Despite a bit of confusion amongst several members, who initially went to the wrong meeting room, and the absence of our Chairman because of IT issues, there was a good turnout of 23 people. This included two visitors: David Tellis, an IT Consultant, and Ben Griffiths, CEO of Ogre Bogies and our youngest visitor by quite some margin. Scott Griffiths gallantly stepped into Aidan Squires’ shoes to chair the meeting and it quickly became apparent that ‘The Handsome Face of Virtual Chat’ was going to be rather involved in this week’s meeting!
The Performance League
Scott Griffiths shared his screen and the latest performance league standings. Scott himself leads the league table this week with an impressive 215 points. However, with two weeks of July to go and several members close on his heels, the race is far from run. Scott reminded everyone that the Performance League dictates the order of members on the EBF website, so submitting virtual referral and activity slips and having 1-2-1s have a real benefit beyond creating opportunities amongst members.
Education Presentation
It was Scott Griffiths’ turn to provide the Education Slot this week and the theme of his talk was “How to vet a client”. This included several questions you can ask yourself to determine whether a potential client is a good fit for you including: “does the client assume what I do is easy?” and “does the client trust my expertise, or will they want to tell me how to do my job?”. “Listen to what your gut says!” was the parting piece of advice (although maybe after you’ve had more than a cup of coffee and a banana for breakfast, or you might get a confusing answer).
The 60 Second Round
Quite remarkably, it wasn’t Scott Griffiths’ job to adjudicate this week’s 60 second round and award the Oscar. Unusually, the task was the responsibility of a visitor – none other than young entrepreneur (and son of Scott!), Ben Griffiths. Ben Griffiths, the 10 year old CEO of Ogre Bogies. He won last week’s Oscar in absentia, something many of us can only dream of!
Despite the gloomy sky and economic outlook, it seems that a lot of members are nicely busy.
John Freeman started proceedings and hopes to finish an “urgent” cloakroom toilet refurbishment this week. The project was put on hold in Mach when the UK went into lockdown, but he has managed to squeeze it into his busy pipeline of work and it is once again ‘all cisterns go’!
Dean Caldon is finding that technology in the form of Virtual Viewings is proving hugely popular and Stuart Smallcombe made it clear that anyone who says “I can’t put your call through as my colleague is working from home” needs to speak to him as they clearly need VOIP!
Kieron Peaty who, as we will find out later in the meeting, does much more than drawing, is receiving a lot of enquiries and Vincent Goode, the group’s printer, gave us a timely reminder that…well…he does actually print stuff! Meanwhile, Nick Cooke received nice feedback from a potential client this week on his ‘clear and pleasant approach to quoting for work’. Fingers crossed that get’s him the job.
Paul Booth is keen to find more personal tax clients, including people with buy to let properties, and Tina Walker has been providing administrative support to Paul Dulieu who is busy writing blogs and advising clients how to communicate clearly and effectively.
Richard Read, who has had a few quiet months, is starting to get enquiries again – although he is quick to remind anyone thinking of booking a holiday to make sure their travel insurance covers them during these unusual times.
New member Sarah Steel was next. She launched a new webinar last week which helps parents financially prepare their children for university. Howard Bullock, on the other hand, has been busy helping guide a couple towards the other end of life’s journey on how best to manage a sizeable inheritance.
Colin O’Conner proved that size doesn’t matter when it comes to companies misunderstanding Health & Safety rules and Scott Griffiths also has no size bias as he is keen to work with more start-up businesses and small projects.
Ben Golding asked what people would do if he was to give them £1,000. Unfortunately, it was a purely hypothetical question and, much to John Hammond’s disappointment, no one said “install a fire alarm system”, an area of business John is keen to expand.
It would seem that Scott’s education slot was not needed by Terry Maylin and Simon Essex who have respectively; spent the week trying not to be appointed by a troublesome client and, not wanting clients who change their minds at the 11th hour. Simon clearly has a skill for growing vegetables though, so perhaps he should have a chat with Toby Acton who is looking to help people turn innovative ideas into businesses. One person who doesn’t need Toby’s advice is our visitor Ben Griffiths. At 10 years old, Ben has set up Ogre Bogies which manufactures and sells a fun (or slightly revolting, depending on your humour) pencil, which is rapidly becoming an EBF member “must have” accessory!
As Ben was the proud winner of last week’s 60 Second Oscar, it was his pleasure to award this week’s Oscar to Nick Cooke. He felt that Nick did, indeed, have a “clear and pleasant approach” to explaining things. The fact he also looks like Father Christmas (Ben’s words) may also have swayed things a little.
10-minute presentation by Kieron Peaty
We were provided with a top-notch presentation today by Kieron Peaty, the group’s Architect. Along with clarifying that “yes, I do drawings” (apparently a frequently asked question), Kieron explained his process when working with a client. It is much more than “drawing up plans” – it involves understanding a client’s needs and wants, managing the process and, effectively, turning dreams into reality. His enthusiasm and passion for helping people create spaces which enhance their lives, but also match their needs, was evidently clear. Well done Kieron.
Referrals and Testimonials Round
The meeting concluded with a fabulous referral round with a lot of work taking place amongst the members and plenty of referrals and 1-2-1s
It was a thoroughly enjoyable and positive meeting. Keep up the good work everyone!
Great meeting you. Education slot was spot on and good reminder because you do forget that sometimes you have to say no. Great presentation by keiron
Great meeting all. Positive vibes all round. Awesome presentation Ben G
Well done Kieron that was a very useful 10 minutes to show the value an architect adds as opposed to someone who just does drawings. Good education slot by Scott and i must say i do use a lot of his 9 points myself to vet clients and as Toby said the last one “gut feeling ” is sometimes the most important one!
Great to see our youngest guest yet being very confident in his new product, here’s to more success for Ben the younger.
Great ed-slot from Scott. Makes for a more efficient business.
Wow Kieron. The intricacies of what you do. Very impressive. Your expertise is evident.
Great meeting!! Really enjoyed it!!
Fantastic 10 minute presentation from Kieron and a brilliant Ed slot from Scott!
Plus it was fantastic to see ‘Mini Ben’ promoting his new business!
He’s definitely one young entrepreneur to watch out for in the future! He should go on Kids Dragons Den!! I’m sure he’d get investors!! 😁
Looking forward to seeing you all next week!
A thoroughly enjoyable meeting. Great Ed. slot from Scott and Kieron absolutely nailed his 10 minutes and showed that an architect is so much more than someone who draws. Well done to Santa Cooke on the Oscar win too! have a great weekend everyone. I’m off to sharpen my Ogre Bogies.
The entire meeting from beginning to end had such a good buzz. First class performances from Scott in his Ed Slot and Kieron with his 10 minute presentation. Yes definitely not just drawings then! And a big thankyou to the entrepreneurial Ogre Bogey Ben for awarding me the Oscar for the best 60 seconds. Oh yes and a brilliant blog from Paul our resident wordsmith.
Congratulations Ben on your first network meeting and 60 seconds. Well done Scott of the Ed Slot and its so true. Great 10 minutes Kieron. See you all next week. Have a fab weekend and stay safe.
Sorry to have missed this week’s meeting, I’m hoping for better luck next week. Well done to all the winners and mini Ben for his first appearance. Good blog, Paul the younger, definitely resident sub scribe! Enjoy the sunny weekend.
Thank you little Paul for a very well written blog. I’m looking for typos, will get back to you if/when I find any…
Haha! Haven’t you got any printing to do?
Paul,well done, you’ve got the job,excellent blog!! I’m getting withdrawal symtoms anticipating next week
Well I thought the Griffiths boys did exceptionally well altho’ one shows far more promise than the other :-).
I totally agree on going with the “gut feel” you have when speaking with potential new clients and I know that I’ve saved myself many a headache by doing just that in the past.
With a very professional 10mts Keiron and all the positive vibes from our members all in all a great meeting.
Great 10 minutes from our resident architect… and fantastic to meet our young honorary member Ben – great 60 seconds by the way!
Great meeting all and thanks for your kind words. Excellent education slot from Scott and well done to Ben the younger for doing something so entreprenuerial for a great cause.