When Steve Jobs stood up to talk, he didn’t give a presentation, he gave a performance.
This is clear from the amount of practice he put in, the careful choice of words and because he always added a touch of drama to his presentations.
He didn’t come out at the start of the talk and say my new product is the iPhone or the iPad, he worked the audience, he took full control of pauses in his presentation and only does the big reveal when he’s ready for the wow moment.
For the iPhone, he built the tension by talking about how Apple created two revolutionary products, the Mackintosh and the iPod.
The audience was now expecting something wonderful….
He then ratcheted up the tension even more by announcing that they’re going to announce three revolutionary products….
Not one revolutionary product but three. Every techie in the audience would be wetting their pants in excitement by this stage.
An touch screen iPod, an Internet device and a phone, three very exciting products from Apple.
Then the big reveal, these are not three products, “this is one device”
It’s a huge WOW moment for the audience.
Even when he was demoing the product he was adding theatre.
Can you remember how amazing it was the first time you used your fingers to zoom in or zoom out of a photo on a phone or tablet? When Steve Jobs first demonstrated it he knew how revolutionary it was but he didn’t signpost it, he just demonstrated it, and let the whole auditorium collectively go “wow!”
What magic can you add?
How can you add the “WOW” moment to your presentations?
10 STEPS TO SPEAKING LIKE STEVE JOBS
- Practice Until You’re a Natural
- Be Audience-Centric
- Why Should They Listen To You?
- Why Should the Audience be Excited by Your Idea or Product?
- Why This Is The Best Thing That You’ve Ever Done
- Use a Tagline
- Show Your Passion (Coming Soon)
- Use Theatre and Magic to Captivate Your Audience (Coming Soon)
- Use Great Visuals (Coming Soon)
- What Would Steve Do? (Coming Soon)