The art of the presentation has evolved and advanced into an essential form of communication. Programs like PowerPoint, Excel, and Keynote provide easy-to-use and creative methods for supporting the delivery of your story to enhance the quality of your communication to the audience. While having the tools available is a great asset, knowing how to use them is something else entirely. It takes practice and confidence to integrate these devices into your ability to deliver your pitch, but when you do it takes the story to an entirely new level. Carmine Gallo, in his recent article “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience”, described how the Apple tycoon, Steve Jobs, adopted the use of media tools into his performance, turning his presentations into a communication experience almost Shakespearean in style.

Jobs’ performance on stage was stunning in its flow, energy and aesthetic appearance. His confidence and ease of use with the tools available created a seamless and flowing project that captivated his audiences. Gallo took one of his performances and reduced it to the bare-bone outline, describing its similarity to a play with three major acts. We have broken this review into a three-part series. Today, we will review Act 1.

Act 1—Creating the Story. In a previous blog, I discussed the five steps to take in creating a successful story as a means of communicating your idea. A good presentation will take the form of a story to be appealing and relatable to the audience. The first act of any good presentation is about the conception and creation. There are several essential steps to take:

Plan, Then Proceed—before you even open the software needed for your presentation, it helps to know what you’re going to do. Brainstorming ideas and laying out plans before beginning the work will make it easier to conceptualize and actual create the project.

Answer the Question—the foremost question that every audience has about any presentation is “Why does this matter to me?” Losing sight of this means losing your audience—don’t ignore it.

Don’t Lose Focus—regardless of your past successes or failures, do not let them dictate how you proceed with the presentation. Focus on the task at hand and nothing else will matter.

Bigger Isn’t Always Better—the power and influence of social media has turned the human brain onto small sound bites of information. Condensing your potential titles into short and catchy phrases will make them easier for the audience to grasp.

Map It Out—a good presentation has a sense of flow and avoids jumping suddenly or randomly from one topic to the next. Take the time to map out how each idea will be created and then progress smoothly to the next.

The Bad Guy—like nearly every story in history, a presentation should have a protagonist and antagonist that drive the plot. Create a relatable or common bad guy that can connect you to the audience to set the stage for the story to unfold.

The Good Guy—the hero creates the link between you and your audience and represents the solution to the problem you created. Oftentimes the hero will be able to do something better, serve as an inspiration, and challenge the accepted norm.

End scene.

For more on how to present like Steve Jobs, stay tuned for Act 2, coming next week.

If you’re in healthcare, insurance, technology or other professional services industries, and need help with public relations, marketing or crisis communications, contact Scott Public Relations.

Like what you’ve read? Like us on Facebook (A PRBI Member), follow Scott Public Relations on Twitter and sign up for the Einsight RSS feed!