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.

8 March 2024. Last week I announced my pending move to Singapore, and therefore I will be leaving the City Business chapter. My plan is to continue attending until the end of March, even though my relocation won’t happen until late May or early June. I have already started the wind-down of TEQ here in New Zealand.

So that leaves me a BNI member without a business. I may have a few referrals to give before I go, but I am currently not really in a position to receive referrals. So, what do I do in my 45 seconds? Have fun!

I share that I am going to do something different this week, explaining that I have two word puzzles for the group to solve. The first (above) is already on the screen. “Take a look at this and tell me what the picture means.”

The weekly challenge was to relate a ‘win’ we’ve had in our business this year, and name a specific referral we would like. While the room was considering the Word Puzzle, I said, “My win for the year is shutting down my business in New Zealand, and I would like referrals to business owners in Singapore wanting to value their business.” Lighthearted way of saying I’m not playing the game seriously anymore.

Then I asked the room to tell me what the puzzle meant. “Hello” was the only answer I heard. I guess I wasn’t specific enough. “More specifically,” I said, “this is Hello in Mandarin.” Everyone got the joke.

Next, I brought up this slide, asking what phrase this puzzle meant:

It was a set-up, of course, and I got the response I expected: “Hand Job.” I feigned indignance. “Clearly, this is “Holding Down a Job!“

The chapter seemed to enjoy this frivolity, so job done.