The journey to give a TEDx talk: A documentary.
After the first TEDxColumbus event in 2009 at the Wexner Center, I remember thinking the day after: why aren’t I doing more of “THIS?” This being helping speakers architect their story and find their voice. And deliver what I am now calling “The Talk of Your Life.” It is what lead me to create ar.tic.u.la.tion and the work I do every day.
Now, thanks to video producer Rich Bowers and his desire to follow the success of TEDxColumbus, the journey of two TEDxColumbus 2012 speakers and my passion for coaching people through this experience, we now have this awesome documentary. In a little over an hour, you’ll hear and see the pathway that Naomi Stanford and Jan Allen took on their way to the TEDxColumbus stage, and a lot of my ramblings on how I interpret the TEDx platform, preparation process and my coaching approach.
I’d like to personally thank Naomi and Jan for their participation and extra effort that went into this project. They allowed themselves to be vulnerable, transparent and authentic through each interview. It is my hope and goal that it becomes another valuable and insightful tool for future speakers to use to appreciate the successful ingredients to a wildly successful talk and experience.
Because as Jan said, “You come out of this process a different person than when you went in.”
And here are Jan and Naomi’s full TEDxColumbus talks:
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How Kit Kat led to TED, told ala Pecha Kucha.
So a few years ago I wrote this blog post on how I thought the Pecha Kucha (Japanese for Chit-Chat) was a fun format for an audience but a really tough one for a speaker. It dictates you deliver a talk with 20 slides on a timer for 20 seconds a slide.
So last summer when I was invited to give a PK talk, I told them I’d do it without slides. They said no : I had to use slides.
So I sent a black slide and asked them to play it 20 times. They said no : I had to show slide progression.
The dot that moved 20 times.
So I sent a slide that looked like this and had the dot rotate around the circle — one dot movement per each of the 20 slides. And they said yes: finally.
My motivation was that I wanted to tell a very personal story as the guidelines are pretty loose on what content you can bring forward as long as it shows your passion. I didn’t feel that slides would augment my story, in fact, I thought they would distract. And I didn’t ever want to turn my back to the audience to check if I was on the right slide (Rule #1 of public speaking) which is what happens when the slides are on a timer.
So now that I’m watching the video (posted below, don’t judge the quality!), I see that they may have had a confidence monitor (at my feet). A confidence monitor is what we call the screen facing a speaker to demonstrate the slides playing to the audience. True fact: I never saw the monitor as I am apt to look at the audience, not the floor. And it didn’t matter, since I timed my talk to be 6:40 (the time of 20 slides x 20 seconds) and just let it rip. It wasn’t until about 5 minutes in that I even remembered I had slides because I never practiced with them or needed them to prompt my story.
A good friend wrote on my Facebook page that he thought my slides were on the fritz…until the end. So watch for yourself and see how I gave a Pecha Kucha talk “without” slides. Which allowed me to focus on the thing that did matter: my passion and my story.
How I found my Kit Kat. from Articulation on Vimeo.
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