TEDx Blog #6: Finding My Voice
🌀 TEDxTruth #6: Writing for the stage is nothing like writing for the page.
After February’s wobble, I knew something had to shift. Catherine gave me brilliant, clear feedback and I decided to change my entire approach.
This time, I put my script down.
Instead of writing, I started talking. I hit record on my phone and told my story out loud - the way I would say it, not the way I would write it.
It was a game-changer.
I listened back to my voice while reading my old script. Sentences that had looked fine on paper suddenly sounded clunky. Forced. Not me. So I threw the voice recording into a transcriber and rebuilt it piece by piece; swapping the “writerly” sentences for ones that sounded like my actual voice.
And then I got ruthless with my script.
No fluff. No detours. No unnecessary words.
For the first time, I practiced out loud. (Why I had underestimated this before, I have no idea!) Speaking the words, hearing how they landed, then refining again. And again. And again.
By March’s online rehearsal, my talk had gone from 8 pages down to 4. It was sharper. Cleaner. More me.
This time, when I finished, the feedback came fast:
“That was great.”
Not, “too long” or “too messy.” A few tweaks here and there. The kind of feedback that shifts from content to delivery; tone, emphasis, pauses. It felt like a total overhaul from February.
I had done it. I had course-corrected.
This version? It looked like it was going to be my script.
But April was looming… and it came with a new rule: we had to be off-script. TEDxNorthwich is an off-script / no tele-prompter / no notes event so we had to live and breathe these words.
So I recorded myself reading my talk with all the pauses, the right pace, the emphasis. Then I listened. Again. And again; On trains. In the car. In bed. In the garden. In front of a mirror. My script went everywhere I went.
Because April wasn’t just another rehearsal. It was our final chance before finding out if we’d officially made the TEDx line-up.
And I wanted to be ready.
April’s in-person rehearsal arrived and with it we met Kim, part of the TEDxNorthwich team. She’d be the hidden prompter on the day of the event; sat on the front row, knowing our talks inside-out, ready to jump in if we ever blanked.
We, the speakers, rallied around each other too. Everyone tried to stay for as much of the evening as possible, so we had an audience and people in our corner. It was nerve-wracking, pouring our hearts onto the table in front of peers who could potentially be “judging” us. But that support? It was everything.
Our WhatsApp group had already become this sacred place of honesty - sharing wobbles, wins, imposter syndrome spirals, late-night breakthroughs. To have those same new friends in the room, clapping and smiling, meant the world.
Catherine brought the famous red dot.
So, in this café, I took a deep breath. Envisioned the stage. Walked onto the dot. And told my story.
It wasn’t perfect. I needed a prompt twice. It came from my head, more focused on remembering than delivering. But I did it — off script. I was pretty happy with it as I had two and a half more months to polish.
Honestly, if it hadn’t been for the intensity of the TEDxNorthwich process, I’d never have pushed myself off-script that early. (My ADHD-self would still have been clutching those papers in June.) For that, I was grateful.
The team seemed happy with me, too. Feedback now was about delivery; the length of my pauses, the shape of my tone. (“For those who’ve seen the talk: yes, this is where the pauses in ‘Have you ever been forced to STOP?’ were perfected!”)
This was also the first time we had a proper, engaged audience. My fellow speakers. Seeing their faces, feeling their energy, feeding off live reactions… awesome! Their feedback was warm, constructive and full of encouragement.
And watching their talks? Goosebumps. Excitement. Crossing our fingers for each other. A room filled with warmth and shared ambition.
I left that night with a full heart.
And then, five days later, the email landed: I had made the final line-up!
Even better? We all had. Every one of us.
The date was set: July 5th. Delivering a TEDx talk was really happening for me.
Bring it on!
Click here to read the previous blog about my February wobble.
Stay tuned for the next blog talking about following rehearsals.
Find all the blogs on the Period Reality TEDx page.
This talk was never just about me.
It’s about a global call for gender equity through Cycle Awareness.
It’s about system change that starts with understanding our bodies.
It’s about bringing that conversation to the TEDx stage - and far, far beyond.
Because the TEDx stage wasn’t the destination.
It was just the beginning.
#NotDesignedForTheGrind
#TEDxTruths
#TEDxNorthwich
