The Storytelling Framework used by Steve Jobs

How to Win
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Published in
3 min readApr 25, 2023

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The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller — Steve Jobs. He was spot on when he made this comment in a Rolling Stone interview. In business we are overwhelmed with information.

It is not until that information is structured through a story that an audience is able to engage in a meaningful way. A new brain imaging study shows that the hippocampus is the brain’s storyteller. It connects separate, distant events into a single narrative.

That is why people love stories as they find it easier to remember events when they are part of an overarching narrative.

To learn how to tell stories we must understand the brilliance of Steve Jobs. One of the best examples of how to master storytelling can be found by unpacking his speech for launching the iPhone in 2007 (full video)

The 7 Step Framework

In the 80 minute keynote he uses 7 steps in which to tell a story of the iPhone that was so impactful he received a standing ovation at the end of his talk.

  1. Make a Promise: A promise is a hook. It is the reason why the audience will listen to you and keep listening to you. Steve’s hook is launching “a revolutionary product that changes everything.” To know what he means by this we must keep listening…..

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How to Win
Predict

The business interpreter. I take jargon and make it pleasurable to read.