Kathy Leckey Sucessfull Storytelling Summit

Watch/Listen here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i4DzMS6Vy4&t=42s ] I like yours because you you start out and and where you you did a great job of you had us all captured in there of we were going to talk about all the cool things your kids were doing and then then it kind of changed and i lked that and i think the the TED talks where you you take somebody down one road and all of a sudden you just yank them in the other directIon and I think that's a a good good method that was really good yeah so how did you get involved with TEDX?

Ooriginally somebody sent me an application for it uh they knew what my son was doing what our family was doing at the time we had a non-profit and my kids were very involved in giving back and so I originally went in there to talk about that and I wanted my son to do but i actually wanted my son to do the talk at the time he was only about 10 years old and so I thought I would take the interview process do that for him just find out more information about what it actually was and what it would require and when I went to the the meeting to talk about my idea things changed really quickly.

As I told the story about what we were doing the table kind of turned and I ended up taking on the TED talk myself yeah and I really I really thank the woman who was at the table who recognized that that there was something that I needed to say and you know she kind of leaned across the table and grabbed my hand and she said you know you you need you have something to say there's something that you need to do here. She was my mentor through the process and she helped me put together my talk and really was a great guidance through the whole thing.

Like I said a little bit earlier I loved your talk because you you your talk happened just like you're saying you know you you were focused on on the kids story and then you just switch and that that was a a good transition and uh really kind of that that was your your big hook you had us all in and then you really hooked us in and that was good.

That's how it happened in that meeting I was sitting there and I was telling them all the great things that the kids were doing and they all said don't you know this is amazing and they were so impressed and then I you know then the tears started to come and I said you know you have no idea you really have no idea what we're going through right now and so that's when it all came out and I am so thankful for that it was honestly one of the best experiences of my life it's one of the things that I’m the most proud of it it continues to be you know just something that opens doors for me people you know will reach out because of it and so I've had a lot of great conversations, met a lot of great people through it I ended up staying on withTEDx and volunteering as a mentor as a planning you know I was on the planning committee I got involved with another ted organization so it really became a big part of what I was doing I had my kids volunteering for it. It's a great community it's just a great community of people who the people who are putting it together are so passionate about it and then the people that that you know we bring in to do the talks are so diverse and so um interesting and passionate about whatever it is they're talking about yeah i'm on the planning committee this year and unfortunately we had to delay our event until the fall but uh it's just you're sitting around the table and you know we i was talking also earlier that people don't realize that it's all volunteers that run the TEDx events you know it's not like these guys are getting paid and so sometimes things take a little bit longer and as a speaker that can be frustrating to find out where you're at in the process but you have to realize that these are volunteers but they're passionate volunteers and most of them are former speakers as well so you should really be able to do one.

I have a dream of organizing one in my town at the high school i'd really love to do a youth event to get young people on the stage speaking about things that they are interested and passionate about and giving them that experience at a young age so and i have a daughter at the high school that I you know I have the idea of us working on something like that together so I guess I 'm putting it up figured out there now that it is something i'd really love to be able to do.

We have a local university and I know about half the faculty there from different organizations around town and church and I've thought about approaching them and saying you know why don't you guys host a TEDx for your university same thing it's just once you get it in in your blood it's like this is just an awesome awesome way to share ideas and you just want to keep sharing those ideas that's kind of why I'm doing this summits.

I love it yeah I love that you're doing this because like i was saying before there are so many people who reach out to me especially through Linkedin they'll reach out and ask you know how they can get on the stage and just or just start sharing that they have an idea that they'd love to do it but haven't really thought about how to get there and so they'll ask for advice so a lot of people are definitely looking for some help on the path to get there.

So based on that question what what's some advice that you give to to people to help them figure out how to get on that TEDx stage?

I usually direct them to the website because there's an interactive map right on that site where they can find past events and the the um they're usually links to the people who organize the events and so those are the first you know that's the first place I would start is to contact past organizers but they could still be current organizers you know it depends on um on that but uh when i was thinking about doing it here that's exactly what I did I looked for organizers in my area that I could connect with that would give me some advice maybe some help and so I encourage them to use that website as a tool and connect with people they're on the website there's information about how to do a TEDx talk what the guidelines are um so it can you know some people have come to me with an hour-long video yeah and so they have to that's probably the hardest part is editing down into an acceptable time frame which we've talked about changes you know anywhere from 7 to 18 minutes but the editing part is is definitely a challenge and it was for me too I had I had you know pages and pages and pages of what I had written out and it was it was a challenge and it was really uh it was um it was really good for me to go through the process of editing out what was really important and what what would you know kind of tell the story in the best way.

So you kind of talked about how how much fun and enjoyable the theTEDx process was and and helping with the organization what's some frustrating things that you have seen on your TEDx journey well exactly what you said is that it is largely a group while it is all a group of volunteers and so um leadership has to be really in tune with the team and the speakers so communication is key um there's so much or there can be so much anxiety on the part of the speaker and so really guiding a speaker through the process is so important and making sure that they are comfortable and that they have everything that they need I mean when I gave my speech that in that group I really I was treated so well and they had they had a party right before the talk where we were able to meet with donors and sponsors and it was you know it was a vip party it was just a lot of fun but it did it made the people who were speaking feel special and feel like they were a part of something bigger than just themselves getting up on that stage and and that for me was big because I was really nervous I mean I kept saying you know I don't know why I ever thought that this was a great idea I was terri I was to say nervous i was terrified absolutely terrified but it came down to feeling like I had something I had to say and I needed to get it out and it had to be said and so that was what pushed me out onto the stage as i you know kind of held on tight.

I think most people I know what i've given two of them and both times about halfway through I'm like Ican't do thisIjust can't do it Ican't take this and put it into this and what the second time I'm like you know what I did this the last time why did I do this to myself?

It’s is it's it's scary and it's very well especially or in my case I shouldn't say especially but in my case it was a very personal story and it was emotional and so it it was you know a vulnerable place to be in and so it just took a little bit of extra breathing I mean the breath breathing is really what got me through that talk um knowing how to keep myself calm through the situation we were told that we would have a teleprompter and then I think maybe the day before we were told we would not and so um that was frustrating to say the least so I had to really memorize everything and although it was my own story i wanted it to flow in a certain way and i didn't want to forget something um excuse me so I took my sheets of paper of all my notes and I laid them down on the floor and so as I was speaking I was able to just kind of visually look down and guide myself through through the talk. I knew where my points were yeah so that worked out but that definitely added to the nerve factor and production.

I mean there's a frustrating topic right there production just making sure that all the videos uh from each speaker populate and that the sound is good and the cameras and there's so much production that goes into that um that that can be frustrating with people who are in charge of that part yeah and I think that's the different TEDx events you you see that production level um you know the the certain number of cameras and the the quality of the lighting and everything and you know i was blessed my first talk was at TEDx Greenville in south carolina they've been doing it for 10 years so they've they really professional when it comes to the video and so a lot of the videos from greenville do very well because of that professionalism on the video so that that does make a big difference when you're trying to select what TEDx event you want to be at you know watch the former videos and you know if it's dark and grainy you're probably going to have dark and grainy when you do yours so definitely consideration right.

What is it that you learned the most from doing a TEDEx talk?

I mean there were there are a few things one is that personally on a personal level having done that talk and being honest about our situation and what was happening to us it set the precedent for the way that we were able to handle the situation that we were going through in our life so um that was a that was a huge thing it was we were going through wasn't a secret anymore everything was out in the open it was on youtube it was public and so there was no hiding at all and that was a huge freedom that it gave to myself and my family my kids so for that um that was the lesson in in being honest and being authentic and in knowing that in doing so everything you know worked out well and we wereh there was there was no negative that came from from that so that was really good um it was you know it was like a personal challenge just to be able to do that kind of public speaking in that format without audience so it was a it was just a you know kind of a personal challenge and knowing that i had the ability to do that uh just kind of testing my my myself you know.

Did you watch some videos before to kind of learn how to do a TEDx or do you have a favorite video that you you like to to watch or to share with other people?

I watch I watch I’ve watched so many of them I do I know Ihave a favorite i'd have to look it up i don't even know there's one that i do share i don't know uh which one it is right now i can't think of which one it is right now but uh i did not do a lot of watching them beforehand i didn't really want to compare myself to other people what other people had done I didn't want to set a bar for myself that I might not feel like I was able to reach I really wanted it to be what what I could do um and so and and that's something that carries through today you know that ted talk was a few years ago but um as I as I do other things in my life I'm very careful not to look at other other people in the industry who are doing what I'm doing and compare myself to them so I try to take in a unique approach to whatever it is I’m doing. let's go ahead and move away from some of the the TEDx stuff and ask more fun questions you ready for that?