TED Talks Are Presents To Viewers
3 ways to story-wrap your “present-ations!"
By Devin D. Marks | Published Feb 14, 2025
I like to say your big idea worth spreading should be connecting, colorful, and compelling. You should wrap your idea in a story (i.e., story-wrap your “present-ation”) before stepping to your TED Talk stage.
As a hopeful TED speaker, your presentation must be audience-focused — even audience-serving. The talk isn't about you. First and foremost, your message is about meeting your audience's needs and serving them. So the concern of using stories to wrap your message is doubly-good. Audiences need a clean and compelling message, and story makes that insight set spread!
What's more, when a story envelopes the elements of a bigger message, it engages viewers and deeply penetrates their memories. As McGill University’s pitch expert, Andy Churchill, phd, mba affirms, “Story-wrapping creates a memory that contains key message features.”
Too often, engineers and researchers want to emphasize the hard science. “Story is fluffy, a soft skill,” they say. But guess what? Without making that data set relatable and applicable in real life, it isn’t really going to be heard — or absorbed and shared. It will land flat.
The latest TEDster fMRI brain scan research supports this assertion. We process, recall, and share ideas through story. Data, research findings, and slide decks don’t move ideas (or imaginations). That is story’s domain!
For years, I worked with the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) to produce TED-style KEEN Talks with engineering professors and school deans.
That may sound as dry as a MIT lecture hall’s chalkboard eraser. But truth be told, the work proved to be some of my most rewarding.
Throughout, the challenges of helping engineers... talk... was real. But once they began to acknowledge that they have stories — and they're worthy of sharing, the brain science referenced above affirmed the power of story.
But this doesn’t mean one simply inserts a gripping story to “hook ‘em” in the opening or bring them to their feet for a rousing call to action. A tangential vignette will fall short.
One impactful approach I’ve applied with success is to both wrap a talk’s big idea and the related key points in story. Naturally though, wrapping them in spot-on, potent story is involved and nuanced work.
Don’t simply insert a gripping story or three that will grab attention. The story must be central to your message — even born out of your experience. A “close enough” tale will fall short.
Consider the TED-style KEEN Talk delivered by engineering professor, Glenn Gaudette, Ph.D. (We can grow human heart muscle on spinach leaves).
Throughout his message, he recalls a lunchtime epiphany with his research assistant eating spinach salads. He skillfully moves from vegetable leaf veins to human heart ventricles to open-heart surgery — wrapping the talk in a mealtime story.
Story is central to his work. He delivered the talk while heading a Worcester Polytechnic Institute research lab. He’s now the founding chair of Boston College’s new engineering program. And storytelling has been central to his leadership style on both campuses!
Indeed, my years of experience beyond KEEN’s engineering community also bears this out — even on the TEDx stage.
After all, perhaps the largest data set ever presented in the history of TED was also story-wrapped — and truly viral in views. My "alumni" client, Harvard’s Dr. Robert Waldinger, heads a 75-year longitudinal study of health and happiness in the lives of men. Did he use a single pie chart in his talk: What makes a good life?
Nope.
Instead, he shared the data story (hat tip to Nancy Duarte) of his research by personalizing his findings in the context of improving relationships — between individual family members and generations.
Tens of millions of views later...
Let's return to stories of personal experience (versus a research data set). It is also important to consider that novelty or emotions alone won’t suffice. In fact, your presentation will benefit from a particular form of story — one that is sticky.
A STICKY Story™ leverages that brain science we referenced earlier. Doing so, brings to bear the most memory-penetrating form of narrative. The best TED Talk speakers use this story form to powerfully connect with viewers and deeply penetrate their memories — even compelling them to action. And consider, what's connecting and compelling... spreads!
Let’s turn to a non-technical talk, well-executed on the TEDx stage.
Shawn Achor’s breakaway message (The happy secret to better work) was not engineering-based or born out of longitudinal research.
But, as you watch Shawn’s talk, note how it connects with us through the common childhood experience of nap time misadventures. It is colorful in the details of bunk bed tumbles and sleeping parents. It compels us to apply practical new habits that retrain our mindsets.
As he transitions to a workplace-focused central idea, we are compelled to imagine applying his suggestions at the office. Yet long after closing the browser window, we recall his sister’s broken arm and his optimistic (and creative) “unicorn solution” in a crisis moment!
Shawn’s talk is the ultimate in a compact story that wraps the big idea in a relatable, colorful, and compelling package.
So, here are 3 ways to story-wrap your research or data:
1. MAKE IT RELATABLE.
Share a story that’s connecting — even bonding! Do you personally know someone who could be impacted by your data? Name her, explain her circumstance, detail a bit of her life or work in ways that allow your audience to think, “Oh yes, I’ve done that.” Story-wrapping should be connecting.
e.g., “Wow, just like me, Gina has children and wants them drinking water instead of soda.” But she also wonders if her historic home’s faucet water is lead-contaminated!
2. MAKE IT COLORFUL.
You want the story shared to stand out enough that it sticks in viewer’s minds. A story is most shareable when elements of it are vivid and pop! Choose the limited details you offer with care and for a singular purpose. A select set of details matter and become quite sticky. Story-wrapping should be colorful.
e.g., Gina’s kiddo complain of joint and muscle aches. She thought they were just growing pains until the day when her son wouldn’t get out of bed for Saturday cartoons!
3. MAKE IT COMPELLING.
You want the stories shared to move viewers to action. Entertainment for its own sake is for Hollywood — not TED. Move the audience to make a doable change. Preachers know this as the “application” of the message: something small, but a win tonight. Story-wrapping should be compelling.
e.g., That very afternoon, Gina Googled the term “lead and water pipes.” Within minutes, she was clicking to Amazon.com and ordering test kits for next-day delivery!
A story-wrapped idea worth spreading is a powerful audience engagement tool. It can ensure your dry, dull, and deadening research data sets come alive — regardless of the stage or screen you speak from.
It works for KEENsters and TEDsters. It can also work for you.
It will make your presentation a present to your audience!
DEVIN D. MARKS is known as The TED Talk Whisperer. His firm, CONNECT to COMPEL, has served 100s of TED, TEDx, and short-talk speakers — including Harvard’s Dr. Robert Waldinger for his all-time Top 10 TEDx Talk. The result: 100s of millions of views for clients. He helps niche experts, authors, and leaders spread world-changing ideas.
You can reach Devin at 617.804.6020, or DM him here. His newsletters are here.
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