TEDx – Hello, I'm DK – creative producer and speaker coach

2024 Annual Review | Reviving To Valuing

Varied lessons in principled living.

2024 broke my heart…

…broke my spirit…

…broke me open…

…what a gift!

VALUES

It was a year of living my personal and professional standards.

This meant orienting away from people and a path which had already eroded much of my time, had taken me away from cherished communities, emptied my energy / bank account / sense of belonging and left me adrift.

These decisions were massively challenging although were right to make, and made easier by those who ask for mundane, those who say things then do the opposite, those who prefer to stay small and who have yet to develop the courage to take responsibility for situations they have created!

It truly was not a good year for others bringing positiveness to my life, however, it was one in which I discovered my own worth… then I added tax!

TED(x) TALK

My TEDx talk is on ted.com—BOOM⁠—what a smile-inducing-discovery and had me adding ‘as featured on ted.com’ to all references on my site!

The talk is flirting with the one-million-views mark so currently working out what to do to recognise this. Sign up in the sidebar to get that notification as will announce it on my blog.

The accompanying Speaking With Purpose book continues to sell in its tens… many purchasers have gotten in touch afterwards saying nice things and / or asking follow-up questions.

I’m currently story-boarding a ten-part videos series on my three pillar approach and it being applied in different ways, so again stay tuned to that in the first half of the new year via this blog.

FEATURES

Was quadruply-thrilled to be invited to participate / featured in the following podcasts:

The Subtle Art of Public Speaking | Stage, Page & Screen Podcast

Digby Scott, Dig Deeper Podcast | Translation, Narration, Curation and Host Leadership

Is Creativity Just A Catchphrase? | Finding Creativity Podcast

Deconstructing My TEDx Talk | A Critique Via The GhostRanch Podcast

BLOGGED

Posts this year:

To ensure you don’t miss a thing subscribe and can get an email every time I post a blog:

RETURN(S)

…back to Cymru Wales for two extended periods.

…back to the hunger building to be creative (with others).

…back in England for a quarter-of-the-year-side-quest.

…back to North America for some dancing plus HATCH.

…back in Aotearoa New Zealand rediscovering whanau.

…back to freelancing and meeting folks to explore collabs.

…back for new future possibilities with blank pieces of paper (see 2025 below)!

ONLINE COURSE REDO DECISION

Decided not to develop this out further after asking and gaining feedback from the community.

After chalking up a healthy five-figure return which sustained me through the lean-years of post-Covid-times, will now be folding the lessons and insights into the following:

NEW SERVICE

planes trains and automobiles gif - john candy with a casio

Launched publicly after a successful pilot with a multi-national (who promptly ordered a second cohort plus now in talks for future ones in 2025), the Purposeful Storytelling Impact Course is a tailored leadership learning experience, aimed at greatly improving storytelling techniques and oratory skills, as well as enhancing the capability to deliver exceptional showcase presentations across diverse fields.

Here are some quotes from those who have participated:

“I appreciated the three pronged approach that DK showed us, backed by the wealth of experience he brings to the training. Public speaking is such an art and with practice and the right training, can be a powerful tool for delivering story and message.”

“This course provided me with the mindset, toolsets and experience/feedback to confidently approach speaking in a modern context. The quotes inspired me, the challenges felt relevant and the peer support (in addition to expert feedback) helped me develop quickly.”

“Overall, the entire course was wonderful. Really appreciate the guidance provided by DK. It was also a great opportunity to network and build connections with colleagues across the globe, with such diverse backgrounds and areas of work expertise.”

“Thank you for an amazing few weeks. I learned so much, i was pushed out of my comfort zone, and I’m looking forward to applying these techniques to my work.”

“DK and the overall training have been extremely professional, appropriately safe and fun. I enjoyed it plenty and learned a lot! Judging this as a highly impactful and worthwhile investment into the success of our people and with it our company at scale. I was and am grateful for the chance to participate in this first cohort.”

“I really enjoyed this program and am so glad we piloted it with the group we had. There was community within the cohort and I look forward to working alongside a powerful group of speakers. Thank you DK for sharing your brilliance. Your coaching and guidance was supportive and affirming, and you created a space that encouraged respect for the craft. Appreciate you!”

If you care about having your leaders internally gain crucial oratory / communication skills then this is something to check out and then get in touch to explore booking.

SPEAKER COACHING

Always a joy to sit and collaborate with others on their voice and story, plus how they will share that with the world.

As I continue to hone my speaker coaching skills I’m finding a lot more fluidity in approaches I’m taking, informed by the accrued years of practice, an intuition stemming from the thousands of individuals I can now say I’ve interacted with. And even so, I continue to learn constantly and constantly reevaluate the limits of my own understanding in this discipline.

Along with the 1-2-1’s (which now includes an Olympian in my alumni of clients), I continue to offer speaker coaching through my established half/full day ‘purposeful storytelling’ masterclass sessions (foundation and advanced options available), again, get in touch for more info.

CREATIVE PRODUCING

john travolta confused gif - pulp fiction

Apart from some pro-bono and friend-consulting in this space have done very little this year. Although triple-keen to explore briefs from those looking to gather humans in one room for ‘delicious learning experiences’⁠—check out my pedigree and lets talk.

STORIES

Have an outline of a historical fiction story and another sci-fi trilogy I’d like to work on in the first half of 2025. Have decided against the other book idea at the moment (detailed in last years update and which aligns to a launch of a new business venture which I’m still researching and curating ideas around).

SOCIAL MEDIA

Since I stopped tweetmailing the platform continues to descend further into the pile of fiery turds described.

I did sign up for Mastodon and Bluesky although not interested in diverting my time from other things to cultivate a following on there or diluting my curative / creative efforts.

Tumblr has become my go-back-to curation platform and have enjoyed the interesting things it thinks I should be interested in, but again, spend no time on there shaping the feeds and not using it beyond feeding my monthly digital breadcrumbs posts.

As where I get my information and stimulation from, am going back to the more ‘traditional’ blogs and online communities like Reddit plus personal newsletters (especially ones with RSS feeds I can pull into my reader).

For that reason LinkedIn holds less and less interest as it continue to go the way of all algorithmic platforms (I’d honestly pay the premium option if it trusted us to be adults and I could just get the updates of those in my network).

So for now the focus will be blogging and creating here (again, sign-up in the sidebar please).

2025

the simpsons - i will not fight the future gif

I’m hungry to find the edges of things, to build, rebuild, to collaborate, to Shake The Dust, plus orient towards those who are principle-led and celebrate / nurture creative actioneers.

For this reason I’m taking the opportunity to return to Aotearoa New Zealand (for at least six months) and in terms of future travels, unless something radical and wonderful occurs, will be staying put for a while as really need to ‘land’ somewhere to counter the adrift-ness being felt deeply.

So what about you? Where do you find yourself at the beginning of the new calendar year? How can I serve / add value in your adventures in 2025? And if nothing else, please feel me sending you light:

Previous years reviews: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2011, 2010, 2009…

Deconstructing My TEDx Talk | A Critique Via The GhostRanch Podcast

A wonderful gift from peers I’ve never met.

So honoured that my TEDxNelson talk was the topic of discussion for GhostRanch, leading presentation design agency, via their Presentation Thinking podcast:

Click play above for a energetic deconstruction regarding the elements of said talk, a detailed verbal essay which pulls out the storytelling components I was using plus the highlights which mattered to them. All whilst offering further insights and broadening out the lessons learned plus sharing their own experiences as well.

Thank you Mikey Mioduski and Molly Geoghegan for the sigh-inducing-kind-and-smile-inducing overview.

PS Current walk on song.

Check out some other podcasts I’ve been on.

750,000 Views | Celebrating As We Go

Marking another milestone.

In a little over eighteen months, my TEDxNelson talk on ‘The Public Speaking Lesson You Never Had’ has reached three quarters of a million views—crazy-mad-bonkers!

And the emails I continue to get from people fills my heart (this is the latest one):

If you’re reading this and watched it, shared it on, and / or liked it / left a comment on the YouTube video, sincerely, thank you!

Now I have the delightful challenge to figure out what to do when it hits one million views…

500,000 TEDxNelson Talk Views | Celebrating With A Giveaway

Half a million views equates to 19mins x 500,000 = 9,500,000mins / 158,333hours / 6597days / 942weeks / 18years of watching time.

That’s quite a juicy number in a little over a year and by way of thanks to the community I thought I’d create a fun offer to further aid the promotion of the talk…

…so if you:

share the YouTube video of my talk on LinkedIn / Twitter / Instagram / Threads (or any social media platform), and / or
feature it on your blog, and / or
shout it out in your email newsletter, and / or
leave a comment on the YouTube video

…you will go into the draw for the following package:

1x 75mins of 1-2-1 speaker coaching (for you or whomever you gift the time to); or
1x 75mins Presenting Engagingly Online masterclass for a group (whether it be a bunch of souls you bring together, your own leadership group in the organisation you work for or again gifted on to another deserving project);
2x codes for free access to the Presenting Engagingly Online course;
5x ebook / audiobook codes for free access to the Speaking With Purpose bundle;
My thanks!

Deadline for participation is Valentines Day 2024, February 14th and winner chosen by random.

And if you’re new here or haven’t seen the talk here it is:

Small print: Winner will be drawn at random. My ball, my rules, my final say. (#1) 1-2-1 and / or the (#2) online masterclass to be completed 6-11.30pm GMT weekdays or on a Monday or over weekend, before 31st March 2024. You either must tag me into your LinkedIn post or send me a link to it / other social media platform shares / features in blog posts / email newsletters etc. via my contact form. Many thanks and good luck.

ADDENDUM 14.2.24: thanks to all who participated. Winner has been chosen.

250,000 Views On My TEDx Talk | Celebrating Milestones

It’s with much surprise and pure delight I noticed my little TEDxNelson talk has reached over a quarter of million views in nine months of being live:

Put another way, that’s 9 years and 3months or 3298.625 days or 79,167 hours or 4,750,000 minutes of viewing time accrued.

In that time you could watch the extended versions of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies 3,900 times!

During my near-long-decade TEDx licensee / producer / speaker coach, many speakers would ask what viewing number should they expect and / or aim for and my response was always the same: it’s not the amount of views but who viewed that’s important.

However, I have to be honest, reaching this number makes me feel bemusedly-giddy as it’s something as I never expected (nothing I’ve ever done has matched these figures).

The impact has been an increase in my website views, a flurry of emails saying ‘thank you’ and follow up questions related to the topic, my ebook / audiobook on the same subject making me some side-coin, as well as several agencies offering their services to boost my views further (have not taken anyone up on the offers).

So a chunky thank you for all these views up till now, to those who shared on as well as reached out directly, and here’s to the next quarter of a million!

My TEDx Talk Just Reached 100,000 Views | Pre-order Announcement Of New Book: ‘Speaking With Purpose’

Half-price ebook + audiobook pre-order offer open to celebrate reaching hundred thousand views (pre-order closed).

BUY NOW Speaking With Purpose: A guide to delivering impressive presentations!

For only $10NZD this bundle deal featured an ebook with a juicy 37 chapters, nearly 14,000 words across 89 pages plus a 1hour34mins audiobook version (read by me).

Read the blog post announcement or purchase below:

buy on GUMROAD

I remembered chatting to a friend before the above TEDx talk went live and saying how happy I would be if it hit five figures in views. Well, in just three months to the day of it going live it x10 that!

ANNOUNCEMENT

During the Christmas and New Year break I’ve been tapping away writing a companion guide to the talk which broadens out the things discussed. What it manifested into though is a series of monographs relating to the three elements of what makes a great presentation, the basis of my coaching system with clients and what I deliver in my masterclasses.

It’s currently being proofed by trusted peers under the title of “Speaking With Purpose : A guide to delivering impressive presentations!“

There are currently 30+ chapters and over 13k words detailing all that I know about public speaking, coaching this challenging skill-set plus tackling the biggest hurdles of nerves, emotional connection and storytelling models. And just as way of a teaser, here are three random un-proofed chapters:

Welcome—this book is for those who have to speak in public, present to small and large groups of people, and who want to master their nerves. It’s also for individuals looking to hone their physical and vocal nuances to deliver insightful content in a way which creates emotive action from their audiences.

These monographs detail the three elements of effective public speaking and will outline practical advice you can start applying during your next talk; whether you be a student delivering your final thesis, a confident leader having to deliver a closing keynote to a large conference crowd or a Chief Executive pitching the next 20 year plan to the board.

I trust you as an adult to take what you need and dismiss what you don’t.

This is not a ‘you should’ but more like a ‘you could’ guide based on everything I’ve learned in this arena (although these are tried and tested approaches which achieve re

After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”
Phillip Pullman

As detailed in my bio I was the licensee and producer of the TEDxWellington events for nearly ten years and one thing we provided was a five week coaching experience to aid the development of the talks. One year we had an individual we were failing in this sense as we were busy encouraging them (along with the other speakers) to stand in their story, project out and connect with the audience that way.

Well this person just wasn’t comfortable with this and as the weeks passed it became apparent it wasn’t going to work. I remember the conversation with them exploring other alternatives and the answer came from a comment she made about sitting in her office, across from her clients on two comfy sofas and how that was her most authentic self.

So, we put the speaker in a comfy chair and wow, instant success. The talk became intimate and focussed. Soft as well as powerful.

This was the best version of them to deliver their story in their way, not in our expected way of standing.

It also aligns with a favourite TED talk of mine which is a deeply moving, gentle and poignant, all delivered whilst sitting in a chair (please check out BJ Miller 2015’s talk: What really matters at the end of life). Another case of cultivating closeness through the simple act of sitting.

You’ll learn in a later chapter (DIVA) that understanding and stipulating the best environmental factors for you to deliver a great talk is paramount. And hoping the above story and examples give solid reasons to think differently in this area (albeit in rare cases).

One word of caution here for those hosting and ‘sitting’ on panels at events: this is a very different domain that what is described above in terms of a solo speaker in a chair. Unless you use clever lighting it’s very hard to create the same effect as what I’ve described in the other cases although much of the other stuff in the book can be applied in this scenario.

So lets get back to presenting and the body by focussing on the…

Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.”
Charles Mingus

Nobody likes the way they sound. That’s a given, therefore, get over it. I guarantee you sound just fine enough.

Accents rule. Lean into them with just a side consideration of clarity for those with thick regional ones. Over the years, due to my international work plus living overseas for over a decade, my Welsh accent has softened. Then again, I still roll my “r’s” heavily and when I get excited it comes out wonderfully. I just make sure I articulate correctly and it’s never been an issue.

Cadence is how you modulate your voice and add stresses to what’s being said. These inflections can assist the audience to consider the importance of certain aspects of the story.

Just like the cadence, the rhythm is another aspect to consider. Varying the speed throughout any talk can be an effective way to add some ‘colour’ to an orators style. Although, don’t have too much of a difference here as it will sound awful.

Play around with subtle shifts in both cadence and rhythm which match the emotional range, like a little faster when it’s an exciting element of the story with a higher register and then slowing down again to annunciate for the poignant aspects which allows for reflection.

By the way if you want to create tension or make the listeners understand of the important of a statement, just pause.

A pause is like an underline is writing. It emphasises what came before.

Now the other way to do this is to repeat something. However this can only be used sparingly, like cumin in cooking.

Repeating something, even twice in a talk, gets noticed and I would suggest using this trick just once. Focus it on your biggest point or statement or piece of information which is truly arresting. Like a statistic which generates a ‘wow’ from when you share it, or a summarising line or two to distill a big topic which you’ve been introducing, or a revealing insight from a lived experience or even report. Just be careful with this one beyond that one time use.

The ebook and audiobook will be available on sale from end of March 2023 although making this pre-order live in celebration of the 100,000 views mark. Half-price. If you purchase I’ll send it through a couple of days before going live to the public (pre-order sales closed).

‘Speaking With Purpose’ is my second book, my first being ‘Zen And the Heart Of Social Media’ (see books), written back in when I was delivering in the social media space. This book is now free if you want it (all you have to do is ask).

Again, HUGE thanks to the TEDxNelson team, the other speakers and organisers plus licensee & producer Kara for the original invitation.

#48 December 2022 + January 2023 | Monthly Digital Breadcrumbs

A bunch of things (which I tweeted) for your eyes and ears plus brain to spend time on.

READ

Different things are now being considered about the cause of depression (beyond the low levels of serotonin in the brain).

Written in 1998 but nothing has changed: How to Kill Creativity.

This will make you rethink a few things: Don’t Treat Your Life as a Project.

My fav geoglyph is this one: Archaeologists Uncover Nearly 170 Nazca Lines Dating Back About 2,000 Years in Peru.

What has come into the Public Domain Day from 1st January 2023.

My Youtube earnings from the very popular ‘Brick Experiment Channel’ which is a superbly honest breakdown of monies / states / data from a very successful creator.

The Zuck is doubling-down on the failed / failing metaverse plan: Meta is facing the test of its lifetime + read also (& shudder): Meta faces $1.6bn lawsuit over Facebook posts inciting violence in Tigray war.

Urgh: Musk’s Neuralink faces federal inquiry after killing 1,500 animals in testing.

WATCH

EXPLORE

Later is an open source Mac menu bar app that clears and restores your workspace with ease (great for presenters / workshop takers like me).

APITable an API-oriented, open source and easy-to-use visual database for everyone.

Remove noise from voice recordings with this speech enhancement tool from Adobe. Have tried. Is very cool.

This YouTube transcript creator.

If you need a Matrix web-based green code rain screen.

lightyear.fm show how radio broadcasts leave Earth at the speed of light. Scroll away from Earth and hear how far the biggest hits of the past have travelled. The farther away you get, the longer the waves take to travel there—and the older the music you’ll hear.

All monthly digital breadcrumbs posts.

The Public Speaking Lesson You Never Had | My TEDxNelson Talk

As featured on ted.com

Got an important presentation or pitch coming up and struggling to prepare? This will help (or your money back): exploring the three elements which make up a great talk plus a Jedi-mind trick which will reframe those debilitating nerves once and for all.

What a joy to be invited to give a TEDx talk last month in Whakatū Nelson, at their first ever in-person event.

After nearly a decade of developing and delivering the TEDx offerings for Te Whanganui-o-Tara Wellington, was an honour to be stepping on that red rug as just a speaker to share my ‘idea worth spreading.’

As discussed in the talk, scripts are rubbish, and just to prove here’s mine which I prepared my talk from after developing different options via the post-it note medium (if you’re speaking from lived experience this is all you need):

Thanks to all the good people behind the scenes at TEDxNelson for the opportunity to share my story/ies plus the attendees and other speakers for making it a great day.

BUY NOW Speaking With Purpose: A guide to delivering impressive presentations!

For only $10NZD this bundle deal featured an ebook with a juicy 37 chapters, nearly 14,000 words across 89 pages plus a 1hour34mins audiobook version (read by me).

Read the blog post announcement or purchase below:

buy on GUMROAD

TEDxWellington 2021 Cancelled & License Hibernated | A Big Hole Appears In My Diary

For nearly a decade, a huge part of my life has been devoted to a pro-bono endeavour of producing the community TEDx events here in the capital.

The decision to cancel this years event really hurt—read the full announcement here—as the 2021 event was going to be my last and boy I was aiming to go out on a high (with a 2,000 person event plus some wicked delegate experience ideas to boot as well).

However, after:

two TEDxTeAros (2012, 2013)
one TEDxScottBase streaming party
TEDxWellingtonWomens (2015 – license holder only, 2017 – license holder & producer)
four TEDxWellingtons (2014, 2016, 2017, 2019)
twelve evening community TEDxWellingtonSalon events
plus, mentoring eight other TEDx’s in the nation

…my time as the kaitiaki of the capital city license has ended.

READ the FULL ANNOUNCEMENT, reflections & thank you / LOVE LETTER post VIA TEDXWELLINGTON.COM

SO, WHAT’S NEXT?

Rest.

Then explore new paid opportunities which align to my skill set and serves my individual purpose regarding enabling people to find and have voice through delicious learning experiences.

Am looking to work with kind humans who reach beyond their grasp and have complex problems to solve—I like intersecting disciplines, leading on collaborations and crafting outcome-based connections through content creation.

Big words for basically saying making cool and complicated stuff with nice people!

As way of an illustration, I recently developed and delivered an in-studio learning experience for Teulo which is an online platform for architects and designers.

Let me know if you are in need of a DK-shaped human to assist in any creative project directing / producing.

And I will continue to offer and deliver speaker coaching (one-to-ones and group masterclasses) for select clients as well as developing out the fourth Creative Leadership NZ 2021 conference for the end of the year.

TEDxWellington 2021 | Final Call For Speakers & Performers

Deadline for applications is noon, Wednesday 25th November 2020.

APPLY HERE

WATCH (like 1million+ others, my TEDx talk, now on ted.com), the public speaking lesson you never had, and BUY the companion Speaking With Purpose e/audiobook.

Deconstructing My TEDx Talk | A Critique Via The GhostRanch Podcast

A wonderful gift from peers I’ve never met.

Check out some other podcasts I’ve been on.

750,000 Views | Celebrating As We Go

Marking another milestone.

Related post: 500,000 TEDxNelson Talk Views | Celebrating With A Giveaway.

500,000 TEDxNelson Talk Views | Celebrating With A Giveaway

Half a million views equates to 19mins x 500,000 = 9,500,000mins / 158,333hours / 6597days / 942weeks / 18years of watching time.

250,000 Views On My TEDx Talk | Celebrating Milestones

It’s with much surprise and pure delight I noticed my little TEDxNelson talk has reached over a quarter of million views in nine months of being live:

My TEDx Talk Just Reached 100,000 Views | Pre-order Announcement Of New Book: ‘Speaking With Purpose’

Half-price ebook + audiobook pre-order offer open to celebrate reaching hundred thousand views (pre-order closed).

BUY NOW Speaking With Purpose: A guide to delivering impressive presentations!

ANNOUNCEMENT

The Public Speaking Lesson You Never Had | My TEDxNelson Talk

Got an important presentation or pitch coming up and struggling to prepare? This will help (or your money back): exploring the three elements which make up a great talk plus a Jedi-mind trick which will reframe those debilitating nerves once and for all.

BUY NOW Speaking With Purpose: A guide to delivering impressive presentations!

TEDxWellington 2021 Cancelled & License Hibernated | A Big Hole Appears In My Diary

For nearly a decade, a huge part of my life has been devoted to a pro-bono endeavour of producing the community TEDx events here in the capital.

TEDxWellington 2021 | Final Call For Speakers & Performers

Deadline for applications is noon, Wednesday 25th November 2020.