TEDx Timeline: From Idea to Speaking

Do you have a message, idea or story that the world needs to know about, but you are struggling with how to get it out there? My friend Soness Stevens can help because she has coached hundreds of people to get on TEDx and official TED stages.  She's one of the sweetest, funniest, most fun-loving people I know. She is she's also the official English voice for Hello Kitty In Japan!

One surefire business strategy to increase your visibility and attract more opportunities is to give a TED/TEDx talk and it doesn't cost much other than your time and tenacity. Soness anwers questions on getting on that coveted stage in this post:

Because you have been both a TED and TEDx speaker, I imagine people always want to pick your brain. Is there a question that you are asked more than others about "making your ideas worth spreading"?

Yes, there are actually two questions I am often asked:

1. “When's the best time to apply for TED or TEDx”,  and 
2. “So, how long does it take to apply”.

I usually first explain the ideal preparation time for a TED talk, and then the reality, followed by how far in advance you need to make an idea clear and concise to apply to a TEDx event.

Great, what does that timeline look like?

So we Curators are always on the lookout for next year's speaker so here is the ideal timeline for both TED and TEDx. The TED events often know their speakers nine months in advance. You'll be notified six months before the event because your core thesis is due six months before then.

What’s a core thesis?

It's the foundation of the heart of your talk. It's what makes your idea unique and worth spreading. 

What should someone expect preparation wise before the event?

1. Six months before the event day, your thesis and outline are due.
2. Five months before the event day, you must have your rough draft
3. Four months before the event day, your second draft and this is when the rehearsals start
4. Three months before the event day, your final draft, more rehearsals 
5. Two months before the event day, bi-weekly rehearsals 
6. One month before the event day, weekly rehearsals 
7. Two weeks out, take a break--don’t even think about
8. One week out, LOTS of rehearsals, and finally
9. Dress rehearsals.

The best TED speakers rehearse over 200 times!

Who actually puts on these events?

The local TEDx events are put on by local volunteers, so organizing is a lot more challenging day-to-day.  So here's the reality:

1. About six months before the event, a few speakers are contacted from a wish list as a top priority. But they're still searching. Applications are generally open then.
2. Four to five months prior to the event, all the slots are pretty much booked and that's when the confirmation letters are sent out. Sometimes there is a scheduling conflict and a spot will open up to three months in advance, which is why I tell my speakers to keep their hats in the ring. And it often works, so keep that in mind.

Isn’t three months in advance typical for booking across the board?

Most events only confirm speakers three months before the event, which means your preparation time is limited. 

• Three months before your event’s day, your  thesis and basic outline are due.
• Two months before a script and again your second draft as well that month.
• Then one month before you start your rehearsals...OMG there is so much rehearsing to do.

Notice that there is just not enough time and space for rehearsals. This is why it is key for you to start preparing your concept thru your core thesis and speaking about it a year in advance.

How long did it take you to develop your talk, How to Listen so People Will Speak?

Oh, it took a year to hone How to Listen so People Will Speak from curiosity to research to presentation, all the way to talk. 

Talk about a challenging time for you preparing to give a TED talk.

Remember how I mentioned the hard-working volunteers? Well, most of them are learning OVT (On the Volunteer Training).  Good hearts, but they're rarely professional speaker coaches. My assigned volunteer coach dropped out three months before my TEDx talk. I only said ‘hello” to my   new volunteer coach one month before my talk.  She was a really nice woman but just two weeks before, she finally took time to listen to my idea.  I waited for some insights, but she just didn’t have any.  And then, she didn’t even tell me that I did NOT have 18 minutes!  I had to hear it from another speaker just three days before the event that all the speakers just had 12 minutes.  How do you cut a third of your body of work in three days? 

To go beyond the scope of actually speaking, how long does it take between giving your TEDx talk and your video showing up online?

TEDx talks are organized by volunteers independently of TED. So there is no sure model of any of the systems. Your TEDx talk could come out within a few weeks or like my talk, “Miscarriage: What do you say?”, seven to eight months later with zero notice.

What do you do when the talk comes out?

You can’t edit it as TED owns the rights to it. So technically, you can’t share clips of it for promotion. The TEDx event can for themselves with consent from TED but as a speaker, you do not own the video. I have seen speakers do it, but I can’t recommend it as it’s against their rules. So what do you do instead? Prepare to get traction.

How long do you have to get traction on your TEDx talk?

24-hours. It’s the first 24 hours that make or break how many views you get. And unfortunately for most TEDx events, we don’t know when the talk is going to get released on YouTube. But if you prepare like my speaker Karan Gupta who took my advice you could get over 1 Million views in a few months just like him. So you gotta:

1. Pre-craft promos ready to go at a moments notice. If you are waiting for the talk to come out, it’s too late. We just don’t know when TED.com will approve your talk for YouTube. You might not even get any notification from the event (I found out one of my talks had been online for over a month without the event ever notifying me).
2. Ask everyone you can to watch, like & comment on the YouTube video, and share. Reply to the comments so YouTube sees you are actively creating a conversation. It’ll increase the search ranking.
3. Write a blog post. Facebook and other social media sites prefer native content. So if you write a post, include a link in the comments or a link to your website. Facebook doesn’t like to promote outside links, especially to YouTube. When you share on Facebook a link to the blog, you can increase your traction over YouTube. I’d still add the link to your TEDx talk in the comments repeatedly. 

Then again, it’s not all about getting millions of views. It’s not how many people watch your talk, it’s who’s listening. You share your idea worth spreading to reach that one person who wants to make a transformation. Not to push your idea upon the masses. It's credibility worth its weight in gold.

What is one bit of advice that you can share for wannabe TEDx speakers?

Hiring a coach is the best way to do this TED thing. So let’s aim for eight months beforehand to get your core thesis to apply.  And if you start your creation process in January -- finding your core thesis, making your idea clear and concise -- then you can apply to speak for a TEDx event for the following August to December. So if you wanted to speak in January of the next year you need to have started the process in April of this year.  

You can pick up Soness' free PDF, Roadmap to TED, so that you have all that you need to apply to speak at TED-style events.