3 Things you should know about preparing for a TED talk

This is a piece in a series on preparing and delivering a TED talk. There is not just one way to prepare, this was my process. I hope you find it helpful in preparing for a TED talk or any other talk you want to give without any support from a Powerpoint presentation.

When you get asked to give a TED talk, your initial reaction is probably excitement and then a distinct wave of queasiness at the idea of being on stage, let alone on Youtube. That is certainly how I felt. In fact, upon the first request I declined the invitation. I was aware of how much work it would involve and the pressure I would feel. One of the speakers dropped out last-minute I was asked again and I said “yes”. It may sound a bit woo-woo but when something knocks on my door twice even when I try to push it away, I take it as a sign. Personally, I did not want to use a Powerpoint presentation as a crutch so I knew I would need to carve out time somewhere to prepare. The beauty of a TED talk to me, is the simplicity of it just being one person on a red dot sharing one idea. The process taught me that I can be a bit of a purist.

1. Understand the effort required

   Memorising a TED talk requires time and effort, it is absolutely essential to give yourself enough time to write it, edit it and practice it. The latter comes with paying careful attention to your timing, where you pause and any gestures you intend to make. Gesticulation does not come naturally to everyone and it is very important that you pay attention to this as well as your body language when you speak in public. A lot of people ask me about nerves and I think everyone feels at least a bit of a flutter before going on stage, but if you are very well prepared you can dramatically minimise your nerves.
   
   Let’s do the math:

   A person speaks on average 125-150 per minute and TED gives you a maximum of 18 minutes to deliver your talk. To be on the safe side aim for 16 minutes max. (When you are nervous you may speak more slowly or more rapidly.)
   
   16 x 150 = 2400 words.
   
   Now you have a number of words to aim for. It may seem like a lot but don’t fret, it will all come together in the end. I recommend having at least two months to prepare, ideally three. Memorising 2400 words and conveying your message with the conviction and energy it deserves simply required time. Bear in mind that at the point you say “Yes!”, you are starting with a blank page unless you have completed academic research that you wish to present, which does give you an edge.
   

2. Writing your ted talk

   I remember sitting down and just staring at my blank page in Word not knowing where to start. Normally, once you have picked your topic, related to your work and what you stand for there will be a few thoughts you will want to share. Write them down. The first words you write do not have to be the first words of your talk. Do not worry about structure at this time, it is all about writing down the things you definitely want to include. Ideally, you will have one big take-away. We have all watched those talks where you’re waiting for a big “aha!”-moment and it never comes. That will not be you.
   

   The one key take-away

   A very smart PR professional once gave me great advice (Paul, I am looking at you) it went something like this: what you should achieve is that when you leave a room, the people who are left should be able to say: “He/She/They is the person who does X”. You want to achieve the same with your talk. Your audience should walk away with “There was one person who taught me X”, where X is the one lesson. In addition to your own views and (if applicable) research, finding peer-reviewed data that supports your claims can be a good strategy. People love a good sound bite and your talk should ideally be built on a solid foundation of data. You want your audience to have something that can be quoted, numbers often work well. For me that was:
   

   “ Humanity will spend a collective total of more than 1.2 billion years online in 2019. ”

   
   Writing your talk will probably take two to three weeks. I used to write on a Sunday morning for for two to three hours over the course of three weeks. It was written in distinct segments covering specific topics I felt I had to include. I ended up writing about 7000 words, needless to say a lot was left unsaid but there was also a lot of noise. Your first draft will suck but the information you need is probably in there. I was happy I wrote too much as it made editing and making it a cohesive story that flowed a lot easier. Usually, once you just start writing more comes to mind. If this does not happen, try creating a Mind Map about your topic. This will help you find connected subjects you may need to cover to get your point across. Furthermore, it can help to write the end of your talk first, this will be the cracker of a message you leave your audience with. You can work towards this point. Once I had a very long rough draft, I wrote an index of sorts to try to connect the various points together and bring structure to the delivery. During this process you will find you may need to add and subtract some content to ensure it becomes a story that flow naturally.
   

3. Practice makes perfect

   When a talk sounds effortless, it usually means A LOT of effort was put into it. Practice should be a priority as it makes all the difference. I think i practiced for about 20 hours. Make sure you start early and spend the time, you will thank yourself once you watch your talk back. When I started practicing I used a print-out of my talk and I would set a timer and start talking. I would do this over and over again for 3-4 hours every Sunday and whenever I could get another hour in during the week. Once I got more comfortable with the material I broke the talk into segments and created an acronym based on the first letter of each topic. For example if I planned to talk about Data (D), Inferences (I), Negative consequences (N) and Objectives (O) the thing I would remember for the purpose of recalling my structure would be DINO. Now, my own acronym was not a real word and it was long, but it really helped me. Once I knew the first word, it would trigger the rest of the paragraph in my memory.
   
   As you practice with the timer on, you will know at which point of your time each section should start. This is great when you are delivering your talk on a stage as you will have a timer in front of you. Once you are on stage, some things might go a tiny bit differently than how you rehearsed it but if you know where you should be on the timeline, you can easily come back from any slip-ups. On the day of the talk, I spent another 3 full hours repeating the talk over and over again in the mirror in the bathroom of the hotel.

   
   As with most things, anyone can do it if you are willing to put in the time and effort. I wish you the best of luck and please do comment below if there is anything you would like to hear more about in future blog posts.

With gratitude,

Emerald