How I Landed a TED Talk — Mackenzie Finklea

If you watch videos on the internet, then you have probably seen a TED Talk. TED is an educational non-profit that spreads big ideas in the form of short videos. What started as a small organization in 1984 has grown into a globally recognizable brand. Anyone can give a fifteen-minute presentation, but to give one on the TED stage is a prestigious opportunity. Speakers go through layers of applications and panels of judges before being invited to present, and the more famous you are, the easier it is to land the gig. So how did I do it?

The idea of being center stage and presenting to big audiences has appealed to me since my pre-teen years in theater camp, and it seemed that anyone who was anyone was giving TED Talks on YouTube- and getting millions of views. Without a specific idea in mind, I thought that it would be really cool to give a TED Talk. The benefits abound- you gain access to an enormous audience for your big idea and you get a permanent mark of achievement on your cv. Back in the time of my application, my primary motivation was for the latter.

Fortunately, now more than ever, anyone with a big idea, famous or not, has a decent shot at giving a talk on a TED stage. With TEDx, communities across the globe can organize professional, independent TED events. TEDxUTAustin was the key to making my TED Talk dreams a reality.

My senior year at UT Austin, a friend of mine posted that TEDxUTAustin was accepting applications for student speakers. She was a part of the large student team that produced the entire annual event. Later that week, I met her for a coffee and asked about the application and how planning was going. She asked me a question that I was not expecting at the time, “what would you give a TED Talk about?” This question take me back to how I started my first book- simply with, “what would you write an entire book about?” My book, Beyond the Halls, was in infant development stages at the time and I still had not solidified my big idea, but I had just completed an eighteen-page paper for a linguistics class… on internet memes.

My friend lit up and went nuts for this idea. “We’ve been wanting someone to do a TED Talk on memes for two years.” I told her more about the paper and my ‘idea worth spreading.’

“You have to apply with that idea. The judges will love it.”

So, I got to work on preparing my application. If you want to land a TED Talk, the application questions for most TEDx events are similar. The most important piece to prepare is a brief outline of the TED Talk you would give if you were invited to speak.

Have a big idea, but don’t know how to condense it into a fifteen minute speech? Try this outline template;

• Open with a story that gets to the heart of your big idea. Give your listeners a sense of time and place.
  Structure your talk by giving at least three main takeaways from your book.
• List the most important one last. If you were teaching a course on your book, what is the one thing you would want people to learn?
• Weave in two to four stories to illustrate your points. Stories engage your audience and inspire them to implement your big idea Finally, address the real-world implications of your big idea, and mention if they correlate with current events or culture.

In my case, I only applied to one TEDx conference. If you are looking to give a TED Talk, apply to multiple events- as many as your heart desires. Play the odds! When you apply to various events, consider the location, the institution, and the theme in how it relates to your big idea. For example, I was able to leverage my position as a student in the call for student speakers at TEDxUTAustin. In the future, I would like to apply to TEDxHoustonWomen- as a woman from Houston. Reoccurring, annual conferences often choose a theme when they host events from year to year; meaning that talks have a central message that ties them together. For instance, the theme at on my campus for 2019 was ‘Origins of Tomorrow.’ These themes can be general and fluid, so do not let them deter you from applying. Applications are free.

You can find every TEDx event happening this year on this virtual map here. Events happen at different times of the year, year round, so there are always applications open! Pro tip: links and information on the website are not always up to date, but if the event is listed, the license exists. All you have to do is search the name of the event (e.g. TEDxUTAustin) and navigate to the event website to find speaker applications.

Six months before the TEDx conference event. I filled out the application and prepared an outline of my talk. Then, I was invited to interview with a few board members to talk about internet memes and my big idea. After another round of cuts, I was invited to audition with a ten minute version of my talk for a room of about twenty people; including university faculty and event team members. A few weeks later, I received the email inviting me to be a speaker- with four months of preparation, practice, and dress rehearsals ahead of me.

The next four months were spent writing, refining, and practicing my talk until it was a song that was stuck in my head. Everyone’s method of preparation looks different. Some speakers use slide shows to prompt their speech, some use none and completely memorize their presentation, and some people just completely wing it. Personally, I wrote down a script word-for-word of what I wanted to say- down to the pauses and slide show button clicks. I recorded the script and listened to it until I could remember all of it. Then, I would practice pieces of it; in the car, in the shower, walking to class… The editing process looked like a lot of peer review and practice runs in front of my friends and other invited speakers. Ultimately, I was able to refine the speech to seventeen minutes, get up on that stage, and go into auto-pilot.

Even for someone who gets a thrill out of the spotlight, public speaking still causes me anxiety. It all gets easier with practice- not that much easier, but a little bit each time. The weeks of anxiety and day-of jitters were all worth it for the amazing opportunity. Now, my talk is available and immortalized for people to watch on the globally subscribed TEDx YouTube page. You can watch it here. The accessibility and audience access of this documented event has proved valuable time and time again. People have reached out for an array of speaking engagements. I connected with a school in Australia to talk to students about meme research. I was flown to Atlanta to talk about memes and virality to a room full of cameras for a documentary.

With this experience under my belt, I am empowered to pursue more speaking engagements with confidence. Even though it was a major challenge and took a great deal of work and energy, giving a TED Talk is something I would love to do again. Time to go back to the drawing board and create a new pitch for my next big idea!

To connect with me more about this experience and learn how to turn your book into a TED Talk or Keynote, connect with me here.

Originally published at https://mackenziefinklea.com on November 3, 2021.