How to Land + Deliver a TEDx Talk in 2024 That Reaches Millions of People with Taylor Conroy

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Content is Profit. Today, we'll be breaking down how to land and deliver a TEDx Talk in 2024 that reaches millions of people. To drop these value bombs, I brought to Taylor Conroy and to EO Fire Studios. Taylor is the number one speaker booker on the planet for TEDx Talks. He has booked over 600 people on the world's biggest stage. Today, Foundation will talk about crushing your TEDx talk and getting millions of views.

0:38We'll talk about the impact it can have on someone's career. We'll talk how to impact people beyond them simply watching and being inspired and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Taylor and our sponsors. Marketing Made Simple, hosted by my friend, Dr. JJ Peterson, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Marketing Made Simple brings you practical tips to make your marketing easy and more importantly, make it work. A recent episode on whether vulnerability is a superpower and business is a must listen.

1:09Listen to Marketing Made Simple wherever you get your podcasts. Taylor, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people might disagree with. I would love to. First of all, what's up, Fire Nation? Thanks for having me again, JLD. And here's the thing. Most people think that you got to be on purpose all the time. You got to be living your purpose, doing exactly what you're supposed to do all the time. It's complete bull. Here's why, because when you're fully on your purpose, you're doing the exact thing you're designed to do. It's because you have a whole bunch of skills, talents, and abilities that were honed in or developed or built over time.

1:50So there's, I think there's two stages. You got preparation stage and you've got purpose stage. I'll give you a real quick example. Like the, the, when I was, when I felt the most on purpose in my life, I was building schools and libraries and homes all over the world for people in underserved communities. We had like 500 of these projects, 150 homes within Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua for over a thousand people. So I felt very on purpose. Before that, I was a real estate agent. I did really well in real estate. It was great, but I didn't feel totally on purpose. What I didn't realize looking back was that all the skills that I needed to build houses all over the world, meaning like raising money, we raised$5 million, all of those skills came to me by being quote unquote off purpose or what I call like the preparation stage of being in real estate.

2:39I learned how to sell. I learned about money. I got comfortable with money. I learned about negotiations. I learned about like actually getting people to take action, which directly translated to being completely on purpose and building all these projects all over the world. So I guess it's like a shout out to all those people that are in their preparation stage and feeling that tension of like, I'm not totally on my purpose. Like I should be, you're exactly where you need to be because it's probably preparing you for like another stage, maybe another five, seven years being totally on purpose and feeling freaking great.

3:08I love this message. And Fire Nation, we are going to keep this energy high because we're talking today about how to land and deliver a TEDx talk in 2024 that reaches millions of people. And you know who you're talking to today, Taylor, Fire Nation. They are inspired. They are motivated. They are driven entrepreneurs. So if they're going to do a TEDx talk, they want to absolutely crush it. They want to get millions of views. So tell us, Taylor, what is the number one contributor to accomplishing this? Yeah. I mean, getting millions of views is, it's not the most complicated thing in the world.

3:43People think like they got on, maybe they luck out on YouTube algorithm, something like that, or they try to tweak these things that don't really matter. Like the description being really good or the right hashtags or a whole bunch of clips on freaking YouTube shorts or TikTok or Instagram, whatever it is. Obviously what matters the most in a TEDx talk is the content, right? And deeper than that, like that's easy to say. Everyone knows like the content has to be good for a talk to go far and wide, but what makes a content, what makes the content of a talk amazing in one word is contrast. It's the emotional experience.

4:15We need to think as the speaker, people think to the speaker, right? They think my job is to get up there and speak into a microphone, share a message. And like some people lands, some people it doesn't land with other people. You're not a speaker. You're literally the energy manager of the room. Your job is the same job that a producer in Hollywood has, or someone who's like creating the next Peaky Blinders. We need to have an insane emotional roller coaster within a 15 or 18 minute talk. Meaning contrast means like, you know, as the speaker, as the energy conductor, let's say, I don't mean conductor as like electricity.

4:50I mean, energy is like the conductor of the orchestra. that you are conducting the energy in the room. And as a speaker, as the energy conductor, who's managing all the energy in the room, you need to know what is the one word in your talk where the emotion of the audience is at its lowest. What is that word when they are going to feel like crying, when they're going to feel like desperate or angry or anxious, whatever it is that you want it to make them feel. And you need to know what's the word, what's that anchor word where they're going to feel the highest emotion. right? Where they're feeling hopeful and euphoric and ambitious and, and elated.

5:27And they're just feeling all the wonderful feelings that you want them to feel. And what most people do in their talks is they take maybe that, even if they know where this, this, these anchor points are, they have like the low emotion at some point in the beginning of the talk, the high emotion at some point at the end, but what real contrast is, and this is what like Martin Luther King Jr. does amazingly well, Steve Jobs, Gandhi, what they do in their speeches better than anyone else is they have that low point right next to the high point. So that when people are listening to their speeches, they're having this visceral emotional experience going from a low to a high.

6:01And then you enact that whole saying, which I always botch. I should just look it up by, but Maya Angelou says, you know, people forget what you did. They'll forget what you said, but they'll never forget the way that you made them feel. Right. And the way to make them feel something is by having a real low point, a real high point right next to each other in the talk. And this is what we teach people how to do, obviously, in our workshops, right? But you have to have those right together. And then when people get this insane feeling from you in your talk, and this means this is also goes to like whatever you're posting on TikTok, Instagram.

6:29If you just think about the feeling you're giving someone, when someone shares your talk online, which boosts the algorithm and gets people more people watching, when someone shares your talk online, they're not sharing the content. They're sharing the contrast. They're sharing the feeling. So we as speakers need to realize we're energy conductors. We're not just people yapping into a microphone. That's what helps people get millions of views. I love that mentality that we are energy conductors. Like picture that, Fire Nation. Feel that. Absorb that. Be that. And the reality is, Taylor, is that if we're going to put all this work into doing a TEDx talk, we do want to make an impact beyond just people watching and being inspired.

7:09Like we want more than that. So let's talk about how that impact can go beyond inspiration, motivation, which frankly can wear off after a couple of days. A hundred percent, right? You learn something and then you kind of move on to the next thing. And that's fine. You know what? I think for some talks, that's great. If you want to get up, you want to entertain people, they have like a little bit better day. That's cool. That's your goal. That said, the people that I really like to work with, people that I get energy from, you know, there's some people that you lose energy with, some people you get energy from.

7:39And the people that I get energy from, the clients that I get energy from are the people that are like, this talk, it's a vehicle. This talk is what I think is the most potent, efficient, effective vehicle for the end goal of impact, right? And like those, I mentioned earlier, those 500 schools, libraries, homes that we built all over the world, that's the end goal of impact. The TEDx talk was the vehicle to get there, right? And I know that because before the talk, I had built two, two schools. We built two schools in Kenya, period. That's it. End of story. After the talk, all these people watching, we tracked the metrics.

8:15We found one in 40 people that watched the talk. This is like an insane conversion. One in 40 people went to my website, signed up saying, I want to build a school. Wow. One in 10, also another crazy conversion coming up. One in 10 of those people actually started a school building campaign. So basically look at the math. one in 400 views started a school building, started to build a freaking schoolhouse. Easy. Dude, that's insane. To this day, it blows my mind. One in 400, getting 400 views is nothing. That's going to happen within the first five minutes of your talk landing, right? One in 400 views is starting to build a freaking schoolhouse in Kenya that they didn't even know they could do before watching a TEDx talk.

8:57Obviously, I've got a billion examples of like, we've got 650 clients that have landed TEDx talks all over the world. So I've got a bunch of examples of how their talks have led into insane amounts of impact and action or them landing, you know,$100 ,000 book deals and getting 14 million views to their talk and filling their coaching practices, blah, blah, blah. But again, the TEDx talk is a vehicle and that's what we need to look at it as. We don't want to just something that's like, yeah, it's going to boost my credibility and authority. Of course it will. But what do you want to do like feet on the ground?

9:24Like where does like the rubber meet the road at the end of the day with impact? And then you just use, then, then you're, I think that's when your energy is like in complete alignment with the YouTube algorithm or the TEDx talk going well is because this is a vehicle. And when all of that kind of stuff is in alignment and the end person is going to benefit like in insanely well, like having a house to live in or a school to go to school or send their kids to school. That's when everything like really, really lines up. You feel totally on purpose. The talk goes super far and you know, however many views it gets just leads to more and more impact.

9:55Fire Nation, I hope you're getting excited here about the opportunity. I mean, these are real numbers. This is real impact. This is real exciting. We have a lot more to talk about when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Are you ready to start your year off with increased revenue, faster growth, and record-breaking performance? Well, a powerful sales platform can make it all happen. And for that, there's the all-new Sales Hub from HubSpot. Sales Hub is an all-on-one platform thoughtfully built with the tools and insights you need to communicate on a personal level with every lead, prospect, and customer.

10:30If you're looking for a better way to acquire customers, make smart data-driven decisions and increase visibility, productivity, and predictability at a great value, look no further than Sales Hub. Some of the other platforms out there take months and months to learn and integrate, but with Sales Hub, you can be up, running, and on your way to your best quarter yet in just minutes. I know what you're thinking. Sales Hub must cost a fortune. Nope, it's free to get started and will grow with your business as it scales. And with more than 1 ,300 integrations and a ton of valuable add-ons, you can customize it to your exact needs.

11:01With Sales Hub, closing deals is no big deal. Head to HubSpot.com slash sales to try it for free. If you've ever dealt with a lack of sleep, soreness after workouts, or stress due to the competing priorities in your life, then you've likely tried a lot of medications that claim they'll help. And chances are, your medicine cabinet is full of a lot of stuff that didn't work. I've been there too. Good news is CBD can help. If you're ready to clear your cabinet and reset your health like I did, then you should check out CB Distillery. What I love is that CB Distillery's targeted formulations are made from the highest quality, clean ingredients.

11:37No fluff, no fillers, just pure, effective CBD solutions designed to help support your health. In two non-clinical surveys, 81 % of customers experienced more calm, 80 % said CBD helped with pain after physical activity, and an impressive 90 % said they slept better with CBD. With over 2 million customers and a solid 100 % money-back guarantee, CB Distillery is the source to trust. And I have a 20 % discount to get you started. Visit cbdistillery.com and use code FIRE for 20 % off. That's cbdistillery.com, code FIRE. cbdistillery.com. So Taylor, before the break, you were talking about how you've had real clients that have had real impact in such meaningful ways.

12:20I mean, some of them have been listeners of the show because Thought Leader is a sponsor, a partner of Entrepreneurs on Fire. And so we get the opportunity to share with you, Fire Nation, the awesome opportunity that Taylor has for people that want TEDx in their life, that want the opportunity to have this type of viewership, this type of impact, this type of meaning. But what specific impact can a TEDx talk have on someone's career? Can you get detailed on that? Yeah, I love that question. It's like, there's two parts of us, right? There's two parts of all of us. There's the part of John Lee Dumas that is the humanitarian.

12:58He wants to make an massive impact. He's doing the podcast because he wants to reach a whole bunch of people, build a community of people that are like-minded and make an impact in the world, right? And there's the John Lee Dumas that also likes to have nice things, you know? And he likes to have a thriving business and he likes to be able to support his child. He likes to be able to do these things in the world. And we all have these two sides of us. and most of our clients, we get on calls with them and they're like, I want to make an impact. I want to, whatever it is, build schools or help.

13:23We've got a client who has a talk. His name's Ellie Nash and he did a talk called escaping porn addiction. So he wanted to help men overcome porn addiction. The talk got viewed 5 million times. It started like a fricking movement. He's partnering with NBA stars. He's got a clothing line. He's getting speaking gigs all over the world, all that kind of stuff, all because of this TEDx talk and coaching clients and all that jazz. So we've seen it, you know, fill people's coaching practices, increase their close rate by, you know, up to 60%. When they were at a 6 % close rate increases them up to 60%.

13:55We've seen it do like insane things. But what I would think is like for everybody out there, they're going to have something unique that they want to achieve in the world, right? Beyond the impact they want to achieve in their own lives. And by the way, you're human. So it's fine that you want to make more money and have more time off. We all do. Right? So what I like to encourage people do is like picture a stadium, picture a stadium with 50 ,000 seats in it. Just for some giggles right now, picture a stadium with 50 ,000 seats in it. And everyone in those, in that stadium is watching your talk.

14:25Everyone's watching your TEDx talk. Then my question to you, the people that are picturing the stadium is like of those 50 ,000 human beings watching your talk, there's gotta be a percentage of them that are going to want to sign up with you to be a coaching client, right? They're going to resonate with your message so much that they're like, dude, I want this guy as my coach, right? I want them to help me. I want them as a consultant, something like that. It's been a percentage of them. Think of like, what is the number that pops into your mind? The person who's listening to this of 50 ,000 people, what percentage, like how many people will sign up to your coaching program?

14:54We're probably thinking in the hundreds, at least, right? Some people think in the thousands, probably in the hundreds is my guess. And what percentage of those people are going to buy your book? If 50 ,000 human beings watched your entire TEDx talk, how many of them are going to want more, right? That's what the TEDx talk is force like wet their whistle. It's like, it's the very, very top of the funnel. It's the thing that people go, Oh man, this guy, Simon Sinek, I watched the TEDx talk. I like it. I want to buy his book. And they bought, they buy it. Start with why Brene Brown. Wow. Badass talk at TEDx Houston that she did.

15:21I want more. That's when they buy your book or that's when they sign up for your, your online course. So that's when they buy your coaching, right? Is when they, you know, you like you trust you. They develop that in your TEDx talk. So if you got 50 ,000 in your talk, there's going to be a percentage of them that buy your book. There's going to be a percentage of them that hire you as a coach. There's going to be a percentage of them that book you for speaking gigs. And there's going to be a percentage of them that just want to do something else with you, donate to your nonprofit, whatever it might be.

15:45And the reason I use that example of 50 ,000 views is, dude, I mean, I've been doing this for seven years, right? My first TEDx talk was what? 11 years ago. I've done four of them, right? But our clients in total have reached almost 50 million people, right? So we've been doing this for a while. We've been around the block a couple of times. And so we know how to get people a whole bunch of views. We know how to get them a stadium full of people worth of views. So which is why, like you mentioned, we're a partner of Entrepreneur on the Fire, and we've helped a whole bunch of your clients land TEDxTalks already, and all of them get at least 50 ,000 views.

16:19We don't work with anyone without promising and guaranteeing, giving them a money-back guarantee that we will get not only that they'll land a TEDxTalk, but they'll get at least 50 ,000 views because we have the community and the capability to promise that to every single person. So if you're someone who's picturing a stadium full of 50 ,000 people watching their talk and you think that could be some, do some cool things for your coaching, you know, career, then hopefully we get to work together, especially for an impact driven human to scale your coaching business, to scale your offer, whatever it is that you're working on.

16:48Because if you get 50 ,000 people's eyes on it, only good things are going to happen. And think of the doors that opens fire nation that now you have in your back pocket, in your front pocket, a TEDx talk that is beautifully done, recorded. You're delivering amazing content in a concise manner. There's over 50 ,000 views of this. I mean, the credibility, the doors of that opens, it's literally mind boggling. Now, a lot of people, Taylor, think it can take years to land and to create the right TEDx talk. What's the reality? You know, the reality is to land a TEDx talk specifically, like for someone who's listening to this, like, yo, it's 2024.

17:27I want to make this like a bonkers, redonkulous year. I don't know if how many people wrote that down bonkers but we should right like why why not let's make people let's make it your best year yet why not be bonkers or donkulous bonk donkulous anyways I mean we've honestly GLD we've seen everything we've seen people land TEDx talks in three applications we've seen people land it in a week we've seen people some people takes 90 days some people take 60 really the only thing that the process is it's a system it works the same every single time. The only thing that would slow it down are the killers that pop up for people.

18:05Procrastination, imposter syndrome, fear of not being enough, fear of their message not being important enough or not being quote unquote good enough to get on the TEDx stage. Those are the things that I've seen really creep up for people. And you know what? It's completely natural and normal for those things to creep up. They crept up very loudly at every single TEDx talk that I did the first TEDx talk that I did, like I said, 11 years ago, I'd never spoken on a stage before in my life. I was terrified of public speaking. If you fast forwarded 11 years and I was like, and you were like, you're going to be on this cool podcast and you're going to be talking like you're confident and you're not even going to be nervous.

18:41I wouldn't have believed you. Right. And this is in front of you. One person right now, right? Back then I was terrified. When I would do speaking, I would get blotchy skin. I would sweat. My pits would just get like crazy sweaty. It sounded like I'd been chewing on two bags of cotton in my mouth. My mouth would get so dry because I'd get so nervous. Yet that talk did build houses and schools and whatnot all over the world. And it was because at some point, everyone has to make the decision. What's bigger for me, my fear or my message? What's more important? Is it my fear or my message? Because all the fears are going to come up.

19:17Dude, there's people listening to this right now that are going them deep down inside and they know they want to do a TEDx talk, whether it's with us or someone else. I mean, you know, go do your thing. It's up to you, but deep down they know they're supposed to do it, but then the imposter syndrome comes up, the procrastination comes up, the I'll do it next year comes up. They don't realize that life is like slipping them by, right? So the answer to your question concisely, how long does it take to land a TEDx talk in 2024? It takes a week. If we craft your application the way that we craft applications, if we get it out to the right people, which is our job that's sort of built an entire company around, it could take a week, take two weeks.

19:51What really matters is those fears that come up and helping people work through those so they can get to the other side and they can be that definition of that saying, the definition of courage is not the absence of fear. It's feeling the fear and doing it anyways. In Fire Nation, how do you ensure that you don't let fear win, that you rise above, that you overcome it, that you recognize that you're a human? So yes, you're going to have doubts. You're going to have fears, stresses, and anxieties. That's being a human being. How do you overcome these things? How do you rise above? You have the right support system, the right support individuals, the right team around you.

20:28And that's what Taylor's offering. So Fire Nation, listen to these next words. Taylor, what do they need to do to take the next step? I mean, it's pretty simple. We just have a fun conversation. We have a fun conversation with someone on my team who are amazing. We've helped hundreds of people get over the fear, the imposter syndrome, and just kind of acknowledge, yeah, that can be here while you stay on your purpose. You know what I mean? The fear doesn't have to go away. So the way that we do, let's have a fun call. Let's chat. Let's discuss your idea. Most people have a bunch of ideas. Most people have at least three, four, five different talks that they want to do.

21:05So on the call, the idea is like, let's narrow it down. Let's figure out which is the TEDx talk that you should do this year. It's not saying you can't do another one next year. We've got clients that have landed, I think the most I've seen someone land is nine TEDx talks. I think that's insane and a little bit overkill. But we've got clients that I've got a client, Jason Reed, his first talk got 130 ,000 views. His next talk got over a million views. Got another client who, what is her first talk had 60 ,000 views, which is nothing to shake a stick at. That's great. But her next one had 14 million.

21:33So sometimes you got that warmup talk. You know what I mean? So those people that have a bunch of ideas in their mind, welcome to the club. You're a human being. You got a bunch of stuff that you could share. So it all starts with one phone call, chat about the idea that is emerging, wanting to come out now. And then we can go over the system, the blueprint, like the playbook. This is how you land a TEDx talk. And if at the end of the call, you choose to work with us, amazing. That sounds fantastic. And if not, at least you know exactly how to get there. And you can actually get your message out of your head, out of your heart, into the world this year.

22:04Fire Nation, I hope you are fired up. And what is the URL that you want Fire Nation to go to to take that next step? Okay. The URL is thought-leader.com slash F-I-R-E, fire. If you're ready to get fired up, Fire Nation, take that call to action that Taylor just shared. Have a conversation with somebody on his team to see if this is the right fit for you. For a lot of you, it will be. For some of you, it won't be. No harm, no foul. But at least take that next step to find out. Taylor, Fire Nation knows that they're the average of the five people that they spend the most time with. They've been hanging out with us, TC and JLD.