My Tiny TEDx Adventure and the Learnings

Last month I attended TEDx Cooks Hill (Cooks Hill being a suburb of Newcastle, NSW, Australia). A colleague and friend Helen MAC had given me the heads up that the applications were still open, so I hurriedly compiled an application and wasn’t surprised (but was disappointed) to hear that I didn’t get accepted.

Why? Speaking at TEDx is one of the 101 things on my never-ending bucket list. It’s a fairly new addition after I plucked up the courage to share my personal story at The Storyroom back in May and received feedback suggesting I should speak at a TEDx.

Undeterred, I was going to go anyway, as it’s always a stimulating environment and I knew that I would learn something new.

The venue was the Civic Centre Newcastle and in order to manage the logistics at break times, the MC Rob Dawson had us filter out in sections. My section was the first to leave but as I was exiting, I heard Rob invite the remaining audience members to put their hands up to do a minute on the red circle. “B_G__R!” I thought to myself (fill in the blanks yourself!), “that would have been a great opportunity”.

Fast forward to the afternoon break and the invitation was repeated. I went to have my cuppa then what followed was a strange conversation with myself that went something like “well girl, now’s your chance, go for it! Seriously? What are you going to say in a minute? You have NO time to prepare! Do you want to rule yourself out already for the next opportunity by making a fool of yourself with this one? Blah blah blah etc.”

And so it continued; a dialogue (self-inflicted diatribe) of self-doubting, imposter syndroming, self-critical drivel with the odd “don’t be ridiculous, you’re a professional speaker for goodness sake” motivating waffle, such that, by the time I had finished, I had literally no time to prepare but yet decided to go for it.

I knew that I had to put myself in a position of no return, so I made my way to the front row and, as soon as Rob reappeared, I stalked him with my, “I want 1 minute please” pleas and was duly granted my wish.

My learnings? It didn’t really matter what I spoke on (I offered a whirlwind tour of my SOCIAL model of core needs – no story – DOH!), what DID matter was that:-

• I didn’t give in to the voice of that inner-critic which was getting louder with every minute
• I was prepared to be courageously vulnerable, to potentially stuff up my chances of ever getting on a TEDx stage in the future (at least it felt that way at the time) to give it a go
• I didn’t sit on the fence getting splinters, I took action and felt so empowered afterwards (and oh so very giddy!).

I was grateful that the person sitting next to me had the wherewithal to take a couple of photos (even though they are very grainy).

And if this is happening to me as an existing professional speaker, goodness knows how courageous and brave the souls were who went before and after me on that red circle – bravo, take a bow! ?

I regularly engage in activities that push me out of my comfort zone; a difficult facilitation, a physical challenge or even keeping quiet (yes I’m an extravert) but putting my head over the parapet in this way was one of the most rewarding of experiences.

Sometimes we need to give permission to others to push us (a coach for example), sometimes we need to throw caution to the wind and say "Nee heb je, ja kan je krijgen" (an old Dutch saying that says, "You already have NO - you can get YES!").

I met this weekend with someone who is a real TEDx speaker, and she told me that they call these 60 second sessions a ‘Tiny TEDx’ – onwards and upwards I say to the big one; I’m starting my 2025 TEDx application now ??

#courageousvulnerbility #impostersydrome #comfortstretchzone #jfdi

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