Creating Awe-inspiring Presentations like Steve Jobs

We all have attended presentations. I’m sure you will agree most were terrible – boring, redundant, and/or visually offensive. I am guilty of giving a few myself. You too? To improve my knowledge base and skills, I started studying the product launches of Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, Inc. I then began listening and reading Carmine Gallo, columnist with Businessweek.com. Gallo teaches presentation skills to top executives. He is also a self-proclaimed expert on the techniques and genius of Steve Jobs. I read his book “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs” and looked over press releases of Apple. I must admit, I learned the most from watching Steve on YouTube. What I came to understand caused me to throw out almost every guideline, format, and template I was ever given or used.

Here are my takeaways:

Say it in the headline: How many more words do you need after “Introducing the iPod — 1,000 Songs in Your Pocket”?

Start with their problem: “Current Smartphones aren’t very smart, nor are they easy to use.”

Create an experience: Get’em awed, inspired, make them say “tell me more!”

Introduce an antagonist, a victim, and a hero: “Look at where the other guys think you want your keyboard; we know differently.”

More visuals, less words: “So slim it fits into an inter-office envelope,” Jobs says, and then shows a visual with only the tablet slipping into an envelope — no text.

Group in three’s: 3 acts, 3 features. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” wrote another genius wordsmith named Jefferson.

Answer their #1 question: “Why should I care?” My thoughts exactly whenever the salesperson starts throwing gigas, speeds, and pixels my way.

Tell the story before the visual: Need I say more?

Have props not just slides: Maybe you’re one of the props. Black turtleneck and jeans anyone?

No bullet points: Unnecessary mind clutter.

Ten minute segments: Brain’s attention span.

Repeat the most important point: “That’s right, 1,000 songs in your pocket.”

Sell the dream, not the product: “Reinvent the phone!”

Simplify everything: Your language, the visuals, the product.

Clear, actionable, exciting? I would say, “yes.”

Deliver Your Best Presentation

Take any less than effective presentation, PowerPoint deck, or email you’ve written, and apply the Jobs standards. It will be more compelling, memorable and easier to write, guaranteed (another Jobs must, “give them a guarantee”).

You will get pushback from others and yourself. Resist at all costs. You’ll have to figure out what to do with your found time. I’m sure you can handle that.

Most important, you’ll be heard and invited back because you will have given your best presentation.

Are your presentation skills less than ideal? Do you need to become more compelling, memorable, and do it with less stress and greater ease? That’s one of the many reasons people hire me as their coach. We work together to zero-in on your message, present it in a simple and impactful way, and make it yours alone. Unless you’re a trained presenter, or a seasoned natural like Steve Jobs, you will need the help and support of a professional.

Why Don’t You Have a Coach?

Jane Cranston is an executive coach, career coach and “The Job Search Expert” based in New York City. She shares with success driven executives and professionals techniques, skills and goal setting strategies that advance their careers, increase people management skills and assists them in career change or job search. Receive Jane’s free "Competitive Edge Report" and the free audio download “Creating a Career Strategy” by visiting www.ExecutiveCoachNY.com.

About the Author

Executive and career coach, “The Job Search Expert,” Jane Cranston understands the challenges and opportunities in the workplace. She integrates years of experience as an accomplished senior executive with global brand name companies, with the lessons learned from opening three successful businesses, and then applies her education and coach training. This sophisticated mix affords her clients her unique perspective, business sensibility, and entrepreneurial spirit.

Jane is the founder and Managing Director of ExecutiveCoachNY, an executive and career coaching business based in New York City with clients nationwide. She coaches success-driven executives and managers to develop a career strategy that accelerates advancement, increases compensation, enhances people-management skills as well as gets the competitive edge in all business activities.

Coaching with Jane is dynamic, structured, forward-focused as well as fun and inspirational. Working with clients in fields such as finance, technology, media and entertainment, real estate, and the law, she assists them in recognizing and achieving their full potential at work and in their personal lives.

Clients claim coaching with Jane has “changed my career focus,” “helped me better understand how to motivate my staff,” “given me ideas that have increased my income by $100,000s,” and “made me realize what is my part and what isn’t,” and claim coaching is “the best thing you could do for yourself.”

Jane’s soon to be published “Great Job Tough Times” is a step-by-step job search system designed to assist managers and executives looking for employment, or contemplating leaving their current positions, with their resume writing, interviewing skills, networking techniques, and negotiating need to get the right job fast.

Jane Cranston is frequently seen on CNN’s “Your Money” and quoted in nationally syndicated newspapers, magazines, as well as Internet article sites and virtual programs. She authors the free, twice monthly, “Competitive Edge Report.” Learn more on her website www.ExecutieCoachNY.com.