Chairman’s Business Networking Blog Thursday 12th December 2013.
20 members present.
The Ed slot was delivered by our regular Education Officer, Dave “the cat” Plumley, suitably attired to lull us into thinking he was delivering a box of Milk Tray. In fact he delivered a rather good 2 part Ed Slot which reminded us of the usefulness of Streetlife as a promotional tool some potential referrals having arisen from the use of this by members since our darkly clad educator first mentioned it last week. He then went on to remind a us how difficult it was to get new clients and therefore the importance of taking good care of our existing clients. A good start to lead us into the 60 second round.
The “old mover” Graham Wright, fresh from his hip operation told us how he was now concentrating on “small moves”. Having watched him nimbly weave his way to the table with his breakfast, it could be seen that this slight change of emphasis in his work was doing him good.
Several mini themes emerged.
First of all there were several declarations of gratitude to EBF for business. Mike Rogers, who always leaves us in no doubt as to what he does…… what’s that I hear you say? Mortgages of course, and don’s try and kid me you didn’t realise. Apparently he relies on looking after his existing clients as a advised by David Plumley but not otherwise advertising and relying solely upon EBF for new introductions. This was echoed by Marcelle and Michael Adelizzi who both declared that they had obtained a lot of business from EBF and duly thanked the members. Kevin Brooks joined the party confirming that he has not advertised in the last 15 years.
Dawn Ribnell reminded us of her holiday cottages and the special discounts available to referrals from EBF. If we all know what Mike Rogers does, we would have thought the same of Graham Thurston, but inspired by Dawn he talked of his castle in Slovenia, now in easily manageable flats and ideal for holidays both because of its location, in the middle of a forest, a lady on the site “who does” and the historical link with Count Bolinski who you will al remember was the founder of the Czechoslovakian Railway System. I think that’s what he said, it might have been in Slovenia, the lady on the site did not have to “do” for you and Count Bolinski might have founded something somewhere else. All of this prompted Brian Painter to offer a 2 man tent in Syria to anyone interested; and so the holiday theme continued with Richard Reed, who is the only qualified holiday agent in the group, so there you have the second theme- holidays. It should be noted also that although Richard Reed, arranges holidays, he doesn’t apparently go on them himself. He has just arranged a week away for himself and his tolerant wife, he also had time to offer a holiday in a hotel in Morocco which comes with an endorsement from Kevin Brooks as a suitable place to go. Anyway, as I stated above, Brian Painter was tempted to offer a 2 man tent in Syria which at least brought smiles to our faces. Not content with that however, he felt it important to bring us all down to earth with talk of smoking, cancer and the gift of life. Suitably depressed it took us two offerings to raise our spirits. Scott Griffiths likes the feel of his phone in his pocket when it begins bleeping or vibrating as it reminds him that he is making money and Paul Booth, anticipating Father Christmas with a rather annoying seasonal tie was prompted to offer free mince pies to all of his clients but did warn that he only had 5 left so it was first come first served.
Puzzlingly, all through the meeting in the centre of the room was an empty chair. I did offer it an opportunity to give 60 seconds but silence was the stern reply.
Reality was slipping away, fuelled slightly by Kevin Radford who, acknowledging the inspirational figure of Nelson Mandela, opted for a more homely hero who apparently stimulates him, yes you guessed it, Mike Rogers and the reason why, we all know what he does…! Another man to whom this description fits is Nick Cooke, the importance of steel beams was emphasised when he told of a lady who had a sagging floor in her bedroom because of previous builders attempts to do something or other. His warnings included what would happen if the lady and her husband got into bed energetically. Innuendo often does it and it did it for Nick, he won the Oscar.
And so to the 10 minute slot, Alan Shaw was performing, suddenly all was revealed about the purpose the chair in the middle of the room. He had brought a model of a building with a tower which he placed on said chair. For those who could see the front of the chair, this was incredibly helpful and illustrative in some way of architecture. It was no doubt lost on the other half of the room however who could only see the back of the chair. I thought that Alan would then occupy that chair but very sensibly realised he wanted everyone to see him so he brought up another chair and sat at the back of the room. He then treated us to a thumb nail sketch of his career. He seemed very clear, some may think unusually so, as to what he had done and when. He’s certainly got around a bit but it seems there’s life in the old boy yet and we should make sure we find some more referrals for him. Talking about referrals, the Referrals and Testimonials round produced 20 referrals, which is a reasonable average, and £30,027 business passed which is almost £50,000 for the month after only 2 weeks. Well done everybody.
Other things of note
1. Tuesday evening past was the Finance Synergy Team bash when notable events occurred, namely; nobody spilt the wine, nobody set light to the table cloth and I managed to stay awake throughout the proceedings which was a testament to good company … yes it is true I was sitting next to Mike Rogers
2. Next week is Secret Santa and looking stupid with seasonal attire.
3. A note for your diary, after next week we will then have 2 weeks EBF free mornings, recommencing on Thursday 9th January 2014. I will repeat this message next week so that nobody turns up on the morning of the 2nd January 2014
4. Final point of note, Terry Maylin was not standing up to talk about the Christmas Meal on the 21st, but he is looking for fresh ideas for the New Year. Remember he is the co-ordinator not the instigator, let’s give him plenty of suggestions.
I now look forward to next week, remember it is the Brian Painter quiz, characterised by the disputes that arise, not over the answers, but over the questions.
I look forward to a full turnout.
Hi good meeting today with Aidan reaching a grand old age of 65 congratulations interesting 10min from Alan my chateau is in Slovakia thanks Graham
Another good meeting and a rib tickling blog. Aidan Soixante cinq? I was sure it was soixante neuf!
Well done Aidan , despite the worrying expression you wore throughout (probably thinking about all that effort to blow out those candles before you could get to the cake) another excellent blog report on an excellent meeting.
Excellent meeting – great 10 minutes from Alan Shaw as usual and £30k worth of business – well worth attending and looking forward to Brians quiz and the secret santa next week.
Good job Aidan. 25 year’s effective evidence to the power of Philosan and Sanatogen. See you all in the new year.
It constantly amazes me how much Aidan remembers from the meeting and how humorous the blogs are. A hearty well done as well as thank you to Aidan and the rest of the team for all the hard work put in over the year. Thank you to everyone to all the referrals and support. One bad piece of news though is that my remaining mince pie will be eaten in about 20 minutes.