The TEDx experience was incredible for me and I felt very honored to have been asked to speak. It was a humbling and thrilling opportunity to share the Abhati journey. And I shared from the heart and hoped to also inspire under my title “Aesthetic activism in the business of beauty”.
The thought presenting this on stage in front of hundreds did freak me out. I later found out I was put forward to speak and was placed into a pool of potential candidates and vetted and interviewed at length. There’s a whole process involved around being a TEDx speaker, what I might speak about but also lots of other topics that could be of interest. I did feel the meetings were to get an idea of who I am and If I fit into the TED culture. They told me they were looking for a story around this years theme “Re-imagining Everything”.
As soon as I heard I was accepted I started writing, I also took on a coach Syd Atlas (highly recommended) I had watched Syd coach live at an event in Berlin and loved her energy. I started practicing my talk. I hardly have any public speaking practice and knew I needed lots and lots of practice to build confidence and be prepared. A friend Urs offered to do my slide shows professionally. This helped heaps having tools that gave an air of professionalism as visual background. I practiced everywhere, I even went out for walks over lunch time to talk in the forests.
Alongside fellow speakers professors, scientists, CEO’s I delivered my speech and was very surprised. I loved standing on the red circle J. I’ve also found a new passion, public speaking. I really loved sharing in a wider audience. And the response via social media and personal feedback has made me once again realize that Abhati is on the right track. #educategirls
5 key tips delivering a TEDx talk.
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Get a coach. I know I turned my coach nuts as I changed my script each time. But Syd was always positive when I thought I was crap and put structure into my story telling and even got me to act a part of my talk. I was able to save heaps of time by doing sessions via Skype with her. I’ve never been but I know friends who also swear by public speaking groups toastmasters, must be a great resource.
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Be authentic. nobody else has your unique set of experiences and perspectives.
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Use the opportunity cleverly. I used my extra time at the end of my talk to appeal to the ETH to code a tracking system for me so we can show real time transparency in our work. I knew TEDx was being live streamed to the University and the added best thing was people in the audience tweeted this out and also offered to help. Happy to say, Is currently being coded for our new website.
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Outfit: for me very important. My husband picked out a dress, beautiful but too much cleavage so I ended up wearing a cape. Get a friend on board to be your stylist, looking back I would have chosen a more flattering outfit. Be comfortable, I was very comfy in my poncho. I believe/hope the audience is not interested in how you look but your content. TEDx offers makeup and hairstylist on site, take up the offer. I was going to skip this step, so glad I didn’t.
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Lastly have fun with it. I went up with the attitude I had nothing to lose apart from my dignity. I was told that the Swiss talks weren’t edited so for nervousness I did take notes. The notes helped me to pace myself. Keeping up this phase of bursting fear.
My TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8NMyIwoXPY
Namaste,
Anju
