Secrets to Landing a TEDx: Advice from the World Record Holder [Frank King]

Want to access to TEDx applications and opportunities? Go here: RobinNathaniel.com

Are you ready to land your TEDx talk? 

In this episode, TEDx world record holder Frank King shares his proven strategies for securing a spot on the TEDx stage.

With over 12 TEDx talks to his name, Frank has mastered the art of getting noticed, standing out, and delivering unforgettable presentations. Whether you're a first-time speaker or looking to level up, this insider advice will help you fast-track your TEDx journey. Don’t miss your chance to learn from the best—watch now and start your TEDx success story today!

Connect with Frank King http://www.GetPaid4Speaking.com

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankkingcomedian/recent-activity/all/

FRANK's TEDx TALKS-
Born to Be Funny https://youtu.be/mugOzr6ItFk Mental With Benefits https://youtu.be/mCnsHSdAn48

A Matter of Laugh or Death https://youtu.be/IeMg6OFYfU0 Suicide,

The Secret of My Success https://youtu.be/3D4m33DXtsI

We Support MOSAIC GEORGIA Go Here to Donate: 👉https://bit.ly/donatetomosaic

WATCH Robin's TEDx TALK Go here: 👉https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHtx1N9YWig&feature=youtu.be

Join our FREE Facebook Group: Go here: 👉https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToTEDx

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
How many have you done for the record, Frank, I've
been selected fourteen times. Two of them I couldn't make
because I had conflicting paid engagements. So I've got twelve
in the can and number thirteen coming up in February.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
So we are back on Red Circle Talk and I
am super honored to have the record holder for most
ted X talks, my man, Frank King. Frank, welcome to
the show.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Thank you very much. I'm delighted to be here. Actually
I'm in wait a minute, oh, Portland Organ.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Very nice. So it's like morning time over there for you, huh.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
I've been up for hours, man, I'm a radically early rise.
I've already worked out, had breakfast, taking a nap.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
So what is your morning routine look like? Frank? If
you don't mind sharing a little bit, what does your
morning routine look like?

Speaker 1 (01:05):
I brace yourself. My alarm goes off at one A.
I get up, do a double shot of espresso, go
back to bed, lie there in the dark for about
an hour, just letting my mind wander hither and yon.
It's part of my creative process. If you send to me, Frank, Look,

(01:25):
I need a tagline for my podcast. I'd go, Okay,
I need to sleep on it. So I'd go to bed.
Next morning, i'd wake up and i'd just lie there
waiting and oftentimes something I'll you know, one of my clients.
It's talking about how awful online dating is. And it

(01:47):
was a zoom like a group coaching call, and it
was mostly women, and all of a sudden, everybody's going,
me too, me too, me too, me too. So I said,
I think you need to write a book, an anthology
of you know, bad online dating experiances. So I went
to bed and I thought, this's got to be a
good name for that. I woke up.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
I texted her at two in the morning mismatch dot com.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
She texted me back because she goes, hey, you woke
me up, your bastard, and b did you think that
up in your sleep? Yes, as a matter of fact,
I did. So I bet out. I bet at too,
you know, do my shower and show you. Then I'm
on the treadmill for thirty minutes wearing a seventy two
pounds weight vest because I'm training for my seventh bodybuilding

(02:32):
contest coming up next June. And then I stretch and
do my weight work, you know, resistance training, bands, barbels, whatever,
and then breakfast, and then I meditate twice a day
as part of my self care plan, so it's a
guided meditation about thirty minutes, kind of a nap, and
then after the nap, up and at the computer and

(02:53):
start my work, trying to book speeches on suicide prevention,
also trying to round up clients for a coaching program
ted X and how to make money speaking.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
What time do you get to bed?

Speaker 1 (03:07):
I try to get to bed by six thirty in
the evening.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
There it is, there, it is. That's the hack.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yes, well, you know I was. I was in radio
for a while and I actually got up a little
later than that. And people say it's hard to get
up at three to thirty in the morning. I said, no,
you know, the hard part is hard part is getting
in bed at six thirty seven o'clock. It's always something
to do. I mean, I don't know. I did a
morning show for about a year and a half and

(03:34):
got fired because there are two kinds of people in radio.
People have been fired, people are going to be fired.
And I had no idea how tired I was until
I got fired. You just kind of walk around in
a daze, not realizing just exactly how exhausted you are.
It was fun, but man, it was it was exhausting.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Wow. Well, I appreciate you sharing that with me because
I find myself, you know, I'm a pretty riser. I
get up at five am, but I don't do the
go to sleep early thing. I haven't, you know, I
haven't developed that discipline to like just get to bed early.
I feel like I'm you know, I'm trying to squeeze
the life out of the day, but I think it
kind of impacts me sometimes. So I appreciate you sharing that.

(04:16):
So Frank, folks want to know, man, First of all,
let's just talk about, you know, your first ted talk, like,
what led you to the stage, you know, what was
your process like, And then maybe we can just kind
of talk a little bit about your journey to be
the record holder for most TEDx talks. So just tell
me about your first experience with ted X.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well, I mean, after back up a little bit, I
began my on stage career as a comedian a day
after Christmas nineteen eighty five. I went on the road
with my girlfriend now my wife in thirty seven years,
I said to her that December, I'm going on the
road and be a stand up comedian. You want to
come along for the ride? And you know, I'm thinking
she's gonna go, oh, hell no, and she goes yeah.

(05:01):
So we gave up our jobs, our apartment, jumped in
my tiny little Dodge Colt, and we were on the
road twenty six and twenty nine nights in a row,
non stop, seven years and change. Worked with Foxworthy and
Ron White, Ellen DeGeneres, Paul Poundstone, Dan to Carvey, Steve Harvey,
Steve Harvey, Kevy if We're getting my ass kick one

(05:21):
day at a YMCA and Birmingham, Alabama. But that's another story.
But then when I came off the road, that's when
I did radio for about eighteen months. And when radio ended,
the comedy club thing was winding down, so I jumped
to corporate comedy. So I did comedy after lunch, after
dinner at conventions, and then the recession hit and that

(05:43):
dropped off eighty percent overnight and we lost everything in
a Chapter seven bankruptcy. And that's when I learned what
the barrel of my gun tasted like. Literally spoiler alert,
I did not pull the trigger, which usually gets a
nervous laugh from the audience. A friend of mine came up, Yeah, exactly, like,
should we be laughing at this?

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, Well to make sure they know it's supposed to
be funny. A friend of mine came up after my
keynote recently. He never heard me say I did not
pull the trigger, so he said to me, hey man,
how come he didn't pull the trigger? I go, hey man,
could you try to sound slightly less disappointed? So that's
where the humor is in the topic. Now. I had

(06:26):
always wanted to make a living in a difference, you know,
have content for the audience, takeaways, learning objectives, you know,
teach them something. Had no idea. How However, after that
close call with suicide, the fact that I live with
two middle illnesses, the fact they're more nuts in my
family than a squirrel turd, I decided that I could
keynote on suicide prevention if I got some training, which

(06:49):
you did. Now, second hurdle, who's going to take me serious?
After two and a half decades of stand up. My
wife said, do a ted X talk? I said, what's
the ted X talk? Just happened to get an invite
to apply to a ted X in Vancouver, British Columbia

(07:10):
that week. So I applied and I got it, and
I did it on suicide prevention, and that let everybody
in the speaking world know that Frank can do something
serious with humor, because people asked me, was ted X
always on your bucket list? Hell no, I didn't even
know what. I did not even know what it was.
My wife told me to do what and then I

(07:31):
did that one, and I guess the topic is hot
enough that two tex events called and said, do you
have any more talks? You know, different talks on mental
health between you and me. I didn't at the time,
but of course I went, yeah, of course I do.
So I created two more and then I just got
in the habit of applying, and you know, and I apply, apply, apply,

(07:56):
that's not tell people. Look, I got clients who came
to me and said, Frank, I applied a couple of
times around here, didn't get it, gave up.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
Well, there's part of the problem. You have to apply, apply, apply.
There are two hundred plus ted X talks in the
US and Canada, and I've had a CLIENTE get it
on the first try. I got mine on the first try.
I had a client didn't get it till the ninetieth try.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
But the average is probably two or three dozen maybe,
So you just have to keep applying and applying, and
people go, I want to do one near me. I've
never done a ted Ex that I didn't have to
fly to, So you know, you need to be ready,
and you have to pay your own way. Tedex doesn't
pay you. You don't pay them. You got to pay
your own way. Now it pays, It pays off in
other ways. You know, credibility, visibility, you know, it's a

(08:47):
great marketing tool, off user right. So that's how I
got my first one, and my second, my third, and
then my fourth, my fourth. I applied for it and
they liked the title and title so much. I didn't
have to audition, And I tell my clients, look, that's
the deal. The application is not really an application for

(09:08):
a ted X. It's a marketing pitch to the selection committee.
They get two or three hundred applications. You have got
to get their attention. You've got to have a hook,
some reason for them to continue reading when they you know,
to slow the scroll as they're going through all those applications.
It was called suicide the secret of my success, which
is counterintuitive dead man talking, which is a play on

(09:29):
dead men walking in the book in the movie, and
they called up and said, no, man, we love the
title subtitle I did so much, come on down and
do it. My fifth one, same thing. The title of
the fifth one was mental health and the orgasm treat
your depression single handedly, and I've got to call that.
That's good.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
That's good.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah. Well, bear in mind, I knew not every ted
Ax event would like that, and fifteen turned me down,
but I knew the one that said yes would really
like it, and they did so. When I've ever got
standing ovation for Wow, the tagline is tagline is I
love my iPhone, but it's my second favorite handel device.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
If you ever got any value from one of our episodes,
please do us a big favor and leave us a
glowing five star review on Apple podcast or wherever you
listen to the show. It would mean the world to
me because it helps us reach more listeners. Please feel
free to screenshot your review and tag us on social
media at Robin Marx. That's our O B B I

(10:32):
N M A r X and we would love to
share it on our stories now go ahead and hook
us up with that review. Five stars, five stars, five stars.
That's good, listen, I got. I want to unpack some
of that, Frank. So so many of the folks that

(10:52):
I meet and I've only done one ted xog how
many have you done?

Speaker 1 (10:56):
For the record, Frank, I've been selected fourteen times. Two
of them I couldn't make because I had conflicting paid engagements.
So I've got twelve in the can and number thirteen
coming up in February.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Very nice, very nice. So one thing that I that
I come across when I speak to people who want
to get on a ted X stage is that there's
always a barrier with the location. So unpack that a
little bit. You said, you've always had to fly to
the event and you always have to invest in it.
Talk to the people who are like, oh, I'm not

(11:30):
going to apply to that one because it's not local,
because I don't think they fully understand that folks rarely
get their first TEDx, you know, spot us in their hometown.
Can you talk to the folks about that a little bit.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
Yes, the guy who recently got it on the first try,
we were it was a new client. It was our
first time talking about ted X, and I send out
a list of x applications, you know, an Xcel spreadsheet
of every ten x US Canada and globally, and a
list of tedex's application links. Where the windows open right now.

(12:06):
So we log on and and we see this tedex
Jefferson Jefferson U University, and he goes, man, I went there,
and then we look and the deadline had passed the
day before. I go, look, Roger, let's apply. It's Sunday.
It's the Easter weekend. You know, maybe they won't notice

(12:28):
when they opened their email on Monday that it didn't.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
Come in on Saturday. It came in on Sunday. I mean,
we do really look at that closely.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
So as luck would have it, I don't know if
that was the case, but the case was they extended
the deadline anyway, and because he'd gone there and it
was right around the corner from where he lives, he
got it on his first try. But that's that's the
only time any of my clients have gotten anything close
to home. It's you know, the odds are just not

(12:59):
in your face. Unless let's say, some of the ted
X talks, they'll say, uh, ted X Duke. I've applied
for tex Duke a couple of times. I've gotten auditions.
But what they really want alumni, students faculty. So if
you are you know, you went to Duke faculty or

(13:21):
staff or you know, or you live in the in
the area, perhaps then you got to you got a
better shot than I do. Some of them flat out
and say, look, we just want students faculty. And so
let's say you went to that university, you know, you graduated,
you're in the lawn, you know, then you've got to
get a good shot of getting that ted X. But

(13:41):
that aside. You know, if you you don't have any
connection with the university of the town, they often ask
you in the application, what is your connection to Denver
or what is your connection to Charlotte. You don't have
to have one necessarily, and I'm always funny when I
don't have one. What's your connection to Bill Love? The

(14:02):
Draguars go drags uh in hopes they will laugh and
you know, okay, fine, Yeah, I just think you're you
just really reduce your odds if you're if you're unwilling
to travel, and if you use a ted X as
a marketing tool and you use it wisely. You know,
it is a it is a differentiator in your speaking career.

(14:27):
They let's say they look at three speakers and you
have a ted X and the other two don't. I
think you're going to get a harder look then not Garan,
I can't draw a straight line from a ted X
to a a speech. You know, booking. But I can't
believe that you know that because all a minor on

(14:47):
mental health or something related. So they all build my
brand as the mental health comedian. I think as a speaker,
used to have a ted X that you brand with,
a podcast that you brand with, a keynote, and ideally
the title of your keynote is something near the title
of your podcast, near the title of your ted X talk.

(15:09):
So there's three branding items that you you know, to
build your brand. Because I think as a speaker, and
you didn't ask this, but this is my this is
central to my coaching. You need to pick a lane,
a speaking lane. Mine is suicide prevention period paragraph and
so that's my lane. I want to become the thought

(15:30):
leader expert in that lane. The long game is and
it's starting to happen. Then when somebody goes looking for
a suicide invention speaker. They don't go looking for just anybody.
They come to me. They seek me out. I'm doing
an engagement tomorrow. They they found me. I mean that
that that you know, I don't know if it's SEO

(15:52):
or somebody saw me someplace else. And the one I've
got booked November six, last minute booking November six, they
saw me in a somebody in that in their selection
committee saw me earlier this year and and said nice
things about me. So it's beginning to happen that they're
not just looking for any suicide prevention speaker. They're beginning
to come looking for me. And that's and my goal

(16:15):
for you would be, I'm the mental health comedian. So
let's say you were the mental health comedian and somebody
had seen you and and we need to we need
somebody talk about suicide uh prevention. Well there's a guy,
uh mental health comedian. To just put in mental health
comedian and speaker in Google and he'll come up. That's

(16:37):
what I'm after. They can't remember your name, but they
remember you know something like your brand, So you come
up when they type in that and speaker.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
I love that, Frank and I think so many new
speakers and aspiring ted X speakers have limitations around the
idea of niching down to a topic because they feel
like maybe they'll like, you know, eliminate the size of
the audience. Where I try to tell people all the time, like,
if you can really hone in on that topic and

(17:08):
that idea, you'll be the go to person for it.
So I love that you framed it that way. Let's
talk a little bit about the habit of applying. So
you said that, and that like it like struck a
chord with me because it's one thing to like apply
get denied, and like I tried, right. I didn't mean
a rohund there, but I did. I didn't mean around there,
but I did right. But talk to me about making

(17:29):
it a habit and then if you can share any
best practices or tips around that headline and how to
make your applications stand out in a crowded room.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Yeah, I think the and I think what I'll do.
I'll email you the master list of all the tenex
socks you ask Canada and globally. Now you're you're going
to see the list and the list it all has
twenty twenty four on there. But if it was in
May of twenty twenty four, if it still exists, it's
going to be in May of twenty twenty five. And
you always want to start looking at that one about

(18:02):
four to six months ahead of time, because that's the
run up. You go to their website and see when
they open that application window. So I'll send you the
master list, and I'll send you a list to the
ones that are I got to listen about two dozen
right this minute where the windows open. So yeah, don't
if you get that list of your one of your listeners,
get a list, for God's sake, don't wait because one

(18:25):
of them, Scott, you know, maybe a deadline of October
thirty first or something. And by the way, here's a
tip for your listeners. Let's say they say the the
deadline is October thirty first. They can shut it down
October thirtieth if they've got all the speakers they need.
So never think you can push that deadline. I didn't
know that till this year. You know, what do you

(18:47):
mean they close the window? So the question was I
just went off on.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Just best practices for applications. You talked about the idea
of making a applying a habit. So just talk to
folks about some best practices specifically around like ways to
make your application stand out.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Okay, as for a habit, we have a coaching program.
It's called tex launch Back. We guarantee you at ted
X in ninety days or your money back. Now, the
way we can guarantee that is you have to do
your homework and we have to see the receipts. And
we believe that if.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
You apply for two TEDx talks a day, that would
be five days a week, ten a week for ninety days.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
What's that three months? So forty a months. You apply
for one hundred and twenty of the two hundred plus
in the US, you're going to land a ted X talk.
So I think best practices apply on average for two
a day. And here's the thing with AI. Now you
can you can cobble together the answers to the most

(19:56):
frequently asked questions. For example, give it was a three
cent summary, tell us why you're the person to do this,
tell us why this topic? Tell us why now? Why
anybody would care? So you've got those answers and then
you can put them in AI and put the theme
of the talk into AI and say, now take these

(20:17):
answers and make them relevant to the theme of this
ted X, so it will customize your answers to that
ted X. Same thing applies with speaking. If you're pitching
yourself for a conference, you know, an event for an association,
I put in, you know, give me a two paragraph summary,

(20:39):
three learning objectives, one takeaway and a paragraph and why
Frank King is the best person to do this and
make it relevant to and I put in the u
r L of the association and the u r L
of the association event. So it's very much customized to
their what I can do to solve their problems. So
I would say twice a day, five days a week

(21:00):
for ninety days, and you'll find yourself. And if we
can't make that happen for you, and you got the receipt,
we get copies, you get your money back.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
This is going to blow your mind. Data from the
US government's National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System found
that over three million child abuse cases are reported every year.
Let that sink in. That's why we are supporting Mosaic Georgia.

(21:31):
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(21:52):
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(22:12):
I t dot l y forward slash donate to Mosaic. Frank,
you are out here dropping full on gems like that
is especially like the AI piece because I think so
many folks, especially you know, folks who are maybe a

(22:33):
little more mature, are afraid of AI technology and fear
it so much and are not really leveraging the possibilities
and also just streamlining their process. You know. I think
that's a powerful gem, and I think that might be
the first time in these interviews that I've conducted that
someone is recommended, you know, leveraging AI for these applications,

(22:55):
So that's powerful.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
I love that it's made on the converse side, that
events side. I can crak out two conference applications either
a speaker proposal or a marketing email an hour and
customized where it would have taken me who knows how
long in the past. And there's a couple of things.
There's a a subscription service that I belong to call

(23:21):
Speaker Business dot Club Speaker Speaking Business dot Club. And
the guy that runs at has designed some AI tools
specifically for speakers. He and his partner wrote a book
on getting a book at association events and fed that
into this this AI tool. So it will, it will.

(23:45):
It's faster than chat when it comes to the strictly
on getting booked to speak at at conferences for associations.
And you can put your information in there and go,
give me a list of ten associations I'd be a
perfect fit for. Boom okay, now give me a list
of their events. Boom oh god. Yeah, it's just made.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
The whole process far more streamlined and fast. So oh
and I get one hundred I send my clients one hundred.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
Speaker leads a week, and you can get those from
my speaker leads dot com. My speaker leads dot com
twenty bucks a month. My speaker leads dot com very
nice and yeah, no, not all the pay you know,
So what you do is you short and filter in

(24:33):
the O column on the Excel spreadsheet, the oh column
description of the event, and usually the use the last
sentence usually says have you used paid speakers in the past?
Have you used speakers bureau? Or they'll say we'll cover
your registration, yes, cover this.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good. That's good, Frank. So now
we got folks applying. So they're applying now they they're
on your list or they joined you, and they're receiving
all of these these resources to get them onto the
teed X stage they land the ted X talk. Talk
to me a little bit about your preparation process, research process,

(25:14):
writing and also for your speeches. Any tips for memorization.
Do you memorize to use bullet points? Talk to me
about the actual preparation of the speech.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Well, can we take a step back to the middle
piece of the process, which is the audition?

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Yes. What you're after is, you know, I've had two
out of twelve where or two out of fourteen where
I didn't have to audition that. But that's rare, I mean,
that's not you know, so your chances are you're going
to get an audition. The way it works is this,
you apply two things, have three. One of three things
is going to happen. One they turn you down. We're
not saying you suck, but two they want to see

(25:52):
a five minute overview on video. Usually they ask for
like a two minute video or the app. They're saying,
we like the idea, but we want to know more.
Give us a five minute video. Tip if they say
two in a video or five minute video, do not
give them one second more. They're looking for people who

(26:13):
can follow orders. I had a pan of mine. It
was a sixty second video. He gave him sixty eight
blown out before they read another word. Same thing with
Give us three sentences, don't give them four. Give us
two hundred fifty characters, don't give them to fifty one.
Because if I'm on the selection committe and I got
three hundred apps to go through, I'm not looking for
the first reason to give you an audition. I'm looking

(26:35):
for the first reason not to throw you in the noeile.
I'll go to the next one because I got a
lot of these things to go through. So I've got
a whole speech called six things you can do to
kill your chances of landing at ted X. But we
can talk about a six in a minute. But in
the audition, let's say you get the audition, they're almost
always going to ask you, oh man, that's a great idea.

(26:59):
Now what are you going to teach the audience? You
need to have that on a document somewhere. Bullet pointed, great,
what are the takeaways? Again? You need to be able
to just rattle them off. I had a seasoned speaker
called me, Frank, I got the audition and I got
blown out. How'd you get blown out? They asked me

(27:20):
for a learning objectives? I go, and he goes, what's
a learning objective? I'm thinking, how long have you been
fucking speaking? So don't let don't get blown out on
a technicality. Yeah, So be ready because they'll probably ask you.
They also may ask you when did this idea occur
to you? And here's something that a lot of people

(27:44):
who want to do a ten X get. They stumble on.
This one is on the app It says, who do
you want to nominate? They don't tell you can always
nominate yourself. So that's the way they can keep the
number of people who apply down, So make sure you
always you know, you nominate yourself. That's fine. So anyway, yeah,

(28:05):
so at the audition, make sure you're prepared for those questions.
They almost always ask, and they'll ask you, are you
willing to work with the coach? And even though I
don't need a coach, and even even though some of
the coaches I've had sucked.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
Out loud, I always say, oh yeah, absolutely. So now
to the ted exak itself.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
I tell my students nowadays TEDEX events, many of them
are limiting the talk to twelve to eight to twelve minutes.
Eight to twelve minutes stated in the you know, in
the ted X rules is eighteen minutes max. But they
want shorter speech, higher impacts. But I tell my students, look,

(28:45):
don't write me an eight to twelve minute ted X.
Write me at ted X. I don't care if it's
twenty five minutes. Most of my first drafts are twenty
five minutes. Then we'll back out.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
I don't want you to cramp your creative style trying
to create a really short speech.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
Just write me speech and we will get it down
to the amount of time they give us for the speech.
And when you go, you can all they're not gonna
It's not like is it what is it? The Apollo?
But the clown comes out with sanman, Yeah exactly, it
ain't like that. And I drug off stings. If you

(29:21):
go over time, yeah exactly. Uh so you know, if
it ends up being I mean, it needs to be
that many minutes in rehearsal with them. But if you
go over in the event, you know, don't don't stress. Now,
I tell my students because almost every ted X talk
and I'm now representing something called speak Event Speak Event,

(29:42):
which is the number one ten ex competitor, and those
people and most TEDx events say this, memorize your speech.
Here's what I say to my clients. Nod, okay, and
don't do it because because because it then becomes a
recitation not a conversation. Now, if that's your if that's

(30:07):
the way you operate, if you feel like you need
to memorize it, okay, fine. But most people that I
work with really don't want to memorize the speech. I say,
memorize the outline, you know, the you know, macro ideas Roman,
and I write on my hand I put the Roman
numerals and one word on my hand because you can't

(30:28):
have notes at a TEDx. But if you watch my
TEDx talks every now and then, you'll see me do this.
Cover it. It covered it. Oh h And the audience
starts laughing, and people of a certain age get this joke.
It's my palm pilot. The younger people staring at me,
and I go, look, younger people google it. So yeah,

(30:51):
So I would say, memorize the outline. Yeah. I was
working with a speaker the other day and she's going
through this speech and she's she was good, she worked,
she'd given multiple speeches, she worked at Amazon, she was
head of safety at Amazon, she managed like thirty five
thousand people. She'd given speeches ever, and it was horrible.
And I said, Marlowe, well, what the hell was that?

(31:15):
And I said, are you did you memorize that? She goes, yeah,
I remember. I go, fuck that, it's your story, you
know it. So she put down the notes. She did
it for me again, completely different. She goes, well, you're right,
I know my story. And I and then when she
performed it, I'm watching her and you know she's animated.

(31:36):
You can tell she's not trying to figure out what
the next line was. You know you can toss in
and aside. I did a Ted talk where my closer
was something I hadn't even planned it all. It just
occurred to me and I did it.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
And it's the one thing when people see that Ted
exalk they mentioned, oh man, I love that clothes about
Sissterphus and rolling the rock up a hill.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
I just threw that in. It just occurred to me
in the moment. So yeah, it's when the the one
I did on mental health, the orgasm. I knew there
was fifteen percent of that talk that the committee was
going to take issue with. So when I did my
dress rehearsal the night before, I only did eighty five
percent of my dog because I didn't want to get
in a fist fight because I've been doing this a

(32:15):
long time. They gave me a coach and they were
micro managing me. Finally I said to him, look, this
is this is your first TEDx dog, this is my fifth.
You know you're trying to teach Michael Jordan how to
do jump shots. I got this, and my coach told
the committee she said, I know Frank just from one conversation.

(32:40):
He will do what I ask, he will change what
I ask him to change. He will fix what I
tell him fix. But I got news for you. When
you put that microphone in his hand, he's going to
do whatever the fuck he wants to do. And she
was absolutely right. And one of the committee members who
didn't like me at all, I didn't like my didn't

(33:00):
think I belong there, came up afterwards, and this takes
a lot of guts on her part. She goes, Frank,
I didn't think you belonged here. I didn't like your topic.
I thought it was you. But I got to tell
you something. I have never been so happy to be
so wrong, because I know I've been doing this a
long time. I know the speak event. When I did that,

(33:21):
I did one. They rewrote my first three paragraphs, and
it's a story I've told many times. So when they
said when I turned to my final draft, I put there,
I put their three paragraphs in there. When I got
on stage, I threw those as the fuck out and
I did my three paragraphs because I knew it would work,
and it did. So Yeah, so just nod when they

(33:45):
ask you to do something, and do what you know,
what your gut tells you you should be doing.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
I love that that's good, Frank. Well listen, Frank, we're
going to wrap up, but before we do that, I
want to make sure folks know how they can get
in contact with you, how they can maybe learn more
about your coaching services, and then anything you're working on
that you want to share.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
Okay. So when I decided to codify my tenexcent, I've
got ten X launch pad and the six figure speaker,
so it's a combination program. So I'm I'm in a
living room and I'm just like this, what am I
gonna call it? What do you are? L what domain name?
And my wife hears me, and she goes and she
doesn't know anything about the internet. You know, it's not

(34:26):
her bless her heart, thank god. She goes, what about
how to make money speaking dot com? I'm thinking, yeah,
that's going to be available in twenty twenty whatever. So
I went to go Daddy, I typed it not to
make money speaking dot com? Son of a bitch. I
got chills. It's available, So go to how to make

(34:49):
money speaking dot com? Because you know, my wife knew
more about the Internet, she would have never suggested that,
because that's just you know, you sure, that's gone, long gone,
so that's that's my that's my and so that's I'm
working on text thirteen, Text number thirteen. I'm waiting to
find out the theme. I always try to work in

(35:11):
some mental health mental illness stuff regardless of the theme.
So it's I'm waiting on the theme so I can
figure out how I'm gonna wedge my you know, just
a little bit about mental health, mental illness into the talk.
That's my current project. Tomorrow, I'm speaking to the Washington
State Patrol. I don't know if you know this, but
first responders, police, firefighters, and so forth more die by

(35:34):
suicide than die in the line of duty. So this
will be my second speech for the Washington State Patrol
in the month. And then there's a one in November
at a refinery, mining extraction whatever has one of the
highest rates of suicide as well. So that's those a

(35:54):
my and then I'll be back in Ohio for a
little fundraiser. I'm doing for a fraction of what I
I charged because they called an asked and I haven't
got anything booked, and it's a good cause, and you
know they're paying me, but it's you know, I mean,
I'm not gonna lose money, I'll make a little money.
So right, cool? Working on a book?

Speaker 2 (36:15):
Oh nice? What's the book about?

Speaker 1 (36:18):
Uh? As I mentioned, I do bodybuilding. It's hard to believe,
but I do. It's called true natural bodybuilding. They polygraph
you beforehand, they year and test you after, make sure
you're not doing steroids. And I've said to them, look,
if I'm doing steroids, somebody's ripping me off, but you
can't tell. When I got my clothes on, I got

(36:39):
like eight percent body fat, you know, underneath as I'm ripped,
but you can't tell. So if something I'm going to
write a book called Undressed for Success, look good naked.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
You're you're the first person who said that under my
clothes I'm ripped. That was good? Oh man, Frank. This
has been an absolute honor and pleasure. This is our
first season doing the show, and we're asking people if
we come back for a season two, would you join
us for another episode next year?

Speaker 1 (37:10):
Yeah? Because you know what we can talk about, are
you is your audience? Aspiring speakers? Speakers, aspiring speakers. Yes,
we can talk about getting How do you get booked
at colleges? That's an episode. How do you get booked
on cruise ships. That's an episode. So you know there
are lots of ways to make money in the speaking business.
Colleges cruise ships, and colleges cruise ships, and and and

(37:32):
and I can we can talk about why you should
be looking to get booked at associations not corporations. Why
an association engagement because the audience is full of corporations
with the same problem you're trying to solve. So we
can talk about getting booked, the associations, getting booked, colleges,
getting booked on cruise ships. Each one could be an episode,
or we could combine whatever works for you. Guys.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
Awesome, Well, we can't wait until the next time. Frank,
thank you so much for joining us, and we'll talk
to you.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
My pleasure man.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
If you can hear the sound of my voice, you
stuck around until the end. Thank you for being an
overachiever In all seriousness, We appreciate you so much and
would love to connect further. So if you could please
visit Robinnathaniel dot com and sign up for our free
Red Circle Talk newsletter. Every week I'll share a link

(38:26):
to our newest episodes, but also I'll give you some
cool resources like TEDx, applications, trainings, and more. Views and
opinions expressed in the podcast belong to the original creators
and do not represent the views or opinions of Ted,
ted Talks, or any related trademarks or copyrighted works in

(38:47):
any official or authorized capacity. The purpose of this podcast
is to provide commentary from a fan's perspective.