Business Networking Blog Thursday 22nd May 2025

This weeks blog kindly guest-written by Terry Maylin.

Once again Jane Malyon stood in as Chairperson for Aidan and did a sterling job. We were once again 19 innumber buoyed by our very new shiny member Darren Lamb.

The Performance League

The performance was still the battle of the Pauls but they are battling for 2 nd and 3rd places as Leann has overtaken them and is the clear leader of the performance award. Well done Leann.

Education Presentation

Toby Acton took the education slot today and gave us some really practical advice on establishing rapport with a potential client starting with trying to mirror how they are communicating with you and this even included trying to breath in time with them! Posture, breathing and angling your body to mirror theirs are all important to help to establish the rapport that you need to strike up a good relationship with a potential client or customer.

Membership News

It was our pleasure to announce the successful membership application of Darren Lamb of Hartswood Impact who we are sure will be a great success and gain lots of useful introductions and referrals from our group.

The 60 75 Second Round

We started off with last weeks Oscar winner Leann who told us she does more than plump up cushions! She then had to nominate so everyone had to pay attention to had already done their 60 seconds!

Some highlights of the 75 seconds was Shannon who told us she has spent upto an hour on the phone to a lender to get the best reduced rate for their mortgage clients, John Hammond told us that most of his work comes from existing client recommendations and Scott told us that he has been getting to know a new tool which he can use on websites. James Humphreys demonstrated to us why you should have a broker to make sure you get the cover you need, not what you think you need. Howard Bullock reminded us of the sage advice he gave us a few weeks ago namely not to panic in relation to the Trump effect and that the levels are nearly back up to pre-Trump levels.

Matt Barry and Stuart Smallcombe both read out testimonials from their clients saying how pleased they were with the services provided which is always good to hear.

The oscar was awarded to Blake Hammond who made reference to the sale of, among other things, grenades to make big bangs in your garden!

10-minute presentation by Catherine Foley

Ben announced the presenter of the 10-minute presentation which this week was by our English Tutor, Catherine Foley from English Tutor Plus.

Catherine went through some of the things that pupils have to learn in order to sit the English language and literature exams and it was mind-blowing how much they have to do in so little time. No wonder they need guidance from someone like Catherine.

She also told us some of the tips and tricks she knows that give her pupils a head start including some key words that need to be included but that pupils are not told about! Its almost as if they were set up to fail. That and having to remember quotes from 15 poems does not sound like the sort of information that most of us could retain now, let alone when we were 16.

It was a great demonstration of why our young people need someone like Catherine to help prepare them for and guide them through their exams.

Referrals and Testimonials

We had a very lively referrals and testimonials round with plenty of referrals and money passed between the members as well as the usual off the wall comments which help to make makes EBF better than your average networking group !

Jane announced a synergy meeting after todays meeting.

All in all an entertaining and informative meeting – we are so lucky to have people who have so much to share with the group to help us in our businesses as well as looking out for business for us.