TED Talkin’: Drag queen Pattie Gonia is bringing joy to climate action (and presentations)

Mikey: [00:00:00] Molly, what a joy it is to be here with you today. Welcome back to Presentation Thinking, the Storyteller's Study Club. This is your co host, Mikey Mioduski, founder of Ghost Ranch Communications, a presentation design agency. And I am joined by my co host, your favorite, straight out of Inglewood, Colorado, Molly Geoghegan.

What's up, Mollie?

Molly: What's up, Presentation Nation? I am, it's never a drag to be here, Mikey, you know? Right?

Mikey: It's

Molly: But, today, we are talking about a drag queen.

Mikey: We're TED talking about a drag queen. And I'm, yeah. TED talk. And I'd like to

Molly: identify myself, yeah, we are TED talking. I'd like to identify myself as a pretty big fan of this [00:01:00] drag queen.

If you're just joining for the first time and you're like, what the heck is this about? Mikey and I love to, you know, this is a podcast about presentations, which of course is a podcast about storytelling and who does that better than the people on TED Stages? Really fun pros and just like inspiring folks that get up there and do their thing.

And so every now and again, we'll analyze a TED Talk. And one that was just released is from none other than the drag queen and environmental advocate, Patty Gonia, who you might be familiar with on social media. Big ginger hair and a big mustache often as well. And, um, she just released a Ted talk from late last year and it already has Mikey, this has only been out, I think a week, a quarter of a million views.

So we said,

Mikey: yeah,

Molly: we better watch that, you know,

Mikey: in a short, sweet and highly memorable and so new. In fact, in Ted. I highly recommend you all use, like, some AI to get your transcripts going.

Music: Yeah, Ted, where

Mikey: are the captions? Yeah, um, there was no [00:02:00] transcript on it, Molly, but I would imagine this had one of the mo records for the most laughter.

Molly: Yeah, a lot of laughter. In a

Mikey: nine and a half minute span. Yeah, that's probably. Yeah, there was, I had a one laugh out loud moment toward the end, which we didn't do, but.

Molly: Yeah, yeah. Yeah,

Mikey: very entertaining, and yeah, like, I think it's the type, you know, Molly, there's a lot of different. Types of talks, right?

There's the motivational that I'm going to change your way of thinking, the pump you up, the ponder a question. Here's something cool I did. You can try it too. I thought this one was for me, I thought it was like a motivational, like a mindset shift, and we can talk about that toward the end, but it's like.

If people think of climate change as just doom and gloom, how can I help you think about it in a different way to inspire maybe more sustainable and ongoing, exciting movement? You know, because the doom and gloom stuff, it's scary, but it almost leaves a lot of people feeling like, what can I do about it?

Molly: Yeah, definitely. I think this is such an interesting, and I've actually [00:03:00] heard her talk in person before. So it was cool to see this version of a talk and like, see some of her visuals that I had seen before, right? Which we'll get into later, but when we're talking about the client, if she's an advocate for the climate and we're talking about the climate movement, it can be very doom and gloom and people don't have a lot of entryways into it because it's such an overwhelming thing.

Right. And so this is like a cool new pathway. You know, she shares her story about, you know, drag essentially creating a pathway for her to get involved. And then, you know, offering what she's learned from that, the creativity and the joy for other people. What does that mean for you, of course? So it's not like a revolutionary way of thought, but I love the mindset shift, Ted's, or, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't always have to be a big research drop or pin drop, but it's like, here's something you've, you know, you've never, it's everything you've thought about is flipped on its head, you know, it's kind of like, oh, okay, this is a nice.

Yeah, just introduction and it's a good perspective shift. So.

Mikey: Okay, listener, why don't, we'll give you nine and a half minutes. [00:04:00] Go Google. Yeah, go on over there. Why joy is a serious way to take action. Patagonia. Ted.

Molly: It's linked in the show notes.

Mikey: And we're back. Molly. Okay, every good TED talk. We got to start with a good hook, right?

So, uh, how does Patagonia bring, bring in the crowd?

Molly: Yeah, just a quick standard, you know, Hey everyone, I'm Patagonia and I'm a drag queen. But she says, dot, dot, dot, I'm not the only person in drag here today. And she goes forth to kind of call out some funny Ted stereotypes. You know, people with their tote bags supporting public radio.

You know, I think there's some of these Ted stereotypes. And I laughed a lot at this, Mikey, because I've been to loads of drag shows in my life, and dragging people is part of drag, it's part of the reason it's called that. And kind of making fun of them a little bit, so this was a light intro I think, very soft for Ted to experience.

Part because it was like, okay, you're not a drag show, but a drag queen's here. So, you know, kind of authentic to the part. I think she's playing,

Mikey: you know. I liked the, uh, even the, the stance [00:05:00] is not your typical, okay, the warm Ted hands where you open up or, or the thoughtful question or the story. It's just like starts with a little crowd work, razzing everybody.

Yeah, it's like, I'm looking at you and you're, yeah. Like with this like power pose, you know, like arms on the, on the hips. Yeah, definitely like. A one of a kind intro as far as I've seen him.

Molly: Yeah, and gets immediately to, um, you know, it's like talks about maybe what some people are wearing, like Patagonia actual brand vests and tech vests, right?

And then shares what she's wearing and what it's made of, all these like recycled, um, pool floaties, some Barbie toys. It's a completely recycled, upcycled outfit and her like super bright flamingo pink dress. So it's cool to get to know that right off the bat because you're like, holy, it's a lot to look at.

So it's cool to know exactly what it's about, even though it's not, it is connected to the story. But I thought that was interesting that she shared it right at the beginning. I think it's the second visual. This is what the [00:06:00] dress is made of, a couple of floaties, barbie heads, the earrings, yeah. Really fun.

And so that takes about a minute and a half, right, Mikey? And then there's kind of like a shift into her telling you, she's like, all right, kind of getting settled on the stage. Maybe I think that builds a little rapport, right? That's a lot of times what people use that first

Mikey: 90 seconds with a question or a statement.

And, um, she talked about her quarter life crisis, how she thought like, man is. Dragon climate like what do those have to do with each other and then kind of goes into a backpacking trip She went on and busted out some six inch heels and had any cool like picture of that experience and

Molly: right

Mikey: You know people are like, what do these have anything to do with one another but kind of then Establishes this credibility of, hey, I actually have created this million person following of other people who just didn't feel like, yeah, they belonged in this kind of like space and has created an immense following by showing others that they can be kind of open, be who they are and enjoy [00:07:00] nature.

Molly: Yeah, totally. She said she's she's raised. In the few years, you know, I've been following her on Instagram and social media for a couple of years. She's raised two and a half million dollars. So I think that's a huge credibility, like, mic drop statement of like, if you think this is dumb, like, there's actually money, like, even if you think this is all ridiculous, there's money that's been able to You know, turn up, and I think that's a bit of a proof point for sure.

Mikey: Molly, what's a flop era?

Molly: Yeah, oh yeah. She says something like, Earth's in its flop era, which she doesn't explain, I think she maybe should have, because people maybe were like, what does that mean? I'd say a flop era is a couple of like, It's kind of being on the struggle bus for a while, failure after failure, like just having a hard time, hard go of it.

And, um, yeah, one of the, one of the third or fourth visuals, really like sparse visuals here, is just Earth with a frowny face on it. You're right. So like, just, you're like, Earth is in her flop era. There it

Mikey: is. But asks if [00:08:00] drag can be the art form to help get us out or like kind of pivots then into like what is drag and what can it do to reveal, um, maybe some, some different approaches to fighting climate change.

Molly: Yeah. And there's that, this is where I think her first question comes in, Mikey, with that audience. There's already been audience participation. There's already been a laugh or two. But then there's, well, would you like to hear and learn what the climate movement might learn? And it's like, want, is anticipating responses like, yeah, let's go.

So that's at minute three. And that's a perfect out of a nine minute talk, a perfect act one of three to be like, let's, let's get into it. Right. I like that. So I thought that was a nice shift. You kind of

Mikey: tap in the crowd. She does it a couple of times, but it's like, Should we keep going? You know, like, let's, here's what we're going to move into next.

Who's with me? It's a vibe check. That's the spirit of my nerds. I like it. She keeps poking fun at everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Totally.

Molly: And this is when I think she gets into a little more like, it's like, okay, so I've told you my story of how I got into drag, but what does it mean about the [00:09:00] climate movement? And she tells a story about being told by a very famous environmentalist to leave the gay stuff at the door.

And, you know, thank God she didn't because, you know, she's, this is actually when she shares the money. It's like, I've actually raised millions of dollars, like, excuse me, watch your mouth kind of thing. And it was worth it, right? Because that there was actually an appetite for this. That that is proof.

Whenever money turns out like that, Mikey, right? There's proof there's an audience for that. There's proof like people need something like that. And there's representation. She's been like encouraging for like just more accessible outdoors stuff. And, uh, I've like helped sponsor like people that couldn't afford like a backpack to go hiking or something, you know, stuff like she'd host those kinds of programs.

Because you need gear to get outside sometimes. And she brings in a fun metaphor. I think this is the first metaphor in the talk about Everyone's heard the phrase, well oiled machine. But what if we shifted that and thought of ourselves as a well nurtured meadow? Because we're part of nature and [00:10:00] diversity is our strength, you know?

That's good. And, uh, just has a nice visual of a beautiful meadow with some I was telling you, Mikey, there's a, there's a great activist, an environmental advocate, Robin Wall Kimmerer, who writes a lot about goldenrod and aster growing together because they complement, they have this, they develop this huge contrast that attracts more bees.

So there's these scientific studies on like nature purposely contrasting itself so that it can get better. more pollination and grow more, which is just such a fun, fun fact. Patty doesn't share that, but I thought of it in the visual.

Mikey: Yeah, I liked it. Like the analogy of a meadow thrives thanks to its diversity, you know, and only because of that, and she's tying that into the move, any movement, you know, needs diversity and then the creativity that she's found in her art form of drag and other.

You know, in, in any of their art form, she says like the magic happens when you can be your whole self and as soon as you're accepted and then you can like leave the other shit aside and, and just like pour into it wholeheartedly, [00:11:00] your, your entire self, that's what unlocks the most creativity. So if more people feel welcome to do that, hence the diversity, you know, of the meadow.

Everyone's pouring in better ideas, unique outlooks. How can we solve this together? Right? Yeah. So the creativity and the diversity seem fundamental in what she calls this, like this fertile soil that can, can spark a new way to climate movement.

Molly: And I think this is where she asserts, Mikey, it's like, now I'm not telling, like, you don't have to put on as much makeup as me.

And then she's like, you could never, you know, and again, every like serious assertion is pinpointed by a funny knock or quip or something. But she encourages folks to find their own version of creativity and that thing that sparks joy that great She used this in a previous talk. I saw that that try diagram Mikey It's like a Venn diagram but three circles and it's like what needs to be done is in one circle What people will pay you for and what you're good at and the intersection of all three [00:12:00] of those things is like what you can contribute to a movement Society etc.

It's a way of like identifying What you're might be passionate about, right?

Music: Yeah.

Molly: And I think that's a good entry point where it's clearly demonstrating like this is what I was good at, passionate about, and something that needed to be done, and there was clearly an appetite for it. So what's that central Uhhuh denominator?

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Really? I mean, this is really broken up into thirds, literally to the three minutes? Yeah. To the three minutes for an nine minute talk. So final act pivots in with a history lesson or a herstory lesson.

Music: Mm-hmm .

Mikey: Talks about, you know, the gay rights movement AIDS epidemic. Nobody was joining their fight. And talks about how drag performers like turned pain into joy and the science, she says, the scientific facts, the doom and gloom, they do wake people up, but joy is what gets people out of bed to take more action.

Molly: Yeah, yeah, exactly. There's a lot of good quotes from activists around that time where people are like, I would go to a funeral in the morning and then go to the dance floor at night. And it's like, it's really stark because it's like they had, that was the community they had. A lot of those people were like chosen family.

That's when the ballroom movement really began, Mikey, which is voguing, and then Madonna eventually kind of descended and took that into a more mainstream space.

Music: Yeah.

Molly: But, um, that's where [00:14:00] ballroom began. So this amazing, joyful time of dance happened during a really painful time. Gotcha. And I think this is just another Well, we've heard my story, but let's look back on the bigger world picture.

And this is like, this is a pattern that humans do. Yeah. And so it makes sense to create joy even in hard times. Mm-hmm . So I think that was a, that was a cool story. I think it's cool that she shared the personal story first and then kind of blows it up. What do you think about that? Kind of looking at the world plus, yeah.

Mikey: That's a pro move like story later. Yes. Start with how you got into it. Zoom out to the greater community, the greater movement.

Molly: Yeah, yeah. I

Mikey: think it's smart.

Molly: And at this point, it's kind of moving in, this is like, yeah, again, if we're just in the last three minutes, we were in the last minute and a half here at the back, back into back three.

And this is when she starts that call, like a call to action of like encouraging people to get into nature so they can get connected with it because you only fight for like what you really care about. Like you're not going to care about fighting for the climate movement if you, if you've never. Touched grass, maybe.

I mean, maybe hopefully you would in general, but, um, but just in general, [00:15:00] like that joy to find in yourself is an inside job, she says. So it's like, we have to do that within ourselves before we can put it out there. And, uh, you know, we've heard that on the TED stage a couple of times. That's a nice, like, wholesome, wholesome sentiment.

Mikey: Yeah. And, uh, Molly, the, the one that got me was her best visual as well. Um, and her, there's like the, the joke, right? When you think it's like. All right, she's gonna make this very serious. There's only one Earth, Molly.

Music: Yeah. And there's

Mikey: only one planet with Beyoncé on it. Yeah, yeah. The timing is just on point, like, perfect pause.

Molly: Brings up that same Earth visual with the frowny face, but now has like, has a little smile with arrows like Beyoncé lips here. And

Mikey: kind of like brings it in. I like the summary. So class, what can drag teach us?

Music: Mm hmm.

Mikey: What drag can teach us is that creativity, diversity, and joy, Are the tools to create the best climate movement we can.

So we love the rule of threes mall, uh, creativity, diversity, joy kind of goes back. But we'd probably [00:16:00] argue that, like, the sentiment, the, the big idea here is, is joy. That was kind of the, the lead throughout, would you say, that's kind of like the big idea here?

Molly: Yes, totally. I know, we, one, we, we'll do a little addendum when we can run it through the, uh, the transcript 3000.

And, um, but I definitely think joy is absolutely the number one most used word. Maybe drag. But then action's probably in the top 10 creativity and diversity are probably in the top five as well. Very. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, we always love to analyze the stage elements, the screen elements in the story. And this was, as we've already said, like one of the slowest paced heads I think I've ever seen.

And for a nine minute talk, that means like there's not a ton of like content in there and it's simple. It's a simple story, a simple setup, but I think it's the way it's delivered is so well done. That I think it's a great, like if you're, if you're getting ready to do a talk and you're worried about speaking too fast, you should watch this and kind of take a [00:17:00] few notes because I think the pacing was truly incredible.

And Molly

Mikey: was in Brussels, I think you said. So I think that is another huge element. You can imagine how many different languages were spoken by the audience. And so I think anytime you're in front of a global audience, you got to slow down and slow down. She did a wonderful job of being very. Clear with her words, enunciating, and speaking very methodically.

Molly: What did you think about the sparse, but funnily marked visuals, Mikey?

Mikey: Yeah, perfect. You know, like, like you say, like, there's certain speakers who don't need visuals, so these ones just really supported the statements. They were timed perfectly. There was maybe 12 total slides or maybe less than that. Yeah.

No, probably minimal words. You know, one was just of that gorgeous meadow and, you know, one of her, uh, when she backpacked with the heels. So yeah, some personal stuff, some movement, historical photo from, [00:18:00] you know, like the San Fran, like, gay rights movement kind of stuff. So yeah, I think it was, I liked, I liked them.

They were authentic. Sprinkled, sprinkled

Molly: in nicely. Yeah. Yeah. I also was thinking that her outfit is so much to look at that if you had, you know, usually 10, 10 presenters are in such a neutral, like, you know, beige or gray outfit. And then the slide, especially if they have a big slide, but if you, if you're going to wear a big outfit and that's part of, that's part of your talk, then that's a visual.

Like, you know, consider like if you're a fashion designer and you're wearing part of your thing, like you might not need like crazy visuals in the background. So I thought that was just an interesting choice and made a lot of sense.

Mikey: And story.

Molly: Yeah, story. Simple but slayed, that's what I'll say.

Mikey: Uh huh.

Yeah, I liked it. I liked it. Good through lines and good callback and foreshadowing and little vignettes here and there. Ethos, logos, pathos. Molly, I haven't fully grasped these, but I do think there was lots of all the right stuff. Like, [00:19:00] there's emotion,

Molly: right?

Mikey: Certainly. Got the emotion.

Molly: Yeah. There

Mikey: was logic.

Molly: Mm hmm. Like, this makes sense. We gotta work together. Yeah. We're collaborative. We, though, she makes a few, and we didn't say this earlier, but a few comments about Everyone hates silos and everyone knows that the best collaboration happens with a ton of emails, but it's worth it. So I think there's a few references to like maybe some business, you know, just folks that would attend a TED that's probably like working in kind of maybe a marketing comms field or something.

And so I think there was a bit of relation there of, you know, it was like,

Mikey: all right. And then the cred to write with like the million following the 2. 5 million raise for climate action.

Molly: Definitely, definitely. Oh, wonderful. We're gonna have to, we're gonna have to email her representation, see if she can get on and tell us about how it was to prepare for this talk.

Because I imagine there was a lot, it seemed like there was. So it's always those simple talks that have the most preparation you can tell she had that shit on lock. Yeah.

Mikey: Yeah, whatever

Molly: Yeah, I [00:20:00] mean drag queens are probably comfortable with the stage, but this is a different kind of different kind of performance, right?

Mikey: Yeah Yeah, yeah

Molly: Well

Mikey: done. Well, we're in the spice cabinet Molly and you have been following Patagonia. So do you you have any clue? What a walkout song might have been.

Molly: Oh, yeah. Okay, one that I think she would approve of is Um, and because she's she's performed it a couple times and it's obviously always Related to what she's talking about in a literal way.

Yeah, but uh, it's this girl is on fire by Alicia Keys Oh, nice.

Music: Yeah,

Molly: and then has like the earth light up It's like a big fiery thing And then swiftly follows that by, uh, Rain On Me by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande.

Music: Rain on me

Molly: So, you know, some, some divas [00:21:00] with the fire and the rain and she'll, like, take a big umbrella and have it, like, confetti out, you know? So I've seen that. Not to give away all your tricks, Patti. So I'll link where to find her. She is going on tour. She sings original songs, actually. So she's going on tour in a couple months.

So people, yeah, we'll link the TED talk. We'll link where to find Patti. This was not paid for. We just love, we just love Patti. This was a great talk.

Music: Yeah, right on. Not

Molly: too often you get to do a drag TED talk.

Music: Yeah.

Molly: What else, Mikey? What else is in the Spice Captain? I think there might be Something that speak like would help people prepare for presentations, like a place or a couple of days,

Mikey: if only, if

Molly: only,

Mikey: yeah, Molly, so I just put a post out on LinkedIn, my breakouts are speakers to, you know, championing that movement.

So that's my movement, right?

Molly: I'm going to link this whole, this whole post.

Mikey: So like, Molly, that's right. So here's my soapbox rant. All right. Like I, cause I keep digging into this and it just [00:22:00] perplexes me, but I get it. So think if you're an event planner, big tech conference, user conference, you've got your general session, that big arena, right?

Where there's like a thousand or 10, 000 people. There's the keynotes. There's the CEO is going to give the vision. The CMO is going to talk about this. What's coming, the product roadmap, all that. Those are big time, high visibility talks. We know that they'll even bring in like Will Smith or, you know, some formerly famous person to come give their motivational talk

Molly: for me.

Mikey: That's great. And we know that those executives are under immense pressure. And so they get the, they get the red carpet treatment. They'll, they'll be the ones who, you know, are tapped, uh, you know, they'll tap ghost ranch to like level up their slides. They'll have like. Executive speaker coaches for each one of them.

And they'll have a teleprompter, like Jill, you know, and they get the treatment. Here's the kicker though, is like, they've been through so many different speaker trainings, right? Molly, like,

Music: like

Mikey: [00:23:00] to get to that level, they've been through it all the time and they might not even want it anymore. Like the

Molly: amount of effort

Mikey: done that.

And they probably already have those soft skills. That's probably what helped them get to that seat. Cause like when you're in a managerial, like director plus level position. You're dealing with people. That's your job. You're selling ideas all the time. But the other side of the, of the conference are the breakout talks, the dig in deep, here's some cool stuff that you can learn about our product, these features, you can take it back to your office next week and implement it and.

Improve at your job. And you and I know, like we've been to so many conferences, that's like where some freaking magic happens, right? Because people select those tracks over other ones because they want to like, they want to level up those very particular skills. It's tangible, you know, it's like really cool stuff to help you do your job better.

And generally it's like product people, product managers, engineers, a lot of like very technical SMEs, subject matter experts who lead those [00:24:00] breakout sessions. But what, as I've been talking to more people about this, those people don't get a lot of help, basically, they'll get a template for their presentation and a good luck, knock them dead, pat on the back, but a lot of times like event planners are super worried about it.

The level of engagement, you know, these people are very technical, but they haven't had much of any presentation skills training, but they have some of the most coolest things to say. And the audience is, is really like excited about their sessions. So all that to say, we're rolling out story camp. You can visit story camp.

com Molly. Like you said, it's three nights, two full days of programming and awesomeness. To become a better presenter, level up your soft skills. We've got three incredible workshops from one Terry Zuplat, former White House Obama speechwriter. Who

Molly: commented on your LinkedIn

Mikey: post, Mikey. Yeah, I can't wait to hang out with Terry.

You and Terry. Freaking Amy Cuddy. Molly, second most viewed TED Talk, [00:25:00] like, ever. Yeah. And uh, power poses. And our most

Molly: listened to podcast episode.

Mikey: Yeah, so Amy's gonna be there to talk to us about presents, right, like how to rock a stage. And then Steve and Frank and Aerie from Northwestern, like leading research in visuals and the science behind what visuals you should or shouldn't show on your screen.

So it really is that three pronged approach, Molly, that we've been talking about. It's story, it's screen, it's stage, it's a holistic approach to presentation skills development.

Molly: All of it. Yeah, it's going to be so good. Yeah, we're, we're, if you're interested, we've got StoryCamp rolling on StoryCamp. com.

Soft skills pay bills is the mantra that you'll start seeing. We're pushing that, we're pushing that story on LinkedIn pretty hard. Yeah, if you're

Mikey: like a, if you're a, if you lead product people, if you've got some, like some raw, like. Amazing potential leaders that the product leaders of tomorrow, product marketing managers who are on the right path, maybe just need a little bit of training, [00:26:00] really good business cases.

If you go to storycam. com, we've got a justification letter, some email language you can send to your, uh, your boss, make sure you can go, it's going to be a great time. So don't miss out. There's only 50. 50, 5 0 seats available. Yeah, so. So it's going to be super intimate.

Molly: It's going fast, too, so get your spot down.

Yeah.

Mikey: Nice, Molly. Thanks for, uh, thanks for the plug, Op. Yeah,

Molly: of course. Yeah, absolutely. It's a good spicy cabinet, all right. I know.

Mikey: Well, we never know how to end these, Molly, do we?

Molly: We never know how to end these, Presentation Agent. But, uh, hey, Presentation Agent. We appreciate your time. Thanks

Mikey: for listening.

And, uh, we'll tune in next week. And until then, Molly, keep on pitching.