This article was first published on Forbes

TED curator Chris Anderson today posted a video titled How to Give a Great TED Talk that distills in eight minutes what makes an “idea worth spreading.” The talk is the first by TED to be filmed in a studio rather than being recorded onstage at a live TED event, and Anderson says more studio talks will be released this year.

Having given a TEDx talk myself, I know how daunting a task it is but also how rewarding it can be.

Anderson admits “there’s no single formula for a great talk, but there is a secret ingredient that all the best ones have in common.” As he says in the talk, “Your number one task as a speaker is to transfer into your listeners’ minds an extraordinary gift – a strange and beautiful object that we call an idea.”

Here are some other secrets Anderson shares.

1. “Limit your talk to just one major idea. Ideas are complex things; you need to slash back your content so that you can focus on the single idea you’re most passionate about, and give yourself a chance to explain that one thing properly.”

2. “Give your listeners a reason to care. Before you can start building things inside the minds of your audience, you have to get their permission to welcome you in. And the main tool to achieve that? Curiosity.”

3. “Build your idea, piece by piece, out of concepts that your audience already understands. You use the power of language to weave together concepts that already exist in your listeners’ minds – but not your language, their language.”

4. “Make your idea worth sharing. By that I mean, ask yourself the question: “Who does this idea benefit?” And I need you to be honest with the answer. If the idea only serves you or your organization, then, I’m sorry to say, it’s probably not worth sharing.”