From a Vision Board
to the TEDx Stage

What dream have you allowed to linger in the background, waiting for you to take a leap?

One of my boldest leaps began with a vision board.

Several years ago, at a gathering of CHIEF members—a vibrant community of senior women leaders—we explored our visions for the future and discovered new possibilities together. To give our dreams a place to live, each of us created a vision board—a vivid representation of our hopes and ambitions.

While piecing together my vision board, I stumbled upon the TEDx logo in a magazine. Inspired, I glued it onto my board and thought, “Someday, I’d love to give a TEDx Talk.” At that moment, it was nothing more than an idea.

Yet that idea stayed with me. Looking back, I see how a series of relationships and intentional decisions began moving it forward.

One of my first steps was to ask my friend Corean Canty, a TEDx speaker and coach, what it would take for her to help me develop a talk. She was then considering a “proof-of-concept” coaching group, and I eagerly joined. Through that experience, I created the first draft of my TEDx Talk.

Some time later, another friend introduced me to Michael and Amy Port’s HEROIC speaker training program. I signed up right away and traveled to New Jersey to attend. There, I learned frameworks that challenged my thinking so profoundly, I wrote an entirely new version.

My TEDx Talk, Unapologetic Prioritization, was finally ready to share.

So I started applying to TEDx events.

My first application didn’t go as planned. It was declined. Yet, Tasha White, the licensee of TEDxBuckheadAve, encouraged me to try again. I did, and on my second attempt, I was accepted.

Here’s the thing: getting accepted wasn’t the finish line. It was the start of months filled with research, workshops, rewrites, memorization, and rehearsals.

I’ve presented to many groups throughout my career, both large and small. But this felt different. This time, I had to stand on stage before my peers and fully own an idea that mattered deeply to me.

Finally, on September 27, 2025, I recorded my TEDx Talk before a live audience, including family and friends.

The sense of accomplishment was immense. What started as a picture cut from a magazine became a public declaration of the work I want to bring into the world.

Along the way, I certainly faced some fears.

My greatest fear wasn’t public speaking. It was the possibility that I would work incredibly hard, let people see how much this mattered to me, and still discover that I wasn’t good enough.

That fear surfaced throughout the journey.

It appeared when my first application was declined. It returned during endless rewrites and rehearsals.

And it grew even louder after I stepped off the stage.

Months later, while at the Quantum Leap Experience in Costa Rica, I watched announcements that other TEDx speakers’ talks had been published while mine remained silent.

I began wondering what I had done wrong. Had my talk been rejected? Had I misunderstood the quality of my performance? Had I allowed myself to believe something that was not true?

Then Tasha texted me: “Call me.”
The news she shared with me wasn’t that my talk had failed.

Quite the opposite.

Over 9 months after recording my TEDx Talk, I learned that it had been selected as a TEDx Editors’ Pick.

On July 7, 2026, it was released on the TEDx Editors’ Pick platform.

Looking back, I see how often fear took center stage. I was passed over once. I endured uncertainty. I doubted myself.

But the fears I carried never materialized.

That initial rejection became redirection, and the silence I endured was never proof of failure.

This leap was so much more than earning the title of TEDx speaker.

I learned to trust myself in a whole new way.

Before, that TEDx logo cut from a magazine represented something I hoped I might someday be brave enough, talented enough, or fortunate enough to achieve. A vision on a board.

Now, I know what it takes to bring an idea into the world.

I know I can keep going when outcomes are uncertain, ask for help, learn from rejection, and move forward, even when fear tries to write its own story.

My TEDx Talk became more than a personal milestone. It gave language to Unapologetic Prioritization and expanded the mission I’m building through Liminist.

Today, I have an idea in the world, and an even deeper responsibility to keep building on it.