“You just work one hour and then you are done?! Boy you are lucky!”

People who hear I make a living being a professional speaker are often amazed by how we speakers can have as a job to speak for 60 minutes.

And it is true, the job of being a professional speaker is in many way a blessed profession.

And yes, we do have a lot of time off.

But that “one hour of speaking” is often surrounded by a lot of other things.

Let me give you a run-down of the last 40 hours.

Monday

03:45  AM – Wake up and row from my island to the main land

04.00 AM – Jump into taxi to airport.

04:45 AM – Taxi gets a flat tire and I have to get another taxi

05:00 AM – Check in at airport in Stockholm

06:15 AM – Plane leaves Stockholm for Munich.

08:00 AM – Being picked up my event company at Munich Airport

 

09:00 AM – Arrive at the BMW test driving site (where I am speaking on Tuesday)

09:00 – 10:00 AM – Get to know client and venue

11 – 12 AM – Do a test run of my full speech for the client and the crew

12 AM – Jump into a borrowed car to drive back to airport in Munich.

1 PM – Check in for flight to Warsaw.

1 PM – 2 PM – have lunch

2.40 PM – Board flight from Munich to Warsaw.

5 PM Land in Warsaw (plane a bit delayed)

5.30 PM – Arrive by hotel car at Intercontinental in Warsaw.

5:30 – 6 PM – Shower and check in to hotel room

6 PM – Go down to event space and install computer and talk to client.

6.30 – Event starts (I listen to the other speakers)

7 PM – 8 PM – SPEAK FOR ONE HOUR FOR DLA PIPER GLOBAL HR SUMMIT.

8 – 9 PM – Join client for dinner

9.30 – Go to sleep.

TUESDAY

4 AM – wake up and take quick shower

4:15 AM – Taxi picks me up for airport

5 AM – Arrive in Warsaw airport and check in

5:30 AM – have breakfast at airport

6 AM – Board plane from Warsaw back to Munich.

8 AM – Land in Munich

8:30 – 9 AM – Drive to BMW text drive site

9 – 10 AM Check in with client

10 – 12 AM Event starts (I listen to BMW internal speakers)

12 AM – 1 PM have lunch and do last minute sound check

1 PM – 2 PM SPEAK FOR 50 MINUTES AT THE BMW CLIENT CONVENTION

2 PM – 3 PM – Listen to the other speakers and give some feedback to client.

3 PM – drive back to hotel in Munich

4 PM – check in, take shower.

Rest of evening is free time.

So in 36 hours I spoke for clients for a total of 2 hours. But it’s not like I was not keeping busy…

Now I should be checking emails, etc, but instead I decided to write this blog.

I hope it shows an “behind the scenes summary” of what the life of a global professional speaker is really like: A bit of speaking, a bit more working with and learning from clients – but most of all: a lot of traveling.

Sweden-Germany-Poland-Germany in less than 30 hours… (And if you think this schedule sounds a bit too tights, be informed that the client in Poland was aware of the tight connection (and would be flexible with my starting time for my speech had I been more delayed), and for the speech in Germany I had a “back up flight” had my first flight been cancelled, so all good.)