So You Want to do a TEDx Talk...?

I thought it was a joke.

In early 2013 I received an invitation to submit a proposal for my first TEDx talk...and I thought someone was playing a joke on me. I was not a professional speaker, I was a professional writer. I'd been watching TED talks online for several years, but I never dreamed I had a TED-worthy story or idea inside of me.

In 2011 I sustained a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). In the months after my injury, I learned the word "mild" referred to the impact that created the injury and definitely NOT to the long term effects. After my injury, I looked and acted pretty much as I always had - yet much about my ability to perceive, think, and function as I once did had changed.

My frustration over finding effective medical care and dealing with my employer who did not behave illegally, but surprisingly inhumanely, led me to do what I'd always done when faced with trying times - I wrote. I turned to social media, I blogged, I shared helpful resources online and I shared my insights with humor and a unique and uninhibited twist on what I was learning about neuroscience.

Share Something Your Audience Can't Learn Anywhere Else

In retrospect, I'm pretty sure it was the "unique and uninhibited" that got me invited to do my first TEDx talk. And while it's one thing to be unique and uninhibited as a writer or a social media personality, the thought of opening my mouth and speaking my truth out loud terrified and intrigued me...and was exactly what I needed.

I decided early on in my brain injury journey that I did not want to be a brain injury expert writing and speaking about mTBI (mild traumatic brain injury). I just couldn't muster up excitement and I saw too many other speakers in the genre who annoyed rather than inspired me. There are many real neuroscientists who know more than I do, many speakers with more serious injuries, and many good books about brain injury. I have no desire to compete with them. My passion was about using my story to inspire others to think about how people think - a catalyst for creativity, resilience, and curiosity for all, not just for those dealing with neurological impairments.

Lesson 1: Your "idea worth sharing" must be uniquely yours.

You can't get up on a TEDx stage and spew material your audience could easily learn reading a book. Your story and unique insights gleaned from your experience should leave the audience thinking about and wanting to take action long after they leave your talk.

As I prepared for my first TEDx talk, for the first time in my 50+ year life, unique and uninhibited were acceptable, even encouraged. A TEDx audience is a great place to share your idea in an open, fun, and supportive environment (the photo at the beginning of this article shows the audience at my 2013 TEDx talk). While the general public is not always so gracious (and it's okay if not everyone loves your idea), attendees at a TEDx event want to see you succeed. The positive support I received at my first TEDx talk gave me the courage to speak up for my own ideas both in writing and in speaking. I've become much more confident and bolder and less concerned about what others think as a result of having done TEDx talks.

Marketing and Selling Are Four Letter Words

I've heard many people casually say, "I've been thinking of doing a TEDx talk" quite a bit in the last year, but often when I probe deeper, the person saying this either wants to market something or doesn't have a clear idea what their idea worth sharing is.

Let's be clear about one thing up front. The TED speaker commandments are clear on marketing and selling from the stage. It's not allowed. If your primary goal for doing a TEDx talk is to market something, your talk idea is probably not TEDx-worthy. If your goal is to freely share an idea or a unique insight, be vulnerable, and connect with people as friends in a stimulating conversation, not as potential buyers - you might have something TEDx-worthy worth pursuing.

The other thing to be aware of is that you get no more than 18 minutes to speak. Therefore, your ONE NOVEL IDEA must be able to be clearly stated in one simple sentence by someone listening to your talk, even if that person has no previous experience with your subject matter. It must be accessible, inspiring, and memorable.

Lesson 2: Hire an experienced coach to help you prepare your talk and be prepared to work your butt off without pay.

Doing a TEDx talk is not as easy as just getting up on stage and telling an engaging story - though the best speakers make it look that way! You will have to practice and revise for months. You should pay someone to coach you. You will not be paid for your time and effort. You will have to give up an entire weekend for the TEDx event. After my first TEDx talk, I was so exhausted (in a happy way), I said "Never again!" I was invited to do my second TEDx talk less than a year later and said "Yes!" almost immediately. Why? The camaraderie, experience, insights, confidence, and forced focus on honing my unique message - all worth it.

It takes many months to prepare an extraordinary talk that will be over in 18 minutes (or less). If you are used to speaking in front of audiences, you may be tempted to prepare your TEDx talk on your own. I would advise you not to. The TEDx format is not like anything you will learn in Toastmasters, as a keynoter, or anywhere else. As a lifelong writer, it was challenging for me to write a talk that was conversational and natural. I quickly learned that writing a TEDx talk is nothing like writing a blog post or an essay. It's not even like writing any other kind of speech. A good coach will not write your talk or put his/her words into your talk, but will help you put your words into the right format for a TEDx audience.

Your TEDx talk video will be freely available online - you want it to be authentic, unique, and compliant with TED speaker commandments. While you are not allowed to sell or market in your TEDx talk or at a TEDx event, you certainly can use the resulting video to showcase your knowledge and skills for future speaking engagements. Having a TEDx talk under your belt adds to your professional street cred. I can't tell you how many paid speaking gigs I have gotten as a result of my TEDx videos. So if you're going to do it, invest the time and money to do it right.

Memorizing a Talk Is Easy When the Idea Worth Sharing is Your Own

My short term memory stinks. It's one of the effects of my brain injury that is not improving. I'm not talking about the usual day-to-day forgetfulness we all experience now and then. I'm talking about profoundly life-altering memory problems that scare the crap out of me and give me nightmares about the possibility of dementia setting in. Thus, memorizing speeches is definitely not my strong suit. And my anxiety about forgetting things or having to speak extemporaneously is overwhelming at times.

One of the TED commandments dictates you may not read your talk. Once I said "yes" to doing my first TEDx talk, I panicked about this. One of the most valuable lessons I learned is that giving a TEDx talk is a lot like the piano recitals I did as a piano student. You practice, practice, practice, and still you make mistakes. When you've practiced thoroughly and you make a mistake on stage, you know how to recover so it doesn't even faze you and no one notices.

Lesson 3: The beauty of sharing an idea that is uniquely yours is that there is little to memorize.

This, of course, doesn't mean you can just get up on stage and say whatever comes into your head. Most TEDx organizers will want to see an outline of your talk many months before the event, just to ensure it complies with TED rules. Your core message should be clear and the stories and order of your talk should be carefully outlined and practiced.

As Hayley Foster notes in her book, Don't Tank Your TED Talk, "Casual authenticity beats a polished presentation." Therein lies the beauty of sharing YOUR unique idea. You don't have to memorize much. It's part of you. It's authentic. When passion and uniqueness are present, your talk will be committed to a different kind of memory that isn't easily erased. I did not memorize my talks verbatim as I had written them, but instead used various physical techniques to remember the order of the content and stories in my talks. I.e., when my arm does this, I say this. When I walk to the right, I tell this part of the story, when I turn to the left I tell another part.

Practicing your talk many times over the course of several months also teaches you what words and actions feel natural and how people might respond to what you say. A good coach will give you guidance on when to pause, how to modulate your voice, what physical actions might enhance your story and how to remember the order/content of your talk.

The thing I loved most about doing my TEDx talks was that it was not necessary for me to have a PhD, to have invented something, or to be famous. In fact, my favorite TED and TEDx talks are given by the average Joe or average Jane who tell a compelling, thought-provoking story or share an old idea in a new way I'd never thought of before.

For me, the best TED and TEDx speakers shine because they are unique and I can relate to them. They are people I would choose as friends if I met them in the street. They are funny, humble, intelligent, inquisitive, and don't have an agenda to sell or convince me of anything - they simply want to share their cool idea.

And discussing cool, new ideas makes us smarter.

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About Ann

Ann Zuccardy is a two-time TEDx presenter and keynote speaker who challenges conventional ideas about what makes us smart.  A brain injury survivor, she uses her TBI story and neurological research she discovered during her recovery as a platform to train others to think about how they think - resulting in improved innovation, creativity, and productivity. 

Watch Ann's first TEDx talk - How a Brain Injury Made Me Smarter.

Book Ann to speak at your next event:  [email protected]

Follow Ann on Twitter:  @annzuccardy