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Crafting a TEDx Talk That Showcases Your Big Idea with Anna Goldsmith | Ep. 70

• Allison Lane • Episode 70

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What if one short talk could launch your book, amplify your message, and land you media coverage? In this episode, we’ll explain exactly how to get selected for TEDx, how to pitch your idea, and how to use a TEDx talk to grow your visibility and book sales. 

Allison Lane sits down with Anna Goldsmith, executive producer of TEDxPortsmouth, one of the largest and most successful TEDx events in the country, to reverse-engineer the path to the red circle. 

If you're an author asking: “How do I get a TEDx talk?”, “Can a TEDx talk help me get a book deal?” or “What do TEDx organizers look for?”... this episode gives you clear, actionable answers.

What You’ll Learn 

  • The difference between TED and TEDx (and why authors should care)
  • What makes a TEDx idea stand out from the application pile
  • The role of TEDx in growing your visibility, discoverability, and platform

Resources Mentioned

Timestamps Highlights

  • [04:12] What TEDx organizers are really looking for
  • [10:37] Why TED Talks are ideal for authors (even if your topic feels “done”)
  • [17:55] The differen

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Anna:

TED Talk is a story in the service of action. What do you want your audience to do as a result of listening to your story?

Allison:

Welcome back to the Author's Edge. I am your host and your literary chaperone, Allison Lane. And I am here to say and remind you, I know you have a message whether you already have a book out and you're thinking, what am I going to write next? Or my agent says, I need to build my platform more, which no one knows what a platform is. So, we gag on that word. Or that to stand out and get attention from an agent or a publisher, you need to be in the spotlight a little bit more. And a lot of people are given that advice of like, why don't you do a TED Talk as if that checks the box? But people don't know where to start. And this episode is your shortcut to that stage because too many brilliant people just like you, assume that a TED or a TEDx talk is out of reach. And then they get stuck trying to force a big idea into that tight format. But we're going to talk about this today. Ted organizers are looking for voices just like yours, people with bold and clear ideas and stories not just the 10 steps that your method lays out. But ideas that challenge thinking or shift the conversation. And I can't tell you exactly what that is. But today's guest, Anna Goldsmith, certainly can. She is the founding partner of an award-winning agency, the Hired Penns and executive producer of TEDx Portsmouth, which is one of the largest and most successful TEDx events in the country. She is a big deal, for sure. And people never think they're a big deal, but I'm telling you. She is a big effing deal. And she's helped hundreds of people find their story and the stage that they need to be on. I'm so happy, Anna, that you're here and you're going to help clear things up for us because I think people need to know what the process is and what a TEDx or a TED Talk can do for you because it's not automatic. So can you talk us through how TED works? Just let's get started with that.

Anna:

Yes, I would love to. Let me just begin by talking about the difference between Ted and Ted X, because I think there's a lot of confusion there. Ted was started first about 40 years ago in California, and it became so popular that people all over the world were said. Can I bring Ted to my community? So, they started licensing the TED brand out to organizers and they put an X after the ted. So, think of the X as X marks the spot. There's 3,500 TEDx events all over the world. And I explain it, it's like colleges. So, you have the Harvards of TEDx events and you have the community colleges of TEDx events. But they follow the same rules. But what I love about TEDx and being a TEDx organizer is that the cream really rises to the top. You think about somebody like Brene Brown. She really got on people's radar after she gave her first TEDx talk at a fairly small event in Texas. And the talk was so great that it really catapulted her to the national stage. The same thing happened for Simon Sinek, who is a global thought leader. Highly paid speaker. He gave his TEDx to an audience of fewer than 100 people, but it was so good that Ted noticed that. And so, what happens is within the TED community, TEDx acts like a content feeder for Ted. So, there's an entire team at Ted and their only job, and it's a big one is to watch every single TEDx that gets produced. And then decide, is this good enough that we want to promote it on the TEDx YouTube channel or even better? Is it so good that we want to bring it over to ted.com. So, if you go to ted.com now, you'll see that there's TEDx talks that are featured on that site. There's about 40 or 50 tEDx talks a year that are considered so good that they get immediately pulled over to Ted. And I've had several speakers get pulled to Ted because for my event, we invest a lot of training into the speakers that we put on stage. And I'm a writer, so that's just something I care deeply about. But it's, i'll tell you Allison, anyone who's written a book can give a TED Talk and it can feel intimidating, but don't let it be because it's an incredible platform for authors. And can I share a story about one of my speakers who is an author?

Allison:

Absolutely.

Anna:

Okay. So, this is a woman and my favorite speakers always say, I could never give a TED Talk. And I'm just going to use Ted and TEDx interchangeably because it's really the same brand. I love it when a speaker says that to me because it tells me that, number one, they're humble. And I love working with humble speakers because it probably a bit like working with Allison in the book processes. It really is a collaborative experience. And when a speaker comes in and says to me, I have a talk that's perfect for the TED stage, is totally done and ready to go. I know that speaker's going to be probably really hard to work with and they probably don't have a great TED talk because Ted is really its own beast. There's a formula, they're very short format talks. I've been going to conferences specifically for organizers for several years now. And when I started going. About 10 years ago they said the talks, it says the limit is 18 minutes. We really want talks under 15 minutes. Now, they're telling us under 10 minutes. So, that's where you really have to have a succinct, big idea. And somebody who knows the TED format can help you find that. And I'll give you some tips on that later on. I actually have a worksheet that I'm going to give to Allison after, for anyone who's interested. It's a Find your big idea worksheet, and it's going to take you through 10 questions that you can answer to see where your big idea is. And I really believe everyone has one.

Allison:

Don't make us wait for the URL because people are busy and they'll want to go now. And we'll put this in the show notes, but tell me the URL.

Anna:

It's not A URL right now. It's a PDF.

Allison:

Okay.

Anna:

So, I will just get it to you and then you can put it in the show notes. It's actually something I created yesterday. So, I'm in the process of redoing my entire site. So it's going to be living on my site soon, but it's not there yet. So, one of my speakers was really reluctant about being a TED speaker, but I knew she had a great story. She agreed to audition. She was amazing. She's a professor at Berkeley. Her name's Scarlet Keys, and she talked about why we like our favorite songs. And it was just a fantastic talk. It was so good that Ted took notice, pulled it up to their ted.com site. She's got about a million views now. But what's really exciting that happened is that they decided to interview her on the TED Radio hour. And somebody from the Wall Street Journal was listening to Scarlet's Talk, heard her talk, heard she had a book, which by the way was completely unrelated to her talk. Read her book and posted it as one of his top 10 books of the year. And this is just a little book that wasn't a big name publisher. Good book but just your average book, not a bestseller. It's certainly selling now, and that was all because she took the risk and gave a TED Talk. So, it really is a great platform for writers.

Allison:

That first of all, she's in Boston. I'm in Boston. You said Berkeley and I was thinking California, but she's at Berkeley College of Music. That's correct. As soon as you said that I thought, oh my gosh, there are certain songs that you could listen to again and again that for some reason just feel like happiness in a melody. How does this capture us so much? And then, alternatively, why do some songs just feel like a knife through the heart? A fork in the eye? Even my daughter, who is so into rap music now, she's 14 and we do love it some old school wrap around here. Some of the rap, the new rap, awesome. Some of it horrendous. And I just want to drive the car directly into a tree stump when I hear it. So, I cannot wait to watch her TED talk, I will put it in the show notes.

Anna:

I'll give your users, your listeners a quick tip that she loved, that I use a lot. So, if you have a family and you're all going in different directions, particularly this is great during a morning when you have to get things done, but maybe you're yelling at each other, mornings can be stressful. One of my favorite tips that she gives is put on a song that everyone in your family likes and the song immediately sinks everybody up and things just become a lot easier. And she said, one more tip. She said, if there's something you nag somebody about on a regular basis, like honey, pick up your socks, say, sing it to them, pick up your socks. And they'll start listening to you just by singing it and it's silly and maybe they'll make fun of you, but it's a good way to get somebody to pick up their socks.

Allison:

Yes. Dr. Christine Carter in Raising Happiness, her book Raising Happiness talked about how to get kids to do chores, is you put on a, like a dance party clean party 15 minutes.

Anna:

That's so funny. Yeah.

Allison:

And everybody's essentially like at the car wash, but like everybody's doing that. I love that. And it's just 15 minutes and then suddenly the living room looks like a regular living room and not like a bomb of clothes went off.

Anna:

Yeah, absolutely. You can use that for writers too. And this is, I'm a professional writer, so this is a trick I use. Sometimes the hardest part about writing is just getting started, just like going to the gym. The hardest thing is just putting on your sneakers and walking out the door. You can say, I'm just going to write for the length of this song. And I like to write to songs without words, because otherwise I start listening to the words, I'm just going to write for the lengths of this song. Five minutes. I guarantee, at least for me, I just keep going after that. And that's a great way to do it is to give yourself this time limit through a song.

Allison:

I love that.

Anna:

We can get back to Ted. I feel like I got us off track there with.

Allison:

No, no, no. This is all absolutely fabulous. I just needed to know a little bit more about Scarlet Keys. And the fact that her last name is Key.

Anna:

You couldn't make that up. Right? Everyone's seriously real name That is her real name. And she's actually a really well known songwriter. She's written for big stars.

Allison:

Okay, so a TED Talk is not a keynote. It's not a workshop and it's not a moth style story. So, what makes this format unique and so different from The Moth?

Anna:

I love that question. The Moth is a great parallel example because The Moth tagline is true stories told live. TED Talks are true stories also, and they can often be very entertaining, just like a moth talk. But the primary difference between a Moth talk and a TED Talk is that a moth talk is a story for entertainment. A TED Talk is a story in the service of action. What do you want your audience to do as a result of listening to your story? And Ted Talks are inherently optimistic. I do this work because it's my way to help make the world a better place using the limited skills I have which is helping people find their stories and shape them. And if you wrote a book, you have something that you care about, you have a way that you want to make the world a better place and how it's different from a keynote is number one, it's a short format. Like I said, it shouldn't be longer than 10 minutes. That's about 1500 words. The average person speaks about 150 words a minute. So think about a 1500 word essay. It's different from a keynote because it's a general audience, right? You are speaking to 75-year-old retired dentists and 15-year-old high school freshmen. So, your talk has to appeal to that general audience who can't assume any particular, a particular base of knowledge. So I'll give you an example, and this was a couple years ago, and the term has become much more familiar. I run groups for people that want to give TED Talks. So these were a couple people that were in my group. And this woman was pitching her idea and she wanted to talk about DEI. Another woman in the group said, I just really like you. You're so charismatic and you have such an interesting story. But what's DEI? And I think everyone knows that DEI is now, but this is a couple years ago. And for this woman who's immersed in this world, everyone knows what DEI is. But for this other person who is a massage therapist in New Hampshire. She'd never heard the term before. So you can't assume any base of knowledge. The only thing you can assume is that the audience is curious and interested to learn. But other than that that's may not be as much of a problem with certain people, but it's often a challenge for scientists and engineers, people really steeped in tech worlds because they don't understand what somebody else doesn't understand so.

Allison:

Right. What's obvious to you is absolutely new to someone else.

Anna:

Correct. Yes, absolutely.

Allison:

Sometimes you haven't written a book, but it's suggested to you, maybe you should do a TED talk and that'll help you stand out. So, do you have a recommendation of what comes first? The book or the TED talk?

Anna:

Yeah, that's a great question. So, the best TEDx events have about a six to 12 month lead time. So my event happens in May and I'm finding speakers in October, and that's pretty typical. Sometimes you can speak at a smaller event and they're looking about a month ahead of time, but oftentimes those events aren't worth your time. I think that they can happen in tandem. I think that a great TED Talk can be an excellent launching pad. For working with somebody like Allison who can get you a deal. And if you have a book, a TED talk can be a great way to promote your book. Now you can now I will say, you can't promote your book directly from the stage. You would never do that. Ted stages are not promotional places. However, two years ago, Ted changed their rules and they let speakers sell their books at events. So, our event we have about a thousand people at our event. So, it's one of the bigger events in the country. We started having a popup bookstore in our lobby. We sell a ton of books at our event and people love the popup bookstore. We always ask our speakers if you have a book, let's sell your book and then choose two other books that are relevant to your topic and sell those too. But I think if you want to write a book, as Allison knows better than anyone, you're going to have to pitch your book. And you're not going to pitch your book in 60 pages. Tell me what's your big idea, right? You're still coming up with your big idea. And Ted is so great at helping you clearly articulate that one big idea and then turn it into a book or turn it into a TED talk, but you're still starting with your unique idea based on your experience, your expertise, what do you want to get out into the world?

Allison:

I love the way you explain things because it makes them so achievable and all the examples that you have, it's so meaningful. Before I get to my next question, I just want to give an example. So this book Behind me, breathtaking, which is a memoir of family dreams and broken genes by Jessica Fein. So this is a book that it's about family and grief and how happiness lives in the shadows, but it's still there every day. When Jessica did her TEDx, she wasn't talking about the book. It wasn't a summary of the book, and she ended up talking about grief literacy because people don't know how to talk about their own grief. They certainly don't know what to say to someone who's suffered a loss. Other than, I don't know how you do it, which is the name of Jessica's podcast. But grief literacy is such an important thread. But it's not that she talks about that in her book. Similarly, when an author does interviews, the interviewer does not want you to lay out everything that's in your book. You talk about the themes of your book and the need for a message like the one that's in your book. Even when you're writing fiction, your novel has themes that represent maybe what's happening in the world or what's needed in the world, and that's what you talk about the sales technique of, let me lay out, like whenever someone says in chapter four I go into, this is a complete buzzkill. It turns people off. Please don't; now you're telling me that. I need to get your book. Can you just talk to me and then. Stop with the sales pitch. Because when someone does that, it just feels like someone's standing too close to you and breathing directly into your mouth. I love that. And it's just feels gross. So, when Jessica did her talk on grief literacy, first of all, brilliant and also necessary in the world.

Anna:

Did she get that talk at TEDx Walden Pond?

Allison:

Yes.

Anna:

I love that event. I know Nick Morgan, the organizer really well. That's an example of a really small event that's super high quality. Nick is a rock star in my world, in the public speaking world. A lot of people know him. He's written books. Fascinating guy. So, if you are listening to this in the Boston area, I would really encourage you to check out TEDx Walden Pond. It's an exceptional event and the best way to get to know, what it takes to be a Ted speaker is to go to your local events and you'll see a range. What are the events that are one hour radius around, where you live. So that's one of my favorite events.

Allison:

Oh, I'm going to, I didn't get to know Jessica. I was totally about Yeah.

Anna:

I heard about Jessica through Nick.

Allison:

Oh yeah. She's so brilliant. Yeah, she's so brilliant. Okay. Rapid fire questions. Yes. Because I'm sure you see a lot of pitches, right? Yes. And I think it used to be that TED organizers would go and seek people out because they wanted to curate. But now you can submit your idea or you could submit. So what makes someone stand out from the proposal pile? Is it credentials or their presence or what are producers really looking for?

Anna:

Producers are looking for something that they haven't heard before. Tell me something I don't already know. And one of the best ways to find that is think about whatever your topic is. Like say you talk about breast cancer, Google, TED plus breast cancer, what are the other talks that are happening about breast cancer done by TED speakers? And what can you add to the conversation based on your unique experiences, perspective, education. I think if you can do that not only are you learning what TED Talks are getting watched, Ted talks about breast cancer getting a lot of views. But what are you uniquely positioned to talk about? TED Talks are expert talks, right? So, let me give you an example of that. There was a woman who applied a couple years ago who wanted to talk about how mushrooms should be classified as an animal, not as a plant. Really interesting talk topic. Everyone's thinking about mushrooms now. I don't know if any of your listeners are watching the Last of us. But mushrooms are big right now, right? So big idea was awesome. The next question though why are you the right person to give this talk? And that's a question that'll be on every single application. And Allison, I'm also going to drop a sample application for your listeners so they can see what questions they're going to get on most applications. I was looking for her to be a biologist, a mushroom farmer, somehow connected to mushrooms but she just thought mushrooms were interesting and had read a lot about mushrooms. That doesn't make you an expert for the Ted State. You have to have a personal connection to the topic you want to discuss. And I'll tell you that's particularly true for anything in the medicine or sciences. So it's always. What's your expertise, but I want to encourage your listeners to think broadly with expertise. If you are left-handed, you are an expert in being left-handed. If you're a child of divorce, you are an expert in being a child of divorce, but you can't tell somebody else's story. You can only tell your story. So what you an expert in, and anyone who's written a book is an expert in something. Or wants to write a book. And this is an important distinction. Because I can feel people saying I wouldn't call myself an expert, which is. Honestly, strike it from your, all of the word combos in your head. I wouldn't call myself an expert is not your job. If someone else calls you an expert, you are. And who are you to tell them they're wrong? That would be rude, right? So keep it to yourself and accept that other people see you as an expert. But also, yes, if you're going to talk about the latest advances in neuroscience, chances are you're a Yeah. And you know what? Neurologist, that's a great example. Let me just, sorry, Allison. I didn't, I just want to say that because a lot of speakers want to bring in neuroscience. You can't do that unless you're a neuroscientist, right? You could say studies show but you can't give a talk about neuroscience unless you're a neuroscientist. So sorry. I just wanted, that's that. It was funny that you said that, because I can't tell you how many applications I get about neuroscience. Another big one I get about, I'm so sick of applications where people want to talk about authenticity. I'm so sick of that word. So finding, I've

Allison:

never been sure what that

Anna:

means.

Allison:

Maybe it's because I let it all hang out there. Is that what authenticity is like? I have no filter. What I was thinking is I work with a lot of. Healthcare practitioners. And they think that because they're a leader in their field, that equals a book deal. And what it equals is that yes, you are highly credentialed, but it doesn't equal a book deal until you're a storyteller. And yes, that you've shown that that there's interest in you sharing your knowledge and insights beyond your. Your, the silo of medicine that you live in. But also the other person that's an expert is through your experience. If you are the parent of a child who had pediatric leukemia, then childhood leukemia, then you. Through your experience can talk about and advise people on what to expect. Yes. What what you should pack to the hospital, what your doctor doesn't have time to tell you, which is, actually, let me find it. It was here a second ago. This is, oh, wow. The Cancer Parents Handbook. What Your oncologist doesn't have time to tell you. Yeah. This is a book by my client, Laura Dera Lang Re, whose daughter at age two. Didn't feel good. They went, she was tired. They went to the doctor. They went from the doctor's office to the hospital and stayed there for two years. Yeah, that is not something that anyone is prepared for. And her message was the doctors and nurses are treating. Your child's disease. No one else is telling you how to make sure your child doesn't turn into a Jack aoo and how to manage all the people who are texting you, saying, let me know if I can do anything. Yeah, bitch. Yes, you can do all the things. Yeah. Take over please. What to do with your other child. Because the, her daughter had a younger sibling and her daughter survived. This was 20 years ago, but all the advice is applicable today, which is why Stanford is having her come and speak to their medical students. Because no one talks about this. So yes, she's an expert through her experience.

Anna:

Yeah. Think of it if expertise is a tricky word, think of it, maybe think of it like your domain of authority, right? Think of it like that. What do you know what can you be taken serious? What are your credentials? Yes, if you want to talk about medicine, you have to have that kind of personal connection that you just talked about versus it happened to a friend or I read a book about it. It has to have happened to you.

Allison:

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Okay the thing is that yes, a TEDx or a TED Talk can help authors land a book deal, but. It's not. So you now have a TEDx. Now doors open because that's not the end. It's it's almost like fuel, right? So how can a TEDx talk help someone grow their visibility and increase their discoverability, which is a better way of saying platform, which makes everyone gag.

Anna:

I think what's great about saying you did a TED Talk is one of the most respected brands in the world. So what you're doing when you're giving a TED Talk is you're just aligning yourself with a respected brand and you're sending the message, I know what I'm talking about, right? And whether or not you get a lot of views, there are a lot of great talks out there that don't have a lot of views, and that's for a number of reasons. And I'd be happy to talk to any of your listeners. Outside of this who want to know, but sometimes it's really simple things like how's your title? And you know about titles, Allison? A title matters so much. And I used, when I was first starting to do this work, I thought of titles as I didn't pay much attention to them. because I thought it's really the meat of the talk. But if you can't get somebody to click on that title. Nobody's going to watch your talk. One of my biggest success stories was a woman whose talk was titled why I gave my Teenage Daughter a Vibrator. It was about how we'd spend a lot of time in our culture talking about women's pain, period, pain, childbirth. We don't spend a lot of time talking about pleasure and if you want to empower girls to know their bodies, you have to teach'em about pleasure when they're younger. Fantastic talk. She was a doctor. She had grown up daughters who agreed to let her share the story. She worked with teenagers. Total authority on the subject. But I will tell you she has over a million views and it is that the talk's great, but the title got her those views.

Allison:

Yes. There's even the very well-known memoir called Wild

Anna:

Oh yeah.

Allison:

If it had been named my long haul hiking. Experience how I found myself while hiking alone. Yeah. Big snore. Big snore. Nobody would've picked that up. Yeah. We have to elevate and surprise people. Wild opens the door to what everyone wants to be, so it's almost aspirational.

Anna:

Allison, I think one of your books, one of your authors, has one of the best titles I've ever heard. It's the Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards, and I can tell you, I'm a big reader. I read about a book a week. And I was in the bookstore and I saw that title and I was like, oh my gotta read this book. And it was so funny because the first time we met, I saw the book right behind you and I see it there now. Yes. Here it is. Wait, that title. That title is Gold. It's gold, yes. It's also a, yeah.

Allison:

Jessica Wait's book. The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards is a memoir. And from page one, it is a rollercoaster. It reads like a thriller. Like it's full of suspense and twists and turns and you're like, this is actually someone's life.

Anna:

Yeah.

Allison:

Yes it is.

Anna:

Yeah. I love, I'm a big fan of memoirs and it one favorite. Incredible. Absolutely. So Let me give your listeners one more tip that I think is really important. Most TEDx applications have a video component and people don't really know how to handle that. So I want to tell you how to handle it. What producers are really looking for when we're watching the application videos, we're really looking for can this person tell a story? So what a lot of people do is they'll just get on and be like, hi, I am Barbara. I've been a secretary for 50 years and I want to talk about blah, blah, blah, blah. Uhuh talk about. It was early one morning when I got to my office and X, Y, and z Start your app, your video application at the most exciting part of your talk. Because what you're trying to do is you're trying to hook that producer. So start with a story. Don't start with an introduction. Then you can back up and say who you are. But if you can start with a story, you're way ahead of the game already in the application process.

Allison:

And our minds already, we don't need an intro. I think people think that, we need an intro because they want to let, before I start, let me give you folks a backstory. Yes. Correct. We're smart, we get it. Uhhuh, skip to the action. And yes, all that explaining is just noise and it's just noise and it turns us off. So don't do that.

Anna:

I read that it's, and I believe this, and this is so true. If you're only giving a talk that's 10 minutes. The most important part of your talk is the first seven seconds. Somebody's going to decide if they're going to listen to you in the first seven seconds. So don't waste it with what I call throat clearing. Hi, my name is, jump into the action and you'll get them hooked. And that's what we're looking for. We're looking for speakers that know how to tell a good story and we'll help you shape your stories. You don't have to be experts, but we want to know that you have stories.

Allison:

So good. Jump into the action. Exactly. Okay, let's pivot. I want to know what books or book, what book do you love right now?

Anna:

I love reading memoirs. I think. I just read a book. I'm so bad. I'm like in perimenopause, so I'm forgetful of everything. But there's a book that I love called like Mother. It read like a memoir, but it was fiction and I love these sweeping, multi-generational family drama. So that was one of my favorites. Yeah. I also, I think I got started with writing by reading even Cowgirls, get the Blues a million years ago. And I loved how creative Tom Robbins is with words and that really made me want to be a writer. Another book I actually have, I love this writer so much that I have her, I, was a TED speaker a couple years ago. I don't know if any of your listeners have heard of Myra Cowman. She combines stories and words and this. This is a book called Women Holding Things, and what I love about her is she starts every day. Going for a walk through New York City and she just notices things and she makes up stories about the people that she sees, and then she draws the stories and comes up with the most creative little short stories to go with them. For me, that's really inspiring. Like the visuals and the words, because that's what a speech is. It's like we're looking at you, but we're also listening to you. So I find a lot of inspiration from that kind of writing.

Allison:

And we're picturing what you're telling us.

Anna:

Yes, exactly. Yeah. And that's another tip. And you know this as somebody that helps with books. It's all about the details, right? And, chat GBT AI that can help you get like a skeleton of a talk, but really takes your stories and your voice to put meat on their bones to make that somebody you want to spend time with, right? And that can only come from you.

Allison:

It can only come from you. Oh, talk about a power statement. Okay. Before we call this podcast complete. If someone's applying now or just starting to explore their idea, what should they keep in mind?

Anna:

Ugh, this is a great question. So all TEDx producers are volunteers and what means a lot to us is we want to know that you want to speak at our event. Not that you just want. Ted talk for notching your belt, right? Even if you do. So take the time to get to know the event that you're applying, to see what past speakers have done and compliment the producer. Say, I saw Sandy Evans talk about neurodiversity and was really moved blahdi blah. I'd love to speak on your stage. I can always tell when I'm getting a generic application and I don't spend much time with it. So I want somebody to, giving a TED talk is a big investment in time, so I want to work with people that have taken the time to get to know my event versus just wanting to speak at any event. That's my number one tip, is spend some time on that website and find something nice to say with your application so the producer knows you've done that. You also, I'm not going to have the same talk, a similar talk in a span of three years. So it's really worth your time going back and seeing what talks have they already done on the stage. And if they've done a talk that's two similar tiers in the past two to three years, I wouldn't bother applying. Let me give one final tip. As producers, we're always looking to balance the stage. So I'm not going to have five scientists. I'm going to have one scientist, an artist, an educator, a business person, right? So if you get rejected once from a TEDx event, oftentimes it's just because you didn't fit in with that lineup that year. Don't take it personally, apply. Again, if you get rejected twice, it's probably time to step back and start thinking what could I do differently with my application? But I've had to reject so many people who would be amazing if they just applied a different year. So there you go. So that you heard it

Allison:

here, if you have a clear, bold idea that challenges thinking or shifts the conversation, this is an opportunity for you and. Anna, where can people find you and the TEDx Portsmith?

Anna:

So I'm really active on LinkedIn. So if you look me up on LinkedIn, it'll be pretty obvious who I am because I talk about TED all the time. There's a tab that says, book a 15 minute call with me if you want to grab some time with me. If there's no charge, share your idea with me and I'll give you my honest opinion as a producer. What I think of that idea, that's a great place to connect with me. Because I'm there every day. I also have my website, which is currently getting redone, so it's. www.thehiredpens.com. You can find me there too. And yeah, I also have a YouTube channel, so when I do videos

Allison:

we will have all of these links in the show notes. Great. And my thought for you listening while you are, sitting there in the target parking lot, like I tend to do while my daughter gets the strawberry refresher, is don't wait. Don't go into a brainstorm of one and try and figure it out yourself or put it on the back burner, or maybe when things are less busy, spoiler alert, you'll never be less busy. The kids will always need you. Things will always be moving too fast, but you get to decide what's priority, and that is the great thing about being you. You get to decide what you do. And maybe just by giving up one TV show, you can carve out 45 minutes a week and to be sketching this out or talking to yourself, into your phone while you're taking the dogs for a walk. Because when your brain is going, you want to capture those ideas. So capture them verbally. You don't have to sit down and give yourself an assignment, do it when your brain is on auto mode. Which I find when I'm folding clothes, like that's a great time to be. Like, and another thing that's usually how I start my rants is this really rubs me the wrong way. But, so what I would say is this, and then that's how we got here people. That's how the Author's Edge got started. It's I have some thoughts and I'm going to be sharing them. They are different from what you've heard before. Your story and your message has a place and it hasn't been told before, and there's always a way to pitch or pivot the way you look at your story and your message so that it is a continuation and adds something new. And so if you're thinking, oh, my, I would do something, but it's already been done before. No, it hasn't, because it hasn't been done by you. And there are 15 angles to every story for sure. So you have time and you can do this.

Anna:

My favorite piece of advice is you want to find the talk that only you can give. If you can find the talk that only you can give, that's Ted Gold.

Allison:

Right? But that's a big challenge when someone's brainstorming. Start small, scribble things down, capture things when you're walking. And take a look at some of these application pages. Go and connect with Anna on LinkedIn and on her website, whatever state it's in. At least it's there. We'll have all these links in the show notes, and then shoot me a note. Let me know, Hey, this is my idea and I'm reaching out to Anna. I would love to know what action you're taking based on this, and I will see you next week if. You like this or you think that a friend needs to have this message and these details, please forward this episode to them. They're never going to find it because they're too busy. But you are doing them a total solid by sharing this and saying, Hey, you need to hear minute 12 or whatever. I have done this for people and that's how podcasts get when they get shared. You are spreading the wealth. So take that action and by all means, hit subscribe so that you get all the goodies that are coming to you. Until next week.

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Allison Lane

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