3a. Lecture 5 - Ira Koretsky: Speak Like TED (10/19)

What We Did: For two class sessions, we had the privilege of having guest speaker Ira Koretsky, also known as The Chief Storyteller. Koretsky is a highly-desired speaker who has entertained audiences all around the world, helping them achieve better business outcomes and accelerated revenues with highly effective written, spoken, and social media communications.

Koretsky first discussed TED talks, which I learned stands for technology, entertainment, and design. The mantra of TED is "ideas worth spreading". TED talks have spread globally over the years and it is the cusp of public speaking careers. TED talks are much like job interviews, they are your way of showcasing your personality while also showing your skills and accomplishments. The number 1 question in a job interview that you must learn to answer is: "tell me about yourself". To answer this question, you should give a 30 second-2 minute story about yourself and your skills tailored to the value of the company. People want to see integrity, vision, and quality. At the end of the interview, make a powerful statement like, "I make a difference in patients' lives every day".

In this lecture we also learned 4 steps to giving an effective and engaging TED talk.
    1. Promise a better tomorrow
          - why should we pay attention to you?
          - think WIIFM: what's in it for me?
    2. Turn their world upside down --> the big picture
          - use images from flickr, always give credit
    3. Develop catchy call to action
          - your "catchphrase"
          - should be repeated several times
    4. Make memorable moments


Key Takeaways and Future Applications: The first class session with Ira Koretsky was eye-opening to say the least. I can tell that he really knew what he was talking about and would be a good teacher of concepts that we have talked about in this class. The information he gave us about TED talks was both interesting and helpful, considering our class has an assignment to give a TED talk in a few weeks. At this point, I still don't know what my TED talk is going to be on, but I know I want to do it on something that actually interests me. I've learned over time that if something interests me, I am more likely to make others interested in it too. In contrast, if I just try to pick a topic that is easy and not important to me, I probably won't put as much effort into it. I am glad that I have been given good tips, like about making a catchphrase for the TED talk and using it repeatedly so the audience has it engraved into their minds. I also learned to make the title about 5 to 7 words. Anything longer will not communicate the main message.


As far as the information about interviews, I realized I really need to plan what I would say if someone asked me, "tell me about yourself". This question is inevitably going to come up at some point in my life, so I need to prepare now. Something unique about me is the amount of places I have traveled to and the things I have learned while doing so. I think if I were to tell someone about myself, I would say how I am very open minded and willing to learn new things in any given moment, and then also throw in some values of mine that coincide with the values of the company that I am applying to. This way the interviewers could picture me fitting into their company culture and bringing my unique set of skills to the table.