Step Up to the Mic! #25 - TedX Curator, Speaker, Author... Michael Ashford!!!

Michael Ashford helps people communicate in ways they were never taught in school, having spent years practicing leadership communication, conflict communication, and change activation as a marketing executive as well as a speaking and leadership communications coach. He is the host of the Rethinking Communication podcast and the author of "Can I Ask A Question?", he has a Masters degree in Communication, and his work across various platforms has been featured in publications like Men's Health Magazine and Podcast Magazine.

Michael is a TEDx curator and speaker coach, and talks about what makes a great TEDx pitch and how to craft an amazing TEDx Talk. He has helped curate and coach speakers for 10 TEDx events now, and several of his speakers have earned more than 1 million views on YouTube. This is an amazing episode. Listen now. 

His website:  https://michaelashford.com/

His Newsletter:  https://michaelashford.com/newsletter

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Step Up to the Mic. This is the place for aspiring and established speakers to take the stage, deliver their talks, and bring their messages directly to you. Folks, our featured speaker today is our featured guest. We're breaking the norm today for this podcast. We're doing an interview format because the topic that this gentleman uh brought to my attention and wanted to come on and talk about today is of a great, great interest to so many of you. So, folks, um, listen up. Now, a lot of you folks are talking about TEDx Talks, and uh this guy, he's a curator of TEDx Talks, he's a TEDx talker, he's also the author of Can I Ask a Question? He's the host of the Rethinking Communication Podcast. He is a speaking and leadership communication coach, which we're gonna hear about today, also, and he's got a monthly newsletter called The Follow Up. Please welcome to the show, Michael Ashford. Michael, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 1:01

I'm doing great, Rory. And I'm I'm gonna start using that phrase TEDx Talker instead of saying I did a TEDx talk. I'm gonna use TEDx talker. I like that better. But thank you for having me on, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

No problem. Sometimes when you're just sort of like winging the intro, you know, you're like, hmm, where are we gonna go with this?

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Who knows what comes out? That happens on the stage too. So I think everybody listening can probably relate.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Exactly. All right, Michael, I'll tell you what, we've got all kinds of stuff we can talk about today. The the TEDx stuff, of course, I definitely want to get to. Um, but you know, before we do that, tell everybody a little bit about who is Michael Ashford, you know, and uh what what kind of got you into all of this stuff that we're talking about right now?

SPEAKER_01 1:38

I think the summary would be I care deeply about helping communicate, people communicate well, whether that's on a stage, whether that's in a boardroom or a meeting room, whether that's at a conference, whether that's in your personal relationships. I don't think the way that we were taught in our formal education to communicate was well, was well-rounded. I don't, I think a lot of our informal education failed us when it taught us to how do we communicate to activate change, to inspire others, to overcome conflict. And so a lot of the work that I do is to do exactly that, to try and help people bring their ideas forward in a way that resonates with people, that drives the change that they want, whether that's for themselves or for others. It all comes back to this idea of man, if we could just communicate well with each other, I think a lot of the world's problems would get solved. And I'm not gonna stand up here and talk about world peace, but but it it does. So much of my career, whether it's been in marketing or journalism or now coaching, so much of that it the undergirding is good communication. And that's what I love to teach. That's what I care about.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Nice, nice. And you were a journalist for a while. Is that right? Did I read that?

SPEAKER_01 2:59

I was, yeah. That actually I started college as a civil engineering major and then graduated with a mass communications and journalism degree. So normal, right? Totally normal path for somebody to go on.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

I'm like, I know there's a path between those two points.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

It's a it's an interesting one, it's a long, windy one. But I right out of college, I I worked as a editor at a daily newspaper in small town, Kansas, about 30, 25,000 people in small town, Kansas, met my wife there, and uh yeah, eventually got out of the journalism world because of the hours and the pay, but the the the journalist never left me. I still consider myself an independent journalist in some ways to this day.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Yeah. And now you're a coach. I mean, is that kind of uh what you're doing for a living at this point, or are you doing other things like setting up TED Talks and things like that?

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Uh full-time, I'm actually the senior director of customer marketing at a software company. I've been a marketing leader for 15-ish years now. And then I do the speaking and leadership coaching on the side. I'm also the volunteer uh head speaker coach at an event called TEDx Manitou Springs here in Colorado, where I live. And I'm also the curator of that event. So I'm the one picking every person that you see step onto our red dot. I'm the one saying, yep, I want that person. And then helping them coach, uh coach them to bring their idea, their idea worth sharing to the stage on uh on Go Time Day, which our next event is coming up here in May. So we're in the thick of it right now.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Nice. Now, um, in terms of the TEDx talk, I know that there's kind of a lead, you know, time on that. Do you already have your speakers picked out for that event or are people still applying? How does that kind of work?

SPEAKER_01 4:42

We do. Um, we pick ours about six months out from the event. So we actually selected ours right after the first of the year in January for this event in May. Um and and gosh, whenever we put out that call for speakers, Rory, I I literally get thousands of applications. Most people have no idea where Manitou Springs, Colorado is. It's right outside Colorado Springs. Most people have heard of that. But I'm I'm shocked. People from all over the world literally have have applied to our events. We've done, I believe this is our ninth event. I've coached at another one in TEDx Boulder before. Um, but it it is. We just get thousands and thousands of applications whenever we put out a call for speaker.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

That's awesome. All right, I'm just gonna throw this out there for anybody who's listening who has the TEDx um moniker, the label, the brand. Everybody knows what it is. Everybody's heard it. Everybody, oh, I want to do a TEDx talk. What is it really? What is it um designed for? And why is it so huge?

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Well, everybody uh or most people, most people obviously listening to this will know the concept and framework of TED Talks. And those uh those are the primary, the organization we call it Big TED. Those are their their primary method to get out what the moniker is, ideas worth sharing. We think that there are ideas out there that we want to bring to the stage. And in the TED world, the the big TED Talk, you know, everybody always uses the cliche when they made a point. And thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Uh those are those are often uh highly curated, very well-known public figures in a lot of instances. But TEDx, think of it like you've got the McDonald's corporation up here, and then each in each TEDx event is an independently licensed event under the TED brand. So you have TEDx Mile High, which is the TEDx event in Denver, Colorado, here where I live. Uh TEDx Manitou Springs, where I'm the head speaker coach and the curator, TEDx Boulder, TEDx uh go, gosh, all over the place. It can be educationally focused. There are thousands of TEDx events all around the world. And they are people just like you, people just like me, who the organizers, those of us who are organizing those events, want a way to bring a community together. Community, connection, uh, enjoyment, sharing of an idea. A lot of us are very purpose-driven in that way. And so we want to provide a platform for other people who are the same way, purpose-driven, have an idea that they deeply believe in that they want to get out to the world. We want to provide the stages for that.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Nice. Now, when you say that you're a coach of this sort of thing, what are you coaching people on?

SPEAKER_01 7:48

The full gamut. I've coached everyone from I want to give a TEDx talk, but I have no idea where to start. How do I even find where where the TEDx talks are happening? That's easy to do, by the way. Just go to the TEDx website and there's a whole map. But um, when I find an event that I want to apply for, how do I apply? What are they looking for? What makes an idea stand out as a curator? What are you looking for? And then on the flip side, once you actually are chosen, okay, I have this idea, but how do I put it together? And and so often we think of TEDx talks as having a certain voice and a certain rhythm and a dialect on stage. And it's not that at all. I think some people get into that mindset sometimes, but I'm doing everything from stage presence coaching to how do you uh how do you change your voice based on the line that you're delivering to what are you actually saying? It it's from idea to delivery on that stage the next day or or that day of the event. And then we do do some events uh as our event, TEDx Manitou Springs, we do some events to generate ideas for the community. Um, we are a nonprofit, so there is there's part of that as well. And we do, of course, promotion of our speakers' talks afterwards, which is often one of the best parts of the whole thing when the talk actually goes live.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Right. I have people ask me, you know, do you get paid for a TEDx talk? Is it some big huge thing? And if not, then and and I already know no, you don't, but then then why? Why do I want to do a TEDx talk if I'm a speaker? What do I get from doing that?

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Holy cow. It is a it is a massive stage, literally and figuratively. Uh every so many people have heard of TED Talks or TEDx talks, and it is it can be a ramping uh a ramp or a jumping off point for your speaking career. We've had several speakers at TEDx Manitou Springs alone create an entire speaking career from their TEDx talk that they did. That was that was their goal going in. They had a good idea, so it wasn't like we just wanted to be a business development platform for them, but they used it as a jumping off point. It's it's instant credibility when you because there are standards to hold a TEDx talk. There are standards that we as the organizing team have to abide by and commit to that you will stand on your on our stage, on our red dot, and deliver a talk based on these standards. It's not it's not a motivational talk, or we are told not to do motivational talks. There they have to be grounded in experience, they have to be grounded in fact. We talk a lot about head over heart in the TEDx world. That's that is a phrase that Ted has given us to inform our speakers. We care as much about the facts and the research and the information that you're sharing, not so much or not as much as you just care about this idea. And there's a difference there between I'm not begrudging motivational speaking, by the way. That has its place. It just is not for the TEDx world, but it is an enormous platform.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

So, what ideas are okay with the TEDx, you know, curator, you know, yourself? Uh, because everybody can say, hey, I have an idea, and I want to talk about this, right? Um, in your world, what ideas is acceptable for a TEDx stage? I mean, obviously there's a reason I'm asking this. I've heard a whole lot you know over here.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

So the thing that I look for the most is the idea that you're bringing to me. Is it based in your lived experience? Do you have firsthand uh primary sourced experience or information that you're bringing to us? So often, Rory, I see talks that piggyback off of other people's work. And it's not that you can't cite other people's work within your talk, but so many try to take the idea of Simon Sinek's start with why and try to build off of it or try to juxtapose against it, or you know, they're they're just they're leveraging another idea to try to try to try to build their credibility for their for another idea that isn't really theirs. And I can see that in how the information's presented, I can see that in in the videos that I review or the question, the answers to the questions that I I review. Is is the idea actually founded in primary your primary sources? Did you do it? Have you experienced it? Have you researched it? Have you built it? All of those things. I want you on the stage, not somebody else's idea that you've repackaged. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Yeah, no, I appreciate the the description of it because I think there's a lot of gray area, you know, with people who want to talk about this. And yeah, um, and with this show alone, I have people talking about, you know, hey, do you know anything about TEDx talks? How do I get on one? And so on. We're for a lot of folks to the website. So it kind of works out, but but because it's such uh I travel in a lot of circles of podcasters, speakers, authors, sort of creatives, and that is just there's an overriding, overwhelming um level of people don't understand anymore what a TEDx talk is. Um, I'll give you a particular example. There's um one of the guys that I know who's also a podcaster, he's been preparing, you know, what he wants to have is to be a TEDx talk. He applied to someplace that's in Colorado, also uh happens to be the same state. Um and he's he's applying now. I guess their application is going on right now. Yeah, yeah. So he's applying for that, and they're looking for speakers or dancers or musicians, or is that the TEDx stage now? Or is that some unique circus over here that maybe shouldn't have the TEDx moniker with it? I'm I'm curious what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Yeah, the the talk is the talk. Uh, but even we at our event, we have uh performers at our event. So in between we typically have six speakers deliver their TEDx talks at an event, and after every two, we do some sort of a performance. We've done uh poetry readings, we've done uh singing bowls, you know, the bowls that that create all these kind of chiming um tones. We've we've done a singing bowl one. We've had singers and guitar players and and performers of other instances. Uh our our organizer, Mickey, she is adamant in trying to find a magician. She wants a magician at one of for as one of our performances. But those are those are the performance side of of TEDx. I do know some TEDx events incorporate those into the actual event themselves as and they'll promote them as hey, this was a quote unquote TEDx talk. That's that's not what I look for, that's not what we look for at TEDx Manitou Spring, so I can only speak for our event. Of course. But I I also do want to go back to something you you asked in in what it is not earlier. Um it is it is not a chance for you to just stand up and be a lecturer as well. Oh, okay. I see that quite often as uh uh in in some of the reviews that I I do too. I I don't want a uh lecture like I'm sitting in a university lecture hall. That um I I I I do see that as well.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

So it's not a place to teach a concept or something. You can teach.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

You can yeah, yeah. I I want you to teach, I want you to inspire, I want you to to share that idea, right? And a lot of that does does require teaching, especially if it's you know, uh if you're talking about something more on the sciences. Like when with our events, we try to bridge the gap or or run the gamut of we want somebody who's more scientifically minded or or more medically minded, perhaps. At our last event, we had an actual ear, nose, and throat doctor give a talk, versus somebody who may be a speaker or a leadership coach, or somebody who may be, you know, not in the hard sciences. We we run the gamut here. I want you to teach, but I don't want you to teach as if I want you to teach us what you know based on an exploration that you've been on, rather than believing you just have the right answer and you want to make sure everybody else has that right answer. There's some nuance, there's some subtlety to that there. That yes, you can teach us, but teach us by by bringing us along with you rather than kind of uh forcing an idea on us.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

I love that. I also want to interject here and just say that I really appreciate your willingness to just sort of take whatever question I'm throwing at you. Of course. And because this this is not your event that we're speaking about necessarily, and uh, I don't want you to feel like you're sort of put on the spot having to defend TEDx talks or anything. Hey, I bring it. Everybody wants to be there, but yeah, it uh it just has been a when you and I first connected, um, the first thought in my mind was I hope we can get some clarification. And I think that's kind of it. Uh, we have so many folks who think, oh, this would make a great TEDx talk. They don't have any reason why. You know, they just yeah, because I think it'd be a good talk, it'd be a good TEDx talk, right? Because I'd love to be on a TEDx stage, that makes it a good TEDx talk. And it's like, you know, it might be a good talk for a podcast. Um maybe for you to do a presentation on YouTube about it, but yeah, yeah, I'm not sure if it's a TEDx talk. So um, you know, let me uh let me run something by you in terms of the nuance, if that's okay. If you don't know, yeah, of course, absolutely. Um, and I'm just I'm not trying to get on a stage, so you're not gonna like hurt my feelings. Okay. Um but you know, I have like uh seven years of podcasting experience. I have ten podcasts, you know. I'm kind of an authority in the field right now. Um, but you know, if I have this belief that everybody and every business and every person should have their own podcast because it's the new communication or something, yeah. Can I take that and say, hey, this is an idea that I have, I have lived experience in it. This is what I want to talk about, and I want to explain why. And this is my TEDx talk. What am I missing? And what makes it a TEDx talk or doesn't make it a TEDx talk? If that's what I threw at you as a coach.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Yeah. Uh for one, it does sound like a TEDx talk to me.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

So well, then maybe we need to talk afterwards.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

All right, it's interesting there. Uh I will say this every event has their own thing that they're looking for. Um, for for us, we try to bring uh a very we we cast a wide net. It starts with the theme of the event. The the event that we've got coming up here in May, the entire theme is you belong here. Now, your talk doesn't have to it like directly cite that line in it, or it doesn't have to direct, but it has to be loosely tied to it. There has to be a connection there with the event theme. Okay. Um, that's that's incredibly important because we are I I'm a curator. I'm trying to curate an experience for the people that are gonna be there with the we spend a lot of time thinking about the order of the talks and the topics and how they're gonna line up and and who's bringing what ideas. And like I said, we want everyone from the hard sciences to maybe the more soft skills side of things. Now, based on that, I'm looking for a talk to answer or a speaker to answer three questions when I'm determining is this a talk or not. The first is what is your idea? Can you succinctly tell me that idea? So many talks just they so many applications that I review, Rory, they have five ideas in one pitch. I want your idea. Like, what is the idea? Can you tell me that idea in a sentence about what it is, why it matters, and why do you think I should care? So tell me that. What's your idea? The second question is why you? Why are you the person to bring this idea to our stage? Again, that goes back to what you just said, Rory. You've got years of experience in in podcasting. And if podcasting is for everybody, that's a that's that's a stance. You're you're placing a a declarative in the ground. I call it a your declarative statement. You're you're making that claim here, and here's why you're the person to make that claim. Here's what you've seen, here's what you've here's what you've experienced. It's that exploration over expert mentality again. It's not that you can't be an expert, but I want you to bring me along with what you've seen and why are you the lens that I should view that through? And then the last question is what's the story that you're gonna tell? How are you gonna tell me this story of why I should care? Um, are you going again? And this goes back to the lecture versus, you know, I I don't I don't want to be in a university lecture hall. Is the idea uh interesting? Is it succinct? Is it relevant? Are there first hand stories, whether from you directly or people that you know that undergird your idea? You answer those three questions in a in a succinct and powerful and impactful way. You've got a TEDx talk because you can go on YouTube, Rory, and find TEDx talks about anything. Anything. I tell people all the time your idea is not really all that unique. You are unique, but your idea, it's been done. So how do we make it you? How do we make it your idea and your your unique perspective on that idea? Long winded answer there, but it's a it's an important one that I hope gives you the clarification. You're looking for. Thank you for that.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Honestly, because people can take what I just gave you as an example. They can take that answer you just gave and they can apply it to anything they're having a question about. That was really powerful, Michael. I appreciate that very much.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Thank you, sir.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

That was huge for our audience. All right. I'm going to deviate from this for one second. Tell me about can I ask a question? But does that have anything to do with TEDx or is that just you? What happened with the book?

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Serendipitously, it does have something to do with TEDx. There you go. All right. Time to segue. Tell me about the book. One podcaster to another. In the summer of 2020, I was sitting right outside this door where I'm at right now, on the couch with my wife. We were watching the news, and we were, we were, it was stories about the George Floyd murder and the murder of Brianna Taylor. It was stor and all the riots that were happening around the country that summer. It was, of course, COVID and lockdowns and masks and all that, all the big emotions that came from that. And then it was the most vitriolic, up to that point, presidential cycle that we had ever been through.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Up to that point.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Up to that point. And I just got this overwhelming sense sitting out there on the couch with my wife, that this is not who we are. I don't, this is not how I interact with people in real life. And so I just got this thought. I'm a I'm a typical millennial. So I thought, how can I help? I know I'll start a podcast. And so I started my podcast called The Follow Up Question to kind of uh bank off of my journalism background. And it was all about I'm gonna go out there and just dig in and ask people from all different backgrounds, perspectives, lives. I'm trying to find how we find common ground. How do we surface this feeling that I have that I think we have a lot more shared common ground between us than what is being portrayed? Well, through that, about 50-ish episodes in, I realized the thing that I was doing, asking questions, pointing my curiosity towards people, and just simply trying to understand them better, was the answer to how we find common ground. And that answer led me to my first TEDx talk. I took that idea and said, I have a perspective here. There have been other TEDx talks before me who came along who talked about common ground, who talked about polarization and how to overcome divides and how to overcome conflict. I was the first one that said, think like a journalist, ask people more questions. And it came from that podcast experience. That's what I'm talking about. Like that is your first hand primary source. My whole TEDx talk was my conversations with people and what they told me and all the commonalities that I heard and all these answers from this incredibly diverse array of people that led to the TEDx talk, which led to the second TEDx talk. And those two TEDx talks are the opening and ending chapter of my book, Can I Ask a Question?

SPEAKER_00 25:17

I preach this all the time. Okay, the the foundational blocks of all of these different pieces of media and and of creative, and how the book and the podcast and the public speaking and you know content creation, how it all should work together in a synergy. And brother, you just laid it out perfectly of this is how you put all this together to succeed. I love that. So the the TEDx talk, the pod X leads to the TEDx talk, the TEDx talk becomes the book ends of the book. Um oh my gosh. Uh that's now the podcast today is called Rethinking Communication Podcast, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:52

That's right. I changed the name.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

Yeah, what led to the the rebranding?

SPEAKER_01 25:57

It was a little bit of what I said earlier in in trying to lead with that message of find common ground, ask questions. I realized that feels dangerous to people to dig in and ask questions, truly curious questions, not weaponized questions, of people that they disagree with. And it goes back to the fact that we were not taught how to communicate well. We were taught a very one-directional way of what good quote-unquote communication looks like. That I have the answer, and good communication looks like just shouting that answer as loudly as I can, as often as I can, believing that if I do that, you will eventually just bend to my will. And Rory, does that ever actually uh happen?

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Never, especially today. Never, never, never.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

But it's what's modeled, it's what's incentivized in culture on social media, and we it you can see it. You start paying attention to it, and that is how we communicate one directionally. I'm going to exert my opinion and my ideas and beliefs onto you. And so I thought, whoa, whoa, whoa. Before I start asking people to be like curious and ask questions, I gotta go back to and help them rethink communication. What is it? I gotta I gotta teach the fundamentals here, just like basketball. I gotta teach how to dribble and make a layup before I start talking about running plays.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

Right, right on. I love this whole thing that you put together, this this trip. Um that you got the book, of course, and you've got the two TEDx talks. Does that lead to the curator position that you're in now? I mean, how do how do you go from being on the stage to deciding who's on the stage?

SPEAKER_01 27:44

It did. It did. I I in between those two TEDx talks, uh, I got asked by the organizer, Mickey, of the of the event that I spoke at, if I would just be a volunteer speaker coach for a uh another event that they were putting on. And I said, Yeah, absolutely. Uh I'd love to. I'd love to lend my my thoughts and experience. I don't know if I'll be any good, but I'll do it. And uh I I did that. I coached that event. I coached a couple speakers at that event. Totally did not know what I was doing, but did something well enough to where they, after my second talk, they said, Hey, do you want to do you want to do this for us as our our head speaker coach? And I what I realized, Rory, was I love, I really love being on stages. I love making a fool of myself and on camera and in front of a microphone and on stages. But I adore helping the people on the stage. There is just something so deeply ingrained with me that loves that, loves helping help other people reach that goal. Man, I said, if I never do another talk on a stage, but I get to I get to coach all these other people that do, I'm good. I'm good with that. And so I've I've been the volunteer ever since, the volunteer speaker and curate speaker, coach, and curator ever since.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Oh, I love that. I really and that resonates with me so hard. I coach podcasters, I know exactly what you're talking about right now.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

It's the it's it's it, man, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Oh, like right in the fields, man. Exactly. I'm telling you. Oh my goodness. All right. Now, um, how does your now you have a monthly newsletter, which obviously is your personal thing that you put out. That's called the follow-up. That's not not the follow-up question, it's the follow-up. So I'm seeing how you're stringing this all together.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

Trying to make it, hey, the marketer in me is like, it's there's gotta be a brand here.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

This is a marketing whiz, put this whole thing together, okay, from point A to point B. Um, tell us about that though, just because it is something that you put you know a lot of heart into and something that's important to you, obviously. You wouldn't be doing it.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

It is. It's uh, you know, it it allowed I said earlier I referenced myself as the independent journalist. I do not want a news, I do not want to put a newsletter out there that is not well researched, that is not uh cited. You know, I'm I'm putting my journalist hat on here. I I want to bring you actual, actionable tips that you can use to build a better communication habit. Because I and and skill, because it is a skill. It absolutely is a skill. There, I hear from people that I I I get too nervous on a stage. I can't do that. Or that person is just a better communicator than me. They they know how to put words together better than I do. You can get better. I promise you, you can get better. And so that newsletter is my my one-to-many free way to help people do that. I want to give you actual actual things that you can put into practice right now. One of my most popular newsletters, and it's an article on my site right now, so if people want to go read it, but it's how do I confront somebody who has um degraded me or been um I'm I'm blanking on the word. They've been disparaging of me. They've been rude to me. How do I how do I communicate back to somebody that that's a boundary that they crossed? That you I I put things in there that you could actually put into practice right now. And and that that so it's my way to try to to teach and walk the walk. You know, if if I said earlier, I don't want I don't want to be lecturey on the the TEDx stage, I do want to bring you some actual, actionable, well-researched tips in my newsletter to bring you the information that I think a lot of people are are craving right now.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

Nice. All right. I I love the information you brought today. I really do. Uh now you've got an event coming up, I think the April 3rd. Um given given the opportunity that I can get this out before then, all right. Um why don't you go ahead and pump your out your uh your event, let everybody know what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 32:03

On the topic that we're talking about today, April 3rd, I'm hosting a free live session called How to Cra Craft a TEDx Worthy Talk. It's a lot about what we talked about today and digging in there a little bit more. And if it's not, if people can't attend live, if this doesn't get out live in time or if people listen after April 3rd, 2026, here I'm I'm putting it up on my my YouTube page. So it'll be there if you just if you want to go uh check that out there. So it'll be on my YouTube page.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

All right, and what's the YouTube page? Come on, give me the stuff.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Uh everything that I do in terms of handle is uh Michael D. Ashford. So if you just search Michael Ashford, you're gonna find me. But my my actual at handle is Michael D. Ashford.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Okay, perfect. Michael D. Ashford, all over the place. All right, brother. I appreciate everything you brought here today. Give everybody uh is that the only contact information you want to put out? Is that yeah, website? Oh heck no, no socials or anything. Give us give us the whole gamut. All right. And then I have one more question for you. But other than that, let's let's get the info out.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

You got it. My the hub of everything I do is my website, Michaelashford.com. My email is Michael at rethinkingcommunication.com, and I'm most active on social media on LinkedIn, actually. So you can find me on LinkedIn. Uh again, my little at is Michael D. Ashford. That's uh thank you, Roy, for having me, man.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

Oh, it's been an absolute pleasure, and I honestly I've learned so much uh just from having you on here. I knew I would. That's why I was like, yeah, come on the show. We'll break the whole, we'll break the entire box for you. We'll just do it totally different than we normally do.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

I don't take that lightly, so thank you.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

I appreciate it. As a fellow podcaster, there you go, sure. Yeah. Uh last question for you. And uh we'll we'll break you out of here because you've been very generous with your time too. But um the the folks that are out there that really are going, man, I really want to do a TEDx talk. I really want to do a TEX talk. Uh I want to get some coaching, you know, I want to I want to do this. Um, I want to start putting it together. Is there maybe a first couple thoughts or maybe a few a piece of action, maybe an action step, something where they can maybe vet themselves a little? Like, hey, is it really a TEDx talk you're thinking about? Or is it a speech for YouTube or something, you know, that you're working on? Um, maybe you can give everybody a little bit of advice uh just on whether or not whether they want to pursue it. And if they do, you know, how? How do they go about starting the process?

SPEAKER_01 34:25

I really appreciate that framing for sure, uh, Rory. I my mind immediately went to uh a phrase that I used earlier that I think is missing from a lot of of TEDx applications that I review, which is I call it your declarative statement. What is that line in the sand that you are drawing and saying I stand over here on this side when most of the status quo or conventional thinking is over on the other? If you can't clearly articulate that, if you can't clearly answer three questions about that idea, what is your idea? What, so what, now what? What is your idea? So what? Why does it matter to anybody other than just me? And now what? What do what would I want people to do with this idea should they know all that I know about it? Or 12 minutes worth of content about it, which is the average TEDx talk. But what is your declarative statement? How are you positioned against the status quo or the the thinking of the general? And then answer those three questions. What, so what, now what? That comes from um Matthew Abrams from Stanford University. He he he uses that structure in terms of talking a lot. And I I love it, I love that, and I gotta give him credit for that. Um, so consider those questions, answer those questions, be truthful and honest about those questions. And if it is something that you feel I've got something here, listen, I landed my first TEDx talk because I reached out to the organizer on LinkedIn and said, I think I have an idea that is going to be perfect for your stage and your theme. And if you are accepting applications, I want to be among the first to know. So it is like so many other things in your in life. It's network, it's who you know, it's who you're connected with. It is actually doing the hard thing of putting yourself out there and knowing that you may get rejected nine times out of ten. One of our speakers, Rory, um, before he was on our stage, he got rejected from 36 different TEDx events. It took him one time to land on our stage, and then he landed three more after that. I like coincidence perhaps, but all I'm saying is keep trying. Look at the TEDx website at the events coming up in your area or the themes, reach out to those people. So many of us are just doing this as volunteers and we want to help. I'm I'm here. I I want to help as well. So um, yeah, make make your connections and but to go back to your question, uh be a skeptic about your idea before you're a cheerleader about your idea. If you can, if you can bring that skeptic's mindset and still get excited about your idea after you answer those questions, I think you've got something.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Love that, especially the last part. Love that. All right, absolutely. Uh folks, goodness gracious, author of Can I Ask a Question, uh, host of Rethinking Communication Podcast. Uh, he's a TEDx talker, he's a TEDx curator, uh, he's a former journalist, and he's a newsletter producer of the follow-up, amongst other things that we probably didn't even scratch the surface with this amazing guy today. Uh, and then top of all of that, he's incredibly gracious to come on here and uh give us all of this information that you have been asking me about for months, and now you know, and you heard it straight from the horse's mouth, folks. Uh, Michael D. Ashford. Michael, I'm grateful. Thank you for coming on the show and sharing the way you did, brother. It was absolutely fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

I so appreciate you having me on, Rory. Again, thank you so much. I'm I'm honored, and I hope it helped somebody out there.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

I'm sure it did. Thank you, sir. All right, folks. This has been another very unique and uh spectacular episode of Step Up to the Mic. If you're an aspiring or current speaker and you want to bring your talk to the masses, never stop talking. Let us help you to step up to the mic.