Few days ago Steve Jobs announced that he is resigns as Apple CEO, Recommending the board to replace him by Tim Cook. Tim Cook may be an excellent executive but i doubt if he has one of Steve Jobs biggest qualities, his presentation skills.
Launching new products and presentations of Apple considers as shining impressive big events, a big part of it derived from the presentation capability of Steve Jobs that could make every product sound amazing and intriguing even before exposing the product itself! Let’s try to analyze some of the presentation principles by Steve Jobs:
Set The Mood
Already in the beginning it is important to set the general direction and the message of the presentation. Create a starting sentence/paragraph that stating what you are going to present in an exciting way. For example, “Good morning everyone, today you are going to see an amazing new opportunity to make money online”.
Describe The General Outline And Be Clear
Make sure you say upfront, which topics you are going to discuss and present (History, today’s status, your product, etc). During the presentation be clear when you are closing a topic and opening a new one, so the audience will follow you easily.
Show Enthusiasm
If you aren’t excited from what you are presenting, no one will be excited. Show enthusiasm in your speech using positive words like “revolutionary”, “innovative”, “incredible”, “exciting”. People are affected by your energy and the energy of the words, even if they don’t aware of.
Grant Meaning To Statistics and Numbers
When presenting statistics and numbers, the goal is to validate and provide logic to what your are talking about. To create an emotional reaction from them, Don’t serve them dry but try to connect them to other elements. Examples: “With this method you can earn 45% more each week!”, “Our product can make extra $1500 to 85% from the people who sits here today!”.
Visualize It
Whenever you can use visual aids, use them. Sometimes a simple photo can be more effective than a 1000 words description. Visual aids capture the attention fast and can help you not loosing the focus of the crowd.
Make It a Show
Don’t be monotonous and don’t stand in one place your whole presentation. Use your body language to demonstrate, look alive and your facial expression should reflect your excitement. That said, don’t exaggerate so it won’t interrupt your presentation.
Rehearse
One of the most important things is to project confidence. And to be confident you have to be ready- Memorize your speech, the specifics and even tiny details you are not intending to present (so you won’t be surprised be anything). Rehearse is the best friend of your confidence.
You can watch this video of the king of presentation, Steve Jobs, presenting iPhone 4 and learn something about how to present and how to captivate an audience: