“Have you ever felt stuck in life? Without hope? Lost? Depressed? I was there on Friday – March 20th, 2020 @ 2:30. I was about to layoff an employee for the FIRST time in my life. Not just one, but all 45 of them. It felt like death. I had put 45 years of my life into the business I was about to close due to being non-essential. I was crying.
I had started the year of 2020 committed to doing A Year of Firsts – I was doing something for the FIRST time in my life – EVERY DAY and documenting it in my FIRST daily journal! It became my first book – A Leap Year of Firsts. When I started my Year of Firsts, my firsts were all Fun & Games – bucket list type items like many would guess.
THEN a Pandemic showed up to provide me a number of unwanted and inspirational FIRSTS. I even slept on the streets of Philly on a cold winter night with the homeless for the FIRST time because I wanted to understand the effects of losing a job and subsequently losing everything. My Firsts gave me momentum each day. It kept me unstuck. It gave me hope. It provided a positive mindset of learning. They provided me a “Thread of Sanity during the Insanity of the time.” It got me through. It made me grow.
For my TED Talk I would like to share my journey of my Leap Year of Firsts because I realized this strategy of challenging yourself to do uncomfortable things is truly a mechanism of growth that anyone can apply to their lives to go from feeling stuck to thriving, even in challenging time. I realized this strategy can help others like it helped me.
I’m Keith Baldwin. Chief Relationship Officer and Majority partner of Spike’s, a 90-year-old awards manufacturer. I’ve also become an author and a speaker. So, I am asking you for the opportunity to do another FIRST. To do my FIRST TED Talk in order to help others.“
This is the script from my pitch video that I recorder today to send to the members of the TED Talk selection committee in my effort for another first. I have a TED Talk consultant who has worked me over the last few months to get to this point. I have had a number of changed and edited versions to get to this point. I have learned a lot through the process. If I get selected, I will be learning more. Some of this learning will be uncomfortable for me as I stretch myself to do something completely unthinkable for me – a TED Talk. We’ll see?