Ice on the windscreen, light appearing earlier in the sky both heralded what turned into a bright clear morning, with sunshine flooding into the venue.
23 Members this week braved and/or appreciated the elements, busily networking before the meeting itself began.
The Performance League
Matt Barry was the runaway winner for January with 463 points. (possibly an all-time record!)
Education Presentation
Brian Painter delivered a thoughtful explanation on the importance of visitors set against the backdrop of needing new members to continue refreshing our membership and trying and push forward with our numbers. The importance of visitors is that they turn into new members. Visitors at our meetings improve our individual performances and new/additional members increase the referrals which of course are one of the fundamental reasons for turning up. The points were well made by Brian.
The 60 Second Round
Dean Caldon won the Oscar and was also doubling up as bellman.
Marcelle Saad confirmed that the birth stone for February was the amethyst which is purple quartz and has qualities that include protection from drunkenness. It is the stone of sobriety and I was comforted by this as my cuff links have the said stone embedded in them.
We had a theme of Brexit to which members paid lip service, to a greater or lesser degree.
Ben Golding said it was not going to affect him or if it did, possible future austerity would enable him to benefit by giving customers both a reduction in their bills and the opportunity of earning additional funds to add to their income if they also sell the product.
Toby Acton used Brexit to illustrate the approach and the message that businesses need to sell and compared the Tory’s “…get it done…” with the Labour message which was …?
Kevin Radford was introduced as the Bard of Hadleigh and fulfilled expectations with a ditty that emphasised what RMK could do in various areas of insurance. We have missed his poetic utterances of late.
It was Simon Essex who used the Brexit reference to good effect. The uncertainty leading up to Brexit caused him to evaluate his business priorities and move out of London; it also made him look at what he wanted and the additional work that was open to him. Accordingly, out of uncertainty came a new focus that amongst other things included joining EBF. Win win for all of us.
Brian Painter illustrated what an interesting professional life he has. Currently on his books he has a 32 year old man who doesn’t like noise, even his daughters crying, someone addicted to Coke, Coca Cola that is and somebody aged 76, due to go into hospital and had a phobia over hospitals. I expected Brian to leave early if he has all of these problems to attend to, but as usual, he seemed unfazed.
Richard Reed emphasised the uncertainty that is before us following Brexit, how we have to deal with airports etc. Nonetheless he had a couple of great offers in relation to 4/5 Star Hotels at resorts in the Maldives.
Ford Aspbury indicated that Brexit had, or rather the uncertainty up to date of pending Brexit had a major effect on his pricing. He has streamlined where he can but it remains an issue.
John Freeman by contrast has not noticed any effect on his business and his development of clients. His attitude is best initialised as DGAS. I will leave you to work this out for yourselves.
Saj Sreedharan had a wonderful prop, to wit a wonderfully bright and coloured bouquet which he claimed to have constructed himself. It was intended to be a reminder that Valentine’s Day’s up and coming.
Paul Booth was positive, two new set up businesses passed through his hands this week and he is looking for more.
Matt Barry sought to illustrate the International Multi Centred nature of his business which started with “…from Brussels to Basingstoke…” It went on a lot further than this but I am only giving you a flavour.
Vincent Goode produced a series of National Flags to demonstrate how Brexit could be renamed in those particular countries and in doing so demonstrated his rather strange but inventive mind which quite rightly won him the Oscar.
This weeks statistics and points of note
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23 Members present
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27 referrals passed
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£12,000 worth of business recorded
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Vincent Goode, Oscar winner and 10 minute presenter
10-minute presentation by Vincent Goode
As referred to earlier, Vincent Goode was the presenter and he produced a very amusing mixture of print and other related jokes; something of his background and something of his business. Amongst other things he declared that despite the changes brought on by technology printing was “…still ink on paper..”. He glorified the importance of physically attending his premises, as opposed to ordering on line. You can touch, feel, receive suggested alternative materials and make sure designs or text is property checked.
We all enjoyed it but Paul Dulieu, in particular, indicated that he had not laughed so much before 8 am. A low bar I would have thought, still we must take our compliments where we can.
Referrals and Testimonials
A good round, partly because of the number of referrals were way above the number of members present and congratulations to the Naughty Corner for dominating the numbers of referrals given.
An absolutely fantastic meeting which is always a great way to start the day. Brilliant blog…
Well done to Matt Barry on absolutely smashing the league!
Thank you Brian for a great Ed slot, hopefully see plenty of visitors.
Excellent presentation from Vincent, throughly enjoyed it and on a sad note, sorry to see Ellen departing.
Have a good week and see everyone next week 🌹
That really was a great meeting. Thanks to the estate agent’s sensible choice, Oscarina will return next week
sounds like i missed a lively meeting and an excellent ( as always) 10 minutes from Vince. Well done all, see you all next week.
Great meeting as always. sorry to see Ellen leave but plenty more fish in the sea…
Great meeting as always!!
Vince did a very entertaining and informative presentation too!!
I think we will all miss Ellen’s smile every week though I wish you all the best for the future 😀🐷😀
It was an excellent meeting with some extremely good 60 second presentations, and the 10mt one was okay also. A deserved winner was Vince for the Oscar but pails inti insignificance against Matt’s month winning score – highest that I can recall.
Sorry to see Ellen leave us but it is for all the right reasons, her work load has grown so much since joining us that she can no longer commit to our weekly get togethers, I wish her continued growth.
How is it possible to chalk up 400 plus points? Are you sure some of my points weren’t included in that total? Blinding effort, Matty, and I reckon you’ll be smiling on Saturday.
Great entertainment from the Mare, he should be our Christmas show!
Interesting meeting & hearing the members views on brexit!! Vincent entertaining us with a 10min insight into the printing world. Should go on the biggest networking programme Britain got talent🤣have a productive week. Ford
Absolutely fantastic meeting with a superbly funny 10 minutes from Mr G. I had not laughed so much since I looked in the mirror that morning
Hi all, great start to the day. After my story to Nick about Philip Schofield and me watching rugby last Sunday had an effect I wasn’t expecting today. Here’s to people having the guts and confidence to follow their heart.
I was thinking about your story Simon when I heard the news this morning. I completely agree with you.
Great meeting, Bye Ellen, you will be missed 🙁
It was a great meeting. It had a good buzz about it. They always do but this one buzzed better. Good 10 mins Vince.
Hats off to Vince. Farewell to Ellen!
Sounds like I missed a great meeting. Sorry could not get to take my place but he said he had a problem with the Corona virus or he might of said he had to many Corona’s one or the other