Life of a professional speaker

(Istanbul, Turkey)

I am on the final leg of a trip that will take me around the world in 204 hours. 45 000 km in 8,5 days. That is an average traveling speed of 220 km/h …

It included:
9 flights
in
8 days
visiting
9 countries
and
9 airports
on
4 continents.

Sounds stressful and hectic when you look at it like that.

And yet I got to:
– Speak to a global group of accountants (from Nexia) and attend a two day conference to learn about the latest trends in accounting.
– Attend a salsa-inspired party in a natural park and listen to a speech from a man who climbed Mt Everest with a prostatic leg.
– Do a workshop on having a global mindset for global managers of one of the largest banks in the world. (Credit Suisse)
– Do a speech for a big group of bankers at ING HQ in Holland.
– Have a 30 minute interview with a senior manager at ING about the future of banking.
– Write 20 000 words of new texts (for a future project), have a phone conference with Germany, and chat with my suppliers in the Philippines, Ukraine and Pakistan.
– And get booked for new speeches in Indonesia and Germany and get requests to speak in Thailand, Switzerland and Singapore.

But it was not all work. I also got to:
Have Sushi in Tokyo, hamburger in Houston, rum in Rio de Janeiro, tapas in Lisbon, Schnitzel in Zurich, cheese in Amsterdam, (and now) tea in Istanbul  – (and soon a quick transfer in Kuala Lumpur).
Read a book, go to the movies (Bladerunner), visit friends and coach a speaker.
Run on the beach of Copacabana, stroll along the lake in Zurich, and walk next to the canals of Amsterdam for hours.
Learn about Brazilian culture from a personal guide in Rio, and visit the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam

During on of my speeches – when I was speaking about having a global mindset – a man questioned if it was not important to “have roots”.
He seemed to think that it was not possible to have a global mindset and strong connection to your culture (your roots) at the same time.
I explained that those are not opposites.
An healthy tree has strong roots and wide branches (where the branches for me symbolises ones ability to “branch out” and get energy, wisdom and ideas from as wide a world as possible.)

He seemed happy with my reply.

But now after finishing my “sprint around the world” i have come to realise something else.
That by experiencing so many different places, cultures and situations from all around the world in such a short period of time I feel that I have created a deeper connection to the whole world.

This trip changed me.

As I sit here in Istanbul it hits me:

I am rooted in the world!

Not just one corner of it. Not some part of it. No, my roots are global.

That is not possible, you say.

But I say that it is.

It is like a banyan tree where the branches are spreading out downwards into the ground and creating new roots!

My Swedish roots are still there (of course). As are the Philippine roots that my wife added to me when we got married, and the Singaporeans roots that I grew as I moved there 8 years ago, and my Chinese and American roots from having lived there for a couple of years. And the small, but energetic roots that has grown out from my visits to over 70 countries on 6 continents. And so on.

And now all these roots are creating a jungle of intertwined impressions where it feels totally natural for me to say that I am rooted in the world.

Where it doesn’t feel like I left one place to travel the world.
Where it instead feels like I just visited a bunch of different location of one place where I belong.

I am not expecting everyone to understand what I mean.
Heck, I am not even expecting everyone to believe me when I describe it.
(And I know many are going to read it and find something negative with it.)
But I do not care.

Because I think it is beautiful, powerful and magical.
Just like a Banyan tree.

 

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(Picture source. Creative Commons.)

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(Amsterdam, Holland)

Yesterday speech in Zurich. Tomorrow speech in Amsterdam. But today an off day.

So what does a speaker do on a off-day in a foreign land?

I walked through the inspiring downtown of Amsterdam.

Got inspired (and humbled) by visiting the house of Anne Frank.

Sat in an inspiring hotel-bar and wrote a few blogposts for a new blog I am starting.

Went to see the inspiring movie Blade Runner with some friends.

Ate some inspiring, great food.

In other words: Got inspired.

You know the saying “How do you become interesting? Answer: By being interested.”

Well, I guess it is also true that: “How do you become inspiring? By being inspired?”

I truly believe that one of the most important jobs of a speaker is to inspire. And to keep that fire alive that makes it possible to inspire you need to also need to get inspired yourself.

So I had a good, inspiring day today.

But the most inspiring thing I did today was to coach a woman (Angel) to become a speaker.

That was not the plan. The plan was just to meet up and have a “fika” (A Swedish style coffee break and catch up.

Angel is one of the guests who has stayed on my Ideas Island (www.ideasisland.com)

But in an intense two-hour session I did an condensed speaking coaching session that started with her not even knowing that she wanted to be a speaker (she is a natural and will be a great speaker) to hammering out not only her speaking theme, but her go to market strategy, her positioning, her speaking approach and how she should build up her speech (and book.)

It was great and I think we came up with an awesome approach for her.

I just love how the speaking profession is built around the idea of sharing, coaching and helping each other be better. Today I helped in every such a small way to bring another speaker into our profession. (At least I hope I did 😉

Such fun – and inspiring – thing to do on an off day on the road.

Who have you inspired today? And perhaps even more importantly: How did you get inspired today?

 

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This is John.

John has an Italian father and a British mother, he speaks 7 languages fluently and he lives in Brazil since more than 20 years.
His job is to guide foreigners in Rio, but also to go on trips abroad as a guide for Brazilian tourists.

Today he was my guide from the airport to my hotel in Copacabana overlooking the Balneario Beach.

As someone who has travelled a lot, who has met so many foreigners and been living in Rio for so long I asked him:

“What is the biggest misconception that foreign tourists have about Brazil?”

He replied: “When they have been here a few days they tend to say: ‘It’s less dangerous than we thought it would be’.”

John is not saying that there is no violence in Rio. (there is).
What he is saying is that tourists tend to realise that the picture that they had painted in their heads before coming here was unrealistically negative.

I find that so true.

I have been in Sri Lanka during the war, in Pakistan and South Africa and many other places that some people are hesitant to go to.

My reaction is always “What are people so afraid of?”

Again, I am not saying we should not be cautious when we travel, or that we should be naive and think that there is no violence in the world and that some places has more of it than others (I did see a bomb go off in Sri Lanka).

I am saying that it seems that we – as humans – tend to be the most afraid of places we have never been to.
And because of that fear we are reluctant to go there.
and by not going there we can not realise that these places tend to be less dangerous than we thought.

I guess that means that our fear is stopping us from being less afraid.

It always makes me a bit sad when I hear and read about speakers who do not go abroad to give speeches because they are afraid. It is much more common than you would think.

Personally I see the opportunity to speak in some countries as a huge bonus as I might not have decided to go there as a tourist.

The job of being a speaker is arguably one of the best jobs in the world when it comes to how easy it is to do your job in different countries.

Take advantage of that.

A positive side effect is that you become less afraid of the world.

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