By Poornima Vijayashanker
Last month I mentioned that I had presented a TEDxNavesink talk in New Jersey. I want to give you a behind the scenes look at what went into preparing for this talk, in hopes that it will encourage you to consider getting up on stage one day!
Let’s start by going back to January 2014. Shannon Winning reached out to me via Twitter.
The theme of the TEDx was play. Well I love to play with technology and I want to encourage others to do the same, so I decided to write up a proposal based on the title: Taking the Time to Tinker. I submitted a proposal, which required that I included samples, so I submitted a recent talk I had given at the University of Michigan’s entrepreneurship hour.
A few weeks later Gail Woods reached out to let me know that my proposal had been accepted, woohoo!
I jumped on a call with Gail to understand who would be present in the audience, so that I could tailor my talk to resonate with them. Gail mentioned it would be a mix of young to older adults mostly from New York and New Jersey. With backgrounds in theater, art, business, and technology.
I noted the audience composition and used it to create a flow in my talk that would be meaningful to them. Then I sent Gail an outline for the talk.
Gail recommended that I start working with Jeffrey Davis, a speech coach, to really hone my message and delivery.
When I met with Jeff on a Skype call, I still hadn’t rehearsed my talk, but being a good coach Jeff put me right on the spot! He made me run through the outline and essentially improv the whole talk.
Working with Jeff I learned to pause more, use bigger gestures, and condense the stories I was telling to keep the talk to about 18 minutes.
A few weeks later, Gail reached out and told me that I had to cut my talk down to 12 minutes, ok… This really forced me to rethink the stories I was telling, and hone the message, not an easy feat. Fortunately, Jeff helped me out a TON!
I was always impressed by the slides other TEDx speakers put together, but I wasn’t sure that I could manage to do the same unless I hired a designer. Jeff recommended that I instead read Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. Reynolds’ book was just what I needed!
In reading Presentation Zen, I learned that slides are just meant to be a simple visual element that enhances a presentation. The audience shouldn’t be reading them but instead following the speaker. To avoid the audience from fixating on slides, you’ve got to really streamline the amount of content on each slide, and choose images that complement what you say.
Once I had all the pieces in place, I practiced the talk like crazy! First by myself, then in front of a mirror, and then with a timer. Finally, I practiced in front of friends and family, collecting feedback from them.
The week before the talk, I was starting to get nervous. I had little worries like, “What if I get sick?” OR, “What if I miss my flight?”
I forced myself to calm down by practicing yoga or going for a run, and drinking lots of chamomile tea!
The day before the talk, I was excited but calm. I went to the dress rehearsal, delivered my talk, and then headed home to rest up.
That was just the dress rehearsal…
The day of the talk, I was ready! I got dressed, went to breakfast with my boyfriend, and then headed to the theater to meet up with the other speakers. Since I was in the third act I had plenty of time to relax and enjoy watching the other speakers. But moments leading up to the talk my heart started to race. I became super nervous, more nervous than I had ever been before giving a talk.
As I walked on stage my legs started to shake, it didn’t help that I was wearing high heels! I was worried that I would trip, so I took it one step at at time. Once I got onto the red circle run I stopped and I looked into the audience to find a familiar face to focus on. But all I saw were bright lights. I thought, “What have I gotten myself into?”
Then I remembered, I had done this before, many times! I paused to take two deep breaths, and just tell my story. You can watch the talk here and view the slides for it here.If you enjoyed watching the talk please help spread the word!
I just enjoyed watching @TEDxNavesink talk: Taking the Time to Tinker by @poornima!
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Have you ever given a TEDx talk or performed on stage? What did you do to prepare and get over those butterflies in your belly?
If you’d like to learn more about what it takes to prepare for a TEDx talk or any other presentation then checkout our upcoming Confident Communicator Course learn more here.
