Soness Stevens - TEDx Talks: Getting, Giving, and Excelling At One
The Video
The Audio/Podcast
Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio
Soness Stevens - TEDx Talks: Getting, Giving, & Excelling At One
The Episode Details
In this episode, Soness Stevens, the Original TEDx Speaker Coach,
joins Brian to talk about getting, giving, & excelling at, a TEDx Talk. This episode is a departure from the normal episode, since Brian’s TEDx talk went live and went viral, Brian’s received a lot of questions about how to get a TEDx talk, and tips or advice on giving one. This episode with Soness shares solid answers to those questions.
Today’s Guest
Soness Stevens
The 1st TEDx Speaker coach
Soness Stevens, the Original TEDx Speaker Coach is a communications expert, four-time speaker at TEDx, coach to more than 140 TED & TEDx presenters, and member of the TED Global faculty. Her stories inspire audiences to cry, laugh, and give standing ovations. Audiences of 10 to 1,000 are moved, connected, and engaged by Soness's presentations. 750,000 people have undergone transformation over 20 years.
You can contact Soness Stevens here.
When do you know you have an idea that’s Good for a TEDx talk?
TED calls a talk an “idea worth spreading”
Chris Anderson, the head of TED says:
“Everyone has an idea worth spreading”Soness adds to that:
“…when they make it clear concise and replicable.”
The application process
Brian’s Process: it took 2 years (with a 14 month COVID Delay):
Researched over 100 events.
23 applications in total / ended up with 2 offers.
Idea combined with a story people can relate to.
2 offers within a couple of weeks for each other.
Pick an event that’s relevant to your topic and to your audience
Recommend focusing on one event and one application at a time. A good quality and tailored application to a specific event, with a video of yourself mentioning your idea, will beat the “blast everyone with the same blueprint” every time.
Only accept or plan to give one TEDx talk at a time, for one idea at a time.
In a TEDx speaker application 4 things to address:
What’s the idea worth spreading?
How does your talk align with that TEDx event’s theme?
Why should anyone care?
Why should they listen to YOU share the idea?
Soness Stevens
Developing Your Talk
From Brian:
Write it first, focus entirely on the content and “what you’ll say”, up until 4 weeks before talk, then switch to memorizing your delivery on “how you’ll say it”.
For 6 months - 3x per week zoom calls with friends. I read them the talk and showed them the slides. At the end, I asked them “On a scale of 0-not at all likely, to 10-extremely likely, how likely would you be to recommend this talk to a friend or colleague.?” and “Tell me why?”. This is the Net Promoter Score question. When I was consistently getting 9s & 10s almost all the time I knew the content of the talk was ready.
From Soness:
Takes more of a creative side, must bring in your personality. Bring out the type of person. Unique delivery to you. Make sure you bring in your humor.
Feedback should be taken with a grain of salt. Everyone wants to be helpful, so they’re going to give you whatever they can think of, that can cause you to lose track of your talk completely.
Delivering Your Talk
Clear & Concise
From Brian “I recommend it’s memorized word for word, you should be so comfortable with it it’s like wearing an old pair of pants.”
From Soness, one of her clients said “I know this talk so well I feel like I could give it while changing a tire in the rain.”
What to do after your TEDx talk Comes Out
From Soness: Some people experience post talk shame where they want to “take it back”. Overcoming this comes from good preparation and connection with your talk. Often that shame comes from not being comfortable with it when you give it.
Media blitz and share it with everyone you know.
Set up your posts and emails in advance.
You can even prerecord interviews and then have the channel wait to put them out until your TEDx talk is released.
Links to TED Talks referenced in this episode:
Brian’s Talk:
Speakers Soness Mentioned Stories About:
The Bystander Effect: Why Some People Act and Others Don't | Kelly Charles-Collins | TEDxOcala
A Corporation is a Collection of Unique Souls like You & Me | Shirley Liu | TEDxCambridgeUniversity
WHAT EVERY WOMAN NEEDS TO KNOW TO CLOSE THE GENDER GAP | AYSHA VAN DE PAER | TEDxLausanneWomen
Books To Help Prepare For A TED Talk
Why Subscribe To The Email List: Brian does special zoom events and shares hacks and tips exclusively for his email subscribers. This like “12 alternatives to checking social media on your phone” or “2 email rules which will cut your email inbox in half” and more. Sign up to start receiving the results from these events!
About The Creator/Host: I’m Brian. At age 4, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes and told that my life was going to be 10-20 years shorter than everyone else. As a kid I took time for granted, but now as an adult, time is the most precious thing that I have. I teach overworked project managers how to level-up their life balance and pump up their practical productivity through my Productivity Gladiator training system. If what you’ve seen here intrigues you, reach out, let’s chat! Time is the currency of your life, spend it wisely.
Episode Transcript
00:00
Productivity Gladiator. I'm Brian Nelson Palmer. On this show, we talk about life balance and personal productivity. It's about leveling up the person as a whole with topics that work both at home and at work. And in this episode, I want to do a little something different because this is about getting, giving and excelling at TED Talks. And I wanted to share because I had the opportunity to do a TED Talk.
00:28
recently and it was a phenomenal experience. And I kind of wanted a bearing on, okay, how is this? It was my experience similar to the regular experience. And I kind of wanted to share for those folks that are interested. I've had some people ask me about what it's like to do a Ted talk and that kind of stuff. So with me today, I actually have Soness Stevens, who's the founder and creative director of Your Speaking Journey. So Soness, thank you so much for joining me on the show today. Such a joy to be with you, Brian. And what is for those folks who
00:57
don't know like Your Speaking Journey, they've never heard of it. Talk about you, Your Speaking Journey and your connection with Ted. Thank you. My name's Senes Stevens. I am the founder and creative director of Your Speaking Journey. I'm coached over 140 TED and TEDx speakers around the world. I'm also a TED Worldwide and four time TEDx speaker, as well as a three time academic journal publisher of talks about...
01:26
So that's the academic side of me. So people are like, wow, you spent all your time on stages and TV and radio is to us. And then like on the other side, when I talk about academics, that's when I start getting back into my introverted side. But I am an active publisher in academic journals. And yeah, that's very cool. So as far as Ted and my relationship with Ted and TEDx, I do not represent Ted or the brand. I'm literally the first.
01:55
TEDx speaker coach. So I started an industry back in the day based on one of the textbooks that I wrote about speaking from the heart. It was the first multimedia textbook used in the Japanese university system and based on publications that I wrote. And most people know me from Fox and NHK TV and how I was on the stage and tour for over 15 years.
02:19
Wow, that is well, it's certainly my hope for today was that I'd be able to, I wanted to kind of compare, okay, this was my experience versus the kind of overall experience. And so I really appreciate you being here to shed some light on with with all the different speakers you've worked with in your own experience. Clearly, this will be really good to kind of be able to give a general more general experience as opposed to just what I went through and that kind of thing. So this is thank you very much for being here.
02:47
And actually, I'm curious, along that topic, I want to know what would you say makes you different from? There are other, in my journey with Ted, I did run into other people who are Ted coaches or speaker coaches. So what would you say makes you different from other speaker coaches or Ted coaches? Well, it's interesting that you've talked to other people and then you were like, hey, Soness, I want to talk with you. Right. So, I mean, there must have been something there for you to say, wow, there's something unique about her process and how she communicates.
03:17
and what that looks like. You know, I think what we do is a little different because we start, most people are like, oh, here's an idea. And one of the first things we need to think about is, is the first idea the best idea? Because often it's not. How do we go deeper into it? As the cellist Yo-Yo Ma says, do you know Yo-Yo Ma, the cellist? I'm familiar, yeah. Brilliant. You might even see his commercials for Masterclass right now. But he says, without deep contemplation,
03:46
you're just communicating sheer sound. And so what we do that's a little different is not start with a formula or a structure. It's literally getting deep into deep contemplation, creative work. And how do we, how do we find what that, that heart of your idea really is? And I've lived in Japan for more than 25 years. I go, I'm like you, Brian, you're like a snowbird moving from North to South. I spend half my time in the U S and abroad and wherever my speakers call me to, and half my time in Japan.
04:15
And one of the things we talk about is our kokoro zashi. And Japanese kanji for this, or the characters for it, is kokoro is heart, and zashi means to pierce through. So to pierce through the heart, and we sit down and really search for what's piercing through the heart to find the universal truth and that connection. And then from there, we can start the creative process. Very cool. So it's very mindful, it's very Zen. I was gonna say, it's very different than, you know, Ted said.
04:44
The premise of TED is an idea worth spreading. And it sounds like for you, it's an idea worth spreading, but more about getting to the heart of the person who has this idea that might be worth spreading and connecting all of that together. I don't know, that's what I'm getting on this side. Well, yeah, actually, one of my speakers, Johnson, he spoke on how to break up with your toxic family. And when we started working on his idea, and it took a year to develop that talk. And when we started working on that idea, he's like, I think the idea is this. And I'm like, well,
05:13
you know, Ted and Ted X, he's a shaman. They're not gonna go for the shaman side of things. They're not gonna go for the pseudoscience. Let's dig and get to the heart of what it is. And on day one, I don't know why, but I mind map everything and I drew this piano keyboard. I draw this, I have no idea. And then session two, as we're deep, deep diving into his kokorozashi, his heart's mission, he says,
05:38
Did I ever tell you that I'm a classically trained pianist? No, I had no idea. He said, yeah, well, my mom wanted me to become one. So I could teach piano lessons at home, and she could take care of my kids. However, the only problem with that is I'm gay, I don't want kids, and I hate the piano. Okay. Well, there you go. And so we started diving down there and figuring out what it was, and he really wanted to communicate. I guess the piano keyboard came into play.
06:07
not a psychic, have played one on TV and movies. But yeah, so we get to go deeper into it. And really the essence of this idea was not about shamanism and it is because he is, but it's not just something that's ethereal, but how do we bring it back to easily digestible and accessible pieces that the audience can latch onto? And then as well, like his workshops have been filling up.
06:34
He's been doing retreats abroad. So those have been filling up. That's great too. And we want to give an access point. And it did come down to how to break up with your toxic family. It's epic. That's wild. Okay, I think I'm getting a good, I like this. I like this a lot. Well, let's talk about, so the Ted, I kind of want to kind of break it down into four sort of sections that I kind of want to pick your brain on and just discuss. The first is applying and getting selected for a TED talk.
07:02
You know, maybe a couple thoughts or tips on that and what that's like. Uh, then developing your talk. Once you get selected, you also have to develop. And of course that they might go in different order, understand, but we'll talk about the developing of your talk and the delivering of your talk. And then I'm kind of curious your thoughts on, uh, or recommendations on what, once you've done the talk, then what, so let's jump up to that. So in the first part, if folks are not familiar, oftentimes the question that comes up for folks that aren't familiar is, okay, how do you.
07:32
get a Ted talk. And before we do that, one of the things that I want to ask is, so now I'm kind of curious here when do you know you have an idea that's good for a Ted talk? Or is it just you can find like, is it the idea for I know you talked about getting into the person is it the idea first? Or is it what are your thoughts on on that? How do you know you've got everyone's a little different when it comes to this, the head of Ted Chris Anderson, he says, we
08:00
everyone has an idea worth spreading. And I'd like to add to that, when you make it clear, concise and replicable. And getting to the heart of what that is, like often people will come with an idea and sometimes people know exactly what they wanna do. So for example, one of my speakers, Kelly Charles Collins, she said, I wanna speak on the bystander effect when good people stand by as bad things happen to other good people and say nothing. And immediately that was the direction we did.
08:27
the deep exploration work, we did a whole bunch of creative work, and it all came through that anyway. It was directly going towards the bystander effect. And the talk is amazing. She had a standing ovation and now she gets, you know, like she has $100,000 speaking months, which is not the goal of my speakers and it's not the goal of my creative services here. It's really to be able to help you find that idea and script from your idea, finding the core thesis, which is the thread that ties together your entire talk all the way through.
08:55
to your audition piece and then to developing the entire talk, line by line, word for word, so that every word hits with impact. That's what we do. And the creative writing team that I work with here as well, we support you every step of that journey because everyone is a different level writer and how we create and write, is that really representing who you are and who you're becoming. On the other side of it is people who come and they're like, I think I have this idea. And some people come, they've already been booked for a TEDx talk.
09:22
maybe they were reached out to by the organizers, or maybe they submitted an idea and they're like, I don't know how to do this. And some people haven't applied for a TEDx talk yet at all. And they think, I know there's something in me, but I'm not quite sure what that is. I think it's this direction. And when we go in that direction, we get to have more creative play and see what's going on underneath all of that. One of my speakers, he...
09:50
he came to me and he's like, hey, I've got, looked for this TEDx talk. I want to speak about my company. We teach rich Indian kids how to get to Oxford and Harvard and elite schools. And, you know, he sent over his initial script and I was like, oh, how do I say I wouldn't put you on my stage? And we had, I was like, can I have a direct conversation with you about this? And he said, yeah. He's like, I wouldn't put you on my stage with us. Is this all about?
10:18
I went to the school and I did this and then I got my master's and then I got my PhD and then I got a doctorate and then I got a law degree and all these things. Well, you can be just like me, but where was he in all of that? It was more about you can be just like me versus how is that changing and growing? I'm like, I don't know. I have this feeling there's something else in there and I don't know what that is. Will you come with me on a journey and we'll explore it once and see how it goes. He's like, sure. We went through and explored and suddenly he...
10:47
He just had this feeling about him. So I just asked one question. I've never asked anybody before, and I've never asked anyone since. And I'm not gonna say what the question was, but he opened up about this one pivotal moment when he was seven years old. And what he doesn't tell people is that after he closes his elite school for the day, he goes off into the slums and he mentors kids there. And he teaches them the same things that he teaches the wealthy children for free. And his experience mentoring what that looked like, and he was...
11:15
thinking about creating a workshop on how to get these kids to be able to defend themselves because every hour in India, eight children are raped. And so we explored that some more and his talk ended up being about how to stop child rape in India education. Wow. Quite a difference. Okay. Quite a difference. And within a few months, it had over a million views and it's him and it's his personality that comes through as well. He's like,
11:44
I want to do the ABC song in our language. I'm like, yeah, I wouldn't necessarily recommend that for most people, but you know who you're trying to reach. And the talk's done in English. But you have to also take that into consideration. Who are you at the heart of all this? Where are you going? What kind of impact are you going to create in the world? And how do you make it so that it's clear, concise, and replicable? Because by the time he walked off that stage, he had 50 volunteers for that organization.
12:13
And now it's all across India. So I'm here, I like that. So it's clear, concise and replicable is your idea we're spreading. And that is okay. If your gut feeling is, it seems like you might have something there, then you might have a TED Talk. So that's how maybe you should, if you're looking to, if you're interested in it, that's when you might start applying. Yes. Thinking about it that way. So let's look at part B to your question. May I answer part B? Yeah. So part B is,
12:41
how do you know when you have that idea? Like I said, some people don't know that they have that idea, but what we'll do is we'll sit down and explore and see where that's going. And once we hit it, we know where we're going. 97% of my speakers get booked to speak at TED or TEDx. The only 3% that don't are the ones who don't hit the enter button. And we're not mass sending out applications. I know there's a new kid on the block who is...
13:05
pretty much copy pasted my website. There's a new kid on the block and he has like a team that's sending applications to every event, which is causing it to be very difficult to get local people into events. So it's kind of jammed up the system, but we wanna make sure that you're speaking to the right people, the right audience, and getting the correct avenue for you to share those ideas. And it's still working. We're still getting through. And every...
13:35
I missed every one of my speakers gets the feedback from the organizer. I saw it. That is the best application and best audition piece I've ever seen. So we make sure we get to the heart of the idea. We put just as much work into the audition piece as your full talk. Got it. So if you listening haven't been through the application process, for me, what I kind of discovered is you have these events and the events generally have contact information on their pages.
14:05
audition period where here the you know we're accepting applications from speakers. So you'll fill out the application and each one's a little different because each event is hosted by a different person or a different group. And so you kind of follow the instructions that they have and submit your idea worth spreading and then let them kind of evaluate it and each one is a little different. So I guess so for me my experience was that it took me.
14:32
two years to finally get selected, but that was also because COVID happened right in the middle. So I did some applications and then COVID shut like everything down. And then I picked it up again, but in the beginning, I did like 21 different applications and researched a bunch of events and none of them went through. And so then I kind of went back to the drawing board and what was going on. And it really was, it took a couple of rounds of applications and it was a lot of work to get there, but I did finally get a couple of them did get back to me. And
15:01
and accept my application. So I actually ended up with two offers in the end when I had, I feel like I finally sort of had a better idea on, okay, that you're portraying the idea. Some of the things you've hinted at, Senes with like the, you know, connecting it to your, it's a personal story too. It's not just the idea itself, but it's connecting it with the person who's delivering it and that kind of stuff. So putting that together, but that's generally the process. Is that, would you add anything to that? Does that sound about right?
15:28
Yes. I had a positive psychologist who had applied to 13 different TEDx events before he started working with me and then we started working together and immediately he got booked for three different events. Now here's the thing, and I'll go back and let me reference another person, Shirley Lue, she's the VP of L'Oreal Paris. When we were working together on her applications, there was a lot of like, I'm not sure, she kept saying this one phrase, which was beautiful. She said,
15:56
a corporation is a collective of souls to blossom. And I was like, wow, that's such a brilliant idea. I've never heard him. She's like, I want to talk about mentorship. It's like, that's been done. This is something unique I've never heard of. And finally, she got to the point, like, I had this idea. What if a corporation is a collective of unique souls to blossom? Like, there you go. But sometimes it takes people a while to get there. And she-
16:22
Applied to different 10X events. And I said, your events are definitely going to be, there's a Harvard of Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge. These are going to be your events. She's like, what about this little coastal town off the UK? I said, well, you live in Paris. I think this little coastal town is going to be looking for locals who maybe put up a dam for the flooding or doing something very locally oriented. I really think your events are Harvard of Paris, Cambridge, Oxford. She's like, oh, and she's like, yeah. I'm like,
16:50
What about London? I said, that's not your event. That's hard sciences, your social sciences. Let's, it's a waste of their time, a waste of your time. And you don't want to waste the organizers time because it's only volunteers who are working so hard. And we want to make sure that we're honoring their time, their space and ability to go through the applications. So we only apply for a couple of events. And I tend to have a good idea which ones are going to pick who. And she's like, okay.
17:17
Two weeks later, she's like, I got a rejection from that small coastal town. This system doesn't work. I said that was not your event. Then a day later, TEDx London said no. I'm like, that was not your event. Then two weeks later, Harvard to Paris, yes. This following week, Cambridge, yes. Oxford, yes. Then she's like, I'm going to do them all. I'm like, whoa. That's three TEDx talks in a matter of three months. When we look at these things, Brian, we have to think about how—
17:43
many wonderful ideas out there. How much time do we have to dedicate? Because it takes between three months to a year to develop a beautiful, hard-hitting TEDx talk that's going to reverberate for years to come and change the lives of everyone in that audience. And if you're just willy-nilly scribbling it together, it's not going to have as much of an impact. And that's what you want with your idea. Plus, there are other people with brilliant ideas out there too. And we can give...
18:10
other people those opportunities because maybe their ideas will change one person's life. It's not about how many views you get or how many talks and ideas you get out there. It's about who's that one person who's listening who really needs that idea and that could have a profound life-changing experience. So we need to look at that too. So how many events? Let's just focus on the one at a time. I have had speakers who've done back-to-back and we've worked together on that. But we already knew.
18:40
Like you said, and it's also generally if you have an idea worth spreading, if you land if you were to get three accepted, the idea isn't then to go create two more ideas and no, you started this with an idea worth spreading. So one talk, one idea worth spreading. And like you said, give other people the opportunity to do it. I mean, I was really blessed that I had two talks except me. It was like, holy smokes. Yes, I have, but I had already accepted the first one. And so I was honest with the second.
19:09
the second host and said, you know, I just, I accepted this other one a few weeks ago and I was gonna speak with them. I don't know how this works, but I'm assuming that it would not be good for me to, you know, do two of these things. So let's let other people do it. And they totally agreed and are totally mimicking what you're saying right now, which is yes, you've got your idea and that is one talk and you don't do multiples. Just do one and see where it goes from there. I love that about you, Brian. And that's why I think you and I connected so deeply is because of that.
19:38
You have integrity, you have this ability to say, I know where I'm going with this, and I want other people to have the opportunities as well. And it's not a scarcity mindset, it's an abundance mindset. And maybe somewhere years down the road, you'll be like, oh, I'm ready to develop a new one because I had this really great idea. So I think that's wonderful. It's such a great character trait that you have, Brian. Thank you for that. I'm blushing over here. You guys?
20:05
And just for the record, I want to say, like I said, this and I did not work together from like, I am not one of her speakers. I reached out to her for this episode specifically because I wanted her kind of neutral third person perspective on like, I had this crazy, my experience was three years long, this Ted thing and I was committed and I went through all of this. And she was like this amazing point of clarity when I was going through the struggle of like, I just wanted somebody to answer my questions on how does.
20:31
how does this Ted thing work? Cause nobody had shared kind of what we're talking about on this episode. So I wanted, I needed somebody to give a little clarity. So I had a conversation with Sonnette and she was nice enough to give me a few minutes to just talk about, well, here's how the process works. And some of the, like the, some of the clarity that came from, okay, she's done a lot of these. There's a little perspective there. So that was really helpful. So I wanted to reach back out to her so that I could kind of get some perspective on my experience is not necessarily the normal. So I appreciate you.
21:00
getting a chance to do this and making me blush at the same time. Stop. I only say what I see and experience. So yeah, very cool. Very cool. Can we, I want to shift gears to, so now there's the developing your talk part, right? And so I kind of want to compare notes with you because for me, when I went through it, the process that I used, and I'm not going to say this is the right process by any stretch. I don't have millions of views on my Ted talk. That's not a thing.
21:30
for me was, or at least what I found comfort in was I wrote the talk and for I had, I was blessed with six months to prepare for this talk, which is not necessarily normal, but I had a lot of runway. So for me, what I chose to do was every like three times a week for the five and a half months before the talk, I connected with one person on zoom and I read them the talk with, I speak with slides. So I had slides.
21:57
So I shared the slides and gave the talk with them. And then at the end, I asked them, the one question that kicked it off was, on a scale from zero to 10, was zero being not at all likely and 10 being extremely likely, how likely would you be to recommend that talk to a friend or colleague and why? And then we talked. And I asked, is there anything that I could do better? And for me, we kept going and kept going and it wasn't until four months, five months into doing these three time a week talks,
22:26
that I got to a point where I was getting nines and tens for that answer on like, yes, I would recommend that talk to a friend or colleague. And so to me, that was kind of the I kind of followed that approach. And then for the three weeks before the talk, it was memorizing. You said it earlier that I loved. You said, you know, you have to every word has to hit or have an impact, you said earlier. And that was very much a TED talk. You only have a certain number of minutes based on which event. So.
22:52
There is no wasted space. It's not the Ted speakers shouldn't. They generally don't. And you shouldn't get up there and just willy nilly wing it and just, oh, well, let me just talk about this with no preparation at all. Or no, like you should know exactly what you want to say because you have this amount of time to share this. And there are a lot of really good speakers out there. So if you want to do a good one, you can, I don't know. So that for me, that was the way that it evolved. But that was also me like figuring it out on my own and just trying it. So for on your side, is that.
23:22
What would you say about developing a talk, whether they're gonna work with you or not? Do you have any thoughts on that process and kind of how that works? I'd like to address two points on there first. One is the, first we'll start with the development and creative process. So I'm the creative collaborator who, if you're a logic minded person, I'll come with as your creative muse. If you're more on the creative side, I'm the logic that you needed. Got it, okay. I'm the thesis advisor you always wished you had.
23:49
The yin to their yang. Got it. Okay. And then having the full comprehensive team. So a lot of people, when they start off with an idea, they start writing around it and there's actually a typical TED structure. And I feel guilty about it because I think I'm the one who created it. It's literally based on my textbook and based on some of my academic journals. And of course, it's the first TEDx speaker codes in the world.
24:20
That's not how we want to create. A lot of people want to have a paint by numbers approach. Here's my idea, paint by numbers. Let's do this. This is what it should look like. However, if we sit down and do some creative play and you're like, Soness, I didn't sign up for poetry class. I'm like, yeah, Brian, you did. You signed up for poetry class. When you say creative play, me and the logic brain is like, oh, God, creative play? That's what so many people...
24:46
One of my speakers, Michael Tein, he's like the CEO of Greenhouse. He was like, why am I doing this? This is the dumbest thing ever. I don't have time for this. I have a month before my talk. And I'm like, you know, we're doing intensive. Are you in or not? And he's like, okay, I need to do this. He's like, oh my God, this is the most like insightful thing I've ever done. And we've gone through that and done the exploration. He's like, I had no idea.
25:11
How ins, this is somebody who's a CEO and an IT guy who created software for the largest HR software development firm in the world. And he's like, yeah, I'm more of a, so, but the whole entire thing brought about like the pinnacle points of his talk. And he ended up using some of this poetry that he had written.
25:33
in his talk itself and on the slides, he's like, I'm going to use this. I'm actually going to use this in our website and our marketing and training. So it is something that allows someone to have more creative flow. So what we're doing in a process where we're looking creatively is, let's see what you have available to you. When we're looking at creating like the paint by numbers painting of Starry Night, well, let's see what paints you have available. What colors do you have? How does this look? We put it all out on the palette.
26:00
And they're like, wow, well, you can't paint Starry Night without blue and yellow, and I don't have those. So let's figure that out. And it looks like a mess initially. And then we're like, there it is, this, this, this. And it all comes together. And when we're looking at a TED Talk, we're looking at it as an episodeal part of your series. Whereas a keynote, when we designed that as well, like we're working with one of my speakers on, I'm not gonna say the title yet because he hasn't spoken yet. So.
26:27
It's a really cool title. It's an amazing talk. But he gave this keynote in Australia. He flew from Canada, Australia to give this talk in front of 600 people. When we designed that, that was more of a dramatic film that has all the textures and layers that you need. You want to create those textures and layers within the episode, and you want to be able to see how you can expand it out into a longer dramatic form. I love the fact that he's also a nerd. My hobby is reading academic journals. I like all the data.
26:56
Um, you really have portrayed your yin and yang side. Creative side, the word play creative play followed by academic journals. Yeah. Well, it's great. You know, some of the best research comes out of Scandinavia, like in my future, my, my next incarnation of myself, my next birth will be in, in Scandinavia. So I can get grants for researching things like, Oh, there's a, there's a fantastic piece of research on why everyone hates Nickelback.
27:26
And that was done in Scandinavia. And I'm like, this is where I want to go before. These are my people. Yes. Look at this photograph. Yes. Why is everyone, you know. And that came from one of the jokes that we wrote in his keynote. That's so funny. Oh, gosh, it's hilarious. So yeah, anyways, we want to look at what paints you have available to you and create from there.
27:53
And so every single one of my speakers talks is different. Every one of them has to bring in your personality. So when we're looking at that, maybe you might be neurodiverse and how does that play in? How do you become you on that stage? Some people may look at your talk and they're like, eh, not my kind of person. And they think, well, that is that type of person and you have to bring that out. And on the other side, how do you create it so that it's uniquely you?
28:20
plus accessible to everyone. You see a lot of females who are trained by men and you can always like, yeah, you were trained by a man. But you also see a lot of the most viewed Ted talks are a majority of views come from women. So we also wanna make sure that there's the accessibility approach to it. So yeah, you definitely wanna take a whole encompassed look at it. You wanna figure out like, what's your sense of humor? Like Brian has a great sense of humor. I would love to see more humor and levity throughout your talk as well and how to paint that in.
28:49
What that would look like, what's your status when it comes to bringing that levity in there as well? How do you want to come across? Do you have a dry sense of humor? Making sure that it's wholly you, and that's the joy of it. That's the joy. And everyone's different. Cool. Like Johnson, I had a different vision. I'm like, wow, he's a trained actor from New York and a shaman, and he's the most amazing just spirit that comes out.
29:18
taking that and being able to play and say, hey, let's do something sort of, um, in a three act kind of sense and let's play that one. I'm going to want to give away the talk, but it's kind of got a little Harry met Sally kind of feel to it. And you're going to be like, wow, that really is him, which his initial drafts didn't feel like him. It felt like, this looks like what a Ted talk should look like. And I do. So let's make sure we connect. And I want to make sure I give it.
29:44
the to you that's listening, I want to give you all the links to these different talks that Soness, of course, will just brag about her speakers that she shared because I'll share my link for my talk and you can see some of these other talks that she's discussed if the doing a TED talk is of interest. You know, these might be, I know there's a lot of people who just love watching TED talks. And so I certainly have loved after I spoke with Soness, I checked out a lot of these speakers talks that she's talking about. So I really can identify with them. So I want to make sure I give you the links to.
30:14
which was about the feedback area. So, and I find that works very well for some people in certain stages of the stages of the talk. If it comes too early, it can redirect the talk in the direction that that person has a perception of you. So for example, one of my speakers, Monica Rivera, she was speaking at a New York event and we'd been working on her talk for like eight months and then she got booked and we walked around audition piece for like six months and then finally got her booked. And then
30:41
And I was like, we need to start working on your main talk because you're going to get booked. And she's like, no, no, no. You know, she didn't quite have faith in everything. You're like, just like, I don't know. Are they really going to pick me? And like, yeah, this is really solid of an idea. What is hers is the flip side of loneliness. And so as we're working on that, she got booked and they're like, we need your first draft by Friday. Like, oh no. It's like, she's like, I should have been working on it all this time.
31:08
And that's what often happens. Your situation, Brian, is very rare where they give you six months to work on it. Often it's, we want your first draft in one to two weeks. And that's too tight to turn around. Now we'd been working on it and we'd actually had a team of people to make sure that all the perspectives and the feedback was coming through, similar to what you were doing. Whereas one of the other speakers at our event, the week before her talk, her friends decided to throw her a feedback party. Oh, those are fun. Yeah. Those are fun.
31:36
Everybody jumped in is like, we want to be of service and be helpful. And they all gave her very helpful and insightful feedback to the point where she shredded her talk and she had a week to come up with a new talk in its entirety. Because people want to be helpful. And another one of my speakers, Rob Nugent, he spoke on being grounded from the soul. He's a barefoot person who walks around the world. He's also someone who works with suicide hotlines.
32:06
How do we look at suicide awareness and grounding to the earth and connecting? And it's a little wooey, but it's not, you know? And he initially got feedback from people on a weekly. When you described it, it sounds a little wooey, but I'm with you, I'm sticking with you. Tell me, tell me. No, because we can't do woo and get accepted by Ted and TedX and you can't talk about emotions and emotional awareness these days, because Ted has gotten strict again. They used to have like these strict guidelines and now they're back to like, do you have a license for this?
32:34
Not a coaching certification. Are you like, Jessie, um, Raphael and Juntha, she, she wrote a book called Life Launch. She's a psychotherapist down in California, 25 years experience. She's published, she's got all these things under her belt. And she was speaking about how to deal with anxiety and they're like flags. But fortunately we had enough to back it up. And, you know, she actually is a licensed psychotherapist and, you know, she's published and
32:59
all these points. They're being very strict these days. They were calling him to, but fortunately he has a lot of creditations, not through like, I'm a life coach kind of stuff, but more, this is the work and the services that we do as a suicide hotline operator and manager. But anyway, so his talk, so initially he was like, I'm going to run it through my men's groups and they'd go through and everybody like, yeah, I don't think you should talk about this because I know you as that. And it was their perception.
33:26
and projection of who they know him to be rather than the other elements that they didn't know about him. Because when we're connecting with people, like Brian, some people might know you as like the productivity guy, but then you might have another aspect to yourself that's there. I also do standup comedy. And some people might know me as, oh, Soness the standup comedian. Well, that's kind of a...
33:47
You know, it's a different Ted talk than the speaker coach and it's a different Ted talk than the TV personality and all your different. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you got it. That makes a really good point. It's a very, very different thing. So they're looking at you from one perspective and giving you the best advice that they can give you because they want to be a service. And when you get to a certain point, there is a point where people are never going to say, I saw this other guy take the stage and it was not that stellar. Let's just put that way.
34:16
But no one's going to say that. Everyone's going to come up and say like, oh, that was inspiring. Yes, exactly. Because if you can do it, I can do it. Uh-huh. You know, there's always going to be, nobody's going to come up and go like, yeah, that, that. Yeah. You really should have. And then the third thing that you brought up is, you know, a lot of people do want to speak from the heart. And I was at one of my speakers events and you know, we trained for, we trained for like six months for this. And I flew out to Pakistan to do this one. It was great.
34:45
I guess some of my speakers are so awesome. They're just like, I got air miles. I'm like, I'll go. Nice. And right after they were on the stage, the next person came up, heard their talk, and it was like, oh my God. What was that? That was, you know, it was standing ovation is what it was. And then they come up and they're like, I'm going to speak from the heart. And they take the script and go, ripping it up, throwing off the stage. And the audience is like, yeah, clap, clap, clap, speak from the heart. And like 10 minutes later.
35:15
speak from the script. And I know this because I have done this, you know, in my early days. I had done this before too. And what that boils down to when somebody says, I'm going to speak from the heart last minute is, well, I have this feeling, but it's also nerves. And I'm not that connected with this. And if I fail, well, it doesn't really matter because I, you know, I just ripped up the script.
35:42
But when you work on that idea for so long, like, you know, three years for you, right? Or when you're working on it for like six months to a year, you feel such a level of connection and conviction. With conviction comes confidence, and with confidence and competence in hand in hand, you walk on stage and create a different emotional connection. And you're not in a memorized state of mind. It's not like a last minute, like, let me throw this together. It's integrated into your body and soul.
36:12
That's like I describe it like wearing an old pair of pants. Like given that talk should be like wearing an old pair of pants, which isn't exactly the same. I feel like that pales in comparison to the amazing metaphor you just used about soul and all the other stuff. But for me, it was like, man, this thing, this talk is so comfortable. I have delivered it so many times. And that's so I that's a I love that sort of connection. And yes, it should be comfortable like that, too, with the. And that kind of leads to the third point that I want to talk about, which was
36:41
So then delivering the talk. When it comes to the talk delivery, I absolutely, I don't normally, so in my productivity gladiator workshops, I'm generally speaking to groups about the different, all the different aspects of productivity and life balance and all this stuff, but it's very much a back and forth, like a workshop kind of thing. However, with the TED talk, you have X number of minutes, you have to be very concise, you have to, so for me, I truly believe that in,
37:11
And I read books on Ted and for those interested, I will drop. I read two or three books on Ted. And if so, Ness has any ideas. I'll certainly share the links to those on Amazon with you, too, if you want to read a book about this stuff. But I definitely got the message from those books that I heard was, OK, definitely want to memorize, be very concise. This isn't a put a slide up and then kind of wing it kind of thing. This is you want to be very concise about that, because a every every word needs to be precious and crafted to get that.
37:40
emotional connection as well as the message across and the idea very concisely. So like you said, it was the two C words you said, concise, clear, concise and replicable. Replicable. That one. Yes. So I love that. Do you have any other thoughts on when it comes to delivering the talk? You said it beautifully. I'm done.
38:03
I'll take it. You heard it here, guys. She said it was good. It was great. And everyone has a different, you know, a different modality that they go to, their go-to modality. And when we bring it across every single modality in order to embody it, and it, you should know it, Monica said this great. She was like, I know this talk so well, I could deliver it as I was changing a flat tire in the rain. But every time. Nice. That's a good metaphor.
38:28
Yes. Not quite the pants. It depends on what kind of pants you're wearing. Hers is a way better metaphor and a way better movie than an old pair of pants. Oh my God. Like changing a tire in the rain. Very different mental picture. I like that. Yeah. One of my speakers literally, she literally had to give the talk after the sky was falling. She parked her car and she parked a car, parking meter.
38:53
And she's about to get out of the car. She's like doing her last run through to go on, you know, to go into the venue and go on stage. And suddenly the building next to her explodes. And just like all these bricks came falling down in her car, crashed into the windshield, everything. Apparently like a power, like a water vein had burst within the building next to her. And literally the sky was falling.
39:18
She did a runner because the windshield was coming in and there was nothing going to save her. I was like, I'm not sure which was the safer situation there. She went in. She was able to not only just integrate a micro story of 30 seconds for that, but it also led into her point because she was so well integrated with that idea and that talk that everything, all the words landed, everything landed. She was also able to integrate 30-second micro story of what had happened.
39:48
that was, it felt like it was part of the talk from the get-go because it fit with her teaching and her structure. It just totally worked. But yeah, the sky is falling, the sky is falling. And she's like, no, literally the sky was falling. My car is demolished. And so that's a really great place to be. Not so that it's so memorized that you're feeling static in it, but it's so that it's more of a-
40:16
How can I connect with the audience in this moment? How can I create that deeper level connection? And one of the things that I practice, I'm unusual background, but one of my Buddhist practices that we practice at the temple here in Japan is, it's a practice of compassion. And when we can walk out on stage and know our talk in our mind, but also look at the audience and think, just like me, this person has felt pain. And look at the audience and think, just like me, this person wants to create a change.
40:46
and just like me, this person wants to be loved. And when we can bring that element to it and hold that and connect that and know where those moments and pivotal points are in the talk, that it's not just that because we staged it, but because we created that intention with every phrase and every word of how is this moment connecting with you and the audience, how is it creating this neuro-sync that we can connect and be able to communicate that idea
41:16
without having to falter. And even if you do forget a word or two or a phrase, no one's gonna know it because it'll just come seamlessly into the next thing. Yeah, yeah. Mm, so yeah, I think you said it really well. Got it. Okay, that's, all right, so delivering the talk, that's, well, and that kind of brings us to the fourth sort of overall topic that I kind of wanted to ask you about, which is, okay, now you've done this TED Talk, and so now what? I mean, obviously, it comes out,
41:45
and you tell everybody, you text your friends, you post it on social media, like you, oh my gosh, that's so cool. And then what? So that's what, is there like, what are your thoughts on what now? Well, obviously everybody has a different path, but I'm curious what your thoughts are. I didn't mean to jump in there, yeah. No, there are two things that come up for people. One is post-talk shame. And I'm not sure if you've experienced that or not. Are you familiar? Did you experience once you finished your talk?
42:14
Okay, a lot of people experience post-talk shame and usually not my speakers so much because like they really, really nailed it. But even Brene Brown talks about this. Like she goes up, you know, she gets off stage and she's like, nobody can see that talk and vulnerability and she tries to break into the venue to steal back the talk. That is a real thing. That is a real thing that people can address. And the way to overcome that is one, for the process of the deliberate and deep connection with the talk that you build over time.
42:43
And that's going to eliminate the post-talk shame. So if you have overcome that, then you can move on to step two, which is, you know, of course you wanna go on a media blitz with it. And of course you wanna share it with everyone you know. And the algorithms for YouTube are constantly changing. What's working, what's not working, you know, how are we making that traction or not? And of course, you don't know when the talk is coming out. Sometimes it'll come out within a week. And I've had one of my talks that came out.
43:13
nine months later, it's like, my talk on miscarriage, what do you say? Like, I've had a baby in the time that talk came out, obviously. So when we look at this, we just think, you know, you don't know when that timing is. So be prepared for that. Have that ready to go. Set up your social media posts in advance. Set up your emails in advance for your list. Set up the connections like, hey, I gave this talk. I don't know when it's coming out. Could you do me a favor? Could you?
43:42
connect with me now and we'll do a recording about it. And then the week that the talk comes out, could you do me a favor and like just be able to nudge it in that week if possible, or just after it comes out. Sometimes, you know, again, YouTube algorithms are constantly changing. So you want to be prepared for that. I mean, you seem to have done a great job with that. How did you prepare? Well, mine was one of those stories kind of like, yours was nine months. For me, it was one of those, I had a really interesting thing happen to me, so that's with mine, which was, everybody else's talk.
44:11
for my TEDx event came out around. So I did my talk on June 25th was the recording date. And then everybody else's talk came out in like mid to late July and mine didn't. And so then it was one of those, oh, like, did I do something wrong? Did I say the wrong thing? Did I violate some rule I didn't know I was like, oh, I'm in trouble, what happened? Like, and so then, and all through the month of August and nothing. And so then in September,
44:41
I reached out to my host, hey, can you inquire about, and she wasn't getting a response back, my event host wasn't. So finally, by the end of September, I mean, at this point, it's now been three months since the talk. It's like, you know, I'm just, I'm gonna email them directly and see if I can get a response. And so I sent the email and I ended up getting amazing news, which was Ted received the talk and they liked it. And they did something where, I don't know what this means, but they said, we want to notify your talk.
45:10
And I still don't, I'm not clear on what exactly that means, but what it did mean is that they saw the talk and they liked it and they wanted to make sure that more of some of their followers would get to see it too. Which of course is a, to me, it was an amazing, that's just a huge, like I'm, I'm that the whole idea was that it's an idea worth spreading. And so if you saw the talk and you thought that too, then like, okay, yes, I'm glad I did this. And so, but then that was early September and then late September, no talk released October.
45:40
Still no talk released end of October. I follow up. Hey, am I still like, is this still gonna happen? So the bottom line is mine didn't come out until five months later, the end of November, November 29th was when my talk finally came out. And so for me, it's really exciting. And I did exactly what I just said, which is told everybody and posted on social media. And it was very cool. And at the same time, I consider myself really fortunate because I mean, it's been
46:10
As we're recording this, it's been out for just a couple of weeks and it's got, you know, five digit views. We're at 50, 60 something thousand views on this talk, which for me is also one of those. I know that my social reach is maybe a thousand or 2000 views. So like if all my friends watched it, that means a thousand or 2000. So I know that the idea was to get the, my, my goal was to kind of share this idea with the world and hope that it helps some people and it resonated with some people. And to me, I feel like that probably happened because I know that
46:40
All these views that are on there are definitely not my friends or people that I know necessarily. So I feel very lucky and fortunate in that way just because I feel like I kind of made a difference and I hope that it helps folks. And so that was I had one of those stories, but I am now putting together a press release because I certainly want to share it with if potentially this could be helpful for some media want to pick it up. Or to me, the interesting thing is everybody has groups that they're involved in.
47:10
If you like for me, I'm an Intel independent diabetic. So I would like to share this talk with, you know, some of the diabetic periodicals. And so I'm going to, you know, I kind of want to craft a press release, but send it directly to them, that personal message. And so reaching out to some of the media for that. But I'm curious, is there anything else that other talks, other speakers have done or other, besides putting press out and going for media or getting picked up on podcasts or, you know, and sharing it with their friends, are there any other interesting things that people have done with their talks after they've come out?
47:38
Well, actually, I would like to acknowledge what you said about getting the notification from Ted or the Ted Mainstage. What that means is they've decided, like, hey, we're going to hold this off for a minute and ping people when it comes up. They don't give alerts for every video that comes out. Let's say it came out on Ted.com. They may have done one of two things. They may have put it out on a newsletter or they may have just given like a...
48:05
The people who are subscribing, they will get a notification there's a new talk online or may have come up through their YouTube channel, which would have said, hey, new TEDx talk online because every day they're uploading how much TEDx talks. Like hundreds of TEDx talks go up all the time, yeah. Right. And they know there's a massive difference in quality these days. It used to be like, every TED and TEDx talk you see is amazing. Nowadays you're like, I'll watch a couple minutes of this. And then you're like.
48:35
I got to turn it off. Yeah, it's so true. You know what I mean, right? Yeah. You don't want to be that person. So to get that extra notification and that alert definitely increased your views. And if they watched it for more than a minute, that counts as a view. So that's a wonderful thing. That's a wonderful push that you got. So that's fantastic. All of my speakers have been featured on Ted.com and so were you. That was brilliant too, Brian. Not everyone does.
49:04
No woo woo, no science, no, how do we say this politely? Right. Right, no pseudoscience. Sure. And so we need to be careful about that. Do you have the credibility and authority and licensure to be speaking upon this topic? Like if you're talking about mental health, do you have a master's or PhD in this kind of stuff? And that's what they're looking for these days. Otherwise, they get flagged. So what you were saying was a valid concern.
49:32
What you were talking about was nothing that should get flagged. And I watched your talk. I was like, yeah, there was nothing in here that should get flagged. You were going around like, if you do this technique, your life will change and you'll lose diabetes. You'll never have to take another insulin shot in your life because you know how much you're worth an hour. Right.
49:52
You're like, you need to know how much you're worth an hour. Otherwise, you won't be able to afford your insulin shots. Because we know how the American medical system is. Oh, gosh. Yeah, let's leave that aside. My goodness. That's a whole episode on medical insurance. And as well, but yes, totally picking up what you're putting down here. Yeah. Right. And people also ask, like, is it the event? And, you know, I used to think more more views came from different kinds of events. Like there were certain events.
50:21
within each country that Ted pays particular attention to. That's not necessarily the case these days. And that's why your talk to be stellar. I spoke at this really tiny event. I think it was our first or second year. And this was a university I used to be a professor at. And they were like, hey, you know, we have this TEDx event, would you please come speak at it? And I just come back from Pakistan, giving a keynote there. And I was like, oh, okay, sure, sure.
50:49
And I was like, no one's gonna see this time. It's such a tiny event, it's gonna get no traction. And then a couple months later, Ted calls me up and says, can we interview you? Meanwhile, I'm in Switzerland, getting my speaker prepared to go on stage the next day. And I'm doing an interview with Ted in New York. Just like, and we would like to feature you on the Better Human series. I'm like, yeah, I know I could do a better job at being a human. Yeah. Right.
51:17
You're like, no, no, we think this talk could really help creative slides. It's a better human series, not because you don't need to be a better human, but because you can help people be better humans. Got it. Yeah. That's why. You know where the internal dialogue goes, like, you really suck. You're like, oh, I'm so much like Penny Brown, aren't I? I know, I was too vulnerable. I'm sorry. Dang it. So they did feature me in their better human series and interview.
51:47
And I think that gave a lot of traction for it. So it doesn't really matter. It was like, oh, the event's too small, it's too new. And it's not necessarily the case. I mean, I picked up on this really tiny event. Who knew? Why were they paying attention to that? It's an event in Japan. And I was one of like two or three English speakers at it. Right, yeah. It should not have been on the radar, but it was. So really focus on developing a great talk, something that's going to.
52:13
really transform lives, but also get that opportunity while you're creating it, what kind of personal transformation are you making? How are you changing as you're in the creation process? And that's important. One of the things that I can, and tell me if I'm on the right track, and do you feel like as you were creating, based on who you are, you created deeper relationships through the creation of this, is that correct? For sure. I, one of the things that I learned with this talk is to,
52:42
be a little bit more vulnerable and open because I did not come from a place of wanting to share my story. Like my first version of this talk is completely different from what you see now on Ted. My first one, I didn't include story about diabetes. I didn't include like there, there were a lot of things where I, my idea was I developed this way to
53:03
The fundamental idea was I developed a way to calculate the value of your time. And that's a really helpful tool in making decisions with your. And it was very other oriented. Let me help you. And instead it's a lot more stories from me and about me and my story and sharing some of that. And it took a long time for me to come in and finally be able to own that. And that was through that process of developing the talk, sharing it three times a week and sharing more. And every time I shared another story about myself, they told me that's the part that they liked. And it was.
53:33
I'm like, dang it, I don't want to share more about my... But that was it. So it's like learning. So for me, it was really learning about sharing my own story. And that was never something that was on my screen. So for me, that was part of what it was for me. And that's really interesting. And because you came from, you know, here's a talk about, you know, numbers and value and worth and all these things, you're like, my story is not worth anything. And you're like, no, it's, oh, my story is worth something.
54:00
On the other side, I was telling you about Jesse and her talk about how to deal with anxiety. Yeah. And her talk, she'd worked with somebody else prior to working with me and was like, oh, I got booked for this TEDx talk on anxiety, but I have no idea what I was going to talk about. And they're like, oh, we have a Toastmasters style group now, just deliver your talk. And she's like, okay, go in and she's like, write up a draft. And they're like, oh, do more about how when you were 16 years old, you slit your wrist and are like cutting or something like that and how your uncle committed suicide. She's like, well, that's when I was 16.
54:29
And she's like, all right, went back and rewrote it and came back in and she read it out and they're like, oh, that's good. And then she's like, this sucks. And then the next guy went and they're like, she's like, why is nobody telling him it's awful? And the next guy went like, this is so bad. And then she reached out to me and she's like, oh, okay, let's do this. And we worked through that. And what we had to look at is the world is in a state of global trauma coming out of a pandemic or however your status is on the pandemic.
54:56
with someone with long haul COVID, I'm like, oh, I'm still in it. I hitch everything. How do we navigate that and how do we make it so that the audience isn't traumatized? Because you can't repack the bags of someone sitting in row 16 CE or the person watching the video. How do you create it in a way that we're not talking about trauma drama?
55:24
and people wanna watch because they wanna hear the drama behind it. Oh my God, it's happening more. Because there's an elevation state. It's not necessarily the connection that we think we're creating. And on the other side, are we creating the potential for trauma? And so we restructured that talk completely backwards. And she said from the get-go, she's like, this talk is not about me. It's really not. It's about giving a practical tool. And it's a very simple one. So we built it up with the, how do we connect with that person where they're at?
55:53
in their lives and focus the attention. Cause if you're dealing with anxiety in that moment, you don't need to hear like, oh my gosh, I felt anxiety too. And when I felt it, I took magnesium. Right. Like I just went for a run, you know? Right, exactly. Yeah. It's like, here's how I dealt with it. And that's not necessarily the one size fits all approach she wanted to go with. So we need to look at that as well. So where as you, for you, you're talking like, here's my business thing. How do we craft that?
56:21
One of my speakers, Aisha, she had a, I don't want to do a spoiler alert on her story, but the story she's always wanted to lead with in her talk about how to bridge the gender gap through investing. She is a former VP of Credit Suisse in Switzerland. And investing, you know, exciting topic. I was like, yeah, it's the driest topic you can ever talk about. And she wanted to open up this really dark story. Well, I want to make your dreams come true. Well, we need some levity after that. I said, you know, seven years ago,
56:52
I watched this documentary about the bowerbirds. I remember everything. Seven years ago, I watched a documentary about bowerbirds. And I told her about the bowerbirds from the documentary and she's like, I'm not a bowerbird. I'm not gonna talk about them. Like you need some levity and shift of energy to create texture in your talk. You can't just leave them in this dark, negative emotional state and then lead to, so you need to start investing women and here's how you do it. You have to get them to where they are. And she's like, I don't wanna talk about the bowerbirds.
57:21
I don't want to know. It's not me. I'm like, but it's your audience. They are the power birds. So when I went to Switzerland and we did the run through, she's like, I don't want to do the power birds. I'm like, do the power birds, do the power birds. She's like, I hate this part. And did the run through with a different group that she was going to be speaking at. She was invited to another event, not a TEDx event. And everybody came running up. I am the power bird. They're like, I need to do this. And then at the TEDx event, there were 1400 people in the audience.
57:51
and standing ovation. They're like, oh my God, she's such an amazing storyteller. She's like, I hate stories. She's like, I love stories now. But people were running up to her after the event, I am the Bowerbird. Now she's got an entire course about financial investing and the pivotal point of the course is the Bowerbird. The Bowerbird. The Bowerbird. You got to go watch that. It's really fun. I don't want to give away her story because it's like spoiler. I don't want to spoil something, but nobody knows what the Bowerbird is unless they saw that same documentary I did seven years ago.
58:19
Right, right. Well, I will make sure that I go through and and so that's why you send me some of these links and I'll look up some of them too and I'll make sure that if you're for you listening that you can go through and check out some of these Ted talks that you kind of heard us glance about. Because it's funny to hear these back these background stories and then actually go watch the actual talk that's up there. And so this is cool. And and so that's really well, it's the net that kind of drives through that that last point, which is all right. So now you've done the talk and that's it. So I.
58:49
I kind of want to wrap here and what I want to start with is by saying first, here's what I love. So, Ness, I love that I feel like you have embraced your yin and your yang with like, you've got the data science formula side, and then you have the creative whatever side. And I feel like whoever you're working with, you become the end of their yang kind of thing when you're working with them. And even whether it's even in conversation, I get that vibe from you just talking with you today and as I did before. And I love that you bring that to the table,
59:18
with your depth of experience with. And so I really appreciate you sharing the stories too. You're clearly a very good storyteller and you totally get that. And so listening to people share stories versus, we could have taken a mathematical approach to here is the formula and this is what you should do. And that would be a really dry podcast episode about what you should do with TED Talk. So thank you for sharing all these, I love the stories and what you brought. So thank you for bringing all of that perspective. I really appreciate it.
59:45
Oh, thank you so much for having me. It's such a joy to be with you. And I love that we can just have this sit down conversation very intimately and you know, like we're sitting at a cafe and having a great chat. Exactly, just the three of us talking. You listening and Suness and I, this is it. I love this. And now you had talked, so if people want to get in touch with you or they want to follow you or stay in touch, what's the best way for them to do that? Just come join me at YourSpeakingJourney.
01:00:14
YourSpeakingJourney.com. You can connect with me. I'm very rarely on social media these days, but I don't really need to be, which is fine. So yeah, come over to YourSpeakingJourney.com. If you do want a more analytical approach and you want the step-by-step, you can download your roadmap to TED from YourSpeakingJourney.com and that'll give you point by point what you need in order to get your talk and your idea in a structured order and get booked to speak at TED or TEDx.
01:00:44
Coming 2023 is very soon. When we do look at this, we're looking at, you know, if we're looking at applying today, let's say we sent in an application today, let's say January, we're sending an application January, every event has a different timeline. So it could be anywhere from June to next January that you could get booked for a TED or TEDx talk. So you want to download that roadmap to TED to make sure that you're ready to go. Absolutely. So connect with, and connect with CNS, that's so.
01:01:13
Well, you can connect with me on Instagram, Soness Stevens. I think you can still find me on Facebook, Soness Stevens. Just Google Soness, you'll find me. Well, and if you want the good, the stuff, and some of the knowledge stuff, yourspeakingjourney.com sounds like the win. Thank you so much. And for you tuning in, I do have one specific request, which is, do you have a friend or a colleague who has contemplated doing a TED Talk or has been interested in this?
01:01:40
And if that resident, if if somebody came to mind, as you were listening to this episode, if if you would hit that share button and send them this little episode, two things about that one, it it furthers the bond with you. I love sharing episodes and things that come across with friends or colleagues that I have because, you know, it's one thing to see how you do it or whatever. But it's very cool when you come across something and you think of them and you share that. So I plant that seed with you, because if somebody did come to mind, I certainly hope you'll share.
01:02:08
this episode because getting to talk with Sonneth and getting to share that with others who might be interested for me is a very cool thing. And so thanks for watching. If you watch, thanks for listening and subscribing to the podcast or the video. And of course, and actually, if you sign up for my email list right now, I'll send you my three favorite time hacks so you can try them for yourself. These are like the three light bulb moments for people in my workshops that I teach so you can try them out for yourself along with.
01:02:33
the knowledge and info that I'll be sharing and I'll share via email as well. Because just like Soness said, I'm not on social media all that much either. I love connecting with people and I found I like email the most. So that's would love to invite you to subscribe. But with that, I just I love sharing productivity with Gladiator. I love sharing productivity gladiator. And that's a wrap.