Presentation Secrets Of Steve Jobs: How to Be Great in Front of Audience

14 6 DELIVER THE EXPERIENCE

GarageBand? GarageBand is a major new pro music tool. But it’s for

everyone. I’m not a musician, so to help me demo GarageBand, we

asked a friend, John Mayer, to help us.”^13 Jobs took a seat behind a

computer, and Mayer sat down at a mini keyboard hooked to the

Mac. As Mayer played, Jobs manipulated the sound to make the

piano resemble a bass, a choir, a guitar, and other instruments.

Jobs then laid down multiple tracks, creating a bandlike sound. He

took care to explain what he was doing at every step, to show the

audience just how easy it was to create a studio-like experience.

Jobs must have rehearsed the demo for hours, because he

looked like an expert musician. Nevertheless, Jobs knows what

he doesn’t know, and sometimes, as in the case of GarageBand,

it makes more sense to bring in an outsider who speaks directly

to the intended audience.

Element of Surprise

Jobs stunned developers when he announced a transition that

had been rumored but largely dismissed—the transition from

IBM/Motorola PowerPC chips to Intel processors. During the

2005 WWDC, where he made the announcement, Jobs acknowl-

edged that one of the major challenges would be to make sure

Of course, you’re not going to persuade John Mayer to

perform at your next event, but do think about creative ways

to reach your target audience. I watched an entrepreneur

pitching his new Web service to venture capitalists in San

Francisco. The service was geared to the teenage market, so

it didn’t make sense for a forty-something entrepreneur to

demonstrate it. Instead, the founder introduced the company

and then passed the demo off to two teens (a boy and a girl),

who talked about their experience with the site and what they

especially loved about it. The demo was different, engaging,

and ultimately successful.

The Next-Best Thing to John Mayer