A Few Lessons from Speaking at TEDx Johnson City

Last week (June 3), I had the great fortune to speak at TEDx Johnson City. It was a great event across the board and I couldn’t recommend it enough if you’re at all inclined to speak (or attend). But as valuable as that experience was for me, the real learning has come through reflection. In that spirit, I wanted to share a few insights that I’m taking with me from the TEDx stage.

BUT, before I do, here’s two caveats. First, I’m a professional speaker, so though there are some interesting nuances that sets a TED talk apart from other speaking I do, formal public speaking is something that I’ve regularly done for the last 10 years. Undoubtedly my reflections will be shaped by that. Second, I believe that leadership and communication are inextricably tied together. You may or may not regularly give lectures or talks or preach sermons, but if you’re a leader, you’re engaging in regular communication. I hope some of these insights will be helpful no matter what that looks like for you.

That’s enough preamble I think…onto the insights.

1.     Prayer is a great strategy. Don’t underestimate it: In November 2024, I didn’t know TEDx Johnson City existed. In my defense, the event only started in 2023…so I wasn’t totally living under a rock. I was about 5 months into this new journey of coaching. I’d had a few leads I was particularly excited about fall through. And honestly? I was feeling pretty discouraged. One of my persistent prayers was that God would open the right doors at the right time and that I’d have the courage and faith to trust him in that. So one day, feeling a bit glum and procrastinating on bigger projects, I happened to come across a post online advertising applications for TEDx Johnson City. Sensing a gentle nudge, I clicked on the application. I’d been thinking a lot that week about my Dad. Feeling sentimental (and inspired) I fired off the application and subsequently forgot about it thinking, “Surely this is a longshot.”

Archbishop William Temple has that great line, “When I pray, coincidences happen.” Looking back, it’s easy to see how God opened the door and gave me a message that would be encouraging and helpful for at least a few people. But the main reminder for me is that the best thing to do when you don’t know what to do is to pray…and keep on praying.

2.     Not the performance of the hour, but the overflow of a life: I brought this devotional book backstage called A Treasury of Prayer written by EM Bounds. If you don’t know him, EM Bounds was a Methodist Pastor and Army Chaplain who lived and wrote in the mid to late 1800’s. You’d be forgiven for not knowing a lot about him.  He had this great line in his short essay, “Power through Prayer”: “Preaching is not the performance of an hour, it is the outflow of a life.”

Whether it’s preaching or speaking or teaching or coaching, the temptation is to think that my performance in the moment is the most important thing going on. But the truth is that my performance on the stage is important, but not nearly as important as the life that I’ve lived up to that moment.  It’s the character and conviction that you bring to the stage that gives power to your words. Because of that, I really wasn’t very nervous stepping onstage. Reading and thinking about this reality gave me confidence that no matter what happened in the moment, everything would be ok. God had brought me to that moment and he’d bring me through it.

3.     Memorization v. Inspiration: One of the unique challenges of a TED talk is that it’s delivered without notes. The speaker can use slides (I didn’t for a variety of reasons), but those need to be well-rehearsed in order to flow well. Because of that, the talk felt more like a stage performance than any other kind of talk I’ve done. There is a level of verbal precision required that’s very unique. And there’s a lot of pressure. Not only is there a live audience, but there’s the knowledge that this talk will be broadcast to a global audience. I was having a hard time nailing down the fine points of my talk, so I shared my struggle with a mentor and friend, Phil. His response was a huge relief (and challenge…which it usually is), “What if you worry less about memorization and focus more on inspiration. Sure, do your best to really know your material, but trust the Spirit to inspire you with just the right words at the right time.”

Not only did that take the pressure off me to perfectly memorize a 15 minute talk, but it freed me up to be present and attentive to the Spirit all throughout the process. Inspiration beats memorization every time.

4.     But, precision is still important, so preparation matters: Having said that, it’s not like I’m advocating a lack of preparation. I put in a lot of work to really know and understand what I was trying to communicate. It helped that the larger narrative arc was a really personal story (can’t mess that up!). I spent hours just listening to recordings of myself reading my talk so that I could really get it settled in my mind. And it worked! I’m glad I prepared and rehearsed and practiced. Not only did it aid my delivery, but it really forced me to reckon with the content. When I’d get frustrated with my kids or worried about something, I’d be reminded of my talk and think about how I could respond differently. To quote EM Bounds again, “A prepared heart is better than a prepared sermon.” But if you can, I’d recommend both.

5.     The Right feedback is invaluable: Until this point, I’d never given a talk that had this much preparation and feedback. The standard rule of thumb when I was in seminary was 10-20 hours per week for sermon prep (which is a lot if I’m being honest). In contrast, I had about 6 months to prepare for my TED talk. Because of that, there was ample time for reviews and edits and feedback from fellow speakers, friends, and coaches. Some of that was well intentioned, but not helpful. Most of it, though, was really good stuff. In the same way that having an editor makes a writing project better, having feedback on the talk made it that much more polished. There were several small but significant changes, mostly in word choice and tone, that I think dramatically improved the finished product. Again, a TED talk is a bit unique in terms of the prep timeline, but the point for any communicator is that an extra few sets of trusted eyes and ears can really improve the quality of your talk.

6.     Heart to Heart: One of my goals with the talk was to connect at the heart level with the individuals in the room and (eventually) on the other side of the screen. We operate under a widespread cultural assumption that the key to producing change is education. As a result, the temptation for many leaders is to try to persuade with information. This can be really valuable. I tend to be a big fan of education. But human lives are not changed by stats and spreadsheets. John Wesley made this keen observation,

“But in general, it seems, the kingdom of God will not "come with observation;" but will silently increase, wherever it is set up, and spread from heart to heart, from house to house, from town to town, from one kingdom to another.”

Heart to heart. That’s the goal. The feedback from the audience reinforced that I’d done an ok job with this in the talk. While your specific goal may differ (and that’s ok!) just remember that if the goal is some kind of transformation, it must aim at the heart, not just the head.

That’s probably enough for today. I hope some of this was helpful and encouraging to you. I’d love to hear what you think – comments or questions!

Make a great day,

Steve