Top 4 Presentation Tips from a TEDx Organizer

A self-described introvert, Amanda Banks might not appear to be a public speaking aficionado on paper given her personality type. She, like many other Americans, didn’t put public speaking at the top of her list of things she loves to do. But her view of speaking in the presence of others has changed dramatically as her career has grown around both giving speeches and training new presenters with TEDxOldHickory in Nashville.

Banks’s road to becoming the TEDxOldHickory organizer was paved with corporate speaking opportunities, despite her personality. A former sales executive, Banks was responsible for presenting pitches, ideas and even million-dollar deals to clients and stakeholders. “I never saw public speaking as an avenue for me. Like, I was terrified of it,” she says in an interview. Instead, Banks focused on building relationships and connections through networking. It was one of these connections—a TEDx organizer—that pulled her into the world of public speaking.

To make a long story short, Banks was asked to present a TEDxWilmington talk by the event’s organizer, and from there she went on to become the licensee and organizer of TEDxOldHickory in Nashville in 2022. On top of that, Banks also operates Create and Innovate Solutions LLC, which focuses on digital influence, corporate communications and authentic connections for businesses.  

From someone who’s been terrified of public speaking, to a confident introvert who has trained and mentored dozens of public speakers in the last several years, Banks has uncovered many insights on how to present ideas well. Here are some of her most notable that you can use to upgrade your next work presentation or pitch.

Don’t sell yourself short, but be realistic

Banks’s core philosophy that drives all her mentoring efforts at TEDxOldHickory is her core belief that everyone has a story to tell regardless of their background. “When it comes to public speaking, I believe everybody has a voice; everybody has a good idea,” she explains, adding that, “as long as you put forth… the rigor to get from Point A to Point B to be able to deliver the message… anybody can do it.”

Practically speaking in a corporate environment, Banks views this philosophy as a scaffolding that gives new speakers or presenters a way to start building their self-confidence. This is key as a first step, especially as it’s estimated that a large portion of the population struggles with public speaking anxiety, or glossophobia. 

Banks recommends speakers to be honest with themselves that—especially if they are new to speaking in public—they won’t nail it on the first try. That said, they need to be willing to engage the process for as long as it takes. “You’ve got to commit to the process and recognize that you aren’t going to be the absolute best the first go around…. the first real piece to this is you have to commit to it. You have to find some type of structure that’s going to hold you accountable to make you move forward in the process,” she says. 

Put structures in place to keep you accountable 

Making the decision to move forward with a work presentation or speech is just the first part of the equation in Banks’s view. The next is putting in structures, practice sessions and other systems to keep you accountable to your goal or the task ***igned to you.

“You have to find some type of structure that’s going to hold you accountable to make you move forward in the process. Because [if] you’re going to completely quit, most people will quit through the process,” she advises.

From her experience, a great support system could be a mentor or speech coach that can give you one-on-one advice. Another mentorship avenue is to create cohorts or speech support groups with fellow employees.

But what if these groups or coaching systems aren’t available in your organization? In such cases, Banks recommends employees hoping to boost their speaking skills to look outside their organization. “[Try to] seek outside resources… there are speaker coaches, there are… networking groups. Oftentimes, nonprofits are looking for individuals with experience to be able to present information into their groups,” she recommends. 

Sometimes, it’s as simple as putting yourself forward at work and offering to take on a public-facing task to hone your skills, too. “Raising your hand and saying, ‘Hey, I would love the opportunity to present on a specific topic within the organization.’”

Another important structure to establish is routine, expected practice. Banks tells me she works with TEDx speakers for five months—at no cost to them—to get them prepared for their talks. While getting ready for a work presentation might not require the same amount of rigor, continuous practice is still essential.

“Daily practice is really the only way to make this work, and it can be a committed five to 10 minutes. Five to 10 minutes is better than zero. So, the people that are really doing well in public speaking, they practice every single day—no questions. It’s a muscle. It is something that you have to continuously evolve.”

Understand the goal of your presentation

In both TEDx talks and corporate communications, Banks emphasized that both are trying to move a person from one point to another. In the corporate world, that movement is usually about a purchasing decision or management choice. Your presentation needs to move people to take action, not just deliver facts and data with no endpoint.

“You’re trying to influence people to make a decision, or to learn something, or to have an ‘aha’ moment that’s going to inspire them and drive change within the organization. So, really, to me, public speaking becomes more about the other person.… How can we present this information? That’s going to move somebody or drive somebody to really think through why [this is] important to them.”

To get that result, Banks looks back to her time in corporate boardrooms when she would be presenting to a couple or even a team of people. She would always start with a simple question: “What do you hope to get out of this meeting?”

Such a simple idea might bristle our fancy, corporate intuitions that sometimes demand complexity. But Banks thinks that it’s a productive tool to unearth what is actually pertinent to your audience. “That’s a really powerful question that I think oftentimes goes… missed.… Once again, if you’re the vehicle delivering that content, then you need to understand why is this [content] even important to them…. And that [question] gives you, as the presenter or the speaker, information on how to position [your talk],” she tells SUCCESS.

Find your “sparkly shoe moment”

Between her corporate sales experience and her TEDx coaching and speaking sessions, Banks has seen a common motif emerge in both contexts that affect how a presentation is perceived: if the speaker is authentic.

To help speakers in her TEDx event find their own voices, Banks has them draw four quadrants on a piece of paper. In each of the four quadrants a question is posed: “Who are you? What are you p***ionate about? What are your unique skills that are not necessarily related to your job? And what industries do you have deep expertise [and] knowledge in? And that intersection between those four different areas is really the sweet spot,” she suggests. 

Admittedly, there’s less room for informal ways of expression when giving a presentation to a board or to a potential client. Regardless, Banks thinks the exercise can help corporate speakers discover how to deliver information in their own unique way as individuals. “When it comes to corporate communications, if you’re talking about a sales presentation, you’re trying to take the company’s information and mission values, knowledge, products, services, and you’re trying to apply your own unique, authentic behaviorals to be able to drive the [sales] process forward. So, there’s this beautiful marriage, I believe, that happens between individual salesperson… and then the unique individual that’s delivering the message,” she explains.

Banks gives a warm anecdote that beautifully illustrates this concept.

When she was still in her corporate role, working with a public speaking mentor, she wanted to reflect a part of herself in her speeches by wearing sparkles on her clothes—a reflection to her past time as a gymnast. At the time, her mentor shot the idea down as being too informal and she ran with their advice for years. But, one day, she chose to break out the shiny outfit. 

“At some point, I finally gave up. And I was like, ‘I’m wearing the sparkly shoes.’ And for whatever reason, that piece, maybe it’s because it’s an essence of me or a part of me being a former gymnast… that became the piece that stood out to everybody. So, now when you see me speaking on stage, regardless of the audience, I’m probably going to be wearing sparkly shoes or a sparkly jacket or something that represents that authentic nature of me.”

Banks has used this pivotal moment as a guidepost for the dozens of speakers she’s trained over the past few years to help them find their authentic voice.

“What is your sparkly shoe moment? And that’s the piece that I think people really need to hone in. It’s like what feels authentic to them. How can they leverage their unique nature to bring out information in a meaningful way so that people will actually resonate?”

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