[00:00:00] Welcome, and thank you so much for joining me today as we talk about something that many people fear. Public speaking, I'm here to share with you some tips and tricks to help you communicate comfortably with passion and not fear. My name is Melissa Marsden. I am a consultant with child nutrition self employed for the last.

13 years and and with Child Nutrition for over 30 years now. I found my passion in 1993 and we've not left it since. I'm pleased to share with you that I [00:01:00] do support Agricultural Marketing Boards as well as other branded companies in my consulting services. Many people are afraid of public speaking.

What we need to do is focus on your message, your passion for that message and help you get over the fear through tips and tricks. So we're going to talk about how you learn to deliver your message by using such tools as PowerPoint to assist you without actually reading your presentation. And with school nutrition continuing to be in the forefront of local and national news, it's important that All of us are messengers on the positive, productive school, new patrician programs that you all operate.

Fear. Fear of public speaking is huge. It's probably the largest social fear out [00:02:00] there. But when I look at it, I try and look at the fear as an adrenaline, it's going to be more of a positive energy for you to look at it and you're going to say, yes, this is energy and I'm going to share that energy and I'm not going to let that energy overtake my message.

So, if you're here to learn how to change your fear into energy, you're in the right place.

Many people say to me when they see me doing public speaking, Oh, well, it comes natural to you. You can tell it's just easy for you. Well, one of the reasons it's easy for me is because I've been doing it literally most of my life. As a member of 4 H, as a member of church, I had many, many opportunities. To talk in front of people from a [00:03:00] very young age and the biggest thing you have to do is practice.

You have to practice out loud. You cannot read what you want to say. and have it come out correctly. Because when we read something out loud, we see if the words fit. We see how the cadence flows from it. Does it make sense when I say it out loud? Many times I write something and then change it as I speak it because the flow of the words, the message is stronger.

the way I said it. And that's what practice does. It helps you to focus your message, clean up your message, clean up your mistakes, and focus on the message that you want to have. And truly, it does help to practice in front of people. They give you great response and you can make eye contact with them and they don't leave you.

So little kids, [00:04:00] they tend to interrupt you. Grandchildren, not so easy to entertain when Mima's practicing, but animals always are. So really consider practice is the number one and there's just no way to get around it. Um, the beginning steps is you be to those that Just enjoy the pleasure of it. There's nothing like reading to a child as enjoyable as sharing that story.

And you can read to the elderly, and they're so appreciative. They don't care if you stumble on your words. They don't care if you mispronounce a few, or if you're sweating or anything like that. It's okay. They love to be read to. So if you're really afraid of reading out loud, read to some children, read to an elderly friend, a neighborhood home.

This is something again, that shows when I was in high school, I was [00:05:00] over here in the corner and I placed in this four agers, uh, speaking contest when I was in high school. Time when many kids don't want to get out in front of anyone. It's very precarious because you're at your most awkward, but that is also where you're learning so many of your social skills.

The other thing I wanted to point out, and this is from, I believe, 1975. For if I'm not mistaken, and you'll notice that the judges for this contest include the president of the new Toastmasters club, and we're going to get that in a minute. But Toastmasters is a big organization for public speaking. So even back then I knew.

That in order to be good at public speaking, you had to practice and you didn't have to win in order to succeed at that practice. It's truly putting yourself out there [00:06:00] repeatedly without giving up.

Yes, that's. So when I was doing those speeches, that's how I look. That's my senior picture in high school. And by then I was reading at the church. They've opened up things a little bit and women could be readers. And that was important in my journey along public speaking. Why? Because I learned.

Annunciation, pronunciation, all those biblical names and terms had to be pronounced correctly and easily. You're in front of your family and friends at church, so it's a safe environment. And the biggest thing you've learned too, is a microphone. You learn not to eat it, not to swallow it, not to walk away too far from it.

All of those skills are developed week after week after week of reading new [00:07:00] things at church. And that is a very safe way to begin, again, to get yourself in front of a safe audience and begin to practice. Your public speaking,

I said, I was in in 4H and I was from the time I was in, I think it was 2nd grade to high school and then beyond. I was a leader as well as once upon a time, a judge to that very contest. that I once participated in. So it continued to be something I did. And you can see down at the bottom that I gave the health report at this meeting of our 4 H meeting.

So if you're not familiar with 4 H, you have to do talks and demonstrations throughout the year. And so you can see on this one, we made brownies, scramble eggs, how to prepare. Baking pans, how to straighten and [00:08:00] press fabrics and how to make a candle. So many types of speeches and you had the demonstration, which means you had props that you could use.

And often those are easier because it gives yourself something to do with your hands. Talks are a little bit harder because you just have the words. And that's why Organizations like Four H know that and they know that by continuing to see how you can practice the writing and in entering it, as well as speaking among your friends and presenting a concept, presenting a demonstration with a beginning, a middle, and an end, and if you can, taping yourself is the hardest thing to do.

I hate to listen to myself on a recording. It got easier after webinars because then you were forced to listen to yourself. And I, [00:09:00] I got sort of used to listening to myself, but now I see myself and that's really hard because no matter what we do, we tend to see what we want to fix and that's okay because as we go along, the more.

We have a feedback and that feedback is tough when you're watching yourself speak, it's the best kind of feedback and research you can do for your behavior on how to improve your public speaking. You can't have any shame. Again, this was me in, in, in elementary school and then in high school, there I am on the stage at high school dressed in footie pajamas, but I was fearless at that point.

I love to perform. So I thought it was fun. Other friends, they ran away. They couldn't be around me because I was too embarrassing. So if you like to perform [00:10:00] at all, look at public speakings as truly a performance because you are performing your message. You are there to present your message any way you can.

And that performance includes how you present that message.

One of the things you have to do. And you may have to do throughout the presentation is some deep, slow breaths. We call them yoga breaths. We call them cleansing breaths. But truly getting that air flowing, that blood flowing, making sure that that energy is spread throughout your body. And at the same time, you're not stressing yourself out.

You really need to take some time. And be by yourself in some peace and quiet. I will sip a cup of green tea in my hotel room in peace and quiet and take some [00:11:00] deep breaths and relax and get ready for it. I may miss some conference sessions because of that, but if I'm going to present, I need to present the best of me.

And that means making sure I'm taken care of so that when we get up there to perform, we can do our job and present the message. You heard me mentioned Toastmasters.

It is a national organization and you can see the link is right there. It's an organization that I know of. And I've been aware of since I was a child, as you see. Um, but it's one that my husband joined. He was a home inspector and that meant he was self employed and had to suddenly market to people, but he couldn't talk to people.

When he started. With the inspection, [00:12:00] he couldn't even introduce himself at the golf outing. I would go to the golf outing and I'd introduce him to whoever came by. We were passing out bottles of water, my favorite way to do a golf outing. And if I wasn't able to be there, my mother would be there for the first two years of his career because he was literally too afraid to introduce himself.

to people at the golf corners. By the end of the time that he was there, uh, 13 years later, whatever it was, you'd think he was born to schmooze, but he wasn't, he hated it, but he had to learn to do it. So what did he do? He didn't come to me. Oh no, that's not happening. He found it way too frustrating that it came too easy for me.

He went to an organization that focused on people like him that were afraid of [00:13:00] it, that had to learn to overcome that. So he was among his peers. She wasn't among me that did it from childhood on he found a group and he joined it and he utilized it because they were his peers. They were there for the same reason.

He was they were afraid public speaking. But as an entrepreneur, he had to get over it. Another tip I'm going to tell you with him is he again, speaking to people, greeting people did not come easy to him to say the least. So what did I do? We bought cute ties, funny ties. And so when he'd go to market at the office, he'd wear his clean cut button down shirt with the.

cute tie and that would say, Hey, you like your tie? Oh, love the tie. And then he would talk to him. So those are what are called icebreakers. And sometimes that prompt can help you to be your [00:14:00] icebreaker on. If you know that you're afraid you can wear something like that. If you're a guy, you can get away easily with the tie for a woman.

It might be a piece of jewelry or something else that really brightens. And then if somebody can say, Oh. I love your brooch. I love your scarf. So think of it and also think of that when you're greeting people who seem to be awkward. For people like me, it's a rule. You see somebody standing aside, you got to introduce yourself to them, ingrained in me.

Um, so if you're on the other side of it and you're comfortable reaching out to people, remember when we're meeting new people, always reach out and say hello. They might be too afraid. To even reach out to you

got to add to this. So what's this picture? And how does this diet? I'm almost forgot, so I couldn't find a picture of him from back in the day, but some friends wanted to get married on our boat. [00:15:00] And in the state of Florida, if you're a notary. You can marry someone, so he got to be a notary, so he can Miriam and you'll see in his hands no cards.

five by six note cards. Old school, that's how you learn. That's what you do. So the vows that he had to read, he wrote on those note cards. And as soon as the ceremony was over, he threw them away. Uh, he still does not like public speaking, even in situations like this. When you do add to your presentation, and I've done it and seen it where we're talking about food cost or milk cost.

If you're holding that carton of milk, if you're holding that tray of food and showing what went up in that tray of food, it really can help to impact your message. Plus again, sometimes those transcription cycle. Props can help those that are [00:16:00] more nervous of the message. It gives them something to focus on.

It gives them something that they know. It's tangible. Me, here, this is sometime in mid 2000. Early 2000 somewhere and one of my local customers was a butcher shop that expanded into a specialty grocery store. And so I was selling some product to him and it was Memorial Day weekend and he was promoting the new deli side.

So there I am. I have my. grill and I have my food and I have my fake flames. You can't see it there. I'm in my chef's coat. I'm playing it up. Why? Because that's what gets people's attention. So again, that helps you to get in the mood. Imagine instead just sitting there and standing there in your regular clothes going, try this, take a look at that, buy this.

No, you're having some fun. [00:17:00] You're sharing some fun. People like to stop and talk and have some fun. So remember, you can add to your presentation, like costume, dress, props. All can help support the message that you're trying to communicate. Many people consider Dr. Martin Luther King the greatest speaker we've had in our generation, our lifetime.

I followed his speeches, uh, for, um, oral and turf in college. I did. I have a dream. I did it and I loved it. I memorized it and I did it for a number of years at my children's grade school. When we would have right around Martin Luther King's birthday. I too had four children. I too hoped that they would be judged by their character and not the pigmentation of their skin.

But one of the things I learned from studying Dr. Martin [00:18:00] Luther King is he too started young. His father was a preacher. He became a preacher after initially rejecting religion. He came to find another way to it, his own way. But in doing so, he gave not only speeches, but sermons. And he wrote, he wrote, he spoke.

And as a result, he got good. He got very good. Why? Because he was doing over 450 annual events, weekends. Of speaking the sermons. You see how words begin to fit together. You see how they create a picture. And, and as I do with some of my speaking, when the sound is right, I reuse that phrase, I grasp it and I build on it because it said the message I wanted to.

And truthfully, that's what Dr. [00:19:00] Martin Luther King did. He crafted his message. By utilizing his own record, he heard himself, he saw himself, and he built on that, always growing, always looking to see how he could shape that message so that more would understand what he meant and not tear it apart. So he had years of practice, even though he passed young.

So when you think of that again, it comes back to the church, right? Where did he learn? The church. He learned listening and he learned sharing because that's a community that should be safe for us. And many of, of the people of our greatest speakers have come out of religious backgrounds.

Has anybody heard of read across America now? Most people have it started, I think, in the late 90s as [00:20:00] really inferred across the country, but that's Dr. Seuss's birthday. Um, and it's, it's. March 2nd, and so there's what's called read across America, and we're trying to get even more books into the schools.

I have 1 of my clients customers at the time was Chicago public schools as such. They would ask the vendors and all of us, whoever wanted, if we would go to schools and read so that they could, the food service staff would be present and partner with the schools on behalf of read across America. And, and when that occurred, the teachers would pick out the books, food service would buy them, but they would allow the teacher to pick the book.

And many of those books are not fun to read. So, after the first year, I never went without copy for each class that I was reading to. I would have a copy to donate [00:21:00] of Alexander, and it's horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day, because that, you can't read it and not have fun, and it's great to read, and yes, I have basically memorized it, reading it to my kids.

So it was a very easy, fun book, so I would read whatever book they gave me, and then out would come Alexander, and to this day, when I'm in an airport or somebody is melting down at the grocery store, airport, hotel, I say, are you having a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day, and they usually stop because.

It shocks them. So try it yourself. If you don't love reading the book out loud, well, it's just too fun.

Now we get to the meat of the matter, formatting your message. [00:22:00] What is your real message? Is there an action statement? I need more money. My budget is too low. I am out of money. Why are you out of money? You also have to look at who your audience is. You may be giving the same basic message at opening of school or closing of school or the board meetings to different groups of people, but it's it's basically the same message.

So we're going to look at how you can format that because we want you to look at how you're sharing your message with all the stakeholders, because everyone is a part of your team. The number 1 audience. Is whoever you're speaking to is number one, not your presentation, not you, your audience. They want to hear your story, but they want to see you.

They want to make eye contact with you. [00:23:00] They want to know that you see them sitting there. And so when you do this, you have to get back past that opening pressure and then say yes. Now I can share my passion and it's passion over polish every day. Let the story come through. It may not be in the way that you think is perfect.

It's okay. Passion over polish. When my husband was doing it, it's old school. You use... 3x5, 5x6, 4x6, note cards. One of those, you don't write out your speech, you write out the notes that are going to trigger the information, that are going to prod your memory, that are going to keep you on track for your message.

It is a copy for you to look at, it is not for you to read out loud. When you [00:24:00] do look at adding facts and figures, I truthfully find fancy graphs confusing and harder to read. I prefer numbers and simple percentages to get it across. I don't do fancy changes, transitions between my screens, none of that.

Why? Because I'm the speaker. It's the presentation behind me. It's not the star, right? The audience is the star. And if they're getting the message, it's a combination of what's behind you on the screen and mainly what you're saying and how you're sharing that information. So, if we look at this for a little project for public outreach, your goal is to educate all stakeholders on your top 3 challenges to your operation.

And according to the recent SNA STEM, uh, trends, uh, report. The 3 are rising costs, [00:25:00] labor shortage and lack of available products on the menus. I don't think this is a surprise to any of us. It's been a growing concern and certainly it is not alleviated yet. So we're going to look at the different stakeholders in your organization.

And how you might craft a message, because you've got a couple of problems. You need to increase participation somehow, increase meals per labor hour, because you have less labor to use. And and sell more food to try and break even, um, and that that's hard to do at the same time. Right? But we're going to start with the students because they really are your customer.

They're your potential customer. If they're not your current customer. And appealing to them means that you're appealing to their taste and their taste is what you got to know what it is. Where are [00:26:00] they going outside for lunch? What's their favorite local quick serve faster place? And I've seen schools do a meal display.

Here's our meal and you get all this food and it costs 250 and here's this plate and it costs. 8. 50 and you don't have all the fruits and vegetables or verse the sodium and the fat. Really share the message on the value of your lunch, but also make it look attractive. If food doesn't look attractive, we eat with our eyes.

Are they skipping the fruits and vegetables? Perhaps a little better display. This is a gorgeous one. Not everybody can do it, but just think about how you're appealing to those potential students. Many students in this generation are very aware of local purchasing, very aware of sustainability and local agriculture.

And also, they're still [00:27:00] build your own. Right? And that's been the biggest that went away with the virus and is now coming back again because the kids really do want it their way every day. They want more vegetarian and plant forward items, not next necessarily all plant based, but certainly more offerings in areas, um, for many reasons from from health to religion, uh, that people can choose a plant based diet.

So. When you look at your district and you look at your kids, what is it going to appeal to them? Are you using that language that's going to appeal to them? Uh, are you sharing your sustainability message with them? It's more important to them than you think. For your staff, biggest thing is, with higher food costs, it means tighter production targets.

If you want to control your food [00:28:00] cost, you have to look at your production schedules and records. And I know some people sat down at the end of the week and they sort of write it up and that's not helpful because we're not really capturing those accurate numbers on fruits and vegetables and the side items.

So the production targets and the production schedules really need to be tightened up. And at the same time, while we don't know what the rules and rights are, we have to begin to communicate to the staff members that there are some changes still to come, that all the changes to our school meals are not over, but there is possibly some more dramatic changes to come.

And one of the things that I think we. We forget and maybe overlook, especially at the staff level, they think, okay, well, we couldn't get Canada pineapple because there's an exemption [00:29:00] because we don't, we don't have American. So there's, there's the whole list of exemptions to buy American. There's really not, there's, there's really not the buy American needs to be followed because if we lose our farmers.

We lose our food. The Buy American means that we really have to reevaluate. Do we need canned pineapple in our dishes? Or is there something else we can use instead for that fruit or that vegetable to really look to support more local agriculture? And then marketing the healthy message and having them as supporting your message is key.

Making them your partner. In the support of healthy school meals, they're the front lines, you're interacting with the kids. They see it, so ensure that they're on your team. Parents can be hard. They can be difficult to [00:30:00] get. But again, it's, are you, do you have a website? Are you targeting it? Do you present to the PTO or any other parent groups or orientations and parent teacher meetings, talking about your healthy school meals, comparing them to what you can buy at home or again, buy it in a quick service environment.

What the requirements mean and the rainbow of choices. We continue to see parents who actually go and see and learn about school meals to be so surprised at how healthy and good they are and how much food is on the plate. If the child serves takes offer versus serve and utilizes the many options teachers are another member.

We want them to enjoy the cafeteria to eat our school meals and that they can help be positive school role models when they support the [00:31:00] school nutrition program. Um, we don't want them dissing it by not knowing what we do. So we want to educate. The teachers as well on how they can be our partner and we can be a resource for them.

While we do offer a rainbow of choices throughout the week, and that we do promote all the food groups in appropriate sizes and manners. And even teachers within the school environment often don't understand that. So, we have an opportunity to continue to work with teachers and being their partner in nutrition education.

And finally, the big one that scares people, go even before the administrators or the school boards. And those are the ones, the bean counters, the tough ones. And we often, you know, obviously they're, they're often the, that's your boss. And so when you're presenting in front of your boss, it tends to be difficult, but you [00:32:00] really have to be prepared and understand the changes and the cost of it.

And talk about the reimbursement rates because this year, uh, has been a big issue after all meals being served free. Suddenly the meals are not. So what happens? You have unpaid meal.

The comparison slide is just that it's where you take a PowerPoint slide and it's one of the options and it has 1 set of data and a 2nd set of data so that you can use it to share your message and see exactly what the data says. So, looking at 2021 versus 2022 October, then this was some of the average numbers that happened and we have.

A zero or small amount of unpaid meal debt from 2021. To a large unpaid meal debt in 2022. [00:33:00] So giving them the facts in a way that's easy for the bean counters to see, putting a loss or whatever in red. Again, that's a tactic that trot jumps out at you that makes that number stand out. And you go, Oh, Oh.

Those numbers are way down. Those are the average again from the recent trends that are national. Some are much higher. Some are not much lower, but anyone outside of CEP is seeing a huge increase in a huge decrease in ADP and an increase in meal debt.

So then you put the numbers to it for whatever your school means. And if it's your plate cost, if it's a combination of annual meals, you lost meals, you're using, you know, less meals. I did it a very simple 1%. Most are losing more than that. Um, maybe you're, you're trying to [00:34:00] get your labor hours right now are only 22 to 25.

You're not getting experienced labor. You're good. Ladies retired and suddenly your, your. Meals per labor hour is down instead of up and again, that can be due to the turnover and new staff as you struggle to train and bring people in that may have had the skills. So this gives you an opportunity again for those being counters to make the message.

Very clear as to why you're losing money. Why what these changes meant to your program and how they're financially impacting your program. They don't want any fancy graphs data. They want some doses of reality. But again, these are the bean counters where you just go to the facts. You don't dance around and see how cute the kindergartners are or anything like that.

You talk numbers. When you can do a specific example, [00:35:00] it really does help. Again, we can say that food costs went up 25 percent, but when you show it with a simple piece of pizza, and you show the cost from the school years, and I'm not even sure that it's not higher than that right now, but this is an example of how you could use the data from your school to paint the real picture.

Of what's happening. Do you have a local bread person that went under or disappeared? And now you have to pay more for that. You know, there's a lot of those, um, potential products out there that are an issue for you. And this is a way to do it again. It's a comparison, but it's 1 piece of data. And a picture to show help show the message.

You do want real pictures to show your message. It's not hard to insert pictures in PowerPoint. It says insert [00:36:00] and then you go and it says picture and then from this machine and you pick it and you choose it and. You put it in your presentation, just make sure you edit it before you put it in your presentation.

So it shows your food the best way possible.

When you show the real trays again, you can show it as a food cost or as, um, a meal cost or a menu cost, but it helps to show a picture. With information, so they bring back the reality of these are all the things I have to serve to make a reimbursable meal. Um, and that makes it help to remind them of all the components that we have to pay for.

Now, I've had a lot of questions through the time about sharing. A lot of times, your first experiences speaking are part of a [00:37:00] panel. And in that case, you might be afraid to say, uh, I didn't get my turn. So, you want to set that up up front, right? You want to say, hey, we each have 20 minutes here, whatever it is, I'll set the timer and I'll give you a 3 minute, uh, uh, Countdown and I asked that you do the same for me and you're up front that everybody's clear.

You're going to have people paying attention and you're not going to have 1 person steal the show because they think that their message is more important than anyone else's some like to star. And don't like to share the microphone, so make sure that if you've been brought forward to share your story, you're able to, and your story gets told.

What do we do to help us get ready? You'll notice that I'm, I'm actually wearing that dress here. [00:38:00] You wear something comfortable. You don't wear a new outfit necessarily. You know how you're going to feel in it. You know you're going to be able to move freely in it. You don't want something that's tight.

Um, you want to eat lightly before you're speaking. You don't want to sit down and have a heavy meal and then try and get up and project that energy. You want to sip water. You don't want to guzzle it. And you don't want ice water. You just want some room temperature water. And if you need to sip it while you go, that's great.

Don't forget to have a good night's sleep and wake up and have some positive time again. Whatever your morning routine is, if you can do that and stick to it and have a good night's sleep, you're going to start off on the right note and not be stressed or tired. So, What else do I not do? I don't go drinking and eating the night before I speak.

Uh, [00:39:00] heavy foods. All of that dehydrates you. And if you're going up there and you're speaking and you're dehydrated to begin with, you're going to be very dehydrated very quickly and then you're going to be coughing and other type of things. Um, you rehydrate from within. with salads and fruit. Right now, cantaloupe and watermelon are fresh and beautiful and tasty, and so every morning I eat that, and that really is a re hydrator.

Salad, what did I have yesterday? My husband had a gyro, I had a salad. Okay, because the hero is full of salt and fat and I'll be dehydrated for 2 days if I ate a meal like that. So really look at the foods that you're eating and drinking and make sure that you're hydrating. And not and so, therefore, you're ready to speak and give your best.[00:40:00]

Have you ever had hecklers? Yes, everybody has hecklers. So, what happens if somebody starts picking at you from the audience? Um, most people probably know Katie Wilson. I was at a conference. I don't know if it was 2012 or right around the time of the new rules when we still had the lid on the box where we had a maximum of of meats and grains.

Um, with the lid still on the box and Katie was up there talking and some dietetic student, he cited that she knew more than Katie and kept interrupting her until Katie finally said, you know, you can have your beliefs, but I'm here to discuss what I believe in what I know to be true. So, thank you anyway.

And cut it off you have to otherwise you will have your meeting hijacked by a person in this instance. If nobody knows who [00:41:00] studs Turkle is he's a Chicago author and before he passed away. Um, I think it was really 2003. He was speaking at NIU and I had tickets to go hear him. And my husband and I went to, to see Studsterkel, get him to sign my book.

And he had some guy in there that was hockling him. And, and at this point Stud was, he was quite old. And this young guy, and he was kept interrupting. And the moderator tried to stop him and he ignored the moderator and there was getting to be booze in the audience and studs turned up and said, they didn't pay to hear you talk.

So shut up and sit down. And that's what he did. Because that's the truth. We didn't pay for that. We came to hear Stugs talk and those kind of [00:42:00] disruptive people can happen in any organization, anywhere. Have I ever been heckled? Yeah, usually by people I know who simply disagree with whatever I'm saying.

And feel that they have the right to call it out there and say, you're wrong. Um, and then you go, that's your opinion. Thank you. But I'm here to talk about my opinion. So you have to be prepared to handle it delicately, but you have to handle it. You can't let somebody hijack it as a reminder. The star is you.

You're communicating to your audience. You communicate the message. PowerPoint is your backup. It helps to tell your story, maybe expand, especially with the facts and figures, but it is not the story. Anybody could tell. Take this power point that I just gave, but none of these talking points are in it. [00:43:00] So without the speaker, it's just a few pieces of paper with some notes that will jog your memory and say, Oh, yeah, that's what she said.

So you have to remember that too. It's you. Your passion is what needs to come through. Because you're delivering your message, your child nutrition message in whatever form it's yours to deliver

what not to do. You know, that's the only transition you'll ever see in the presentation because I don't use them. I don't think they're necessary. I don't like them. Don't use hard colors. I'm sorry, even some of the presentations I've done recently for some groups, I think they're really hard to read. And getting creative to change all the colors and make it flashing or fading, it doesn't help your message.

In fact, it distracts from your message, so don't do it. [00:44:00] And do not read your presentation, please. Don't read it. It shouldn't be anything but notes. It shouldn't be a full speech. So, it should be just notes to remind you. You'll see throughout the presentation I've used pictures of myself presenting when I can get them.

This, I was doing a shrimp cooking class here at the RV park. A few years ago, 10 years ago, um, and you can see I've got my props, I've got my shrimp, I'm ready, and I talk with my hands and I move when I do it. I don't stand in front of a microphone. I stand up even when Zoom falls because you can't get your rofo diaphragm.

A diaphragm, um, and your energy and your, and your, your sound, if you're sitting down. It's just not energetic, but you have to remember that the kids [00:45:00] are there because you feed them and we need to feed more kids more days, more meals. And that tends to be our message across the country. No matter where we are.

We need to follow feeding the kids, and that means we need to share that message and that mission with our community and our stakeholders so they too can share the miss mission feeding more of our Children more meals every day.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I've hoped you'd learn a trick or two along the way. I live on my boat in Viva Hala in Perdido Key, Florida. So I'm speaking to you from Florida. Have a beautiful day.[00:46:00]