Steve Job’s Guide To Exciting Public Speaking
“I wish I could be as magical.” — Bill Gates about Steve Job’s public speaking.
Steve Jobs is a pure genius. Not only did he invented the Apple products, ‘founded’ Pixar, and changed the world, but he is also a terrific speaker that made marketing for Apple really simple.
Every time he is in a public speaking session, he managed to grab the attention of people watching press conferences and get them excited. Just by his public speaking alone, it is enough to get people to want the Apple products.
I did a few research on him on some old videos and reading about his life that he is actually an introvert, describing that as a child he was socially awkward. Then as he took over Apple, it seems that he managed to break out of it and became an effective communicator.
As an extrovert looking at his presentation skills, he blew my mind. Even I have to learn a lot from him.
In this article, I am going to break down Steve Jobs’s public speaking skills that helped him win the heart of consumers every time he announced something new. I will use his press conference when he introduced the very first iPad.
1) Start with a story
As someone who funded Pixar, Steve Jobs is a genius in telling stories. At the beginning of his presentation, he recapped their successful sales that year and what Apple had done in the past.
So in the presentation, Steve Jobs started with the successful sales of the iPods, selling 250,000,000 of them since 2001. He wanted everyone to acknowledge the success of their product and company, this is also a shout-out to all the people who worked in Apple back in 2010, to be proud of their work.
After that, he told another story about the new store in New York and how he started Apple.
So here, he didn’t go straight to the point. He told a story first on how they journeyed from nothing to something, then he talked about the iPad eight minutes after that. It’s amazing how he managed to grasp people’s attention for eight minutes straight before going to the main event. Why is that?
People are more engaged when they are going to be told a story, this is why movies are great entertainment for people because they tell stories, engaging us in them. That is also the reason why if a movie plot fails, the whole movie falls apart.
Whenever you do a presentation, don’t just jump straight to the point. Tell them a story first, make a small joke. Get their attention first. If it’s for a class presentation, in certain chapters, you can divert their attention elsewhere that connects to the subject you are about to present. That way, you get their attention.
2) Voice Tone
Steve Jobs is a legend in here as well. Not only was he able to set his pitch, but because of his passion for what he did, he was able to sound very excited about revealing the iPad.
An example is when he is slowly revealing the sales numbers of the iPods and the number of applications. He slowly raised his tone, then lowered it when he unveiled the numbers, effectively making Apple sound grander. You can really tell this man is passionate.
To illustrate it better, it’s like a story about to reach its climax. The story started out first, they grow their interests and then get to the most exciting part. Think of it like Avengers Endgame at the Portal scene that made the audience go wild.
This is a terrific strategy on making people excited about what’s coming, thus giving Steve their full attention. As the result, the audiences too got very excited too.
When we like something, we would always say positive things about it. This is why it’s important for us to be passionate about our jobs. That way, expressing how amazing a result you’ve done your work and telling it to people will be more engaging. You’ll be more expressive, creative, and energetic when you even talk about it, leading to my next point…
3) Expressive body language
Steve Jobs is always open at that press conference. He had no podiums to hide behind, he walks left and right to reach every audience as much as he can, and always showing his open palms. This means that he has nothing to hide, that he wants to show everybody what’s in his sleeves.
So when you do a presentation upfront, it’s important for you to be expressive with your body. Open your palms and arms, walk left and right to show that you want the audience to hear what you worked hard on.
In short, show them what you got!!
4) Strong positive words
For those who have followed me, you will notice that every time I post a character breakdown, I’d start with something like “‘A’ is amazing…..” or “‘B’ is a genius….”. In fact, the proof is the first sentence of my first paragraph.
Steve Jobs is a pure genius.
Do you see what I did here? I am creating a positive emotion here by using words. I may have exaggerated a bit here, but I always make sure there are strong positive words.
I learned this from Steve Jobs. In his presentation, he would always use strong positive words, thus creating emotions. Some of the words he used most of the time during the presentation are ‘amazing’, ‘phenomenal’, and ‘incredible’. There are other words he used but the point is, he used big words to make it sound grand.
In the book, The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs page 59, his employees said that his favorite statement is
“Let’s make a dent in the universe.” — The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs page 59
Meaning, let’s change the world.
Barbara Fredrickson, a psychologist said that positivity expands our mind to thinking far more than we could ever imagine.
This is why the way Steve Jobs’s usage of powerful words helped the sales of iPad a lot. The powerful words used were enough to sparks interest, making them question, what is it that is so grand that Steve would say it like this.
So be positive, use positive strong words to capture their attention. Keep them excited with these words.
So there you have it.
There are many ways to be a great public speaker, however, Steve Jobs’s way of public speaking is a total beast.
To summarize what he did from the clip:
- Start with a story
- Voice tone
- Expressive body language
- Strong positive words
I hope you learn something from here.