430-SYB-BTS-TED-Style-Talks.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Carol Cox:
We’re taking you behind the scenes of the recent Ted style talks we’ve delivered, and what we surprisingly learn about ourselves as speakers on this episode of the Speaking Your Brand podcast. More and more women are making an impact by starting businesses, running for office, and speaking up for what matters. With my background as a TV political analyst, entrepreneur, and speaker, I interview and coach purpose driven women to shape their brands, grow their companies, and become recognized as influencers in their field. This is speaking your brand, your place to learn how to persuasively communicate your message to your audience. Hi there and welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast. I’m your host, Carol Cox, joined by Diane Diaz, our lead speaking coach and personal brand strategist. Hi, Diane. Hi, Carol. It is great to have you here because today we’re going to talk about the Ted style talks that we recently created and delivered. It was a lot of fun because it’s always a challenge to put together an eight minute talk, because you feel like it’s not a lot of time to get a message out, which is not. But then when you have to that really memorize it. But we’ll talk about how we didn’t memorize, but what we did instead, because we wanted to make sure we adhere to that eight minute time. But then when you have to start practicing it, you start realizing that eight minutes is actually longer than you think. Absolutely. Okay. So this was for an event called LX. It’s put on by a group called the L collective that supports women entrepreneurs, is through one of our local colleges here in the Central Florida area where Diane and I live. And we Diane, actually, you originally found out about this event on LinkedIn because the woman who runs the group had posted about it. So can you tell us a little bit about what intrigued you about it and why we why we decided to apply and then what that application process was like.
Diane Diaz:
Yes. Yeah. You’re right. I heard about it on LinkedIn or saw it on LinkedIn. And I had been sort of loosely following L collective for a while, but their events and things like never lined up with my calendar. And then I just happened to jump on LinkedIn to just, you know, look through my newsfeed. And there it was. And I was like, oh, this looks like something we would want to do. So I immediately sent it to you and said we should apply for this. And we did. The application process was interesting. We applied and then had to kind of give the concept for the talk. Then once we did that, we got notified. Both of us got notified that they wanted us to audition, which I had never auditioned for a talk before. I’ve never auditioned for anything, but definitely not for a talk. So that was new. But the audition was our talk, so we found out one week that we got chosen for the audition, and the audition was the following week. So we literally had one week to put together the entire talk, know it enough to audition in front of a group. I think there was probably like 5 or 6 women that we auditioned in front of the group running this event, and we individually auditioned on the same day, actually one right after the other, and then from that, they then reached out to us to let us know that we, both of us, were chosen to be part of this inaugural group delivering their LL talks on the stage. So it was it was very different than what you and I normally do for speaking, which was fine, but it was it was a new experience for both of us.
Carol Cox:
Yes. And as we get into this conversation today, I actually want to talk a little bit about these different types of speaking engagements that there are and, and how I liken it to being an athlete or a musician. And we’ll get to that. So remind me as, as we get more into the conversation. But yeah, so we put together our application and we. The theme for the event was about collaboration. So basically, like women can rise together when we collaborate. So we want obviously they wanted the talks to relate to the theme of the event. So we knew we kind of had to take whatever our idea was and our and, you know, this kind of story driven, personal story driven and get it into that idea of rising together and collaboration. And I really wanted to talk about I so I really had to like, stretch the theme of like, yeah, we can collaborate with AI, but we’re going to be more human. I was like, whatever, it’s it’s fine. And then Diana, I’ll have you talk about the topic for your talk. But we did the application, which were standard application questions.
Carol Cox:
What is your topic about, you know, who are you, why do you want to do this topic? That kind of stuff. And we had to do like a little one minute video for it. But then when we got notified that we had to audition and literally it was one week later and we were so busy because we’re running the Thought Leader Academy, we had panels that we were moderating for the university where we teach because they had their big annual event that was also that same next week. So I think the audition was on a Wednesday, literally on Sunday, the day before, I sat down to actually script out the eight minute talk because all I had was a paragraph, and then I had to script it out, and then I had to memorize it enough for the audition on Wednesday. And I literally just like as I was driving Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday around town, I would just say the talk over and over again in the car is that is that what you did?
Diane Diaz:
Pretty much what I did, yes. So I, I did script it out very quickly and sort of refined it a little bit. And then I think I only started I’ll do air quotes, memorizing it probably a few days before, before we had to deliver the audition because there really was no time. And I, I was repeating it to myself as I was on my long walks. And so I know that somebody might be coming my way. And I’d stop because I thought they’re they’re going to realize I’m not on the phone because of what I am saying, and they’re going to think I’m losing my mind. So I wouldn’t. Every time somebody would approach me, I would just know more. So. So I practiced it on my long walks and I it was nerve wracking because I would ordinarily like more than a week to try to memorize more than three days, to try to memorize something, but.
Carol Cox:
Not only memorize it. We had to create the entire talk, create it. It wasn’t created when we submitted the application initially.
Diane Diaz:
Write, create it, memorize it. And also not just that, but the delivery of it. Of course, my delivery in the audition wasn’t as powerful as my delivery on stage, but it still needs to be good because I need to get selected. So I needed to put some emphasis on some things right. So that has to be you have to think that through and practice that as you as you practice.
Carol Cox:
Yeah. So I mean, obviously we’ve done a lot of public speaking over the years and, that kind of putting the reps in definitely helps for this. And then what we did for the audition was that we brought our phones and our phone tripods. And so we asked, is it okay if I record we record our audition for us. So I set up the little tripod on the table. They were also recording it for themselves so that they could go back during the selection process and have that. But I am so glad I recorded my talk, because then the actual event wasn’t until two months after the audition. And honestly, I, I mean, of course I had my outline, but I didn’t remember what I actually said during the audition, so I’m glad I had the video and I ran a transcript of it. And then so that way I was like, oh yes, like, this is indeed what I meant to talk about. So now I can refine it and practice it from there.
Diane Diaz:
Yeah, it was the same for me when it came time to start memorizing for the actual delivery of it, I thought, oh, I don’t even really remember what I said. Like, I knew the general idea, but I don’t remember the words. I’m like, oh boy, good thing I had the recording and my script.
Carol Cox:
This is why we always tell all of our clients, no matter what speaking engagement you’re doing, whether it’s an audition like this, or you’re at a conference breakout session or a lunch and learn, get a phone tripod to set your phone up. Nobody. Nobody minds. Just use it for yourself. You don’t. I mean, obviously create video clips for social media. That would be great too, but mostly for yourself. So you have it so you can go back. And I know we don’t like to watch ourselves, I get it, but it is helpful to have it even just to run a transcript of what you said, much less to actually watch the video.
Diane Diaz:
Absolutely, absolutely.
Carol Cox:
So, Diane, tell us about your topic for your talk.
Diane Diaz:
Yes. So my topic again, the theme was collaboration over competition. And I used a personal story of when I got wrangled into agreeing to do my very first triathlon without knowing how to swim. And so I told the story of the process of going through, you know, agreeing to that and then going through learning how to swim and just the support of other women all along the way, which was the collaboration that allowed me to do something that I didn’t know how to do when I first started doing it. And so it allowed me to complete an Ironman triathlon. And so it was almost like a story within a story. It was the larger story was this idea of all the collaboration that I, that I had from all these other women. But within that, I was telling the story of my noticing this girl three miles from the finish, who was crying and how I, you know, I could have either just continued on my way or I could say something to her, and I did. And how other people saw us talking and me trying to pep her up and other people from the sidelines. Other athletes came over and started pepping her up too. So that story within a story all went right to what the theme was. So that was the the gist of my talk.
Carol Cox:
And Diane, it was excellent. I mean, and I’m not just saying that. It really like you were the first speaker.
Diane Diaz:
I was.
Carol Cox:
And I think they picked you for a reason from the audition. Because you like your story. I mean, obviously, we practice this so much, and we we teach this to our clients. But your storytelling, not only the content, but your delivery. Like, you know, you use the stage and you act it out and you use your body and, you know, like you’re leaning over and you’re doing the movements. And it just added so much dynamism, dynamism to your talk.
Diane Diaz:
Thank you. Yeah. I you know, I took the approach because I think for one reason I did this is that I took the approach of almost approaching it, like the comedy set that I did way back when was like a year ago, which was five minutes. And the approach that I took for this, I think because it was such a tight turnaround for the audition, I decided to make it funny because also that’s just who I am. And I if I feel like if I can get them laughing, then I’ve got them. So I thought, you know what, I’m going to take that approach because I will feel more comfortable giving the talk if I feel like I am able to be me, which is being funny. So I tried to make the movements part of that. Right? So I tried to make, you know, sort of act things out and facial expressions and body language and just like leaning over. And so I tried to do that to create interest, but also to make it fun for me, because if it’s fun for me, that’s going to translate to the audience.
Carol Cox:
Yes. Yeah. And I think it definitely did. And we’re hopefully we’re getting videos of our talks because since it was out of college, they had their media students there with a really nice camera equipment recording it. So we don’t have the videos as of the time that we’re recording this, but we’ll include the video links in the show notes. So whenever you happen to be listening to this in the future, hopefully the videos will be there and you can go check them out. So yeah. So Diane kicked it off and there were 11 speakers total. I was second to the last. So I was in the the second half of the group after the break. And all the speakers were really, really good variety of topics. But they I mean, the content was good, their stories were good, their, their stage presence was really good. I was very impressed.
Diane Diaz:
I was extremely impressed because I think some of the women do speak, but not all of them necessarily speak that much, but they all sort of had their own individual style, which was nice because everybody’s style was different. The stories were different. Some of them were. One lady was particularly hilarious, and I think she, if I remember correctly, is an attorney. But she was she was hilarious in the way she was telling stories, and I think she also adlibbed a little bit, it felt like. But that made it funnier how she would just pick up on the audience laughing, and then she would add a little bit more to that, and it just made it even funnier. Everybody did so great.
Carol Cox:
And. And so here here’s my there’s takeaways that I, we want to share with with you all so that you can think about this. Whether you’re doing a formal Ted talk or a Ted style talk or any type of speaking, engagement is the first thing is amplify who you naturally are as a person, as a speaker, and as a communicator. Diane is naturally funny like that. You know, when we hang out, like she and even in our text messages and things like that, like that’s just who she is. So I when it came out in her talk, that’s what made her talk so excellent was because it channeled who she naturally is. Same with that other woman who’s an attorney who is also funny but funny in a different way than you are, Diane. But it worked for her because that’s who she is. And so she kind of channeled that. So I am much more academic, like I brought in history to mine. I have my tech background. I talked about AI, so it was definitely a different approach than what you do, Diane. But if I tried to do what you do, it wouldn’t. It would feel weird to me?
Diane Diaz:
Absolutely. I think that is one thing that most people probably make the mistake of is trying to be a certain way. Maybe the expectation is like, oh, I need to be academic or I need to be, you know, very, you know, emotional or whatever the case may be. And then we try to fit that. And then I think it shows up in the delivery because it doesn’t feel congruent with who we are. Right. And I know my delivery of my talk would be impacted by if I felt like it didn’t quite align with me. Right. So I have to have it be who I am. So I try to put humor in all my talks because it is who I am. But also your talk being academic, first of all, it made sense for the topic that you were talking about. And also, I think it made a lot of impact on the audience because of the facts you were sharing and the points you were making being backed up by historical context and different things like that. It really I mean, I was looking around the room and I could see people with like, oh my God, really? I didn’t know, like I could see the looks on their faces. So it really hit. Yeah.
Carol Cox:
Yeah. So my talk was about how with AI, we need to make sure women are in leadership positions helping to make decisions because AI is going to impact everything that we do. And so even no matter who you are, you don’t have to be the on the board of a big AI company to make a difference. You can have these conversations about AI in your workplace and your schools, communities and so on. So that’s what I was talking about, which is important to me. But again, like and I try to add little bits of humor intentionally, like as I’m going through my script and I did I did ask ChatGPT to help me with that fail like it is not. It is.
Diane Diaz:
Good.
Carol Cox:
Humor, humor. I was like, it was so corny and so bad. I was like, forget it, I’m just gonna have to find my own.
Diane Diaz:
Yes. Yeah, well, I do remember when you shared a point about the amount of VC funding that goes to women and that it’s actually gotten worse. And I was looking around the room and I think people were stunned by buy that?
Carol Cox:
Yeah. Yeah. It’s been around 3%, 3 to 5% over the past 20 years. And it’s going in the negative direction.
Diane Diaz:
Not right. And people were I could see on their faces they were like oh my God. So I think it was impactful in a much different way. Right. So that’s the thing about it. Using your own natural style.
Carol Cox:
Yes. So now that leads me to what I mentioned earlier about this idea of thinking about your speaking as a musician, a musician or an athlete would do. Because here’s what made me think about this. So a couple weeks after this TEDx style event that we did, I had two speaking engagements on the same day. Don’t really recommend because it is a lot, but it just turned out that way. Totally different events. So the first one in the afternoon, I spoke at a higher education conference about the work that I’m doing with AI, with the students that I teach in our business and marketing classes. I spoke at this conference last summer as well. So that was that was fine. So that was in the afternoon. And then in the evening on that same day, I did an hour long presentation at an AI meetup, which was about how I’m integrating AI into speaking your brand into kind of back end operations, podcast production, and so on. So that was a lot of fun. And I had probably about 60 slides. I love slides like, you know, give me presentation topic and I’m going to create a bunch of slides for it. So and here’s the thing though I didn’t practice at all for the hour long presentation, I didn’t have time. Like again, my schedule is back to back. I had I had to get the slides done, but I knew I would be 100% okay. Yes, because I follow the framework that we use all the time. I had the slides to cue me. I know my content, I know my stories. And this and I talked about this on the prior episode, and I really did treat it as a conversation with the audience. And it was so effective, and I was probably my most enjoyable speaking engagement I have had, at least in recent memory. Because, number one, I like the topic. It’s like a fresh new topic for me, and I really felt like I it felt very in alignment with my speaking style. So here’s what I feel like. I actually do not like the Ted style talks.
Diane Diaz:
Oh.
Carol Cox:
I have decided.
Carol Cox:
I did not like it because like Diane, you just applied for a TedX event.
Diane Diaz:
Now I understand why.
Carol Cox:
You told me you’re like Carol, you should apply to. And I’m like, nope. And I was like, I couldn’t piece it together at the time. And I was just like, you know what I appreciate? Like, I have so much reverence for our clients who do Ted talks and do amazing. Diane, you do amazing. But I’m glad I did it because, again, if I was a musician and I only played piano and I never tried guitar and I never tried a wind instrument, or I never tried song writing or singing, I would be limiting myself in my skill set. Same thing as an athlete like you need to do different things because you’re going to figure out number one, what you like the best. But also you need to also know, like you need to work those other muscles. I have worked this eight minute Ted style muscle now a couple of times, and it just just does not suit me and what I like to do. I like the meandering, conversational 30 45 minute talks.
Diane Diaz:
Yes. No, I, I can see your point. I, I, I do love those, but I think after having done that comedy set that I feel like the eight minute Ted style talks, they’re more performance versus, I don’t know, talk like presentation. Right.
Carol Cox:
They’re like more.
Diane Diaz:
More.
Carol Cox:
Conversational.
Diane Diaz:
Yes. They’re more performance versus conversation. And I kind of like them both. But I’ve sort of now gotten bitten by that performance element from having done the five minute comedy set and then now having done this one, both of which I made funny because the first one had to be. But then this one I wanted it to be. And so I even approached my submission to this Ted Ted that I applied to. I approached that with humor because that’s the only way I want to do it. If it’s going to be, you know, just dry. I mean, I’m just not going to do it because I’m not going to have fun and I want to have fun doing it. But I think because I do make it fun, I, I never was a performer when I was young and in high school or college, but this element of sort of being on the stage and being like that center of attention and then getting a laugh, it’s the getting a laugh, I think that’s got me. If I can get a laugh like, yeah, I love it. And so okay, so if I’m doing the eight minute thing and I can get 1 or 2 laughs, then I feel good about that, that style.
Carol Cox:
Yeah. Well see. And this is why, for those of you listening, try all these different types of speaking engagements either. If it’s not a formal TEDx event. Find these TEDx style events because they pop up here and there and it is good practice. Even if you feel like, oh, I don’t know if that’s my thing or I feel intimidated by it, you should do it because you may end up loving it and not realizing it, or you’re going to learn. You know what? Like, I can see the benefits and I’m glad I stretched myself, but I really prefer this other type of speaking and I really want to hone that instead.
Diane Diaz:
Yes. Yeah, it’s kind of like improv versus standup, right? We did improv. I don’t like it. I never like it. Anytime that I do it, I do it. I understand the benefit of having done it, and I take the benefits and I know what I’ve learned from it. I would not want to do it on a continual basis because I just don’t enjoy it. What I do like is the is the stand up set, because I’m in control of all of that and I can tee up the laughs and get the laughs right, whereas I don’t have to rely on it coming in the moment, which it never does. Right?
Carol Cox:
Yes. All right. So I’m glad. I’m so glad we’ve had these speaking engagements. And this is also the reason why I like to do more speaking engagements, because you’re going to figure out what you like and what you don’t like, which which types of audiences you like, what size audiences you like, what types of venues you like, what types of topics you like. This is how you become a better speaker. The more you do it video yourself. I haven’t really watched my videos yet, but I need to do it. I will do, I’ll do it, but I have it. It will happen. So Diane, any other like lessons or takeaways from either this specific Ted style talk that you you did or kind of just our conversation around finding what suits you the best.
Diane Diaz:
Well, I would just say just a tip for people, because I know that it is often overwhelming, like you can create this great talk and then you’re like, well, how am I going to remember it? Right? So I have a trick that I used for the five minute comedy set, and I used it here as well, and it worked. It was worked both times and I will use it again. And so I share this as a way to do this. I would suggest chunking out your talk and giving yourself keywords for the different chunks. So my talk was eight minutes. I think I came up with, um, maybe it was six six sections and so six keywords. And I just remembered those words in order, just the words. Or it might have been like a two words, right? Like a two word phrase. I, I started there, that’s where I started with memorizing it. And so I just would repeat the words, repeat the words in order, in order. And then I would put it away for the day and see, can I remember these tomorrow? And then the next day, okay, then I’ve got those words down.
Diane Diaz:
And then I would start to practice the content around those words. You know, what goes. And then that’s the order of my talk. The words, the words in order is the order of the and the flow of my talk. So if nothing else, I’ve remembered the order. I don’t have to remember every word I’m going to say. I just need to remember the order of the words and then talk around it. And then once I did that, then I could identify little bits where I’d get stuck, like, oh, I got to say this thing because that’s like the hook in that portion. Well, I can’t remember that. So then I would practice that part over and over again, but it helped me identify where I would get stuck without having to. I didn’t look at it as memorizing a whole talk. I looked at it as memorizing just words at first, and then just chunks at first and then, okay, now here’s the places I’m getting stuck. That’s all I have to worry about. And it worked.
Carol Cox:
Yes. And I did the same thing, especially for the audition, because it was such a fast turnaround. And that really helped a lot. And I know from once I finished the audition, I was like, oh, I switched two places around like two. Like, I call them paragraphs, like sections around, but I’m like, but it worked, okay. And guess what? Nobody knows. Nobody knows. Right? This is the thing we say. Like nobody has a script in front of them that’s like, oh, she said this sentence instead of this sentence, and she put this before this.
Diane Diaz:
Nobody knows exactly, exactly.
Carol Cox:
So just just go with it and have and have fun with it. Like, that’s the thing I think we’re trying to tell so many of the women we work with. Like, yes, you’re going to feel like a little nervous, especially if it’s the first time you’re giving this particular talk that you haven’t given that one before. But ultimately, try to find a way to have fun with it, enjoy it, you know, get to know the audience, interact with them beforehand. So you kind of have warm faces that, you know, friendly faces that are smiling back at you. Try these different types of speaking engagements as well, because that is going to help you to kind of flex your muscles and see what it is that you like and don’t like. And if you want to kind of if you want to figure out what your speaker archetype is, there’s four archetypes we’ve identified the stellar scholar, fabulous facilitator, spellbinding storyteller, and the provocative performer.
Diane Diaz:
Diane, that might be me.
Carol Cox:
Maybe moving into the provocative.
Diane Diaz:
I think I am.
Carol Cox:
So if you want to hear figure out which is yours, go to speaking your brand. Quiz again. The quiz? It’s free. It’s just ten multiple choice questions. It’s a lot of fun. You’ll get your archetype right away, and then you’ll get recommendations for how to lean into it more, because we want you to do more with what you’re naturally good at, but then also recommendations for how to kind of add things to it so that you’re amplifying what your natural strengths are. So I know so many women have taken that quiz and have really enjoyed getting their results, and there is no bad archetype like there are. All of them have their strengths. Lean into which one is yours. Like, I’m the stellar scholar, but I know that I intentionally have to bring in the performance aspects and the storytelling aspects. So now I’m very mindful of that when I’m creating my talks.
Diane Diaz:
Yes, yes, I love that.
Carol Cox:
All right, Diane, thank you so much for joining me today on the podcast.
Diane Diaz:
I loved it. Thank you.
Carol Cox:
Until next time. Thanks for listening.
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