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How Steve Jobs Made Presentations Look Effortless

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Steve Jobs turned presentations into an art form because he approached keynote presentations like an artist. Musicians, actors, and designers master their crafts over many hours—10,000 hours, according to writers like Malcolm Gladwell. Mastering public speaking skills is no exception and Steve Jobs was an artist in the field.

In the new book, Becoming Steve Jobs, authors Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli reveal some new insights into the intense preparation that made Steve Jobs a master presenter. According to the authors, “Steve would rehearse endlessly and fastidiously. The book contains exclusive behind-the-scenes photos of Jobs, alone on stage, reviewing scripts the day before a MacWorld keynote. In another photo Jobs is sitting off to one side of the stage watching Apple vice president Phil Schiller practice his portion of a presentation. “Rehearsals for product presentations were always intense.”

Bill Gates appeared at some of the events along with Jobs. “I was never in his league,” Gates told the authors about Jobs’ presentation skills. “I mean, it was just amazing to see how precisely he would rehearse. And if he’s about to go onstage, and his support people don’t have the things right, you know, he is really, really tough on them. He’s even a bit nervous because it’s a big performance. But then he’s on, and it’s quite an amazing thing.”

Steve Jobs made presentations look effortless because he put in a lot of effort to get everything right.

“I mean, his whole thing of knowing exactly what he’s going to say, but up on stage saying it in such a way that he is trying to make you think he’s thinking it up right then…” Gates said before he trailed off and laughed as he recalled the moment.

The authors reveal new information about Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement address, one of the most quoted commencement speeches in modern history. Jobs wrote the speech himself and walked around the house for days, reciting it over and over. “The kids watching their dad spring past them in the same kind of trance he’d sometimes enter in the days before MacWorld. Several times he read it to the whole family dinner.” On the morning of June 16, 2005, Steve Jobs woke up with butterflies in his stomach. “I’d almost never seen him more nervous” Jobs’ wife Laurene recalls. Jobs was nervous because the performance mattered to him and he wanted to get it right.

Laurene also told the authors the speech almost didn’t happen when Jobs couldn’t find the keys to the SUV and the family arrived late at the stadium. Once they arrived at the venue a guard didn't quite believe that the man riding shotgun—wearing “tattered jeans, Birkenstocks, and an old black T-Shirt”—was the commencement speaker.

When I first began researching Steve Jobs and his presentation skills, I didn't think anyone could rehearse more diligently than he did. That is, until I interviewed some of the most popular TED speakers. The speaker who has one of the most popular TED talks of all time, Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor, told me she rehearsed 200 times before she delivered it in front of a TED audience. Dr. Jill’s presentation seemed natural, authentic, animated, and conversational. Many people don’t realize that it takes practice to sound conversational.

You might assume that a particular speaker is naturally gifted, confident, and polished on stage. What you don’t see is that it took them years of practice to get there. When I interviewed astronaut Chris Hadfield who became a social media sensation with his weightless version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, I complimented him on his TED talk and the strength of his delivery. I’ve been speaking for about 25 years,” he reminded me.

Steve Jobs wasn’t a natural speaker. He worked at it really, really hard. Although he had an early flair for the dramatic as anyone who has watched him pull the first Macintosh out of a black bag can attest—there’s no question his comfort level on stage improved over time. It improved because he cared intensely about the message, the aesthetic, and the look of his brand.

Your brand—especially your personal brand—should mean just as much to you as Apple meant to Steve Jobs. And if Jobs was “meticulous” about every aspect of his presentations, shouldn't you be?

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