Halloween is almost on us, the brief respite of the clocks going back the previous weekend gave us a lighter morning start and sixteen of us collected together with only two granola to be fought over.
Performance League
Terry Maylin remains well out front with 279 points; Matt Barry is on 215 and Scott Griffiths on 211. Over 2/3 of the members had beaten the benchmark for the month without reference to this week.
Education Slot
The 10th October was World Mental Health Day and the Ed Slot had been designed for earlier in the month by Catherine Foley but was delivered today.
Her presentation was something of a plea as to how we deal with colleagues and fellow workers within our small business enterprises. We don’t have the benefit of huge HR teams, and we have to be mindful of the mental health of those that we work with. Be conscious of mood changes as well as behavioural changes and be alert to engage privately where we perceive problems. Be mindful of how work methods and business necessities can be invasive at times and adjust our working procedures to cope with who might be suffering. Thoughtful and appropriate as always!
Membership Matters
Terry Maylin was able to announce Catherine Foley’s renewal of membership. Renewals should be celebrated in the same way as new member applications.
Terry was also able to report a conversation that he had had with Ben Golding who is on the threshold of returning to us following protracted medical treatment, hopefully within the coming weeks before Christmas. He quite rightly referred to Ben’s resilience and fortitude, and we all look forward to seeing him on his return.
60-Second Presentation Round
With a Halloween theme Jane Malyon got us off to a good start with sand witches, ghost turkey and English Scream Teas.
Toby Acton fulfilled his Halloween reference obligation by referring to fear. In the business sense this could be fear of failure, imposter syndrome, or even fear of success. Tactical planning and awareness of future plans for the business can help deal with this problem
Catherine Foley recited the poem composed by Dom, maintaining a literary perspective on her ‘teaching of English’ focused business.
There was a general belabouring of Halloween themes which became a bit bewildering. Terry Maylin talked of nightmare clients, Scott Griffiths talked of scary AI issues with websites and Howard Bullock felt that a reference to budget day was as scary as you could get and he was probably right! And David Rose talked of his nightmares about removal days that go wrong.
It was Shannon Savege who produced the most polished performance with an accompanying scary musical background she recited the benefits of Downton Mortgages and how they could allay their clients fears in the scary task of taking on a mortgage. Her performance quite rightly won her the Oscar.
Visitors Corner
Terry Maylin explained that he was hot on the heels of a hypnotherapist, and other previous visitors have already made promises to return and even join us in the coming weeks.
A plea to all of you, devote at least half an hour or so every month to chasing either recommended categories or any other category that you come across. The growth of our membership is fundamental to our existence and the supply of regular referrals.
10-Minute Presentation by Member-Name
Terry Maylin was this week’s presenter and he produced a very relevant form of presentation. He asked various members to indicate the sort of circumstances that would give rise to them being able to produce referrals that were relevant to him.
This followed on an initial biographical section with an overview of the areas of work that he covers.
It was interesting to see how an awareness of his areas of operation make referrals feasible. It was a reminder to all of us that we can be ‘go to’ people for our friends and family and with awareness of what we all do, can also see opportunities from our business contacts.
Terry’s presentation emphasised our 60 second efforts coupled with the occasional 10 minute presentation Is nothing more or less than a reminder of the accessibility that we all have for referrals. However good our presentations are, they have not succeeded if they do not generate said referrals
Referrals and Testimonials
It is the last item on the agenda, but it is the reason why we all get up and go to the meeting.
After this week’s meeting, we had the pleasure of a Synergy Team meeting hosted by Jane Malyon which attracted a good turnout. I will not pre-empt her minutes, which might very well beat this blog to publication but thanks to Jane for another stimulating discussion.
Thank you Catherine for the reminder that we need to check on each other to make sure we really are ok.
Also thanks to the members that helped with my presentation saying how you would look for referrals specifically for me and when you come across something how you would bring the conversation around to ” i know someone that can help you”.
two really great presentations today – well done. I was also impressed by the awful halloween costumes and make-up that a couple of members had applied!!!
Really important and valuable ad slots from Catherine. And an excellent format from Terry for his 10-minute presentation. Thank you both.
Loved the Halloween theme this week. And loved winning the Oscar even more 🙂
Great meeting, thanks all
Thank you to the legend that is Terry for his 10 mins and Catherines ed slot really hit home.
Thank you to J(ai)ne for the synergy meeting also