Friday is my quarterly day with The Strategic Coach, this time at The Savoy Hotel in Central London.
We are a group of 30 but I’m especially pleased to be with some of my best mates:
Simon Hocken
Tim Thackrah (who celebrates his birthday with us)
Guy Levine.
The day is a personal revelation for me:
- Creating the organisational structure for my business in 3 years from now – an increase from a support team of 2 to a support team of 25!
- Realising that I have to creatively destroy The Dental Business School in 2008 and re-design “everything”;
- Understanding that the material we deliver and the internal systems that we employ have to be turned into a series of turnkey processes;
- Admitting that I have neglected my lead conversion systems in the last 3 months and have to get back in control quickly.
The room at The Savoy was awful – a basement bunker of grandeur but with no natural light – so by 3.00pm I was brain-dead and washed out – but the morning session was a period of incredible productivity.
The hotel is, of course, one of London’s finest.
I knew I was in the right place when, walking into reception with Simon, we asked the concierge for directions to our conference room and I noticed he was wearing a Breitling watch that I cannot afford.
What’s quite strange is how I arrived at The Savoy.
Thursday morning I woke up in Cobham, Surrey, after a workshop there the day before and a working dinner with clients in (you’ve guessed it) Pizza Express.
Looking at my travel itenary over the next few weeks, I came up with a cunning plan.
I drove from Cobham to Birmingham Airport, left my car there in the long-stay car park and walked to the railway station.
Catching a train back to London, I enjoyed the first-class comfort of Richard Branson’s Virgin Pendelino service, arriving in London for 3.30pm.
A cab ride to the excellent Hilton Tower Bridge (featured before in the blog) and then eventually caught up for dinner with Simon Hocken, Ernie (his beautiful partner) and their gorgeous new baby Harry.
All of this on a client call-in day – with calls made from my car, from Birmingham Airport, from Birmingham International Railway Station, from the back of a London cab and from the Hilton.
Here’s my executive office at Birmingham International Station:
Sounds crazy – but the payback will be next week, when I attend our Mastermind Group meeting in Birmingham on Monday and then drive North to Newcastle and South to Doncaster.
For now – I have one day of rest in a busy schedule.
Ending where I began – the realisation yesterday of how much my best mates mean to me.
