Author: Carmine Gallo
Carmine Gallo
Reading time: 23 minutes
Synopsis
Talk Like Steve Jobs (2011) shows how any speaker can present as convincingly and excitingly as the famous Steve Jobs. From planning to practice and then the actual talk: Carmine Gallo shares the secrets of impressive presentations, step by step.
What you will learn: How to excite your audience with your presentations, just like the Apple founder.
Steve Jobs’ presentations were legendary. They often ended with great excitement from the audience. He would walk onto the stage in worn jeans and a black turtleneck when he showed a new product. By the end of his talk, the audience loved him. Also, product sales in Apple Stores went very high afterwards.
But what was special about Jobs’ presentation style?
It was probably not his clothes. It was also not his slides, full of data and graphs. Carmine Gallo is a popular PR consultant and coach. He looked closely at the Apple founder’s talks. In his 2009 book, he explained the secrets of Jobs’ speaking style.
In these Blinks, you will learn that Steve Jobs spent a lot of time preparing, even though his talks seemed friendly and natural. You will also learn how you can do the same. You will find out how to excite your audience. And you will discover what else you need to make your presentations stand out.
We will look at questions like:
- How Steve Jobs used comparisons to charm his listeners,
- Why a simple story is better than data and statistics, and
- How you can use a small performance, like Jobs did, to wake up your audience.
Blink 1 – A good presentation needs careful planning and a clear main message.
When many people have to prepare a presentation, they turn on their laptop. They start making slides right away. But don’t rush! The slides are not the most important thing. It’s more important to plan the talk and its story first. It’s best to do this on paper.
Nancy Duarte wrote and designed Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth.” She says that planning a talk should take twice as long as making the presentation slides.
Start your planning by deciding on the main message. This is what you want your audience to understand. It should be short and easy to remember, like a tweet. This message will be the title of your presentation. If you are launching a new product or service, your main message should clearly show what benefit it gives the customer. When Steve Jobs first showed the iPhone, he gave journalists a ready title for their articles with his well-thought-out message: “Apple is reinventing the phone today.”
Once you have this main message, you can plan the structure of your talk. Then you can slowly add details and specific slides. But your work is not finished yet. Good planning also means practicing carefully. This is what makes a great speaker different from someone who just reads slides. Steve Jobs practiced his talks for hours, sometimes even days. This was so they would be smooth and perfect. Even Winston Churchill’s “spontaneous” speeches were actually carefully planned and practiced.
Practice your talk until you do not need notes anymore. If you really need notes (for example, when showing a process step-by-step), use no more than three or four short points with keywords per slide. Put your notes where you can quickly glance at them. Even better: link the points in your mind with a picture on the slide. Then use this picture to help you remember.
It helps to film yourself when you practice. Watch the recordings carefully. See if you stammer, look nervous, or if your voice gets quieter. Practice the parts you need to improve a lot. To get a useful second opinion, ask a friend to give you honest feedback on your presentation.
Blink 2 – Be ready for surprises, so they don’t harm your presentation.
Even experienced presenters sometimes have problems during a talk. The PowerPoint presentation might not work. The computer might crash. Or a wrong slide might appear.
If something goes wrong during your talk, stay calm. If the problem is not very clear, just ignore it and continue. You don’t need to say sorry or point it out. If you cannot ignore the problem, then laugh about it and keep going. The audience will forgive small mistakes. But only if you continue your talk confidently. If you don’t let small errors upset you, the audience might even like you more. However, they will not take you seriously if you get nervous at the first sign of a problem.
But there are also problems you can prepare for. For example, difficult questions asked after your presentation.
To be ready for any question, you can use the *bucket method*. First, think about the questions you expect. Then, put them into different topics, like “buckets.” Prepare a general answer for each “bucket.” The answer must be broad enough to work for all possible ways the questions in that bucket could be asked. Then, if someone asks a question that includes a keyword from a bucket, you can confidently give the answer for that bucket.
For example, Hillary Clinton did this before she became US Secretary of State. She had a press conference. She expected journalists to ask about her husband’s international Clinton Foundation and possible conflicts of interest. The answers she prepared worked for many questions in this area: “I am very proud to be nominated as Secretary of State in this year’s elections. And I am also very proud of what my husband and the Clinton Foundation have achieved.”
Blink 3 – Get your audience’s attention by offering solutions to their problems.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a presentation, a press release, or an advertisement. A good message always answers one main question that everyone asks: “Why should I care?” If you are showing a new product to your audience, they will be interested if you offer them a solution to one of their problems. And you should tell this as a story.
First, you tell them about the problem. This is the *villain* of the story. Describe a situation where people are frustrated because they don’t have a product like yours. Or maybe they only have a bad version from your competitors. Use clear details. Make your audience feel that frustration.
Now it’s time to bring your product, the *hero* of the story, onto the stage. It will solve the problem and get rid of the villain. Don’t use technical words or empty phrases. Instead, explain simply how the product can solve the problem. This is also the main message you want your audience to remember, so repeat it at least once.
When Steve Jobs introduced the *iPod*, he truly connected with the audience. At the start of his presentation, he spoke about how difficult it was to listen to music on the go. For a portable CD player, you always had to carry a whole bag of CDs. Then he showed the hero: the *iPod*. With the *iPod*, it was suddenly possible to carry a whole music library in your pocket.
To present a product convincingly, make your listeners feel that what you are selling will give them a better life. A life without the problems you described so well before showing your product.
In this way, you can bring *passion* into your presentation. Steve Jobs, for example, always showed great excitement for the problems his products could solve. Passion is a quality that all inspiring communicators share.
Blink 4 – Keep your slides and your language simple.
The human brain is generally lazy. It doesn’t like to take long paths. So, make your presentation as easy to understand as possible for your listeners’ brains, both visually and with your words.
Simplify your presentation slides as much as possible. Only show *one* main point per slide. Remember that the audience should focus on your words, not on what is written. So, don’t use bullet points or long sentences.
Many presenters fill their slides with too much information. They don’t see that this makes it harder to understand, not easier. So, follow Steve Jobs’ often Zen-like slides. They had only one image or one word on them.
Make your slides visually attractive. Pictures are known to be processed very well by the brain. With pictures, you are also more likely to leave a message with your audience. This is because linking a picture with spoken information helps the brain to remember better.
Apply the same idea to how you speak. Speak clearly and use simple language. Avoid complicated industry words or trendy jargon that people don’t understand. Never forget that you want to help your audience. You are not there to show how smart you are.
To make your simple words come alive, use figures of speech like comparisons and metaphors. This creates strong, memorable images in your listeners’ minds. For example, to make his message clear, Steve Jobs often used comparisons. He compared his new product to something well-known: “The iPod Shuffle is lighter and smaller than a pack of gum.” His listeners could understand this simple comparison much better than if he had given exact grams and diameter of the device.
Blink 5 – Use data sparingly and make it easy to understand.
Data can help support your arguments. But too many numbers can be very boring. So, choose the data you show carefully.
Make your data simple with comparisons and metaphors, like Steve Jobs did with the pack of gum. This is very important when you talk about large numbers. These numbers are hard to understand on their own.
For example, when IBM launched its fast supercomputer, The Roadrunner, they didn’t just say its speed was “petaflops per second.” They also said you would need a stack of laptops 1.5 miles high to match the Roadrunner’s speed. This gave the audience a clear comparison they could grasp. Unlike the petaflop number, this image stayed in their minds right away.
For your numbers to connect with the audience, they must be *specific*, *in context*, and *important* to the audience.
Let’s go back to Steve Jobs and the iPod presentation. Jobs did not just say it had 5GB of storage and weighed 6.5 ounces. That would have been too abstract for the audience. Instead, he stressed that the iPod could store 1000 songs. He showed how small the device was by putting it in his pocket. Both the image of a music player in a pocket and the “1,000 songs” detail, which was important to every music lover, were understood immediately by the audience and remembered for a long time.
Blink 6 – Arrange your main points using the rule of three.
People often say “all good things come in threes.” This is true for how we take in information. If you look at presentations from great speakers or top salespeople, you will see they often base their arguments on three things. This is not by chance.
The *rule of three* is an important idea in communication. It says that lists of three are often better. They feel more natural than lists of other lengths. Our brain can also remember three things well. So, putting topics, subjects, and sentences into lists of three makes them more effective in a talk.
Steve Jobs always followed this rule. For example, he said the iPhone combined *three* devices (an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator). John F. Kennedy also listed the three most important investments needed for the US to win the space race in his speech on May 25, 1961. And you probably expect a third example now, because lists of three feel so natural to us.
People can usually remember three main points from a presentation. To use this, you should make a list of all the points you want to talk about. Then, group them into categories until you have only three main messages left.
Then, use these three main points as a guide. Briefly show them at the beginning of your presentation. This kind of roadmap will lead your audience through the presentation. It will help them follow along with you.
Blink 7 – Create strong feelings and make your presentation unforgettable.
If you truly want to make your presentation memorable, give your audience a moment of surprise. Plan and practice a reveal that will create an emotional reaction in them.
When you create such a moment, people might forget your slides, your arguments, or even you. But they will never forget the feeling you gave them. This is because emotional moments stick in our memory like a mental sticky note.
For example, you can create surprised delight. Steve Jobs did this when he showed the *MacBook Air*. He calmly pulled it out of an A4 envelope to show how thin it was. A touching story can also create strong feelings. Imagine an organic farmer giving a speech against dangerous pesticides. He tells how he can now hug his children right after work without exposing them to the poison on his clothes. His message will surely stick with the audience because of the image of a caring, gentle father.
You see: a well-practiced, but surprising, emotional reveal will be the most memorable moment of your entire presentation.
You can also increase the emotional impact of your presentation by choosing specific words that evoke feelings. Forget empty phrases and confusing technical terms. Instead, use vivid, lively language to show your enthusiasm. For example, Steve Jobs said the keys on the new OSX interface looked so good “you just want to lick them.”
Blink 8 – How you look and speak can be more important than what you say.
Some studies say that body language and voice tone are more important than the actual words spoken. This also explains why Steve Jobs looked so powerful and confident on stage.
Act like a professional, and you will become one. Don’t hide behind the lectern, reading from your note cards in a flat voice, with your arms stiffly at your sides. Stand so that nothing separates you from your audience. Make eye contact with them. Use lively gestures and facial expressions during your talk. Pause sometimes and change your volume and tone of voice to add some excitement to your speech.
Your clothes also greatly affect how you come across. Even if sneakers, jeans, and a turtleneck suit Steve Jobs, you should dress like the professional you want to be. This means a bit more elegant than others in the room, but suitable for the company culture.
To understand how you appear, record yourself when you practice your presentation. Remember, you should look energetic on the video too. Give the impression that you are enjoying your talk. You want to inform your audience, but also to entertain them.
If you feel you are not quite where you want to be, don’t give up. Keep going. Such a presentation needs a lot of practice. So, there is a good chance you will succeed.
Blink 9 – Bring your talk to life with videos, demonstrations, and props.
Using different media helps your message stay in your listeners’ minds. Videos, demonstrations, and handouts help every type of learner in the audience understand your message.
This is because people learn in different ways. Some remember *visual information* best. Others react most strongly to *sounds*. And others remember *physical experiences* (touch, movement, actions) best. Studies show that using different media helps the audience remember a presentation better overall.
A small performance on stage can be a very effective way to show your audience the best features of your product.
For example, when Steve Jobs presented the iPhone, he used Google Maps to find a nearby Starbucks. He jokingly ordered 4,000 latte macchiatos to go. This made his audience laugh with delight.
Video clips are usually not used in business presentations. But that is exactly why they are a great way to make your presentation stand out. In his talks, Steve Jobs loved to show Apple’s newest TV ad, sometimes even several times.
Research shows that people can usually listen to a presentation with great interest for ten minutes. After that, they start to get distracted. So, use videos or short acts, like Steve Jobs did, as “breaks.” In these breaks, the audience can relax and organize their thoughts. This is important so they can keep paying attention to your talk.
Blink 10 – Let partners and customers support you on stage.
When Apple announced its partnership with Intel, Steve Jobs called the CEO of Intel onto the stage. The CEO was wearing an Intel bunny suit. This brought new energy and support to the stage. Jobs had a similar effect in 2005. He announced that all Madonna albums were now on iTunes. Madonna joined him via video call to talk about the news. Both guest appearances created unforgettable moments.
You should also share the stage with others during your presentation. Why? Here are the three main reasons:
First, your audience wants variety. Even if we listen to the most charming speaker in the world, we get bored after a while. So, let your partners, famous supporters, or team members also speak. This will make your talk more lively.
Second, some speakers know more about a specific topic. For example, when Apple introduced its new notebooks, made from a single block of aluminum, Jobs had a design manager explain the model and how the notebooks were made.
Third, positive customer reviews are the best sales tool. Customers value honest opinions about products. So, you should bring customers or critics onto the stage during your presentation, ideally live or via video call. Let them promote your product.
Also, remember to sincerely thank your employees, partners, customers, and the audience. This builds good relationships. It also shows that you are polite and give everyone the credit they deserve.
Summary
Summary
The main message of this book is:
To present as impressively as Steve Jobs, prepare your presentation structure well. Make your main messages simple and memorable with your words. And make your talk unforgettable for the audience with emotional moments and variety.
Did these Blinks give you valuable tips for better presentations?
We are always working to find practical advice that you can use right away. Send us an email to [email protected] with the title as the subject. Let us know if we succeeded.
To read more: Talk like TED by Carmine Gallo
Sooner or later in life, we all have to do it: presentations to an audience. It doesn’t matter if it’s five or five thousand people, they are unavoidable. But what is the difference between a weak short talk and an exciting speech? Talk like TED explains the strategies the best speakers in the world use to captivate and inform their audience. To do this, the author analyzed over 500 TED Talks. He found out what they all have in common.
Source: https://www.blinkist.com/https://www.blinkist.com/de/books/uberzeugen-wie-steve-jobs-de