I gave my Pecha Kucha presentation last night at The Mill & Mine in Knoxville, and I’m still soaring from the energy in the room.

Smiling for the camera with my fellow presenters Adria and Bree

Over the years, I’ve attended several Pecha Kucha events in Knoxville, and I’ve grown to love the collection of storytellers and creatives who gather for these nights. There’s something powerful about watching people stand up and share ideas they’re passionate about.

Back in the fall, my friend Raquel presented her vision for Latinas Time. Watching her reminded me how much I loved this event.

So I applied.

And they said yes! All I had to do was create a brilliant, insightful, engaging presentation…

How Do You Create a Pecha Kucha Talk?

For those unfamiliar, Pecha Kucha follows a simple but challenging format:
20 slides. 20 seconds per slide.

Since the slides advance automatically as you talk, the speech delivery timing needs to be perfect. Or close.

The organizers were incredibly helpful, sending resources and examples. But once I understood the format, it was up to me to create 20 slides and write something meaningful to fill 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Thankfully, I had experience preparing my Legacy Talk with Let Her Lead. That process of discovering, scrapping, rewriting, and refining taught me so much. This time, I felt more efficient.

Thanks to the wisdom from speech coach Martha Weeks, I started with my AIM:

Audience: Knoxville residents interested in storytelling and community issues/people who want to learn and feel something.
Intention: Make the audience care about legacy storytelling.
Message: The timing of life and why legacy storytelling matters right now.

The Creative Process

I had a lot of bad ideas.

I went back to the drawing board several times, but some ideas stuck. I kept iterating on what I liked, and removed what wasn’t landing with me.

I made the story really vague and broad at first, then I added specific, personal stories.

I tried to make my words feel tactile and sensory. I wanted the audience to feel what I was feeling. I kept making sure everything tied back to my main theme, while moving the story forward. I may have consulted a robot for this part, but it never created my words for me. That was important.

The Challenge with Storytelling

Thing thing about getting the opportunity to tell your story, whether in the Pecha Kucha format, or in the legacy films that I create for businesses and non-profits, is that you can’t share everything.

I didn’t share anything about my professional accomplishments. That would not have supported the theme and story I was trying to tell about the timing of my life and my grandmother.

I didn’t even really make a huge pitch for my business.

I didn’t talk about several traumatic events in my life, because those wouldn’t have served this story.

And I had to be ok with that. This wasn’t my only opportunity to be seen and known by others.

No Choice but to Finish

Once I filled up a document with 20 slides of words, I felt great about it, slept on it, then inevitably woke up with different ideas and things I wanted to tweak.

The day it was due, I finished it mostly because I had no choice. It had to be good enough.

Over the next week, I read through it several times, making sure the words felt natural in my mouth. I didn’t over-rehearse. Instead, I created notecards so I could relax and be present.

The Night of the Event

The night of the presentation arrived after a full day with my Leadership Knoxville classmates. We had spent hours in team-building and community awareness simulations. Instead of feeling depleted, I felt energized.

At The Mill and Mine, people started occupying most of the seats, then all of the seats. Then it was standing room only.

LK Class of ‘26 classmate Brenda Sellers came out to support with flowers!

It was so wonderful to see several friends who had come out to watch me. Brenda, Brianna, Taryn, Alicia, Raquel and Wally, Jeff and Suzanne, Martha, Oly, and others.

My husband brought our three kids, and they… tolerated being there. I was so happy to see them.

It was almost my turn to speak. My daughter reminded me to take 5 deep breaths, and that helped slow down my nervous system. I was determined to walk up there, be myself, and have fun.

I’m so thankful to say, I believe that is what happened.