How TED Talks can help refine your advising strategy

Few opportunities rival the power of a TED Talk to distinguish oneself along a competitive landscape in any business, including benefits consulting. But it didn't start out that way.

In February 1984, architect Richard Saul Wurman and TV executive Harry Marks organized a one-off conference about technology, entertainment and design — TED for short. The event, held in Monterey, Calif., spawned TED Talks that were posted online in June 2006 and TEDx Talks two years later. These speeches, which averaged up to 18 minutes, became a viral video phenomenon featuring a worldwide community of passionate people. Today, the TED library search found 23 HR talks and 238 results that mention the workplace.

"TED is the most recognizable brand in the world when it comes to speaking and thought leadership, and that is the reason why I did a TEDx Talk," observes Dave Won, a money mindset sales coach whose "You're Not Bad with Money" appearance in March 2024 addressed the importance of establishing a healthy emotional relationship with money.  

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It's a topic that is increasingly resonating with employees in workplace-based financial wellness programs, some of which feature certified financial therapists. "Saving is actually a behavior, it's an action," he says, "but what's more important than the action itself is the emotion that's driving that action." 

For example, it's good to chase after goals in a healthy way without any anxiety or stress, but bad to save for fear of running out of money or proving someone wrong. While making sure that people spend less than they make and put enough toward retirement are worthwhile objectives, he cautions that they're not really solving the problem, which is understanding the emotional driver behind those behaviors and actions.

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While many TED speakers hope their video will generate a substantial number of views, Won says very few will go viral — and as such, believes they need to have healthy expectations about the experience. 

Initially, he perceived his TEDx Talk as a way around which to build an identity and self-worth. When that didn't exactly pan out the way he hoped, feelings of guilt, shame and anger took hold. In working through those issues, he no longer obsesses over the number of views his talk generates. 

"That's what money can do to us, too," he adds. "I see parallels there, and that it revealed a few things about me that I just had to continue to work on."