What Successful TED Talks Have in Common

Since its inception in 1984, TED has changed the way people view and experience public speaking. Serving a diverse community with speakers from around the world, TED is building an extensive source of free knowledge accessible to all. While each presentation shares fresh insights, there are two common threads that run through the most successful TED Talks – engaging storytelling and useful takeaways, which together ultimately and effectively build the speaker’s personal brand.

TED built its impact and reputation around how speakers connect with the audience and what speakers provide to their audiences. Some successful presentations offer a new way of thinking about familiar topics through unique storytelling. For example, talks that earned high engagement such as Sir Ken Robinson’s “Do schools kill creativity?” and Amy Cuddy’s “Your body language may shape who you are” entertain audiences, while offering a fresh perspective to daily life. Others address complex topics in simplified or relatable ways. Sharing personal anecdotes is a powerful method to relating to listeners, as well as breaking down abstract ideas such as 5G or AI. However, storytelling isn’t solely reliant on personal experiences. Simon Sinkek, who gave the wildly popular talk “How leaders inspire action,” used examples from Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright brothers to add color to his presentation. By sharing illustrations from the stories of renowned public figures, Sinkek created a structure that helped viewers follow his presentation and garner further insight.

While engaging storytelling is how TED speakers appeal to the audience, every successful talk presents listeners with beneficial takeaways. Fraud examiner Pamela Mayer demonstrated this by providing her audience with unique interpersonal skills in her 2011 talk, “How to spot a liar.” By arming her viewers with insights such as “lying is a cooperate act” and weaving in engaging illustrations from the lives of Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, Mayer teaches her audience how to reclaim the truth in under 20 minutes. Furthermore, sound expert Julian Treasure shared vocal strategies in his 2013 talk, “How to speak so that people want to listen.” As he shared tips to speak with empathy, Treasure coached his audience through avoiding common mistakes while demonstrating how to develop powerful public speaking skills. By presenting applicable takeaways, Mayer and Treasure enrich their presentations and equip their audience with useful knowledge.

Presenting a TED Talk is a top-notch opportunity to provide audiences with a new perspective on a meaningful subject. The most successful and highly viewed talks offer viewers inspiring takeaways, shared through effective storytelling. Giving a TED Talk is not about reinventing yourself, but about sharing the best of your knowledge in a compelling and personalized way with a community of curious listeners seeking a vibrant understanding of the world around us.