Owning Your Brand Authority

If you had to give a TED talk tomorrow, what would you speak about?

In other words - what’s your expertise in? Your message? Your brand?

I had to confront this question in a very real way when I was invited to deliver a TEDx talk at Wake Forest University at the end of January 2022.

Here’s how it happened: Maybe 5 years ago I gave the commencement address to my high school. I almost didn't do it but my teammates at the time encouraged me and I did it.

I was really proud of the final product and got great feedback. Fast forward to last month, I get an inquiry from the organizer at the Wake TEDx event inviting me to be one of 8 featured speakers - no application or proposal. (Hot tip, unlike TEDx events in cities, university organized TEDx events are by invitation so no proposal necessary so contact your alma mater or local university to see if you can pitch yourself).

Turns out her mother and sisters had seen my speech (they went to my high school) and had been talking about it for years so when this young woman became the student head of TEDx, she looked me up, saw the work I had been doing and reached out to me.

I had thought about doing a TED talk but you know, later... when I was ready or better or good enough or had the perfect message or something.

Am I ready? Am I good enough yet? Do I have the perfect message?

Thanks to the amount of clarity I have on my mission and purpose and the amount of messaging I’ve already done, I’m probably as ready as I will ever be. I just needed a kick to get there.

Opportunity is when preparation meets luck.

You don’t have to want to be a speaker to be an expert in your field or within your organization. You just have to know your brand, purpose and vision.

So it’s a thought experiment:

If you had to give a TED talk tomorrow, what do you think it’d be on or do you still struggle with your brand?

-

Need support controlling your career narrative? Want an upgrade? Let’s upgrade your Leadership OS to the latest greatest version. Curious how? Sign up for our newsletter and be first to hear more and get exclusive offers for upcoming trainings and group coaching programs. Sign up here: https://www.acelectric.co/how-to-make-an-ask-like-a-boss