How Does a Senior's TED Talk Go Viral?

In October, 2020 I was invited to apply to be a TEDx Speaker at the Bear Creek Park TEDx presentation to be held in February of 2021 in Vancouver, B.C.

The invitation came as a result of someone associated with TEDx Bear Creek having read my recently published little book entitled The Four Phases of Retirement: What To Expect When You’re Retiring. Whereas most retirement-focused books emphasize the investment, insurance and estate planning aspects, I emphasize the psychological changes and challenges that almost every person experiences when they retire.

I had never considered the possibility of being a TED speaker previous to the invitation, but everyone knows TED Talks; they’re world renowned. I was at once honoured and excited by the possibility of standing on that big stage, before a large audience and delivering my Talk.

And in the context of my personal journey through the Four Phases of Retirement, the timing was perfect! You see, I characterize Phase Four retirees as being (among other attributes) people who are crystal clear on the things they enjoy doing, and do very well; for me that’s teaching, writing and presenting Workshops.

As well, they are usually open to new challenges; for me that meant that, while I have done a lot of writing and made many presentations over the years, the concept of doing a TED Talk would be an entirely new challenge…one that would require hours and hours of work, many drafts, lengthy rehearsal times, and ultimately, standing alone on that famous TED round-red-rug and delivering a Talk with absolutely no notes or backup.

It was terrifying and sometimes agonizing to have your work scrutinized and critiqued, and there were times along the way when I seriously considered aborting the project…but it was also so very challenging and energizing! So I saw the invitation as, likely, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to test my abilities in the ‘big leagues’ of public speaking and presenting. ?I’m glad I did!

But first things first.

Some Background on TEDx Talks

TED stands for?Technology, Education and Design?and those were the topics the talks focused on initially. The range of topics has expanded over the years, and the overall purpose of TED Talks is to?educate, entertain and empower; they are traditionally limited to about 18 minutes in length. TEDx Talks operate under a license issued once those involved have proven that they meet TED’s demanding criteria. There are now about 3,000 TEDx Talk licensees around the world, and in 2022 nearly 19,000 TEDx Talks were delivered.

Preparing for the 2021 Bear Creek Park TEDx Conference

Two information sessions were held in October to inform potential applicants of the process and the requirements involved. To be selected as a Bear Creek Park TEDx speaker, one was required to demonstrate that they had a compelling idea to share and that they had expertise, experience and a depth of understanding of their compelling idea. About 55 attended the first information session and about 50 attended the following week’s session; both were conducted on Zoom. During the session we were informed that the time limit for our Talks was to be not 18 minutes, but 12 minutes!

Subsequently, over 80 formal applications were submitted by the deadline; over 100 were received for 2022. One question on the application required applicants to state our idea worth sharing with a 50 word maximum. Another required us to state our?through line?(the theme or main idea of the talk) with a 15 word limit!

Those 80 applications were winnowed down to 24 Shortlisted candidates based on the submitted written Applications; those Shortlisted candidates then auditioned on Zoom. The organizers’ purpose was to identify the 12 speakers who would comprise this year’s speaking roster, and the deadline to do so was December 7, 2020.

The good news? I was selected as one of the speakers for the 2021?Bear Creek Park TEDx Conference…though there was a caveat. It was that, given we were in the middle of a global pandemic, there may be travel restrictions which would preclude me from travelling for my home in the Toronto area to Vancouver to participate in the event. Therefore, they selected 13 speakers that year, in case I wasn’t able to participate.

Starting in January 2021, we were each assigned a personal Coach to help us prepare our Talk (we met by Zoom for an hour a week for nearly eight weeks). In addition, there were four, four-hour group Coaching sessions scheduled on Zoom every second Saturday through to mid-February. Both the one-on-one sessions as well as the group sessions were extremely valuable, and I could feel my Talk improving as it went through about a dozen revisions. Our first?draft had a limit of 1600 words; the next one had a limit of 1200 words! Each group session saw improvements in each of the speakers’ Talks; it was wonderful to see and be a part of.

But in the back of my mind was this pandemic and its implications for my travel… especially as the numbers during February were going in the wrong direction almost everywhere in the country. Finally, just before the third group training session in early February, I received a call from Vancouver with the bad news. There was to be no imminent loosening of Covid-associated restrictions in the Province, and I would thus not be able to travel to Vancouver to be part of the Conference that year.

While very disappointing, it was not totally unexpected. The good news was that I’d be way ahead of other applicants in my preparation, and would have a very good chance to participate in the 2022 Conference.

Fast forward one year…

Participating in the 2022 TEDxSurrey Conference

TEDx BearCreek had become TEDxSurrey. Much the same process was used as the previous year, and I was selected again as one of the twelve speakers, the date of which was set for Saturday, February 19, 2022 at the Bell Performing Arts Centre in Surrey (a suburb of Vancouver).?

In 2021, no audience was allowed at the Bell Performing Arts Centre, so the talks were delivered to a very small group of attendees, and there was none of the ‘vibe’ that comes from a live audience. In 2022, Government edicts allowed the Centre to be at half capacity (about 600 people), and that was to be a very significant advantage for me.

My wife and I travelled to Vancouver and on advice, stayed at the quaint Sylvia Hotel on English Bay, quite near Stanley Park. I travelled to the Bell Centre on the Tuesday preceding the event for a Dress Rehearsal. Despite having rehearsed and practiced over and over, for well over 100 hours, I had a ‘brain cramp’ at the rehearsal and simply lost my place…it seemed like forever, but was probably only a second or two. Then my line came back to me and I carried on. But the fact of having messed up stayed with me during the days between the dress rehearsal and the event five days later. I wondered, could it happen again on the big day?

I returned to the hotel to meet my wife, son and grand-daughter who had come to join us for a few days, and to have a Manhattan to calm my frayed nerves. As we were seated in the bar at the hotel, who should appear at the top of the stairs but our other son! He had come as a surprise to spend time with us and his brother. It was wonderful!

The Four Phases of Retirement TEDx Talk

I’m happy to report that at the Event on Saturday, I presented exactly as I had hoped I would. As it turned out, I spoke last to an audience that had grown to 700 people after organizers had been given permission to sell more tickets a few days before the event.

I received not only a standing ovation at the end, but also a sitting ovation (never heard of that before!) during the presentation when I showed the slide of The Old Coots who gave free advice at the local Farmers’ Market.

People loved it and broke into spontaneous applause. It was so much more energizing for me than if I had presented the previous year to virtually no audience. Here's the closing clip from my Talk:

Becoming a YouTube 'Editors Pick'

Following the TEDx Talk experience in February, the Talks were edited (several cameras were used to record), introductory visual effects were added, then they were submitted as required to TED for approval and finally, after seemingly endless delays, my Talk was released to TEDx/YouTube on May 27, 2022. Along with four others, my Talk was identified as an 'Editors Pick' by YouTube, and given some preferential placement on the site.

You never know what the response will be to one’s TEDx Talk; you only hope for a strong response, and that’s what I was fortunate enough to receive! Within three weeks of its release, there had been over 350,000 views; at four weeks, the number was over 500,000; at six weeks, it was nearly 700,000; at eight weeks it was over 800,000, and by early August, it was at 900,000. By Labour Day, it reached 1,000,000 views, and by year-end, the number of views had reached 1,700,000. By mid-February 2023, the number of views on YouTube alone had reached over 1.8 million.

Promotion to the TED Main Stage

More good news followed over the summer. The ‘mothership’ TED continually surveys the TEDx Talks released world-wide by 3,500 TEDx licensees; in 2022, about 19,500 TEDx Talks were produced. Rarely, TED identifies a TEDx Talk that it feels worthy of elevating to the 'TED Main Stage', and is made available for viewing on the TED website and is promoted through other TED initiatives. We were informed in June that my Talk was being considered for this honour.

But as a respected world-wide brand, TED understandably needs to be satisfied that Talks it supports are factually accurate. Thus, I was required to verify my statement that 10,000 North Americans retire every day. I also mentioned that I had taken courses on conflict resolution and was asked to specify where and when I took these courses, as well as the name of the sponsoring institution.

Finally, with these and other questions answered, TED confirmed that my Talk would appear on the TED website, and in mid-October, it ‘dropped’. But interestingly, the TED version uses some slightly different camera angles from the TEDx YouTube version, and it renamed my Talk How To Squeeze All The Juice Out Of Retirement, a phrase I use a few times in it.

Response on TED was immediate and very encouraging. In the 10 weeks between mid-October and year-end, there were 966,478 views on the TED website. I'm told that's an astounding number in such a short time.

Making the 2022 Top Ten TEDx List on YouTube

In late December 2022, a report was issued listing the Top Ten Most Watched TEDx Talks on YouTube in 2022. Despite being released in late May, and thus being available for viewing for only seven months of the year, mine was listed as the eighth most watched of the year, out of about 19,500 TEDx Talks presented on YouTube, world-wide.

Interestingly, the group that issued the report was not aware of my Talk’s presence (or the number of views) on TED; they were basing their numbers on TEDx Talks on YouTube only. If an additional 966,478 views were added to the YouTube numbers, who knows what the Talk’s ranking would be? Combined numbers of views reached the three million mark in mid-February, 2023.

So how does a senior’s TED Talk go viral?

I think there are a few factors.

At the end of it all, after the work has been put in, after the editing, and after the posting on YouTube or TED, the truth is you simply have no idea how your Talk will be received. I was just happy to have gone through the process (and survived it), done the work required to have given it my best effort on stage at Show Time, and benefitted from all the world-class coaching and support I received throughout the months leading up to the event. That all justified the effort. But deep inside, one hopes it will be well received…whatever that means.

I believe there are three main reasons for the warm reception with which my Talk has been met.

First, the timing of my topic was serendipitous. We are living in a?time when 10,000 North American Baby Boomers are retiring every day, and will for the next several years. In fact, through COVID, preliminary figures estimate that this daily number has increased, with significant numbers of younger folks simply saying they’ve had enough and are retiring. Nurses, teachers, and doctors?in particular seem to be adding to the daily figures. As I note in my Talk, we’re experiencing a retirement tsunami!

In fact, interestingly enough, the average number of daily views of my Talk since its release, is the same as the average number of North American retirees each day…10,000. I can only assume that every retiree is watching the Talk! LOL

Never before in human history have there been such large numbers retiring each day. So clearly, there’s an unprecedented level of interest in the topic of retirement, and particularly since we explore the rarely examined psychological changes and challenges that come with it.

Second, I believe that on presentation day, all the practice and effort I had put into the Talk came together exactly as I hoped and prayed it would. I don’t believe I could have delivered the Talk at any higher level than I did that day.

Third, I believe that the 65+ crowd has been instrumental in supporting one of their own! A 2021 study by the Pew Research Center confirms that the share of those North Americans age 65 and older who are tech users has grown significantly in the past decade.

While only about 45% of those 65 and older reported using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, presence on social media by these folks has grown fourfold since 2010. About 44% of those 65 and older now own a tablet while about 53% of those 50 to 64 do. Regarding internet use, Pew reports that 96% of those 50 to 64 use it compared with 75% of those over 65 who do.

Among sites and apps specifically asked about in the survey, YouTube tops the list in the share of adults using it, and the platform has gained traction among older adults. From 2019 to 2021, the share of adults ages 50 to 64 who say they use YouTube increased from 70% to 83%. Among those 65 and older, YouTube use increased from 38% to 49%---both very substantial increases.

Given these figures of recent increased use by those 65+, and that my Talk was posted on YouTube in May of 2022 and on the TED website in mid-October of 2022, I think it’s reasonable to believe that much of the interest and viewership of my Talk has been generated by these older adults. Thank you for supporting one of your own!

The Takeaway

Clearly, the topic has struck a chord with retirees and near-retirees world-wide. So my message to all who have watched my TEDx Talk so far and to those who will in the future is this: It’s true that while everyone says you have to get ready to retire financially (and of course you do), what they don’t tell you is that you also have to get ready psychologically! I'm here to help you understand the Four Phases of Retirement so you can prepare for the psychological changes and challenges that almost always accompany retirement. Visit thefourphases.com to learn more.