Monique Ruff-Bell: How TED Transforms Ideas into Movements

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0:48Thank you very much for being on Remarkable People. How about you just give yourself a short little introduction? Sure. So I am Monique Ruff-Bell. I am the chief program and strategy officer for TED. And if you love a good TED talk, this is what I get to do every day and participate in bringing these magical experiences to our community and to the global audience. I love that. I love TED. I have to tell you. So you worked at Ringling Brothers and we had another guest named Derek Sivers, who also was a ringmaster. So am I seeing a pattern here? Is it like great presenters and great speakers? They have a background in the circus?

1:32You got to have experience with a little bit of crazy and chaos. And there you go with the circus is just a part of that. So I think it just makes you a stronger people person, a people lover, a stronger entertainer. And what exactly did you do for Ringling Brothers? So I was the promotion manager for Ringling Brothers. I like to say I ran away with the circus. So people don't know there's actually two circuses, one on each side of the country, and then they switch. And so whenever the circus came to the East Coast, I would go with the circus across the different cities and basically help do PR events and just get the community excited about the circus coming to town.

2:15And after about two years, a year or two years of that, you get kind of burnt out with walking with the elephants and the tigers and the crazy and all that other good stuff. So then I had to not run away with the circus anymore. Now tell me, when you are with the circus, isn't it like all of you are on a train and you're just all traveling together and it's one big dysfunctional family? Those are the actual performers that live on the train. I do not. So we actually work out of our offices and we have little micro offices all around the country. And I was one of those people that worked out of New York.

2:51And then when it came to the East Coast, you just worked and traveled with the circus. And wherever that showed up, whether it's Connecticut, New York, Boston or whatever, that's where you went. And our office was actually in the animal pen. So you smelt a lot of things when you were with the circus. So when you were on duty, you were actually traveling in the train. You were part of the family. I was part of the family. What another cute story is the elephants can't ride on trucks. They are too heavy. How you get the animals from the train to the venue, they have to walk. And so you have to close down the streets at night.

3:33It's like 2 a.m. And we were like the security guards for the elephants. So we had to walk the elephants from the train station to the venue. And I'm like, how am I supposed to protect the elephants? But that's what we did. And it's a story to tell. Wait, but what if the train depot is like 10 miles from where the circus is? You walk 10 miles. You had to walk it. There's no other way to get them to the venue. You can't put them on any type of check or anything. You have to walk. Oh, man.

4:11Okay. Enough of your checkered pass about being in the circus. So I have a question for you now. I'm going to have to ask you some questions that I know the answer. But what exactly is TED today? Because some people think that TED is like the one main conference and other people in TED in their mind is TEDx. So can you just define TED for us right now? Sure. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. And it started in 1984. And it literally was this one conference that happened every single year. And now it is a generalist conference and it is multiple conferences that happen globally.

4:52And so you have what we call TED flagship conferences, and then you have TEDx conferences. And so there are two different things for us. And as a flagship, I oversee all of the flagships. And now recently now I oversee all of the TEDx programming. But the flagships are ran by the corporate organization and TEDx are 100 percent volunteer ran. So if you have a love for TED or TED Talks, you would apply to get a license from us to host a TED event in your city. You have to follow certain rules and parameters. But outside of that, you are 100 percent a volunteer who are putting on a lovely one day TEDx event.

5:32Our TED flagships are usually longer, three to five days. They happen in currently in Vancouver and another in Atlanta. And this is for thousands of people. It's multiple experiences that happen. within a TED event. But all of the talks usually get platformed from a TED event. And for TEDx, certain talks get platformed from a TEDx event. And what is TED next then? So that's our new flagship. So that's the one that was recently launched and based in Atlanta. And so we wanted to create an ecosystem of experiences for people who love TED. And so you first start out probably in school hearing from TED education.

6:13You learned about our animations and how we explain certain things that happen within society. Then you probably in your city, you hear about TEDx and you go to a one day TEDx event. And then you automatically, the next thing was the big TED in Vancouver, which is a premium ticket price is five days long. And it's a little bit harder for people to kind of the everyday person to have access to. And so it was about the future of what is happening in technology, society, entertainment, health care, and all of those things. But we didn't have a conference that talked to the builder. How do you become the builder so you can plug into the future of?

6:53So what does that next version of yourself look like? Not just from a professional standpoint, but from a personal standpoint, you might want to evolve and do something completely different than what you're doing now. Where is a place where you can find that community, that information, and be inspired and motivated for your own next evolution. So that's where TED Next came from. And we launched that this year. So how many flagship conferences are there? So it could be two to three a year. You have what we call Big TED, which is in Vancouver. You have TED Next, which is the new flagship. And then we have something called Countdown, which is every other year annually.

7:31And that is our climate change sustainability conference. And we have that all over the globe every other year. Okay. Now, push comes to shove. What is the global mission or goal of TED in general, the whole thing? It's all about we're a storytelling platform. And we really believe that ideas change everything. That's our new slogan. And so when we talk about TED, we talk about how do we get more ideas so it could be inspiring and motivational for others to either think different, challenge their thinking, be inspired to create a different path for themselves to help make society better. Our mission is to give you the ideas and then you take it and run with it and whatever you need to grow within your own personal development.

8:20Now, this may be a strange, difficult question, but where do you draw the line? If Steve Bannon and said, I want to speak at a TED flagship or Stephen Miller or Rudy Giuliani or God help you, Donald Trump or the president of Hungary. Do you say, OK, we want to present diverse views or do you say, man, we don't have fascists. We don't have TED fascism. A really good question. So our tagline used to be ideas that matter. And now we recently change it to ideas change everything. And so the reason why we've changed and had that evolution with our tagline, because all ideas don't really matter in the same way in our new polarized society.

9:07And so it is all about we have no problem platforming people who might not necessarily be progressive or liberal or they might be more conservative or anything like that. That's not a problem for us. But we want to make sure you're coming to the table as a solution oriented person. And you are talking about something where it inspires people to think about how to be better at doing something differently. So even this past year, we had some controversial speakers that I would say who've been in the news from time to time about their opinions. But what they brought to the TED stage was it was like we wanted to explain where our thinking is and how we've gotten to that conclusion instead of just platforming an idea that might be controversial.

9:54Just hypothetically, if you were to give a TED flagship talk, what would be your topic? You as the speaker. How to have a wonderful, robust vacation. And let me tell you why. I just literally came back from Bora Bora and I put this little video together to show my colleagues and my work people. And they were like, you look so happy, so refreshed. You are glowing. And usually a vacation, sometimes people need vacations from their vacations. and I was like nope this is what I did to make sure I completely plugged into this vacation so this is only this is the only reason why it's top of mind because I literally just came back from this and I feel like a whole new person and I would love to just give a TED talk on how to really enjoy a real vacation and is 18 minutes long enough for you to cover that topic I would make it fit.

10:55I really, this was just, this was magical what I just experienced. So I would share with the world.

11:08So can you, for those of us who are not familiar, what are the parameters of a TED Talk? The length and can you use notes? Are there teleprompters? How's the whole thing work logistically? What makes us a different type of platform from other events or conferences is that we actually have a full-time curation team. It is their 100 % their job to go find speakers who are just inspirational and motivational, and then to train them on how to give a proper TED Talk. So you can go through a couple of months of training on how to really perfect your story. It doesn't matter if you've been speaking for 10, 20, 30 years.

11:52Giving a TED Talk can be really, really difficult for the simple fact you're only allowed to share one idea. And people like to go on tangents and talk about other things and splash extra things into their story instead of just sticking with that one idea. A TED Talk can be, we've had as little as five minutes, seven minutes, 12 minutes, up to 18 minutes of a TED Talk. But it's really taking that person on a journey who's sitting in that audience who might have never been interested in this topic. And you have sparked some interest from them because you started with your own personal story, which then segued into what is it that you're trying to change or what were you inspired by or what was the actions you took from your personal story and development.

12:38And then wrapping that with a nice bow to make it entertaining or engaging, captivating or motivating. And that's not always easy for a lot of speakers, no matter how long you've been doing this for. So it's training that comes into that. Okay. So the length is 18 minutes. Can I use a teleprompter? No teleprompters. Can I use notes? But we do allow people sometimes to use notes. And what you see on YouTube is an edited version of a TED Talk. These are all filmed at conferences. People think these are filmed in studios. This is at a live conference and people mess up. Sometimes you don't always have that straight 18 minute flow and the audience cheers you on and tells you it's OK.

13:22Keep going. And all of this good stuff. It's really an emotional roller coaster when you're sitting in that theater to see these people pour out their hearts and their ideas. And sometimes they're so nervous because that TED circle can make you a little bit nervous and they come through like a champ. And so sometimes they have to pull out their notes because they forgot a word or two. You just don't happen to see that on YouTube. And who is in the Monique TED Talk Hall of Fame? Reshma Sujani. I don't know if you are familiar with her, but her TED Talk is Teach Girls Bravery, Not Perfection. And the reason why that resonates a lot with me personally is because we are taught as women and girls usually to be nice and to always think about the nice way of how you deliver things.

14:11And niceness comes with perfectionism, not all the time, but a lot of the time I was like, I'm not going to go for something unless I'm 100 percent buttoned up together and perfect at it. And we lose out on a lot of opportunities. But boys are taught to be brave. They are taught to take risks. They are taught to try different things. And she was like, we need to teach our girls that same thing for us to move through society, this new way of society by bravery, because it is a lot of risk taking. It is a lot of intentionality and choices and to make sure that you're making the right decision. But when you don't necessarily make the right decision, how can you bounce back quickly?

14:51And that's what I love about her talk. Okay. Now, you say you have these people who are coaches and teachers and they select speakers. So are you telling me that this is like a MacArthur Fellowship? You don't apply for a MacArthur Fellowship. You don't apply for a Nobel Prize. You just hope the phone rings. So is that how it works for you? So three ways, really. Our curation team goes out and looks for speakers that they might come across through reading about them, hearing about them, referrals or what have you. Then we actually have past alumni speakers who will suggest other speakers to us and that we should explore and think about.

15:31And then the third way is we actually have a speaker form. You can nominate yourself for a TED Talk at TED.com at our speaker nomination form. But this is the kicker. The thing that people don't do when they do the speaker nomination form is do your research. Has that talk already happened? We have thousands and thousands of talks on thousands of different topics. And it is up to that person to research and look at our archives, look at past YouTubes to see if someone already spoke about that topic. if they have and you're going to speak in a similar way, you're not going to be platform. We're not going to repeat it.

16:08It has to be something that's different and unique. And so you might think you have the greatest idea and you're the greatest speaker. But believe me, there might have already been someone who thought they had the greatest idea and the same idea that you had. And so it's really important that if you apply to speak, that you really talk about the idea. This is not about your PR campaign. This is not about how many talks you've given. It is all about the idea you want to present and why that is different and special and unique than what has ever been seen on a TED stage. And are you therefore saying that TEDx is not the farm system for TED flagship?

16:47If you gave a TEDx talk, you cannot give it as a TED flagship talk. You would probably have to give. Now, Brene Brown was discovered from a TEDx talk. She wasn't on a TED flagship talk. And we've had her for TED Talk. So it's for a flagship talk. So it doesn't mean that you are completely out of the running for a TED flagship opportunity. You might have to come with something different. But that doesn't mean there. We've discovered plenty of people out of the TEDx platform many, many times. But it's about the idea. So you can be one person that has several different amazing ideas. And so like you said, you've given multiple TEDx talks.

17:29I'm sure they were on various topics. And it's the same way here as in we like fresh ideas. It could come from the same person multiple times. It's all about the idea. And for the people who apply, what percentage actually make it? We do about 80 TED Talks at our Vancouver conference, and we do about 40 to 45 TED Talks at our TED Next conference. So that's 120. So we have 20 ,000 people who have submitted for TED Talks to our online forum. And it's only 100 plus speakers, maybe 200 speakers that we do every year. So it's extremely competitive. So we always say, like, you have to really have a tight idea for the flagship opportunity.

18:21But it's a little bit easier to go through the TEDx route because there's more of them. There's 3000 TEDx events around the globe. And it's basically based on that particular city or region. And you probably have more access that way. But don't give up trying to get to the flagship. Just keep applying and coming up with new ideas. And what happens if, I don't know, take an extreme, if Michelle Obama or Steve Jobs or, I don't know, Elon Musk or Bill Gates, they don't apply. They're people's people tell you, would you like Steve Jobs at TED? Would you like Elon Musk? Would you like Michelle Obama?

19:03Would you like Malala? Do you get those kind of calls? Do you turn them down sometimes? Elon spoke in 2022 and he spoke previously before there. So we get that level of people speaking at our conferences. No, we do not turn them down. We figure out how to make it work, especially if they have something really interesting to share and to say. So like I said, our curation team goes out and finds these speakers or they're connected to these speakers. And as long as the idea is strong and it makes sense for the theme of that conference, we invite them in. OK, now this is I have spoken many, many times, so I'm very familiar with how the circuit works.

19:51And lots of speakers have, I think, just outlandish riders. I heard a story that when Barbra Streisand spoke at the San Jose Shark Tank, she wanted a straight shot from her dressing room to the stage. So they had to bust open a wall. When Prince spoke there, he wanted all the background rooms and all the green rooms, everything had to be painted purple. and Steve Jobs, he wants a special stool made by Tibetan monks and he wants water from, I don't know, some special spring in Nicaragua. So do you get those kinds of things? Do you just shake your head and you say, you know, we are freaking Ted.

20:32We don't do bullshit like that. I've only been at Ted going on three years and I have never seen any writer like that. So I'm sure there might be a story or two that someone from the curation team could tell, but we're pretty basic with backstage. I haven't seen anything crazy like that. And TED is not that type of platform. So I don't think we even get anything like that, but I could be wrong. Like I said, I'm only three years in.

21:00Well, don't get me wrong. I find it just amazing that if Barbra Streisand said, yeah, I'll speak a TED, but this is what I need. I can see her doing that. Anyway, okay. I get the message. I get the message. Let's get Barbara. I want to get Barbara on our stage. So I don't want to stop anything. Let's see how we could work something out with Barbara. Well, I can't tell you that I'm her BFF, so I can't help you. I knew the editor of her book. Let's just say that was an interesting job. She's a very interesting person to put it mildly. There's some stories to tell. I can tell. Yeah, I bet. Yeah. OK, so now are you telling me that, like, seriously, if Donald Trump said I want to be on TED, I have a lot to say.

21:43I have very different ideas. What do you say? Oh, you are asking the tough questions, Kai. I don't know about that one. So, you know, Chris Anderson is the chairman of TED. He is the one that took over TED in the early 2000s. He was all about sharing ideas that were really impactful. And so it would go all the way up to him. I wouldn't have anything to say or do in this situation. It would go all the way up to what he wants to do here. So I can't even give you my own personal opinion because it would never come to me. I had to try. I had to try. I understand. Listen, I've never been asked to speak at TED flagships.

22:30I'm trying to figure out, like, I'm going to be 20 ,001. Yeah, we got to get this together. I got to improve on that one. I'm surprised at that. I'm surprised too. Don't get me wrong. Gotta work on that. Yeah, we'll follow up with that. I figured when I was early in my career, I figured, okay, this is how you know you're a baller and you've got it made. You spoke at Davos and you spoke at TED. And after that, you can die. The rest of your life is anticlimactic. Mission accomplished. Mission accomplished. Yeah, so I'm 50 % there. I've spoken at Davos twice, but I have not yet spoken at Ted in Vancouver.

23:09And Canadians love me. I never met a Canadian I didn't like. And I love hockey. I can talk hockey all day long for your Vancouver audience. I'm sure more than the Canadians love you, God. We would have to just work on that one.

23:32This is more of a serious question. So do you view being a TED flagship speaker as a reward or part of the journey? Part of the journey. What is the special sauce of TED is platforming people that people don't know about. The people who are up and coming, the builders, the people that you discover, and then you absolutely get to elevate and amplify some amazing things. And so we love being that type of platform. Yes, we love to showcase those that have household names, but I'm telling you, when you sit through 80 TED Talks, you are really thinking about, okay, I think I'm going to like this. But when you're sitting in the audience and you listen to someone you never heard about, you are so inspired and blown away about what people accomplish.

24:25as a standard human being who might not have all the resources that everyone else has, who are popular, and to know how they accomplish some of these wonderful things. It's just so amazing to sit in that audience. You go through these roller coasters of emotions, there's laughter, then there's crying, then there's anger, then there's thinking and pondering. It's a lot. We have something called a TEDx that happens after you leave Vancouver, because you are just so overwhelmed by all of these amazing speakers. And then they come off the stage and they sit right next to you. They literally stay for the entire conference.

25:00You get to talk to them. It's absolutely amazing. I have not even been to the Vancouver Tid. We're discovering a lot about this. We got to work on this. We got to get you there. I need to come out of my shell. Listen, dead serious now. My podcast is called Remarkable people. And it's not rich people and it's not famous people. It's remarkable people. So we have people like, I don't know if you've heard of him, Halim Flowers. At 16, he was sentenced to 40 something years for accessory to murder. He got out after 22 years. And now he's predicted to be the next Jean-Michel Basquiat. So we have people like that.

25:42We have people who have, you know, become very successful overcoming prison and all kinds of stuff, people that you wouldn't have heard of. So tell your creation team to listen to my podcast. We do a lot of filtering. We reject about 2 ,500 people a year to get 50. So we're not as selective as you, but we're up there in terms of selectivity. We can act as a kind of first pass filter for you. That's amazing. And absolutely, I'm now I'm going to be a listener to make sure I refer some things. And I appreciate even being on the podcast myself. But, yeah, it's those that the remarkable people, the day to day of humanity and things that people accomplish really.

26:24And you sitting there and hearing their story, it really blows you away so that I love the undiscovered talent that comes across the TED stages. You know, in a sense, I love TED and I also love the moth, right? So you must listen to the moth, right? That's also an interesting source of edutainment, shall I say. So now I would like to know what separates a good TED flagship speaker from a remarkable one. Oh, it is how they start their story. So if you can grab people in the first 10 seconds of your talk where someone is leaning in, not because they can't hear, they're just so engaged. And I've seen this live and in person.

27:12And then I'm like, oh, she or he or they or they got them. because everyone in that audience is pretty much just leaning in because the first 10 seconds just grabbed their attention. And what always grabs their attention is how you personalize your story. You being a human and you weaving in your human aspect of what you personally were motivated and inspired by, saw, conquered or whatever, and really grasping that right at the beginning takes people on a wonderful ride. They are all in after that. So tell me some of your favorite first 10 seconds. I would think about someone who's the unexpected, like saying I was trapped in a well.