Sell Your Ideas the Steve Jobs Way

1. 0:00 – 0:06

   Intro

   1. CGCarmine Gallo0:00

      [ on-hold music]

2. 0:06 – 0:36

   Why persuasive presentations matter: great ideas need champions

   1. CGCarmine Gallo0:06

      Good afternoon. Thank you. Thanks for inviting me. Today, I wanna help all of you sell your ideas the Steve Jobs way. I like to call this the new rules of persuasive presentations, because I think to a lot of you, these techniques will be new, or at least maybe it's a new way of looking at an old problem, which is: how do we sell our ideas effectively? As graduate students at Stanford, you all have ideas to share.

3. 0:36 – 3:08

   Why these techniques spread: from Apple to executives and companies

   1. CGCarmine Gallo0:36

      You have ideas for new products, new businesses, new methods, new ways of doing things, ideas that are gonna change the world. Some people are better than others at telling their story. Steve Jobs, for example, is an extraordinary storyteller. He's so exceptional, in fact, I wrote an entire book on him, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. Now, this book, I am proud to say, has become an international bestseller, and companies around the world, companies that recruit from Stanford, are using some of these techniques to completely transform the way they communicate the vision behind their companies. How many of you were here when Alan Mulally spoke, CEO of Ford, last week? Alan called me personally last year, called me on my cell phone. I was actually in the gym at the time on my treadmill. Kind of embarrassing. I'm running out thinking, "W- why is this guy calling from Detroit?" And he said, "This is Alan Mulally from Ford. Just wanna know... I read this cover to cover, and it's really helped a lot." So that's the kind of r- reaction I'm getting from people. But it's not just about Steve Jobs. I'm going to give you ideas from many, many other communicators who, consciously or not, apply the very same techniques when they're pitching their companies or pitching their products. But let's begin with a premise I hope we can all agree with. A person can have the greatest idea in the world, but if that person cannot convince enough other people, it doesn't matter. It's always mattered to Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs always thinks differently about communicating the vision behind Apple, and what can the rest of us learn? I learned quite a bit, techniques that I now offer my clients, and my clients touch your life every single day, from the computers you buy, to the electronic gadgets you use, to the foods you eat, to the medical devices that keep you healthy, to the cars you drive, to the gas that goes into those cars, and the energy that keeps America moving forward. My clients are in the news every day. They improve your life every day, and they are using these techniques. And some of them here, Medtronic especially, which is a big client of mine, recruits directly from Stanford, and they are using these techniques. So

4. 3:08 – 5:22

   Passion as the foundation: leading with values and emotional connection

   1. CGCarmine Gallo3:08

      I hope that you are a receptive audience. I wanna teach you some of the techniques that we use with high-level executives. Okay, shall I go through them? Yeah. The ones that apply to you specifically, the ones that you can adopt today for your very next presentation. I'm gonna start with the most important one. [laughs] Passion. Passion is everything. You cannot inspire unless you're inspired yourself. And for Steve Jobs, passion plays a very, very important role at Apple. In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple after a 12-year absence. Apple was very close to bankruptcy at the time. Steve Jobs held an informal staff meeting. I'm gonna show you a clip from that meeting. It's informal, and you can tell because he's wearing shorts. When he really wants to dress up, he'll wear blue jeans and running shoes. [laughs] So informal staff meeting, but listen to the role passion would play in revitalizing the Apple brand.

   2. SPSpeaker4:16

      To me, marketing's about values. This is a very complicated world. It's a very noisy world, and we're not gonna get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us. Our customers wanna know who is Apple, and what is it that we stand for? Where do we fit in this world? And what we're about isn't making boxes for people to get their jobs done, although we do that well. We do that better than almost anybody, in some cases.

   3. CGCarmine Gallo5:02

      [laughs]

   4. SPSpeaker5:05

      But Apple's about something more than that. Apple, at the core, its core value is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. That's what we believe.

5. 5:22 – 7:59

   Entrepreneur passion in action: Cranium and making customers your sales force

   1. CGCarmine Gallo5:22

      People with passion can change the world for the better. This man certainly believes that. Richard Tait was a client of mine about five years ago. Classic American entrepreneur, sketches an idea on the back of an airplane napkin during a cross-country flight, an idea for a board game which everyone could excel in one area or another. Some people are better at trivia, art, culture, music. What game did he build? Cranium. Cranium. Walk into Cranium headquarters and you are hit with a wave of fun and enthusiasm and engagement, the likes of which I've rarely seen in corporate America. But again, you need to understand that it starts from the leader. It starts from the entrepreneur whose vision it was to build that company. But what is Richard Tait passionate about? Passion is contagious, by the way. He is passionate, not so much about building board games. He's passionate about building self-esteem, and it comes across in every conversation you have with him and in every television interview, especially when he's asked a question like, "Where do great ideas come from?"

   2. SPSpeaker6:40

      Feel it. Like, I, I can feel these ideas. You just know when you're onto something, and just don't take no for an answer. You just gotta keep pushing. You know, resilience and perseverance, those are the key characteristics of an entrepreneur, is they can feel that idea and just don't take no for an answer. We met with the guys from Pictionary when we got started at first, and they said to us, "Don't leave your day jobs. You're crazy." Everyone was telling us we were crazy. I even called up my own dad and I said to him that I was gonna leave Microsoft and start a games company, and he said to me, "What should I tell my friends?" I said, "Tell them I'm following my heart. We're, we're gonna make history." And, uh, to this day, you know, I, I would say to anyone is, is persevere, and you can feel a good idea. You see it. You know it. Yeah, and you've, you've got your friends, and when you run it by your, your friends, you know, and you get that litmus test if this is a good idea or not, then you know you're onto something.

   3. SPSpeaker7:25

      But it's what you said this year. I, I gotta tell you, I'm gonna put you in one of the greatest hits big ideas because everything you say is, is the magic formula of success. Don't listen to other people. Don't take no. Follow your gut. Go for it. I mean, you just, you just get... Y- you embody that, and I love it. I love it.

   4. SPSpeaker7:41

      There's, there's one thing I got from this show, which I saw, uh, I was watching Richard Branson the other day, and you guys were talking about customers, and we have these people called Craniacs, and I've never forgotten that our customers are our sales force. We sold a million games with no advertising, all by our customers talking about our product and sharing those experiences.

   5. SPSpeaker7:57

      By the way, when-

6. 7:59 – 9:59

   What you’re really selling: heart before brain (Orman, Starbucks, Apple)

   1. CGCarmine Gallo7:59

      We sold a million games with no advertising. Our customers are our best sales force. Did you see the reaction of the host? Passion is contagious. When I first worked with- for Richard Tait, a colleague of mine said that within five minutes you're gonna wanna work at Cranium. Now, I didn't go to work for Cranium, but I understand. I understand. When I interviewed Suze Orman, who is one of the world's great financial planners, I asked her point-blank, I said, "What makes you such an extraordinary communicator?" She said, "Because I've learned to appeal to somebody's heart before their brain." I understand what she's saying. You need to make emotional connections with people. You need to share what you're passionate about. She's not passionate about mutual funds. Suze Orman is passionate about avoiding the crushing financial debt that caused so much pain for her and her family as she was growing up. What does Starbucks sell? What do they sell?

   2. SPSpeaker8:58

      Coffee.

   3. CGCarmine Gallo8:59

      Coffee. So why is it that when I interviewed Howard Schultz for a Business Week article and a book about three years ago, he rarely mentioned the word coffee? I thought he was selling coffee. 'Cause that's not what he is selling, and he was very adamant about it. They are selling a workplace that treats people with dignity and respect. Happy customers or happy employees equal happy customers. What a formula. It works for Starbucks. But he rarely mentioned the word coffee, and I said, "Howard, what, why aren't you talking about coffee? That's what you sell." He said, "Well, sure, I like coffee, but that's not what my business stands for." So you need to ask yourselves, "What am I passionate about?" And it's not the obvious. Howard Schultz is not passionate about coffee. Suze Orman is not selling mutual funds. Richard Tait is not selling board games, and Steve Jobs is not selling computers. He's selling tools to help you unleash

7. 9:59 – 12:04

   Clarify the message fast: the 140-character test and big-picture-first framing

   1. CGCarmine Gallo9:59

      your personal creativity. There's a big difference, but that's the very first question you need to ask yourself when you're creating the message behind your product or company or service. What is it that I'm truly passionate about? Now, let's dig into real techniques that you can use today for your very next presentation. How many of you are on Twitter? Okay. My Twitter handle is Carmine Gallo if you'd like to follow me. I'd like to continue this conversation with you. How many, um, characters does Twitter allow?

   2. SPSpeaker10:32

      140.

   3. CGCarmine Gallo10:33

      140. I think it's a great exercise. If you cannot explain what you do in 140 characters, go back to the drawing board. It's important because your brain craves meaning before details. A neuroscientist at the University of Washington, John Medina, taught me this. He said, "Carmine, when primitive man ran into a tiger, he did not ask, 'How many teeth does the tiger have?' He asked, 'Will it eat me? Should I run?'" Big picture before details. This is the way your brain wants to process information. What's wrong with this slide? [laughs] Typical slide, right? This was delivered by a Morgan Stanley analyst at a technology conference. She had about 20 minutes, and she wanted to deliver eight big ideas, eight themes. That's too much information. Where's the big picture before the details? These actually support a broader theme. A couple of journalists who were in the room at the time wrote about it much more simply, but they focused on the big picture. One of the headlines was, "The mobile internet is growing faster than you've ever imagined." Now, imagine if she had come out to say, "The mobile internet is growing faster than you've ever imagined, and I'm gonna tell you why." What's more interesting, this slide, which I created in two minutes,

8. 12:04 – 14:18

   Simplicity and courage in visuals: Jobs-style headlines and decluttering

   1. CGCarmine Gallo12:04

      or this one? Big picture before details. Steve Jobs does this all the time When he introduced the MacBook Air, this could have been a very typical slide. The average communicator would've created a slide like this. Today, we are very excited to introduce a thin, lightweight notebook computer. It has a 13-inch widescreen display, backlit keyboard, Intel processor. What's the problem here? Too much information. What's the big picture? In a sentence, it's the world's thinnest notebook. Oh, isn't that much more interesting and easier for you to process than all of the details first? It's the world's thinnest notebook. That's the way Steve Jobs framed it. What do you notice about the slide? Simple, visual, and when he delivers the headline, the one thing that he wants you to remember, that's all he has on the slide. He does this all the time, in every presentation. What's the iPad? The iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device. That was his second slide when he introduced the iPad, 'cause that's all he wants you to know right now before getting into the details. I did notice, at an unbelievable price, they stopped using that.

   2. SPSpeaker13:32

      [laughs]

   3. CGCarmine Gallo13:33

      This was the only time he actually used that. Maybe people started thinking to themselves, "$800, that's, that's not unbelievable. Unbelievably high, maybe."

   4. SPSpeaker13:42

      [laughs]

   5. CGCarmine Gallo13:43

      But it's interesting. That was the last time I saw it on that one slide.

   6. SPSpeaker13:46

      [laughs]

   7. CGCarmine Gallo13:47

      Again, Apple does this all the time. A few months ago, when they introduced The Beatles on iTunes, go to the website. What did you see? The Beatles now on iTunes. How many of you would have the courage at your companies to ef- effectively declutter your website, remove everything else except the one thing you want people to get across, the one thing you want people to remember? Again, the Apple website, they do this all the time. It takes courage

9. 14:18 – 19:23

   Build a story with a villain: define the problem, then reveal the hero

   1. CGCarmine Gallo14:18

      to be simple. It takes courage to communicate simply. If you cannot communicate what you do in 10 words or less, a short sentence, or say, 140 characters, go back to the drawing board. Once you give me the big picture, as an audience member, I need to understand the problem that you're trying to solve. I call this introducing the antagonist, because every great story, and a presentation is a story, every great story requires a hero and a villain. So think of your presentation the same way. In 1984, when Steve Jobs first introduced Macintosh, Macintosh, obviously, the Mac was the hero. IBM was the villain, at least in the Steve Jobs narrative. So he actually crafted the story. IBM would play the, the villain part of the role. Mac would come in to save the day. IBM was a mainframe computer at the time, mainframe computer maker just getting into personal computers for the first time, and Steve Jobs created this, this presentation and messaging around Apple would be the only one to stand in, in IBM's way and make the world safe for us creative people in the world. It was, you know, it was very dramatic stuff, but he actually crafted the narrative. But more often than not, the enemy in a Steve Jobs presentation is not a competitor or one competitor. It's, could be a category of problems in need of a solution. So when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007, he didn't just point to one villain, but a problem among all the villains in need of a solution. Watch as he outlines the problem and offers a solution all in two minutes. Why do we need a revolutionary user interface? I mean, here's four smartphones, right? Motorola Q, BlackBerry, Palm Treo, Nokia E62, the usual suspects. And what's wrong with their user interfaces? Well, the problem with them is really sort of in the bottom 40 there. It's, it's this stuff right here.

   2. SPSpeaker16:35

      [laughs]

   3. CGCarmine Gallo16:36

      They all have these keyboards that are there whether you need them or not to be there, and they all have these control buttons that are fixed in plastic and are the same for every application. Well, every application wants a slightly different user interface, a slightly optimized set of buttons just for it. And what happens if you think of a great idea six months from now? You can't run around and add a button to these things. They're already shipped. So what do you do? It doesn't work because the buttons and the controls can't change. They can't change for each application, and they can't change down the road if you think of another great idea you wanna add to this product. Well, how do you solve this? Hmm. It turns out we have solved it. We solved it in computers 20 years ago. We solved it with a bitmap screen that could display anything we want, put any user interface up, and a pointing device. We solved it with the mouse, right? We solved this problem. So how are we gonna take this to a mobile device? Well, what we're gonna do is get rid of all these buttons and just make a giant screen. A giant screen.

   4. SPSpeaker17:47

      [applause]

   5. CGCarmine Gallo17:48

      Now, how are we gonna communicate this? We don't wanna carry around a mouse, right? So what are we gonna do? Oh, a stylus, right? We're gonna use a stylus. No.

   6. SPSpeaker17:59

      [laughs]

   7. CGCarmine Gallo18:01

      Who wants a stylus?

   8. SPSpeaker18:02

      [laughs]

   9. CGCarmine Gallo18:03

      You have to get them and put them away, and you lose them. Yuck. Nobody wants a stylus, so let's not use a stylus. We're gonna use the best pointing device in the world. We're gonna use a pointing device that we're all born with. We're born with 10 of them. We're gonna use our fingers.

   10. SPSpeaker18:19

       We're gonna touch this with our fingers. And we have invented a new technology called multi-touch, which is phenomenal.

   11. CGCarmine Gallo18:26

       [laughs]

   12. SPSpeaker18:27

       It works like magic.

   13. CGCarmine Gallo18:28

       [laughs]

   14. SPSpeaker18:30

       You don't need a stylus. It's far more accurate than any touch display that's ever been shipped. It ignores unintended touches. It's super smart. You can do multi-finger gestures on it, and boy have we patented it.

   15. CGCarmine Gallo18:47

       [laughs] All right. Um, I'm glad it stopped there. Take a, a view of that slide. We're gonna get back to something like that. What do you notice about those slides, by the way? Simple, visual. Do you notice what he did? He did three things. He informed, he educated, and he had fun at the same time. Information, education, and entertainment, all in two minutes. I find that quite extraordinary. Very few communicators have that skill. But you need to begin by asking yourself, "What

10. 19:23 – 25:50

    Sell benefits, not features: translating tech into ‘what’s in it for me’

    1. CGCarmine Gallo19:23

       problem do I solve? What problem do I solve? What's the villain here?" And then you can offer the solution. Enter the hero. The solution better sell a benefit, though. What's the benefit behind it? People want to know, "What's in it for me?" I learned this in Journalism 101. I went to UCLA, uh, went to Northwestern to study journalism. Then I went to CNN and some other media outlets after that, uh, but I learned this my first day of journalism school. What's in it for me? Why do I care? Let me show you an example of how we sell the benefit in s- some of my clients. At CES this year, Intel launched a new microprocessor. It's called Sandy Bridge. That's the code name. Sandy Bridge actually is the largest, biggest technological leap in Intel's history. It's a big deal for Intel, and it's a big deal for consumers. Here's the technical definition. Sandy Bridge is based on the 32 nanometer manufacturing process. Its processing cores feature hyper-threading and turbo boost technology. Are any of you inspired and excited about running out today to buy one of these new computers? Whoo.

    2. SPSpeaker20:41

       Yeah. Good. He gets it. That's powerful stuff, though. That's actually f- technology that's going to improve your life significantly. But I don't see too many hands, so nobody's interested yet. Okay, let's try this. What if you walked into a Best Buy and somebody said something like, "Think of the microprocessor as the brain of your computer. Now, with these Intel chips, you get two brains in one computer. It's the fastest chip on the market. What does that mean to you? Video games will look amazingly realistic. You'll be able to transfer video and upload it to YouTube much more quickly. In fact, what took four minutes to encode will now take 30 seconds. And finally, it's much more energy efficient. That means you'll get much longer battery life." So the next time any of you are looking for a new computer, do you think you're gonna ask for this new generation Intel processor? Do you think you want it now? Yes? Yeah? More hands. Why? I j- uh, what I told you earlier is exactly the same thing. It was exactly the same thing, but I changed the messaging. Instead of focusing on the chip and its features, what would the features do for you? Sell the benefit. Introduce the hero, which is your product, your service, your company, but you better tell me why I need it and how it will improve my life. What was the big question when Steve Jobs introduced the iPad? A lot of people were skeptical. They s- they asked themselves, "Well, why do I need another device? I have a smartphone, and I have a laptop. What's in it for me?" Steve Jobs gave us the answer.

    3. SPSpeaker22:34

       ... use laptops and smartphones now. Everybody uses a laptop and/or a smartphone. And the question has arisen lately: Is there room for a third category of device in the middle, something that's between a laptop and a smartphone? And of course, we've pondered this question for years as well. The bar is pretty high. In order to really create a new category of devices, those devices are gonna have to be far better at doing some key tasks. They're gonna have to be far better at doing some really important things, better than the laptop, better than the smartphone. What kind of tasks? Well, things like browsing the web. That's a pretty tall order. Something that's better at browsing the web than a laptop? Okay. Doing email. Enjoying and sharing photographs. Video, watching videos. Enjoying your music collection. Playing games. Reading e-books. If there's gonna be a third category of device, it's gonna have to be better at these kinds of tasks than a laptop or a smartphone. Otherwise, it has no reason for being. Now, some people have thought that that's a netbook. The problem is, netbooks aren't better at anything.

    4. CGCarmine Gallo24:13

       [laughs]

    5. SPSpeaker24:15

       They-

    6. CGCarmine Gallo24:15

       [laughs]

    7. SPSpeaker24:18

       ... they're slow They have low-quality displays, and they run clunky old PC software. So they're not better than a laptop at anything, they're just cheaper. They're just cheap laptops. And we don't think-

    8. SPSpeaker24:32

       [laughs]

    9. SPSpeaker24:33

       ... that [microphone feedback] people want that.

    10. CGCarmine Gallo24:34

        [laughs]

    11. SPSpeaker24:37

        But we think we've got something that is, and we'd like to show it to you today for the first time. And we call it the iPad.

    12. SPSpeaker24:47

        [cheers]

    13. SPSpeaker24:50

        So let me show it to you now. This is what it looks like. I happen to have one right here. And that's what it looks like.

    14. SPSpeaker25:09

        [cheers]

    15. CGCarmine Gallo25:13

        He always just happens to have one right here.

    16. SPSpeaker25:15

        [laughs]

    17. CGCarmine Gallo25:16

        [laughs] He informs, he educates, and he entertains. When's the last time you laughed at a presentation or had fun with it? That takes courage, but it also takes thought. You need to answer the question before you even open your slides, why should my audience care? Because that's the only question on their minds. They don't really care about your technology or your features, or the commission that you need to make. They don't care about any of that, they just wanna know what's in it for me. Why should I care?

11. 25:50 – 28:25

    Make data memorable: bring numbers to life with relatable context

    1. CGCarmine Gallo25:50

       Answer that. Don't leave them guessing. Now, I know many of you, uh, at least the first years, unless I'm mistaken, are taking a lot of quantitative courses. Is that true? Yeah, a lot of heavy financial courses this year. Let's talk about something then, bringing numbers to life. Steve Jobs will rarely introduce a data point, a statistic, without putting it into some kind of context that people can understand. So for example, in 2001 when Steve Jobs introduced the iPod for the first time, he said it had five gigabytes of storage. Five gigabytes of storage. I mean, I, I know, what is it today? Many of you may have purchased the latest one, 160 gigs, something like that. But it was five gigs in 2001. What does that mean to anybody? Five gigabytes of storage, okay. That's not that interesting. I'm not even sure what it means. Oh, it meant 1,000 songs. Storage capacity for 1,000 songs. Now it's more interesting. But Steve Jobs goes one step further. It's 1,000 songs in your pocket. Now I'm interested. Now I'm inspired. Steve Jobs does this all the time, as do all the other executives at Apple. I've seen many other presentations as well. It's very effective. Don't just throw out a big number without putting it into some kind of context that is relatable to me and my life. Cisco has the same type of challenge. Cisco makes big routers and switches that nobody ever sees, so they've become very good at putting big numbers into perspective and making them very interesting. Last year, Cisco released a CRS-3 router capable of handling 322 terabits per second. It's a big number, isn't it? Not very interesting, it just sounds like a big number. So when John Chambers, the CEO, was giving presentations on it, in every presentation and in every interview, he rarely even used the number 322 terabits. But he did say, "Powerful enough to stream every movie ever made in four minutes. Powerful enough to download the entire Library of Congress in one second." That's interesting. That actually got picked up by a lot of mainstream press, who otherwise would have no business

12. 28:25 – 33:29

    Design slides as backdrops: visuals over text and avoiding ‘word choke’

    1. CGCarmine Gallo28:25

       covering a Cisco router. But he made it interesting. Put numbers into perspective. Bring numbers to life. I just wanna introduce that concept for you because I know a lot of you are taking those sort of... those classes in your first year. What have I been doing in the last few slides? I've been trying to keep them as simple as possible and as visual as possible. When you are creating slides, it helps to think visually. How many of you give PowerPoints, create PowerPoints? How many of you use PowerPoint? Everybody. How many of you use Apple Keynote? Okay, a few of you. It's a beautiful program, very refined program. Uh, all of my clients use PowerPoint. 97% of us use PowerPoint, so I tend to use PowerPoint as well for compatibility reasons, but this goes beyond PowerPoint. I have seen really awful Keynote presentations as well. Uh, I... So I don't think it's so much the presentation software as much as, as it is how to tell the story using the software. I think what happens is Microsoft and PowerPoint sort of make it easy to be mediocre. This is what it does. It forces you to create a title slide, and then add bullets, and more bullets, and sub-bullets until you're really in the weeds.

    2. SPSpeaker29:53

       [laughs]

    3. CGCarmine Gallo29:54

       And, oh, there, there's empty space. We can't have that, so let me add some cheesy clip art. And, you know, the, "I'm an MBA, so I need to add a chart and a squiggly line."

    4. SPSpeaker30:04

       [laughs]

    5. CGCarmine Gallo30:05

       And there you have it, the world's ugliest slide.

    6. SPSpeaker30:09

       [laughs]

    7. CGCarmine Gallo30:11

       At least so I thought when I first created that slide, until I saw this.

    8. SPSpeaker30:15

       [laughs]

    9. CGCarmine Gallo30:20

       That's a real slide. This was delivered in the US-- among the US military commanders. And one general actually said, he actually said this, "If I can understand this slide, we'll have won the war."

    10. SPSpeaker30:34

        [laughs]

    11. CGCarmine Gallo30:36

        So I thought I could make a really bad PowerPoint when I wanted to, but this tops it. There's no way I can compete. That is a bad PowerPoint slide. What's the difference? What's the difference? The difference is that a slide in a Steve Jobs presentation simply complements the messenger. The-- It's Steve Jobs telling the story. Steve Jobs is the narrator. Think of it as sort of a Broadway play, because he is very theatrical. Steve Jobs is the central figure, the narrator. The slides are the backdrop. That's all they do, is serve to complement the story. The average PowerPoint slide has 40 words. It is difficult to find 40 words in 10 slides in a Steve Jobs presentations. You will get words and text and images as well. There's a reason for this. Whether he's doing it consciously or not, neuroscientists will tell you there is something called picture superiority. It simply means when information is delivered verbally, people will remember about 10% of the information. Add a picture or an image, retention goes up to 65%. In fact, too many words on a slide is actually very difficult for the brain to process because, according to John Medina, who I talked to, the brain interprets every letter as a picture. So what happens is the brain is literally choking on text. Now, some of you, more thoughtful ones, those smart MBAs, are thinking to themselves, "Well, I can read. It doesn't bother me when I'm reading." Yeah. Now, try reading and have somebody else talk to you at the same time. Can you process both? No. So why do we expect people to do so when we're giving PowerPoint presentations? Let's create wordy slides with 100 words on them, and I'm gonna tell you something really complicated, and I'm gonna expect you to concentrate on either one. It doesn't work. What does Steve Jobs do? Let me create, let me create a really ugly slide around the MacBook Air. This, I think, would have been a typical slide.

    12. SPSpeaker32:51

        [laughs]

    13. CGCarmine Gallo32:52

        But again, after looking at that other PowerPoint, this looks like genius.

    14. SPSpeaker32:56

        [laughs]

    15. CGCarmine Gallo32:58

        Uh, those of you who are looking at this closely can tell there's different font sizes, different sizes, shapes. There's a little clip art because, God forbid, we have empty space. This gives you all of the details about the MacBook Air. Well, when Steve Jobs and his team were trying to decide, "How do we communicate the vision behind this computer in a way that everybody's gonna remember, and how do we do that in a slide?" They came up with this. It's so thin

13. 33:29 – 37:00

    Create ‘holy smokes’ moments: sketch first and design for surprise

    1. CGCarmine Gallo33:29

       it's fits inside one of those envelopes. Why do you need any text on that? What's more interesting? What's more memorable? This or that? But this takes thought. See, this doesn't take a lot of thought. This, you just throw a bunch of words on the slide. That takes practice, thought, research ahead of time. So think visually. And in order to think visually, guess what? You've gotta start like this. Sketching, brainstorming, whiteboarding, before you open up the slides. Visual slides help in creating what's called a holy smokes moment. This is that one moment in a presentation that everybody's going to remember. Everybody remembers when Steve Jobs pulled the MacBook Air out of the envelope, at least everybody who was in the audience that day. John Medina taught me, he said, "Carmine, the brain does not pay attention to boring things."

    2. SPSpeaker34:29

       [laughs]

    3. CGCarmine Gallo34:31

       So don't make it boring. When the brain detects an emotionally charged event, anger, fear, surprise, it actually releases dopamine into the system, acting as a mental Post-It note saying, "Remember this." Create that one moment of surprise. Steve Jobs did so when he introduced the iPhone. He could have come out and said, "Hey, we're really excited today to introduce this new technology. It's Apple's new smartphone. First time Apple has created a phone. I can't wait to tell you about it." Yeah, he could have done that. Most people would have. Instead, Steve Jobs did this.

    4. SPSpeaker35:12

       Today, we're introducing three revolutionary products of this class. [cheering] The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. [cheering] The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. [cheering] And the third is a breakthrough internet communications device. [cheering] So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communications device. An iPod- [laughs] ... a phone- [laughs] ... and an internet communicator. Whoo!

    5. SPSpeaker36:35

       [cheering] These are not three separate devices.

    6. SPSpeaker36:39

       [cheering]

    7. SPSpeaker36:40

       This is one device.

    8. SPSpeaker36:42

       [cheering]

    9. SPSpeaker36:46

       And we are calling it iPhone.

    10. SPSpeaker36:50

        [cheering]

    11. SPSpeaker36:52

        Today, today Apple is going to reinvent the phone.

14. 37:00 – 40:19

    Go beyond slides: multi-sensory demonstrations that stick (Bill Gates example)

    1. CGCarmine Gallo37:00

       Pretty entertaining, isn't it? What's the Twitter-friendly headline from that presentation? Today, Apple reinvents the phone. That was on their press release, on their website, and in the presentation. What's the one thing you want me to remember? Okay. When you create visual presentations, or you think about how to move away from the slides in order to create these emotionally charged events, it helps to think about it this way: what's a multi-sensory experience I can create that has absolutely nothing to do with the slides? Sometimes the most memorable parts of a presentation are not about what's on the slide, and yet we spend 98% of our time getting the fonts just right and the right images. Well, oftentimes we gotta think about how to connect with people beyond the slide. Bill Gates has been doing a very good job of this. Bill Gates is now the world's largest philanthropist, and he has the challenge of talking about global problems, very complicated problems, in simple to understand language, which he has been doing very, very well. Last year, he gave a talk about reducing childhood deaths in malaria. The most memorable part of his presentation, one that went viral, had nothing to do with his slides. Although the slides were beautifully created, they were very visual, lot of images, very powerful slides. But the most memorable part of his presentation was multi-sensory. It went beyond the slides.

    2. SPSpeaker38:39

       For example, there's more money put into baldness drugs than are put into malaria. Now, baldness is, is a terrible thing. Uh-

    3. CGCarmine Gallo38:49

       [laughs]

    4. SPSpeaker38:51

       Uh, and rich men are afflicted.

    5. CGCarmine Gallo38:54

       [laughs]

    6. SPSpeaker38:56

       Uh, and so that's why that, uh, priority has been set. But malaria, the, even the million deaths a year caused by malaria greatly understate its impact. Uh, over 200 million people at any one time are suffering from it. Uh, it means that you can't get the economies in these areas going because, uh, there's just, it holds things back so much. Now, malaria's, of course, transmitted by mosquitoes. Uh, I brought some here, so you could, uh-

    7. SPSpeaker39:26

       [laughs]

    8. SPSpeaker39:27

       ... experience this. We'll let, let those roam around the, uh-

    9. CGCarmine Gallo39:29

       [laughs]

    10. SPSpeaker39:30

        [laughs]

    11. SPSpeaker39:31

        ... auditorium a little bit. Here. There's no reason only poor people should have, have the experience.

    12. CGCarmine Gallo39:38

        [laughs]

    13. SPSpeaker39:39

        [laughs]

    14. SPSpeaker39:45

        But those mosquitoes are not, no.

    15. SPSpeaker39:47

        [laughs]

    16. CGCarmine Gallo39:49

        Yeah. He was gonna say those mosquitoes are not infected. Uh, I'll say that is astonishing. He created a multi-sensory experience. It was a memorable experience, and he got people to laugh about a serious subject like malaria, but he made it memorable. And I know as a fact that he's always thinking about how to communicate these very difficult issues in a way that people can understand. Now, there's one other topic I just want to introduce to you briefly. I'm not gonna go into

15. 40:19 – 41:59

    Deliver with stage presence: eye contact, open posture, and gestures

    1. CGCarmine Gallo40:19

       it. We could do a whole half-day workshop on this, but we're not going to today. I just wanna introduce it to you because it's important. You could have all these things. You could create a wonderful PowerPoint presentation, great messaging. You've got a hero and a villain, but you have to deliver it well. You have to deliver it effectively. This is called mastering stage presence. Great communicators all have great presence. This is an important statistic. 65%, 65% of the impression that you leave on someone has little to do with your message. It has to do with your facial expressions, your verbal delivery, your body language. There are three things that you can do today that will help you stand out from the vast majority of public speakers and communicators. Number one, eye contact. Make eye contact 80, 90% of the time. That's why I don't like it when people have too many notes to read from, or if you put too many words on the slide, you're breaking eye contact. Steve Jobs rarely breaks eye contact. He will turn to a display, bring something up, and turn back to the audience. Open posture. Open simply means there's nothing in between me and you. If I had delivered this presentation exactly the same way, but I had done so like this the whole time, would that have left a different impression on you? Why? It's the same content, because 65% of the impression I'm leaving on you has little to do with the content. And also, hand gestures. Use hand gestures. I'm Italian, so it's easier for me to use hand gestures.

    2. SPSpeaker41:58

       [laughs]

16. 41:59 – 47:31

    Sell dreams—and ‘one more thing’: resist naysayers and dream bigger

    1. CGCarmine Gallo41:59

       But it's okay. Researchers are finding that complex thinkers use complex gestures. A lot of people will ask me, "What do I do with my hands? Do I keep them in my pocket?" Take 'em out. Be animated. Be animated in voice and in body. And finally, let's wrap all this together. Never forget that you are selling dreams, not products, because your customers do not care about your company. They don't care about your product or your service, but they do care about themselves. Their hopes, their goals, their dreams, their ambitions. Help them achieve their dreams and you'll inspire them. You'll win them over. Steve Jobs has always been in the business of selling dreams. When he first got together with Wozniak in the spare bedroom of his parents' house in 1974, that's actually where it started, not the garage. They were just playing with electronics and Steve Jobs had a vision. He said, "I would love to make computers that are easy to use for everyday people." He was always selling dreams. In 1997, remember I told you that he returned to Apple after being away for about 12 years. He returned to Apple. In his first major presentation the following year, he paused at the end of his presentation and reminded people of what Apple stood for as a brand. It's a very powerful moment.

    2. SPSpeaker43:32

       I wanna just talk a little about, about Apple and the brand and, uh, and what it means to, I think, to a lot of us. You know, I think it always had to be a little different to buy an Apple computer. Uh, when we shipped, uh, the Apple II, you had to think different about computers. And computers were these things you saw in movies. They occupied giant rooms. Um, they weren't these things you had on your desktop. You had to think differently because there wasn't any software at the beginning. You had to think differently when one of the first computer arrived at school, where there'd never been one before. It was an Apple II. I think you had to think really differently when you bought a Mac. It was a totally different computer. It worked in a totally different way. Used a totally different part of your brain, and it opened up the computer world for a lot of people who thought differently. You were buying a computer with install base of one. You had to think differently to do that. And I think you still have to think differently to buy an Apple computer. Uh, and I think the people that do buy them do think differently, and they are the creative spirits in this world. They are the people that are not just out to get a job done, they're out to change the world, and they're out to change the world using whatever great tools they can get, and we make tools for those kinds of people. So hopefully, what you've seen here today are some beginning steps that give you some confidence that we too are thinking differently, and so do the people that have been buying our products since the beginning. Because a lot of times people think they're crazy, but in that craziness we see genius, and those are the people we're making tools for. Thank you very much. [audience applauding]

    3. CGCarmine Gallo45:31

       How can you not be inspired by that? But you see what he's doing, he's focusing on the customer and their needs and their hopes and their goals. He's always thinking differently about how to communicate and articulate the vision behind his products. He's not just selling computers. And now in true Steve Jobs fashion, those of you who have seen Steve Jobs presentations know that he always ends with one more thing. That one thing that typically is the most important product introduction. Let me just leave you with that one more thing today. Don't let the bozos get you down.

    4. SPSpeaker46:07

       [laughs]

    5. CGCarmine Gallo46:09

       There will always be naysayers and skeptics and people who don't believe in your idea or believe in your dreams. Don't let them dissuade you. Imagine what one young man must have thought when he heard things like, "We don't need you. You haven't gotten through college yet. Get your feet off my desk. Get out of here, you stink, and we're not gonna buy your product." Or, "There's no reason why anybody would want a computer in their home." As you can guess by now, Steve Jobs heard all of these things. Didn't stop him. When a Disney executive, whose role it was to revitalize the Disney stores, asked Steve Jobs for advice, Steve said, "Dream bigger. That's my advice to you. Dream bigger." So that's my advice for you folks today. Dream bigger, see genius in your craziness, believe in yourself, believe in your ideas, and above all, deliver and communicate those ideas with confidence, clarity, and passion, because it's those ideas that are going to change the world. Thanks for inviting me to spend your, the lunch hour with you. I appreciate it. Thank you. [audience applauding]

Episode duration: 47:31