Harman's Cross Village Club

I was back in the Swanage area last Thursday afternoon, this time speaking at the AGM of the Village Club in Harman's Cross, a hamlet a little way outside the town. This was a short-notice booking which came in when I got back home from my previous Swanage talk. I was asked to stand in due to a speaker from the Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre having to cancel as he was busy giving 24-hour care to a baby woolly monkey so the villagers of Harman's Cross had to make do with a grown-up hirsute comedy writer instead!

Fortunately they had all been informed of the change in the programme at the business meeting before I arrived. There were nearly 50 there, I did about 55 minutes (Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer) and got a great response and a large number came up and chatted afterwards.

I had never actually been down into Harman's Cross before, either as a speaker or on any of my Purbeck coastal walks. Like Kington Magna in North Dorset, where I spoke last October, it has a few hundred people but no pub, etc, although it does boast a Post Office (well, for 3 days a week anyway!) and two service stations as you come in. And, like Kington Magna, it has a thriving hall, although this one is an old Nissen hut which they are busy raising funds to replace. The rural views from its windows are superb but I tried not to allow these to distract me while I was speaking! Another interesting aspect of this setting is that a station on the Swanage preserved steam railway route is yards from the hall.

Incidentally, eleven days is not the shortest notice I have had for a booking in this area; in 2004, I had been up writing all through one Monday night and I got a call at 10am to ask if I was available to speak to the National Trust in Swanage at 3 o'clock that afternoon as a speaker had just cancelled! I agreed, travelled over, delivered my talk to about 70 people without sounding too tired ('Dr Theatre' helping out again?) and it went very well. It is best to get some sleep before speaking, though!

These are two examples of covering cancellations for audiences who were appreciative right from the start but you may have short-notice engagements where you are not so fortunate so you might need to bear the following in mind:

Public Speaking Tip #121: Sometimes if you are a replacement for a speaker on a totally different subject from yours who has dropped out, this may not be announced until you are sitting there waiting to be introduced and you might have to hear groans of disappointment and perhaps even see the odd person leaving before they get to find out whether you are any good or not! You just have to be thick-skinned and give your presentation all you've got. Do this and you will have some audience members coming up afterwards and saying they preferred your talk to the one that was originally booked!

Something which did happen at Harman's Cross was that for the first time ever, I ran out copies of my booklet to sell - I was a couple short - but the talk went so well that there will be other bookings for this group and I will have another chance to sell them then.

Public Speaking Tip #122: If you sell anything at your presentations, such as books, recordings, etc, it's not a bad idea to have some simple order forms that people can fill in on the spot or take away so they can buy your merchandise through the post at a later date. This is useful if you sell out or potential customers want to 'think about it'. You could even leave some with the organisation for members who were  absent - especially if your goods cover the content of a 'how to...' presentation. This idea may work particularly well if you are speaking a long way from where you are based.

My thanks to Keith, a club member, for the lift from the bus station and back again. As usual on my visits to Swanage, I went for a brief walk up to Peveril Point once I was back in the town. It was too dark to see much but old habits die hard!

An interesting fact Keith told me is that there are 120 clubs and societies in and around Swanage, an area with a population of around 10,000. Even if many don't book speakers or my subjects would not be suitable for them, that still leaves a fair number. In recent years, I have spoken to:

One of the two men's Probus Clubs
Swanage National Trust
Residents at a McCarthy and Stone complex
Worth Matravers Ladies' Club
A group meeting of three local Women's Institutes
Corfe Castle Probus Club
Durlston Women's Institute on two further occasions
Swanage Ladies' Luncheon club
and, of course, Harman's Cross Village Club

I have some repeat bookings coming up but doesn't this show that these are probably just the tip of the iceberg? I must find out about some of these other clubs and societies and send out a mailshot.

Public Speaking Tip #123: You discover new markets all the time; even relatively small towns can have a surprisingly high number of organisations which book speakers. Do you know about all the clubs and societies on your doorstep which might be interested in hearing you speak?