Like many people, I wanted to do a Tedx talk. It’s a great brand to be associated with, it helps to boost your visibility and credibility which are all great to help you boost your business.

The challenge is that the competition is very fierce. For each TedX event there are usually 12 speakers required and on average there are ofter over 300 applicants.  In order to improve my chances of landing one of those coveted spots I spoke to a couple of TedX organisers to understand how the process worked. To my surprise, they said that around 90% of the applicants rule themselves out by making one of these five mistakes.

Bad Timing

Whilst there are 12 speaker spots if your application arrives once they have all been filled, then no matter how good your pitch, no matter how good your speaking experience your chances of being selected are nil.  In fact, one organizer told me they don’t even look at applications once they have their 12 speakers.

Standard Pitch

The pitch they received was clearly one of a batch that appeared like it had been sent to several events at the same time. The inference being that the applicant wanted to speak at any TedX event, rather than this specific event.

Talk Not Relevant To TedX Theme

Each talk usually has a theme, and you would be amazed how many people ignore that, and try to explain why there talk would be great even though it didn’t fit the theme.

Talk Doesn’t Resonate With The Organizer

When I was in high school we learned pretty quickly that if you wanted to get a good score in a history essay test, the more you agreed or reflected how the teacher thought the better the score you received. This wasn’t about getting the facts right it was the interpretation of the facts. The more you agreed with him the better the score, the more you disagreed the poorer the score. 

We all have our preferences, and if your talk, even though it fits with the theme doesn’t resonate with the organizers view your chance of being selected has just reduced.

Standard Talk

I appreciate that your talk might be the best talk ever, but TedX organizers are not looking to regurgitate your previously given talk. Yes, the audience might not have heard your talk before, but how does it reflect on their brand if when you search youtube you find several vidoes of you doing that talk elsewhere. 

If you’re looking to land your first TedX talk, then check out my webinar that we will be running to teach you the techniques that I used to land my Tedx Talk in just 42 hours. Click here to find out more now.