Oren Klaff, Pitch Expert and author of Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal. Stephen W. Maye is your host for Projectified with PMI. In this episode Oren explains why the art of pitching is a crucial skill for project leaders and describes ways to increase buy-in to your ideas, proposals, recommendations, and how to sell your vision of the future to your stakeholders and teams.   Oren shines a light on common pitfalls people encounter while working to inform and influence those around them as well as provide solutions to these problems. He also lends his insights into how to formulate an excellent pitch and the neuroscience behind these strategies.   For an easy way to stay up-to-date on Projectified with PMI, follow the podcast at: iTunes, Stitcher,  Google Play, or Pmi.org/podcast.   Key Takeaways: [:56] Pitching as a project leader: Presenting, persuading, influencing, and creating a ‘dome.’ [3:39] Under the ‘dome’; projecting the future of a project. [4:15] Selling the future; Creating a strong pitch and following through. [5:51] Establishing the rules under the ‘dome,’ or pitch, and the value of not answering every question. [7:34] The trust connection when pitching a project and replacing trust with credibility and autonomy. [9:06] The importance of autonomy. [11:18] The three major problems Oren sees in every presentation: the information dump, the nothing-burger, and having the right information in the wrong order. [15:23] Answering the right questions and organizing your presentation in a narrative arc: the setup, the path-to-payoff, and the payoff. [16:50] The setup: What’s changing in the world? [19:09] The neuroscience behind the formulas and theories Oren discussed.   Links: Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal, by Oren Klaff PitchAnything.com