It was about time Frank Warren gave a TED talk, and lucky for us, he didn’t disappoint. Founder of the immensely popular website PostSecret.com, Warren has garnered something of a cult following from the site, which was started in November 2004. In his TED talk given in February, Warren discusses the beginning of the website and the impact secrets can have on our lives.
Warren begins by introducing himself in typical A.A. fashion: “My name is Frank and I collect secrets.” Hi, Frank. He goes on to tell the story of how he started PostSecret by printing out 3,000 self-addressed postcards with one blank side and another side asking recipients to share an artful secret with him. After handing them out in D.C., he received thousands back, and the project quickly went viral, spreading across the United States and all over the world. To this day, he has collected half a million anonymous secrets via postcard (a feat which he shows compellingly with a large visual of his wife placing a stack of postcards on top of a colossal pile), and PostSecret.com is the most visited advertising-free blog in the world.
Warren’s demeanor onstage is commendable. He speaks at a calm, steady pace, and it’s obvious that he’s relaxed. He’s quick to laugh along with the audience, which strengthens his ability to connect with the audience. It’s interesting how much his personality shines through in this short talk. You can tell he’s just an average guy who had a great idea; sometimes he even seems a little geeky, which is endearing because you can tell he’s being exactly who he is. Because of that honesty, that level of candor, the audience feels connected to him, and thus, trusts him wholly.
Warren breaks up his talk by sharing secrets people have sent to him. Some are familiar to a regular reader of PostSecret.com and the accompanying books, but some are new. His words are powerful because they are succinct and to the point. He reads the secret from the slide, then clearly remarks on some element of secrets. “Secrets can take many forms– they can be shocking, silly or soulful,” he muses. Notice the alliteration there: shocking, silly, soulful. It’s a well-designed sentence in that it’s concise and sounds great to the ear.
Warren also uses repetition effectively. When he reflects on the power of secrets, he begins his statements: “Secrets can…” And at times, Warren finds strength and power in silence. He presents an impactful secret and leaves it alone, sans commentary, because the compelling nature of the secret needs no further clarification. This is a great lesson for presenters. Use the power of silence in your presentations. It is wonderfully effective. Let a compelling fact, stat or image speak for itself if possible. If information is powerful enough, it doesn’t necessarily need any further reflection.
Another powerful aspect of Warren’s talk is how he presents a secret and then follows it with a story. For example, there was a PostSecret saying something to the effect of ‘I found your camera and finally got the film developed. I want to find you to give the photos back to you.” Warren tells the audience that though that particular person was never found, the secret sparked an idea in a person from Canada, who founded I Found Your Camera, a website asking for lost cameras and memory cards to be mailed in, and then the lost pictures are posted to the site, helping the lost become the found.
Warren concludes his talk very strongly by presenting a secret confessing, “When people I love leave voicemails on my phone I always save them in case they die tomorrow and I have no other way of hearing their voice ever again,” and then playing a voicemail someone sent to PostSecret.com, shortly after that secret was posted, of her recently deceased grandmother singing her a birthday song on her 21st birthday. A sweet, powerful way to end a talk about how secrets connect all of us together and show how we relate to one another often times more than we think.
