This Moved Me

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

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 went! I had no idea what to expect, except that a few people I had connected with online couldn't stop talking about how excited they were for it! Well, that's a good sign...

And can I say?

I loved it.

It was FULL of insight, powerful tools that I need to be aware of for my clients and that might be useful for YOU, and AMAZING PEOPLE. So, win-win-win. And, it was the most fun I've ever had at a conference, ever.

So - here are 5 of the most important takeaways from The Presentation Summit:

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.

Lauren Pibworth of Pibworth Consulting Agency for Speakers is joining me on the show today! She is a gem - and a powerhouse for speakers, helping you do all the behind-the-scenes work to help you find your audience and speak to more people - which is really the point of all this work we're doing!

It was a delight to have her on the show - hope you enjoy!

Harris III - magician, producer, creative guru - and the man behind the now practically infamous STORY Gathering that I continually rave about here on the show. Yes, that's right - I went straight to the source to hear about how it all came to life - and how to create something both uncommon and universally moving - a challenging feat.

I've had so many guests on the show that were inspired by my experience at Story - Jason Jaggard, Brad Montague, and now Harris. Hank Fortener - a favorite with my listeners - was also there last year. And it was first introduced to me by my guest Lindsay O'Connor who read some of Story's marketing materials for her This Moved Me Moment, and I gasped with awe for the beauty of the writing.

That's what I'm talking about: beauty, creativity, risk, identity, community. These themes swirl in and around the STORY crew, and it makes for an experience that will nourish your soul and challenge us to do work that really matters.

You guys - I realize that much of this sounds like a commercial for STORY. They are not paying me to say any of this. I get no kick back from this. I am just a real, live FAN because of my experience last year - and I want to see you there!

AND! And! And. (I'm excited. Can you tell?) Since I recorded this conversation, Story has asked me to be a part of the experience in September. Live coaching, anyone!? Aw yeah.

So - Let's do this! And listeners here at This Moved Me get a 10% discount if you use the code THISMOVEDME. Whoa! Do this!

Ticket prices go up by $100 on May 31st - so now is an awesome time to join in.

(And if you decide to go - let me know by sending me a quick note. I'd love to connect!)

To all: enjoy. <3