How many TED talks have you watched in your lifetime? You may be surprised to find out that the answer is not very many. We are so busy with work and life that we forget to take time for ourselves.
But it’s important to do this because learning new skills or gaining a fresh perspective can help us grow as individuals, entrepreneurs, and professionals. So here are 11 of the best TED Talks for female entrepreneurs.
1) The 3 Secrets of Resilient People by Lucy Hone
This TED Talk by Lucy Horne is absolutely perfect for time we are living in right now. In it, she talks about her 3 strategies for handling anxiety and improving your resilience during tough times. These strategies are also applicable beyond our current situation, and can really help improve your outlook when facing adversity.
In short, the 3 strategies are: 1) Accept that some bad things will inevitably happen in life, 2) Try to focus on things you can control instead of those you can’t, and 3) Ask yourself “Is what I’m doing helping or hindering me?”
These might sound easier said than done, and they are, but the talk is really worth watching if you are looking to take a step back and improve your mental resilience in tough times both in your personal life, and in your business!
2) The Power of Vulnerability by Brené Brown
Brené has become a household name in recent years, and with good reason. She has some of the best books on leadership and vulnerability, including my personal favorite Daring Greatly.
However, it was her TED Talk on Vulnerability in 2010 that really put Brené on the map for most people. In her talk, she shares her insights from studying vulnerability and how those learnings can apply to all of us.
I recommend you take 20 minutes to watch her talk and let me know what you think!
3) A Year Of Saying Yes To Everything by Shonda Rhymes
Have you ever tried to said yes to everything? To push yourself beyond your comfort zone and say yes to things that scared you?
In this TED Talk, Shonda Rhymes, the creator of Greys Anatomy, shares what happened when she experimented with saying yes to everything.
The part of this TED Talk that captivated me the most was the moment when she explains that a dream job is not always a dream and it is still a job. And work doesn’t work without play.
As entrepreneurs reading this post I know that you are aspiring to that dream job, whether that is travelling the world for a living, starting an ecommerce business or selling your knowledge through online courses.
Remember when you achieve it (and I know you will!), it will still be work, so you must also build a dream life around that work by spending meaningful time with your yourself, your family and friends, and saying yes to those experiences as well.
4) How to Build Your Confidence and Inspire It in Others by Brittany Packnett
Have you ever doubted yourself, wondering if you were knowledgeable enough or ready to put yourself out there? Yep, me too.
Self confidence is one of the top struggles I hear almost every day from other women in business. Whether it is being unsure if they should leave their jobs to pursue their side hustle full time, worrying about what their friends or family might think, or simply not feeling if their latest blog post is good enough to hit “publish” on, confidence is an ongoing struggle for most of us.
This TED talk by educator Brittany Packnett tells some great stories on not only building your confidence, but also how to help others find their own confidence. She dives into the 3 components that lead to confidence, with 1) Permission, 2) Community, and 3) Curiosity.
If you are looking for a little confidence boost for your weekend to take that next step in your own life, give this talk a watch and if you want an additional boost you can read 6 Ways To Build Your Blogging Confidence from me!
5) How To Succeed, Get More Sleep
In this hilarious TED Talk, Arianna Huffington shares “A small idea, that can unlock big ideas”.
After fainting from exhaustion, and breaking her cheekbone on her desk, Arianna rediscovered the value of sleep to her own success and creativity, and encourages women to do the same.
She argues we can live a more productive, more inspired, and more joyful life by getting enough sleep instead of bragging about how few hours we slept to present an illusion of productivity.
If you have 4 minutes to spare before you go to sleep give this one a watch!
6) Women in Business, Entirely Unremarkable
In this very interesting and provocative TED Talk, Kirsten Hall raises the question, is it time to stop celebrating women in business, just for being women in business?
Having been a part of several women in business networks, she began to question whether these groups that celebrated women in business may in fact be perpetuating the bias females seek to overcome.
She suggests perhaps we should wind down the idea of women’s groups – and position women in business, female leaders, entrepreneurs and board members as the new normal.
7) Inside The Mind Of A Master Procrastinator by Tim Urban
Has our new work from home lifestyle caused you to start procrastinating a bit more? If so, you’re most definitely not alone.
Tim Urban is the author of one of my favorite websites Wait But Why which is filled with amazing long form articles, including my personal favorite Life In A Pixel.
However, when Tim was invited to speak on the TED stage, he found his normal ‘procrastinate until the very last minute’ method wasn’t quite working, so he delivered this talk on procrastination instead.
If you have been putting some things to the side and aren’t quite sure why, give yourself 14 minutes and listen to this funny yet insightful talk!
8) The First 20 Hours – How to Learn Anything by Josh Kaufman
You’ve probably heard the old study that says it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert on a new skill. Do you not have a spare 10,000 hours laying around? Me neither, but this TED Talk explains why you really only need about 20 hours to learn something new!
The talk outlines how to learn new skills quickly, including breaking the necessary skills in smaller pieces, eliminating distractions, consistent practice, and overcoming the “frustration barrier”.
Josh discusses why you can go from 0 to 80 in almost any skill relatively quickly, where getting every last ounce of knowledge to go from 80 to 100 can take a long, long time.
Why is this relevant for your life? Well, many people get discouraged from learning a new skill because they think it will take too much time.
In fact, if you spend less than 1 hour a day for a month learning a new skill, you can become surprisingly proficient at it, whether that is blogging, playing the banjo, or baking a killer key lime pie from scratch.
What is a skill you want to learn that you’ve been putting off? Reply to this email and let me know!
9) To Overcome Challenges Stop Comparing Yourself To Others by Dean Furness
This is one of the most inspiring TED Talks of 2020 given by wheelchair athlete Dean Furness.
In the talk, Dean recounts how he wound up in a wheelchair, and how it led him to come up with a new mindset focused on comparing himself to his “personal averages” instead of other people.
In today’s social media world it’s almost impossible not to compare ourselves to others, so this talk was a great reminder of how powerful it can be to focus more on our own achievements and less on the accomplishments of others!
10) The Way We Work (Series)
TED has put together a series of short form videos called “The Way We Work” with experts to teach you quick tips that can have an immediate impact on your goals.
Best of all, these videos are under 5 minutes each so you can watch them whenever you have a free moment!
In particular, I liked Paco de Leon’s “The Secret to Being a Successful Freelancer” and Morra Aarons-Mele’s “3 Steps to Avoid Remote Work Burnout”, but they are all worth a watch!
To Conclude
These 10 TED Talks will make you feel more confident about your future as a female entrepreneur. This list of must-watch TED Talks for female entrepreneurs is designed to empower and inspire women who are starting their own businesses, or thinking about it! And to help with some of the things that happen in our entrepreneurship journey, such as burn out, comparison or procrastination.
When I started this article, I was looking for some inspiration myself. It’s so easy to get down on yourself or lose motivation when you are building your business, but these TED Talks really helped me remember the importance of my work and how much potential there is in all of us.
If they can do anything for me, then hopefully they can help motivate you too! So go ahead and take a break from reading this blog post – watch one (or two) of these fascinating TED Talks.
Thank you for reading! I hope that you found this article useful to choose your next TedTalk to watch! Please let me know your own favourite TedTalks in the comments so I can give them a watch and add them to this list.
If you have questions or want to share your own favorites with the community you can join our private Women’s Blogging Collective community
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