My heart was definitely pounding. I don’t know if it’s the adrenaline or if I was starting to contract high blood pressure. Maybe a bit of both.
Whatever it is, I knew that this day would be a milestone. Yup. Definitely a milestone in my speaking career.
You see, I’ve been speaking publicly as a motivational speaker and a digital marketing speaker since 6 years ago. It’s been a long way since then.
But this? The moment I stepped on stage, I knew that it’s going to take me to a whole new different level. I just knew.
I was contacted by the TEDx team last July 2015. To be honest I was quite surprised that I will be contacted by a huge, international brand. I didn’t think I was ready for this as I knew TED talks would up the ante by a whole lot.
The guidelines were quite strict and the follow-ups were quite thorough from the TEDx team’s side. They also made sure that the speakers would be educated of what a TED talk is supposed to be. We were strongly encouraged to watch TED talk videos from the website and from Youtube. We were also asked for our scripts and outlines early on.
I was able to send my first draft on August, 2015. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was quite early. I was able to finish the Powerpoint presentation with the designs from my designer and all by October 2015. By this time, I was already practicing a little bit. My talk was about 6 pages long and I knew that I may falter somewhere in the middle.
Of course, I made sure to stick to the TED commandments which are:
- Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick
- Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before
- Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion
- Thou Shalt Tell a Story
- Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy
- Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success.
- Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods, thy Writings, nor thy Desparate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness.
- Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.
- Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.
- Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee
We also did a lot of rehearsals. We rehearsed in Skype – twice. We rehearsed in Alabang in one of the organizer’s home. I also rehearsed a lot on my own. I think I did 12 – 14 ‘mock’ rehearsals with just myself and the mirror.
In any case, I look forward to when the video will finally be out. They told me that it should be out before April. I’ll be posting it here in this blog for sure. Maybe even in the home page.
I thank God for the opportunity, guidance and wisdom and the courage to help me pull through. I thank my family for being there to support me – especially my baby boy who actually clapped as I finished my talk. The beautiful pictures are taken by my brother.
Until next time TEDx!
