation overwhelm? Yeah, me too. I'm gonna get vulnerable here - I'm off my game. Does that ever happen to you? As you are working on creating talks that move the world, do you ever get stuck, falter, get distracted from your purpose and goal? Overwhelm is the new black... or something like that. Sometimes the best way to get through the stuck and shift gears is to bring it to light, and share the plan so people can help hold you accountable and cheer you on. (Hi! I'm talking to you!) So here's my plan - and perhaps these can also be helpful to you if you're feeling overwhelmed like I am.

Introducing: a super simple tool that can help jump-start writing a talk, especially when you're feeling stuck and staring at your computer. I don't know about you, but There’s so much I want to say! The beginning is so important…  I want to ‘wow’ my audience…  And make the most of the moment…    And yet - HOW?     The stakes can feel high - your own expectations can drown out the clarity of what you’re trying to say.       I have BEEN THERE!       But this tactic that I use with many of my speakers to pull us out of the mire of writing, and to think about things from a bigger, broader perspective. To establish the lay of the land a bit before we go on the journey.  

Taylor Croonquist - Co-Founder of Nuts and Bolts Speed Training, a PowerPoint training website and "oooh" and "aaaaah" creator - joined me on the show to talk about presenting online. Taylor is a "hack trickery" kind of guy - always finding ways to short-cut and 'break' what's not working well enough and find a way to do it better. And he and his wife Camille - along with the awesome P-Spice from Spicy Presentations - have created an online hub with over a hundred  YouTube videos and online courses about ways to make PowerPoint work better for you, and faster.

Amena Brown - poet, author, speaker - is a powerhouse performer. I got to see her on stage at the STORY Gathering this past September, and immediately knew I wanted to have her on the show. She is brilliant, funny, passionate - and so incredibly thoughtful about her craft. What moved me so much about her work on stage is that she is a poet who speaks. She is a craftswoman - focusing on the power of words. And there's so much that we can learn from her on this.

Colin Stokes - TED speaker, communications and marketing professional, proud Dad, and fellow high school speech geek - sat down with me to talk about the powerful platform of speaking as perhaps THE way we might be able to create change in this world.   That's a big statement, but I happen to believe that speaking has a very specific potential to create change.   And Colin, a passionate advocate for social justice and change, agrees.   So in this episode, we dig into WHY, and HOW. Why is public speaking such a powerful force? And HOW is it such a powerful force? And how can we create more moments of transformation?   GOOD QUESTIONS! Let's do this.

Stephy Lewis [check out her amazing website!], presentation designer from the Presentation Guild - and my new pal from the Presentation Summit - got a chance to catch up and talk the good, bad and ugly about presentation design and development. Even though Stephy was dragged kicking and screaming from the field of design into the field of *presentation* design, she has discovered the depth, complexity and artistry of the profession - part of the reason why she's so passionate about her role at the Presentation Guild! Jump in with us as we talk about what bad design can do to our mental state (ha), the importance of the collaborate nature of developing presentations, and 3 keys to designing intentional presentations.

Ah, the Presentation Summit! I've had the most exciting September... last week I shared about the top 10 essential speaking lessons from the STORY Gathering in Nashville - and I went straight from Nashville to Tampa. I was met with gorgeous beaches and weather. Not bad for a work trip. :) But here's the deal: I wasn't sure I was going to like this conference. Last spring, I got an email from this man named Rick Altman, the creator of this conference and CEO of Better Presenting. He said, "Hey, you should come to this conference I put on!" Now, I had HEARD about this conference as a great conference for Power Point users and designers, but because I'm not a Power Point designer, I thought it wasn't for me.  Not only am I not a designer, I'm not a huge fan of Power Point. :) I recognize it is a powerful tool - and a tool that many, many of my clients use. But I really wasn't sure there'd be much for me at this conference. But Rick said - HECK NO - it's for any presentation professional. Well, ok!  So, off I wen

Last week I had the great privilege of being a part of STORY Gathering 2017 - a gathering of creatives from a wide breadth of industries, brought together by one thing: story. I attended last year - and it was two days jam-packed with inspiration. Powerful speakers, moving music, thoughtful breakouts - and so. many. amazing. people. I was jazzed! From there, I got to interview a few of those amazing people on my show, including Brad Montague, Jason Jaggard, and Harris III. But this year they asked me to take part. So, off I went - to Nashville - and two full days of ideas, inspiration and connections. To make the most of this experience, I wanted to jot down the best of what I'm taking with me - and wanted to share with you, in case there holds some wisdom for you as well.

Brett Trapp of the online memoir/story/audio story Blue Babies Pink is a writer, speaker and marketing consultant whose story took my heart by storm this past spring. Brett's "Southern coming out story" has been described as the "Netflix of blogs" - and is the epitome of Brené Brown's "excruciating vulnerability." He risked a lot to tell his true story. And it's awesome. So I was thrilled to get him on the show to talk about what it really means to tell his own true story with so much grace - and to embrace not only the need for us as speakers and leaders to speak with vulnerability, but the power of that embracing as well.