''You'' made me know about TEDx Talk

By the way, I was using Coco instead of Pistachio as my English name in Beijing. Interestingly, I also made some positive meanings for ''COCO''.

I would never know there was a stage called TED until I met Martin Barnes in 2016, in Beijing.

Back six years ago, each time I got time off from my work in Beijing, I was studying English as a personal interest in a company called EF.

Do you still believe in the law of attraction?

Because I wanted to overcome my fear of being on the stage, each time when I heard about a speech event, I would just go for it without hesitation.

One day, I saw a post that the EF staff made on WeChat. It said a pitch trainer will come here to make a presentation. There was no reason I should miss it. That's how I met Martin for the first time.

I was not good at taking photos for the poster years before...

To be honest, I couldn't understand all the words during the presentation because my English was definitely at the beginning level at that time.

But Martin's pitch just opened my world, so a pitch could be full of sketching? Even though I couldn't have a complete understanding, I still enjoyed his sketching, body language, and atmosphere. ''Is it how a presentation should be?'' I had this question in my mind.

Because I was obsessed with his pitch, I started searching TEDx on that day. Also, on that day, I planted the seed of being a TED speaker in my heart.

His impact and support didn't stop on that day, it is another story.

To gain the opportunities for practicing my pitch skill and overcoming my fear on the stage. I set up a Speech club in EF and basically host the activity in person once a week on weekends. Gradually, what I found is that I also helped other English learners to improve their proficiency in spoken skill and their courage in public speaking.

Instead of waiting for the opportunities, I would rather create an opportunity!

Each time when I had questions about pitching such as making a more concise and attractive ppt, I would send DMs to Martin on WeChat. Surprisingly, he always answered me in detail. He probably didn't realize that I got so much encouragement from him and he was helping me build my confidence in the early years. Or a new label ''public speaker'' like how I used ''tomboy'' or ''Mandarin speaker''.

In the past five years, I hadn't been keeping in touch with Martin for a long while, I was busy being a workaholic in Beijing.

However, on the day when I got the news that I was successfully selected to be the TEDx speaker as the only student at Cardiff University, Martin was just the first person I told about the news. At that time, he was also in the UK. He sent me the supportive materials in no time and advised me to practice my talk at pitch club chapter 2 which he hosts every Thursday. Because I attended pitch club chapter 1 in Beijing before, I deeply believed the club can help me.

I'm good at listening to Martin's techniques, so I followed what Martin suggested.

Here is the image that Martin sketched, and I used it in my TEDx Talk, are you feeling the Metaverse?

It is impossible to imagine, but I met two amazing people when I practised my talk at the pitch club.

This was really the luckiest coincidence. I was coached by the dream team.

If you want to know who they are, then you might be forced to know another incredible story.