The Reader’s Digest Version of the Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

July 25, 2011

Steve Jobs is a master presenter and he provides some important lessons that are helpful to any ad agency pitch opportunity.

Carmine Gallo’s book, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs is a must read. There’s much to learn from Jobs presentation tactics and style since delivering. Applying his simple formula can greatly improve any agency’s pitch and help them to stand out from the rest.

“You’re time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
– Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is not a natural presenter, he has to work at it. Carmine shares that, “for two full days before a presentation, Jobs will practice the entire presentation, asking for feedback from product managers in the room. For 48 hours, all of his energy is directed at making the presentation the perfect embodiment of Apple’s messages.” 

Nancy Duarte recommends that a presenter spend 90 hours creating an hour-long presentation with 30 slides. But only one-third of that time is spent building slides. Another third is rehearsing, but the first third is spent collecting ideas, organizing ideas, and sketching the story.

  • Thinking
  • Sketching
  • Building
  • Slides
  • Scripting
  • Rehearsing
  • 90 hours | 30 slides

Here’s the Reader’s Digest version from a live presentation delivered by Carmine and recreated through by Peter Walker in this Slideshare format.

4 Comments | Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, Pitches, Speaking | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The 10-20-30 Rule for Keynote Presentations for Ad Agency New Business

June 17, 2011

Clarity, brevity and connectivity are key for winning presentations.

During my advertising career I’ve been part of and a witness to hundreds of agency presentations using PowerPoint or Keynote. I’ve seen many new business opportunities wasted because agencies couldn’t get their point across, tried to include too much within their allotted time or had absolutely no chemistry with their audience.

Guy Kawasaki, well-known blogger, author, managing director of a venture capital firm and an Apple Fellow, promotes a technique  that can help small to midsize agencies with their Keynote presentations, the 10-20-30 Rule:

  • No more than 10 slides
  • No more than 20 minutes
  • No font smaller than 30 points

10 Slides

Guy’s premise, “a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting … If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business.”

Your audience doesn’t need all of the details so don’t give them the minutia. Decide in advance what are the two or three main thoughts you want your audience to takeaway from your presentation.

20 Minutes

Guys’ thinking, there are always going to be delays, interruptions to your speaking time … “In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.” 

Recently visiting Washington, DC, I toured the Lincoln Memorial. Etched in its South wall, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, a mere 269 words in length. Wisdom is found in simplicity.

Brevity can also be a main point of differentiation. Just be more concise than your competitors and your presentation will stand out.

“The brain can absorb only what the rear end can endure.” ~Mark Twain. This is even truer in our Twitter driven world so keep brevity in mind. Work hard at being brief and look for ways to make omissions not additions.

30 Font

Guy states, “the reason people use a small font is twofold: first, that they don’t know their material well enough; second, they think that more text is more convincing.”

Know your material: Steve Jobs spends hours rehearsing every facet of his presentations. Every every presentation staged like a theatrical experience. He makes a presentation look effortless but that polish comes after hours of arduous practice.

Be convincing: You should be like an actor on stage and own the room.  Having prepared thoroughly you should be confident, at ease and able to speak with conviction.

Guy Kawasaki shares his mini set of presentation rules in this brief video:

Additional articles that may be of interest:

5 Comments | Pitches, Speaking | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The Future of Ad Agency Promotion at Events Through Social Media

April 1, 2011

 

Social media can enhance your special event experience and make networking for new business easier.

Without a doubt an industry trade show or conference has been a beneficial professional networking event for business opportunities. Social media has transformed these events and taken them to a new level.

“I think social media is changing the nature of interaction surrounding conventions,” said Steven Paganelli, vice president of business development-DMOs/CVBs for the Washington, D.C.-based, TIG Global. “Certainly, the opportunity to connect on a higher, more meaningful level face-to-face has always been at the heart of meetings and conventions, but social media tools and new technologies are making it easier for delegates to move beyond their comfort zone to meet new contacts, share ideas and engage in these events in deeper ways.”

In an American Express OPEN Forum article, Scott Belsky, Founder and CEO of  Behance, shares insights from his 4-day experience at this year’s South By Southwest Interactive Conference. I’ve taken Scott’s main take aways regarding the future of advertising and self promotion to highlight the future of ad agency promotion at events through social media for new business:

1. Curation is a great tool for agency self-promotion.

Scott identifies one company that stood out above all others at this year’s SXSW event by serving as a curator of of  event information.

“AOL set up a booth where they sorted through the day’s news at the conference and streamed channels of information for particular interests. In effect, AOL was serving as a curator of the overwhelming amount of stuff, and people gravitated toward the booth.”

This is a great social media strategy for ad agency promotion. Become a curator of information by allowing your agency blog and website to be a repository of helpful information for your prospective clients. Scott says, “If people like your taste—or just the way you display information—they will tune into your message.”

I was able to interact with attendees of Ad Age’s first Small Agency Conference. From my social media interactions I was able to create this article: 50 of the Best Insights from Ad Age’s First Ever Small Agency Conference.  The amazing thing – I wasn’t there!

I was able to create this list of the 50 Best Insights in an article for my blog and propagate it through my 50,000 + followers on Twitter before the conference was even over.

I also helped spread the word of the conference, create buzz and assisted in generating traffic for the conference sponsors: AdAge andAOL Advertising.

It put me on Ad Age’s radar: @adage And it’s not even over! RT @michaelgass 50 of the Best Insights from Ad Age’s First Small Agency Conf #smallagencyhttp://bit.ly/bTZqhL

2. The Future of Advertising (networking) is Education.

I wasn’t able to attend this years SXSW event, but according to Scott, the future of advertising was one of the main topics of discussion.

“With brands in the hands of the people, a new genre of advertising will arise that is more authentic and borderline educational. Companies will tap their expertise as a way to win people over. For example, GE knows a lot about the future of energy and jet engines, Pepsi knows a lot about marketing and beverages, The New York Times knows a lot about journalism.

While you would likely skip over any commercials from these brands, you might be interested in their perspectives in areas where your interests intersect.”

Social media can play an important role in defining your agency’s brand. To be successful with social media you are compelled to lead prospective client engagement with benefits and value rather than agency capabilities and credentials. Check out these “Top 10 Benefits of Social Media for Ad Agency New Business.”

Education provides a great networking platform to build value for your prospects and positioning of leadership for you and your agency.

3. The value of attending conferences lies with personal connections, not panels.

Some people believe that we are so connected online that offline conferences, seminars and trade shows are losing their importance. Scott’s takeaway is just the opposite:

“In a world of increasing remoteness and virtual relationships, the benefits of physical engagement only increase. I would argue that conferences will become MORE essential as our lives become more digital.”

Social media has transformed offline events and can maximize the personnel connections with prospective clients. Your involvement with blogging, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can change your whole experience. You can “get to know” many of the exhibitors, speakers and event attendees from your online interactions that will propagate and enhance meeting them in person.

I recently received this note from Tom Matter, CEO of MAX Advertising in Atlanta. Tom’s agency specializes in law firm marketing and had this to say after attending the Legal Marketing Association’s Conference in Orlando:

“I wanted to tell you how fast we have been noticed by the national legal marketing community. We are easily the most talked about new marketing strategy and creative shop in the business.

All the blogs we followed last year to get started are all now following me for content ideas! They told me this themselves. I

had women stop me and ask to get my picture taken with them because they love The Matte Pad!! No joke. So many people read it and follow it with their RSS reader.

It was great validation for all the hard work we are putting into it. MAX Advertising is a great social media success story. We will get so much work from the conference it’s not even funny.”

Tips for participating in special events using social media:

  • Include a banner for the event in your blog’s sidebar.
  • Information about the event in your email newsletter.
  • Invite one of the event organizers to write a guest post.
  • Write your own article prior to and/or after the event.
  • Find out if the event already has a Twitter #hashtag set up. If they don’t suggest one to the event organizers. Use the hashtag for Twitter posts about the event, before, during and after.
  • Use the time to network
  • Conduct interviews. Use your iPhone to video and edit podcasts that you can share on your blog.
  • Act an a reporter for the event with live updates via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
  • Set-up “meet-ups” from your online networks of people

Click on the following link to read Scott’s article, “SXSW Interactive Takeaways: The Future Of Advertising & Self-Promotion.” If you are an event speaker, you might find the  “7 Traits Event Organizers Need From Speakers” helpful.

9 Comments | Agency Networks, Best Practices, New Business Tactics, New Business Trends, Social Media, Speaking, Special Events | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

4 Presentation Tips from Lee Iacocca for Ad Agency New Business

December 20, 2010

The former Chrysler CEO’s speech writing team provides some useful information for how ad agency executives can inspire their staffs, clients and prospective clients by the spoken word.

“Lee” Iacocca is an American businessman and pitchman, known for his revival of the Chrysler Corporation in the 1980s. He served as President and CEO from 1978 and additionally as chairman from 1979, until his retirement at the end of 1992. He is one of the most famous business people in the world

Iacocca’s business success—saving Chrysler and reinvigorating the American automobile industry in the 1980s—has also become a staple of B-school “case studies.” And most analysts agree a key ingredient—what Iacocca himself called “my most important management tool” —was the spoken word. “I used that tool every day,” Iacocca wrote.

Speechwriter, Jeff Porro, wrote a recent article regarding how Iacocca’s used speaking ability to bring success to Chrysler. He interviewed two members of Iococca’s speech writing team. The following  4 presentation tips are just a small portion of the rich takeaway’s you glean from reading Jeff’s entire article:

 

 

  1. Motive: “In every speech I give, the object is to motivate. You can deliver information in a letter or tack it on a bulletin board.” He wanted to know what we wanted to accomplish with each particular audience: the point he wanted to make, the behavior he wanted to influence, the actions he wanted them to take.
  2. Rehearse: Iacocca understood how overwhelmingly important it was to persuade and put a huge amount of effort into each speech. He put in the hours to rehearse and revise each speech, his delivery was so smooth, natural and relaxed, it could sound ad-libbed.
  3. Tell a Story: A good speech is a story.” Iacocca knew that everything having to do with communication was a story. “Iacocca was a great at telling stories with a beginning, a strong middle, and an end.”
  4. Keep it Simple: He stayed far away from corporate-speak. Says Tsigdinos: “Simple but effective. That’s what we strove for. No convoluted language. He was great at making direct statements that people could remember.”

 

Speechwriter Jeff Porro (www.porrollc.com) helps executives prepare effective speeches and presentations. Click on the following link to read the full version of Jeff’s article, “For today’s CEOs, lessons from master speaker Lee Iacocca”

Additional articles that may be of interest:

4 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, Pitches, Speaking | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agency New Business: 7 Traits Event Organizers Need From Speakers

October 25, 2010

Speaking at special events, seminars and conferences will provide positioning as a thought leader and a boost to new business opportunities for your agency.

To facilitate more of these opportunities its important for you to understand and meet the needs of event organizers. Here are 7 traits that event organizers need and will appreciate:

1. Promote the event. Event organizers will be more adapt to invite you as a guest speaker if they see you how you promote other events. Here are a few ways to promote events through your own networks that organizers appreciate. You could:

  • Include a banner for the event in your blog’s sidebar.
  • Information about the event in your email newsletter.
  • Invite one of the event organizers to write a guest post.
  • Write your own article prior to and/or after the event.
  • Find out if the event already has a Twitter #hashtag set up. If they don’t suggest one to the event organizers. Use the hashtag for Twitter posts about the event, before, during and after.

2. Participate in the event. Not every speaking engagement is a paid gig. Often times it they may only provide for your travel expenses but most allow you to take in all of the event for free. As a participant you have an opportunity to:

  • Use the time to network
  • Conduct interviews. Use your iPhone to video and edit podcasts that you can share on your blog.
  • Act an a reporter for the event with live updates via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
  • Set-up “meet-ups” from your online networks of people.

3. Prepare for the unexpected. Here are a few of my to-dos in preparation for the unexpected:

  • Email a copy of my Keynote or PowerPoint in advance to event organizers.
  • Back up my presentation, notes and graphics on a thumb-drive and use a tool called Dropbox as a safety net in case my laptop is stolen or crashes.
  • Bring cords and adapters for about every situation. Keep them in plastic bags in your laptop case, so that you can quickly find what is needed.
  • Grab current screen shots just in case event’s internet connection isn’t working.
  • Bring my own air-card in case I have to forgo the events internet connection altogether.
  • I have two different versions of my presentation, one geared toward a larger group and another for small groups. The audience of 150 you were promised may turn out to be only 15.
  • Get comfortable with your surroundings. Visit the presentation hall or room in advance.

4. Support and promote other speakers. At a recent BOLO Conference, I met my good friend Jay Baer in person for the first time. Jay was a keynote speaker and went out of his way to promote my session by Twittering to quotes and comments to his network, mentioning me during his presentation and in the event’s wrap-up session. He was very kind. I also did the same for Jay and for other event speakers like Tom Martin.

I was reminded of this from a quote given by Zig Ziglar on my return flight home, “You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”

5. Take time to meet with others. Instead of being locked in your hotel suite, take in the event’s socials. Provide an opportunity to mingle with your audience, gain new friends and get to know your loyal followers in person. Meeting with as many agency principals as I do it amazes me at the number that seemingly don’t like being around new people. Networking is a chore for them rather than a natural curiosity for getting to know about other people.

6. Don’t be a prima donna. The unexpected always happens so be willing to adapt to last-minute changes without a fuss. Be as flexible for your host as possible. Event organizers often network with one another. You will want them to be positive when they talk about you so be pleasant to work with and easy to please.

7. Give it your very best. Event organizers spend a lot of time and effort for speakers to not bring their A-Game for their presentation time. Be prepared, rested and relaxed. Customize your presentation specifically to each event. Rehearse as if you were in a play, practice as you would before a game. When you speak, turn IT on, light IT up and let IT go.

Inspiration for this post is came from an article in I discovered in a recent SlideShare newsletter, 5 Traits Event Organizers Want From Speakers

Here are some additional presentation articles that you may find helpful:

Please click here if you are interested in booking Michael to speak. Booking Michael to Speak

7 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, New Business Trends, Speaking | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The Only Rule That Really Matters When Presenting for Ad Agency New Business

September 28, 2010

Every agency presentation must be focused on capturing your audience’s attention and keeping it. It is the presentation rule that matters most.

A lot of agency presentations are nothing but recycled insights, predictable services, with the same agency speak, nothing note worthy or memorable for an audience that must be bored out of their minds. I wonder how much new business opportunities were squandered because of boring ad agency presentations.

If you want to reach your audience, you must have something significant to say that you are passionate about, genuine passion will attract attention and attention will lead to action.

What can you do to keep the audience’s attention through your entire presentation? Chris Atherton, an applied cognitive psychologist, a self-described dork of attentionomics, suggests these 7 specific rules of attention:

  1. People can really only retain about four bits of new, unrelated information — and sometimes not even that many.
  2. It’s hard to process spoken and written words at the same time. Integrating your spoken words with pictorial slides makes it easier for the brain to process these two streams of information efficiently.
  3. A story will keep people’s attention, because they will want to know what happens next.
  4. People really like looking at screens. If you’ve ever been in a pub with the TV on and the sound off, you’ll know that screens are an attention-magnet.
  5. Sustaining audience attention requires frequent changes. Unexpectedness is a great tool for acquiring and maintaining people’s attention as well as changes in your tone of voice, speaking volume, or where you are standing to draw the audience’s attention to a particular point.
  6. Your audience will tell you when their attention is wandering. It’s a kindness and a courtesy to stay with your audience, and a presenter on auto-pilot is not a pretty sight.
  7. Chris’s last rule, short is good.

Here are some additional rules of attention that I would add to Chris’s list:

  • Use a remote. I take one with me to every presentation. It is a great tool to keep me from losing eye contact.
  • Don’t use the podium. I tend to have less energy and am less engaging when I use a podium. I like to be able to move and my presentations tend to be much more animated without one.
  • Less text on the screen is more. People can read faster than you can speak. I find that using images and telling stories allows me to keep my audience’s attention better. I want to be so engaged that they wont break contact to write notes.
  • The fewer the slides the better. Some of my best presentations were less than 10 Keynote slides.
  • Get into a flow. I’m a student of the cadence, inflection and the use of rhyme and repetition that Black ministers have. Their delivery styleexcites their congregants with memorable effect.
  • Passion is more important than perfection. I strive to make my presentations inspirational, not flawless. Passion garners attention and will enthuse your confidence.
  • Know your environment. I almost always ask permission to view where my meeting will be held in advance. For agency presentations I would even make an onsite visit in advance and snap photos of the facility to discuss with our team in advance of our pitch.

Just this past week, reviewing a banquet hall an hour before presenting, I asked permission to make my presentation from a different spot.  The speakers podium, set-up to the left of the stage, wasn’t as engaging as a smaller stage closer to the audience and that was more in the center of the banquet room.

Read Chris Atherton’s article, When giving presentations, the only rule that matters is the rule of attention.

I want to always improve upon my speaking skills. Having spoken in workshops, conferences and seminars in over 40 different cities this year, I’ve also found a wealth of presentation tips from Olivia Mitchell’s website, Speaking About Presenting.

Here are some additional presentation resources that you might find helpful:

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5 Comments | Best Practices, Pitches, Speaking | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Steve Jobs: 10 Presentation Tactics for Ad Agency New Business

August 13, 2010

Steve Jobs has something to teach small to midsize ad agencies about pitching for new business.

Every new business pitch should do three things: inform, educate and entertain.

BusinessWeek.com columnist Carmine Gallo reveals the techniques that have turned Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, into one of the world’s corporate presenters. There are some helpful nuggets that will add punch to your next agency pitch.

Here is the ‘Readers Digest’ version of his 10 Ways to Sell Your Ideas the Steve Jobs Way:

  1. Plan your presentation with pen and paper. Begin by storyboarding your presentation. Steve Jobs spent his preparation time brainstorming, sketching and white-boarding before he creating his presentation. All of the elements of the story that he wants to tell are thought through, elements are planned and collected before any slides are created.
  2. Create a single sentence description for every service/idea. Concise enough to fit in a 140-character Twitter post. An example, for the introduction of the MacBook Air in January, 2008, Jobs said that is it simply, “The world’s thinnest notebook”.
  3. Create a villain that allows the audience to rally around the hero—you and your product/service.  A ‘villain’ doesn’t necessarily have to be a direct competitor. It can be a problem in need of a solution.
  4. Focus on benefits. This is important for ad agencies to remember. Your audience only cares about how your service will benefit them so lead with benefits rather than agency credentials and capabilities.
  5. Stick to the rule of three for presentations. Almost every Jobs presentation was divided into three parts. You might have twenty points to make, but your audience is only capable of retaining three or four points in short-term memory. Give them too many points and they’ll forget everything you’ve said.
  6. Sell dreams, not your services. Steve Jobs didn’t sell computers. He was passionate about helping to create a better world. That was the promise that he sold. For example, when Jobs introduced the iPod in 2001, he said, “In our own small way we’re going to make the world a better place.” Where most people see the iPod as a music player, Jobs saw it as a tool to enrich people’s lives.
  7. Create visual slides. There were no bullet points in a Steve Jobs’ presentation. Instead he relied on photographs and images. When Steve Jobs unveiled the Macbook Air, Apple’s ultra-thin notebook computer, he showed a slide of the computer fitting inside a manila inter-office envelope. Keep your agency presentation’s that simple.
  8. Make numbers meaningful. Jobs always put large numbers into a context that was relevant to his audience. The bigger the number, the more important it is to find analogies or comparisons that make the data relevant to your audience.
  9. Use plain English. Jobs’s language was remarkably simple. He rarely, if ever, used the jargon that clouds most presentations—terms like ‘best of breed’ or ‘synergy’. His language was simple, clear and direct. So don’t use agency speak when presenting, “integration, proprietary process, etc.”
  10. Practice, practice, practice. Steve Jobs spent hours rehearsing every facet of his presentation. Every slide was written like a piece of poetry, every presentation staged like a theatrical experience. Steve Jobs made a presentation look effortless but that polish came after hours and hours of arduous practice. Agencies often are forced to rely on spontaneity to provide creative energy for a pitch because they have spent all of their time on putting together the presentation and leave little or no time for rehearsal. Most unrehearsed pitches end up falling flat.

Click on the link for a downloadable copy of Carmine Gallo’s, “How to Sell Your Ideas the Steve Jobs Way”

This article was based on Carmine Gallo’s book, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. Applying this simple formula can greatly improve any agency’s pitch and help them to stand out from the rest. It is a must read for ad agencies, PR firms and digital shops.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

31 Comments | Agency Leadership, Pitches, Speaking | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Improve Your Speaking for Ad Agency New Business

April 16, 2010

Having the opportunity to speak in front of a highly targeted, interested group of prospects is a very effective form of lead generation. Here are some tips to help you better prepare …

“Be honest, be authentic, and speak from your passion … that’s the advice from Mark Hurst, entrepreneur and writer. He says, “People at events are hungry for authenticity.”

Mark provides the following exercise for anyone who wants to genuinely connect with their audience:

  1. A few weeks out, write out everything you spend your time doing – professional work, side projects at home, everything.
  2. Now pick the one thing you’re most excited about.
  3. Now consider: why is that so important to you?
  4. Design your talk from that point, as if you started by saying, “My name is X, and I’m passionate about XYZ because…Build the talk around your passion.” The rest of your talk should fall into place easily enough.

The final measure of your success as a speaker:

  • Did you change something?
  • Are attendees leaving with a new idea?
  • Did you provide them with some new inspiration?
  • Did you give them a renewed commitment to their work or to the world?

The above was taken from Mark’s contribution to Seth Godin’s ebook What Matters Now (PDF download) – it appears on page 18 – one of 75 contributions.

The great motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, often says, “You can have everything you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” Give your audience what they want … authenticity for ad agency new business.

My appreciation to Margaret Molly, SR VP, Marketing at Gerson Lehrman Group, for putting me onto this article. I recently met Margaret in person at the Mirren New Business Conference in NYC.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

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Leave a Comment » | Agency Leadership, Speaking | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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