180 REFINE AND REHEARSE
of grueling practice to prepare for a presentation? The honest
answer is probably “never.” If you really want to talk the way
Jobs does, plan on spending more time rehearsing every portion
of your presentation.Glimpse Behind the Magic Curtain
In an article published in the Guardian on January 5, 2006, for-
mer Apple employee Mike Evangelist wrote about his personal
experience rehearsing a portion of a demonstration for a Jobs
keynote: “To a casual observer these presentations appear to be
just a guy in a black shirt and blue jeans talking about some new
technology products. But they are in fact an incredibly complex
and sophisticated blend of sales pitch, product demonstration,
and corporate cheerleading, with a dash of religious revival
thrown in for good measure. They represent weeks of work, pre-
cise orchestration, and intense pressure for scores of people who
collectively make up the ‘man behind the curtain.’ ”^2
According to Evangelist’s first-person account, Jobs begins
his preparation weeks in advance, reviewing products and tech-
nologies he is going to talk about. Evangelist had been tapped
to demo the new iDVD, Apple’s DVD-burning software, for
Macworld 2001. Evangelist said his team spent hundreds of
hours preparing for a segment that lasted five minutes. That’s
not a typo: hundreds of hours for a five-minute demo.
Evangelist said Jobs rehearsed for two full days before the
presentation, asking for feedback from the product managers in
the room. Jobs spends a lot of time on slides, personally writing
and designing much of the content, along with some help from
the design team. “On the day before show time, things get much
more structured, with at least one and sometimes two complete
dress rehearsals. Throughout it all Steve is extremely focused.
While we were in that room, all his energy was directed at mak-
ing this keynote the perfect embodiment of Apple’s messages.”^3
In the weeks before the keynote, Evangelist saw the full range
of Steve’s emotions from disappointment to elation. “I believe it