This is Stevea Robbins. Welcome to the Get a Done guys, quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

How do you give a persuasive presentation and ultimately get your way? I was fortunate enough to track down the amazing Michael Port. He's the author of Steal the Show and Book Yourself Solid for an interview in which he shared some great tips about how

he teaches corporate clients to create compelling pitches. Claire, the landscape architect for Grandma

Cuddle's Daycare, has a great idea. She believes that beautifully styled ponds, a decorative

hedge maze, and a few strategically placed Audrey II carnivorous plants can keep the little

kitties happily inside the grounds

without the current I saw of concrete walls barbed wire and guard towers. Never mind the noise

from the graffiti removal squad. They use abrasive sandblasting hoses. It makes it really hard to nap.

If she simply presents her new plan for the center, she'll be laughed out of the room, or worse.

Grandma is known to be enthusiastic about letting her little charges know who's boss.

She can make her pitch most effective by including five major elements.

One, identify your big idea.

Every pitch needs to have a big idea.

On the one hand, it sounds obvious.

On the other, it may not come naturally.

Claire's thinking of all the details of her new landscape.

However, if she launches directly into the details, no one will have any idea where she's going.

Each member of her audience will latch on to one element.

Claire wants water ponds everywhere. This isn't SeaWorld. Or, think of all the business will lose from the barbed wire manufacturers.

Say no to Claire's eco-terrorism. Instead,

Claire needs to summarize her plan in a single sentence. That's how she gets her big idea.

It's time to bring the Grandma Cuddles campus from Third Reich brutalist into a modern

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