There is a story behind the story I did not tell on the TEDxPontiac stage three weeks ago.
That story is about one of the most challenging days of my professional life. And you can watch it now, but that is the moment that, ten years later, became a TEDx talk. But the way it got there is its own story, and it is the part I want to tell you today.
For a long time, applying for a TEDx talk was something I daydreamed about and never really gave deep thought to. It was the kind of dream you mention to friends in a half-laughing way, then put back on the shelf.
Then, in the summer of 2025, a former colleague, someone I had worked with before and trusted completely, invited me out for a coffee. You know me. I never say no to a conversation, especially with people I trust. So of course I said yes.
She told me a very special person was putting together a TEDx event and needed someone to support. I did not even let her finish. I said yes before she explained what "support" meant. She had said the magic words — support, special idea, community — and she had told me my experience and talent could matter to something she cared about. I did not need anything else. I was in.
That was the beginning of what became TEDxPontiac.
A few months in, the speaker applications opened. And I was torn.
I was already deeply involved on the sponsorship side. I did not want to walk away from that work. More importantly, I did not want to let my friend Talona Johnson MBA, PMP, CMQ-OE and my new friend and TEDx curator Kevandre Thompson down. They had let me into the room first. The thought of stepping back from my commitment to them so I could put myself forward for a speaker spot... it sat in my chest for DAYS.
But sometimes the right thing is uncomfortable. The power of radical accountability is that it cuts both ways. So I had the hardest, kindest conversation with Talona and Dre, and with their blessing, I stepped down from the sponsorship work and submitted my application.
THE application.
More than four hundred people applied for sixteen speaker spots. The team took weeks to review and select. I tried not to think about it. I thought about it constantly.
When the email came that I had been chosen as one of the sixteen, I could not believe it. And then I realized that I was living AGAIN, what my talk was going to be about.
Why your breakthrough lives in someone else’s room.
I want you to sit with that one with me for a second. The idea I had submitted, the idea I had spent years writing in my head, was about how breakthroughs live in other people’s rooms. About how visibility is built through connection. About how saying yes to a stranger’s and sudden invitation can change the trajectory of a life. About how serving others is always the way.
I had gotten to that stage because someone I trusted invited me into her room. Because I said yes to the coffee. Because I said yes to supporting something I did not yet fully understand. Because she saw what I could offer before I did.
The idea I was about to put on the TEDx stage was not a theory. It had just happened to me, in real time, in the most unmistakable way possible.
I will admit something to you. Standing on a TEDx stage in front of a room of four hundred and fifty people and saying out loud "rooms do not reject us, they simply do not notice us until we stand up" and knowing those words had built my entire career, felt like a lot to carry in front of strangers.
But on May 1, I walked out under those lights. I saw the letters T-E-D-x behind me. And I told them about that very challenging day of my professional life, and the small decision that changed everything afterward.
The lesson I gave them is the same one I will give you now. You can read it or you can watch the full talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GQIskb4XuA
Rooms do not reject us. They simply do not notice us until we stand up. Our talent may make us capable. Our relationships will make us visible. And visibility is where trust begins, which is where opportunity begins, which is where every breakthrough you have not yet had is quietly waiting for us.
If you take one thing from this newsletter, take this. The story you are most afraid to tell is almost always the one someone else in the room is waiting to hear. Stand up anyway.
And if you have been the person who invited someone else into the room, like the colleague who invited me to coffee in the summer of 2025, like the team who built something beautiful and let me be part of it — thank you. The people who open rooms for others are doing more than they know.
If you want to watch the talk, look to how I close my eyes at the end. I was feeling all the feels, I was just realizing that I was IN THE ROOM. I was sensing in my whole body, how I was not invisible anymore.
And if you have a story like mine — a snowy day, a coffee invitation, a moment when you almost stayed seated — I would love to hear it. Reply, comment, message me. I read every one.
See you in the room.
Tati
Watch the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GQIskb4XuA
