The TEDx Effect: How to Grow Your Movement on the World's Biggest Stage with Taylor Conroy: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation! JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, the only daily show in the world interviewing the top entrepreneurs seven days a week. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives, and we'll be breaking down the TEDx effect, how to grow your movement on the world's biggest stage. To drop these value bombs, I brought to Taylor Conroy and EO Fire Studios. Taylor has traveled to 40 countries, built 300 schools and 150 homes in developing worlds, and has helped over 200 people land TEDx Talks to share their message with the world. In today's foundation, we'll talk about how you need to always lean into who you authentically are, how TEDx Talks can be a lot of things.

0:38the most transformative are the ones that people give when they feel they weren't fully ready. We as humans are never fully ready. And Fire Nation, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Taylor and our sponsors. Is this your year to grow a successful business? Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Taylor, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:25It is a pleasure to be here, Fire Nation. Thanks for having me in your ears right now. And I've been thinking about this. You ask this question a lot. I think that becoming successful, in my experience, does not change the way that I feel inside. Though every time I set a goal, I hope it will. It's always the process. It's like setting an aspirational goal and the process of trying to achieve it makes me change as a human and upgrade as a human. And therefore, by the time I achieve the goal, I'm a different person. And therefore, I feel completely differently. I love that message. It actually really does remind me of a quote that I always go back to, which is success and happiness both is a progressive realization of a worthy ideal.

2:11It's not accomplishing a worthy ideal and it's not accomplishing any ideal. It is the progression of accomplishing that which is a worthy ideal. If you can do that combination, be progressing towards a worthy ideal, you're winning, Fire Nation. You are absolutely winning. And I mean, I talked in the introduction about how Taylor's built over 300 schools and 150 homes in developing countries. And that was just on the humanitarian side of things, let alone what he's done on the business side of things. And that's what we're talking about here today, the TEDx effect, how to grow your movement on the world's biggest stage.

2:49So we love stories, Taylor, and I'd love to start by talking about the very first person that you helped land a TEDx talk. Tell us that story. I would love to because this guy is one of my favorite humans. I mean, I guess technically the first person I helped land a talk was myself, but the guy that comes to mind, his name's Kevin. So you got to picture this. 18-year-old, 18 years old from Western Canada where I'm from, 6 '7", okay? six foot towering. I didn't know he was that tall. I get this email from this kid one time. He's like, Hey, I read this article that you're in talking about raising money to build schools.

3:27I want to raise money to build or build awareness around mental health. He says, I'm a speaker on mental health. I just dropped out of high school to become a comedian. Is there any way you'd coach me? And I was like, wait, what? In like three lines, I've dropped out of high school. I'm a mental health speaker and I'm going to be a comedian. I'm like, of course, let's go for coffee so we go for coffee his name's kevin and this kid walks in this kid 18 years old towering over me and we sit down and he tells me what he wants to do it you know i want to like raise awareness and stuff and i was like look skip all the ideas that you've got right now what i'm going to do is i'm going to help you land a tedx talk and that if you do it the way that we that i tell you to it's going to pave the way for your adult life this is this is almost 10 years ago now and And he's like, only like a kid would, like he's not jaded yet.

4:19So he's a kid. He's like, okay, cool. Everything you're telling me must be the truth. Let's rock, right? There's no skepticism. So we went out, first TEDx talk he applied to, he landed, does his talk. I went there. There's like 30 people in the audience crowded together on bleachers. I'm sitting beside his mom and his sister and we're all stoked for him. He does this talk again in front of 30 people in like a middle school in Vancouver. and then it goes online and i said look here's exactly what i want you to do for the next three months stop looking for work you need to move out of your mom's house i gave him an apartment to live in and i said for the next three months all that exists is your tedx talk here's how you spread it here's how you go after influencers here's how you do it this is going to again pave the way for adult life and he's like sure thanks for the free apartment um moves into this place and And then all of a sudden, he's got like 10 ,000 views to this talk.

5:12And he's doing the outreach that I taught him. Then he's got 100 ,000 views. Then he's got 500 ,000 views. And he's like, dude, I can't keep up with my email inbox and Twitter. He didn't have Instagram. He didn't have like no presence at all. Again, he was a high school dropout living on his mom's couch in the basement. And he goes 100 ,000, 500 ,000 views, a million views, 2 million views. He's like, I'm getting asked. he he long story short he lands 300 paid speaking gigs all over the world he helps to raise millions of dollars for mental health charities which is what his intention was in the beginning and now almost 10 years later i talked to him he's an adult now um and he you know owns a house on the ocean and uh has an agency that helps people tell their stories because that's what he did he all got penguin random houses largest book deal that they had ever given someone his age you know They paid him six figures at the age of, I think, 20 or 21 when they picked up the point.

6:06So that was the first guy out of the hop. Now, you did a TEDx talk. As you mentioned, that was actually the first exposure that you had to TEDx. And then you've gone on to help over 200 people land TEDx talk stages. So let's talk about your TEDx talk. Like, where was the idea? Where did that come from? What were the results? Talk us through this. For anyone who's listening to this, it's a bunch of entrepreneurs. I'm guessing you probably have some people that have a message that isn't just like, I want to grow my business and therefore I should get more promotion. But the people that I love to help land TEDxTalks, they're doing it because it's a vehicle to get something way bigger than them into the world, right?

6:45So the idea that I had back in the day was like, I wanted to raise money to build schools in developing countries. That was literally what I kind of lived for at that time in life. And so I did this talk called How to Build a School in Three Hours. And it's an 18-minute talk. And it went well. And so a few thousand people after that talk signed up saying they wanted to build a school. And I was a real estate agent at the time. And I was like, oh, my God, this could be a real thing. So I talked to my business partners and I was like, you guys, I want to do this school building thing full time. Can you buy me out of the real estate company?

7:15So they gave me a little bit of money, not that much, but give me a bit and said, you know, beat it. So I went on my way. And with that TEDx talk, it led to what you alluded to in the beginning, this thing called the TEDx effect, which is I just started getting these emails after the TED talk saying, I watched your TEDx talk and. So I watched your TEDx talk and I want to raise money to build a school. I watched your TEDx talk and I want you to come and speak at our high school or Lululemon or Pfizer or KPMG or whatever. And it built a completely unintended speaker business because I found that the old school art of standing on stage in front of a bunch of people and being a good orator, that is still, in my mind, the most powerful way to share a message.

7:58So it led to a whole bunch of speaking stuff. It led to building 200 schools in Kenya, another 100 schools in Ghana, Sierra Leone, China, Ecuador, India, all over the world, because people watch the TED Talk. I watch TEDx Talk. I want to raise money to build a school. So I would help them do that. It also built 150 homes around Latin America. I'm in Mexico right now. I think we've built about 50 in Mexico. So what it led to, So yeah, that's some cool stuff, like some speaking gigs. And actually, I ended up speaking almost on every continent and in front of about 100 ,000 people live. But what it led to is I get to wake up every morning and go, I feel like I did it.

8:34In that phase of my life, I lived it fully. And I think what would probably resonate with your audience, the Fire Nation, is we're here to live fully. I'm guessing I'm living once in this body. And I want to live full out. I want to do everything I'm supposed to do on this earth. I want to have as much fun as humanly possible. And so that's why I chose that vehicle, because it's the highest leveraged piece of content that you can put online. It tells your story in like 18 minutes or less, and it actually gets people to take action, which I've seen over and over again. Now, one thing that I know a lot of people in my audience are thinking right now is that, wait a second, don't TEDx talks have to be intellectual?

9:13Don't they have to be with some brainy person telling you what the gravity on Mars is or the lack thereof. What if the topics are more spiritual? I mean, Fire Nation, we are spiritual individuals. We are passionate individuals. Is there hope for us, Taylor? Honestly, man, you guys are the only ones that I like to help. To be totally honest, I don't resonate when people come to me and they're like, hey, I just want to sell more t-shirts. And therefore, like I said, I want to do a TEDx talk for that. People that lean towards spirituality believe that there's something bigger than them. They believe usually that they are a vehicle themselves for getting something big, beautiful, incredible, whether it be oneness or consciousness or self-awareness, whatever it is into the world.

9:57And there's a book, I'm sure everyone's read The Power of Now and maybe his next book, A New Earth. In A New Earth, there's this line that really stuck out to me. And it says, I think he's actually quoting someone else. So I might be botching the quote by attributing it to Eckhart, but he's quoting someone else. I think it might even be Krishnamurti. He says, I am a hole in the flute that Christ's breath moves through. And so that's what I want to be. I want to be something that is a vessel for something way bigger than me coming into this world. At the moment, you don't have to be a rocket science to realize that what's happening in the world needs to shift.

10:36And luckily it is shifting, but it seems to be shifting in a bit of an ugly way. And there are beacons of light all over the world that are awake, they're aware, and they know that this huge thing, it's coming into the world, whether we like it or not, they want to be a vessel for that. So in my mind, every TEDx talk is a spiritual TEDx talk. The talk that I did is called How to Build a School in Three Hours. In reality, John, this talk was on empathy. It was on oneness. that the the i just got an email this morning from entrepreneurs organization they're like hey can you come in keynote in el salvador and guatemala they think that i'm that i'm going to come there and talk about building schools i'm not i'm coming there i'm talking about oneness and i'm talking about school schools are like my from the 5d into the 3d tangible way of explaining empathy because that's the you know take oneness as like the highest version empathy is an emotion is an experience that people in this realm can have.

11:33And so if I can bring empathy in via a TEDx talk, then what I'm doing is I'm in alignment with my highest calling, which is to bring oneness into this world. So if your talk is about spirituality, welcome to the club. That's all I talk about is spirituality, but I put it into words that will fit that stage and resonate with people in the 3D so that they can connect to something higher than themselves too. Byron Nation, I hope the wheels are turning. I hope the ideas are spouting out of your spouts if you're a whale over there and really just thinking like, okay, you know, if I have this idea, you know, it's not just this one thing, but it can honestly mean so much more or something deeper or something spiritual or something, whatever that might be that you're also able to convey.

12:17It's kind of like one of those things where Taylor's using his TEDx talk as a door opener, but once he steps into the room, he's in control and he's delivering what he knows the audience needs to hear. And we have some really cool things coming up, including the secret sauce of TEDx Talks when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Is this your year to grow a successful business? Are you looking to learn the proven processes and success systems that have been used to create thousands of millionaire success stories? See thousands of success stories and testimonials from real people just like you who Clay Clark has mentored and coached into prosperity at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire.

12:58Clay's proven business coaching program is month to month and it costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Yes, it's month to month and it costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Schedule your free personal 13-point assessment with Clay Clark himself today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire because Clay only takes on 160 clients and only allows 300 attendees to each business conference. You will interact with Clay directly. See thousands of real success stories and learn about attending the Thrive Time Show two-day in-person workshop featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire.

13:36Become the next success story. Schedule a free consultation and request tickets to join football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, at Clay Clark's next business conference today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire. So Taylor, we're back and we're not trying to get exact numbers here because there's a lot to do with things going viral, algorithms, all these different things, putting paid advertising into it and all this jazz. But you've put over 200 people up on a TEDx talk on a stage and they've been able to just deliver value within those 18 minutes that they have up there.

14:15What would you say someone could expect to get view-wise or exposure-wise when they get up on a TEDx talk stage and they actually crush it? Yeah. I mean, I think that's a really good question, John, to be totally honest. I have no idea how many views someone's going to get when they go out. There are clients who a lot of times have the fastest success at landing the stage. Sometimes they'll get 10 ,000 views, sometimes 40 ,000, sometimes 50 ,000, which is nothing to shake a stick at. And the client that comes to mind, a woman named Cynthia, who's a functional medicine practitioner. She was a nurse and turned health coach.

14:54And I remember taking a call with her. I was in Walmart or something. I think I was on Maui. I was about to go camping. I'm trying to buy a sleeping bag. And she's like, Taylor, are you sure this is going to work? Are you sure I'll be able to land a talk? I'm like, Cynthia, first of all, I got to hit the road. We're going to go to a waterfall right now. Second of all, you have to do this. I know it will work for you. If you do the process, it will work. It always does. Trust the process. And she's like, all all right, let's do it. So she puts herself out there through the fear of like, I'm not enough.

15:22I'm not ready enough. Is my message going to land with people? And she wasn't talking about, she was literally talking about nothing revelationary or nothing that new. She's talking about intermittent fasting. Okay. So she's getting up there and talking about something that's been talked about a million times before. She does her talk. The next day, she's like, Taylor, we're at 98 ,000 views and it's been 24 hours. I'm like, that's a good start. That's a a good start. Then she's like, a million, two million, five million. I think it was around five million she messaged me. She's like, I just don't know what to say.

15:54She basically in her text is like a phone call can change your life because that's the first step for her. She just called us and we helped her. And I'm not taking credit for the views. You know what I mean? We did our best to position her in a way that she would get views, a position in a way that the YouTube algorithm would pick her up. And now I haven't checked today, but I'm guessing she's at like 9.5 million views. So, and Kevin, the first person I helped, he got four and a half million. You know, we've got people that are talking about very spiritual topics that have had 2 million, 3 million, a couple hundred thousand.

16:27So how many talks will you do or how many, how many views will you get? I literally, I have no idea. And if I took an average of our last 100 clients, so like the most recent 100 clients, the average is about a hundred thousand views. So the average is about 100K, and that's like 30, a little bit over 30 times the average that a typical TEDx speaker gets. I don't know if we've got time to go into why that is, but those are the numbers. Well, what we do have time for is the secret sauce, and Fire Nation loves the secret sauce. That's why we bring on experts in their industry. So let's take the rest of the episode here, and let's talk about the true secret sauce of TEDx Talks.

17:12Well, I'm going to give you my hypothesis and I'm going to give you the results of a study that I just nerded out on so hard. I basically made an incredibly detailed spreadsheet on the 100 most viewed TEDx talks in the last three years. Because I want to know that. I mean, even though we've helped over 200 people do this, I want to keep up in my game. What's the secret sauce? What's working now that wasn't working back then, etc.? How do you title a talk to go viral? All the things. and two talks stood out to me on that list. And it's the first, the most watched talk. And it's the second most watched talk.

17:47This first most watched talk has 11 million views. It's called the five hindrances to self mastery. Okay. 11 million views. This is a guy by a guy who's a almost like a sensei or like a, um, what's it called? The warrior, the Japanese warrior. Samurai. That's the one samurai. And he's wearing an outfit that looks like a samurai outfit on stage, right? So what I'm getting at is he does this talk and I analyzed how fast these speakers spoke and how many slides they used and how they started their talk. This guy used seven slides for like a 16-minute talk. So almost none, like barely any. The second most watched talk used 54 slides.

18:29So the first watch with 11 million views, seven slides. The second most watched 10 million to use 54 slides. First guy spoke at an average pace of 80 words per minute, which is 30 words per minute slower than the average human. I'm speaking to you right now at probably 130 words per minute. He spoke at 80 words per minute, like just over half as quickly as I'm speaking now. The second most watch talk spoke at 145 words per minute. So people are looking for continuity. They're looking for a pattern. They're looking for like a mold or a template they can just replicate When in reality, what those two speakers did that I believe led the most to them getting both of them well over 10 million views is they leaned into what was authentically them.

19:16The real secret, of course, you got to title it correctly in a great way, right? There's a lot of terrible titles out there, but of course you got to title it great. Of course you have to have the right slides and all that kind of stuff. And unequivocally across the board, our clients that do the best, that have the millions and millions of views, at no point in their talk do they try to be someone else. They always lean into who they authentically are. They show up with that. Even if they're nervous, they might even tell the crowd that they're nervous. And that I believe is honestly is like my deepest work with our clients.

19:51Like one of my struggles, John, is feeling like I'm enough. You know, I know a lot of entrepreneurs kind of feel that as well. That's why we go out and try to achieve a whole bunch of stuff because we're trying to prove to dad or mom. I'm totally speaking for myself here, but I know other people share it. And if I can get people to know that they are enough, to know that they can be them, to know that they can be in complete authenticity themselves on that stage, that is the biggest contribution that I can give them. And when they do, their tribe finds them, the right people see it, and then they want you to speak on their stage.

20:26They want you to be in their article. They want to hire you as a coach, whatever it means, when people can truly see you on the stage. Man, Fire Nation, you got some of the secret sauce of the TEDx talks straight from Taylor. And Taylor, I want to take this home. You shared a lot of value. You share some great stories. You shared some wins. And of course, we all know that there's losses as well in this world. There's ups and there's downs. What would you say is the one key takeaway? the one thing that you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from everything that we talked about here today when it comes to the TEDx effect.

21:04And then give us the best way that we can connect with you or any call to action you have for us. And then we'll say goodbye. A TEDx talk can be about a lot of things. In my experience, the most transformative are the ones that people give when they don't feel they're fully ready. Because we as humans, we're never fully ready. We're never fully processed that emotion from childhood and now we're over and now we're perfect. Teaching is a part of growth. It's like the fourth stage in learning is to teach, is to share. And if you think you need to wait to get on TEDx stage until you've accomplished everything, I'd invite you to watch my third TEDx talk, which I did at the age of 35.

21:41I'm 39 now. They did at the age of 35 while in the midst of bankruptcy. I literally start the talk with like, my name is Taylor Conroy and I'm legally bankrupt. So you said, I've shared some wins. I got on what I believe is the biggest stage in the world, biggest digital stage in the world. And I shared that I had just undergone a gargantuan loss. I started a company. It didn't work out. I put everything into it. I took out loans to put into it. I put hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to fund this company that I thought could change the world. And it didn't work out. And I've never had, of the four TEDx talks I've done, I've never had more people reach out to me saying, you and I are the same.

22:19We're connected. Thank you for saying that. I've had so much shame around this. I've had so much guilt. I haven't even told my brother. I haven't even told my parents that I went through bankruptcy, that I've had these financial difficulties. So whatever your message is, the thing to look for is not, have I accomplished everything? Do I have something like, just like the best thing ever, a new message that's never been said before? The feeling inside is I have something so deep that needs to be shared. That's the feeling of being ready to do a TEDx talk. Not that it's perfect. Not that you're articulate.

22:52If we end up working, by the way, go get a TEDx talk yourself if you can. And if we end up working together, that's what we help you do. We'll get you articulate. We'll get you all ready. We'll get you those feelings that you are kind of yearning for now. But don't wait to start because there's a whole bunch of people that are in the same position that you were in three years ago or five years ago or 10 years ago that need to hear your message now to get them out of where they're at at this moment. Fire Nation, heed these words. And Taylor, how can Fire Nation connect with you? How can we follow any call to action that you have for us right now?

23:24And then we'll say goodbye. Thanks, John. I mean, the best way, I put together a 60 minute, like this has been a fun, I don't know, 20, 30 minute share. I basically put together everything that I know about landing TEDxTalks into a video. and you can watch that video at thought-leader.com slash fire. So thoughtleader.com, but there's a dash between the two or thought-leader.com slash fire. It'll show you how to title your talk, how to land a talk. It gives you 20 TEDx events that are looking for speakers at the time that you're listening to this. We update this list all the time for TEDx talks that are looking for speakers right now so that whether we work together or not, you can go out there.

24:05You could be submitting an application tonight. Wow. And within the next couple of weeks, land a TEDx talk. So it's at the end of that video, thought-leader.com slash fire. And the biggest takeaway that I had from all this, which had a lot of takeaways, but it's the best TEDx talks are given before you're ready, Fire Nation. You're never going to feel ready for a TEDx talk. So get out there, give it, and man, you may be shocked with the life-changing results. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with TC and JLD today, so keep up the heat.

24:42Head over to eofire.com, type Taylor in the search bar. His show notes page will pop up with everything that we've been talking about here today. And of course, head over to thought-leader.com slash fire. Amazing resources over there awaiting you. And Taylor, thank you for sharing your truth, knowledge, value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

25:34Is this your year to grow a successful business? Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Again, request life changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire.