(Most of posts on ProfessionalSpeaking.com are about how to become better as a speaker. A few are about the life of a professional speaker. This post is mostly about the later.)

One of the best perks of being a professional speaker is all the interesting people you get to meet in your job.

The people who get selected to speak at conferences are the people that the event managers think has the best message for the audience, and the people that the event manager think that the audience really would like to hear from. Either way that means it will be interesting people with interesting stories/messages.

And as a speaker you automatically get a connection to the other speakers. (I have shared the stage, and gotten to talk to, some amazing people over the years. like Hans Rosling, Seth Godin, Richard Branson and many, many more.)

But a bonus effect of being a speaker is that interesting people also reach out to you.

This week, for example, I have been on vacation on my island in Sweden and yet I got to meet an AI expert and a space designer.

a) Lars Sjölund is running “AI Stockholm” and have been working with Artificial Intelligence for many years (way before it became the hottest topic in business). He has, for example, developed a logarithm to have a machine read thousands of x-ray images to learn how to detect brain cancer. We sat on the dock and he asked me about speaking globally and I asked him about the future of AI.

b) Cecilia Hertz has been a space designer for 17 years and developed everything from yogurt for astronauts  to interior for spaceships. We sat on the dock and she asked me about speaking globally and I asked her about innovation in space.

(Bonus Perk: When my kids got to meet a “real life space woman” and Cecilia gave them “astronaut ice-scream” (freeze-dried Ice-scream that they eat in space) they got “star-struck” (should that be “space-struck”?) and I scored many points on the “coolest dad around-o-meter” because I was friends with “a space woman”. 😉

Two fascinating and interesting meetings – while I am on vacation.

As speakers we get flung into an orbit with very many interesting people – use this fact to connect with other speakers and learn more about the fascinating topics that got them to speak. It might give you ideas for future speeches, and it is guaranteed to make your day more interesting.

 

 

The conference I was speaking at in Paris yesterday got a bit delayed which meant my speech ended a bit later than planned. Then there were more traffic than I had anticipated to get to the airport in Paris so when I finally got to the airport it was 5 minutes left until boarding started (and I still had to get through security etc).

Luckily I had printed out my boarding card so it was ok to arrive at the airport 30 minutes AFTER check-in had closed. But that meant that my bag could not make it.

I asked my driver to take the bag back with him to my Paris hotel and grabbed my carry-on to rush through security to get to my flight.

What is the lesson here?

If you are going to check in luggage make sure that all the things you need for your speech is in your carry on.  A bag is just a bag and DHL can get it to you later. But you have to make that speech. And that means you have to make that flight – even if you have to leave your bag behind.

This post written when I am happily arrived in Malta.

(PS. Yes, there was a back-up flight that would have been able to take me to Malta in time for my speech today, but that would have had me on flights more or less all night and taken me to Tunisia for the connection to Malta which would have meant sleeping on planes and airports and arriving in Malta 1 hour before the flight, so not a very desirable Plan B, better than to leave the bag behind and get on that flight without it.)

 

 

I am know as the “global conference speaker” who delivers keynotes around the world (spoke in 24 countries last year). But standing on stages and traveling the world is what you see, but what about those days when I am not traveling, and not speaking?

I thought it could be of useful to see what those “non-speaking” speaking days can look like.

Today was a typical such day. (This was written Monday 14 May)

8:30 – 9:30 – Had late and long breakfast with my 2.5 year old daughter who wanted to learn how to “make tea”.

9:30 – 10:45 – Did an Inner Theme session (www.innertheme.com) with a speaker from Dubai who had flown in and wanted help to find clarity on the topic he should be speaking on. (we finished the session in the taxi to my client meeting to give him maximum time with me.)

11:00 – 12:00 Client meeting for a speech I am delivering on Saturday for a global bank’s IT department.

12:00 – 14:45 Lunch, 30 minutes walk in a park and a 90 minute massage. (When I am not speaking I try to give myself plenty of time off from “work” to give me time to think, reflect and contemplate.

That is also where I drafted out the outline for this blog post.

14:45 – 17:30  Attended my son’s swim championships. I am father first, speaker second and have been on “50% (unpaid) paternity leave” for the last 4 years. I rather make less money and spend more time with my children when they are young than have all that extra income but wish I had known my kids better. Seeing my son’s face when he swam for the first time in a championship is priceless.

17:30 – 18:00  – Did the last changes to the slides for a presentation I am doing in Shanghai on the 17th.

18:00 – 19:30 Eat dinner with family and put kids to sleep. I especially find that last 30 minutes before the kids fall asleep to be the most valuable parenting hour. Having them fall asleep knowing I am there.

19:30 – 21:00 Drinks and chat with the owner of a speaker bureau who is also a good friend. The business of speaking is a business of relationships and when working with a bureau for a number of years you develop a friendship that is beyond business. The business of speaking is, at least for me, actually never about the business. It’s about people, about spreading a message, about making the world change for the better.

21:00 – 10:30 A late night discussion with two speakers visiting from India, about how we can help develop the professional speaking business in Asia. Helping grow the speaking business in general is something I am very passionate about and something I put many hours of un-paid work into. I have been speaking for almost 1/4 of a century and I am now in the phase of my life where you give back.

Thus also the reason I am writing this blog.

10:30 – 11:30 Watching a movie with my wife.

Checking and replying to emails I did while in taxis going to and from different meetings during the day.

Now, there might not be a lot that looks like “sales” or “work” during this day, and that is the point. When I am not speaking I try to give myself time and space to meet inspiring people, to have time for my family and to help develop the speaking industry. Later this week I am flying to China for a big keynote for a global conference. But today was about what I do when I do not speak.