Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, is a famous entrepreneur. His company Tesla is harnessing the power of the sun to run cars and homes. His company SpaceX plans to colonize Mars. He sold his previous company PayPal to eBay for $1.5 Billion. Every presentation he makes is watched closely by millions.
So how does this rock star entrepreneur start his product launch presentation? I have analyzed four of his major product launch presentations.
- Tesla Powerwall (solar battery)
- Tesla Model 3 car
- Tesla solar roof
- SpaceX mars mission
Elon Musk started each product launch presentation the same way.
He started with WHY, not with WHAT
Elon Musk said this when he launched Tesla Model 3.
"Welcome everyone to the Model 3 unveil. We have an amazing product to show you tonight. I think you gonna be blown away. And... I want to preface this with... Why are we doing this? Why does Tesla exist? Why are we making electric cars? Why does it matter?"
He answered it himself. He said, "It's very important to accelerate the transition to sustainable transport... This is really important for the future of the world. We have record high CO2 levels."
Elon Musk said this when he launched the solar roof:
"I will start off by just talking about the reason why we are doing this? Which is, as you may have read, we are reaching record CO2 levels. Global warming is a serious crisis and we need to do something about that.
Elon Musk said this when he talked about colonizing Mars:
"Welcome everyone. I am gonna talk more about what it takes to become a multi-planet species. Just a brief refresher on why this is important. I think fundamentally the future is vastly more exciting and interesting if we are a spacefaring civilization and a multi-planet species than if we are not. You want to be inspired by things. You want to wake up in the morning and think that the future is going to be great. And that's what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It's about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can't think of anything more exiting than going out there and being among the stars. That's why."
Elon Musk had started the launch of the Tesla Powerwall in a similar manner too. In this product launch presentation, he again talked about rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere. He talked about the need to do something about it.
Why does he start with WHY and should you do the same?
Elon Musk could have simply said WHAT he was launching and HOW does it work. Why did he then choose to start with WHY? Because the why matters. It makes people care about what you do and how you do it. Simon Sinek in his famous book (and a TED talk) explains in detail why it is important to start with WHY.
Let us take the Tesla solar roof as an example.
- What: Tesla solar roof is a beautiful and affordable solar panel that captures solar power and gives you free energy. It looks better and lasts longer than a normal roof.
- How: Tesla solar roof is made of glass. It is tougher and lasts longer. It costs less too. We do hydrographic printing so that each tile is unique. But no two roofs are the same.
- Why: Our planet is facing global warming and rising CO2 levels. We need to do something about it. Our mission at Tesla is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy.
If you too are launching an important product, pause for a moment and think. Instead of jumping into WHAT your product is and HOW does it work, can you start with WHY does it matter? Why does it matter to you and why does it matter to the audience?
Starting with WHY will arouse interest among your audience and it will make them care more about your product and your company.
Read more about starting with why: How do you start your Company Profile presentation?
Imagine you have a topic that is boring to most people. Imagine you have talk for 18 minutes on this topic. Think of a boring topic. How about education? That's pretty boring. If you spoke about education and your audience did not doze off, you would consider it a success.
Let me ask you a question. Do you know which is the most watched TED talk ever? Ignore the speaker. Can you guess the topic? Science? Technology? Sports? Movies?
Here is the surprise: Sir Ken Robinson delivered a talk in 2006. This video today has more than 20 million views on TED. It is the most watched TED talk ever. And Sir Ken Robinson talked about Education.
So how did he do that? I am surprised and I started dissecting his talk to find out the reason. One reason was obvious; his amazing sense of humor. The other was less obvious; his prolific use of stories. There's more so read on...
Let us look at the breakup of his 19 minute talk. But before that, if you have not heard him speak, come out of your wilderness and watch him speak. If you have heard him before, skip to the structure of this talk below.
Structure of his talk
Let me share the gist of his talk here.
Introduction: In his 3 minute introduction, he makes the audience laugh three times. He then makes his case. The central argument. Creativity is as important as literacy. This statement uses an analogy and it also pretty shocking. We never thought we should treat creativity with the same respect as literacy.
Part 1 (All children are creative): In these 3 minutes he make us laugh three times again. He shares two stories as well (nativity play and the picture of God). He makes a strong argument that all children are born creative. Our education system is making them less creative as they grow up.
Part 2 (Education system around the world): Here the speaker goes about explaining how every education system in the world is structured and why it is flawed. In these 7 minutes, we laugh four more times and there are two more stories.
Part 3 (We need to change right now): In these 5 minutes we are made to laugh four more times and we hear the most important story of all; the dancer's story. He makes his case strongly by saying, we are going through academic inflation. Degrees are not worth anything.
Conclusion: He concludes in just one minute and he summarizes very nicely.
Overall there are at least 14 instances where we laugh out loud and there are 5 stories. All this in just 19 minutes. How many did you say in your last 19 minute talk? 1 or none? All of us can learn from this master.
The bottom line: He makes a boring topic interesting by doing 4 things.
1) His argument is powerful and backed by a lot of thinking and knowledge. It is also relevant to all of us. It appeals to everyone of us.
2) He has used humor to his advantage. The entire talk is garnished very well with humor. By making us laugh once in a while, he manages to retain our attention. No one can listen to a lecture of 19 minutes otherwise.
3) He uses a lot of stories. While some stories are just to make us laugh, the others have important messages. The dancer's story is inspiring and it is in a way the crux of all that the speaker has to say. The stories are memorable (as most stories are) and help us remember the message for a very long time.
4) The talk is structured well and the content is very less. While he speaks for 19 minutes, he does not talk only about education. My guess is, he speaks only 50% of the time on the topic. The balance 50% of the time is spent on humor and stories. Humor gives people a break and stories help him make his point memorable and tangible. The story of the dancer helps us understand what the author it talking about. What is the gist of his entire talk.
Talk sense, talk less, give people a break and share lots of stories. This seems to be the recipe behind Sir Ken Robinson's most popular TED talk. I have been blown away by the whole thing :-)
