Speaking at a TEDx event has been a goal of mine ever since I attended the second TEDxSMU here in Dallas several years back. However, I had never even applied in the past because I struggled to find a topic I thought was worthy of delivering to a TEDx audience.

It wasn’t until I wrote the “My First Job” post on LinkedIn did the idea for a talk come to fruition, thanks to the influence of Mary Jacobs, on the organizing committee of TEDxPlano.

I’ve watched many a TED talk over the last 4 years and it became clear the most successful TED talks are full of emotion, stories and conviction. I took what was a simple blog post and really thought about what I learned growing up on a pig farm and what it taught me about success in business and in life.

Now I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to large audiences over the last eleven years and more frequently as a paid speaker for the last 5 years. But I’ve never been as nervous as I was leading up to this TEDx talk.

Based on that, I wanted to share a bit of background on how I prepared for for my first of many TED talks.

10 steps to deliver a memorable experience

1. Read this book: After seeing it recommended numerous times, I downloaded “Talk Like TED” by Carmine Gallo for Kindle. The book not only offered great insight about how slow you should speak during your talk but also highlighted the importance of storytelling. Additionally, the book pointed out some of the most compelling TED talks out there, many that I’ve never watched.
2. Write initial outline: Once I wrote an initial outline of my talk I took up Mary’s offer to brainstorm on the topic and met her for coffee a few times over the next two weeks. Sharing my stories with her growing up made the topic even more compelling to her and it came together fairly quickly. Once I had a solid introduction and three key messages I started to feel more confident about the impending first practice session.
3. Rewrite: I continued to tweak the content focusing on stories and examples to highlight my key points. Eventually I ended up with just under my goal of 1,800 words equating to about 150 words per minute for a 12 minute talk.
4. Improve the stories: I found myself recalling more memories as I tried to fall asleep each night and worked to incorporate these into the talk so I continued to edit.
5. Add humor: I’ve always enjoyed humor and I think it helps to build trust with an audience. More importantly, it livens up a day full of some rather serious talks.
6. Read the talk: About 10 days out from the event I started to read the talk about every two hours often multiple times and easily found ways to change words and make it more concise where possible. I didn’t have the content really nailed down until about 7 days out.
7. Read the talk out loud : Where I started to really make progress on memorizing the content was when I started reading the document out loud. This helped me eliminate unnecessary words continuing to give me the ability to speak slower during delivery.
8. Record yourself reading the talk: About 6 days out I recorded myself reading the talk into my iPhone. Partly for practice but also so that during my drive time back and forth to sales calls I could listen to the content and help to memorize it and take note of areas to improve.
9. Practice delivering the talk in front of others: A couple days out from the talk I was still struggling to memorize it all without having to look down at my printed talk. Practicing delivering it to my wife and daughters really helped. Now many speakers advise not to memorize every word just focus on the key messages. Given the planned humor and specific stories, memorization was important for flow.
10. Practice delivering the talk without notes: The night before the event I must have delivered my talk at least 10 times before going to bed. My wife was tired of hearing it but knew it would help me get more comfortable with the content. More importantly, once I memorized it I felt far more comfortable ad libbing where it made sense.

On the morning of the event and up until my talk I read over the printed copy of the speech several times. There you have it.

The talk is embedded below. I hope you enjoy it.

And yes, I wish I could change the default YouTube image on this since I’m using air quotes and not the most flattering facial expression.

What really shocked me during my talk and caught me completely off guard was at the 14:30 mark into the video. You’ll see how emotional I became and lost the ability to speak. That was not intentional nor was it planned. I think the gravity of the situation and me thinking about the impact my Dad had on my life really came through.

In the end I was pleased with my first talk and look forward to many more.

P.S. If you enjoyed this talk please recommend below and share with others.
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