This year's topic was reinvention: your company, your customers and ourselves; a volunteer that works at Lilly happened to be involved with this year's TedX event and knew enough about my journey so he approached me about telling my story and tying it in the reinvention that occurs at Back on My Feet.
It was an internal event so I said sure. No big deal, not really thinking about the details. I had 180 other things going on between then and now, including three races and our largest fundraising event of the year for more than 350 people. So I didn't give it much thought. As I would find out later, it was a really big deal!
A few weeks out I started to think about what I would say. I found out that my title and slides were due pretty far in advance, so they offered a workshop on how to put together a Ted talk. Hosted by Rob, the recently retired speech writer for the company and three CEOs for more than 20 years, he gave us great tips on how to get the audience's attention, a catchy title and that you had to have a call to action. So I came up with the title "Taxi Cab to Ironman - relating homelessness and running."
The Sunday before my big talk (5 days to be exact) I started to put together my thoughts. I watched about 5 Ted talks online to get inspiration. Nothing. Then I came across Diana Nyad's Ted talk (first woman to swim from Cuba to Florida) and I was in awe and I knew what I was going to do.
Monday morning (4 days!) I put my thoughts to paper and wrote the 10 minute talk. Approximately 5 hours later I went to Lilly to present it for my friend Tim, who gave one last year, my friend Tom who had recommended me and the event organizer Jeff. It was really great to be able to get up and experience the stage and the BRIGHT lights that made me feel like I was melting wax.
I decided to read from my notes at this point, I didn't want to memorize something that was going to change and then chance making a mistake on Thursday. I read it and asked what to cut. They said absolutely nothing. Crap, I'm over 30 seconds. They gave a few suggestions of things to add to clarify terms such as "they took my timing chip." They all agreed it was pretty kick ass and they were laughing and even getting a little choked up.
I do some fine tuning and present it again on Wednesday. This time for Rob and about a dozen other employees on the TedX committee. I'm just about as nervous as when I went to the start line of Ironman Arizona. The man who writes all the speeches for the CEO of one the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world was going to be listening to me and providing feedback. ACK!
I delivered it and asked what to cut or what needed to be clarified. Rob: "nothing, it was perfect. Can't wait for tomorrow!"
What?! Nothing? Was I hearing that right? No way. I went to my car, pulled up "Damn it Feels Good to Be A Gangster" from the movie Office Space on my phone and drove back to work.
Thursday morning arrived! Gah! I was a little nervous, had I memorized everything?
At lunch I went to practice. I was missing lines, I couldn't remember what I was supposed to say, I was repeating content. Sweet Jesus, I was totally and utterly screwed. I was about to make a complete idiot of myself, my organization and this opportunity.
The creator of School House Rocks was on stage before me, a little entertainment before I kicked off the "reinventing ourselves" section of the day. I went back stage to get my mic on and read through everything one more time. I couldn't concentrate with his singing, so I plugged my ears and read the content as many times as I could. He was about to wrap up so I was waiting on the side of the stage. Then he decided he wanted to sing another song! The organizers are freaking out, he's already over his time. It was pretty funny. Then he starts another verse, then starts talking about planned parenthood. A train off the tracks. This laughter back stage really relaxed me.
At the very end my mind went completely blank about my closing thought. I took a long pause as I gathered my thoughts, I racked my brain "Chrissy, come on! THINK! What are you supposed to say now?!!" I found the line in the corner of my mind and finished the talk.
Immediately after I left stage Rob found me and gave me a huge hug. He said I had nailed it and he was so inspired and impressed. Jeff found me and about knocked me over with a hug saying I had hit the ball out of the park. I couldn't walk 10 feet without someone stopping me. I went to go in the lobby to say good bye to a friend who had come and I was approached about speaking at two conferences coming up! I got a text "You had me crying and then immediately laughing" and it was talked about by employees after as I received several more messages from people who had "heard" about how powerful my story and talk was.
The audience was 250 people and more than 4,000 online in 30 countries and there were several "watching" parties at other Lilly offices. There were about a dozen executives from other companies in addition to ones from Lilly. The work that Back on My Feet is doing, especially the powerful outcomes through personal reinvention, was the focus the second half of my talk and I hope it will be what sticks with the audience.
I appreciate all the support! Everyone was so kind to pass along words of encouragement! Thanks to everyone who was able that made it a point to attend the presentation. When I get a link to the recording I will share it.
This experience happened at THE right time in my life. I'm so thankful for this experience and so lucky for the opportunity! Timing is everything and I'll post about how this experience was exactly what I needed another time.
Chrissy, I really enjoyed reading about your experience. I feel blessed to have been a part of it. You really nailed it!
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