Yesterday marked the 2008 MacWorld Keynote Address, an annual event that is one of the biggest technology events of the year, and is usually viewed with much anticipation or derision, depending on your viewpoint on Apple.
Disclosure #1 - I am not a Mac user, nor am I an Apple aficionado. Disclosure #2 - While I have always been impressed by Steve’s ability to succinctly develop a message, I have not necessarily been as impressed with his ability to deliver that message. Disclosure #3 - I really expected to be bored to tears watching this, as in the past Steve has had a tendency to depend on a lot of "verbal noise" — umm, ahh, uhh.
Steve used his secret weapon. Not only was Steve on message throughout — no surprise, his delivery has improved significantly over past years. I planned on critiquing this performance with a play-by-play, but Steve’s use of a (not-so-secret) weapon was critical to his success today — Passion. The guy loves his products, loves his customers, and loves what he is doing. It’s as simple as that. His body language, facial expressions, tone and intonation all tell the same story.
Steve is not what I would consider a natural in terms of public speaking. Once again, his message is always great, but his delivery is often lacking. The commencement speech he gave at Stanford University is still one of my all time favorites in terms of message; however the delivery, lack of eye contact and lack of movement really took something away from the performance. I can see how Steve’s passion has really allowed him to come into his own as a public speaker, and has allowed him to become more and more comfortable every time out.
There is still room for improvement — he does not pause enough, he has a tendency to speed up when he gets excited (very normal), and the PowerPoint slides tend to be a little too wordy. That being said, his passion and frankness (When referring to Apple TV — "We’ve all missed…we’ve learned..") came through loud and clear. Whether you are an Apple fan or not, take a gander.
The secret weapon is out of the bag and everyone can use it – there is no greater key to public speaking success than caring about what it is you are talking about. Passion = Success.
