Gone fishing

David Moore (Novaglass) our double-glazing expert stands up for his 60 Seconds; he has a fishing rod in his hands. It seems that David likes to cast a line for a little relaxation in his spare time. I also discover that Matt Phils (A-Plan), our insurance broker, likes nothing better than to coax a monster carp into his landing net from a beautiful lake as often as he can. Although with two small children it’s not happened for a while.

Back row: Simon Harris, Mike Daly, Steve Cole, David Moore, David Wimblett
Front row: Nevill Godwin, Chris Denny

So why is this all going on at BNI Elmbridge? Well our 60 Seconds are all about our hobbies (with props of course). Now some of you might be thinking ‘but what’s that got to do with business?’ and the answer is, it’s about relationship building. Getting to know one another better. Finding something we have in common, a connection, because it really can make a big difference in how well people work together.

A great example of this happened to me a few years ago now. There was a member in my chapter that I seldom talked to and he didn’t go out of his way to talk to me either. Don’t know why, we just didn’t gel. Then he did his 10 Minutes and everything changed.

For his 10 Minutes he changed into his motorcycle racing leathers and he told us all about the racing he did around Europe. Now I was a big Barry Sheene fan and this got us talking. Cutting a long story short, the result was me referring him to one of my best friends, something that other than finding out about his hobby would never have happened.

So, I highly recommend that you have a Hobbies 60 Second at your chapter very soon if you haven't had one already.

And, obviously it’s not just about building business relationships, as I have now been clay pigeon shooting with Steve Cole (S. J. Cole & Co), our master builder, and I’m going pike fishing with David in the autumn. Just brilliant!

NOTE: Photograph by Andrew Boschier