“Oh my god, I’m so jealous that you got to deliver a TEDx; that must be something big ticked off your Bucket List” wrote one of my LinkedIn connections the day after my talk.
I thought about it 🤔 and realised: “Nope, not in the slightest!”
Of course, it was tremendously flattering 😊 to be asked to close the TEDX Hult London 2025 event, but delivering a TEDx has never been one of my specific goals (for this year or any other year) 🎯.
What’s more: Having delivered it, I wasn’t now a better person 🤷🏻♂️.
It hadn’t magically helped me be more emotionally open 😭, improve my friendships 🫂, lower my 10k running time 🏃🏻♂️, complete the purchase of a new flat 🏡 nor get me into a relationship💕 — all of these are real goals that I want to achieve this year.
In some ways I felt like a fraud when I spoke to others 😳.
For countless others delivering a TEDx is a dream 💭, they spend years trying to get selected, often spending thousands of pounds 💰 on programmes, coaches and books to help them secure their own invite.
Some of the speakers I met at my event had spent weeks preparing, were trembling with nerves and genuinely seemed overwhelmed 😱 — this for them was their Everest 🗻 ; for me it was barely a stroll in a park 🏞️ .
I must admit, I’m probably more on the wavelength of my dad who, when I told him I was going to deliver a TEDx talk, said: “That’s nice son, I’m sure you’ll have fun. By the way who is Ted?”
For me, it was just another talk — sure it might be one that I could promote the hell out of it, but fundamentally just another of the many talks I will enjoy giving this year.
In a similar way to the time a few years ago that I ended up being in a nationwide advertising campaign, this was very much part of the journey, not in any means the destination ⏩.
How did I end up delivering a TEDx and what’s the process it involves?
Just before Christmas 2024 I was contacted by the organisers of TEDx Hult London informing me that they were seeking speakers for their event that would be held 3 months later and asking me to submit an application [apparently one of the committee had heard me speak before].
I duly did, undertook an interview a few weeks later and found out the next month that I had been selected — Whoop, whoop 🙌!
I then got told that I had to submit a script of my speech one month before the talk itself. This was then checked, edited and sent back with comments.
As a participant, I was expected to adhere to the final script that had been approved by TED and then learn it verbatim [spoiler alert: I didn’t] 😳.
The same approval process happened with any slides you wanted to use [this is where I learnt that generic images off the internet were not allowed to be included].
It’s at this point that many participants spend weeks memorising the script but, quite frankly, I was too busy and I find that memorised speeches don’t come out as well 🙄.
Although mine was a new speech, it was grounded upon elements of other speeches and stories I have been telling for years.
It was thanks to the hundreds (nay thousands) of client workshops, podcasts and talks [not to mention the best man speeches] I have given over the last 5 years that I was confident that I could do a good job 💪.
To bring it to life, I mapped out the general flow of the story, the main chunks and practised the transitions between them (as this is often where talks fall apart). I didn’t over-rehearse but I was comfortable I could bring it to life and engage the audience 🧑🎤.
On the day, I spent time assessing the dynamics of the room and, as I was going last, observed the reaction of the audience to all the talks before me.
I even made notes on the previous talks so I could reference them directly in my talk (thus making an extra special close to the day and a feeling of uniqueness for those in the room).
Crucially when I got up there, I made sure to have fun 😁.
Fun is the key
Yep, fun!
It’s the key ingredient to so much good stuff in life. In fact, it’s so important that it’s the only metric we measure in my company every week 📋.
It turns out that the more fun we have, the more the other metrics (like profits, customer satisfaction, team satisfaction, etc) take care of themselves.
In fact, the simple act of fun is what transforms a daunting TEDx talk into something to look forward to.
I appreciate that for some people, fun is a total luxury. But, as a person that gave up a successful career to start my own business, it seems foolish not to have fun as I do it.
I literally took all the things I enjoyed most in life [e.g. catching up with people, helping others improve their own effectiveness, mentoring, blogging, public speaking, and more] and turned them into the cornerstones of my business 📈.
It meant that irrespective of whether the business was a success, I still had fun.
It took the pressure off and invariably by having fun, led to success as people can’t help but want to be involved with something that is fun.
It’s why when I got on stage, I had a smile on my face, as opposed to many of the other speakers there.
When you are fixated on the outcome, rather than enjoying the process itself, that’s where Stress and tension creeps in — and we all know what that can lead to ⛈️.
You begin to get angry/sad/despondent when things don’t go well and that flows into everything else you do.
It’s why I don’t care if nobody listens to a podcast I record 🎙️ or if my blogs 📝 go unread or my voice notes 🗣️ unanswered or if not every coffee ☕ with a prospective client leads to a sale — I’ve still enjoyed myself immensely and gotten value out of doing them.
Ultimately in life if you can enjoy the process rather than fixate on the outcome, you will be in a much better place ♥️.
I always advise people starting something new to incorporate as much of the things they love into it as that will undoubtedly make it easier and probably lead to far more success.
If you’re struggling to work out what that might be; then answer yourself this question:
“What part of what you are about to do gives you the most enjoyment? The thing that you would you do anyway even if nobody knew you did it, nobody cared that you did and it didn’t lead to anything?”
Therein probably lies your answer for what you should be doing more of and that’s far more rewarding than a TED talk.
So, how did the speech go?
Let’s face it, whilst they may seem ground-breaking, most TEDx talks are more Entertainment than genuine aha moments.
It’s very rare that any of us share completely new knowledge [unless you happen to be a cutting-edge scientist or researcher].
As a speaker, all you are really doing is rehashing old knowledge, applying a personal spin and hopefully then entertaining the audience enough so that they remember some of it and/or tell others about it.
Once you realise that, it changes the emphasis and it becomes more way about how you deliver it rather than what you are delivering and in that sense I would give my talk a 7 out of 10 🫤.
A 7 because it was well delivered and entertained the audience but, as a someone who regularly teaches about communication and storytelling I know many areas that I can improve.
That’s absolutely fine because the good news is that I have hundreds of opportunities to sharpen it in the coming year through my work and my talks. I know I’ll have fun each time I tell it, polishing it one step further each time 🙌.
All in all, I’m confident that come my next TEDx talk it’ll be a good 8 or 9 and that is also a fun thing to look forward to 🙂
In the meantime go check out the original talk and let me know what you think** 😊
Faris
*Similarly, if you haven’t delivered a TEDx that doesn’t make you any less of a person nor have any correlation to whether your ideas are worth sharing so go share
**the final edit is not available quite yet but I’ll update with the link when it is
Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness. Connect with him here
Success = IQ x EQ x FQ
Originally Published on https://farisaranki.medium.com/
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