I won highly commended at the speaker awards!

My TEDx journey has been a lot more than I anticipated.

Many people will focus on the talk itself and think of it as the final destination.

They consider all the stuff that leads up to the day - the writing, the preparation and the delivery - but forget what comes after.

And that stuff is often more important*.

How does the talk live on in the online form?
What opportunities does it lead to?
How does it change you as a person?

I’d never considered that my TEDx would be an editor’s pick and I certainly didn’t believe that I would be shortlisted in The Speaker Awards & Summit, yet there I was on Friday night waiting to find out how I did.

It’s hard to describe what it feels like being around a group of professional speakers, many of which have awards and signifiant levels of success.

(Heck, even Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden was shortlisted)

If I was describing how it feels in a “Dave” way, I *might* say that my bum hole was twitching.

It’s easy to feel like an imposter, but it makes is a lot easier knowing that the whole process of judging was rigorous and carefully considered.

I was shortlisted alongside a group of amazing speakers, and I would be happy to see any of them win.

So what was the outcome?

*Drum roll please*

For me, I was awarded highly commended, which for my first ever speaker awards shortlisting I am very proud of.

The winner was Susan Heaton-Wright and it was great to see her on stage celebrating.

(I also saw her TEDx in real life last year)

Any recognition for the work you do is always amazing, and being highly commended is a great feeling, particularly when we are talking about work as a professional speaker and speaker coach.

The award is frosting on the bun because it allows me to sit with my peers but I also have to remember that the TEDx journey started at TEDxTamworth with an idea to share, talking about men’s mental health, sharing my own story and giving people something that I hope can help them.

I know that the message in the talk has touched others.  
How? Because people tell me.

And yes, my neurodivergent brain wants to smack the nice things people say into orbit because they can’t really be talking about me.

Anyway, that’s mindset work for another day.

On Friday I got to spend time with lovely humans, many of which I have only met in the virtual world, and yeah a lot of them are taller in real life.

Congratulations to all the winners and to all who were shortlisted.

(There are so many to mention)

Now it’s time to find space on my wall for this award, and to say thank you to Elliot Kay, Simone Vincenzi and Lovelda Vincenzi for creating the speaker awards and to all the judges for their time and expertise.

P.S. I'm sure somebody somewhere has a picture of me dressed up with my certificate. Or I may have to wait until the official photos appear.




*Even more important than adding “TEDx speaker” to their LinkedIn headline while in the green room.