VP Harris Gives Presentation Advice

I’m looking for neutral (non-political) communications related to the U.S. presidential election and believe this fits. VP Kamala Harris offers young people advice about delivering a presentation.

In the video, VP Harris suggests, “It’s not about you.” Then she offers an analogy to the Titanic: If you’re the only one who knows the ship is sinking, you’re not going to worry about “how you look and how you sound.” It’s most important that people “know what you know.”

Clearly, she’s focusing on content, and I like the approach for these young people, who are typically self-obsessed. VP Harris is also offering a lesson in humility. (By the way, the girls are adorable in how they respond to her asking whether they learned about the Titanic. They launch into whether they saw the movie or it was their favorite—as though the Titanic is just a movie.)

Students could watch this clip and offer their own advice or analogies for young people to improve their public speaking. They also can use the tool I created, How To Feel Confident for a Presentation and Manage Speech Anxiety, to identify strategies to use before, during, and after a presentation.