How to be on a TEDx Stage to help your brand #getnoticed.

Welcome to this episode of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur. Today, I'm delighted to welcome back luminologist, Dr. Shelley James, to talk to us about TED Talks. Shelley, welcome.

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.

Now, you and I have worked together for now a couple of years, starting with those amazing videos that you made with Lumen5 for Luna Pro, made over a million views of those. And you've gone on to do a TED Talk. So I'd love to have you chat with us about that. Tell us, why did you prioritize giving a TED Talk about the impact of light on wellbeing?

Well, a couple of reasons really. One of them was that I'm so passionate about this subject. I realized that the TED platform was going to give me a way to share that with so many more people. So that's the first thing. I think the second is that I wanted to be able to create information that would be a way for people to understand what I do and why, and then invite me to speak in other platforms too. So there was a dual purpose. One was to increase my impact and the other was to build my business and build my profile so that I can make a difference in other ways too.

But TED isn't something that you just pitch up to and say, hi, I'm going to do a TED, right? So can you give us some background into how you got onto the TED? Because it's a whole process, isn't it?

It certainly is. And I think if I'd known just how, what a long old road it is, I'm not sure if I would have started, although of course I would. There are lots of different franchise TED Talks, people who host what they call TEDx, which are the regional TEDs. So different different organizations, different teams, mostly volunteers around the country and actually around the world, organize their own TED platforms, their own stages, and they organize a process of application, of selection, of preparation, of filming. And you can find out which teams, which TEDx teams are open for applications by searching online. I decided that I wanted to get some help to go through that process. So I actually signed up with, I think she's been a guest, the amazing Elaine Powell, who is a TEDx speaker and coach herself. So I signed up with a programme to help me to learn how to apply because you need to be really clear about your idea and know where to apply and also just have some support through the process because you might apply for many, many TED organisations and you might not get them. You might not even get one. So thanks to Elaine, I went, trawled around the world and particularly around the UK, I suppose, to find TEDx stages who were looking for applications and There were a number of reasons to choose the best ones. One of them was obviously that they were open and TEDxNorthwich was one of the first ones to come out after COVID to have a live platform. That felt really important. And the second was that when you look at all these TEDx stages, they really are very different. They need to apply by the same basic branding and standards, but some of them are, look as if they're in village halls and the lighting isn't great. The sound isn't great. The way that people are moving, the way they're presenting isn't that great. Obviously the messages are always really interesting, but some of them really stand head and shoulders above the others in terms of their professionalism and the quality of the whole environment. And so TEDxNorthwich really stood out for me as a team who really cared about doing this, supporting their TEDx speakers as well as they possibly could. So I applied to TEDxNorthwich among others, and they were the first ones I applied to, and they were the first ones who accepted me. So that was the first in the stage in the journey. And then I went through 6 months of coaching and training and reconfiguring the talk and memorizing the talk. And then there were 3 or 4 different dress rehearsals where I traveled to Northwich with a couple of frocks and a couple of different pairs of shoes to work out what I should wear and practice breathing and trying to slow down, which I need to get better at. And the team there, there was a production team, there was a speaker coach, there was a lighting person. The whole thing was incredibly well-organized and supported. So that was over. You had to remember, memorize your talk. You also had to submit the talk in advance, word for word, because they were going to do due diligence. They were going to check every single fact. Even, in fact, I mentioned my amazing nieces and my goddaughter in the talk. And they even needed to know who they were to make sure that I wasn't telling tales about people who either weren't willing to be approached or who actually didn't exist at all. So it was an amazingly rigorous process. And I was very glad to have chosen a team who was so incredibly professional and well-organized and supportive. And part of that actually meant that the other people that they chose were remarkable as well. So I was lucky enough to be on stage with 8 other amazing speakers, all of them women, it turns out, because apparently we were just the best. So the whole process took months and hours and hours and hours and hours and hundreds of pounds in petrol and clothes and mascara and sort of craziness of trying to work out how to make this work. So a long old process, but such an amazing one. I'm so proud to have actually made it through.

So fantastic. A couple of things in there. One is, what role did Elaine play? And yes, she has been on the show. I'll put a link to the episode that she was on, but it sounds like you applied to the group in Northwich, which is just south of Manchester here in the UK. Why did you need Elaine? Because if you got all the coaching from the TEDx people in Northwich, what role did Elaine play for you?

So I met Elaine through another coaching program that I'd been on before, and Elaine's specialism is really helping people to articulate their idea. And in order for you to be considered to be a TEDx speaker, they need to know that you've got a really clear idea that it's worth sharing and that you're somebody who can formulate and structure an argument very clearly. And so the first thing I did was through a group program with Elaine. It was over, I think it was 8 weeks or 12 weeks. We went through a process of learning how to say what we want to say, and then even doing some improvisation exercises, how to speak, how to pause, how to engage with the audience. So that process was already really powerful as a teacher, as a speaking training program. So that was the first thing that she did was to bring us to become speakers who had an idea to share and knew what that was. And then the second point was that we would download the forms to apply, and Elaine would very generously review those with us to make sure that each one we applied to was receiving the best possible version of our talk and our presentation so that we would stand out from the crowd when they got their inboxes full of applications.

Okay, wonderful. Now, you mentioned about standing out. Can you give us an idea? Do you have any idea of how many people apply to do a TEDx talk?

I think hundreds do. understanding is that there was certainly a big old inbox to the TEDxNorthwich. Certainly the good ones get lots and lots of applications. So hundreds and thousands really across the UK and across the world. That doesn't mean to say that your idea isn't one worth sharing. It is one worth framing in your own particular way. And I guess that's where I would encourage people to be part of a speaker program, because mostly I didn't know anybody else who'd ever done it or who was doing it. And so it's a bit daunting. You feel, who am I to even try and do this? So having somebody who's done it, who keeps on cheering you on. And alongside other people, I had an amazing buddy as well who we would check in every week and practice stuff with each other. So just having a running partner when you know that you are in a huge kind of sea awash with people trying to pitch this stuff really makes a massive difference.

Yeah. So I guess like going into any sort of competition, having a coach and a system really helps you to refine your performances. And then Shelley, the TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. How does Luminology, the study of light, fit into that? And when you give a TED Talk, do you need to have a talk that has a little bit of technology, a little bit of entertainment, a little bit of design, or can you go off on your own path?

No, actually it doesn't. I mean, what was really interesting was that the other talks, if you look online to other TEDx talks, they aren't necessarily about technology. The core is that it's an idea worth sharing. And so one of them was about racial equality or racial bias. One of them was about a project that a woman started through lockdown, through her own despair, to plant trees. Another one was about a lady who had cancer and who had lost her eyelashes and developed artificial eyelashes for people who've lost their eyelashes. So another one was about growing your confidence. So they were all different. The main thing was that it was an idea that somebody else could learn something from to perhaps improve their lives too. So I happened to be talking about lighting technology, but that really wasn't the reason why they chose what I had to say, I believe.

Okay. And then what about the impact that it's going to have on your business? Because some of those talks you mentioned were not, if you like, corporate, or there were people talking about ideas worth sharing, but have you done this, you know, for your personal branding or to help the business? And what's been the impact on you?

The impact's been huge. So the reasons that I did it really were to help me to share my message more widely and also to build my own confidence and to be clear about what I had to say and share that and have other people invite me to do that. In other settings. So since the TED Talk, I've been invited. I've got some paid speaking engagements with a number of organizations, which is very exciting. And I'm using some of the skills and confidence that I developed through the TEDx process to do that. I think the other thing is that it's something that shows your commitment and your passion and your determination to do, to go above and beyond. And so my existing clients are reaching out and saying, oh, that was interesting. Can you come and— it's an excuse to speak to somebody. Alongside that, what I've been doing is formulating or encapsulating what I've spoken about in a book, in an ebook. And so it's beginning to build a platform or an offer around a set of ideas and different formats for delivering those ideas that I'm going to be able to use as a funnel into other kinds of activities and a course and a whole range of different ways of leveraging content.

Okay. So it really helps you to define and distill the message that you've got around light, the impact of light, and then repurpose that content. Now, the process with TED is you do a presentation in front of an audience, in this case in Northwich, south of Manchester. What about the video coming to the broader audience, Shelley? Because I think those of us that were not there have not seen it yet. How long does it take to actually become published?

Well, it's, it's a bit of a strange time of suspense because you go through the high, there were 100 people in the audience. And in fact, it was a much bigger theatre, but due to COVID, the numbers were restricted, but it was an enthusiastic and passionate audience, which is wonderful. And those who have done spoken via Zoom know just what a difference it makes when you actually have people leaning in and breathing and clapping and sighing and all the things that happen in a full room of people. Then the video is taken and edited. And that's why working with the team who were so professional that the final result, the final edited video of beautiful quality with good sound and all of the facts that I gave have been checked to make sure that they're correct. And then that whole package, the checked, edited, fine-tuned package goes to TED in the States, to Big TED, and they check that before they release that. And so we don't know when that's going to be. And in fact, if they find an error or decide that the quality isn't sufficient, they could still decide even now not to publish it. So I can say I've been on a TED stage, but I can't yet say I'm a TEDx speaker until it's formally approved and released, which could be any day now. It could be in a couple of weeks. And I just don't know. And the team at TEDx are in touch to say they can't tell me yet, but they've got their ears to the ground too.

Okay. Now you're getting a lot of content and a lot of help from the people at TEDx, the organizers. How much did it cost you to do that? Because they're actually producing a little television program, aren't you, with them?

All volunteers. They are all passionate about ideas. Some of them are professional speaker trainers. Amazingly enough, it's It's absolutely free other than, of course, your own time to train and to be part of it. So all the people who support this program are volunteers. They are professional speaking coaches, they're professional photographers or filmmakers. Luckily, mine was actually closer than 18 minutes, but they do it because they're passionate about what they do. They do it because it's a great networking opportunity for them to say that they're part of the TED program actually helps them as a funnel towards clients too. So those who want to volunteer to be part of it, they meet people who want to speak and they get new clients that way. So there is no money changes hands, simply a desire to do things better. And that's another reason to make sure that you choose a really great TED team to work with.

Okay. So that's TEDx. How do you get onto the TED stage? That's the big one, isn't it really?

You're right. So that's big brother TED in the States. And my understanding is that the mini TEDs, the TEDxes that I was on, are submitted to Big TED for them to review, to check the content, the quality, and some of them are chosen by Big TED as ideas which deserve to be on the even bigger stage. And so then my understanding is that you're invited to apply or you're selected to maybe even go to the States to do the next level of TED speaking.

Wow. Okay. Let's hope that works out for you. And if there's one key takeaway, Shelley, from taking the challenge of doing a TEDx, what would that be? What would be the one takeaway for you?

I think the one takeaway would be to go for it. I think as any big thing that you might do in your life, whether it be a marathon or getting married or doing anything, there is a lot to be said for the process of doing something that you didn't even think was possible before you started. Just that fact and the journey is already something which will stand you in good stead for many other challenges that you might take. And how you do one thing is how you do everything. And knowing that you can achieve that gives you some confidence in other areas of your life too. So I would say if you're in any doubt, go for it, because you never know what it will lead to. Great.

And get the coaching. And as an entrepreneur with something to share, a vision to share, which is why you started the business, the TEDx platform could be a great way both to distill the message and then to share the message. So, Dr. Shelley James, thank you so much for joining us today on The Unnoticed Entrepreneur.

Thank you very much indeed. It was a pleasure.

So you've been listening to Dr. Shelley James, world-renowned luminologist, and yes, my sister too, about how she's got on the TEDx stage and also sharing with you how you can do the same. And I'll put the links to Elaine and the TEDx in the show notes. Thank you for joining me, Jim James, on this episode of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur.