“So what will you miss in ‘Brokerland’, John?”
“Don’t you mean who?” I said.
“OK, who…?”
“If I take you back to 2006…me…new boy on the block…suspicion reigned…I’m a know nothing…deals/commission/consolidators/i-market/all a bit new to me …
I get an e-mail from an old friend of mine … Helen Davies (Nee Dilnott) – Hi John, I’m now working for Jelf, blah blah blah … can we meet up and I’ll bring my CEO, Alex … blah …”
“Alex who?” I said.
“Anyway … I did. We met…me…Helen…Gary….Gina and he who must be obeyed “Alex”…I then met Chris (Jelf)…the main man, top honcho, chairman, best ever salesman, nicest guy ever…and the rest is history…Presented at two of their conferences (one in a sort of football stadium inside a hotel…weird!); the business has grown dramatically for them and for us…and I hold up Alex as a guy, a relationship, which has been my most personal success…In terms of not only can we talk about anything – no holds barred…good and bad…but also in terms of the numbers, etc…I even went to a Hereford vs. Hartlepool game (Hereford are my original boyhood team -see last week’s blog) and I was guest of honour at the behest of Gina and Alex … (guest of honour included a sausage roll and a cushion on my rusty seat)…
So when you talk about ‘who’…Alex/Jelf/the team spring straight into my brain…
“And …?”
“Well, do you know what…not sure I should say, but when I took the ‘Brokerland’ job in 05/06, I hadn’t really heard of Peter Cullum…and I got a message through the grapevine that he was annoyed I’d not called him…Hmmm, I thought, who is this guy…
“I rang him later (in my time!) and had a chat…hmmm, I thought…hmmm…
“Next thing, it transpired he was a Norwich City fan…played for them in reserves or as a schoolboy…he knew all about them…upside down, back to front…you name it. A genuine, passionate fan…like me.
“I’m not really his sort, I don’t reckon…I thought…Not really…I’m a bit odd/left field for him…and not steeped in GI like him…but in my second or third meeting with him he gave me some advice (not repeated here)…great advice…genuine advice…and subsequently we’ve been in love with Towergate/out of love with Towergate/best friends/worst of friends… I’ve presented to his MDs in Portugal…been in heated discussions about ‘you name it, we’ve discussed it’…seen Norwich City nearly bought by him/relegated…and look what he’s achieved…what a “who” to have met and dealt with.”
“And is that your two ‘who’s’?”
“No … there’s so many more …”
… To be continued …
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Sandra Thurlow on 07/10/2009
I couldn’t read this without leaving a comment…bearing in mind my current place of employment, Towergate that is. Firstly though, what a good idea this blog is. I must admit i’m a little bit of a “net phobe” in the terms of all this instant messaging/facebook/blogs…I could go on! Despite this however I have thrown myself into the world of the world wide web whilst out of the office and have been pleasantly suprised. It makes anyone accessible…take this comment for expample, who would have thought you can communicate with someone who throws up circa 1,400 results when you google them. Anyway, back to the point (i’m obsessing with this blogging thing already!) it going to sound failry corny but it is good to know such a respected name in the industry has such positive words to say of our man at the top.
I’ll stop now…