Page 198 - The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo

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Make It Look
Effortless

Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good.
It’s the thing you do that makes you good.
MALCOLM GLADWELL

teve Jobs is a master showman, working the stage with
precision. Every move, demo, image, and slide is in
sync. He appears comfortable, confident, and remark-
Sably effortless. At least, it looks effortless to the audience.
Here’s his presentation secret: Jobs rehearses for hours. To be
more precise: many, many hours over many, many days.
“Jobs unveils Apple’s latest products as if he were a particu-
larly hip and plugged-in friend showing off inventions in your
living room. Truth is, the sense of informality comes only after
grueling hours of practice,” observed a BusinessWeek reporter.
“One retail executive recalls going to a Macworld rehearsal at
Jobs’s behest and then waiting four hours before Jobs came off
the stage to conduct an interview. Jobs considers his keynotes
a competitive weapon. Marissa Mayer, a Google executive who
plays a central role in launching the search giant’s innovations,
insists that up-and-coming product marketers attend Jobs’s key-
notes. ‘Steve Jobs is the best at launching new products,’ she
says. ‘They have to see how he does it.’ ” 1
How does he do it? The BusinessWeek reporter provided the
answer in the article: Steve Jobs puts in hours of grueling practice.
When was the last time you could say that you devoted hours

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