Presentations 101

I was asked by my cousin Erin Perche, the 4-H educator in Weston County, Wyoming to give a presentation on how to create and give presentations for her 4-H members who are preparing for their upcoming presentation competition. After presenting this material, I wanted to share it with you here.

Good evening, we are going to talk about creating a presentation and dive into my tips and tricks for presenting.

But before we jump into that - let me introduce myself and give you some background on myself. 

I’m Kristy DeGering. I am a Wyoming native who grew up in Niobrara County Wyoming. I was an 11-year 4-H member, participating in the fabric and fashion, and photography projects. When I was in high school, I was in Future Business Leaders of America. In FBLA, I was the President of the NCHS chapter my senior year and I was one of a few Wyoming students who were recognized on the national stage that year for our projects. I placed 9th in the nation for my presentation on my career portfolio.

Post high school, I went to the University of Wyoming where I graduated with bachelor’s degrees in Agricultural Communications and Agricultural Business. During my time at UW as a student, I gave presentations many times.

After college, I worked for UW as the recruitment coordinator for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. In that role, I was talking to people all the time about coming to UW for all over the United States. I would talk in front of classes and crowds of people. 

I recently started my own podcast because I love talking to people and helping share people’s stories. If you listen to podcasts please check it out and let me know what you think of it.

If you have a fear of public speaking, you are not alone. Believe it or not, I used to have the biggest fear of public speaking and I still don’t consider myself to be completely over that fear.

Alright, now that you know a little about me let’s talk about presentations. 

Before starting to work on a presentation let’s talk about what a presentation is.

A presentation is a communication tool that can be used for demonstrations, lectures, speeches, reports, and so much more.

Now that we know the definition of presentations we can talk about creating a presentation.

In order to create a presentation, you can follow these 4 steps. 

Pick your topic, create the content, practice your presentation, and present it for your audience.

With these 4 steps in mind. Let’s start with the first step. 

The first step in creating a presentation is selecting a topic. Do you already know the topic you want to present?

Whether you have selected your topic yet or not. These are some things to keep in mind.

A topic you are presenting should be something you already know a lot about or something you are passionate about. Selecting a topic you already know about or that you are passionate about will help you be more at ease when presenting and will make the overall process more enjoyable. 

For me, selecting a topic to present I would think about things I know about - things like being a dog mom, photography, and making an amazing lasagna. Bold statement I know, but ask my college friends they will back me up on this statement.

If I wanted to select a topic I am passionate about that would be agriculture, cattle, gardening, family, and podcasting. Those are some personal examples from me on selecting a topic, but for the purpose of this presentation let’s say my topic is making lasagna. Hopefully, you’ve thought of a couple of items that fit the criteria for yourself.

Now that we have talked about selecting our topic we can move on to the content. 

Content is the heart and soul of the presentation, it is the presentation itself.

When writing content keep in mind the three parts of the content. The three parts are the introduction, body, and conclusion.

We need to start with the introduction. Some people start with the body and then do the introduction later. I’m more of a start at the beginning kind of person but if it makes more sense for you to create the body and then come back and create your introduction that can help too. 

In the introduction, you want to make sure you grab the attention of your audience. You need to bring their interest in and hold that interest throughout the presentation. Attention grabbers can be questions, a personal story, or even a joke. I like to ask questions or tell a personal story but if you have a great sense of humor - go for the joke, but make sure it is appropriate and goes with the topic. Also in your introduction, you will want to introduce yourself and your topic. For a 4-H presentation it can be good to add in there your 4-H club and years in 4-H.

For an example, since I like asking questions and telling personal stories I might start out my presentation by saying something along the lines of

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I am Kristy DeGering. Would you do me a favor and close your eyes for a moment. Imagine with me that it is the holiday season - you have just arrived at your relative’s house, there is a light beautiful snow falling outside and when you enter the home you are met by warmth and the aroma of garlic bread, tomato sauce, cheese, and salad.
Now open your eyes. Does that memory hold happiness for you? It does for me and in this presentation I am going to teach you how to create the lasagna which is at the center of that aroma. ”

Now that we have our introduction down, we need to create the body of our presentation.

The body of your presentation is going to be different based on the topic and type of presentation you are giving.

If you choose a topic that is defending an opinion in an argument then your body is going to be made up of argumentative points.

If you choose your topic to be informative then you need to hit all of the information you want to inform your audience of.

If you are teaching your audience how to do something then you can use the steps method.

For example, in my lasagna presentation, the first step is to make sure you have all of your ingredients (hamburger, tomato sauce, noodles, etc), next you’ll brown the hamburger in a pan. Then mash up the hamburger into tiny pieces. And so on until you are through all of the steps. Now that we have the body of the presentation we need a conclusion. 

In a conclusion you want to make sure you include the following:

A recap, call for questions, and a thank you for listening message.

You always want to recap what you talked about in a simple and short way. Then you want to thank your audience for their time and open it up for questions. 

For my example, I would say something like:

Now that I have given you the X amount of steps to make the perfect lasagna you can be the one who creates the beautiful aroma in your home for your loved ones to enjoy. Thank you so much for listening to my presentation today - are there any questions I can answer? 

At this point, you have your complete presentation - what next?

Next, you practice practice practice.  

You may have heard of the acronym PAVE before. I like to add an S on the end and to remember PAVES. 

P - Pace.

Make sure you are not talking too fast. This is one I really struggle with. Sometimes I catch myself talking too fast and have to remind myself to slow down. 

A -Audience.

Maintain eye contact with your listeners. Don’t stare anyone down but make eye contact with each of your audience members to help make sure you are getting your content across as well as engaging with your audience.

V -Volume.

This pertains to the volume of your voice. You want to make sure your audience can hear you, otherwise, they aren’t going to learn anything from the presentation you worked so hard on. If there is a microphone available, use it! It is there to help you and to be quite honest they are fun to use. When you are practicing, hold an object in your hand to mimic that of a microphone or prop a fake microphone up in front of you if you’ll be presenting behind a stand. This will help you get used to holding something in your hand or having something by your face. But remember not to get too close to the microphone because sometimes they screech or it can muffle the sound of your voice.  

E - Energy.

Your energy will set the tone for the presentation. Be positive and upbeat. If you are, your listeners will be more engaged in what you are saying.

S - Self-aware.

This encompasses all of the above but I think of it as more of my body. Be aware of yourself. Your body language is a big deal. Nonverbals are still a form of communication. If you see someone crossing their arms it most likely is their way of being closed off and disengaged in what is going on around them. Slouching, and not standing up straight can be a representation of a lack of confidence. If you have note cards try not to stare at them. Remember to smile, have open body language, and remember to BREATHE.

Your presentation is done, you are practiced up, and now you are ready to present! You got this! You have worked really hard on your presentation, you have your note cards at the ready should you need them. You may surprise yourself and not need them at all after practicing.

A few more tips and tricks that I use are deep breathing, superhero pose, and remembering everyone is human.

Public speaking can be intimidating and hard to do. If you are nervous or need a could seconds, take some deep breaths. I always do a deep breathing exercise before I present and if I get to a point in my presentation where I am talking too fast or made a mistake. I take a deep breath and keep going. Mistakes happen and that’s okay. If you make a mistake don’t let it derail your whole presentation. Say you mispronounce a word you can just resay the word or say “excuse me” and say the word correctly. 

Something I learn in college and I wish I had learned earlier is how to create confidence. Having confidence is something I definitely still struggle with. Have you ever noticed that every superhero there ever has been, has some sort of confidence? They help save the world so of course, they have to have some confidence. I was taught in a public speaking class that if you stand in a superhero pose for 5 minutes before a big presentation or a job interview it will help with your performance and boost your confidence. Then I saw this clip on tv that matches this perfectly. I’ll show it to you on YouTube. 

My final tip is to remember, that you are human. You are not perfect and mistakes can happen. But at the same time, those who are listening to you are also human. They have been in your shoes before. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time so don’t let your audience intimidate you. They want to see you succeed. 

Now that you have learned all about creating a presentation and some of my tips. What questions do you have for me? Submit a question in the form below and I will get back to you as soon as possible with my answer.