How To Be A Great Presenter Like Steve Jobs
Source: Life Science Leader
By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL
By Rob Wright
Throughout my career I have the opportunity to attend conferences, tradeshows, shareholder meetings and the like. What has always struck me is the dichotomy which exists in peoples’ presentation skills. Some are insanely great, akin to Steve Jobs. Others make you wonder, “What were they thinking having this person present?” At a recent show, I watched someone fumble through their slides, eventually commenting to the audience, “I guess I should have practiced with these slides.” Needless to say, the person lost my attention within the first two minutes of their train wreck.
The art of conducting a presentation is a skill, not a gift. Steve Jobs was a great presenter because he worked at it. You too, can be a great presenter. Here are nine key elements of great presentations and some tips for how to improve your skills. If you want to know more, take the time to read Carmine Gallo’s “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs.”
9 Elements of Great Presentations
The nine key elements of great presentations are as follows: headline; passion statement; three key messages; metaphors and analogies; demonstrations; partners; customer evidence and third-party endorsement; video clips; flip charts, props, and show-and-tell. You might not be able to include all of these in each and every presentation, so I am going to only focus on the ones which you must include if you want your message to be remembered. If you are not seeking to be remembered then why are you up on the stage?
First, start with developing a headline that encapsulates the big idea you want to leave with your audience. Think about a newspaper or twitter headline which captures your attention in 140 characters or less. This is what you should be striving for. Make it memorable, and write it in the subject-verb-object sequence. Headlines grab the attention of your audience and give people a reason to listen. Read USA Today for ideas. Which headline would get your attention? A New Ultraportable 6.5 Ounce 5 GB Hard Drive MP3 Player or One Thousand Songs In Your Pocket? The second key ingredient is to develop a passion statement about your subject and share it during your presentation. A good starting point is to fill in the following sentence: “I’m excited about this [product, company, feature, initiative, etc.] because it ________.” Third, write out the three messages you want your audience to receive. These should be easily recalled without notes. This is referred to as The Rule of Three. Revealing the narrative in groups of three provides direction to your audience as to where you’ve been and where you are going. It also gives you the opportunity to build drama. The fourth element you should work into your presentation is developing metaphors and analogies and avoid using sports clichés. To a person who doesn’t care about baseball, “We’re batting a thousand” means nothing. Challenge yourself to break away from what the audience expects. Here is an example of a metaphor from Steve Jobs, “The computer is the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.” Analogies are a close cousin of metaphors and serve as a comparison between two different things in order to highlight their similarity. For example, the microprocessor is the brain of your computer. Analogies and metaphors help the audience understand concepts which might be foreign to them and paint a picture in their mind.
Tips For Great Presentations
Being a great presenter does not happen by accident. It takes practice and preparation. A good rule of thumb is for an hour slide presentation, 90 hours should be spent preparing and practicing with the first 27 hours being used for research. Another tip — avoid using bullets and lists in your slides. Text and bullets are the least effective way to convey information. Instead, use pictures. Visually engaging presentations will inspire your audience. There is a reason for the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Lastly, speak in vivid language with passion, energy, and enthusiasm. Steve Jobs liked to use “zippy” words, and you can too. If you think something in your presentation is really cool, awesome, amazing — then say so. It is much more natural and likable to describe something as being cool versus “this resulted in a paradigm shift.” Why do you think people are talking about disruptive innovation and not R&D?
9 Elements of Great Presentations
The nine key elements of great presentations are as follows: headline; passion statement; three key messages; metaphors and analogies; demonstrations; partners; customer evidence and third-party endorsement; video clips; flip charts, props, and show-and-tell. You might not be able to include all of these in each and every presentation, so I am going to only focus on the ones which you must include if you want your message to be remembered. If you are not seeking to be remembered then why are you up on the stage?
First, start with developing a headline that encapsulates the big idea you want to leave with your audience. Think about a newspaper or twitter headline which captures your attention in 140 characters or less. This is what you should be striving for. Make it memorable, and write it in the subject-verb-object sequence. Headlines grab the attention of your audience and give people a reason to listen. Read USA Today for ideas. Which headline would get your attention? A New Ultraportable 6.5 Ounce 5 GB Hard Drive MP3 Player or One Thousand Songs In Your Pocket? The second key ingredient is to develop a passion statement about your subject and share it during your presentation. A good starting point is to fill in the following sentence: “I’m excited about this [product, company, feature, initiative, etc.] because it ________.” Third, write out the three messages you want your audience to receive. These should be easily recalled without notes. This is referred to as The Rule of Three. Revealing the narrative in groups of three provides direction to your audience as to where you’ve been and where you are going. It also gives you the opportunity to build drama. The fourth element you should work into your presentation is developing metaphors and analogies and avoid using sports clichés. To a person who doesn’t care about baseball, “We’re batting a thousand” means nothing. Challenge yourself to break away from what the audience expects. Here is an example of a metaphor from Steve Jobs, “The computer is the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.” Analogies are a close cousin of metaphors and serve as a comparison between two different things in order to highlight their similarity. For example, the microprocessor is the brain of your computer. Analogies and metaphors help the audience understand concepts which might be foreign to them and paint a picture in their mind.
Tips For Great Presentations
Being a great presenter does not happen by accident. It takes practice and preparation. A good rule of thumb is for an hour slide presentation, 90 hours should be spent preparing and practicing with the first 27 hours being used for research. Another tip — avoid using bullets and lists in your slides. Text and bullets are the least effective way to convey information. Instead, use pictures. Visually engaging presentations will inspire your audience. There is a reason for the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Lastly, speak in vivid language with passion, energy, and enthusiasm. Steve Jobs liked to use “zippy” words, and you can too. If you think something in your presentation is really cool, awesome, amazing — then say so. It is much more natural and likable to describe something as being cool versus “this resulted in a paradigm shift.” Why do you think people are talking about disruptive innovation and not R&D?
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