# Book Name Author: [[Oren Klaff]] ## Review On the surface level it's about how to sell a pitch. But at a deeper level it is about understanding human motivations, human behaviour and framing your ideas (and pitch) to resonate at an emotional level. The author mentions the concept of "theory of mind", which is a critical skill for his method. It is the ability to form a model of other peoples thoughts and feelings. He leverages the ability to understand other peoples cognition by using frames (ways of looking at things from different perspectives) to control social interactions. Different people have different ways of looking at the world. If you want people to agree with you they have to see things your way, through your frame. For that to happen you need social status and to avoid boring them or making them feel threatened. Emotions are key to forming opinions and memorable moments. You have to generate intrigue and tension. One of his key messages is that you need to keep in mind the model they have of you. They need to think you are interesting, and see you with high social status (at least in the setting you're pitching in). Humor and having fun are critical for signaling that you are confident in yourself and that they shouldn't feel threatened. It's important to believe that you are the prize, so that this is implicitly picked up by others. Most importantly, don't be desperate. The model they have of you will influence whether they want to work with you and also how good your idea/pitch is. Theory of mind is a concept that informs a lot of my beliefs and ideas about human behaviour, so I liked his framing of selling/pitching through this lens. I agreed with a lot of his ideas. On the other hand, some of his ideas were too on the nose or outright cheesy. It becomes too obvious what he is doing, and that sends a message to everyone else that you think they are not smart enough to pick up on it. It's a bit phony. Otherwise I am really into the ideas, and I will probably read through parts of this again in the future. ## Related - [[Theory of Mind]]