How to Give a TED Talk
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You want to know how to give a TED talk? I'll let you in on a little secret:
Don't. Don't try to give "a TED talk".
Let me explain...
In my work as a speaker coach one of the ways people find me is via my TED talks-- not too surprising, given their huge reach, and TED's reputation as being what a "good" talk looks like: informative and entertaining, not too long, and certainly not boring! I've noticed, too, that there are tons of coaches out there selling people on giving TED talks-- workshops dedicated to the format, promising to launch participants onto that circular red carpet, and into the minds of people everywhere.
Born in the 80s as a tiny conference for Silicon Valley insiders, the TED of today is a huge brand-- there's "big TED", the in-person conference with its dizzying price tag and star-studded speaker roster, and then seemingly a million offshoots, each TEDx an officially-licensed galaxy in the TED megacluster.
I'm no stranger to the TED stage. Since receiving the TED Fellowship in 2011, I've given five talks in the TED universe: two at "big TED" (my talk on Mars and on finding extrasolar planets), a TEDxPhoenix talk about dark sky preservation, a TEDxClevelandStateUniversity Salon about storytelling in the stars, and one at TED Active (which eventually became a TED-Ed lesson about light).
To be sure, giving these talks (and more notably, having them go online, where they have reached so many people) has been a huge boon to my career as a communicator of science. More importantly, they have been personally fulfilling, because they're a means of sharing my work more broadly than any science outreach event could.
Now, as a speaking coach, I've had the opportunity to coach people for the TED stage (e.g. watch Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's TED talk about dark matter here), and it definitely helps that I'm not only familiar with the format, but that I have watched A LOT of TED talks by now (most of them live and in person, which I think has given me a unique perspective on performance for a live audience versus being filmed, and the intersection of live and virtual performance).
But here's the thing: because it's a huge brand, and it's now been around for a looong time, the TED format doesn't feel fresh as it once did. Even some great parodies of the format, like The Onion's Onion Talks, are now a decade old (still funny though, this is my personal favorite). Once something is a meme, as the TED format most definitely is, trying to emulate it only leads to something that feels stale.
On top of that, the people that you see speaking on the TED stage probably didn't set out with giving a TED talk as their main goal-- the format and platform came as a result of their work, their ideas, and their ability to represent themselves and those ideas with authenticity and clarity. In short, they got there by being themselves, and also because their skills as speakers allow them to share who they are and what they do in a way that is legible and relatable to others.
But what if you do want to be up there on that stage? The secret is harder than just learning the TED format-- it's that you have to be willing to be seen as yourself, and to learn to express your thoughts in a way that is both true to you, and gracious with your audience. Challenging, but not impossible by any means! If I can do it, so can you (and if you want, I can help you with that, too-- sign ups are open for Give An Amazing Talk, or reach out to me for 1-on-1 coaching).
Sending you all the courage to be seen, and hope the rest of August treats you well!
Lucianne