148 Resonate
Create a moment where you dramatically drive the big
idea home by intentionally placing Something They’ll
Always Remember—a S.T.A.R. moment—in each pre-
sentation. This moment should be so profound or so
dramatic that it becomes what the audience chats about
at the watercooler or appears as the headline of a news
article. Planting a S.T.A.R. moment in a presentation
keeps the conversation going even after it’s over and
helps the message go viral.
Since you might be presenting to an audience that sees
lots of presentations—like a venture capitalist or a cus-
tomer who is reviewing several vendors—you want to
stand out two weeks after you presented, when they’re
making their final decision. You want them to remember
YOU instead of all the other presenters they encountered.
The S.T.A.R. moment should be a significant, sincere,
and enlightening moment during the presentation that
helps magnify your big idea—not distract from it.
There are five types of S.T.A.R. moments:
Memorable Dramatization: • Small dramatizations con-
vey insights. They can be as simple as a prop or demo,
or something more dramatic, like a reenactment or skit.
Repeatable Sound Bites: • Small, repeatable sound
bites help feed the press with headlines, populate and
Create a S.T.A.R. Moment
energize social media channels with insights, and give
employees a rally cry.
Evocative Visuals: • A picture really is worth a thou-
sand words—and a thousand emotions. A compelling
image can become an unforgettable emotional link to
your information.
Emotive Storytelling: • Stories package information in
a way that people remember. Attaching a great story
to the big idea makes it easily repeatable beyond
the presentation.
Shocking Statistics: • If statistics are shocking, don’t
gloss over them; draw attention to them.
The S.T.A.R. moment shouldn’t be kitschy or cliché.
Make sure it’s worthwhile and appropriate, or it could
end up coming off like a really bad summer camp skit.
Know your audience and determine what will resonate
best with them. Don’t create something that’s overly
emotionally charged for an audience of biochemists.
S.T.A.R. moments create a hook in the audience’s
minds and hearts. They tend to be visual in nature and
give the audience insights that supplement solely audi-
tory information.
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Deliver Something They’ll Always Remember 149
RICHARD FEYNMAN
Richard Feynman helped investigate
the space shuttle Challenger disaster.
He quickly identified the failure of a
crucial O-ring as the probable cause
of the explosion. To illustrate his point,
he bent and clamped a piece of the
rubber O-ring and secretly placed it
in a cup of ice water. At a perfectly
timed moment, he loosened the clamp
and as the rubber slowly uncurled he
said, “…[F]or more than a few seconds,
there is no resilience in this particular
material when it is at a temperature
of 32 degrees.”
1
The press went nuts
because it should have expanded in a
millisecond. www
STEVE JOBS
Steve Jobs is a master at unveiling
Apple products in intriguing ways.
“This is the MacBook Air,” he said in
January 2008, “so thin it even fits
inside one of those envelopes you
see floating around the office.” With
that, Jobs walked to the side of the
stage, picked up one such envelope,
and pulled out a MacBook Air. The
audience went wild as the sound of
hundreds of cameras clicking and
flashing filled the auditorium. “You
can get a feel for how thin it is. It has
a full-size keyboard and full-size dis-
play. Isn’t it amazing? It’s the world’s
thinnest notebook,” said Jobs.
3
BILL GATES
Through his philanthropy, Bill
Gates hopes to solve some of the
world’s biggest problems, includ-
ing malaria. In his 2009 TED talk,
Gates established the gravity of this
disease by stating that millions have
died, and 200 million people are
suffering from it at any given time.
He then stated that more money is
spent developing baldness drugs
on behalf of wealthy men than on
fighting malaria for the poor. At
that moment, he released a jar of
mosquitoes into the room saying,
“There’s no reason only poor peo-
ple should have the experience.”
2
www
Famous S.T.A.R. Moments
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Michael Pollan
Author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food
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