(Vadoo Island, The Maldives)

For the last two months I have done almost no speaking.

Instead I have been on paternity leave. (Look at my other blog – www.paternityDad.com to find out more.)

So my days have been full of trips to the zoo, trips to the playgrounds – and as of right now, a trip to The Maldives with my youngest daughter and my wife.

It has been bonding galore.

The perfect thing with being a professional speaker is that you can take periods off like this.

The job market for keynote speakers are seasonal. Almost all big corporate conferences take place during a few months in the autumn (September to November) and a few months in the spring (basically March to June).

(It is easy to understand why: If you organise a big conference with hundreds of people you do not want to put in during a time when there is a big risk that many of the delegates that you want to attend are gone on vacation.)

So even if I can do 100 speeches in 30+ countries in a year I normally have a couple of months off during the summer and more or less one months of (at least) around Christmas.)

When I work I work like crazy.

When I travel I travel like crazy.

But when I do not, I rest, play with my kids and relax – to make sure I do not go crazy.

People who are just getting into the industry of speaking tend to get stressed out when they do not have any bookings for weeks in the summer (or in December).

That is the wrong response.

A speaker should get stressed out when he or she is not booked solid during the “speaking season”.

During the low-times you hibernate so that you can be full of energy when the active season kicks-in.

Or at least that is how I look at the business of global professional speaking.

(Sydney, Australia.)

As a global speaker I want to have a global mindset. Because of that I am a member of numerous speaker associations around the world:

NSA – in the USA – because it is the oldest, biggest and most professional speaker association in the world – by far.
APSS – because it is the local Singaporean organisation and I live in Singapore
NSA(Sweden) – (which i co-founded) – because Sweden has a very high percentage of really good speakers (and because I am Swedish of course)
and
Professional Speakers Australia – because it has a big, organisation and I got my CSP from Australia.

(I am planning to join the speaker associations in the UK and Canada too next year.)

The reason I am a member of so many different organisations is because I do not want to see myself as a speaker from “one” country – I have been invited to speak in 60+ countries and speak in between 20-30 different countries each year – and I think the concept of speaker associations built around countries of residence is too limiting. So to break through from this “country limiting mindset” that many speakers have I am a member of so many different speaker associations.

I think it is very important to have a global mindset as a speaker and being a member of many organisations makes that a little bit easier.

Today I am in Sydney so I used this mindset to catch up with a local Australian speaker (who was actually born in Germany.) when I met up with Peter Strohkorb for a long lunch in a restaurant in Hyde Park.

Peter is a fellow speaker and consultant who’s focus is the intersection between sales and marketing.
His book “The One Team Method” has the subtitle “How Sales+Marketing Collaboration can boost Big Business.”

I like to meet up with speakers to learn more about how they look at speaking.
But I also like to meet up with speakers to learn nothing about speaking.

Today I met with Peter to learn more about the topic he talks on.
To be successful as speakers we need to know a lot about a topic – we need to be thought leaders – so who better to talk to if you want to learn more about a topic than a speaker?

The great part of being a speaker is that it is easy to get access to other speakers and learn from them.

We had a long chat about the importance to integrate your sales and marketing into one combined activity – which was very useful for me as I am a speaker who has not been very good at wither marketing or selling but who has build a career based on word-of-mouth.

After my meeting with Peter I went to the Hotel spa to relax in the sauna for an hour to focus on my own speech later in the night where I had been invited to speak at their event (at the Iconic Sydney Opera House) because they think I would be the best person for the audience to listen to.

Tonight I am the thought leader.
But today I was the one who interviewed the thought leader.

Lesson: Use the fact that speakers and thought leaders like to meet up with each other and try to connect with speakers in cities that you come to and speak to get some new ideas and thoughts into your head.

When is the last time you interviewed another speaker – not about his or her speaking – but about his or her topic or expertise?

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