- I've received a lot of
requests for this one. I'll be giving my reaction and breakdown of the famous iPhone 1 presentation
by Steve Jobs from 2007. Jobs has always been a great speaker but this presentation is
what made him a living legend when it came out to how
to put out a new product to the world. His presentation became the unofficial public speaking
standard that all CEOs in Silicon Valley are
now measured against. After this, they all wanted
to be like Steve Jobs. We'll look at the first eight minutes of an 80-minute presentation. I'll put links below to the original video and to other public speaking resources. Big picture, there are unconfirmed reports that Steve Jobs practiced
this presentation over 100 times. Some people say he practiced as many as 200 times if you count
all the times he practiced in the car, the elevator, the shower. But the good news is for you, virtually everything that I will point out are skills that you can put
into your own presentations. We'll watch one chunk at a time. I'll identify some strengths and then I'll wrap up with one
suggestion for improvement. And since I teach college, I'll give him a letter grade at the end. But will you agree with my grade? What grade would you give Jobs? Let me know in the comments below. So let's start right at the
beginning of the presentation. - This is a day I've
been looking forward to for two and a half years. (audience cheering) Every once in a while, a
revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. And Apple has been, well, first
of all, one's very fortunate if you get to work on just
one of these in your career. Apple's been very fortunate, it's been able to introduce a
few of these into the world. In 1984, we introduced the Macintosh. It didn't just change Apple, it changed the whole computer industry. (audience clapping)
(audience cheering) In 2001, we introduced the first iPod. And it didn't just change the
way we all listen to music, it changed the entire music industry. Well, today we're introducing
three revolutionary products of this class. (audience cheering) The first one is a widescreen
iPod with touch controls. (audience cheering) The second is a
revolutionary mobile phone, (audience cheering) and the third is a breakthrough internet
communications device. (audience cheering) So three things, a widescreen
iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough internet
communications device. An iPod, a phone, (audience chuckling) and an internet communicator,
an iPod, a phone. (audience cheering) Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device (audience cheering) and we are calling it iPhone (audience cheering) Today Apple is going to reinvent
the phone and here it is. (audience laughing) (audience cheering) No. Actually here it is but we're gonna leave it there for now. - Now far and away, the best part about this presentation so far
is that he's extremely clear and concise about his central message. Apple is about revolutionary products that change the industry. Great speeches have a great central theme and he's really clear about
it right from the start. He says it in plain English, he uses short sentences and
he uses this central theme about revolution to drive
the rest of the presentation. - A revolutionary product comes along. It changed the whole computer industry. It changed the entire music industry. We're introducing three
revolutionary products of this class. - This is no ordinary day
and no ordinary product. Everything he says supports this theme. Apple is once again going to
revolutionize the industry. Next, let's talk about his voice. He sounds confident. Most of his confidence
is coming from his voice. And there are three
qualities, vocal qualities to create that confident sound. First, he uses a strong,
consistent volume. He's using a microphone
because he's in a huge space, but even so, he's speaking a little above a typical
conversational volume level. When we speak just a click or two above how we would in a one-on-one conversation, we automatically sound more confident. So he's not just speaking, he's speaking up and
declaring his message. A second vocal quality is that he speaks each word
clearly and deliberately. You can tell he has chosen
his words carefully. He enunciates and articulates
so each word matters. He speaks right through each word. He doesn't mumble, blur the words together or trail off at the end of sentences. Third, the most obvious vocal quality to me is that he uses dramatic pauses at the end of sentences
and after key ideas. In the first minute or so, he uses a pattern of a
short sentence and a pause, usually around a one-second
pause after each sentence. A handful of his pauses are
two or even three seconds if you don't count the time
where people are clapping. These are what you call dramatic pauses. Pauses like this let the importance of the message and the moment sink in. Many public speakers struggle with pauses. We tend to put in filler words instead but Jobs pauses silently. You could hear a pin drop. These three related vocal qualities: volume, deliberate enunciation and pauses with no fillers create an extremely confident sound. It creates the impression that he really believes what he's saying. So let's watch a little bit more. - So before we get into it, (audience laughing) let me talk about a category of things. The most advanced phones
are called smartphones. So they say, and they
typically combine a phone plus some email capability. Plus they say it's the internet,
sort of the baby internet into one device. And they all have these plastic
little keyboards on them. And the problem is that
they're not so smart and they're not so easy to use. So if you kind of make a
business school 101 graph with a smart axis and a easy-to-use axis, phones, regular cell phones
are kind of right there. They're not so smart and
they're not so easy to use. But smart phones are
definitely a little smarter but they actually are harder to use. They're really complicated. Just for the basic stuff people have a hard time
figuring out how to use them. Well, we don't wanna do
either one of these things. What we wanna do is
make a leapfrog product that is way smarter than any
mobile device has ever been and super easy to use. This is what iPhone is. Okay? (audience cheering) So we're gonna reinvent the phone. Now, we're gonna start with a revolutionary user
interface is the result of years of research and development. And of course, it's an interplay
of hardware and software. Now, why do we need a
revolutionary user interface? I mean, here's four smartphones, right? The Motorola Q, the 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 this stuff right here. 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. (audience clapping) 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. (audience chuckling) No, who wants a stylus? You have to get 'em and put
'em away and you lose em. 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. We're gonna touch this with our fingers. And we have invented a new
technology called Multi-Touch, which is phenomenal. It works like magic. (audience laughing) 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. (audience laughing)
(audience cheering) Let's talk about his content. He does something really
smart in this chunk. He uses a problem-solution
logic to build his message. He speaks for a while about the existing
problems with other phones and devices out there
on the market to talk about the way iPhone
solves those problems. Existing smartphones have
too many limitations. And in contrast, the iPhone
has a huge touch screen, easy interface and powerful software. This problem-solution design shows he really understands his audience. He's not just speaking in a vacuum about what he thinks is
cool about the new phone. He speaks to his
listeners' pressing needs, their sense of urgency. We call this the exigence
of the situation. The secret to almost every great speech that's ever been given is
that the speaker is speaking to the felt need that listeners have. And you can tell by the way they respond that his listeners
really are ready to hear what Jobs is saying. They are anticipating that Apple is finally going
to solve these known problems. He's also a master at
building anticipation. As mentioned, he pauses like a champion, that creates anticipation but he also creates anticipation
through his message design. We saw this in the
first chunk we looked at when he talked about how they'd be introducing
three revolutionary products. - An iPod, a phone and an internet communicator. An iPod, a phone. (audience cheering) Are you getting it? - That was building anticipation
and he does this more here in this recent chunk leading
up to how we'll be able to use our finger to
touch the screen rather than a stylus or some other clumsy device. - Because we don't wanna
carry around a mouse, right? We're gonna use a stylus. No, we're gonna use our fingers. - That anticipation adds some drama and showmanship to his message. He's not just sharing facts and figures. He's taking us on a journey. (audience clapping) - We've been very lucky to have brought a few revolutionary user interfaces to the market in our time. First was the mouse, the
second was the click wheel. And now we're gonna bring
Multi-Touch to the market. And each of these
revolutionary user interfaces has made possible a
revolutionary product, the Mac, the iPod, and now the iPhone. So a revolutionary user interface. We're gonna build on top
of that with software. Now, software on mobile phones,
it's like baby software. It's not so powerful. And today we're gonna show
you a software breakthrough, software that's at least five years ahead of what's on any other phone. Now, how do we do this? Well, we start with a strong foundation. iPhone runs OS X. (audience cheering) - In this last chunk,
let's talk about some of the visual elements of how he presents and his visual aids. Jobs likes to walk around the stage but he's not pacing nervously. He's walking with ease
across a massive stage and he's walking with a
purpose, in part to connect with a big, big audience
throughout the auditorium. In a situation like this, you have to make it more
dynamic by taking up more space. He's also gesturing really well. He uses textbook gestures really. He has a good home base where
he brings his hands together at about belt level and he's making basic gestures
once or twice per sentence. And then back to his home base. He also has what you might
call a second home base where he hangs his arms down by his side and looks really comfortable
in that position as well. To me, those are the two best
places to keep your hands when you're not actively gesturing. His visual aids are really clear, simple, and use very few words. Many less experienced
presenters fill their slides with data, diagrams, lots of
text but that's a mistake. By comparison, his slides
are really minimalistic. Sometimes his slides only show
an image and use no words. This is a less is more approach. That's usually the best
approach when it comes to visual aids. You'll also notice he rarely
looks back at his slides. Many presenters will turn
away from their listeners and look at their slides most of the time. But he's mostly facing his listeners and I'm guessing he has another screen in front of him with his
outline on it as well so he can just glance
at it to stay on track. So let's talk big picture advice and then I'll grade his presentation. I really have only one minor
improvement I would suggest. And it comes down to
my personal preference. It's not as noticeable
in the short segments we're looking at today,
but I began to get tired of his long dramatic
pauses that I watched, the more I watched. And it's the same feeling I get when I'm watching a Broadway type show or a musical on a stage. Sometimes it almost
feels as if he's pausing to cue the audience or me to applaud. And I don't like it when stage actors pose and wait and make me feel
like I'm obligated to applaud. And there are moments in this
presentation where I got tired of that dramatic mechanism. I think that's mostly me,
my own personal preference. But I also got the feeling that
there were some long pauses where the audience was also confused and not sure if they were
supposed to clap when he paused. Either way, that's the only minor change that I would suggest. Feel free to disagree with me. So what grade would I
give this presentation? Well, I would give it a D minus. I thought most of this was garbage. Just kidding. Of course, this is obviously
an A plus presentation. Everything came together
to make this a winner. The timing was right for the iPhone. It was, in the end, a great product. And Jobs knew he had a winner. He had every reason to deliver his message with complete confidence. Looking back, his
presentation and the release of iPhone 1 did exactly as he predicted. It represented a revolutionary moment that changed phones forever. So question for you. What grade would you give
jobs on this presentation? Do you really think he
practiced this one or 200 times? Do you think that's just an urban legend? And of course, what else did I miss? And be sure to look in the
description section of the video for some free public
speaking resources for you. Until next time, thanks. God bless, and I will see you.
