This Moved Me

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?

Anyway - I remember sitting there and thinking that my metaphor for writing was a make-out session. (So very senior year in college of me to say!)

But essentially what I was thinking was that writing is exploratory for me…

Now, as a grown-up I might say something more like writing is like a walk I took through the Redwoods in Northern California several years ago in this beautiful, sort of mystical place… exploratory, searching, I don't know where I'll end up, but I really enjoy the experience of finding out (hahah a- which is really funny if you apply those same ideas to my make-out sessions.( Ahhahaha. Ahem)

ANYWAY.

Some of those same elements apply to us as we create our talks.

We want to go on the journey. We might have an IDEA of where we're going. We're not sure how we're going to get there. And so… we face down the possibility of a draft of... something.

Here are five tips to diving in and writing the best WORST first draft of your talk that you can:

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're not it can be really compelling But your job as a speaker is to find the bridge to your audience. Check out these 4 questions that are essential in creating a connection with your audience:

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 explained it to someone, it shifted a little bit… Finding clarity is a process. So - how can we get there? How do cut out the "fat" - dig deeper into the truth of what we're trying to say? - And get to something REAL? Here are some tips to get you started, as you evolve your talk - simultaneously digging deeper (adding content) - and cutting out what you don't need: 1 - Find your filter: audience - what do they need, and how can you meet that need? 2 - Shift your paragraphs to statements. What do you lose? Will help you find the essence of what you're saying. 3 - Keep asking yourself, "So what?"… - this will help you dig deeper… 4 - Kill your darlings. Be a brutal editor. If it helps you feel better, make another document with all your cut material. Maybe you'll use it another time! "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter." - Winston Churchill You and me both, brother. This is hard. It's a process. And we have to stretch it both ways:

to cut out and

add complexity in its simplest form.

• Find your filter.
• Write in statements.
• Ask "So What?"
• Kill your darlings

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.