Steve Jobs is a masterful presenter, but he wasn’t always. Presenting is learned, just like typing or any other business skill. What makes Jobs so good? Communications expert Carmine Gallo has a few ideas.
In a recent Webinar sponsored by Citrix Online, Gallo shared 10 presentation tips he learned from observing Jobs.
- Make a plan on paper. Jobs’ presentations are planned out like movies, with story development and climaxes.
- Set the theme. MacWorld 2008’s theme was, “There’s something in the air” – which built anticipation for the unveiling of the new MacBook Air™, but didn’t give away the surprise.
- Show enthusiasm! Jobs shows genuine pride and excitement as he discusses Apple achievements, which inspires his audiences.
- Provide a roadmap. Jobs gives his audiences an agenda to follow to help them remember his main points.
- Make numbers meaningful. “Enough memory for 6 movies” is more impressive and easier to understand than “X number of gigabytes.”
- Deliver a Spielberg moment. When Jobs pulls the MacBook Air out of the manila envelope, you know that’s the climax of his talk, because Jobs created such drama around it.
- Keep slides simple. One bold image and very little text is enough for Jobs, and enough for the audience as well.
- Sell the benefit (not the features). People care about what they can do, not what the product can do.
- Rehearse. Jobs’ delivery seems effortless because he practices – out loud – for days before his event.
- Don’t sweat the small stuff! Panicking just draws attention to a problem. When something goes wrong with a video, Jobs makes a joke and moves on.
Want to hear Carmine Gallo’s full presentation? View the recorded Webinar.
Want to see Steve Jobs’ in action, but don’t have 90 minutes to spare? View a 60-second summary of his MacWorld 2008 presentation.
The 60 second summary is good. Do you want to be a better presenter? Do you want to be better marketer?