Boo! Hiss! Taking on the tinsel at 4N York

We had an epic meeting at 4N York this morning, even though are numbers were down, we made up for it by shaking things up a bit.

Several of our regulars had already started their break for Xmas, the call of the tinsel was too much, and the team was depleted, so Martin Rhodes stepped up as Group Leader for the first time today and did a fine job.  As we had a small, but perfectly formed, group today, we decided to shake things up a bit for the 40 seconds round.

Instead of the normal intros, we buddied up and learnt a bit more about a fellow passporter, then delivered their 40 second intro for them.

It was awesome.

Martin Rhodes, introducing Sheena Whyatt - 'she's the godfather of training, but in a frock'

Zoe McDougall, introducing Shane Wakeford - 'he names his equipment'

Steve Osborne, introducing Nic Hemingway - 'he translates what you want into geek speak'

Tim Williams, introducing Pete Gibson - 'he's a real person'

Hope Varnes & Gavin McBride took it one step further by having coordinating outfits.  It was great to see them both too.

It really challenged us all to actively listen to the person we were talking to and learn more about what they do and how they do it.  Something to make a regular occurence I think.

Gavin McBride, the taxman (Boo!), but the nice taxman (yay!) gave a fabulous 4Sight on ways to help us all save tax and understand how to structure our businesses to do so.  I wish I had had the handout Gavin provided when I first started out as a limited company in 2006, it is really useful.  Watch out for Gavin on the circuit, I totally recommend his 4Sight.

Next time at 4N York is on the 17th January - come and join us http://www.4networking.biz/Events/Details/24001

We'll be back at full strength and raring to go after Christmas, it's a top team & a great group - see you then.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanks to Sheena and Martin for a great meeting this morning.  It was really challenging to understand somebody else's business enough to stand up and do a 40 seconds on it, but I certainly won't forget what Shane does in a hurry.  Anybody needing jobs done safely at height should talk to him.

Thanks also to Gavin for the great tips in his 4Sight - a nice taxman is someone everyone in business should know.

Merry Christmas, and a prosperous 2012 to you all

Hi Sheena, thanks for inviting me to the 4N York meeting. It was worth getting up even earlier than usual. I thought the buddy system was a fantastic idea. It was scary but a really good way to see my business from some else's point of view.

Although I already heard Gavin's 4sight last week, I learned more today from the questions asked.

Thanks again and Merry Christmas!

Yes, great idea to present someone else’s 40 seconds! Really enjoyed the meeting & glad people found my 4sight useful.

Hope everyone has a fantastic Crimbo and a prosperous new year!

What can I say Sheena? Well I'll start with.........what a FANDABIDOSEY meeting, not exactly off the cuff (links) but a great, viable and apt variation of the 'norm'. Very appropriate doing someone else's 40 seconds due to numbers but can also be used when a 4sight slot is vaccant. Most people have trouble with what to say when doing their own 40 seconds because they know their business and 'think' others do to, therefore they miss the most relevant points. With someone else doing your 40 sec and you doing someone's 40 sec for them makes you see things differently, brilliant !

Thank you Zoe for doing my 40 sec, it was really nice hearing someone else describe what I do. I hope I did you justice in describing your 'geek' training services, helping people to progress up the career ladder .

Again, Gavin's 4sight was extremely informative, I've never witnessed a 'taxman' so positive and answering so many questions.

Look forward to the next meeting .

A great meeting all and thank you for being so supportive of my first go at group leader.

As Sheena wrote, a small but perfectly formed group...The dedicated few!

Brilliant to see how people really listened, understood and then presented their buddy's business detail and I suspect it was interesting and somewhat confidence building to know that someone in your network now has the detailed awareness recommend you to a potential customer in the future.

Our next meeting is 17 Jan 2012 and so the management team will see what other innovations that we can cook up to make York number 1 again.

Remember that the forums here are never closed so keep networking and helping each other out...reaching out over Christmas might be exactly what another person in your network needs even though its technically a holiday.

All the best for the holiday season