In Your Shoes - Mark Amos

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Monday

The plan was to make the most of the Bank Holiday…not to enjoy it, but to catch up with some admin when almost everyone else was having fun! A colleague in our Business Development team in Perth filled my morning – and I’m glad she did! She set up an opportunity last Friday with a prospective client she has been nurturing for best part of a year and her persistence paid off! A great meeting in Edinburgh with a multi-site £10M turnover business, which needs a new Broker. Howden can definitely help and improve on everything they have in place - products, service and pricing. My email inbox today has been quiet – but still more than enough to work through from last week. After pulling together the Minutes and dealing with the most pressing emails, the day has gone already! Headed to the gym after hours, I have a new found passion for weight training – something I thought I would never have but really enjoying and feeling the benefits.

Tuesday

This was a pure admin day, to clear the decks from last week and get ahead of the game for next week, which is a packed calendar already with 2.5 days of events – and meetings to fit around these! Not the most exciting day but very productive, working from my office at home. To ensure maximum focus and no distraction, I plugged my earphones in and listened to the only thing which keeps me focused…Pink Floyd! Any album will do but for peak performance, Momentary Lapse of Reason is my go-to! Back to the gym again to do the exact same routine as Monday…but better and quicker!

Wednesday

A renewal meeting with a major client in Glenrothes – and despite being a Fifer, I must confess that I probably wouldn’t find this client without the help of Google Maps! You can drop me in any Scottish city and probably anywhere in the North of England and I will find my way…but not Glenrothes! A much bigger town than most appreciate, with many significant businesses. A very positive and enjoyable two hour meeting, with a number of points to follow up on. After work, back to the gym for the third session in three days. This time was cardio only and I thought I’d copy my son on his treadmill session, prescribed by his PT. He said 30 minutes at an incline of 6 and a speed of 6km per hour would really work up a sweat. My thinking was “yeah right”. At the end, the conclusion was “yeah he was right”!

Thursday

A full day in our Perth office. Whilst I spend most of my time on the road, Perth is the office I spend most of my time in, I’m also a frequent visitor to Edinburgh. The purpose of the visit was to join the celebration around the significant expansion and refurbishment of the office. It is already home to around 75 Howden colleagues – watch this space, there will be plenty happening over the coming months! In addition to the Broking operation for Perth, this office is also a crucial hub for the wider UK business, with various specialist teams. A number of senior UK colleagues visited to take part in the official ribbon cutting, then a very pleasant buffet lunch (which for me centred around carrot cake!) to mark the occasion. Then took in some of the British & Irish Lions squad selection – as principal partner of the team, Howden are very close to all developments leading up to the Lions tour. Either side of the event, I pulled together the rather chunky Minutes of Meeting from Wednesday! After hours, I gave my tired body a rest and popped over to see my daughter in Edinburgh.

Friday

Six hours in the car today, a day trip to Fraserburgh! This was no chore, I have very strong links in Aberdeen City and Shire and it’s always a pleasure to spend time there – not usually so heavily dependent on sunglasses and air conditioning though, it felt like I was on holiday! Fraserburgh is a beautiful place, a drone fliers paradise so I treated myself at lunchtime! A very positive meeting prior with a new contact and definitely worth the trip, which will be repeated again soon. I arrived home in time to watch my English football team, Sunderland in the first leg of the Championship play off. On the back of that drive north, you’d think the appeal of a similar distance trip south next Tuesday would be low. However I love every trip I make to the Stadium of Light and I’m unable to resist a capacity crowd for a massive match. Half day holiday and ticket both booked before the team were back on the coach home from Coventry!