I do not normally share the CSR-projects of my business. But in this post I will do an exception and share some of my recent CSR-activities in the last month.

First of all: I call it “creative social responsibility”, well, because I speak on creativity and want to remind myself to do creative projects that help.

In the last few weeks we have done these projects (sample):

• Environment. (Tree planting, Bintan)

A few weeks ago I took my family to Bintan, Indonesia to help plant mangrove trees off the coast of Bintan to help restore the local marine environment.

• Pro-bono speeches (Boys’ Brigade.)

This Saturday I volunteered to speak for the Boy’s Brigade in Singapore. As a global speaker I find it important to get involved with the causes that are dear to the local community where I live. I was happy to be one of two speakers and to share the stage with the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Vivian Balakrishnan).

• Find-your-voice (sponsor a deaf child)

Last week I  was in Manila and met with Julie Gutierrez Esguerra, an amazing woman who teaches deaf children how to talk and read lips. A perfect example of someone helping children “find their voice”. And I am happy to sponsor Julie’s school to give the gift of speech to more deaf children.

I am of the belief that as a global speaker the CSR-activities should be a mix of very local (picking up trash with our children where we live – which we did yesterday) via local community involvement (like speaking for Boy’s Brigade, to regional help (like the support of deaf children in the Phillipines, to global events (like supporting WorldVisions projects (which we also did last week.)

I also believe it should be a mix of giving of your time, giving with your heart and giving with your wallet.

How do you plan your CSR activities and what is your strategy around it?

IDEAS ISLAND.

One of my global CSR-project is Ideas Island (www.IdeasIsland.com) where I encourage creative people from around the world to apply to come and stay – for free – on one of my private islands (in Sweden) to work on their favourite creative project. (I encourage those who can to give a small amount to charity, but no money goes to me.)

Ideas Island is all about giving creative people a chance to experience the amazing feeling of sitting, by yourself, on an island where you can just focus on your own ideas. (I spend 2 months per year on my other island so I know the creative power that comes from being alone with your ideas on an island.)

If you are interested to get a chance to stay on Ideas Island this summer (we have a couple of free weeks that just opened up) I MIGHT be able to get you a spot. Email me on fredrik@fredrikharen.com and tell me who you are and why you think you should get to stay on Ideas Island to work on your creative project.

 

 

 

 

I am by no means a social media expert but today I want to share about how a random LinkedIn post got more than 440,000 views, more than 4500 likes and 100+ shares and 100+ comments, and what my insight on that post is.

A few weeks ago I landed in Portugal and took a snapshot of a policeman helping people get the right taxi.

You can read the post here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6494340652027998208

It was a blurry photo, a few lines of text and I posted it without an after thought. And it went viral.

So why?

a) I think it triggered a sense of pride amongst the Portuguese.

b) The post is genuine in the appreciation of someone doing a job in a creative way.

c) It is not about the author, but about someone else.

d) It’s not written to be “viral”.

In other words: It was genuine.

I could have tried to do a flashy post, with hashtags and tried to write it in a way that would make people want to share it, and most likely nothing would have happened. (I know, since I have done posts like that where I thought I did “everything right” just to see the posts get no traction at all 😉

Now let me be clear: I am terrible at understanding how social media works, but I think the lesson about this post going viral can be useful for speakers too. People today want genuine, authentic real -life examples. Both on social media and in speeches.

Sure, the slick, polished, “perfect” speech with amazing graphics and videos and rehearsed stage performance can still work, but the genuine, authentic – human – speech is even more powerful.

Aim for that.

(And no, this post is not written to go viral, or to be seen as an example of what I am speaking about. It is just one of my weekly posts on ProfessionalSpeaking.com where I share my insights on the many aspects of building a professional speaking career.

And no, the viral post did not lead to booked speaking engagements, but it did lead to the policeman in question contacting me on Facebook as people where telling him about the post (!) and he gave me some more example of creative Portuguese police work that I am thinking of using in my upcoming book “The World of Creativity”. 😉

If you want to have a comfortable and successful career as a global keynote speaker, where should you live?

The answer, if you ask me, is: Singapore.

And thus Singapore is the city I choose to settle down in when I made a conscious decision to become a global keynote speaker. Now I speak in 20-30 countries on 4-5 continents per year.

When I decided to pick a local base for my global speaking business I was very detailed. I knew I wanted to live in Asia (see #5  future ready) and I then lived for at least 2 weeks in 10 different Asian cities to really evaluate them from the perspective of which city would be the best place to live when building a global speaking career.

Here are the reasons I have come up with for why Singapore won as the best base for a global speaker:

Reason #1: The number of direct flights all over the world.

I am writing this from San Francisco International airport where I am waiting to board a plane.

I flew straight to San Francisco from Singapore.

Later this week I am speaking in Switzerland and I will then fly straight back to Singapore.

I can reach Australia, Asia, Europe and both the East and West coast of North America with direct flights from Singapore.

Yes Turkey (Istanbul), Doha and Dubai could be great places too due to the great global connections from those airports. But the speaking opportunities in (!) Istanbul, Doha and Dubai is not as great as they are in Singapore.

Reason #2: Best Airport in the world.

Singapore Changi Airport has been voted “Best Airport in the World” so many times that other airports should be ashamed. It just is such a great airport.

– I am often HOME less than 30 minutes after my plane landed.

– It’s one of the most automated airports in the world.

– It’s build to be stressless (just the fact that security is next to the gate (!) and not next to immigration is such a “de-stresser”.

– Most importantly: It virtually never closes and very, very seldom there are delays.

The airports works and it woks in a wonderful way.

(If you ask me the way an airport works is more important from a flying experience than the airlines)

 

Reason #3: Best Airline in the world.

Singapore Airlines is the gold standard in flying. The service is the best if you ask me and the business class seats are a dream. Best way to fly.

Reason #4: Quality of life

The amount of government service you get for your tax dollar in Singapore is the best in the world if you ask me. Of course there is always things that can be better, but over all Singapore is an amazing country to live in. (I have worked in 67 countries so I have had a chance to compare many countries…)

Reason #5: Future ready.

Asia is not the biggest market for speakers today. But Asia will be. 60% of the world population lives in Asia and Asia is where the world center of gravity is moving to. To be based in Asia is to be closer to the future.

Reason #6: The most global place on Earth.

Singapore is such a global place. 50% of the people in Singapore who work are from outside Singapore. It’s a mix of cultures (Chinese, Indian, Malay, Western etc) and cultural differences are celebrated.

If you want to have a global mindset it really helps to live in a global city and if you ask me Singapore is the most global city in the world.

So there you have it: If you are a professional speaker, a motivational speaker, an inspirational speaker or any other kind of speaker and you want to speak globally then Singapore is the place to be based. It’s your base on Earth.

At least it is for me.

And it works.

Want some proof? When I moved to Singapore I had spoken in 10 or so countries. Now, 10 years later, I have been invited to speak in 67 countries. And I can honestly say that moving to Singapore played a big part in making that happen.