How Juliet Blake Helps People Tell Their TED Stories

Juliet Blake joins Bryan Kramer for the very first episode of the BK Show, deconstructing human behavior to find tactics and tools to create peak performance.Juliet started out as the President of the Henson Company, overseeing the Muppets Franchise as well as all television programming. Today, she serves as the Curator of Special Projects for the Ted Talk Conference and she’s also the producer of her own television and film projects including, “The Hundred Foot Journey”.At Ted, shehelps people tell their stories in an authentic and affecting way. She trains Ted speakers toeliminate any “business-y” impulses in order to focus on drawing out their authenticity.She impresses the importance ofreally digging deep to find the main thrust of the story you’re telling,encouraging speakers to take the necessary time to truly identify the heart of the matter.

As a visionary and mentor, Juliet shares her advice on identifying authentic stories, finding your path, being the only woman in the room, and neverevergiving up.

In This Episode

• The difference between speaking and giving a speech
• The importance of both finding mentors and mentoring others
• Inspiration drawn from Ted Talks
• Identifying a story with value
• The transformation of storytelling over the years
• Being the only woman in the room
• What should be taught in schools today
• Why Juliet doesn’t plan for the future
• The most important qualities for successful business people

[Tweet ““My passion is really helping other people tell their stories.” @julietrblake”]

“I like to be frightened. I like to take jobs that aren’t necessarily the ones you would automatically assume I would take. I think some of the most creative challenges were when I was the only woman in the room where there were mainly men present. I’ve certainly been talked over many times and also been told I couldn’t be in the top job because I was working for a male skewing network and I was a woman. And that’s just so soul destroying because it’s just simply not true. If you understand what good content is then you understand who the audience is and you plan and schedule accordingly. But all it’s made me do is to grow very strong daughters.” @julietrblake

“You don’t have to be the best to be the most successful. You just have to be a collaborator and a good partner to people.” @julietrblake

“There’s a new tenant in teaching at the moment. It’s not just teaching children academics, but teaching kids grit, teaching kids staying power, teaching kids never to give up, teaching kids to believe in who they are. It’s equally important as teaching them academics. Because if you are a really brilliant person but don’t have the confidence and the grit, you’re not going to succeed in this current environment.” @julietrblake

Resources

• Ted Business Talks
• TED Talks Education Hosted by John Legend
• Brené Brown on Vulnerability at TedxHouston
• Amy Cuddy on Body Language and Personal Power at TedGlobal
• Sal Kahn’s LearnStorm
• Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In Movement
• “The Hundred Foot Journey” Movie and Book