Professional speaker Felix A Schweikert speaks his mind

My day

5.30am: Thank God I am an early riser and always have been. So getting up at a time most people find horrible is not a big problem for me. Some days when I do not have a tight schedule, I find the time to exercise in the morning (usually some weightlifting, seldom cardio) but not today. After having heard my iPhone alarm I immediately get up and get into the bath. During the night I always have my iPhone in flight mode, as I have had overseas customers wake me before. I truly am there for my customers, but in the end even I am just a human who needs some rest once a day.

6:15am: After shaving, having a shower and getting dressed properly, I am ready for lift-off. As I had already prepared my suitcase and my laptop-case, as well as something to read the night before, I go straight to my car. Perhaps in the future with family or children to wave goodbye to, this may take longer, but at the moment leaving home is an easy thing. (No sad or bad feelings here, just giving you the plain truth. In the end that’s why you are reading this, eh?)

6:16am: I start listening to some audio-courses I always keep in my 10-CD-changer in my car. Usually I have one to two music-CDs and the rest filled with audio-courses. I have no idea when I started this, but it was during, or shortly after my student life at university. Over the last 10-plus years I worked through between 500-700 self-learning-courses. In total I guess about 1,500 to 2,000 CDs! And as a side-note: Yes, I purchased all of them. I do not think that stealing knowledge is a basis for a profitable business.

6:45am: I arrive at the car park of the train station, pick up my luggage from the boot and am off to the train that will take me to the city I will be speaking in tomorrow. Usually I use the time on the train to work through papers, read something or – if possible – make some phone-calls. Actually the train, as well as my car, is another form of “office” for me.

12.30pm: After having arrived by train (luckily, on time), I deposited my luggage at the hotel. I use the time in the city for a business lunch with a potential customer. Here we discuss possibilities of a future speaking engagement. Usually these discussions vary from being very vague to extremely precise. Sometimes the customers know that “there will be a conference”, sometimes they have the dates, speaking-slot during the day as well as details on the audience and the venue.

3:30pm: I was able to check into my hotel room a bit ahead of time, but I am already in the taxi and on the way to the venue where I get an additional briefing from the meeting-planner.

4:00pm: Meeting with the meeting planner: Not every speaker does this. Only very, very few do it the day ahead of the meeting. But in my view it is professional and helpful (for me as well as for the meeting planner) to go through details the day before the meeting will take place. Sometimes I get to know changes in the order of the speakers, sometimes I am informed about the final list and names of VIPs of the company, sometimes we just go through information that we both already checked a few times.

7:00pm: I had a light dinner and am now in my hotel room. It was planned that the dinner should be with two members of the board of directors of the customer I will be speaking for tomorrow, but it was cancelled at short notice. I use the time to browse through my emails and spend some time on social networks.

11.00pm: I could not resist and said “yes” to a spontaneous offer to write an article for an internet magazine. It took me an additional two hours so I hope you are enjoying it …

Bed time now.

Felix A Schweikert is a professional speaker who assists others to search and find more success in their lives. He is the co-editor of The Business of Professional Speaking. Find out more on his website.