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Standing on the red dot
(and realising it wasn't the destination.)
Sabrina 'Princessa' Wang
January 26, 2026
In partnership with
Hey royals,
I stepped onto the red dot... and my mind went completely still.
Not panic-still.
Not fear-still.
But that rare, sacred kind of quiet where you realise you're no longer performing - you're present.
Which is ironic, because for most of my career, I've called myself a technical speaker.
Structured.
Process-driven.
Framework-led.
This was supposed to be the moment where everything clicked into place - rehearsed transitions, memorised beats, perfect timing.
Except... I didn't rehearse.
I had pointers.
A story I had never spoken out loud - not even once.
And a deliberate decision: The first time I'd say this talk would be the real first time.
No safety net.
No polish.
Just truth.
Standing there, under the lights, in the centre of that perfectly symbolic red circle of "ideas worth spreading," something landed quietly but firmly:
This wasn't just a talk.
It was a redefinition.
🎤 What TEDx quietly revealed
TEDx Forbes Park grouped us into three themes - identity, reinvention, and innovation.
I was in Batch 3, alongside founders and leaders shaping what's next: AI, blockchain, reinvention, and resilience.
One of them was Grace Yeo, whom I've had the privilege of mentoring through Cast 3 of the Speakers Society Accelerator. Her talk, "The Skill Everyone Forgot - And Why It's Costing Us Everything," was a powerful reminder that in a noisy world, intentional expression is becoming a rare currency.
Different stories.
Different lenses.
One shared truth:
The speaking landscape is changing - fast.
TEDx didn't cause the shift.
But standing on that stage made it impossible to ignore.
🧠 The red dot is iconic - but it's no longer the full story
TEDx will always matter.
The legacy.
The brand.
The circle beneath your feet.
But in 2025, authority doesn't come from one stage.
It comes from:
democratised stages,
personal branding over credentials,
community-driven authority,
niche thought leadership,
ecosystems over one-off moments,
and AI-enhanced workflows that scale your voice without burning you out.
Stages are becoming marketing.
Systems create impact.
The red dot isn't the destination anymore.
It's one moment inside a much larger architecture of influence.
And that realisation hit me mid-talk.
⚙️ The real problem no one likes talking about
Most speakers don't lack ideas.
They lack infrastructure.
They don't know how to:
package their voice,
build consistent visibility,
turn speaking into an opportunity,
leverage AI without losing authenticity,
or map a long-term authority pathway.
The speaking industry still operates like the past - fragmented, gatekept, prestige-driven, and wildly under-supported.
Meanwhile, the demand for real, relatable, trustworthy voices has never been higher.
That disconnect?
TEDx made it visible.
✨ What actually excites me about the future of speaking
We're entering a decade where:
Every speaker has an AI agent - not just for prep, but for content, distribution, and engagement.
Speaking becomes data-backed, not guesswork.
Visibility becomes automated, not exhausting.
Community-led stages rival institutional ones.
Expertise and storytelling merge into hybrid authority.
Your voice becomes your identity - not your resume.
This is why, quietly, alongside my speaking work, I've been building the infrastructure I wish existed when I started - from Speakers Society Accelerator, which focuses on long-term speaker ecosystems, to Seraphina AI, my personal AI agent that now helps speakers scale their voice without losing their soul.
Not as "products".
But as extensions of this belief:
Your voice deserves systems that support it.
🌱 Freedom isn't the absence of structure
My TEDx talk was about how AI gave me back my time and my freedom.
But TEDx gave me something else:
A reminder that freedom is the ability to define yourself - before someone else does it for you.
On that stage:
I trusted instinct over structure,
presence over perfection,
truth over polish.
And it worked.
Because freedom isn't chaos.
It's confidence.
👑 Final confession
I walked onto the red dot thinking I was delivering a talk.
I walked off, realising I'm part of shaping how voices travel next.
TEDx was a milestone.
But the future starts after you step off the stage.
That's also why I'm quietly excited about what's coming next - including a Speaker Transformation Retreat, led by two TEDx speakers (me and Grace), designed not to teach people how to get on stage... but how to build what comes after.
Because speaking is no longer about the moment.
It's about the movement you build from it.
And for the first time, standing there in the light, I knew:
I'm not just a technical speaker.
I'm helping shape the future of how voices scale.
P.S. If this resonated, you're already part of the next chapter. The new speaking economy isn't gatekept - it's built. 👑✨
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