Juan Morera - Blog 1 : Path to a Successful Speech

There’s something uniquely powerful about standing in front of an audience and sharing a message you believe in. When someone speaks to connect, inspire, and lead people. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak for myself in a group speech presentation that brought together weeks of preparation and collaboration. The experience doesn't need to just be seen as an academic assignment, because it was a reminder of how fun and fulfilling public speaking can be when you’re really invested.

When I met my group, we connected pretty well. We each brought different strengths to the table, and instead of trying to divide the work evenly in a rigid way, we leaned into what each person naturally did best. I’m a visual learner and love working with clean, clear layouts. One of my teammates had a real talent for storytelling, she could take a dry concept like “rehearsal” and turn it into a vivid, relatable moment. Gaitina was great at research and pulled together examples from TED Talks and communication studies that gave our presentation depth and credibility. The purpose of the entire presentation was essentially to read what the book was telling us, and to do our own research on what makes a good speech, on top of tips to make a speech look better, and that comes with a lot of small very niche details that add up and make said speech look and sound way better.

I LOVE public speaking, I think its a great feeling to be heard when you're purpose in a speech is to help and serve people, I see it as a wonderful and morally wise service that's being provided to the public. When I speak, I speak to teach, and to have a dialogue, but when it comes to a speech, there's so much more you could do. When actually preparing for a speech, like you would for a debate, you gather information on your topic, and you try to persuade or sway your audience, or in a debate's case, your opponent. In a speech, you organize how you present said information in a professional and orderly manner so that your point comes across easy. I personally believe anyone can do this, but those who can do that, and keep calm, casual, and deliver the entire speech without incident and in a human, and animated manner, are genius speakers. I really admire Santana Corr and Chastity, because I believe they're the type of people that are able to deliver such genius if they made it a career. I admire the way they're able to be so calm, friendly, and outgoing, while presenting in such a joyous human manner, its something i definitely strive for personally when it comes to human interaction in general.

The process of preparing the presentation mirrored the very advice we were giving. We emphasized the importance of knowing your audience, so we spent time thinking about who would be in the room: classmates, instructors, maybe even a few guests, or a whole auditorium full of strangers that payed to be there. We talked about the value of structure, so we made sure our own presentation had a clear beginning, middle, and end. We explained why visuals matter, so we designed slides that were clean, engaging, and purposeful. No clutter, no walls of text, just strong images and key phrases that supported what we were saying. We all prepared individual scripts and speeches ourselves that conveyed our points and we organized them. I personally used Copilot to create a skeleton for my part of the presentation, then scripted using my own words and phrases, including slight improvisation on some parts i made mistakes on.

At first, it was a little rough, some transitions were awkward, and we stumbled over a few lines, but with each presenter, we got smoother. Each person was able to appropriately adapt to their nervousness and gave it their all. We gave each other feedback, adjusted our pacing, and even thought how we’d handle questions at the end. There was a lot of laughter in between and congratulations on how well each person did which I thought was pretty cool, especially when people from other groups openly complimented other groups' presentations. I stuttered and froze in between a couple lines, but I able to carry the momentum forward while struggling to maintain eye contact with the camera, toss in a couple analogies and examples to get people to understand a bit more fluidly, and wrapped it up in a nice little red bow. I really especially liked the analogy of the bridge that I used, and I thought it was a very neat usage of that analogy. Some of said lines from my script on that analogy for your consideration:

"As you build this metaphorical bridge your message flows smoothly..."

"Building a strong speech takes time and precision, the same as this bridge..."

"When I speak to you, I’m inviting you to step onto that bridge. I’m asking you to trust that I’ve built it strong enough to carry you from uncertainty to understanding..."

When the day of the presentation arrived, we were nervous, but we were also ready. We had worked hard enough to trust ourselves and each other. As we stood in front of the class, I felt a mix of adrenaline and cool cucumber energy, because I was as cool as a refrigerated cucumber. I knew my part, I knew my teammates had my back, and I believed in what we were saying. That belief made a huge difference. In theory, the presentation was a piece of cake, we simple had to show the professor we were ready to use the material we'd learned on speeches to talk about the material on speeches, like learning a new language, then writing about how to learn a new language, in that language. I think its actually called a "self-referential loop", because we were doing the task about the task we just learned to do, i had to google if this was a paradox or some sort of situational irony, and I learned something new. There really isn't a limit to what you'll learn if you just dedicate a bit of time everyday to researching.

Each teammate brought their own energy to the presentation. One opened with a personal story about freezing up during a middle school speech, which immediately got the audience’s attention and made the topic relatable. Another explained the importance of rehearsal by comparing it to muscle memory in sports, which clicked with a lot of people as well. I focused on the science behind what made people interested in a presentation in the first place, I focused on what I wanted to be the most, which I was very happy with. As I mentioned before with Santana and Chastity's cool nature, I wanted to talk about how to be calm and how to look more natural and level headed while giving a speech. I talked about how people give too much lip when they're talking, and it makes it sounds like a lecture back in high-school or college, which I personally naturally tune out just to do my work in silence. Some people also cope with stage anxiety or stage fright by taking a more condescending position, which just makes them seem like a marine sergeant.

The best part? It was genuinely fun. There’s something exhilarating about standing in front of a group and realizing that they’re with you, that they’re listening, learning, and maybe even inspired. After the presentation, we got great feedback from our instructor and classmates. People appreciated how clear and engaging it was, and a few even said they felt more confident about their own upcoming speeches because of what we shared. That meant a lot. It showed that our work had made a real impact.

Looking back, this project taught me more than just how to prepare for a speech. It reminded me of the power of collaboration, the importance of preparation, and the joy of sharing something you care about. It also reinforced my belief that communication is a skill worth investing in, not just for school, but for leadership, for nursing, for life. Whether I’m educating patients, coordinating with a team, or speaking up in a community setting, the ability to communicate clearly and confidently will always matter.

And maybe most importantly, it reminded me that public speaking doesn’t have to be scary or stiff. When you prepare with intention, when you work with people you trust, and when you speak from a place of purpose, it can actually be a lot of fun.