If you’re doing talks every week for your Toastmasters club, there’s really no reason to put a ton of effort into selecting a great topic. The point is to practice how you speak, not what you speak about. Talk about your sock drawer if you like.

If you’re composing Tweets, Facebook updates, or blog posts, opportunities are plentiful. If something doesn’t work, try a different Tweet five minutes later.

But, for competitive opportunities, opportunities where the potential to reach millions of people is high, or time-consuming endeavors (speaking at a conference like TEDx, getting a book deal, writing a book), it makes sense to craft the best topic possible.

Here’s why it matters.

Great writing/speaking can’t save a boring topic

As much as communication matters, it a great topic matters more. If you’re not sure, consider the difference between speaking about the way you organize your sock drawer vs the way you finally quit smoking.

Both may be expertly communicated, you may be equally passionate about both, but one will be far more interesting to your audience. Great communication only matters if your audience cares about the topic. The internet is a crowded place. Most topics don’t get read/watched at all, your audience ignores them entirely.

It’s how people talk about (and discover) your book/talk

When you recommend a book or TEDx talk to your friends, you’ll share what it’s about, not the body language of the speaker, the use of grammar in the third chapter, or the color of your shoes as you spoke, even though these things are also decisions you’ll have to make.

The topic also defines how it’s discovered and how it spreads through the world — the title of the book, who it’s recommended to and why, what section of the bookstore your book is in, and so on.

A fascinating topic gets you opportunities

TED gets about 25,000 speaker applicants per year. TEDx events routinely get 50-300. No team in the world would be able to evaluate an entire talk, let alone a sample of one. How you describe/pitch your topic is one of the key filtering mechanisms (not your entire talk).

The same is true for books – publishers are bombarded with book ideas, and one filtering mechanism is the topic for the book.

As a TEDx event founder, the topic was central to whether or not our team selected a speaker. Credentials and speaking ability mattered too, just not as much as whether or not we wanted to accept their topic. Only once we loved the idea did we see if the credentials and speaking ability of the applicant were ok.

The world is a crowded place, and if you invest in making your topic just 1% better than it was, you’ll be bypassing hundreds of others vying for the same speaking, writing, and podcast opportunities.

The question is not “what should my topic be?”, but rather, “how can I improve my topic to maximize the impact it has?” Your topic may be the difference between a talk that gets you invited to speak at TEDx, a book deal, or a rejection. It may be the key to thousands more per year in book sales (or a book deal at all). Give it the time it deserves.

So, how do you choose a topic? If you’ve got a topic in mind already, how do you know if it’s good from your audience’s perspective (or from the perspective of an event organizer or book publisher)?

I like to think of this in 3 stages — generating topic ideas, prioritizing them, and refining/improving/evaluating the topic you choose.

1) Brainstorm Topic Ideas

The first step is to get ideas out of your head — it’s hard to evaluate and improve something if you don’t know what it is yet. So, start by brainstorming ideas.

Here are some questions to prompt your thinking:

• What pisses you off about your field?
• What’s the biggest differentiating factor between you and others in your field?
• What are the most common misconceptions about your field?
• What have you written about in the past? (eg: Facebook, LinkedIn, your blog, Medium etc.)
• What do your friends and colleagues as you about most?

Take a moment to write down your topic ideas based on these questions.

2) Prioritize your Topics

Once you’ve got some ideas written down it’s time to choose one or more that you’d like to pursue. Write down some reasons why your topics are “good” in each of these three areas:

• Why is this a topic I’m interested in sharing?
• How does this topic bring value to my audience?
• Compared to my audience, what additional expertise (or credibility) do I have regarding this topic?

Let’s look at each in turn.

How valuable will your audience find this topic?

Everyone has that one weird uncle that talks about things you don’t really care about, you already knew, or that you’ve heard 1000 times. Or, that co-worker that insists on explaining things even though you already know how to do it.

Writing or public speaking is not for you, it’s for your audience. So, thinking purely about topics you “want” to share and know about aren’t the only things that matter. What’s the value for others?

Sharing your story is great, but people largely don’t care about your story…they care about the lesson they can get from it. Your topic is not “my story of climbing Kilimanjaro”, it’s “you can do anything you want to do”. Using a personal story to illustrate your topic is a great idea, but don’t forget that the point is the lesson or idea, not the story.

Also, ignore “good ideas” that people “need to hear” (“you should eat more vegetables” is a very good idea that people certainly need to hear). Consider this – has the audience heard a topic/message like this before? Yet, your topic is not yet common knowledge (eg: people still don’t eat enough vegetables). Why not? What insight, evidence, example, or story has your audience been missing? That’s the real value you provide.

Is this a topic that you’re interested in sharing?

It’s not selfish to share topics you’re interested in (as long as there is value for others). You’ll put in more work to develop a great talk/book, and more effort into telling more people. Your audience will get more value out of it (and more people will hear) as a result.

The theme of the event you’re speaking at or a topic someone has asked you to share are two considerations but don’t select a topic that you’re not excited about.

Are you passionate about solving this problem in the world? Would sharing this message further your career or business ambitions? If only a few people loved your message, would you still want to share it?

Five years from now, will you still be excited about sharing this idea? Are you willing to put in a ton of effort (in the case of TED or TEDx, for free?) in order to write a talk or book, then spread it?

What is your Relative Credibility?

Most people think of their own expertise, but miss the existing expertise of the audience. Your expertise in sharing a message at a TEDx event is very different than at an industry conference.

Consider not just your credibility, but rather, your relative credibility. How much do you know about your topic compared to your audience?

For example, if you’re a successful lawyer, speaking about how to be successful at a TEDx event will be a tough sell. In the audience are successful bankers, successful artists, successful students, and so on.

But, even if you’re just beginning as a lawyer, you may be able to share a neat concept about the legal field at a TEDx event. At a legal conference, your beginning legal knowledge isn’t likely sufficient. The “general” topic that didn’t fit for TEDx may, in fact, be a great fit here.

3) Evaluate and Develop your Topic

When you apply for a TEDx talk or TEDxWomen will you get accepted (or close to it), or will an event or audience think your topic is common knowledge?

Will people buy your book and recommend it for years to come, or will it get a few sympathy reviews from your high school friends and sell 10 total copies? After putting in tons of work on a book proposal, will a publisher be eager to publish it?

Will podcasts be eager to have you on to discuss this topic, or think it’s the same as guests they’ve already had?

At this point, you’ve guessed that an idea or topic will be valuable to your audience (which is what every writer and speaker does). The next question is, are you right? Your audience sees your message differently than you do. If there was a slight tweak you could make that would make it more valuable to your audience, have more relative credibility, or perhaps even enjoy sharing it even more, would you make it?

These are things you could guess on, but why would you? If you’re about to invest months or years in sharing this message, start off on the right foot.

It’s far easier to make small tweaks in the beginning (and faster to test different topics) than it is once your talk is on YouTube or your book is on shelves. Here are a few things I’ve learned through helping students and coaching clients.

Every step you take beyond this point will put you ahead of other speakers and authors.

Don’t ask if it’s good

Any time you ask for a value judgment (eg: “is this topic good?”), you’re putting someone in the position of either saying it’s good, or telling you it’s not. They’re being socially pressured into not insulting you. Most people you ask will try to be at the very least neutral towards your topic (think: “do these pants make me look fat?”).

Instead of asking people whether they think it’s good, see what they do. If they read your blog post, do they share it? Do they email you spontaneously 3 weeks later to say they’ve re-read your book 5 times and recommended it to everyone they know?

Use real-life tests, not theoretical value judgments.

Consider the “Curse of Knowledge”

Your family, friends, speaker coach, and colleagues know what you do, and therefore, have a very different way of thinking about your topic than someone that is looking at it with fresh eyes.

You may think your topic is common knowledge, but others may think it’s amazing. The inverse may be true as well. To evaluate as well as possible, find people that don’t suffer from the curse of knowledge.

The most accurate feedback is from people that don’t know your message (because a TEDx organizer, someone watching a video of yours, or someone choosing to buy your book doesn’t know it either).

How to Test your Topic (…accurately)

It’s easy to get misleading feedback — just ask people if they would buy something, then ask them to actually give you money for it on the spot. You’ll quickly learn about misleading feedback.

The same is true for your message — asking someone if it’s good, if they like it, or celebrating “likes”, are all positive, but they don’t tell you if your topic is as good as it can be.

The best topic tests are those that emulate what happens when you actually share it with the world. Here are some ways to test your topic in a low-risk way:

• Summarize it into a Facebook or LinkedIn post — Does it get strong engagement (eg: people you don’t know share it) or just encouragement (likes, “good job!”, “love this!”) from some school friends?
• Pitch it as a guest post for a blog (where you don’t know the editor) – do they accept it as an article?
• Post it as a blog post – do people you don’t know share it? Do people tell you they printed it off, read it weekly, and have recommended it to friends?

If you can get a strong positive response when your topic is in its infancy, it’ll do even better once you put more effort into it and give it a bigger platform through a book or TEDx talk.

If you can’t get this positive response, it’s time to tweak and test your message to find how to improve it.

Not sure whether your topic is as good as it can be? Want to make irresistible to TEDx events, podcasts, and your target audience?

Sign up below to get a free sample video from my course Your Irresistible Message – this sample strategy (normally only available to my coaching clients and course students) will help you 10x the effectiveness of your message for a TEDx talk or book.

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The post How to choose a topic for a TED Talk or book appeared first on Viral Message Lab.

Here’s one major insight from the study:

84% share because it is a way to support causes or issues they care about¹.

We also know that we have a tendency to seek out information that confirms our existing beliefs (confirmation bias)². So, people seek out things that support their view of the world.

This seems to make intuitive sense – who reads vegan blogs? Mostly vegans. Who reads fitness magazines? Mostly people that are already into fitness.

But…here’s the crazy repercussion — if people tend to read or watch content that they already agree with, how do you reach the people that you want to change?

Want to know why it’s so hard to figure out “what your audience wants”? The reason is this…

You have 2 audiences.

The success of your message (whether a TEDx talk, book, or anything else for that matter), depends on people that already agree with you to share it with the people you wish to change.

If you don’t appeal to both of these audiences, your message won’t change people who hear it (or won’t be shared with them in the first place).

You don’t just have to know your audience deeply…you have to know both of your audiences deeply.

No wonder sharing messages was so hard. Until this study was done, everyone thought they had one audience to get to know.

Audience #1: Your Advocates (People that Agree with You)

Audience #1 will find and share your message as a way to show the world and their friends how smart they are, to express their identity, and to help others that need to hear your message. They are 84% of the people who will share your message¹.

This first audience is commonly missed. Many speakers or writers say things like “I wish I could get people to realize that_______”, but they don’t realize that these people won’t seek our their message in the first place. Instead, they’ll only hear about it through Audience #1.

You can see this easily in any political discussion – who shares views supporting gun control? People that support gun control already.

Audience #1 are the gatekeepers, influencers, and publishers

These aren’t just people that will share your message on Facebook. They are the event organizers (like TED/TEDx Talks) that select you as a speaker, the advocate that hires you to work with their company, and the book agent/publisher that chooses to publish your book.

They’re the influencer who’s podcast you listen to, the blogger you read, and the trusted friend you get recommendations from.

The more of an influencer they are, chances are, the more well-read they are as well.

Audience #1 curates what they share

Book publishers have heard tons of ideas surrounding your subject, TEDx organizers have read lots of productivity and success books, and so on. If your message sounds like “common knowledge” to Audience #1, they’ll have no reason to share it. On the other hand, if it stands out as better than other resources that help with the same problem, it’ll be the go-to resource they share on a topic.

It’s not enough for content to be good or useful to someone. It has to first be shared by people who are familiar with these concepts already.

Of the books you’ve ever bought, how many have you recommended to friends or left a positive review for? Of the TED Talks you’ve ever watched, how many have you shared? Of all the blog posts you’ve read in the last month, how many have you shared?

How to get your Message Shared by Audience #1

To have Audience #1 share your message, learn more about the resources already out there and what they know already. Then, make something better or in a new category (eg: blue ocean strategy).

It’s hard to make something new or better if you don’t know what you’re making it better from.  To make something that stands out from the “common knowledge”, find out what the “common knowledge” is, according to Audience #1. The more perspectives you have on this, the better. As always, there’s a gap between getting great feedback from Audience #1 and what their behavior (“do you like this?” vs do they share it?)

But, not every message that is shared with people is able to change them. In other words, just because you appeal to Audience #1 doesn’t mean you can persuade Audience #2.

Audience #2: People you wish to Change

Your message isn’t common knowledge – there are people all around the world that don’t already accept it as fact yet need to hear it. Their lives would be changed forever if they only knew what you know and believed what you believe.

Unfortunately, they won’t seek it out on their own due to confirmation bias². They’ll only see it if it comes to them from a trusted source – a friend, influencer they trust, and so on.

Appealing to Audience #2 is how you create change (and avoid “preaching to the choir”).

Most Messages don’t change Audience #2

If you eat meat, how often have your friends shared information trying to convince you to go vegan? If you’re vegan, how many blog posts and documentaries did you watch that didn’t change your view when you were still eating meat?

To appeal to Audience #2, learn why they haven’t changed already. What are their objections? What do they struggle with? What messages have they heard already that haven’t worked? Which unconscious beliefs do they hold that prevent them from changing?

The obvious messages have been shared with them already. To create change in Audience #2, you have to go farther below the surface than other speakers/writers/thinkers have been willing to go.

You’re in Audience #1

Here’s the thing – you’re in Audience #1. Anyone who thinks your message is a good idea is in Audience #1. Anytime you hear the words “this is a really important message” means you’re speaking to someone that is in Audience #1.

This includes your speaker coach, your book agent, and most of your inner circle.

They may share your message if it’s the best of it’s kind, but you don’t change them by sharing your message with them. They’ve already been changed.

You and anyone that thinks you have a great message suffer from The Curse of Knowledge³. You (and they) can’t possibly know what it’s like to not know what you know.

Any feedback you get from them is valuable, but it’s coming from an Audience #1 perspective.

How to Persuade/Change Audience #2

Persuading Audience #2 to change means getting to know people that think you’re wrong. Learn why they think what they think, what messages they’ve heard before, and why these messages haven’t worked already.

“Common knowledge” for these people are messages they’ve heard before that haven’t worked. Learning what these ineffective messages are (and what their remaining objections are), is the only way to change Audience #2.

Once you Change Audience #2, they become Audience #1

Once changed, they become advocates. This is how your message spreads throughout the world. Feedback from them is more valuable (since their Audience #2 mindset is still fresh).

Just because you have an important message doesn’t mean that the people that need it will see it (eg: you have an important message but it sounds like “everything else”).

Just because your message is shared doesn’t mean it’s influencing the people that it’s being shared with (eg: you get a speaking opportunity but don’t create meaningful change in the audience).

You need to appeal to both audiences to create change (or do things like creating a viral TEDx talk)

To make change, you have to persuade people that need to hear your message. To reach these people in the first place, your message has to be shared by people that ALREADY agree. You don’t have 1 audience. You have 2.

Footnotes

1. The Psychology of Sharing (The New York Times)
2. Confirmation Bias is the tendency to stay in our “echo chamber”
3. We all suffer from The Curse of Knowledge. We know what we know so well that it’s impossible to remember fully what it was like without that knowledge. Imagine trying to explain walking to a baby. Hard, right? It’s the same with sharing any message.

The post You don’t have 1 audience, you have 2 appeared first on Viral Message Lab.

That’s just how things work.

Speaking of public speaking, here are some other “rules” the audience plays by:

• People will stay until the end (it’s very unlikely for someone to walk out after a few seconds or minutes because doing so makes them look weird in front of everyone else)
• There will always be clapping at the end
• If a few people stand up to give a standing ovation, it’s likely others will follow suit (to avoid being left out)

Of course, these rules only apply to in-person audiences. Anyone who’s ever watched an online video knows entirely different…

• Even if a video would have been massively valuable to you, you might not like the title enough to even watch it (after all, you don’t know how good it is until you watch it)
• Most times, you don’t watch the entire video. After all, if there’s another video that’s more worth your time, it’s easy to click away part way through
• Even if you like a video, you probably won’t share it with your friends (unless it’s especially great, or targeted to them).

Here’s how all this applies to your TED Talk — 2 talks may be almost identical in terms of the audience response (people will clap and so on), but drastically different when exposed to an online audience (hundreds vs millions of views, even for a credible platform like TED Talks).

Surprising, right?

To have success with an online audience and “go viral”, you have to consider a few factors:

• Your title has to compete not with someone’s normal day, but with other talks (ie: asking your friend if they like your title isn’t as valid as asking them if they like it best out of 10-15 others)
• You can’t “read” the audience and see if something needs explaining (you can’t see them since they’re behind a screen and may be watching your talk years later)
• Anything confusing/overexplained or not as fascinating could be the cause of someone

…all of which are depressing as hell. How in the world can you craft a perfect talk?

The good part is…it’s not up to you to be a genius and do everything perfectly. All you need to do is find Message-Market Fit.

What are other hidden “rules” for public speaking? What about rules for other interactions? (eg: “how are you? Great!”, or “how was the meal? It was great, thanks!”).

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Talks, ads, Facebook posts, blog posts, books at the store.

Chances are, you ignore almost all of it. If you didn’t, you’d spend your entire day reading things you probably don’t need to (or have time for).

The downside is, your audience does this too. They’re bombarded with people that want to tell them things and to save themselves from going crazy, they ignore most of it. Everything they come across gets automatically and subconsciously considered to see if they should pay attention. To do this, they pass it through several filters.

Understanding what these filters are is one step in crafting a message that people love and share.

If you’re looking to get an audience to listen to your message, here are the 4 (pain-in-the-ass) filters your message has to pass through:

• Filter 1: “Do I know what this is?”
• Filter 2: “Do I already know this?”
• Filter 3: “Do I want to know this?”
• Filter 4: “Do I want to hear *this* speaker’s perspective on this?” (eg: or is it likely someone else that I can find quickly has a perspective I’ll like more?)

Filter 1: “Do I know what this is?”

If you see a blog post in another language, chances are you won’t read it. Seems obvious enough.

But, the same is true for something confusing or unclear (eg: using complicated lingo, an ambiguous message, or a message that’s confusing or rambling). When we were selecting TEDx speakers, a few of them had messages that were confusing.

Here’s one example — “I want to talk about thinking in business”, or “I have a number of ideas that connect a person’s hear to their mind”. What is this person trying to say? We weren’t sure either, so we filtered them out.

Before anything else, your audience tries to figure out what it is you’re talking about. If your audience fully understands what you have to offer, you’ll stand head and shoulders above the crowd.

Filter 2: “Do I already know this?”

“You should eat more vegetables” is a great idea, but you’ve heard this enough times that you don’t need this information again.

If there was a talk about eating more vegetables, chances are very high you’d never get curious enough to click on it….not because it isn’t a GOOD idea, but because you already know it. There’s no reason to investigate further.

The same goes for many motivational talks…they’re entertaining, but often we’ve heard these messages so many times before that we don’t value them as highly as they should be valued. For example, you already know that:

• if you set your mind to something, you can do it
• big goals can motivate you
• time is precious
• travel can expand your mind

…and so on (there’s a reason why most motivational speakers get turned down for TEDx)

Filter 3: “Do I want to know this?”

Once you pass the “do I know what this is” filter and the “do I know this already” filter, you’re left with “New Ideas”. Things that people don’t already know. The next test is…do they want to know?

Not all “New Ideas” are things people want to know. You probably don’t know anything about making soup from your worn out shoes, but I don’t suspect you want to either. It’s a “new idea”, but you probably don’t care.

I suspect you also don’t know what I had for breakfast yesterday, but again, you probably don’t care, or at least, you don’t care right now.

Your audience’s desire to know something depends on context too — they may not want to know about making ice cream in winter, but a LOT more motivated in summer. They may be especially motivated to learn about the law profession right after learning they’re getting a divorce, but not so much at other times.

Filter 4: “Do they want to hear *this* speaker’s perspective on this idea?”

I’d love to know the best way to meditate, but I’m much more interested to hear that from the Dalai Lama than from my friend who started meditating last month (even if the advice is the same).

You may see a post on your Facebook news feed about setting goals, but you’d probably like to know how to set goals if Richard Branson was teaching you rather than your unemployed friend from high school.

Trust and credibility have a critical effect on whether someone is willing to accept your message. Experience, showing you understand their struggles or getting a referral from a friend all play into this.

When crafting an idea to land on a TEDx stage and spread worldwide, it’s not enough just to *have* a message. Your message (unfortunately) has to pass through all of these filters in the mind of the audience. It’s hard.

The good news is, by understanding what these filters are, you can ensure your message passes through them as well as possible.

Here’s an action step for today:

Take a look at your Facebook news feed — it’s full of posts that people share with you in an effort to get you to click, comment, and share along to your network.

As you scroll, notice the filters at play. Is it confusing? Something you think you already know? Something you don’t want to know? Are you just not interested in learning from this person?

Leave a comment with some of the things you “filtered” out today. I’d love to see what you found.

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The features, whether they liked it, what they’d be willing to pay.

People said they’d happily pay $90, $100, or even $200.

Of course, the electronics company was thrilled! People loved the stereo!

Then, the focus group leader had an idea — he said “we’d love to thank you for participating in the focus group! We’ll be selling this stereo for $80, but we’d love to give you one. You can choose either the stereo or $20 cash”.

You guessed it — everyone took the cash. They’d been providing positive feedback the entire time to fit in with the group, not appear harsh or negative, and be liked by the focus group leader. After all, the company had spent millions of dollars developing the stereo! They didn’t want to be discouraging.

The Feedback Gap

You see, there’s a gap between what people say and what people do.

When a waitress asks what we thought of a meal, we say we loved it (and perhaps we even did!), but most times, we don’t go back to the restaurant or tell our friends about it.

We say we had a great time at the end of a date, but do we agree to a second date? Sometimes….but not always.

You see, asking someone if they liked something (or asking for feedback) is a blunt instrument — it doesn’t tell us anything informative. We’d rather be encouraging and agreeable. Everyone is susceptible to this.

The Feedback Gap is created because we’re socialized to be agreeable and positive. There’s a narrow range of things we love enough to share, buy, or pay attention to, but a wide range of things we’ll say we like if asked.

Ultimately, audiences lie to us. Bummer, right?

Here’s why this matters — there’s a wide variety of talks, books, blog posts and ideas within you. People will say many of them are good ideas (if asked), but what that doesn’t tell us is what the BEST ones are. If everything is “good” we don’t have an accurate way of judging what “great” is from our audience’s perspective.

Here’s a challenge for today — the next time you’d like feedback on something, provide multiple versions (eg: rather than “what do you think about this article title”, try for “here are 3 titles I’m considering…which do you think is the best?”). In providing multiple options, you provide the opportunity for someone to give you feedback in a non-biased way, and you can start to close the Feedback Gap.

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While 1 talk has had a total of 1,601 views in the last 7 or so years, the other has had 1,000 TIMES THAT AMOUNT (and ended up getting picked up by TED, where the same video got another 31 million views).

What the hell? Don’t all TED Talks go viral?

How did a talk get 32 million views and the other only get 1,600 from the SAME EVENT? And how can you ensure you don’t end up with a TED Talk that flops?

If you believe Brené Brown’s success was all luck, you should stop reading now. This article isn’t for you.

Instead, let’s look at the intentional things you can do to increase the chances your TED Talk will go viral and get you long-term results (paid speaking, book deals, consulting customers and more).

Here are the 3 main  things we’ll explore in this article:

• Craft your talk for the internet
• Choose an event that will showcase your talk well
• Be intentional about spreading your talk.

Seem obvious? It isn’t. Most people think some combination of the following:

• That, if a talk gets a standing ovation with a live audience, it’ll also do well as a TED Talk (a live audience plays by different rules than an online one, as we’ll see)
• That all TEDx events are created equal in terms of video and audio quality (they’re not, as you’ll see)
• That once you do a TED Talk, you just wait and opportunities magically come to you (not the case, as we saw with Brené Brown’s 1000x results)

Let’s take a look at the details of what you can do.

1. Craft a talk for the internet

Most people know how to create a talk for a live audience. This is their main speaking experience.

After all, most talks get watched by the live audience of 100 or so people and that’s about it. They don’t get watched by thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions.

Here are the rules that a live audience plays by:

• If they’re confused or not engaged, you can observe and adjust your approach on the fly
• You can ask them questions to gauge whether to elaborate or clarify
• They’ll applaud at the end
• If a few people at the front (or around them) give a standing ovation, the others will follow suit (hint: if you want a standing ovation for almost anything, scatter a few friends near the front of the room and have them start it off)
• It’s unlikely anyone will walk out during your talk. If they’re confused or disagree at some points, they’ll stick around and may eventually get the clarification they didn’t have before (eg: if you talk long enough, you don’t need to be precise)
• Your talk could be a secondary reason they’re in attendance. They could have been told by a boss that they have to attend, they could be there to network with other attendees (eg: a networking luncheon or conference) etc.

But, a TED Talks audience plays by different rules because of one simple factor – the internet. Most of the people that will ever watch your TED Talk are online. The audience is no longer directly in front of you. They’re not worried about offending you (by posting a negative comment or leaving part way through).

Crafting a great topic and angle is much different for the internet.

Your talk can spread MUCH farther and faster on the internet if you’re aware of the rules the audience is playing by, namely:

• Understanding the idea you’re spreading is the only thing they’re getting value from (eg: nobody gets a free lunch or networking opportunities from watching a YouTube video)
• They’re all over the world. Is your talk interesting to someone in a different country or culture?
• They have options – at any given time, they’re shown a dozen or so TED Talks on YouTube to potentially watch. Will they like your title enough to start watching? Will they like it enough to keep watching, or will they be enticed away by another?
• If they’re confused, disagree with what you’re saying, or aren’t interested initially, they may not continue to watch (especially if it’s longer than a few minutes). They’re not socially pressured to stay until the end (a 50% watch time is “good” for YouTube)
• Even if they like it, they may not like it enough to share it. Sharing requires “spending” some social capital, which they may not be willing to do. How many TED Talks have you intentionally shared?
• You can’t ask them questions or observe their reactions to gauge whether they “get it” or you should add more detail. You have to know their objections, their favorite parts, and how to best communicate with them before you step on stage.
• If your talk DOES deeply connect, they’ll share your talk for years to come. It can get well over a million views or more (people still recommend Brené Brown’s talk to me, even 7 years later)

It’s not a question of whether your talk is good, but whether it will be watched in the first place, watched until the end, and shared, despite the over-crowded and distracting internet.

Here are a few tests you can apply to see how close you are to a talk that spreads itself:

• If you record a 1-2 min video (or wrote out a 100-200 word Facebook post) talking about your topic, how many people that you don’t know share it? (not just “like” it, but spread it, just like you hope your TED Talk will be spread)
• Come up with a title for your talk and show it to 10 strangers, alongside 10 other TED Talk titles. How much of the time do they choose yours?
• Record your entire talk (if it’s ready) and publish it to YouTube. Using YouTube’s analytics, how many people watch it, and how many of those that watch get to the end?

2. Choose an event that will showcase your talk well

If you want people to think of you as a professional speaker with high-quality ideas, it helps to look the part. Take a look at these 2 TEDx videos. Note that they’re from the same speaker.

Surprisingly, this is the smallest factor in the equation. Did you notice the number of views of each of the videos and the date they were published?

This screenshot was captured on November 4th, 2017. So, in the last 580 days since the first (good quality) video was filmed, it’s gained an average of 7.6 views per day.

But, the poorer quality video has, over the past 136 days, gained over 33 views per day, and is actually doing BETTER overall. Surprising, right?

Here’s the trick – even though the quality of the videography isn’t as critical as other factors, wouldn’t you rather speak at a great quality event than a poor one? Views aren’t the only “result” that’s important. What about showcasing yourself as a prestigious speaker (which could lead to other opportunities)?

In general, you’re better off speaking at a good quality event, but this isn’t as critical as a great talk (#1) and how you spread the talk afterward (#3).

Don’t rely on a high-quality video to do the work for you, but it certainly helps if your talk and marketing are already on-point.

To find great quality events, check out their past videos for clues as to the quality of future events (do a YouTube search for the event name), or if it’s the first year an event has occurred, look for clues – are they putting a lot of  effort into the production quality of the event (website, graphic design etc.)?

3. Be intentional about spreading your talk

“Build it and they will come” isn’t a thing. As anyone who’s ever built something knows, you have to tell people about it (and keep telling people about it). The same is true for your TED Talk.

You could leave it alone and hope it spreads 100% organically, or you could make sure that people that could benefit from your talk get a chance to hear about it. You did all the work to create the talk and get selected, you may as well tell people about it.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Who can benefit from my talk? (not “anyone” but what types of people? CEOs of B2C companies with more than 25 employees? Mothers with teenage daughters? Adult gymnasts? People with desk jobs?)
• Where can I find these people? (what sites do they read? What groups are they part of? Which influencers do they follow?)
• What benefit will they get from watching my talk? (eg: they’ll learn a power pose they can use to get a confidence boost before stressful situations)
• How can I make it as easy as possible for them to watch and share my talk? (eg: can I write up a blog post and offer it as a guest post on a blog that these people read?)

The next thing, of course, is to execute on this strategy. Develop a talk that deeply resonates with the audience enough that it spreads itself. Get selected for an event with high-quality video production, then intentionally spread your talk to the right audiences that can generate the opportunities for you that you want.

A TED Talk, in and of itself, is not a magic bullet to instant fame and fortune. To get 10x or even 1000x the results most people get, you have to do things most people aren’t willing to do.

Some people just want to do a TED Talk (eg: a TED Talk is the end goal), but others want a talk that spreads, that impacts the world and attracts opportunity for years (eg: a TED Talk is just the beginning).

If you’d like my 1-1 help with this long-term strategy (or you’ve already done a TEDx talk and it’s not getting the results you want), get in touch to schedule a consultation.

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The post Create a Viral TED Talk: The 3-stage Formula appeared first on Viral Message Lab.

If you’re wondering if your topic is good enough for a TED Talk, this article is for you.

Here’s my take.

There are 2 ways to think about this. Let’s start with the non-obvious way.

There may be something deeper

When I get questions like this, there’s sometimes a fear or barrier behind the question, and it’s this — the speaker is looking for a blessing to go ahead and apply for a TED Talk with this topic. Ultimately, they’re unsure about their idea. They want me to say “yes! go ahead!” and provide assurance for them.

After all, rejection sucks. It’s easier to continually ask for permission than risk rejection.

So consider this – before you ask for feedback, what would you do if everything was ok? Would you go ahead and apply for a TEDx event? Be honest with yourself.

If the answer is no, that’s totally understandable. After all, applying for TEDx is a HUGE step. It’s scary. It requires a ton of courage. So, acknowledge this. Acknowledge the big step you want to take. It’s not always about your topic.

So…is your topic good enough for TEDx?

Let’s assume you’ve acknowledged the courage it takes to apply for TEDx. Amazing!

Now, let’s tackle the question at hand — how do you know your topic is good enough? Once you’re confident in your topic, it’s a lot easier to bring yourself to apply for TEDx.

Let’s think about this in terms of a business idea. If someone asked you, “hey, is a coffee shop a good idea for a business?”, you’d have a hard time answering. There’s just too much that’s unknown:

• Where do they want to open the coffee shop in? Is there already too much competition?
• How is their coffee shop different than the competition?
• Have they ever operated a coffee shop?
• Do they know how to make coffee?
• Do they want to run a coffee shop?
• Are there local suppliers they can get coffee & other supplies from?

You get the idea. All of these factors affect whether a coffee shop is “a good idea” for them, at this particular time.

Often, people put too much value on the initial idea (eg: a TED Talk topic, or an idea for a business), and not enough emphasis on the rest of the process of developing it. There’s more to a business’ success than the initial idea, just as there’s more to whether a TED Talk will be loved by event organizers and the audience than a brief topic.

Instead, you need to know more about it. Once you do, you’ll feel more confident.

So what do you do?

For a TED Talk idea, I recommend you know more about what the audience thinks. People that are experienced with their subject matter understand these things intuitively, but you don’t need to have spent a long time with your topic to understand these subtleties:

• What value can the audience take from your talk?
• Why do you want to speak about this?
• Why would the audience find you credible?
• Do you understand how the audience thinks about this idea already (eg: do they already know and accept this? Are you providing a new angle?)
• Do you understand why people may disagree with you? Are there situations where they’re right? Are there any objections you need to understand?
• Does your audience understand the full scope of your idea? (eg: are you using words and phrases they use or lingo you’re used to?)
• Do you know what your audience finds fascinating about your topic (that could become the focus of your message)? Do you know what they find *least* fascinating (that could be removed)?

If you can clearly articulate all of these things (without guessing or missing anything), you’re ready. If you’re not sure, you can always apply to a TEDx event anyway. There’s nothing stopping you, but the results may not be as good (you’re more likely to be rejected, and if accepted, your talk won’t resonate with the audience as strongly).

My course, Unlock Your TED Talk, is designed specifically to help you through the above process.

asd

The post Is your topic good enough for a TED Talk? appeared first on Viral Message Lab.

If you’re a woman that wants to do a TEDx Talk, this is a HUGE DEAL. If you know a woman that wants to do a TEDx Talk (or should do one), they need to see this article.

(Note: if you’re not a woman, it’ll be tough to get selected to speak at these events. Here’s a more general look at the TEDx speaker application process for any event.)

Here’s the thing: rather than competing with men for speaking spots, you don’t have to. At all. Your odds of getting selected are effectively 2x, and the audience is targeted specifically at your message.

And as you can see from the map above, there are TEDxWomen events all around the world that generally happen every year. In the rest of this post, I’ll show you how to find these TEDxWomen events (that always coincide with TEDWomen), when they are, and how to apply to speak at the TEDxWomen event near you.

What do you do? Let me show you.

Step 1: Figure out when the TEDWomen Conference is

TED keeps an updated schedule on their website on the TEDWomen page. Go there and see when the next event is, then locate the theme.

Notice how the theme for 2018 (bottom left) is “Showing up”. When you apply to speak at the corresponding TEDxWomen event, your pitch will need to match the theme somehow (not literally, more conceptually). More on that later.

I recommend you set a Google Calendar reminder for closer to the event date (I recommend 6 months out and every month afterward, as you’ll see later) so you don’t forget.

Step 2: Choose a topic (that matches the theme)

Now that you know the theme for the next TEDWomen conference, what is your topic? You may already have a topic in mind (in which case, excellent! You can skip this step), but if not, you’ll need to choose a topic for TEDxWomen.

Action Step: If you don’t already know what you would do a TEDx Talk about yet, join the Find a Winning TED Talk video series. It’s a free 3-day video training system to help you identify topics you could share and prioritize them. In this training, you’ll learn:

• The Gap Strategy — uncover a list of winning TEDx Talks Topics hidden within you…even if you don’t have any ideas yet
• Extract the TEDx Talks Topics from your personal stories and existing topic ideas, and make sure they meet the TED Talks criteria and best practices
• The TEDx Talks Prioritization Framework – hone in on a specific topic you know is the best choice for you, even if you’ve got lots of ideas
• Your TEDx Topic Tracker – A downloadable tool that shows you the math behind topic selection so you’re sure you made the right choice

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 Step 3:  Find local TEDxWomen events

These won’t start showing up until about 6-8 months before the TEDWomen conference date (hence the Google Calendar reminder you added in step 1).

Every month, when you get your Google Calendar reminder, start checking the TEDx event directory and search for TEDxWomen events (or, just click on this link to get a list of upcoming TEDx events. I’ve filtered them to show TEDxWomen).

You’ll then see a map with a bunch of little dots, just like this (if you don’t see any events yet, keep checking back every month). Check in the following locations:

• places where you grew up (or went to university)
• places you travel frequently

NOTE: As of this writing, the 2018 TEDxWomen events have not been announced, but the dates will still correspond with the TEDWomen conference. I’ll use 2017 as an example from here onwards so you’re prepared well in advance.

Let’s use TEDxOrlandoWomen as an example of a TEDxWomen speaker application. You can click on the event name to pull up a special profile page for this event. For this TEDx event, it looks like this:

This event is a little strange – most TEDxWomen events are organized by women. In this case, chances are Alexander has a team full of mostly women (I know for the event I started, the team was about 80% women and it wasn’t even a TEDxWomen event).

Step 4:  Determine how to apply to the TEDxWomen event

Now that you’ve found the event, how in the world do you apply to speak?

You’ve got a couple options:

• cold email the organizer
• send them a Facebook message or LinkedIn message
• find contact details on the website and send the team an email
• find an application form on the website

Let’s look at each of these options (I’ll show you what to include in your application/pitch later in the post since this part doesn’t depend on the exact pitching method).

Note: Not every TEDxWomen event has live speakers. Some of them will simply show a live stream of some of the TEDWomen videos.

Cold email the event’s organizer

At the bottom of the TED.com profile page for this event, we can see that someone named Alexander Rudloff is the main organizer of this event (but there will be a whole team). You can then click on his name to bring up more info:

Check it out! You can see his personal website and Twitter (which should have contact details), as well as a bio (which can tell you some things about how to nail your pitch).

If there isn’t a website or bio listed here, you can always do a Google search for their name (and location), or search specifically on LinkedIn. If a TEDx decision maker lists all the details like this, it’s fair game to email them (more on that later).

Contact them through social media or their website

You’ll notice that this event’s TED.com profile didn’t have a website listed. Some events have this on the TED.com profile page, and some don’t.

If it’s not listed on the TED.com profile, I recommend that you do a Google search for the event name (eg: “TEDxOrlandoWomen”) and the event name without the “Women” suffix (eg: “TEDxOrlando”).

(Note: This is a weird insider trick – the “TEDxOrlando” event and “TEDxOrlandoWomen” event are almost always the same event team. This means they’ll share a Facebook page, website, Twitter profile, and so on.)

From your Google search, try to find a Facebook page (or Twitter profile) and website.

If you do this as a Google search for this event, we can see the Facebook page for TEDxOrlando with a TEDxWomen event listed:

Step 5: Apply to speak at the TEDxWomen event!

Now that you’ve found options for where to apply…what do you include in your application?

I recommend the following, regardless of whether there’s an application form or you apply via email:

Insider Tip: A TEDxWomen Speaker Application Checklist

Here’s what I recommend you include in any TEDxWomen application (whether you’re submitting a form, or sending an application via email):

• Detailed contact information
  • First and last name
  • Email
  • Phone number
• More about you
  • Website (if you have one and it presents you in a positive light…don’t link a site that’s out of date)
  • Social links (LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter etc – anything that’s up to date and related to your topic)
• Summarize your idea and its connection to the event theme
  • Why you want to speak at this event this year with this theme
  • What is your idea worth spreading? Why does it matter? How does it relate to the theme? (200-300 words)
  • If you know how long your talk will be, put that too (a shorter talk is better…less than 10min is ideal!)
• Summarize your credibility (no, you don’t have to be famous)
  • Why should they choose you for this particular event to speak about this idea? (education, research, professional background, what’s the story of how you came to this idea)
• Demonstrate (don’t describe, unless explicitly asked) your speaking ability
  • Record a short (2-3 minute video) outlining your idea so that they can see your communication style and personality
  • I don’t recommend you describe your speaking experience (eg: “I am an experienced speaker and have won many awards….”). If you’re a great speaker, demonstrate it on video. Exception – if you have a comedy background or theatre background. Mention this casually, it’ll let events know you’ve got an unconventional style.
• Avoid the following
  • As much as it’s tempting to do so, don’t describe yourself as “motivational” or “inspirational”. You can be inspirational, but this should be obvious (show, don’t tell).
  • Don’t sell you. Sell your idea (remember, “ideas worth spreading”). Your idea should be the focus of your pitch.
  • Don’t be vague about your idea (e.g.: not “I would like to speak about relationships”, but “My talk is about what we can learn from the sex lives of penguins, the points I’ll make are X, Y, Z”)
  • Don’t spell the event name incorrectly (i.e.: “TEDxLondon” not “TedxLondon” or “tedxlondon”. Capital “TED”, little “x”, place name capitalized. Same goes with wanting to do a “ted talk” vs “TED Talk”).

Insider Tip: How NOT to choose a title for your talk

Here are my recommendations for a “topic” or “title” field:

• Use plain English, not made-up words or catchy phrases that obfuscate what you mean (e.g.: not “How to find your inner sniper” but “How to focus on one thing at a time”)
• Summarize your thesis/talk in a sentence, rather than using an overall subject (e.g.: not “Thinking in business”, which doesn’t tell us what you are going to say, but “Why your thinking matters more to your bottom line than you’d realize”)

To drive home this point, check out the titles on the most popular TED Talks of all time. Notice the simplicity of the language (“Do schools kill creativity?”, “How great leaders inspire action”, “The power of vulnerability”). Many speakers try to come up with a clever title. Instead, just be clear.  At this stage, the description of the idea is more important than the “topic” description.

Insider Tip: A TEDx application makeover in 30 seconds

Here’s an example of a real TEDx application we got:

“Thinking in business.
In particular my interest is thinking in sales in business.
Businesses spend fortunes training their people to behave differently but behaviour rarely changes. My obsession is to show people that it’s only thought that stops you doing the things you need to do. Thought creates your experience of life and we treat it as though it always knows best, yet its nothing more than some random firings in the brain that we then decide or don’t decide to act upon.
I want to introduce the world to the idea that they don’t have to feel the way they do about the things they know they should do but don’t!”

When our team received this pitch, we were concerned. Not because the speaker lacked qualifications, but because we didn’t understand her one idea. We were concerned because this talk could be about one thing or another, and this ambiguity suggests a lack of clarity in the speaker’s mind about what she wants to say.

Instead, what if her topic read something like this:

“My business clients spend years thinking about raising their prices, they stall, then they feel bad about it. Likewise, people in everyday life feel bad about having high self-esteem. They don’t set boundaries. This talk is about how real people can use the same techniques I teach to business about pricing and apply them to improving their own self-esteem and setting boundaries. More broadly, it will introduce the idea that business principles apply to any situation in life, and how to apply them.”

Is this what she meant originally when she described “thinking in sales in business”? We can’t be sure, but at least it’s clear this time what the proposed topic is.

Step 6: After the application…

Now, you wait

I recommend you follow the event on social media and join their email list in the meantime. Share their posts (the event organizers sure notice, and they appreciate it).

If you get selected, AMAZING!

If not, there are 4,500 TEDx events available for you to speak at all around the world (they aren’t TEDxWomen events, but there are many more of them!). I talk more about how to apply to these events (and a TON more background information on TEDx vs TED) in this post on how to get a TED Talk this year.

Do you have a topic that would be great for a TEDxWomen event? Let me know about it in the comments (and remember to share this with a woman that you think should do a talk at a TEDxWomen event this year!)

-Ryan

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The post Speak at TEDxWomen: The Complete Guide (2018 update) appeared first on Viral Message Lab.

Let’s dispel them, shall we?

You don’t have to be discovered or “invited” to speak. You can apply.

About 10-15% of TED Talks speakers get there because the event discovered them, and it’s not a bad thing to work on your brand, build your network, and try to be discovered. But, you can usually apply to a TED Talks event with an application form or through email.

The long, hard way is to try and get lucky and get discovered. The fast, easier way is to apply.

Many have open speaker applications on their websites, and I can show you how to find TEDx speaking opportunities before they lock down their speaker list!

You don’t need to write your talk before you apply (but you do need a great pitch)

When you decide to buy a book, you don’t read the whole book first – you look at the title and description. When you decide whether to click on an article, you don’t read the article first – you decide based on the title, picture, and sometimes a summary.

Many speakers work hard on getting feedback on their entire talk and making sure it’s amazing. TEDx events sometimes get over 200 submissions, so aren’t able to review everyone’s entire talk (and most speakers don’t have their talk written first). Instead, TEDx events will often make a decision whether to move on with a speaker based on their synopsis of their idea (and perhaps an in-person audition to assess speaking ability).

If you’re not a perfect speaker, that’s ok. Here’s what to do instead.

Although you need to be a good communicator for people to understand your idea, good speaking only helps if you have an idea TEDx organizers are interested in.

“What we DON’T require is that someone is already a great public speaker. If you have something worth saying, we’re pretty sure we can help you find a powerful way of saying it!” – Chris Anderson, head of TED

People don’t read books because the author is great at typing and using grammar correctly – they want the message that the author communicates. Many TEDx speakers are inexperienced speakers, but they have great ideas (after all, the tagline for TED is “Ideas Worth Spreading” not “people that are great speakers”).

Google is lying to you about TEDx speaking opportunities (and your friends tell you too late)

Most of the public hears about a TEDx event when the event’s marketing team is trying hard to sell tickets to the public, and this almost always happens within a month or two of the event. By then, speakers have already been selected. After all, a great speaker lineup helps sell tickets.

Unfortunately, this is exactly the opposite of what you want if you want to speak. You want to learn about the event BEFORE speakers are selected so that you can speak yourself.

What people don’t know is that TED maintains a directory of TEDx events happening in the next year, and there are several techniques I teach to find TEDx speaking opportunities. That way, you can learn about events, find out the theme and how to apply, and have plenty of time to send in an incredible pitch that’ll get you selected.

There is no master application process (sorry)

TEDx events all have different organizers that are all volunteers, and none of them are employees of TED. This means applying to one doesn’t harm (or help) your chances at any other event!

At the same time, it also means applying to one event doesn’t get you automatically considered for others (since the teams are independent).

Which of these lies was most surprising to you?

Let me know in the comments below

-Ryan

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The post 5 lies keeping you from a TED Talk appeared first on Viral Message Lab.

The Preacher…they’re the one you see. The Preacher stands on stage and speaks, posts their latest blog post on Facebook, shares a Tweet, and updates their website.

They express ideas from the heart, ask a speaker coach and their audience for feedback to improve their delivery, attend Toastmasters meetings, update their blog, and do as much speaking as they can. Ideas come out of a Preacher.

The Detective is hidden. In any great work, you never see the detective, and often never realize The Detective is even there. But, their work is critical.

The detective doesn’t work from a stage or behind a desk, but from the line waiting for Starbucks. In order to discover the message the audience needs to hear most, they know the audience has to be involved. They know they’ve got theories, but they also know that their theories could be improved. Information comes into the Detective to better refine their ideas.

Without the Preacher, the Detective is a smart researcher that nobody hears.

Without the Detective, the Preacher shares ideas that are heartfelt to the preacher, but may not be heartfelt to the audience.

But together, that’s where the magic happens. Alone, the Preacher says “I have an important message I want to share”. The detective says “people can’t stop asking me about this idea I have…I should share it”. Together, they’re able to spread a message people can’t stop talking about.

In your quest to become a better speaker through Preacher activities (like speaker training, reading books and attending Toastmasters), don’t forget the Detective work.

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