BNI 862: Weekly Presentation Coaching 147 - Jess Creech - Business Gifts - BNI & The Power of One

Summary4 min read

Episode Overview

Podcast: BNI & The Power of One
Host: Tim Roberts
Episode Title: BNI 862: Weekly Presentation Coaching 147 - Jess Creech - Business Gifts
Date: October 24, 2025

This episode centers on live coaching for weekly presentations in BNI meetings. Host Tim Roberts reviews a listener-submitted 30-second pitch from Jess Creech of Jess and Ellie Design (BNI Midlands, South Carolina). The episode’s main aim is to provide actionable feedback to help members make their weekly asks more engaging and effective, focusing on driving referrals.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Critique of Jess Creech’s Original Weekly Presentation

Content Read Aloud: Tim reads Jess’s submission verbatim (01:05), noting timing (28.5 seconds) and highlighting its concise delivery.
Structure Assessment: Tim identifies that Jess’s pitch successfully hits the three essential elements:
- Who: Insurance agents
- How: When friends complain about high client gift prices
- What: Introduction to Jess and Ellie Design for affordable, customized gifts
Quote:
“What are the three key elements we need to hit in every weekly presentation? ... It's who, how, what?... I think you hit all of those.” — Tim Roberts (02:10)

2. Making Presentations More Proactive & Practical

Criticism of Passive Approach: Tim points out that waiting for someone to complain about gift prices is rare and passive.
- Recommends empowering BNI members with a proactive script for starting the referral conversation.
Role-playing Referrals:
- Suggests that members ask their insurance agent contacts specific questions:
  - "Who do you use for your promotional products or your client gifts?"
  - If they’re undecided, “Let them know you work closely with someone who specializes in this space... and ask if they're open to an introduction for future gifts.” (04:10)
Memorable Moment: Tim shares personal experience:
“I can just tell you, in all my years, I'm not familiar or remembering a conversation with somebody outside of my own peers… where that was a topic of conversation or that came up.” (08:15)

3. Balancing Sales and Training

Feedback on Specific Content:
- Advises to remove the last paragraph (describing the tumbler as “a permanent marketing item…”) because it shifts from training to sales pitch (06:50).
- Instead, use that time to clarify practical “how” steps for initiating referrals.
- Tim encourages using clear, actionable language for uncovering opportunities.
Quote:
“The 40-ounce tumbler engraved... is a sales moment—that's not a training moment. So you can completely eliminate that paragraph and add more around the ‘how am I going to see it?’” — Tim Roberts (06:55)

4. Importance of Practice and External Feedback

Iterative Improvement:
- Tim encourages members to continually refine their presentations by reading them aloud or submitting them for critique.
- Notes that hearing your words from someone else helps spot improvements (“can’t see the forest through the trees” effect) (11:30).
Skill-building:
- Tim reminds listeners that this is a unique networking skill — “not one that any of us were just born knowing how to do” (12:05).
- Stresses practice, outside feedback, and peer review.
Quote:
“You get in your own head when you're reading it to yourself and you're the one who wrote it... but, you know, when you hear it, you'll be able to even probably pick up on some of those areas where you can strengthen it.” — Tim Roberts (12:10)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“I think you got good structure here. I don’t think it’s a lot of change. I think you can just strengthen it up a little bit.”
— Tim Roberts (09:57)
“Again, it's about training people how to actually identify, but also how to actually bring you referrals. This would be a very passive approach if your friend is complaining about high prices of client gifts. Well, I've never had that conversation with somebody outside of my own field.”
— Tim Roberts (07:25)
“Take advantage of the opportunity, write it up, read it, work on it based off the feedback, but submit it.”
— Tim Roberts (12:23)

Suggested Edits & Action Steps

Replace passive referral signals with proactive scripts for members to initiate BNI conversations.
Remove the detailed description of the product to focus on referral training, not sales.
Practice by reviewing with others or submitting for professional feedback.
Encourage BNI members to listen for less obvious cues and have prepared, simple questions for their contacts.

Key Timestamps

01:05 — Jess Creech's weekly presentation read aloud
02:10 — Identification of three key elements: who, how, what
04:10 — Script suggestion for starting referral conversations
06:55 — Recommendation against mixing sales with training, remove specific product sales language
07:25–08:15 — Discussion: Why “complaining about prices” is too passive
09:57 — Praise for Jess’s initial structure, recommendation for strengthening
11:30–12:23 — The value of external feedback and practice

Conclusion

Tim Roberts delivers nuanced yet practical coaching for BNI weekly presentations. The episode frames the difference between sales and training moments and provides concrete tips for reframing asks to generate more referrals. This feedback—centered on proactive language, actionable scripts, and the importance of practice—is useful for any BNI member seeking more effective networking results.

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Transcript1 lines

[00:00]
A
Sam Foreign welcome back to BNI and the Power of One, a weekly presentation. Coaching episodes back. Reading submitted weekly presentations help give advice, make them as effective as possible. You can submit yours@bni powerofone.com when you do, let us know a couple bits of information where you're from, but also how long you have. So. So today we're hearing from or meeting Jess Creech from BNI of Midlands, which is in South Carolina. Just does not say how long. I'm opening the weekly presentation. Now. Based on length, this has got to be about 30 seconds would be my guess. So we're going to go off the assumption that it's around 30 seconds, if not Jess. I could tell just before even reading it. Way too short if it's a minute. So I'm going to, I'm going to guess it's 30 seconds. But again, let's read it and then give advice, see if we can make it more effective. Good morning, I'm Jess Creech with Jess and Ellie Design. This week I'm looking for insurance agents offering personalized thank you gifts to their clients. If your agent friend is complaining about the high prices of client gifts, let them know you have a business partner who offers competitive pricing on client gifts. A 40 ounce tumbler engraved with your business logo and contact information is a great gift and a permanent marketing item that will never fade or disappear again. This is Jess Creech with Jess and Ellie Design. Okay, so that was 28 and a half seconds. So if it's a 30 seconds. Right. About time. All right, what are the three key elements we need to hit in every weekly presentation? Remembering we're training people on how to bring us referrals. It's who, how, what? Who do we, who are we specifically looking for? How do we know somebody might be in the market for these products and services and what do we say to them? I think you hit all of those. I would just strengthen it a little bit. I'd be a little bit more proactive in my ask because I don't think from personal experience many of your members are going to hear a friend of theirs, in particular an insurance agent that might be a friend of theirs, complaining about client gifts. But we can be very proactive in figuring that out because it's not a really unreasonable ask or really uncomfortable conversation to teach people how to bring you up or bring up the subject. Right. So what I would do is say I'm looking for insurance agents. I'd be. You can be more specific than that if you really wanted to. But it's pretty specific. Offering personalized thank you gifts. If you have ever received or if you have a gift like a Tumblr that you've received with your friend's logo on it or your insurance company's logo on it, ask them, call them and ask them this question. And it would be something like, hey, who do you use for your promotional products or your client gifts? If they say that they change it up or they don't really have a dedicated person or they whatever, let them know you work closely with somebody who specializes in this space and ask them if they're open for an introduction for future gifts. You could also say I'm looking for insurance agents offering personalized thank you gifts. You if you have a friend of yours or a good friend of yours that is an insurance agent, ask them what do they do for client gifts. And if they give you an answer like they don't really do it or they don't know or they, you know, if they give you any other answer besides a very I would say if they give you any answer besides a very confident I use this person and I love them. Ask them, tell them that you are closely with somebody who specializes in this space and ask them if they're open to an introduction. So you can go both ways on that. Now those are both going to take a little bit longer. They're gonna. Because you're gonna give them more information, right? Which means you gotta remove something. I would remove the last paragraph. The a 40 ounce tumbler engraved with your business logo and contact information is a great gift. And a permanent marketing item that will never fade or disappear is a sales moment that's not a training moment. So you can completely eliminate that paragraph and add to yours more around the how am I gonna see it? So you can do, you know, if you have received a and you can give an example like the 40 if you've ever received a gift like a tumbler or something like that with, you know, another company's logo on it. I would love for you to reach out to them and ask them who are they using. And if they tell you any answer besides a confident one of I used so and so and and they love them. That's an opening. And here's what you say. Add more into that. Again, it's about training people how to actually identify, but also how to actually bring you referrals. This would be a very passive approach if your friend is complaining about high prices of client gifts. Well, I've never had that conversation with somebody outside of my Own field, meaning the only time I've ever had that conversation would be with a peer of mind. And usually it's too late because it's kind of like they already bought the gifts this year. But it'd still be an open introduction, obviously for you or somebody like you. But I, I can just tell you, in all my years, I'm not familiar or remembering a conversation with somebody outside of my own peers, meaning, you know, executive directors, where that, that was a topic of conversation or that came up. Now, that doesn't mean it didn't. It's just not standing out. So maybe. And you'd know more than I would. You are the expert. So maybe this is a conversation that happens all the time. But even if that is the case, even if you're going to say, if your friend's complaining about the high prices a client gives, I would give them another line to ask before just going let them know you have a business partner to say, you know, who are you using? Who have you used? And, you know, you get into that conversation and in that conversation let them know that you have a business partner who offers competitive pricing on client gifts. So I think that line's fine, but it's just getting to that line. So, Jess, I think you got good structure here. I don't think it's a lot of change. I think you can just strengthen it up a little bit. And again, I would remove that last paragraph just because it doesn't really fit it. It went from training into more of like a little bit of a sales pitch on the tumblers, in my opinion. But I think you get a good start and hopefully this is helpful. And hopefully it's helpful for all of us. Again, this is. It's been a few weeks since we've done it, but this is a skill set that is just kind of unique. It's unique to networking, it's unique to bni. So it's not one that any of us were just born knowing how to do right. And so take advantage of the opportunity, write it up, read it, work on it based off the feedback, but submit it. You know, I think it, it helps to hear it from somebody else because, you know, you get in your own head when you're reading it to yourself and you're the one who wrote it. So it's a little bit of like, can't see the forest through the trees type of thing. But, you know, when you hear it, you'll be able even probably pick up on some of those areas where you can strengthen it. You know when it's coming out of somebody else's voice. So go to BNI Power of One. Submit yours. And if you're finding value out of this, if it is helping you, you know, leave us a review. That's a great way for me to hear from you, but also share it with others. Share with other members. I'd love to get more members engaged in the podcast so we can have a bigger impact with that. Have a great day. Sam.