Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Steve Jobs, TUAW Bookshelf
Book Review: "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs"
In "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs," Carmine Gallo provides a framework for you to deliver a keynote like Steve does. The book provides both an Al Michaels and John Madden perspective of Jobs's keynotes: a play-by-play account of events married with analytical insight.
While rich in detailing the stylistics of Jobs's presentations and the empirical evidence supporting it -- for example, limiting bullet points on slides, using simple language, and using the rule of threes to enhance a narrative -- the most captivating portion of the book is how it details Steve Jobs's preparation for his keynotes. Yes, even Steve Jobs, like the rest of us, must prepare for his preparations presentations.
And prepare he does, which is evident in the stories of Paul Vais. An executive at Jobs's former company NeXT (that Apple later acquired, which brought Jobs back into the Apple fold), Vais recalled that "every slide was written like a piece of poetry...[and that] Steve would labor over the presentation. We'd try to orchestrate and choreograph everything and make it more alive than it really is." However, Gallo says that "making your presentation 'more alive' takes practice. Once you accept this simple principle, your presentations will stand out in a sea of mediocrity."
Gallo's book follows many of the "Jobsian" presentation mantras he preaches. Like a Steve Jobs keynote, the book is simple to read and provides an easy-to-follow roadmap for a reference-minded reader. The one thing that most readers will walk away with is that Steve Jobs's on-stage presence evinces a style similar to that of Apple's products when they're on the stage of the showroom floor or marketed on Apple's website. As a result, as much as it serves as a Steve Jobs presentation guidebook, "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs" in many ways is a Steve Jobs biography.
"The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs" is available at many booksellers, including Borders, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Matt said 4:32PM on 10-21-2009
How could a book on this subject have such a mediocre cover?
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Curtis Estridge said 4:57PM on 10-21-2009
I was thinking exactly the same thing.
Der Schakal said 4:34PM on 10-21-2009
Those who have to read such a book to know what makes up a good presentation will never do one.
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DrHockey said 9:54AM on 10-22-2009
Nothing could be further from the truth. Some people are naturals but the other 99% of us need to work at it. Working at it includes looking at the best practices of others.
Yoshi1080 said 4:40PM on 10-21-2009
Does anyone know where to get this book as an EPUB or PDF ebook? I searched ebooks.com and fictionwise.com but didn't find anything. Sony has it but only sells it to US citizens (I'm German).
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Yakov Hadash said 4:58PM on 10-21-2009
It's true, if you can't figure it out from watching the videos, there's nothing to be learned from this book...
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numpty said 5:17PM on 10-21-2009
What's so great about Steve Jobs' presentations anyway? I've never found his style particularly compelling.
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Kelmon said 5:25AM on 10-22-2009
Personally speaking, I find he is able to make a pretty dry topic (and, let's not kid ourselves, computers and software are boring) interesting. Certainly, if you compare a Jobs keynote to a Gates keynote then there is no comparison - Steve makes the topic interesting whereas its a close call between listening to Bill and watching paint dry for the most boring. If you are blessed with watching consistently good presentations then I expect that Steve's are just more of the same, but I have yet to come across anyone else that does the job as well (no pun intended). For example, it is not unusual to find people simply reading their presentation to you, bullet point for bullet point.
Still, I will advocate that the #1 thing for making your presentations better is simply to do them more often.
SUGAR GROVE said 5:31PM on 10-21-2009
This arcticle could use more preparation.
The quotation marks are in the wrong place.
The presentation... "Secrets of Steven Jobs"
Who prepares for preparation?
prepainting is called "priming"
preplanning is part of a plan
predrilling is called a pilot hole
every slide was poetic..
I'm not a journalism expert but this sure could use some work.
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Jonathan Baldwin said 6:17PM on 10-21-2009
You'd be surprised at who needs teaching to give good presentations. Some people, like many of us here, can look at Jobs and others and pick up tips. And some have a good natural presentation style.
But having given presentations for many years now, and teaching others to present, I can say that a lot of people just have a blind spot when it comes to doing it themselves. I've seen people get up at conferences and give great presentations - no bullet points, just a few images, focusing on the speaker and the story. Then the next person gets up and bombards the audience with slide after slide of dense text, reading it from the screen, back to the audience and whispering...
(The same people who, if you give them a microphone to hold, will carry on talking waving the microphone around pointing at anything except their mouth).
Yet give them a book to read, or a handout with instructions, and they can do it.
Basically people learn differently. I learnt Flash by watching a 20 minute presentation followed by messing around myself for a while. No manual needed. Others can do nothing unless they read step by step instructions.
So basically what I'm saying is, just cos you learn by observing and mentally noting things, doesn't mean others do to. I'm tempted by this book not because it will teach me anything (though it might) but because I know there'll be a time when I have to give up showing someone what to do and just tell them to "go and read this".
I agree though - a book on presentation needs a better cover!
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Galley said 6:29PM on 10-21-2009
The one thing I've learned from Apple keynotes is that "less is more".
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Tony.Murphy said 7:09PM on 10-21-2009
You are the first commenter who really gets Apple's style.
Zach said 11:24PM on 10-21-2009
That cover should be on Photoshop Disasters for the awful attempt at the "we floor" reflection effect on the text.
At any rate, the biggest part of a Stevenote is that in spite of all the preparation beforehand, the keynote slides are simple without a lot of superfluous graphics, transitions or cheesy effects.
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Ken said 12:19AM on 10-22-2009
Cliff Notes version:
Make beautiful products that don't suck.
Show them to the world.
Boom!
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digitalsedition said 7:59PM on 10-30-2009
... and remember that you're not there to teach people rocket science. You're there to give them a high level and let them come back for more if they want more. All too often I see presentations where the presenter feels that it is necessary to convey every single detail to the audience.
Figure out what the story is you're trying to tell the audience and build your presentation based upon that. Don't turn it into a classroom lecture on the topic.
Marco said 3:01AM on 10-22-2009
Is it me or does Carmine Gallo look like a car salesman.. not sure if I'd buy something from _that_ guy....
on-topic: Simplicity is the key, as mentioned before. And yes, preparation is everything as well. These two rules should be enough for many to create great presentations. I just wished my upper management would finally learn this, bombarding their audience with slide after slide packed with totally unreadable nonsense..
Never too old to learn, so I'll put this book on my x-mas wishlist. Always interesting to read insights about presentations, regardless of the car-salesman look of the author 8-)
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AC said 7:37AM on 10-22-2009
While I have a great distaste for the text-heavy slides of many managers and directors who then proceed to read their entire presentation, bullet point by bullet point, it is worth remembering that Jobs' kind of presentation is for a particular kind of audience and that the "less is more" mantra cannot simply be exploited with every slide for every audience--not that anyone's said that explicitly.
As important for me, is that Job knows where each slide is going, where and how each slide fits with every other slide, and every build as well. In brief, he builds a narrative dimension into his presentations--an informed telling with a point-of-view--that helps to stitch the simplicity of his "showing" into a greater whole than the sum of their parts.
In that context, one could learn as much on presentations reading Aristotles' Poetics.
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CWeath@unt.edu said 11:03AM on 10-22-2009
Much may also be learned at http://www.presentationzen.com/
Not connected, just a fan.
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Rizwan Rasheed said 12:55PM on 10-22-2009
I noticed similarities between the Table of Contents and http://presentationzen.com/
I'm interested to see how this book is.
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jay said 5:56PM on 10-26-2009
Apple's success is not in Steve Jobs presentation. It is in Apple's hard work, dedication, innovation, creativity, etc. If some one thinks it is in his presentation, they are fools
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