What I Learned In A Semester of Presenting Every Week

I thought I knew how to present, but I was wrong.

This semester we presented. A lot. If my calculations are correct, we presented 14 times in 14 weeks. That makes 14 times planning and developing a presentation deck, 14 times leading a team through the process, and 14 times standing in front of a class of peers, possible guests, and Christina R Wodtke, getting feedback. Not to mention, 28 times listening to other presentations and providing feedback to them.

In our Creative Entrepreneurship course, we ran simulated start-up companies and were encouraged to use this as a time to experiment and try many different presenting techniques. Although we played around with the idea, we left out trying a dance routine presentation, but other than that, we tried just about everything else we could think of. Below is a list of ten of the most valuable lessons I learned from these presentations. I knew I was going to get better at presenting. What I didn’t anticipate, however, was that through the process, I would leave class a better human.

1. Tell your audience what to do. Although sometimes it is necessary to do so literally, I mean with your own actions. When presenting with others that are speaking, look at them, your audience will follow. Help them out. Show them what to do.
2. Know your audience and your space. Don’t know who you are presenting to? Find out. Find out everything you can about them. Most likely, you are not going to be able to please everyone but the more you know, the more you can design your presentation for them.
3. Show the entire picture. One presentation we live sketched on the whiteboard. The end result was a highly effective picture of the entire presentation. Although we tried, this was a powerful effect that we could never re-produce digitally.
4. Visual design counts — kinda. Keep it to the basics. Do not have a pixilated image. Make sure your font isn’t too small to read. Use visualizations. But that is about where it can end. Over-designing a presentation is easy for designers to do. Use visual design as needed to support your presentation. If you are a design firm pitching your services, your visual design should be spot on. Otherwise no one cares that you took an hour to pick out the correct font or used an amazing color scheme.
5. Movies take a lot of f*&%$g time and are not worth it. We created a video of our mid-term presentation and showed it as our presentation. Not. Worth. The. Effort. Too much time. Too much work. Try something else.
6. Evidence based speaking. ‘Because’ is my new favorite word. You start with doing a lot of research and then you work on telling a story, but learning how to tie the two together to make a strong argument is completely different story. What is the point of doing research if you are not going to use it to prove what your are saying is legit? Create your pitch and then go back through each point to make sure you follow it up with why or how you know it to be true.
7. Build a Badass Appendix. Build an appendix that is easily searchable and robust. Then leave a lot of that stuff out of your actual presentation. Too many times we flooded our presentations with too many useless facts and details. Use research to create your story and sift through it to find the juicy nuggets to prove your points. Use those. That’s it. If you need fine detailed evidence later, you can pull it up then — in your awesome appendix.
8. Practice is amazing. Before this class I could “wing” presentations like nobody’s business. Add 4 more people into the mix however and “winging it” is equivalent to “bombing it”. Take the time to run through the presentation a few (or lots of) times and you will be MUCH happier in the long run.
9. Dance it out. Tensions were VERY high during our final practice for our final pitch. Everyone was nervously pacing and practicing what they were going to say. Last summer I read that a study showed that listening to 50 Cent before a big interview will improve your confidence, so I thought, maybe that could apply before a pitch? Yup, it did and SO much more. We spent the final minutes before our pitch dancing and laughing. Our final pitch went very well. Everyone was relaxed and confident. I believe this was a big part of why. Thanks 50 Cent!
10. Group Presentations Need a Leader. Presentations can be nerve racking for many people. Experimenting with ways to to inspire others when you feel like you are so overwhelmed you can’t go on can be a challenging and yet rewarding experience. Just remember that if standing in front of a crowd of people is no big deal for you, you are most likely the only one in your group. I learned that if you work to inspire others and help them to the finish line, your presentation will not be your version of perfect, but it can be great in ways you never thought it would be.

This class was one of the most difficult and, at the same time, most rewarding classes I have had the opportunity to experience. As Christina would say, some teachers teach you industry standards, and some teach you how to be a better human. This class did both. From understanding industry vocabulary and practices to having experience and knowhow in having difficult conversations, I learned an incredible amount in a short period of time. That said, the most important thing I learned from this class is to experiment. I think this, so I am going to try this, and reflect on the results. All too often we have been taught that failing isn’t okay, but now I see that failing early and often often allows you to succeed in ways you never dreamed imaginable, be it for presentations, startups, or life. Because of this, I am a better presenter and I am a better human.