Chairman’s Business Networking Blog Thursday 3rd July 2014.
21 present including Janice Bentley-Pearson for the second time. She is threatening to join. On an upbeat note, we were also pleased to welcome Gary Waskett and Vivienne Nwalema as fully fledged members of our group; Vivienne from the Billericay group and Gary representing a renewed membership for Anthony Batty & Co.
It was the first week of a new month. Howard Bullock, in the first of many appearances, won the Performance League for June by a clear margin, well done Howard.
The Ed Slot was delivered by Scott Griffiths who emphasised the importance of giving testimonials to members for good services delivered. Tweet it or write it but just do it.
As the 60 second round commenced it was noted, in tribute to the excellent breakfast that the golf club provides, that Alan Shaw had left one of the lower buttons of his shirt undone or was it because he mentioned the expansion there had been in planning applications. His upbeat performance included an unhesitating confirmation of who he was as he signed off at the end of his offering. Other people who were upbeat included Kevin Radford whose two largest clients have just renewed; or was it because he is about to embark upon on holiday.
Terry Maylin is so upbeat these days that he celebrates victories by framing proof of things, this week he showed us a possession order that he had obtained on behalf of a client against some poor unfortunate.
Howard Bullock talked of the ISA annual limit going up to £15,000. Stuart Smallcombe celebrated teaching a primary school to use one phone rather than three for their entrance sequence.
Allan Moller has received a successful appraisal from someone who came from Norwich.
David Plumley celebrated a lot of his customers replacing old with new equipment because someone isn’t doing something or other any longer. Please feel free to fill in the gaps.
Richard Reed was not offering headline low prices but rather the opportunity of treading grapes in Madeira. Rolling up your sleeves and getting on with it is to be replaced by rolling up your trouser legs. I think an EBF outing is called for, even though it is a long way to Madeira.
Kim Redwood-Lee was celebrating a good week also. A client company that had been bought out stayed with her and she revealed that she works for a company containing ex-SAS members. An encouragement to us all on the basis of the motto “who dares wins”, this perhaps can best describe the offering of the Suprema supremo Michael Adelizzi, showing us two of his wide range of tiles and winning the Oscar.
Just when it looked as if I had a consistent theme for the day (general happiness) Mike Rogers brought us down to earth. After 2 or 3 weeks of being cheerful…sort of, he declared himself “not happy”. Something to do with interest rates going up, and fixed rate mortgages being increasingly difficult to obtain at a decent rate. I suppose he brought some measure of balance to the 60 second round, and so we moved on to the 10 minute presentation.
Howard Bullock went from one extreme to the other. He produced his biography sheet electronically to David Plumley, whose slightly spoiled this technological revolution by finding it hard to decipher this much awaited electronic development; by contrast our Clear Financial Adviser produced an enchanting performance using a flip chart, circles and squares were drawn with alacrity. TS Lowry like, matchstick characters appeared from nowhere and the use of different coloured pens was truly inspirational. As man who is otherwise wedded to his tablet this retro performance was heart warming.
At the end of the sensory bombardment we all came away with a clear understanding of how difficult the subject of pensions is. Howard’s approach goes to the heart of all good 10 minute presentations; make understandable as to what you do but emphasize the complexity that goes with it. We should all now be able to go out and find employers who haven’t started the auto enrolment process, scare them to death by describing the effect of delay, indicate it is a terribly difficult topic which we don’t understand but…we know a man who does!!!
There followed the referral round with lots of good referrals. It was also noted that, presumably suitably inspired by Howard’s presentation, Alan Shaw had done up the button on the lower part of his shirt. If anybody can think of the significance of this alteration in his attire feel free to share it with me and the rest of us in commenting on this Blog.
A thoroughly enjoyable meeting in a room bathed in sunshine amongst people who also seemed to exhibit a sunny disposition (apart from the old curmudgeon of course).
Good meeting this week and a good 10 minutes from Howard. Enjoy the sunshine!
Brilliant lively meeting yet again and Howard’s state of the art hi tech Pensions presentation was equally impressive. Missed the green shirt if I’m honest though. See you all next week!
Deserved praise for Howard’s 10 minutes (note to self… write the text before drawing the box or circle).
As for Alans shirt/button situation I think it was caused by his being the last to rise that morning.
I’m all for a trip to Madeira for our 4th Sep meeting so that we can partake in their annual wine festival (from only £375pp for 7 nts) – group discounts available.
Great meeting everyone and I’m looking forward to next weeks already.
Excellent meeting and presentation from Howard – very authoritative . Very lively meeting and good numbers- keep it up everyone!
Howard’s best presentation yet. Our chairman, Aidan, also on top form. Great also to have a guest and 2 new members.