My Perfect Broker Week: MyFirst’s James Noble

What constitutes the ideal start to your working week?

I like to wake up early on a Monday morning: go to the gym and sauna, get a good breakfast, then get stuck into my week.

In terms of working in the office to home/other, what does your working week now look like?

Me and my team work full time in the office – we feel this gives us much better team chemistry and allows us to be connected with our staff.

What does a productive in-person, in-office meeting with your own team look like to you?

Everyone in one room – brainstorming and bouncing ideas off one another – ensuring we stick to an agenda and tackle whatever we set out to discuss. We like to keep our meetings lighthearted.

What does a productive in-person, in-office meeting with an insurer partner look like to you?

Very similar to above.

What does an ideal lunch break look like to take your mind off the day job?

I am not great at taking a break when we are so busy – but if I do, then I aim to just get some fresh air and some brief exercise.

We all know evening meet-ups are important for networking. What is the best after-work event you have recently attended?

Given we have quite a young work force, I recently hired a private cinema and watched The Inbetweeners followed by a football match, which was a good evening!

Team bonding is also key to a successful broking business. What do you think is a successful way to keep team spirits up?

We have really invested in our social events outside of work to allow people to really get to know each other and build those quality bonds. I think understanding what different people like and enjoy and then catering to that is really important.

Have you had a ‘workation’?

We often stay at Watergate Bay down in Cornwall as a management team and this gives us the ability to switch off from the day-to-day running of the company and discuss the projects and development side of the company.

On Friday evening, how do you like to wind down after a busy week?

I will often go out for a nice dinner or the other option is that all the staff play Call of Duty on a Friday night and sometimes they are able to drag me into that, ha ha!

James Noble will be part of the panel Broking Success: How Do I Move the Dial in My Broking Business? at Broker Expo on 12 October at the NEC Birmingham.

To sign up to join him click here.