Summary

Your pitch hits the croc brain first – your message must avoid triggering fear alarms while creating pleasant novelty. The key to winning deals is frame control. Master frame types include power busting, time constraining, intrigue, and prize. Most decisions are made by hot cognition (gut): intrigue, prize, time, and moral authority. Status is situational – you can seize local star power and redistribute it. The antidote to the beta trap is eradicating neediness: focus on what you do well, need nothing, and maintain willingness to withdraw.

“Conflict is the basis of interesting human connections.”

“There just aren't a lot of deals like ours, and certainly not with me in it. And I'm fortunate enough to be in high demand.”

Key Takeaways

Notes

1: The method (STRONG)

1. Set the frame
   • What you will and won’t be talking about
2. Tell the story
3. Reveal the intrigue
4. Offer the prize
5. Nail our point
6. Get the deal

• It's all about getting + keeping attention
• Croc brain → midbrain → neocortex
  • During a pitch, brain must move up the brain food chain
• Croc brain filters by: threat, necessary for survival, new and exciting
• Message must:
  1. Not trigger fear alarms (be too complicated)
  2. Recognized as positive, unexpected, out of the ordinary (pleasant novelty)

2: Frame control

• Frame: the instrument you use to package your power, authority, strength, info, and status
• Clash → stronger frame dominates
• What kind of frame am I up against?
• Types of frames:
  • Power busting
    • Don’t act deferential
    • Use defiance, denial, light humor
    • “Pleasantly challenged”
    • Eg. “sell me that drawing”
  • Time constraining
    • “I can only wait 15 mins, then I have to leave”
    • Why do I want to do business with you?
    • “This will take 30 mins, so let’s reschedule if you only have 10”
  • Intrigue
    • Summary details, AVOID technical details
    • “The numbers will back up everything I’m telling you. Let’s not worry about that right now”
    • Components of story:
      • Brief, relevant to pitch
      • You must be at the center of the story
      • Risk, danger, uncertainty
      • Time pressure
      • Tension: blocked by some force
      • Serious consequences
    • Eg. pilots + collision avoidance
  • Prize
    • They’re a commodity, you are the prize
    • Play hard to get: “why would I want to do business with you?”
• Moral > analyst frame

3: Status

• Instant assessment of social position
• Beta trap: designed to tear down status
  • eg. office reception
  • eg. Walmart’s “frame supercollider”
• Situational status: domain change determines social status
  • Vs global status (fixed)
• Based on 1) wealth, 2) power, 3) popularity
• Capture local start power, redistribute to those around him
  • Eg. your wine choice is poor, but yours is great
  • Eg. split the apple in half
• A well-chosen, well-timed, friendly but disruptive act
• Information dominance: shrink in on your area of expertise
  • Ignore threads that don’t help your case, magnify those that do
• Avoid social banter if it reaffirms the status of others
• Be fun
• Get your target to vocally confirm your alpha status
  • “Remind me - why would I want to do business with you again?” → “oh yeah, I’ll keep that in mind” in a light hearted way

4: Pitching your big idea

• Put them at ease immediately: “let’s get started. I’ve only got about 20 minutes to give you the big idea which will leave us some time to talk it over before I have to get out of here”
• 4 phases of pitch:
  • Introduce yourself, the big idea (5m)
  • Explain the budget, secret sauce (10m)
  • Offer the deal (2m)
  • Stack frames for a hot cognition (3m)
• Self intro
  • Track record of successes
  • People remember you according to the average of things you say about yourself
    • So, just say the one best thing
• Why now framing
  • New idea due to pattern of forces you see and are acting upon
  • And that you have more knowledge about it than anyone
  • 3 market forces / trending patterns:
    • Economic
    • Social
    • Technology
  • Briefly opened market window
  • Movement > before / after (change blindness)
• Big idea
  • Idea introduction pattern: For [ICP] who are dissatisfied with [old] my product is [solution], [features + benefits]
  • Theory of mind
• Attention
  • Dopamine + norepinephrine
  1. Novelty
  2. Tension: stakes
     1. Push: “guys, there’s a real possibility that we might not be right for each other”
     2. Pull: “if this does work out, our forces could combine to become something great”
  • “conflict is the basis of interesting human connections”
• Numbers
  • Focus on your budgeting expertise, not projecting expertise

5: Frame stacking + hot cognitions

• Most decisions are made by hot cognition / gut, not cold analysis
• 4-frame hot cognition stack:
  1. Intrigue: pique interest, pose question, “meet this enigma of a guy”
  2. Prize: you’re the prize
  3. Time:
  4. Moral authority: wanting
• Abstract → concrete narratives, human stories

1. Intrigue frame:
   • Narrative pattern:
     1. Put a man in the jungle
     2. Have beasts attack him
     3. Open the question - will he get to safety?
   • Must not be a final resolution
2. Prize frame:
   • “There just aren’t a lot of deals like ours, and certainly not with me in it. And I’m fortunate enough to be in high demand. We have to decide which investors to let in, and which to turn away.”
   • “We have to be cautious about who we bring on board. Can you tell me why we’d enjoy working with you?”
   • Conviction
3. Time frame:
   • Scarcity bias
   • Find the balance between fairness and pressure (don’t come off as cheap)
4. Moral authority frame:
   • Have to create “wanting” + desire
   • Eg. doctor has the most powerful frame

6: Eradicating neediness

• Neediness triggers fear, uncertainty, weakness
• Time frame
• Basic formula:
  1. Need nothing
  2. Focus on things you do really well
  3. Announce your intention to leave the social encounter
• ↑ willingness to withdraw

7: Case study: the airport deal

• Two IB firms vs each other
• Start with no
• Rapid frame control / busting
• Know what their deeper motivation is
  • Eg. money, or legacy?
• Last-minute pre-pitch thoughts:
  1. Get the tone right: self as alpha, seize status, hit hot buttons
  2. Deploy a big idea: human, captures theme of legacy
  3. Keep it captivating with visuals
  4. Create hot cognitions (croc brain)
• Reframe the competition: “they’ll spare no expense” → bloated
• “What to take out of the pitch without stripping away the richness and complexity”
• Push-pull:
  • “This is bold plan, and we might not be right for each other”
  • “But if this did work out, we could combine forces to become something great. Just imagine…”
• Emotional personal, human story

8: Get in the game

• Learn to manage social dynamics
• Frame: used to gain a perspective and relevance on issues
• Humor, have fun
  • People who have lots of options aren’t uptight, afraid to have fun
• To do now:
  1. Identify beta traps
  2. Step around
  3. Identify + label social frames
  4. Begin to initiate frame collisions
  5. Push-pull small acts of denial. Make sure you’re not coming on too strong
• Work with mentors (“frame masters”)
• Most important terms:
  • Frame control
  • Power busting frame
  • Frame collisions
  • Prizing
  • Beta traps
  • Seizing status
  • Local star power
  • Push-pull
  • Alpha
  • Hot cognition
  • Crocodile brain, neocortex