Month: January 2016

(Stockholm, Sweden)

You are booked for a speech in Bangkok on a Wednesday that will end at 12.00 noon (Thailand time).

You have another booking in Stockholm, Sweden, that begins at 3 pm (Sweden time) on Friday.

Now a client calls you and asks if you can speak on the island of Hainan, in Southern China on Thursday morning.

What would you say?

Some speakers would say: “Sorry, but I am already booked in two countries on two continents in three days, so it is not possible.”

Some speakers would say: “It looks tight, but let me check the flights.” (And when they realise that the flight they would have to take is a flight from Bangkok to Shenzhen and then onwards to Hainan leaves Bangkok at 2.05 pm they would say, “It’s too tight.”

And then there are the global speakers. 🙂

I replied: “I would love to!”

I then booked the 2.05 pm flight (and also a back-up ticket for a flight leaving 3.25 pm but not arriving in Hainan until 1.25 pm (which would not be ideal since it would mean too little sleep, but it would work as a back-up would I miss the 2.05 flight.)

12.05 I leave the conference room to jump into a waiting car that got me to the airport at 12.55 pm.

Arrive in Hainan 11 pm. Arrive at hotel at 11.50 pm.

Gave speech in Hainan 9-10 am on Thursday. Hanged around on the beach all day. Boarded a plane from Hainan to Hong Kong at 20.2o pm. Had a 1,5 hour lay-over in Hong Kong and then flew to Stockholm (via Helsinki) to arrive in Sweden at 8 am. In hotel at 9 am. Early check-in to get 3 hours of sleep in a bed. Shower, breakfast and at conference at 1 pm to listen to the other speakers. 3 pm speak in Sweden.

Three speeches, in three countries, on two continents (including 6 flights and 7 airports) in around 60 hours.

I even got to experience a sand-castle building competition on the beach.

If you want to be a global speaker you have to be ready to make travel arrangements like this.

The life of a global speaker is the opposite of a “normal” job.

A normal job has 40 hours of work per week and 8 hours of commuting.

A global speaker has 5 hours of work per week, and 40 hours of commuting…

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