TEDx Talking: Theresa Rose of Crystallize Your Brilliance On What You Need To Know To Secure, Prepare, and Deliver a Highly Effective TEDx Talk
Courage. When all is said and done, everyone who steps onto the Big Red Dot of TED needs a heaping portion of courage. This is one of the largest, most esteemed digital platforms on the planet, and it takes guts to put yourself out there. But when we remember that we only have a finite, unknown amount of time left on this earth to make a real difference, it can give us the oomph we need to step out of our comfort zone and attempt something truly magnificent. Coming from a place of heart-centered service is a fool-proof way to work through any nerves and find the courage to have our voices heard all over the world!
In a world that is more connected than ever, the power of a well-crafted message to inspire, educate, and evoke change cannot be understated. TEDx Talks have emerged as a prestigious platform for sharing ideas worth spreading, reaching a global audience and creating impact on a grand scale. In this series, we are discussing the process of delivering a TEDx Talk that resonates and leaves a lasting impression. We are talking with experts who have successfully navigated the TEDx journey, including TEDx speakers, speaking coaches with a focus on TEDx preparations, and organizers involved in the selection and coaching of speakers. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Theresa Rose.
Theresa Rose is a Brand and Business Crystallizer, Strategic Co-Creator, award-winning author of several books, and 2x TEDx Speaker who works with experts and their businesses to create visual brands they can draw on a cocktail napkin. Using her one-of-a-kind Crystallization Process, Theresa helps thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives readying for growth and transition to clarify, amplify, and monetize their Brilliance. Theresa’s thought leadership in clarity and visual branding can be seen in her most recent TEDxTalk, “Doodle Your Dream: How a Cocktail Napkin Will Save the World”, which she delivered at TEDxTemecula in 2023. For more information on Theresa’s work and to watch her TEDxTalks, visit TheresaRose.com.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us your “Origin Story”? Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
My love for marketing, sales, and leadership began very early in my life. I was raised by my hard-working entrepreneurial mother who had a successful career in direct sales for over 30 years. I was in “the family business” since I was five years-old, accompanying Mom at her presentations, watching her lead and inspire a national team, and helping her out in the home office. (I played with all of the demo samples too!) My amazing mother taught me so much about grit, focus, positivity, and the importance of connection. I met more women by the time I was eight years-old than most people know in a lifetime! Riding shotgun in a pink Cadillac deeply informed who I am as a person and a professional.
Can you tell us a bit about what you do professionally, and what brought you to this specific career path?
The short answer is that I help people get cocktail napkin clarity for their brands and businesses by using a method I call The Crystallization Process. I arrived at this role by building on my experience in senior management in marketing and product development for a Fortune 100 enterprise, as the Head of Thought Leadership for a global executive network, speaking and coaching professionally for the last fifteen years, and, last but not least, being a hippy-dippy energy practitioner with a penchant for intuition and inspiration. (I won Most Enthusiastic in second grade and haven’t stopped since!)
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussions. Can you tell us a bit about your particular experience with TEDx talks?
My first TEDxTalk was on 12/12/12 at TEDxSarasota where I hula hooped throughout the program! My Talk was on the power of joyful movement, and at the time, hoopdancing was an important part of my personal growth. While that Talk is not currently relevant to my career as a Crystallizer, I still LOVE dancing and am inspired every time I have a hoop in hand. My second TEDxTalk was delivered twelve years later at TEDxTemecula where I shared my Idea Worth Spreading called “Doodle Your Dream: How a Cocktail Napkin Will Save the World.” Even though I am a Certified Speaking Professional who has delivered hundreds of paid presentations over the last decade-and-a-half, those two moments on the Big Red Dot of TED are career highlights for me.
Before we talk about the details, let’s consider the big picture. Preparing for a TEDx talk and securing it obviously requires a lot of mindshare, bandwidth, resources, and energy. From your personal experience, why is it worth it to invest all that to do a TEDx talk?
There are so many benefits to doing a TEDxTalk, from the act of crafting the performance to inspiring an audience to think differently to the camaraderie that forms with everyone involved to, of course, the incredible marketing power of presenting on one of the world’s most esteemed stages. Yes, it is a major commitment of time and energy if you want to knock it out of the park, but it is worth it a hundred times over. Doing a TEDxTalk is definitely a bucket list item that will be remembered forever!
Now, let’s talk about the how. Can you describe the application process for becoming a TEDx speaker? What are some common challenges faced in the application process that our readers should be forewarned about?
The process of landing a TEDxTalk is relatively simple. You identify an upcoming TEDx event that you want to apply for, fill out the application of your Idea Worth Spreading which may include a short video submission, meet with the TEDx team for a virtual interview/audition, and get notified shortly thereafter if you have been selected. If you want to be really strategic, connect to the TEDx curator on LinkedIn ahead of time and invite them to have a chat about mutual interests. During the call you can learn even more about the process while firmly establishing rapport with one of the decision-makers. The most important thing to consider isn’t how or where you’ll do a TEDxTalk — it’s getting so crystal clear on an idea that is universal, relevant, and inspiring. The hardest part of the TEDx application process is getting out of your own way and landing on an idea that has a global impact regardless of who the audience is.
Is there a website where you can apply for a TEDx talk? How do you apply and submit? How can you find out about all of the TEDx’s that are available?
Visit TED.com and go to Attend/TEDx Events to see all the upcoming events all over the world as well as past TEDx events. Simply review all the upcoming events where you have a personal or professional connection and go from there. (I chose TEDxSarasota because I used to live there, and I chose TEDxTemecula because I have an office there.) I strongly recommend targeting an event that you can tap into your network to help amplify and make successful. Remember, it’s just as important to energize the event itself as it is to promote your own Talk. Choose cities that have a place in your heart, because the TEDx team wants to know that you are there to contribute to the overall success, not just to have your fifteen minutes onstage.
What strategies did you use or would you recommend to ensure that a talk is engaging and impactful?
As I mentioned before, it is imperative to get clear on the universal appeal of your idea with no self-promotion whatsoever. It’s all about the IDEA. It is also important to remember that it isn’t just another speech; it’s a TEDxTalk, and it should be considered more like a work of art. The more care you put into crafting the experience — creating a compelling opening, being clear on the premise, establishing your credentials, telling relevant stories, activating their imaginations, having a strong call to action, and generally being inspiring, smart, and funny — the more impactful your Talk will be. I leaned heavily into the book TED Talks by Chris Anderson, the Head of TED, to understand how I could make my TEDxTalk the best one I could possibly deliver.
There’s a saying from Mark Twain about how it takes more time to prepare for a five-minute talk than for a two-hour talk. The point is that crystallizing an idea and using the exact words is much more difficult than a freeform talk. So, how does a person do that? How does a person boil down an idea into five minutes?
My recommendation is to do a brain dump of the idea on paper, turn that chicken scratch into a rough draft slide presentation, record yourself speaking it from your heart, turn that transcription into a script, do several timed run-throughs and script edits to shave the time down to 80% of the length of your Talk, and then once it’s almost finalized, start daily performances to get it memorized and into your body. Deliver it standing up using your full voice, just like you will do on the big day. (I used a music stand to hold my script until I had it fully memorized.) Do not, I repeat, DO NOT wait until the last minute to practice! The pressure is intense, and you’ll want to be so prepared so that your highly-crafted script sounds as natural as a conversation between friends. That level of confidence comes only from committed repetition. I ended up writing a dozen versions of my script that I practiced daily over the course of ten weeks before the event.
Most of us can think of maybe half a dozen different topics that they could speak about. How does a person choose, and say “Okay, this is the one for a TED talk”? How do they choose which of all their ideas should be the one?
This is where cocktail napkin clarity comes into play! I recommend you write down all the ideas you have that you want to share with the world — ideas that matter — well beyond your personal journey. Take a look at the list of ideas and see how you can pull them together under one theme. (Overcoming adversity is overdone. Choose something fresher!) Look at how else you can validate your ideas using outside sources and data. Most importantly, you’ll want the idea you end up sharing to be so deeply personal to you that you can tap into your natural enthusiasm and passion for it. How it FEELS is the most important qualifier.
Feedback is crucial in shaping a compelling TEDx talk. Can you describe how to seek out and incorporate feedback during the talk’s preparation? Who do you turn to for honest critiques, and how do you iterate on your presentation based on the feedback received?
I was blessed in that the two TEDx events I spoke at had a team of coaches who worked with us. At TEDxTemecula, we had several weekly group coaching sessions where the speakers presented their Talks and received helpful feedback. I also worked with a dear friend and top performance coach, David Mann of A Simple Message, to get pinpoint feedback on my performance, from structure to timing to vocal inflection to stage presence. I sent him videos of me performing it, and he would give me detailed feedback for me to incorporate and refine. He also helped me to “kill my darlings” when I needed to cut precious content to stay under time. It was painful but oh so worth it!
Let’s talk about the actual delivery of an excellent TEDx Talk. Most people are scared of speaking in public. How do you manage the stage fright before the talk?
As a professional speaker and semi-retired stand-up comedian, I typically don’t get stage fright. But the TEDx experience is like no other! In order to manage the inevitable butterflies, I made sure that I was prepared as possible but also gave room for breathability. (I did no more than once-a-day run-throughs so it wouldn’t get stale.) Taking good care of oneself physically and getting a good night’s sleep is essential. I visualized the day in my mind dozens of times, seeing myself being calm, engaging, and delightful from the very first moment until the final bow. And right before I walked onstage, I did some deep breathing exercises and reminded myself that I was made for this. My overall piece of advice for any TEDx speaker is to operate from your heart and be in your body. Everything else will work itself out! The audience WANTS you to succeed and will be there for you, every step of the way.
What can a person do to ensure that people will remember the talk and that it won’t just go in one ear and out the other? Can you share how you gauge and adapt to audience reactions in real time during your talk to ensure maximum engagement?
I recommend having a catchphrase or anchor of some sort that you can refer back to over and over again throughout the Talk. Watch Simon Sinek’s amazing TEDxTalk on How Great Leaders Inspire Action where he reinforces his Start with Why idea over and over again. During my latest TEDxTalk, I referenced how to “show and tell, and not just sell” several times, and I even had cocktail napkins for everyone to doodle their own dreams with each other afterward! It was a big hit that lasted well after the Talk. In fact, I still have people sending me images of their own doodled cocktail napkins!
Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience or research, what are the “Five Things You Need To Deliver a Highly Effective TEDx Talk”?
1 . Clarity. Get so clear on your Idea Worth Spreading that you can say it in one sentence. Imagine the video of your TEDxTalk: If you can’t come up with a title and a description with six hashtags, you don’t know your idea well enough. This is the most important element of the process. Without this level of cocktail napkin clarity, your Talk will be built on sand instead of a rock-solid foundation.
2 . Commitment. Dedicate several weeks to crafting and delivering the best possible Talk, and be aware that other aspects of your life and business may need to take a back seat. This is not something to enter into lightly if you want it to be remembered. You’ll work harder on those few minutes than nearly anything else you’ve ever done.
3 . Counsel. Get professional help from trusted advisors, not just your loved ones. You want to elicit feedback that will make YOU better, not just make you feel better. Get gut-punches of truth from those whom you respect, and let go of any other noise that doesn’t resonate.
4 . Confidence. This is not the time to “fake it til you make it” — confidence comes from clarity, focus, and flight time. The more you deliver it out loud BEFORE the event, the more confident you will be. Practice makes polished, if not perfect.
5 . Courage. When all is said and done, everyone who steps onto the Big Red Dot of TED needs a heaping portion of courage. This is one of the largest, most esteemed digital platforms on the planet, and it takes guts to put yourself out there. But when we remember that we only have a finite, unknown amount of time left on this earth to make a real difference, it can give us the oomph we need to step out of our comfort zone and attempt something truly magnificent. Coming from a place of heart-centered service is a fool-proof way to work through any nerves and find the courage to have our voices heard all over the world!
To learn more, watch my bonus video, Five Things You Need To Deliver a Highly Effective TEDx Talk from Theresa Rose.
After delivering a TEDx talk, what strategies do you use to maximize its impact and reach? Could you share how to engage with your audience through social media, follow-up events, or other means to encourage action or further discussion on the topic?
The best way to maximize your time on the Big Red Dot is to imagine it in three phases: before, during, and after. Before the big day, you’ll want to engage your following via email marketing and social media about your big “high-stakes short-form presentation” you’re doing. Give them the inside scoop on the preparation process and how you feel about it so they are emotionally engaged with you. Connect with the other speakers as well so you can highlight them when the time is right. Of course take pictures and videos during the event itself so you can use it later, and leverage any and all relationships that form. After it is published, share it with your network via email marketing, your email signature, social media posts and profile updates, texts, website, articles, proposals and pitches, and anywhere else you can think of. Reply to every comment, and keep posting about it, weeks, months, and years later! Remember, it’s not about the number of views you get (which can be purchased through server farms for big money) but what you do with the views you get. I immediately monetized from my latest TEDxTalk when it had less than a thousand views. It’s a matter of quality engagement, not quantity.
How can our readers watch your TEDx talk and follow your work?
They can access my latest TEDxTalk, “Doodle Your Dream: How a Cocktail Napkin Will Save the World”, on TED’s YouTube channel. I hope your readers are inspired to doodle their dreams!
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
TEDx Talking: Theresa Rose of Crystallize Your Brilliance On What You Need To Know To Secure… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.