The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience

Disclaimer: I am an Apple lover and a big fan of Steve Jobs, very grateful and appreciative of products that I have found to be transformative. I greatly respect his dedication to the passionate pursuit of excellence.I have always admired the oratorical skills of Steve Jobs, particularly the brilliant Apple keynote speeches and his iconic commencement address at Stanford. I domy fair share of public speaking and aspire to have the smooth style, brevity and enthusiasm that are intrinsic to the grand master. Carmine Gallo does an inspiring job in deconstructing the key elements of the Jobs' oratorical techniques so as to understand how to deliver a phenomenal presentation. This book was an easy and interesting read and I found it to be of great utility and immediately integrated the tenets and secrets of Steve Job's rhetorical skills and passionate style into my own public addresses, whether the audience be one person or an auditorium-full of people. In the following words, I will summarize the salient points made by Carmine Gallo.Regarding the use of data during a presentation, make it specific, relevant, and contextual. Speak in simple, clear, and direct language. Unclutter and eliminate redundant language, buzzwords, and jargon. Edit, edit, and edit some more. Gallo references Kawasaki's qualities of an outstanding demonstration: simple, short, sweet, swift and substantial.Make an effort to stroke the dopamine receptors of your audience. After all, your customers are your sales force and the most potent evangelists for your cause.Dopamine greatly aids memory and information processing and if you can get the brain to put a chemical "post-it" note on an idea, it will be more robustly processed and easily remembered. Powerful terms, when integrated them into your talks, will help release the dopamine, as will an emotionally charged delivery. SJ loved the following zippy words: amazing; incredible; gorgeous; insanely great; coolest; buckle up; put on your shoulder harness; lust object; stunning; miraculously engineered.Presentation skills are fundamental. It is important to maintain good eye contact and positive body language: an open body without fidgeting or other distracting habits without looking back at slides or hiding behind the lectern. The delivery should vary the vocal volume, inflection, and cadence. Filler words should be avoided and pauses should be used in their place. Unleash your inner Zen by using very few words and plenty of compelling visuals. An energetic delivery is quintessential--passion in the voice, a bounce in the step, and a smile on the face are inspirational. Enthusiasm makes one likable. Share your passion for your, subject and your enthusiasm will be contagious.One's speaking style should be informal and casual. Never read slides or turn your back to the audience. Slides should be highly visual with one key idea only. Memorize the one key idea per slide. Practice the entire presentation without notes simply using slides as prompter. Spontaneity is the result of planned practice!Steve Jobs consistently adheres to the rule of three: the human mind can only consume three points of information in short-term memory. Our brains crave meaning before detail, so deliver the big picture before filling in the details. If you can't describe your product or service in 140 characters or less, go back to the drawing board. Every great book or movie has a hero and a villain. Consider a presentation in the same way--a theatrical event complete with a protagonist and antagonist. Jobs uses the rhetorical device of raising a question and providing the answer. Your audience is asking what's in it for me? Don't leave them guessing. The villain can be a competitor or in many cases a problem in need of a solution.Most presenters have more information than they can easily convey in a short amount of time. Don't try to squeeze in everything. Simplify communications. If you want to deliver a Jobs-worthy presentation, avoid content overload. The 10-minute rule simply states that your audience will lose attention after 10 minutes. At the 10-minute mark introduce a break in the action: a video, stories, another speaker, and a demo all can be effective. A prop is anything to take the attention away from the presentation and gives the audience a break from the slides. They appreciate the diversion.In summary, Carmine Gallo's book is a winner and will prove to be of great help in improving the communication skills of anybody doing a presentation. I only wish that the presenters at many of the medical lectures that I have attended had read this book!Andrew Siegel, M.D.AUTHOR OF: PROMISCUOUS EATING--UNDERSTANDING AND ENDING OUR SELF-DESTRUCTIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD

Digital Art Revolution: Creating Fine Art with Photoshop As a teacher and an author, I lecture frequently. I wanted to know more about presentation structures and web-based presentations in specific. Although "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs" was not precisely relevant to my subject, it looked intriguing enough that I purchased it, in addition to a couple of books on "webinar" presentations. Of the three books I purchased, I found to my surprise that "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs" was the most valuable by far. I already thought I was pretty good at making multimedia presentations, but the information in this book has really changed the way that I think about and approach lectures and presentations. I am speaking at Cleveland's Museum of Contemporary Art in June, and reading this book literally inspired me to scrap everything and start again and my audience will benefit from it.Although the book lives up to its title (it is very specific in the techniques and strategies used by Steve Jobs in his presentations) I would say that Steve Jobs is more of a metaphor. The real topics of the book are passion, integrity, enthusiasm, hard work, and telling a story clearly and engagingly. It is entertaining as well as informative. Like all really good books, "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs" transcends its subject matter. A person could find value in these larger principles even if they were not a public speaker. A genuine pleasure to read.

How many iPods do you own?I ordered the first Windows-compatible model on launch day. I had to wait until then because I didn't have a working Mac at the time; now I have two of them. Since then, I've accumulated new iPods at the rate of roughly one a year. Some day soon I'll be able to open a small museum featuring all of them and the three inch thick PowerBook that I used in grad school (it came with a whopping 32 Mb hard drive).Am I a prodigal gadget geek? A spendthrift music maven. Nah. I blame the presentation skills of Steve Jobs.You can't get very far studying current ideas about presentations and public speaking without the example of Steve Jobs popping up over and over again. And for good reason-- he excels at selling us stuff. Jobs is one of the few CEOs of a large corporation who is a household name and whose presentation skills clearly add value to his company. His showmanship at Apple's product launches generate buzz and demand-- if not lust-- for Apple's products. Clearly my expanding collection of superseded iPods proves that I'm not immune. And when Jobs was ill there was a great deal of concern about whether Apple would be able to generate anything close to that excitement without him and whether the company would be mortally wounded by his absence at these events. His value to Apple is so great that the SEC opened an investigation into whether shareholders had been harmed because Jobs' illness had been downplayed. If he wasn't around to convince us we had to have stuff that we never knew we needed, who would?So it isn't surprising that many of the leading presentation experts focus on Jobs as a clear example of how strong presentations can make a real impact. What has amazed me is how many of these writer (Gar Reynolds, Presentation Zen; Guy Kawasaki, all kinds of great books) have actually worked with Apple or on Steve Jobs' presentations. It seems that Apple isn't just a place where they create great presentations but also a crucible of thought on what it takes to make a presentation great.Now Carmine Gallo has written The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs with the idea of pulling back the curtain on Jobs' big presentations to show us how they are put together and some techniques that we can borrow to improve our own talks. Probably the most important thing that Gallo reveals is how much work actually goes into crafting one of Jobs' presentations. Despite the fact that the final results are persuasive, polished, and entertaining, Steve Jobs is not a natural presenter who just gets up in front of an audience and speaks off the top of his head. Instead, he relies on a whole team of professionals who spend weeks helping him write, design and rehearse every one of his talks. Suddenly it makes sense that so many of those experts have personal experience with Jobs.While this might initially seem discouraging to those of us who don't have the resources of an entire corporation at our disposal, it's actually very liberating to know because it means you don't have to be a "natural" either. With enough thought, planning and practice anyone can improve their public speaking skills. Sure, it's going to take some effort to put together and deliver a really great talk, but making the effort can help you rise above the sea of bad presentations out there. Work hard on your presentation and deliver it in a way that makes it look effortless and you can be a star!Some of the other major strategies that Gallo focuses on include:Making time for rehearsal: Jobs rehearses his presentations over and over and over again until he's confident that he knows his material and that he's got all of the various elements (script, slides, props, demos) just right. Rehearsing will help you iron out the kinks in your own talk and calm your nerves when you're confident that you know what you're going to say.Taking the needs of your audience into consideration: It isn't enough to just get up in front of an audience and share information or try to sell something. Steve Jobs knows that he needs to meet the expectations of his audience if he wants to hold their attention. They need to see Steve Jobs up on stage in his familiar black turtleneck with cool new gadgets, jokes, slick slides and product demos (preferably short ones). You need to be just as aware of the needs of your audience and focus on how you're going to engage them.Displaying your passion for your topic: If you don't feel strongly about what you're talking about, how do you expect your audience to care? Gallo repeatedly quotes Jobs discussing his belief that his success is due to the fact that he feels passionately about his work. There's a great scene where Jobs tears up during the editing of Apple's "Think Different" commercials because he is so moved by the message that he's helping craft. He sees Apple as having changed the world in a positive way and encourages others to do work that they really believe in. Anyone who has ever worked to sell a product or an idea knows that it's a lot easier when you're selling something that you can believe in yourself.Creating an antagonist: One of the best ways to build strong emotions for a product-- create a villain. Jobs often contrasts the ideas he's presenting against examples of other companies (Microsoft), products (the PC) or technical limitations (slow internet access on conventional cellphones). Presenting a problem and offering a solution is a great way to win over an audience while building excitement and loyalty.There is much more to recommend in The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, though the book does have a few drawbacks. Using the example of one public figure throughout is an interesting way to focus attention, though some readers may want to hear about the strategies of other speakers. And it does get repetitive hearing the same Apple launch presentations recounted over and over again. The design of the book itself is also a bit awkward-- side topics are often jammed into the main text in a way that makes it hard to follow.But this is a book that has a lot of valuable concepts for students of public speaking, especially those who don't come to it as "naturals" and need tips on how to prepare in order to overcome that challenge.

I generally don't write reviews but this book deserves one. You won't regret buying this book and your presentations will become several levels better after reading.

I do many presentations, meetings with customers, etc. and this book is simply... PERFECT! PERFECT! PERFECT!!!I would even say... it is MAGIC! You read 2 pages and you understand that it is talking exactly about your everyday life!Full of ideas, concrete suggestions, strategies, techniques. Simply perfect. I read it again and again once a year. It is a super must have!

This is a good news, bad news book. The good news is that there are some great tips in this book. The bad news is that it shares that Steve Jobs spent about one hour of preparation time for each minute of presentation. I suspect that if we all did that, we'd all be half way to delivering great presentations without ever reading this book. So, if you're looking for a short cut, this book isn't for you. But, if you want to copy the best and put in the work, this book is very accessible and provides some great insights.

This is unusual in that the author is not selling his ideas but offering a guide to how an acknowledged master did it. The book is full of detailed comparisons and examples and although slightly limited by concentrating on Steve Jobs, it offers something useful for most people who give presentations. If you have been at it for a while, you have probably stumbled across some of the tips but I would suggest there is something to learn for most people.It is easy to read, and the simpler ideas can be put straight into practice. If you have depended on death by Powerpoint and are a huge fan of bullet points this may be bad news for you! However if you wish to improve the effectiveness of your communication it is definitely worth a look. Like other reviewers, I suggest you accompany it with one of the books on picture presentation. Whilst Gallo does talk about this, The Zen Presentation book goes into more detail and compares poor with adequate and what the author regards as the optimum.If you can only afford one book I would recommend this.

Très bon livre, à lire et à relire, ça donne une vision globale d'apple, de steve jobs et bien sûr une bonne présentation.livraison rapide