21 Members present and 1 visitor Sam Akoto whose principal business is Security Services.
The Ed Slot was filled by our Social Secretary, Brian Painter and he lost no time in advancing the values to EBF of social events and mixing not only other members but their partners. He got us all to fill in a piece of paper with suggestions for social events. There appeared to be good response and we await the outcome with interest.
The 60 Second Round
The 60 Second Round carried a theme of using 1 or more of Len Maylin’s suggested approaches to the 60 second presentation. Most of us produced their own particular adaptations which led to an interesting round from a presentation point of view.
First up was Jo Eastwood and she spoke of speech crutches. Ums and aahhs, you-knows etc. Her general message was that “to err is human”.
Michael Adelizzi let us into the secret of his selling techniques as he showed people round his shop.
And Jo Jones declared herself to be the solution to aches pains and obesity.
Alan Shaw was in both whimsical and reminiscent mood and talking of being invited to address a group of a Company’s employees. In giving his talk his eyes fixated on someone at the back of the room. Something fascinating drew his attention and kept it there. He was transfixed. If anyone would like to hazard a guess in the comments to this Blog as to what exactly what he was talking about please feel free to intervene.
Dimi Bakalov rather cleverly managed to give us a history of his life in 60 seconds, not a bad effort.
Terry Maylin talked of the problem of collecting money due to your business. Apart from credit control the solution was to get him to use his various tools of torture to extract the money.
Brian Painter declared that he is reading Margaret Thatcher’s “The Early Years” and immediately went to describe how he dealt with clients with IBS. His hypnotherapy aims at relieving the stress. A read of the Iron Lady’s biography might be a start.
Jo Jones was awarding the Oscar and she made a very deserving award to Matt Barry whose theme was hope and dreams and his promise, to make your dreams come true if you are looking to rebrand your business.
I thought the exercise of using an agreed structure of our 60 seconds proved a success. It meant that most people were within the 60 seconds and most people managed to get over a specific aspect of their business. These are guidelines we can continue to use to assist us in our presentations.
This weeks statistics and points of note
As our recruitment drive now gets under way Jill Willis on behalf of herself, Matt Barry and Tina Walker gave us an update as to their progress and she particularly referred us to the 27th April 2017 meeting when it is hoped to hold an open breakfast and attract lots of visitors. They seem to be enthusiastically grasping the visitor nettle. Watch this space for more information as their search for visitors continues.
Saying of the meeting was from David Plumley “…mine’s got a very strong spring…” the question for you all, to be added to the comments to this blog if you wish, is what was he talking about?
There were 22 referrals and the referrals round was a very lively one with good business passed.
10 minute presentation by Paul Booth
The 10 minute presentation was Paul Booth’s. He started off with handing out Groucho Marx glasses and the liberal use of a nerf gun. If we thought we were getting 10 minutes of frivolity; we were however wrong. A new tax regime is on the horizon, and he was only softening us up for his real message about quarterly reporting and the “Tax Gap”. Don’t say accountants are dull and boring…… Well,you can say that accountants are dull and boring but in this particular instance a serious message was listened to attentively by all members. The whole thing left us with the desire to use the Nerf Gun on ourselves.
Next week are back to normal. No themes, no clever ideas, just a straight forward meeting. You will also have the benefit of someone else chairing the meeting as I am now away for 2 weeks.
Upon my return I trust we will have new members aplenty and an enlarged meeting. We can all dream…
Was it his Pogo stick (how many people remember what a pogo stick was) Those were the days. Good job I wasn’t their otherwise I would have stopped Paul in his tracks as we did not carry out a risk assessment . I would have had to say Eh Nerf is Eh nerf. (you didn’t know I could speak French did you)
No No No … it is the spring in my step … after a wonderful EBF meeting.
Great meeting – glad I wasn’t peppered with Nerf Bullets!
interesting 10 Minutes from Paul Booth…
Very helpful 10 minute presentation from Paul Booth. Great meeting
Great meeting and an excellent and informative 10mts from Paul.
I knew what Alan was talking about I wrote the script! A wonderful, passionate begging 60 secs from the Sheriff!
Great meeting. Looking forward to testing the EBF website Online chat.