Steve Jobs (18 page)

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CREATE THE STORY

This skill, the ability to create a villain and sell the benefit

behind the hero’s solution, is a Steve Jobs messaging technique

that appears in nearly every presentation and interview he

gives. When Jobs agreed to be interviewed for Smithsonian’s

oral and video history series, he said that perseverance sepa-

rates the successful entrepreneurs from the nonsuccessful ones.

Perseverance, he said, comes from passion. “Unless you have

a lot of passion about this, you’re not going to survive. You’re

going to give it up. So, you’ve got to have an idea or a problem

or a wrong that you want to right that you’re passionate about.

Otherwise, you’re not going to have the perseverance to stick it

through. I think that’s half the battle right there.
”8

Jobs is the Indiana Jones of business. Just as great movie char-

acters vanquish the villain, Jobs identifies a common enemy,

conquers that enemy, and wins over the hearts and minds of his

audience as he walks off into the sunset, leaving the world a bet-

ter place.

D IR EC TO R ’ S N OT E S

 Describe the state of the industry (or product category)

as it currently stands, followed by your vision of where it

could be.

 Once you have established the antagonist—your cus-

tomers’ pain point—describe in plain English how your

company, product, or service offers a cure for that pain.

 Remember, Steve Jobs believes that unless you’re pas-

sionate about a problem that you want to make right,

you won’t have the perseverance to stick it out.

IINTE

NTERRM

MIISSSSIIO

ONN 1

1

Obey the Ten-

Minute Rule

Your audience checks out after ten minutes. Not in

eleven minutes, but ten. We know this valuable fact

thanks to new research into cognitive functioning.

Simply put, the brain gets bored. According to molec-

ular biologist John Medina, “The brain seems to be making

choices according to some stubborn timing pattern, undoubt-

edly influenced by both culture and gene.
”1
Medina says peer-reviewed studies confirm the ten-minute rule, as do his

own observations. In every college course Medina teaches, he

asks the same question: “Given a class of medium interest, not

too boring and not too exciting, when do you start glancing at

the clock, wondering when the class will be over?” The answer

is always exactly the same—ten minutes.

Steve Jobs does not give the brain time to get bored. In a thirty-

minute period, his presentations include demonstrations, a second

or even third speaker, and video clips. Jobs is well aware that even

his gifts of persuasion are no match for a tired brain constantly

seeking new stimuli.

Exactly ten minutes into his presentation at Macworld 2007—

and not a second more—Jobs revealed a new Apple television

commercial for iTunes and iPods (the one with a dark silhouette

of people dancing in front of brightly colored backgrounds—

the silhouettes are holding iPods, and the stark white earphones

noticeably stick out). “Isn’t that great?” Jobs said as the commer-

cial ended
.2
Jobs essentially provided an “intermission” between
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CREATE THE STORY

the first act of his presentation (music) and the second (the

launch of Apple TV, a product designed to play iTunes content

on a widescreen TV).

Obey the ten-minute rule and give your listeners’ brains a

break. Here we go . . . on to Act 2: delivering the experience.

ACT 2

Deliver the

Experience

Steve Jobs does not deliver a presentation. He offers an

experience. Imagine visiting New York City to watch an

award-winning play on Broadway. You would expect to

see multiple characters, elaborate stage props, stunning

visual backgrounds, and one glorious moment when you knew

that the money you spent on the ticket was well worth it. In Act

2, you will discover that a Steve Jobs presentation contains each

of these elements, helping Jobs create a strong emotional con-

nection between himself and his audience.

Just as in Act 1, each scene will be followed by a summary

of specific and tangible lessons you can easily apply today.

Following is a short description of each scene in this act:


SCENE 8: “Channel Their Inner Zen.”
Simplification is a

key feature in all of Apple’s designs. Jobs applies the same

approach to the way he creates his slides. Every slide is simple,

visual, and engaging.


SCENE 9: “Dress Up Your Numbers.”
Data is meaningless

without context. Jobs makes statistics come alive and, most

important, discusses numbers in a context that is relevant to

his audience.

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DELIVER THE EXPERIENCE


SCENE 10: “Use ‘Amazingly Zippy’ Words.”
The “mere

mortals” who experience an “unbelievable” Steve Jobs presen-

tation find it “cool,” “amazing,” and “awesome.” These are just

some of the zippy words Jobs uses frequently. Find out why

Jobs uses the words he does and why they work.


SCENE 11: “Share the Stage.”
Apple is a rare company whose

fortunes are closely tied to its cofounder. Despite the fact that

Apple has a deep bench of brilliant leaders, many observers

say Apple is a one-man show. Perhaps. But Jobs treats presen-

tations as a symphony.


SCENE 12: “Stage Your Presentation with Props.”

Demonstrations play a very important supporting role in every

Jobs presentation. Learn how to deliver demos with pizzazz.


SCENE 13: “Reveal a ‘Holy Shit’ Moment.”
From his earli-

est presentations, Jobs had a flair for the dramatic. Just when

you think you have seen all there is to see or heard all there is

to hear, Jobs springs a surprise. The moment is planned and

scripted for maximum impact.

SCE

SCENNEE 8

8

Channel Their

Inner Zen

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

STEVE JOBS, QUOTING LEONARDO DA VINCI

Simplicity is one of the most important concepts in all

Apple designs—from computers, to music players, to

phones, and even to the retail store experience. “As tech-

nology becomes more complex, Apple’s core strength of

knowing how to make very sophisticated technology compre-

hensible to mere mortals is in ever greater demand,
”1
Jobs told a
New York Times
columnist writing a piece about the iPod in

2003.

Apple’s design guru, Jony Ive, was interviewed for the same

New York Times
article and noted that Jobs wanted to keep the

original iPod free of clutter and complexity. What the team

removed from the device was just as important as what they

kept in. ‘’What’s interesting is that out of that simplicity, and

almost that unashamed sense of simplicity, and expressing it,

came a very different product. But difference wasn’t the goal. It’s

actually very easy to create a different thing. What was exciting

is starting to realize that its difference was really a consequence

of this quest to make it a very simple thing,
”2 I
ve said. According to Ive, complexity would have meant the iPod’s demise.

Jobs makes products easy to use by eliminating features and

clutter. This process of simplification translates to the way Jobs

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DELIVER THE EXPERIENCE

designs his slides as well. “It’s laziness on the presenter’s part

to put everything on one slide,” writes Nancy Duarte.
3
Where most presenters add as many words as possible to a slide, Jobs removes and removes and removes.

A Steve Jobs presentation is strikingly simple, visual, and

devoid of bullet points. That’s right—no bullet points. Ever. Of

course, this raises the question, would a PowerPoint presentation

without bullets still be a PowerPoint presentation? The answer is

yes, and a much more interesting one. New research into cog-

nitive functioning—how the brain works—proves that bullet

points are the
least
effective way to deliver important information. Neuroscientists are finding that what passes as a typical

presentation is usually the worst way to engage your audience.

“The brain is fundamentally a lazy piece of meat,” writes Dr.

Gregory Berns in
Iconoclast
.4
In other words, the brain doesn’t like to waste energy; it has evolved to be as efficient as possible.

Presentation software such as PowerPoint makes it far too easy to overload the brain, causing it to work
way
too hard. Open

PowerPoint, and the standard slide template has room for a title

and subtitles, or bullets. If you are like most presenters, you write

a title to the slide and add a bullet, a subbullet, and often a sub-

subbullet. The result looks like the sample slide in Figure 8.1.

Title

■ Bullet

■ Subbullet

■ Sub-subbullet

■ Bullet

■ Subbullet

■ Sub-subbullet

■ Bullet

■ Subbullet

■ Sub-subbullet

- Really in the weeds

Figure 8.1 A typical, boring PowerPoint template.