Check out my TEDx talk by clicking here.
This is Episode 6 in my TEDx journey series. In case you missed them, here are the previous entries:
- Episode 1: My Secret to Becoming a TEDx Speaker: The Event Theme
- Episode 2: How I Became a TEDx Speaker: Getting The Acceptance Letter
- Episode 3: Why I Hated My First TEDx Talk Draft: What Was Missing
- Episode 4: Why My Second TEDx Draft Was Worse Than The First
- Episode 5: My TEDx Draft 3: Even Worse than Versions 1 and 2
20 days out from my TEDx talk…
Was I ready? Absolutely not!
But today was the final dry run.
I started having flashbacks from the first dry run – the one where I completely shut down and garbled my way through a forgettable mess.
This time though, I was ready.
- I doubled down on my nerve management routine.
- And I set up a meeting with the TEDx Logan Circle organizer Monica BEFORE the dry run to make sure I was best prepared.
What happened next … I never expected.
I showed Monica a completely new version of the talk:
The beginning was loud
I slammed the keys on a piano, showed a bad slide, and said both were “bad music”.
Because as a composer, I can’t stand data presented in an “unmusical” way.
I then shared my story – why music made me feel unique
Rather than being the 3rd quiet kid in class, 5th violin chair in orchestra, or 27th nerdy boy in science research seminar, I was the 1 person who wrote music in my grade.
Nerves though held me back
I could write music for others to play, but hated performing it myself. Because that would require me to be emotionally vulnerable.
With that limitation, I failed to realize my composer dream.
After moving to tech, however, I still remembered that lesson:
How fundamental emotion is in inspiring audiences to engage.
Working as an analyst, I began to be inundated with emotionless reports and slides, and tasked with making more of them.
I felt like a chef asked to make bad food.
Or an engineer asked to make bad tools.
I felt fundamentally compelled to change the game
In 2023 I started my own company where I could teach how to bring emotion – convincingly and ethically – into data communication and help founders, managers, and executives present data in a more musical way.
After finishing the story, I stopped, breathed … and looked with hopeful eyes at the TEDx organizer Monica to see if I had finally gotten it.
She said:
- “It was better … but … I still hadn’t shown how to communicate data in a more ‘musical way'”
She said:
- “What is the call to action?”
- “Do you just want people to make slides with better data visualizations?”
- “Charts where colors are used more effectively?”
- “No … right? Because your argument is more about the verbal communication and storytelling of data itself?”
Of course, she was absolutely right on all those counts.
The central thesis of my talk (the connection between music and data) was not clearly stated and not clearly shown.
She probably saw the distressed, nearly-giving-up look on my face at that point because what she said next changed everything:
Why don’t we look at it from a different angle
She had me talk off the top of my head about what I really, truly, deeply wanted to say – to really dig my heels in. And that’s where we finally clicked on what my “idea worth spreading” should be: the merging of 2 fundamental ways of seeing the world
- On the one hand, we have the data, “scientific and technological” way of seeing the world, which breaks it up into itty-bitty isolated siloes to study, experiment on, and better understand.
- On the other hand, we have the musical, “liberal arts and humanities” way of seeing the world, which connects those siloes into systems, illuminating a strategic bigger picture.
With my unique background in both music and data, I brought those two ways of seeing the world together in my advocacy for effective data communication.
When I presented that idea during the final dry run, it was a home run
It was dramatically more clear than any previous iteration.
And unlike last time when I left the room in sweaty, embarrassed dismay, I left this time with cool and confident relief.
Now I had the golden nugget I had been searching for. And with 20 days to go, I could finally put this TEDx talk together.
Coming up next in the series is Episode 7: “How to Write a TEDx Talk You’re Proud Of: The Final Draft”…
Before getting to the end of the series, you can also check out the TEDx talk below!
