This post is about one of my 45-second pitches at my BNI Chapter, BNI City Business. You can read the introduction to this collection here.

Our first meeting back in 2023, on January 20. I had seen this meme over Christmas, and it appealed to my sense of humour. Another example of the meme driving the message.

I had shown it to some family members, and had needed to explain it, so I wasn’t sure if it was sufficiently obvious. I then tried it on some friends, closer to my age, and they all seemed to get it.

I had completed my Business Buying Tips series before Christmas. This was intended to stand alone, with more of a meta-theme along the lines of ‘not everything is as it seems.’ I asked the chapter members to let me know if they didn’t get the joke. Only one person admitted to not getting it, and I think she was more making the point that younger people would get the joke.

The process at our chapter is that one member judges the 45-second pitches, and awards the best one or two. Their prizes are provided by the 5-minute speaker/s that week (sometimes we only have one presenter; sometimes we award a prize for a different reason). To ensure the judging burden doesn’t fall on the same people, we have the first presenter do the judging. We ask them at the outset for their judging criteria so everyone is aware.

The judge this week was looking for humour, and the reaction from the room. I should have been a shoe-in. I got an honourable mention, but he also admitted to not getting the joke…