How to Make Your Book Into a TEDx Talk with Bridget Sampson
Jun 22, 2022Bridget Sampson is a Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies, the author of Communication Secrets for Success and the co-author of Communication Training and Development. She's also a TEDx speaker who helps other people write and deliver their TEDx talks.
All of this made her the perfect person to talk to about how to convert your book into a TEDx talk, whether or not you should outline or write the talk out completely, how to book a TEDx slot, how many times to practice, what to wear and what to do if you bomb, among many other topics.
She also shared that people never seem to care that she was a professor for decades but they all care that she has a book and a TEDx talk. So get on it! It's easier than you think.
RELEVANT LINKS:
Bridget's Growth & Gratitude podcast
RELATED EPISODES:
How Authors Can Get Booked to Speak with Topher Morrison
David Nihill on Selling a Book to a Publisher After Self-Publishing
Talking About Your Book on TV and Podcasts with Media Coach Susan Harrow
HERE'S HOW I CAN HELP YOU WHEN YOU'RE READY:
→ You can get my 5 steps to creating a life-changing book
→ You can apply for an Authority Experience to have us create the concept and promotion plan for your authority-building book
→ You can apply for a call to work with Legacy Launch Pad (our publishing packages range from $7k-150k)
TRANSCRIPT:
Anna David: Thank you for being here Bridget.
Bridget: Thank you for having me. So excited to talk with you.
Anna David: I love how we were just talking about how I'm casual verging on unprofessional. And then I'm like, that is the name of a book. That should be the name of my podcast.
Bridget: Yes. Oh my gosh, absolutely. I love it.
Anna David: It's not what we're here to talk about is that
Bridget: No. It could be related, because I think that that might be the way we want to be in any of our talks, especially a TED talk.
Anna David: Absolutely Okay, so, so many people come to me, and they say, I want to do a TEDx talk. And, and I say, you can make your book into a TEDx talk. So you are the perfect person. You've been a professor for 20 years in public speaking. Is that right?
Bridget: Yes.
Anna David: Did I get the number right?
Bridget: It's more, but let's leave it at that because people will think I'm younger.
Anna David: Well, you look 20. So you did a TEDx talk. And then you coach people to do TEDx talks. So let's talk a little bit about Well, first, let's talk about your journey. So how did you become a professor of public speaking?
Bridget: When I was an undergrad in communication studies. And I didn't know what I wanted to do after I graduated. So some professor said, why don't you do the master's program in communication, and you can teach. You can teach the basic public speaking course, I started teaching that course at 22, which is insane. They just threw me in, you know. I was teaching public speaking. And we got lots of great training on how to teach and public speaking skills. So I started really early. But the truth Anna was when I took my public speaking course, I waited until the last minute to take it. I was terrified. I completely fell apart. During my first speech, I was one of those super anxious, terrified nervous speakers, which is why I think I was so passionate about helping other people overcome that fear because it was so paralyzing for me. So that's how it all started. And that's how I love teaching public speaking. I love teaching communication, all of the communication courses. And I continued to do that for many years, as I also started my consulting business coaching people on their communication skills.
Anna David: Okay, wait, so you were terrified when you were an undergrad? And you were taking this class? And so what advice do you have for people who are terrified of public speaking?
Bridget: Yes. Well, that's my first thing is, I can serve as an example, because I was terrified that I fell apart during my speeches and was teaching that same exact course two years later. How insane is that? Right? So I have tons of advice. But the truth is, while I love what you said about um, casual verging on unprofessional, the best speakers are people who realize they can just be themselves. Yeah, just be you, for God's sakes, be real, whatever your personality is, are you funny? Are you sarcastic? Are you serious? Just know that you can just be yourself when you're speaking to an audience. Yes, you should prepare your thoughts and have some valuable content. Of course, the people just stress about the delivery way more than we need to, in my opinion.
Anna David: I know and I think but I think TEDx is one where it has an even greater stress value, because it's so it's the it also let's talk about how most people don't know the difference between a TED Talk and a TEDx talk, which is true.
Bridget:I agree. And I love that, that works for us. Right?
Anna David: Absolutely. And to clarify, a TED talk is, you know, the thing where it's like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates give TEDx TEDx is something where any community can, as far as I know, get sort of getting a license and put on a TEDx event. It is not easy to do. But um, so I don't even think TEDx knows how many TEDx events there are to you? What do you know about this?
Bridget: Yeah, I think at one point, I heard there's at least one TEDx event happening every single day. And I think it's even more. I think it's way more than that if you go global, right? So yes, I agree with you. Sometimes I say I gave a TEDx talk. Sometimes I just say TED Talk. Absolutely. You are affiliated with the TED brand. Even if it's a TEDx talk, it is a TED talk, because it's the TED brand. They own it. Right? They have somebody thankfully, not me, not us. But the coordinator of the TEDx event that you're at, went through a lot of trouble, as you said, to get to be able to have a TED, you know, sponsored conference and have TEDx speakers. So yes, use it by all means. It is not as hard as people think to get a TEDx talk to apply. Just make the case that you got something important to say, it's only 18 minutes if you've written a whole book. My goodness, you have got enough gems in that Look for sure to give a 10 or 15 minute talk that is going to wow people. I am just so passionate. I believe that wholeheartedly.
Anna David: I mean, it doesn't have to be that long. I mean, I read somewhere like there's like a three minute talk that's really successful. Yes. Do you have a favorite TED Talk?
Bridget: Probably Brene Brown's talk on vulnerability. I just love her so much. I love all her work. I gosh, I have so many favorites. I love Shaun Akers' work. I don't know if you've heard about him. But he talks about happiness. Oh, my gosh, his talk called the happy secret to something that happy secret to better work? I think it is. And it's all about how we generate happiness in our lives internally. We're looking for it in these external circumstances. And that's not where it comes from. And we all know this, but he shares it. And I think his talk is only 12 minutes. I've shown that at countless trainings, and shared it with countless coaching clients and everybody loves it and says it was really a mindset shift for them as far as how to feel good in our lives. So you're absolutely right. I think a 10 a 12 minute talk can be life changing for us. That's why I love Ted so much.
Anna David: One of my previous podcast guests, Chris Voss told me and he's a big media star. Now he prepared for the media by watching Angela Duckworth, grit talk. Oh, I love it. Yeah. He said, Yeah. What is powerful about this, and he analyzed the tone of voice and all of these things. I think my favorite is Derek Severs. Have you ever seenHow to start a revolution?
Bridget: No, I have to watch it.
Anna David: He barely talks. It's mostly showing a video. So it's like, you can get so creative.. So what do you know about the process of finding and applying? What can you share?
Bridget: Yeah, I think it's a matter of I think you have to have grit and you and persistence. And you have to do a thorough search. And you have to talk to everybody you know, and tell them you have a TED talk, and you're looking for a venue. And for me, it was just through the avenues of people I knew and I gave it at the university where I was teaching. But I've talked to lots of people who just were really aggressive, assertive about going out into communities, googling where TED talks are happening, talking to everyone in their networking community. A lot of people say it came through someone they knew or some connection they had, but that they didn't initially necessarily know that that person had a connection to a TEDx conference, right? And so you gotta be a big mouth. You gotta tell everybody.
Anna David: So do recommend deciding this is my TEDx talk and writing it out and memorizing it before applying?
Bridget: Yeah, I do and have a catchy title, have a timely topic, I don't think you have to, I think it's great. If you can do that. I don't think you have to have it. 100% fleshed out. In fact, a lot of what I do as a coach when I coach TEDx speakers is give me kind of a rough outline of their talk. And I can really, really help them flesh it out. We talked about this before Anna, but you know that I'm big on stories. And people, they come with an outline of all this, these are the things I want to teach people, these are the points I want to make. And then I help them say, no, no, you're gonna do that through storytelling, because the most popular TED Talks have lots of stories and your TED talk has been testing stories and your story about the homeless man, and all your experiences, you got to have your stories. So I actually maybe want to take back what I said and say, have definitely have your title, your topic, let be ready to let people know that is your area of expertise, but have it outlined and be ready to work with a coach or to even if it's just working with the people, you know, on fleshing out those powerful stories, because that's what people remember.
Anna David: Yeah. And by the way, one of the places where I got in, they were like, I've got my talk, and here we go. And they go, “no, no, no, no, no, we want to help you come up with the talk”, right? That was the only TEDx place where they actually had coaches where it was like free coaching. Yeah. But most aren't going to have that right?
Bridget: Some do. I mean, mine did, but I was the coach. Not only the responsibility of giving my talk and being ready and being the first speaker of the day, but to actually coach all of the other speakers. So in some TEDx conferences, do they bring in someone as a volunteer coach, or they have the funding, they'll pay for a coach, but many don't, from what I understand. Yeah.
Anna David: Okay, let's say you have a book and you go, I want to make this into a TEDx talk. How do you start and we can take some of my clients as examples. And I've had a few clients that have done it, but like, Okay, I'm thinking of a client, who wrote a memoir about growing up Mormon in this crazy family and unraveling different aspects of it. How do you take a story like that and go, Okay, I'm gonna make this into a 10 or an 18 minute talk. What do you do?
Bridget: I think You pull out what you think the beauty of having such a short time is you get to pull out your most powerful material. So I'm a big fan. Maybe it's because I taught public speaking for so long, though, right? But of having like your two or three key points like what are they real? Remember that people forget 25% of what you say two days later, I'm sorry, forget 75% of what you say. So people will forget 75% of what you say two days later, this is based on the communication academic literature. So what they'll remember is the key points, like, that person helped me understand that happiness comes from within, it doesn't come from external circumstances, right? They'll take away a key point. So you want to be clear from the get go from your 200 or 300 page book, whatever it is, like, what are their two or three core points that people will take away that will be most meaningful and most memorable? That's where you have to start?
Anna David: So my key point, you know, is that like, you know, you never really know your family or something like that. Do you cry? So you decide what the two or three key points are? And then you find the best story to illustrate?
Bridget: Yes, exactly. That would be my order, I would truly recommend it. And I think the title, like, really makes sure your title is catchy, intriguing, but also a really good indication of what people are going to get out of it. I don't think people like when the title has nothing to do with what the talk is actually about. It can be, you know, I know like your title, how were your labels. I love it, because it is what you talk about. But there's a little surprise about where you're going with it. So I like that. But I also think it's important for people to have some inkling of what they're gonna get out of it. It's like a teaser, right?
Anna David: Well, I'll tell you the absolute truth about my talk, and listeners I'm telling you to, I hired somebody to write that talk, which is shocking to us inside. This is all I've ever done is right. But I couldn't figure it out. I wasn't taking a book and making it into a talk. I wish I had, it would have been much easier. And I hated what they wrote. But they came up with that title. And I liked the title. In retrospect, now that this is years later, I know so much more about titles, and mostly from learning about book titles, that no, no, no, you have to give more of an indication in it. Because the competition is so fierce. So would you recommend, I don't know, key words, or just like how do you know what to put in the title?
Bridget: Yeah, so my title is How Public Speaking Will Change Your Life. And I'm actually happy with it. Yeah. Because I think it's why I have no paid advertising whatsoever, you know, 300,000 views, like people just found their way to it if they were searching for a TED talk about. Yeah, so I did nothing to do that. So and I'm not I'm not I'm not bragging because there are people with millions of views. But I'm saying with no paid adverts with nothing, I like literally just did it and wanted to have it and didn't do anything with it really. So people found their way to and I'm really happy with that, because it is about public speaking. It is about how to overcome the fear of public speaking and embrace public speaking in your life and your career and to feel good about it. And to see that it's a gift to the world that you have some kind of gift to give the world so I'm really happy with the title. The only thing I would say for you and I right, you probably agree is I would have had addiction in the title somehow. But the thing is that I do like that kind of peeking people's interest. I weighed myself because I know you and I know your story. When I saw the title, I was like, Oh, I can't wait to listen to that. Because I know what it's really going to be about what kind of labels she's talking about. So it can work for you, really you have to play with it, I think but I do. I do agree with you, Anna, that like, make sure your title gives people a clear indication of what it's really going to be about what they're going to get from it. So I had to have public speaking in my title.
Anna David: Yeah. And you know, to be clear, my mind doesn't have nearly doesn't have anywhere near 300,000 views. So it's like, it's wonderful if the people who know you are going to be interested, but it's not much more wonderful if people interested in your topic are going too.
Bridget: And I am telling you that that's because of my title. Yeah, I don't have nearly that many views or listens on, I have three podcasts and I have all this other stuff out there. And I really think it's because, one, it's the TED brand. And two, it's about public speaking. So people are searching for a TED talk on public speaking because it's in the name, remember that keyword, the SEO, the search, you know, all that all that really comes into play here. So back to you know, my recommendations have a really catchy title but a title that has the key words of what your talk is about. Have your two or three key core points and then anchor them in the most powerful stories that you can think of from your personal life. Anna, when you said to me that you had someone else write that really blew me away because it's so personal. And it's so you and it's so authentic and you're so vulnerable and open and real. I just love your talks so much. And because it's so us, it speaks to how you can get so much as you can even now to someone, right, and you probably didn't use what they wrote, but it was a starting point for you. If you can afford to get someone to write your speech, you can afford a coach, go for it, because you're still going to end up with your authentic piece of work. Yeah, why not get that help to give you something to start with? And to give you something to work from?
Anna David: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't recommend, well, now it's so different. Like this was a place where they were like, we've done talks for everybody, but nobody wants to admit that they have their talks written. So we can't tell you who and so I don't even think it was like that legitimate right dinner party told me about it. But what was helpful is they had a questionnaire and the questionnaire had a lot of personal questions. And you know, and so it got me thinking about it. In the end, I would say to anybody, don't do what I did, hire a professional. Write the talk yourself, right.
Bridget: And you can write it in collaboration, much like you do with books. Anna, you know, I say the same. I tell people about you all the time, like recommending you. If you want to have a book out there. You don't have to do it all yourself. Yeah, to do. You don't have to do a lot of it. If you want to get full service work with someone like Anna's company. But same thing with a TED Talk. I've had many people come to me and say, Can you write it for me? And I say no, absolutely not. But let's sign up for 10 coaching sessions. And we'll write it together. And it'll be amazing. Because you're gonna tell me and what I've done. It's the most fun coaching because I'm like, Okay, tell me your stories. Tell me what you most want people to know. And we write it together. And they're so happy at the end.
Anna David: So how does that work? So they show up? Does it have to be 10 Sessions?
Bridget: No, but this is what I typically recommend when someone is starting with nothing.
Anna David: Yeah. You're starting with a book, maybe five sessions?
Bridget: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I would say at least two or three, you know, but I've also had people come to me. I've actually had people come to me, when they have the whole thing written, practiced. They have their TED Talk, they've practiced it with a million people, and they just want to do one session to get my take on it. My feedback, and that's great, too. So anything? Yeah, absolutely any level of service, which you offer as well, many different options there.
Anna David: So you know, talking it out with somebody, and then how much of it is written and how much is bullet points?
Bridget: You know, it's interesting, because I am a fan of writing the whole thing out nearly for a TED talk only for a TED Talk. When I taught public speaking for 28 years, I'll say, it was always bullet points. It was like Do not write out your talk because you're giving it in front of this live audience for just this one time and it's a small intimate group and you can just be yourself. Just have your bullet points and speak naturally, speak extemporaneously or conversationally, right. That's always my recommendation for most talks, but with a TEDx talk, given the stakes, the gravity I have to say honestly, you know, going in knowing Ted now owns this, you have no rights to it. You 're gonna put it online forever for you know, in perpetuity. So you want to have it be as close to perfect as you possibly can. So yes, write it out word for word. But the challenge with writing out word for word is you really have to practice and rehearse so that it sounds natural and conversational. Nobody wants to hear you read your speech.
Anna David: Yeah. Yeah. So okay, so you write it out word for word. And then do you recommend I mean, one thing I do is I will tape record myself and then play it back, do recommend doing that?
Bridget: I do exactly the same thing. Yep. record myself or just I have a PDF reader. So I can just have the words written now you can whatever technology works. We also recommend videoing yourself, recording yourself and looking at your body language and your movements. Is there anything awkward going on there? It's really important to have an awareness of how you're carrying yourself, your voice, your pacing, eliminating those vocalized pauses, hums and ahhs. All of that is work that I do with people and then I had to do myself as well.
Anna David: So let's talk about your talk. How many times do you estimate you’ve practiced it?
Bridget: Oh my gosh, practiced? Oh my gosh, I don't know. Maybe 100. I mean, maybe 50. I don't even know. I mean, I just listened. I definitely listened to it over and over hundreds of times, because why not? You're driving in the car, running, exercising. You're cleaning your dishes, washing your dishes, doing your laundry, you could be listening to it over and over. Right? Well, maybe 25 Maybe 50. It's really hard to say Yeah, and I did. I practiced it over and over.
Anna David: Until you're so sick of it.
Bridget: Yeah. Do you know how many times you did?
Anna David: No. I have no idea but like How do you keep it fresh? You know, when you're like, I'm so sick of hearing myself say this sort of thing, you know, how do you do that?
Bridget: You don't think you can keep it fresh for yourself. I think when you're in front of the live audience now I know a lot of people are doing type two TED talks, virtually now, I was lucky mine was before COVID. So it was with when you're in front of that live audience, and you look at them, and you see that they're hearing it, they're there and excited to hear it for the first time. That energy naturally is sparked in the moment.
Anna David: Yeah, yeah. So you just resign yourself to being bored with it and being like, well, and maybe you can pretend you're someone new, almost like an exercise? Or an audience member? So the order is, look at your book, you know, find the key points, find the stories that match it, write an outline, either work with someone or write it out yourself. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. And then start searching, you know, it is not yes, they do not make it easy to find TEDx talks, because there's no unified center. So it really is a lot of Googling and spreadsheets and going, Oh, okay. Some TEDx events make it really clear, submit, hear most do not? Most do not. And I say if this is your goal, say, you know, I know people who've gone to Amsterdam to give. But yeah, for me, I said, I'm willing to go anywhere in the state of California. And so I just applied to every one I could find in California, they each have different themes. They're very general themes. So you can kind of make your topic fit a theme.
Bridget: 100%. I believe any topic can fit any theme. Yes.
Anna David: And each place is going to be different in each place, tech is going to be different. I did a TEDx talk in an auditorium where you couldn't even hear me. It was like a, it was like an I mean, a frickin school auditorium. And then I did one that was really great. So understand that you cannot control how high tech or low tech an event is. Yeah, you could do some Googling to figure out if this is, you know, some of the TEDx stages are a much bigger deal than others. Do you know anything about that?
Bridget: I don't know that much about it. But I think you can research you know, thankfully, you can research. You can look at the TED talks from that conference. And you look at what their website looks like? What does it say just you really, it's where the grit and the persistence come in. If you're serious about it, and you have a book, you will get it, you will get a TED talk. And you will, if you're willing to put in the work and the time and research, you'll find a 10x conference that matches what you're looking for. But you've got to be willing to dig deep and do the research. And you can even reach out to someone like yourself, so many people reached out to me, through my TEDx talk, they thought you know, you can Google anybody and you'll find an email for them somewhere or a contact page on their website. people reach out to me all the time. Hey, I found your TED talk, I'd love to talk to you about it, you know how I can do one. So you can find someone's TED talk at that conference, try to find them, reach out and be like, Hey, can I get five minutes of your time to ask you about what it was like speaking at this conference? Keep persistent, be assertive, find out from all the people who you can potentially tap into to learn and pick. Yeah, maybe you're going to be in the lucky position of picking which one you would most prefer to speak at.
Anna David: Yeah, I mean, you can do what I did, which is I just did the same talk and a bunch of them which one of them yanked me out you know, said you can't do that but most don't care and if you were to decide. If you're going to the trouble of applying for all these and you get in, why not? Why not have this experience? Yeah, what about the actual talk? What do you recommend? Like you know, it's down to don't wear red or don't drink too much water?
Bridget: I would say just wear something that's comfortable that you feel great in whatever you feel you look your best in but that's comfortable for you to move around in. I regret wearing a tight skirt. You know, I would want something a little more comfortable but I love blue and I feel good and blue. So I knew from the get go that I was going to be wearing a blue tarp. So I don't wouldn't say don't wear red but I would say wear what you know you feel good and look good in Yeah, and get a good night's sleep if you can. That's so ironic because I didn't sleep the whole night before my TED Talk. So get a good night's sleep but if you don't then just Just be careful of your trash talk in your mind. Right so I didn't sleep all night. So I didn't couldn't change that. It was like you know what you can do. You can teach and you lead all day training programs with unknown sleep, you can do this, you can do this talk on no sleep, you'll be fine. You can get through it, you know. So make sure that your self talk I think is really affirming and positive, no matter how much everyone else tells you. Yeah, you're gonna do great. You have to be able to speak to yourself that way. And just take good care of yourself. Yeah, don't drink too much water, so that you're gonna have to pee right in the middle of it. Take care of your physical needs, make sure you're in good shape physically, emotionally, mentally, as much as you can. And really just tell yourself, you've got this, you can do it.
Anna David: Do you recommend going early and mingling with the audience? And do you do? Yeah,
Bridget: I do. I mean, if you can, depending on what's going on with your TEDx conference, I was lucky enough to be among many friends, because it was at the University where I had been teaching for many years. So I felt really good to get there early, and get hugs and talk with people and have people say, I'm so excited to hear your talk. But then I'm a big meditator. I meditate every day, sometimes multiple times a day. So I definitely needed to be able to pull away and find a quiet hallway and just sit and center myself and get quiet and do some breathing. Breathing. So if that works for you, if you know that works in your day to day life, to calm yourself and center and ground yourself and find a way to find that space for yourself.
Anna David: And did you have to apply? Was that awkward?
Bridget: Yeah, no, they didn’t, I was worried that I wouldn't get picked because they didn't want to be incestuous. And say, no, we want to have community leaders, they had student speakers as well at my conference. So I thought, well, they might not pick me because I'm a professor at the University and they figure I can get a TED Talk anywhere. But it ended up working in my favor. And I knew the curator of the TEDx talk. And I talk about that in my talk that, you know, net, we always say like, networking is everything. And it's who you know, and you know, you and I are people, people, people anyway, and I like, sincere, and we love connecting with people. But I got that TED talk because of connections, that I was always very conscientious about making real and deep and genuine connections with people in all of my circles. And I would not have gotten that TED talk if it weren't for that. And I didn't do it because of the TED Talk. Because I didn't know that this person was the curator of the TED conference when I got to know her. But it happened to work in my favor.
Anna David: No, what do you do if you're bombing? What the hell do you do? Can you reel it back in?
Bridget: Yes, you can always reel it back in. And I've always taught this in my public speaking training programs and courses, you've got to be able to read the room, you got to be able to read the audience. If energy is low, when you're looking out there, or you feel it, like pick up your energy, pull yourself together, manage your mind, so much of it is going to be the talk in your mind is like if you're bombing and don't tell yourself, you're bombing, just saying I'm feeling a little low energy, you know what, I'm gonna raise my volume, I'm gonna, like, do that inner work of talking louder and talking a little faster, maybe and telling that story with a little bit more oomph and passion and enthusiasm. You can absolutely turn it around in the moment. I have done that many times.
Anna David: I love it. Now, would you say that as an author, you're that much more likely to be able to book a TEDx talk?
Bridget: Yes, absolutely. You're applying like you're applying for a job? Yeah, they want people who have credentials, who are going to bring a bigger audience who are going to capture people's attention more, having a book is a huge advantage for you.
Anna David: And you told me this thing that you're like, nobody cares, did we? I can't remember if I said this on tape. Nobody cares that I was a professor for 26 years. But everyone cares that I have a book and a TEDx talk. And that's true.
Bridget: Absolutely. Absolutely. Whenever I'm introduced, it's the book and the TEDx talk that come first and I self published my book, I'll say that proudly, nobody knows. Nobody cares. I went through that process and got lots of support, like the kind of support that you provide, and, you know, books and the TEDx talk.
Anna David: And well how has having both of those changed your life and your career?
Bridget: Well in that way, I mean, I just want to elaborate and say they give you credibility that you simply cannot find through any other activity you might do. You can be on a board of directors, you can be on the you know, in the leadership of your organization, which is great. I love doing those things. You know, I volunteer for a bit I'm involved in a million different things but you're gonna have credibility and that those that brand, like nothing else you can possibly do, but honestly, I'm not like and I didn't realize the extent of how much I would get this from it, but the the feeling of truly helped and people, like your TEDx talk was so meaningful and so powerful. And I know it's helped so many people, right? Who, who also identifies with being an addict and the empowerment that you brought to that talk, and I don't I have, we all have lots of labels. You know, It's so funny how your talk can be so meaningful and so deeply helpful and transformative for people who you wouldn't even think of, like your talk was so meaningful for me for a million reasons.
But because as you know, I have a transgender daughter. And that's a label that we have in our family, right? That is very scary to share with people, I have a transgender daughter, I've embraced it over the years, we, you know, we are out there in the world, educating people. But in the beginning, it was really, really scary to say that, you wouldn't necessarily think that in my TED Talk, where I openly talk about the label of being an addict. It's going to empower and inspire and transform all these people's lives who are going to hear this, who have totally different labels that I can't even imagine, right. So that's where I think it's going to be something of value in people's lives that they can't even imagine. That you're going to be giving a gift to the world that's going to feel so rewarding and meaningful and just profoundly deeply important to you in ways that you can't possibly feel before you ever have the experience of giving a TEDx talk.
Anna David: I love it. What a note to end on. So, Bridget, what's the best way? And so you guys are podcast listeners. So you have two or 3 podcasts?
Bridget: Three. Okay, so the most important, well, they're all important to me, my daughter and I the most popular for sure is my daughter and I have a podcast called Transgender School. And she identifies with three of the letters of the acronym LGBTQ plus. So we talk about sexual orientation and identity, we talk about gender identity.
Anna David: You talk about dog identity.
Bridget: My dogs are barking. So yes, we do talk about our dogs, talking about our dogs. It's very supportive. They want to be heard. And so please listen to that to be an ally, to be educated. It's not just for people in the LGBTQ plus community, it's for all of us, for everyone. It's so important for people to learn, and we're learning. And then my personal podcast is just me, my coaching podcast is called Growth and Gratitude. And I just started it. I'm just about to release my second episode, and I talk all about coaching, life coaching, executive coaching, we all have it and how to just live a meaningful and happy and rewarding life. And it's okay if it's not happy, and how to process emotion and feel sad, and just everything around living our lives fully and wholeheartedly as Brene Brown talks about. And the third podcast, which is on Hiatus, but we have 30 episodes, and I am so proud of is called The Right Questions, which is with my partner Todd, who's a fellow coach in my company, and we talk all about how asking ourselves the right questions in life leads us to the answers and where we want to go in life. And it's all about powerful questions, the power of questions. So those are my three podcasts, find them. They're free. They're out there, all of them. Also, we have the video of every single episode on YouTube. So you can watch us you can hear us there on all the podcast apps and I would love for people to find us and learn from us
Anna David: Also hire Bridget, you know, if somebody's interested in working with you on their talk, what's the best way for them to find you?
Bridget: Yeah, find me, go search for me. I have my coaching and consulting website called Sampsoncoachingandconsulting.com. We have transgenderschool.org. So find my website, you're welcome to email me. Both of those have contact pages, they go directly to my email, find me just google me, you'll find me I'm out there in a million different places. Bridget Sampson, Find me I would love to work with you and I do a free 20 minute consultation for anybody who wants to talk with me. Absolutely. I have time in my schedule for anything, any kind of coaching, any kind of training or I leave retreats, group experiences, whatever you need, we can chat.
Anna David: I love it. I will have links to all of that in the show notes. So Bridget, thank you so much. And you guys, thank you so much for listening. Go get your TEDx talks.
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