Pampered men. They appeared last night.

I think the sausages are done now...probably...

Before I get going: Note to self.  Must finish all these pages on the blog - and more on the mike gets students cooking blog. If only you didn't keep adding stuff...is all I'm saying. Point taken.


Right.  Where was I? Ah yes. Men only cooking shows.  Well, earlier on these pages you heard me chatting away to Ben as something of a preview to an event last night - a men only cooking show. Just to recap, it was held on 'neutral' territory, if you like, in a bar rather than at a house.

The link is here if you missed it.

So what happened?  Well there were few takers in the first few minutes but it built in a short time and a great atmosphere was created.  That's a very short summary.  But here's the cautionary tale. The numbers were small  and as eight oclock approached I was half tempted to say 'let's just not bother' to the  host cum bar owner.  In my defence that's not because I wasn't that interested, to be blunt I was damn nervous.  I was nervous because getting men to such an event seems, by talking to others, a not straightforward exercise.  And yet, as I said, it built through the evening  and in pampered chef-speak, was a qualified show.  Bottom line: it was a success.  Thank heavens I didn't cave in.  Now I'm left wondering if there was more to this problem of getting men to approach direct sales events than I first considered.

There is no doubt at all that such events are 'catalogue shows' 'party plan' or whaever phrase you use, spoken out loud or otherwise.  And frankly I could be selling spanners and I suspect it would be just as hard to break through that unspoken barrier.

But part of last night's lesson to me was, maybe we just make too many assumptions here; maybe we give up to easily.  Maybe the market we guess is there, really is there after all.  It's just harder to grasp and to mature with this type of selling approach. And all it takes is a little more persistance from us - the creators and sellers - to succeed.  More shows are planned following last night because the few guys that were there - enjoyed it! Barbeques were mentioned, probably because apart from chopping stuff, we males like setting fire to sausages with equal passion.

It will be a long haul, methinks.  But certainly worth it. I've got some more thinking to do about all this.  But I smell something in the wind.  And it's not just a sausage.