This presentation is given live by Carmine Gallo but so the knowledge can be shared in this format, we’ve created notes for you to read.
Be forewarned—if you pick up this book, your presentations will never be the same again.
–Martin Lindstrom, bestselling author of Buyology
A person can have the greatest idea in the world. But if that person can’t convince enough other people, it doesn’t matter.
–Gregory Berns
Steve Jobs is the most captivating communicator on the world stage.
If you adopt just some of his techniques, your ideas and presentations will stand out in a sea of mediocrity.
Act 1: Create the Story
Act 2: Deliver the Experience
Act 3: Refine and Rehearse
ACT 1
Develop a Messianic Sense of Purpose
Jobs has been giving awe-inspiring presentations for decades.
In 1984, Jobs unveiled the first Macintosh.
The launch remains one of the most dramatic presentations in corporate history.
Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?
–Steve Jobs & John Sculley
Find What You Love
Steve Jobs secret to success: “You’ve got to find what you love. Going to bed at night saying I’ve done something wonderful. That’s what mattered.”
He was inspired by a purpose beyond making money. True evangelists are driven by a messianic zeal to create new experiences and to change the world.
Some managers are uncomfortable with expressing emotion about their dreams, but it’s the passion and emotion that will attract and motivate others.
– Jim Collins, Built to Last
Plan in Analog
The single most important thing you can do to dramatically improve your presentations is to have a story to tell before you work on your PowerPoint file.
– Cliff Atkinson, Beyond Bullet Points
Truly great presenters like Steve Jobs visualize, plan and create ideas on paper (or whiteboards) well before they open the presentation software.
THINKING
SKETCHING
SCRIPTING
90 HOURS 30 SLIDES
BUILDING
SLIDES
REHEARSING
Design experts recommend that presenters spend the majority of their time thinking, sketching and scripting.
Nancy Duarte recommends that a presenter spend 90 hours creating an hour long presentation with 30 slides.
But only one third of that time is spent building slides. Another third is rehearsing, but the first third is spent collecting ideas, organizing ideas, and sketching the story.
Create Twitter-Like Headlines
@Ben: Did u eat my sandwich?
@Laura: This presentation is awesome!
@Tom: I’m stealing this idea!
@Bob: ROTFL
@Sammy: When’s lunch?
@Carol: I heart this.
MacBook Air. The world’s thinnest notebook.
iPod. One thousand songs in your pocket.
Stick to the Rule of 3
Act 1: Create the Story
Act 2: Deliver the Experience
Act 3: Refine and Rehearse
Steve Jobs does most of his demos. You don’t have to. In fact, in many cases, it makes more sense to bring in someone who has particular product knowledge.
Introduce the Antagonist
In every classic story, the hero fights the villain. The same storytelling principle applies to every Steve Jobs presentation.
In 1984 when he introduced the Macintosh, Big Blue, IBM represented the villain.
Introducing an antagonist (the problem) rallies the audience around the hero.
ACT 2
Eliminate clutter
A Steve Jobs presentation is strikingly simple, highly visual and completely devoid of bullet points.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
–Steve Jobs
That’s right – no bullet points. Ever. New research into cognitive functioning—how the brain retains information--proves that bullet points are the least effective way to deliver important information.
Average PPT Slide:
40 words
John Medina says the average PPT slide has forty words.
BIRD
Researchers have discovered that ideas are much more likely to be remembered if they are presented as pictures instead of words or pictures paired with words.
Picture Superiority Effect (PSE)
Psychologists call it: Picture Superiority Effect (PSE)
BIRD
10%
65%
If information is presented orally, people remember about 10% of the content 72 hours later. That figure goes up to 65% if you add a picture.
B
According to John Medina, your brain interprets every letter as a picture so wordy slides literally choke your brain.
Simplifies Complex Information
Let’s take a look at how Steve Jobs simplifies complex information.
Here is an example of how a mediocre presenter would launch the MacBook Air. They would try to squeeze every piece of information onto one slide – along with different font styles, colors, etc.
Here is Steve Jobs’s slide. What’s the difference? First, no words. Why use words when you’re simply trying to show that the computer is so thin, it fits in an office envelope? Challenge yourself to use fewer words and more visuals. It does take more thought, but you’ll never deliver an Apple worthy presentation if don’t.
Lexical Density-
Simpler
Less Abstract
Fewer Words
Easier to Understand
Seattle Post Intelligencer ran transcripts through a software tool intended to measure “lexical density,” how difficult or easy it was to understand the language. They ran two pieces of text through the tool: Steve Jobs Macworld 2007 and Bill Gates CES 2007. Jobs’s words are simpler, phrases less abstract, and uses fewer words per sentence. He was much easier to understand.
Dress Up Numbers
Numbers don’t resonate with people until those numbers are placed into a context that people can understand. The best way to help them understand is to make those numbers relevant to something with which your audience is already familiar with.
5GB
1,000 songs
For example when Steve Jobs introduced the iPod in 2001, he said it came with a 5GB of memory. He broke it down even further by saying you could carry 1,000 songs “in your pocket.”
Jobs always breaks down numbers to make them more interesting and meaningful.
Our market share is greater than BMW or Mercedes and nobody thinks they are going away. As a matter of fact, they’re both highly desirable products and brands.
–Steve Jobs
Here’s another example. A reporter for Rolling Stone once asked Jobs what he thought of Apple’s market share being “stuck “at 5%. Jobs responded, “Our market share is greater than BMW or Mercedes and nobody thinks they are going away. As a matter of fact, they’re both highly desirable products and brands.”
IBM and Roadrunner Supercomputer
On June 9, 2008, IBM issued a press release touting its superfast supercomputer called Roadrunner. It operates at one petaflop per second.
What’s a petaflop?
What’s a petaflop? One thousand trillion calculations per second. IBM knew the number would be meaningless. It’s simply too big. So IBM added the following description to its press release…
petaflop
=
1,000 of today’s fastest laptops
MILES HIGHER
Reveal a Holy Shit Moment
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
–Maya Angelou
MacBook Air
We are really excited to:
Introduce a really thin, light notebook computer
It has a inch wide screen display
Backlit keyboard
Intel Processor
Let’s return to MacBook Air. In January, 2008, Steve Jobs could have described it as most people would: “We’re really excited to introduce a really thin, light notebook computer. It has a inc wide screen display, backlit keyboard and Intel processor…blah blah blah.
Instead, he created an experience. The one moment in the presentation that he knew people would be talking about. He introduced the World’s Thinnest Notebook
By the way, the Holy Shit moment was completely planned – press releases had been written, web site landing pages created and advertisements ready to run. Jobs raises a product launch to art form
His flair for drama can be traced back twenty five years earlier to the launch of the first Macintosh in 1984. When he unveiled the Macintosh, he removed it from inside a draped box, and let it “speak for itself.”
EMOTIONALLY
CHARGED EVENT
DOPAMINE
According to John Medina, “The brain doesn’t pay attention to boring things.” When the brain detects an emotionally charged event, the amygdala releases dopamine into the system… dopamine greatly aids memory and information processing. It’s like a mental post-it note that tells your brain, remember this.
EMOTIONALLY
CHARGED EVENT
Create an emotionally charged event ahead of time. Identify the one thing you want your audience to remember and to talk about long after your presentation is over.
CREATED BY:
*
Act 1: Create the Story
*
Develop a Messianic Sense of Purpose
*
*
Steve Jobs and John Sculley
“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”
*
*
*
*
Truly great presenters like Steve Jobs visualize, plan and create ideas on paper (or whiteboards) well before they open the presentation software.
*
Design experts recommend that presenters spend the majority of their time thinking, sketching and scripting. Nancy Duarte recommends that a presenter spend 90 hours creating an hour long presentation with 30 slides. But only one third of that time is spent building slides. Another third is rehearsing, but the first third is spent collecting ideas, organizing ideas, and sketching the story.
*
MacBook Air. The world’s thinnest notebook.
*
iPod. One thousand songs in your pocket.
*
*
One of Steve Jobs’s favorite presentation metaphors is a three-act play. So in true Steve Jobs fashion, I’d like to introduce these concepts in three parts:
Act 1: Create the Story
Act 2: Deliver the Experience
Act 3: Refine and Rehearse
*
Now, Steve Jobs does most of his demos. You don’t have to. In fact, in many cases, it makes more sense to bring in someone who has particular product knowledge.
*
In every classic story, the hero fights the villain. The same storytelling principle applies to every Steve Jobs presentation.
*
In 1984 when he introduced the Macintosh, Big Blue, IBM represented the villain.
*
Introducing an antagonist (the problem) rallies the audience around the hero.
*
Simplicity
A Steve Jobs presentation is strikingly simple, highly visual and completely devoid of bullet points.
*
That’s right – no bullet points. Ever. New research into cognitive functioning—how the brain retains information--proves that bullet points are the least effective way to deliver important information.
*
*
*
Psychologists call it: Picture Superiority Effect (PSE)
*
*
According to John Medina, your brain interprets every letter as a picture so wordy slides literally choke your brain.
*
Let’s take a look at how Steve Jobs simplifies complex information.
*
*
*
Lexical density
Seattle Post Intelligencer ran transcripts through a software tool intended to measure “lexical density,” how difficult or easy it was to understand the language. The tool measured things like average number of words per sentence, number of hard words, how many years of education are required to understand the language. They ran two pieces of text through the tool: Steve Jobs Macworld 2007 and Bill Gates CES 2007. Jobs’s words are simpler, phrases less abstract, and uses fewer words per sentence. He was much easier to understand.
Strive for simplicity – in slides and message.
*
*
For example when Steve Jobs introduced the iPod in 2001, he said it came with a 5GB of memory. He made the number more meaningful by saying 5GB provided enough storage for 1,000 songs. He broke it down even further by saying you could carry 1,000 songs “in your pocket.”
Jobs always breaks down numbers to make them more interesting and meaningful.
*
Here’s another example. A reporter for Rolling Stone once asked Jobs what he thought of Apple’s market share being “stuck “at 5%. Jobs responded, “Our market share is greater than BMW or Mercedes and nobody thinks they are going away. As a matter of fact, they’re both highly desirable products and brands.”
*
*
What’s a petaflop? One thousand trillion calculations per second. IBM knew the number would be meaningless. It’s simply too big. So IBM added the following description to its press release:
*
*
Reveal a Holy Shit Moment
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
