TEDxYoungstown Speakers Share Their Experience

As the TEDxYoungstown team gets ready for this year’s event, we’re catching up with speakers from TEDxYoungstown 2018 to find out what they took away from the event.

In this first video, we hear from Cassie Clouser, who explored the connection between long-held beliefs and personal choice by sharing her personal experience about her former spouse’s transgender process.

We also hear from Jaietta Jackson, who shared stories about her family to remind us of the importance of recording family histories for future generations. Jackson prepared by watching TED talks and using TEDx talks in her classes as a professor of communications at Youngstown State University, she said.

“Not only was it nerve-wracking, but it made me feel very proud; proud that I was actually there,” Jackson said. “To see that I could actually accomplish and achieve that goal of being in the Red Circle was just amazing to me. It was just a fabulous, fabulous feeling.”

Though no matter how much one practices, nothing quite prepares someone for the Red Circle experience, Clouser said. Being in the Red Circle is much like being “in the zone,” like with playing sports or a musical instrument, she said.

“That kind of feeling where you kind of go tunnel-vision and it’s just that experience, that’s what the Red Circle feels like,” Clouser said.

Thought not a professional speaker, speaking on the TEDxYoungstown stage was something that Clouser said she felt compelled to do. Since then, it has helped her approach life differently to continue to find her voice, she said.

“If you go from that feeling of ‘what can I give’ instead of ‘what are people going to think of me’, it helps so much with really bring your best self and an authentic connection with the audience,” Clouser said.

We’ll post more videos with the TEDxYoungstown 2018 speakers here, and don’t forget to mark your calendars for Sept. 7 for TEDxYoungstown 2019. Go to TEDxYoungstown.com for more information and to purchase tickets.

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