It was -3° when I was sat in my car at 5:30 AM waiting for the frozen windscreen to clear before I could set off to the meeting. Was it worth it? It most certainly was!!! 20 members and one visitor arrived in good spirits and despite the persistently low temperatures there were warm greetings for everyone and the lively meeting to follow.
The Performance League
The last meeting of the month showed Matt Barry way out in front although myself and Neil Bellham are currently 2nd and 3rd respectively struggling to keep up
Education Presentation
Ben Golding is absent somewhere in Turkey and I was the lucky ‘breach stepper intoer’ with a reminder of the importance of the old BNI slogan ‘givers gain’ and the tools that we have at our disposal to make sure that we are aware of exactly what our fellow members do in order to enable us to give referrals. Our toolkit includes 60 second presentations, 10 minute presentations, synergy team meetings and 1-2-1’s. Although it is pretty basic it is fundamental to our referral group being successful.
The 60 Second Round
James Humphreys was first, to enable full concentration as the Oscar awarder for everyone else’s presentations. With Christmas coming up he simply wanted us to be aware that visiting hotels and restaurants was a comfortable way to fulfil referrals
Neil Bellham quite rightly bragged of his success with Ninja and the bright future going forward with them in their upcoming events.
Rosemary Driscoll, consistent with her role as a travel consultant has been travelling this week….. to far-flung Manchester. I do not know whether she encountered rain but it apparently was stimulating and gave her further impetus to send us all further afield on the holidays that she can arrange for us.
Brian Painter deals with clients as far-afield as America and Dubai in helping his clients to giving up smoking. He also mentioned the word for ‘fear of men’ for a lady that is a new client. Can you remember the word and if so tell us in your comments to this blog. I’m afraid there aren’t any prizes.
Clara Downton was upbeat over the increasing mortgage opportunities and options available in the current market. Her optimism was only eclipsed by Blake Hammond who was able to report orders coming in and with next door moving out the prospect of opening up his shop. By way of spoiler alert I can confirm that this good news story found favour with James Humphreys and he was awarded the Oscar at the end of the round. Toby Acton is always optimistic and understandably, this optimism was in no way diminished by the prospect of his upcoming visit to Dubai which resulted in his wearing Christmas celebratory attire a week early and a very positive attitude to the New Year’s calendar which should be filled in with your holidays and leisure requirements first before entering in your work schedules. Life/work balance is everything.
Paul Booth and Howard Bullock followed one another and we’re very definitely a double act promoting the value of a VCT investment from a tax efficiency point of view. If you want to find out more you should speak to either of them.
Terry Maylin likes to sue people on behalf of clients but he recognises the value of discretion. Finding that a clients data had CCJs registered against him led him to advise caution before wasting further costs on issuing court proceedings.
Our visitor was Steve Penn and he deals with commercial interiors. I mentioned him in this part of the blog because he feels that his modus operandi is such that he could have synergetic relationships with several members and from the conversations that Scott and I had with him after the meeting he indicated a serious interest in joining our group which is a nice way to end my round up of the 60 second presentations.
This weeks statistics and points of note
Scott Griffiths was upbeat with his announcement of 21 referrals today together with his reminder that next week and the week after are Christmas jumper days; next week being the NSPC charity day when not only should we turn up with your jumper but a £2 donation rising to £5 if you forget your jumper.
10-minute presentation by Toby Acton
It was Toby Acton’s last meeting before he goes to Dubai on an extended break. but he had taken the time to produce a quiz for his 10 minutes presentation to which some of us knew the answers and somebody won but the details are slightly vague in my mind so you will forgive the lack of detail. Because we will not see him until January was perhaps an explanation for the quiz and not a deep dive into the benefits of his coaching/ mentoring skills that might result in referrals. Enjoy your break Toby.
Sartorial Note
It was a successful round if for no other reason than we had 21 referrals, a large number of which appeared to be of good quality.
There are two more meetings to go before Christmas so let’s see if we can have full turnouts to enjoy ‘fun filled festive frolics’.
great meeting and nice to see a visitor. have a great holiday Toby (you can take your Christmas jumper with you!) – where are you off to?
Great meeting once again
What a lovely warm meeting never mind the temperature outside, the effort made was really good and worth the effort!
Good to see our visitor Steve and hopefully we will see him again as I can see plenty of synergies there.
Great meeting and I can report that Toby has already visited me and dropped off my speakers prize that he forgot earlier. A lovely bottle of red – thank you very much.
Great meeting. Always a sucker for a good news story, especially when it’s obvious how much work is going into it. Well done Blake, the Oscar is the very least you deserve and give me a shout when those heated gilets are about!
A lovely lively meeting. Toby tested our knowledge on what he does for his 10 minutes, a great way to keep us on our toes! A great reminder from Aiden in his ed slot. Christmas jumpers at the ready for the next 2 weeks!
Thank you Jane Malyon for your glowing testimonial today. It was a pleasure working with you. I am glad you love your new dining room.
See you all next week!
Great meeting and excellent presentation by Toby.
Thank you Aidan for the Ed Slot and Toby’s 10 minutes making our brains work early in the morning (well not so early) great to see our visitor Steve Penn hopefully he will come back and join us. See you all next week with one of my Christmas Jumpers
Sorry to miss you all this week but I don’t think anyone would want my cough! Hope you all had a good meeting!
Why has everybody decided to whisper? I had to read the Chairman’s blog (which I do anyway) to discover who won the speakers prize and the quiz. Was it me? A word of recognition for our Chairman;following the meeting he went home , wrote the blog and then drove half way across the county to join The old Git’s reunion at noon. Is Vincent ill? He’s normally amongst the first to comment on the blog.
Age before beauty Brian
Are you talking about your legs again?
Good to see our Toby wearing a sweaty polyester Christmas top. In case you weren’t aware, he won’t be here next week. Well done all. (I’ll be sitting next to James next week)
Ah well done Aidan and Toby. Very entertaining and interesting! Another great meeting. Already looking forward to the next one! Safe travels Toby too x