Jeff Otis

Achieve more than you ever thought possible.

For over 33 years, I’ve helped people grow as leaders—in their lives, their careers, and the lives of others.

Today, I create practical, personalized experiences for young adults and for the businesses, families, schools, teams, and organizations responsible for helping them succeed.

“Before you can lead others, you need to learn to lead yourself.”
— Jeff Otis
Jeff Otis, founder and CEO of Project OTY

Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders

  • State Farm
  • Beaverton High School
  • Portland Community College
  • Sherwin-Williams
  • Cuebiq
  • American Red Cross
  • Corvallis High School
  • Beaverton Babe Ruth
  • Adpearance
  • University of Oregon
  • Oregon Farm Bureau
  • Oregon State University
  • Oregon Youth Soccer Association
  • YMCA

About Jeff

Leadership has shaped every chapter of my life.

Jeff Otis speaking on the TEDx stage

I grew up believing I would play professional baseball. As a pitcher at Oregon State University, I experienced the discipline, teamwork, adversity, and personal accountability required to compete at a high level.

When an injury ended that dream, I had to reconsider what success would look like and determine what I wanted to build next.

That experience became an early lesson in life navigation: circumstances can change quickly, but we still have the ability—and responsibility—to decide how we move forward.

Throughout my career, I built and led organizations, developed people, navigated growth, and worked with thousands of young adults and professionals at many different stages of their lives and careers.

Driven by a simple question:  How do we help people build the confidence, clarity, leadership, and practical skills they need before uncertainty becomes frustration or untapped potential?

Jeff has led more than 20,000 employees, connected with leaders across multiple industries, and helped organizations create cultures in which people and businesses could grow together. His work has contributed to companies receiving Inc. 5000 recognition and being named among the Best Companies to Work For.

Jeff Otis

Founder and CEO, Project OTY

Why Project OTY Exists

Young adults do not need someone to plan their lives for them. They need a better framework for navigating them.

After decades of developing people and organizations, I saw a recurring challenge.

We ask young adults to make important decisions about education, careers, relationships, leadership, and their future—often before they have been given a structured opportunity to understand who they are, what they want, or how they intend to move forward.

Project OTY grew from the belief that every young adult should have the opportunity to build a personal roadmap for their future. OTY stands for Outstanding, Talented, You.

The goal is not to tell young adults what to do. It is to help them think more deeply, recognize their strengths, define what success means to them, take greater ownership, and identify practical next steps.

The Data

The numbers are clear.

A generation is telling us—and showing us—that they’re not ready.

75%

of young adults feel unprepared for life after school

Source: K-12 Drive

70%

report anxiety, depression, and mental health as major problems among their peers

Source: K-12 Drive

84%

of employers say graduates are not ready for the workforce

Source: Walton Family Foundation

Project OTY is the broader life-navigation platform. The solutions below provide focused ways for individuals, families, businesses, schools, teams, and organizations to put this work into action.

Explore Project OTY

Solutions

Practical experiences for important stages of growth.

Each solution addresses a different need, but they share the same foundation: helping people think clearly, take ownership, build confidence, and move forward with purpose.

For young adults

Build Your Best Life

A personalized life-navigation experience that helps young adults understand who they are, define what they want, recognize what may stand in their way, and create a practical roadmap for moving forward.

Best for

  • High school and college students
  • Student-athletes
  • Young adults navigating transitions
  • Families supporting a young adult
  • Schools, colleges, teams, and youth organizations

Greater clarity, confidence, leadership, accountability, and a personalized Best Life Roadmap.

FOR EMERGING LEADERS

Lead with Confidence

A personalized personal-leadership experience that helps young professionals understand how they want to lead, how they affect others, where they are going, and what they need to do next.

Best for

  • Young professionals
  • Frontline employees
  • New managers and team leads
  • Emerging and high-potential leaders
  • Businesses developing their next generation

Stronger self-awareness, communication, confidence, accountability, direction, and readiness to lead others.

For early-career sales professionals

Selling Skills 101

A practical, step-by-step learning experience that develops the foundational skills, mindset, communication habits, and confidence required to become a successful professional salesperson.

Best for

  • People beginning a sales career
  • Young professionals in customer-facing roles
  • Sales teams needing a consistent foundation
  • Businesses without an entry-level curriculum
  • Managers developing early-career salespeople

A stronger foundation in communication, customer discovery, presenting value, responding to objections, and advancing conversation.

Built from Experience

Decades of leadership. Thousands of individual stories.

Jeff’s work combines more than three decades of real-world organizational leadership with direct experience helping young adults and professionals think more clearly about their lives, work, leadership, and future.

33 years
developing people and leaders
20,000+
employees led
10,000+
program participants
35+
countries of origin represented
96%
would recommend the experience
Project OTY is the most comprehensive solution I’ve seen for developing future-ready young adults.
Tim Sinatra · CEO, YMCA of Salem
“You organized my brain.”

One participant used those four words after organizing her values, vision, goals, fears, support system, and next steps into a clear personal roadmap.

“Jeff’s process is ground zero for any corporate leadership program.”
Paul, PhD
Fortune 500 Executive Learning Specialist
“This is literally the quickest path to getting yourself and your team in a winning mindset.”
Alison
Operations Director
“I use the steps Jeff taught me every day leading one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S.”
Betsy
Founder, CEO
“We’re seeing the impact of Project OTY throughout our entire community.”
Dr. Anne Erwin, Ed.D.
Former BHS Principal

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Start a Conversation

Let’s find the right way to support the young adults in your life or organization.

Whether you are developing employees, supporting your child, leading a team, or exploring a broader organizational partnership, I’d be glad to learn more about what you are working toward.

— Jeff

Handwritten thank-you note from Rachel to Jeff, thanking him for his guidance, wisdom, patience, and knowledge, and telling him the program changed her life.
A handwritten note from Rachel.