The #1 Idea in Oren Klaff's "Pitch Anything" Book

Michael May 10, 2022
0 People Read
pitch anything book review

Disclosure:  

Originally published July 2020.

‼️ WARNING: Reader Discretion Is Advised.

You know those “gut instinct” moments when you discover something that you know will change your life?

It’s the insights that dramatically change the way you look at the world — or yourself — for the better...

Blow Your Mind Wow GIF by Product Hunt

Odds are you'll have a moment like that when reading Oren Klaff’s book, “Pitch Anything.”

Oren is a world-renown author and pitch expert when it comes to helping companies raise big capital...

When a million or billion-dollar project needs money…

People call Oren to make the pitch.

Whether or not YOU think you’re in “sales” isn’t important…

Because the book is all about how the brain receives new ideas...

And while most of the stories are about high stakes business pitches...

The underlying principles still apply if you are a person who has any desires in life.

And if you still have a pulse, that probably includes you.

The opening lines share the book's "big idea" ⬇️

"There is a fundamental disconnect between the way we pitch anything and the way it is received by our audience.

As a result, at the crucial moment, when it is most important to be convincing, 9 out of 10 times we are not. Our most important messages have a surprisingly low chance of getting through.

You need to understand why this disconnect occurs in order to overcome it, succeed, and profit."

There’s a dizzying amount of great insights in the book...

But I’ll focus on 1 important concept:

The Crocodile Brain

Most people think that using words to communicate works like copy and paste...

You think to yourself: “I’ll just explain my idea logically, then they’ll understand what I’m talking about, word for word.”

This is wrong.

The reason has to do with the structure of the brain and our evolutionary past as humans...

The brain has three main parts:

  • The “Crocodile” or “Croc” Brain

  • The Mid Brain

  • And the Neocortex

Oren Klaff calls this the croc brain

The “croc” brain — also known as the “lizard” brain — is the silent puppeteer in charge of our behavior most of the time…

It helps maintain basic bodily functions like breathing and heartbeat…

But it’s also responsible for helping us stay alive by alerting us to danger and changes in our environment…

If at this point you’re still reading... chances are you were initially intrigued by the mysterious: “WARNING: Reader Discretion Is Advised...” ...at the beginning of this post.

Fear… uncertainty...

This is the croc brain at work.

It grabs you, shakes you, and says “Whoa there... pay attention here… WTF is this?!”

Unlike the mid brain, which decodes complex social dynamics and status hierarchies…

Or the neocortex, which is responsible for conceptual thinking and abstract problem solving...

This base structure (which gets its name from resembling the brains of our very distant reptilian cousins) came long before these higher level functions...

And it helped humans survive for millions of years by asking:

"Is this situation a threat to my immediate survival? Is it new and exciting? Or can I just mark it as 'spam' and move on?"

This is because the brain has an unwritten law of survival:

DO NOT use energy to send anything up to the neocortex for problem-solving — unless you come across something totally out of the ordinary that could:

  1. Kill Me

  2. Help Me

Like the ground floor of a high-rise office building…

The croc brain wants to process you through security and confirm you’ve got an appointment BEFORE sending your idea upstairs…

Because a great business pitch is about getting and keeping attention.

Your pitch is developed and delivered from your own neocortex, but it isn’t immediately processed in your listener’s neocortex…

It has to make its way up the different stories of your brain’s “building.”

So to grab attention, you need to position your idea as something new, urgent, and unique.

If you can do this & make it to the “lobby elevator” to head up...

Then you’ve got a shot at closing the deal — whatever your “deal” may be.

Disclosure: