World of Speakers E.54: Fredrik Härén | Zooming out to a global mindset

Ryan Foland: Okay, I do remember that. Didn't it start fires and stuff?

Fredrik Haren: No, it didn't, but it stopped a lot of planes because there was a big ash cloud that went all over Europe. Flights were canceled for a long time in a lot of places.

I live in Singapore and I was booked for a speech in Singapore five days later, but when the ash cloud erupted I was in Stockholm for a speech.

I came out of my speech, I looked on my phone and I saw that there was an ash cloud and they closed the airport in Reykjavik in Iceland.

Then they started reporting news about how this ash cloud might stop air traffic, and they started closing airports in Scotland.

I went, "Oh, this is not good, it might close the one in Stockholm and I need to be in Singapore five days from now’’.

So I rushed to the airport, but when I got to the airport it was already closed.

Then they started closing airports in London and closer to Iceland, so I said, "All right, so what to do?"

I called my brother and said, "Come here with your car," and then he jumped into a car with me and for 40 hours we would drive, I would drive he would sleep, he would sleep I would drive.

40 hours without stopping, only stopping for gas, all the way down to Munich. It's autobahn, so it's good driving.

After 40 hours we came to Munich airport and, of course, right before we got there, they also closed it because the ash cloud just grew bigger and bigger.

After 40 hours of driving, I left my brother there. I jumped on a train and I took the train for an additional 40 hours through Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, all the way down to Istanbul; 40 hours straight on one big train.

After 40 hours I arrive in Istanbul, I go and take a massage at a Turkish bath, I had like a couple of hours before my flight. I’d got to the only airport that did not close in Europe, which was the airport in Istanbul.

I jumped on that plane, I flew to Singapore, I landed in the afternoon and the next morning I was on stage delivering a speech.

I was the only speaker who made it to that conference, everyone else was stuck in Europe.

Ryan Foland: Wow. That shows a lot. You are a true road warrior.

Fredrik Haren: Yes, it shows that I'm a global speaker.

It shows my commitment to making it to the speech and it shows that I speak on creativity and innovation, meaning I just come up with a solution on how to solve the problem instead of just sitting and waiting for someone to do something.

Ryan Foland: Right, which was pretty on point with your theme in general—you can't be an expert about creativity and innovation and have something like some smoke in the air stop you from getting where you need to go. I like it.

Fredrik Haren: Exactly.

You can't be a global speaker if you don't get to the speech. I thought it was an appropriate story for this.

Ryan Foland: I think that's great.

Have you always been somebody that no matter what the obstacle, you get to the destination?

From as far back as you can remember, where did that begin?

Fredrik Haren: I do believe that it comes from the fact that I have an identical twin.

I describe an identical twin as one third a brother, one third your best friend, and one third yourself.

Which means that whenever I had an idea or whenever I wanted to do something, I had someone who I can brainstorm with, out loud, and that person would really understand what I was talking about.

Most normal people face a problem and then you have to either think inside your head or talk to someone who's not you.

But if you're a twin and you have a problem, you can approach this problem by brainstorming with someone who's almost exactly like yourself, it's like brainstorming aloud.

That means that we were always tackling a problem as a tag team. I think that developed my creativity a lot.

Also, you become very competitive. You don't have to, but there’s a big chance you'll become very competitive if you're an identical twin because you always have someone who is exactly as good as you are in something, so you have to do your very best to win, otherwise you will lose.

Ryan Foland: Now, by chance, is he also a global speaker?

Fredrik Haren: Actually, that's kind of funny—he's not a global speaker, but he is a speaker and he also speaks on creativity.

We have the same topic but we have approached it very differently. I'm a global speaker—he doesn't like to travel at all.

That's only one-third of yourself, we're not exactly the same. We both love creativity, we both like to speak, but he lives in a tiny village in Sweden and he owns a huge mansion over there.

If someone wants to book him for a speech, the client has to book the conference in his mansion and then he will speak, because he doesn't even want to leave the village.

Ryan Foland: Yeah, but that's also definitely innovation and creativity in bringing people to your door, especially in a mansion in Sweden, that's pretty sweet.

Now your family life, were your parents facilitating and supporting this type of growth and this innovation and creativity, or was it really you and your brother, and you were able to sort of click together regardless of the support?

Fredrik Haren: When I look at why I became a speaker, it is actually quite clear.

My mother was a teacher and she is the kind of woman who actually, literally, appeared on Jeopardy and knew all the answers. She had a lot of knowledge and was always teaching.

My father was a music teacher, but he was also an actual musician. They had a band and they played on Saturday and Sunday nights. He was a full-time musician and a part-time teacher.

When we were very small, like 5, 6, 7 years old, he would pull me and my brother up on the stage and we would sing one or two songs in his band; it was like a country band. And of course, the audience loved it, two cute, little twins singing together.

Again, I got the teaching from my mother and performance from my father. If you take teaching and performance and you combine them, you have a professional speaker.

Ryan Foland: There you go.

At what point in your professional career did that come to light, did you realize that?

Is this something that you started a long time ago or was it later on in life as a result of life?

Fredrik Haren: Well, I am actually one of the ones who started very early.

I saw the internet when I was in university. I was a bit older when I went to university, I think I was about 25 or 26 or something.

I was an exchange student in the U.S. for a semester.

In 1993, at that university I went to, they had a computer connected to the internet, and I saw the internet and I said, "This is going to be amazing."

I went back to Sweden and I wrote my university thesis on internet marketing.

I turned that into a book so in 1994 and 1995 I was the go-to expert on the internet as a 27-year old because I had studied the internet for 10 weeks, which meant I was an expert on the internet because I knew 10 weeks more about the internet than anyone else did at the time.

I actually say that to speakers, I say, "People, if you want to be a speaker you have to be the expert. But the expert only means that you know more than the audience," that's all it means.

It's only if you know more than your audience, you are the expert, for that audience.

In my case, I knew 10 weeks more about the internet than anyone else and that actually turned me into one of the most booked keynote speakers in Sweden before I was 30, when I was 27, 28, 29.

If you don't know so much yet, if you are not a world expert on something, then you just have to pick the audiences that knows less than you.

If that means you need to start speaking to students—then start speaking to students.

Because you cannot speak to an audience that knows more than you. Why would they listen to you?

Ryan Foland: I love that. In your process, it sounds like you just started from the very beginning there. Did you have speaking mentors that you worked with?

Or were you in a situation where you kind of had to learn for yourself, or just pull from where you could?

How did you perfect your skills, knowing that you were already 10 weeks ahead from a content sort of expertise standpoint?

Fredrik Haren: I never aspired to be a speaker. I actually started an internet company, we had a consulting company and I would speak to get gigs.

I would speak to get work for my consulting company.

But of course, I made sure I got paid as well. So I was asked to speak. I didn't ask to speak. And of course, I loved it.

But then when I was 32, I sold the company, the end of 1999, and then I said,

"Okay, so now I can do whatever I want for the rest of my life. What do I really, really, really, really like to do? If I can only do that cherry on top of the cake, what would that be?"

I loved having an internet company. I love having employees. I liked the whole growing a business and entrepreneurship and all of that, but even more, I loved speaking.

I said, "I'm just going to speak and research, speak, interview people. Well, I guess research, interview people, write and speak, that's the only thing I'm going to do."

Since 2000 that's the only thing I've been doing.

I'm a pure keynote speaker. I don't speak, I don't train, I don't consult, I don't do workshops or anything. I do keynotes and I do them around the world and that's what I've been doing since 2000, full-time, and since 1995 part-time.

Ryan Foland: Awesome.

Fredrik Haren: That's basically the only career I've had.

Ryan Foland: I like how the function became the form, and then you took the form and you've just run with it from here on out.

Was it that your favorite topic just became the creativity in innovation, and do you separate those or are they sort of together the one concept?

Fredrik Haren: I started speaking about the internet, of course, I literally started my speeches by saying, "Internet is a network of networks."

I had to explain what that was.

I sold the company because I believed that the internet was now figured out, so the whole hype of it—the .com happened just a couple of months later, .com crashed, so in that sense, the whole world felt the same thing just a few months later.

I sold the company because I felt, "Okay, now we figured out the internet. Now I need to do something else."

I never liked, I was never fascinated by the technology. I was fascinated by the fact that the internet was new and I was fascinated by the fact that internet was global, that you connected humanity.

In 2000, I said, "Okay, I'm not going to speak about the internet anymore because everyone knows what it is now. So there's nothing more to talk about."

Which, of course, shows that I was very, very wrong because it was before Facebook. Internet continued to grow, and I still talk about the Internet, but I stopped being an “Internet Speaker”.

Instead, I became a “Creativity Speaker” and I talked about how we can make business better by using the internet or by using some other technology.

For about 20 years the internet was the thing, but now it's Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence, now new technologies are coming.

I don't care what technology or what change comes, I'm just more interested in what opportunities are opening up, how do you get people to take advantage of these opportunities.

Since 2000, I have been a creativity and innovation speaker, and then for the last 10 years, I also speak on global mindset, how to build a truly global company.

I speak on creativity changing the global mindset.

Ryan Foland: I dig it. If you were to have a chance to travel back in time to when you were first starting to speak and maybe you had the foresight to know that it would be the golden ticket for you, what would some of the pieces of advice be for you when it comes to the tactics of speaking?

The mechanics of speaking?

The practice, the preparation, all of the stuff that happens sort of to get you in a spot where, when you have the stage you just crush it?

Do you have any specific things that stand out, or some creative ways for people to rethink about the way that they're actually communicating on stage?

Fredrik Haren: The number one thing I would have done is I would have become a global speaker from the start.

It took me 10 years.

This is the story for me, I was a Swedish speaker, I started in 1995 and until 2005, so for 10 years, I was a Swedish speaker.

I was one of the most booked speakers. I did 199 speeches in one year. I was voted speaker of the year, all of that.

Then in 1995, I said, "Okay, I can do this for the rest of my life, it's so easy. I don't need to do any marketing; people just call me. So easy!"

I said, "I want a challenge," so in 2005 I left everything I had in Sweden and I moved by myself—I was single at that time—I packed two bags and I moved to China.

I moved to Beijing and I decided I was going to become a speaker in Beijing instead.

Because I saw the rise of Asia and the rise of creativity in Asia, and I said, "I want to be part of this."

This is kind of like I saw the internet, I saw how Asia would start innovating as well.

I literally had to start over, I didn't know a single person in China.

I didn't have any contacts.

I didn't have any friends

I didn't know anyone.

After 10 years of being a keynote speaker, I literally started over from scratch, and I had to create new business cards and get a new phone and start networking and all of that, so I literally started over from scratch.

I did that for 2 years, I built a speaking career in China without speaking Chinese and being Swedish.

But after 2 years I said, "No, I don't want to be in China anymore," and I moved to Singapore.

And when I moved to Singapore, I came with one bag, I didn't know anyone, I was single, I didn't have any friends, I didn't have the contacts.

Again, so 2 times in my life, or 3 times in my life, I started a speaking career from scratch, 2 times by starting over.

When I came to Singapore, I didn't say I was going to become a Singaporean speaker. I didn't say I'm going to be a Swedish speaker living in Singapore. I said, “I'm going to be a speaker, and I'm going go around the world”.

For the last 10 years, I've been a global speaker.

Now I've spoken in 67 countries, I spoke in 22 countries last year, 18 countries this year so far, for the last 5 years or so I've been speaking in between 25 and 35 countries, or 20 to 35 countries every single year, on 4 or 5 continents per year or even 6 sometimes.

If I would have started over, I wouldn't have waited from 1995 to 2008 when it was 13 years, to just become a speaker, I would have started having a global mindset from the start.

Ryan Foland: That's interesting.

It literally is a global mindset as a speaker as you're developing what it is. Is it as simple as thinking about how this message could resonate in other countries?

How do you start to take on this concept of a global speaker?

What are some of the tactics that you would use or the way that you are presenting yourself?

Any tips on how to make that transition?

Fredrik Haren: Yeah, I actually published a book about it, it's called "How to Become a Global Keynote Speaker, Spread Your Message, See The World" and it's $3 on Amazon so I'm not making any money on it.

(The e-book is $3. It's not a book I wrote to make any money. If someone doesn't have $3 I will send them the e-book for free.)  

What I did was I spoke in 23 countries, two years ago and everyone asked me, "So how do I become a global speaker," so I took every one of those countries, like Turkey, Kenya—  no, not Kenya, Nigeria, America, Canada.

I answered, “How did I get the booking in Turkey?”

“How did I get that booking in Nigeria?”

I backtracked and I looked in my emails and said, “How did I actually end up with this booking?”

I wrote a chapter about it, and I said, "This is what I did, if you do the same thing, you'll also get a booking in Nigeria."

23 chapters on 20 different countries I was booked in one year. It's very simple advice, it just shows that the techniques needed are not complicated, they're very, very easy.

They're only saying that you need, like you said, the mindset shift instead of saying, "I'm an American speaker," or, "German speaker," — you're just a speaker.

With that, the mindset totally changes, not only you're speaking career, it changes your whole life.

Ryan Foland: Interesting.

You're literally teaching people this global mindset now and speaking on that from a worldwide perspective for business?

Fredrik Haren: Yeah, I do it for companies. Of course, they book me because they are multinational companies and they don't want to be multinational companies, they want to be truly global companies.

In my speeches I talk about TGCs instead of MNCs, so you don't want to be an MNC, you don't want to be a Multinational Corporation you want to be a TGC, which is a Truly Global Company.

Which is to go to a company which doesn't come from anywhere, a company that just focuses on what they do, not where they come from.

I speak on this for big companies.

I say a speaker should have the same mindset. There's no added value in being a Swedish speaker, or an American speaker because that doesn't add any value. It's better to just be a speaker and focus on what you speak on.

You could be a creativity speaker, but you shouldn't be an American speaker.

When I speak to companies I say, "A passport is not a skill, it's not a competence."

Ryan Foland: A passport is not a skill or competence, I like that.

When you're crafting your talks for places where English is not the first language, are there ways that you have to change the way that you're speaking or your actual speeches?

Or do you pretty much carry it across sort of culturally and locationally agnostic and just deliver the core messages that you have?

Fredrik Haren: Well, English is not my first language.

Ryan Foland: Right, so for me, for example, or for other people who are looking to speak in countries where the native language is not their native language?

Fredrik Haren: There are two things there.

First of all, English is not my native language and still I can be a global speaker.

You don't have to be a native English speaker to be a global speaker, which is holding a lot of great speakers back.

But if English is your native tongue, well, good for you, that happens to be the language of global business—so that's good for you.

It's not necessarily an advantage, because I speak at a lot of global conferences where I'm the only non-native English speaker on the stage, but that doesn't mean I get lower evaluations than anyone else.

On the contrary, a lot of non-English speakers don't understand what the American is saying or what the British are saying, or they are intimidated by the language.

READ: Be understood when presenting to international audiences

I speak very simple English, I use simple words, I don't have an advanced vocabulary, but a lot of people who are not native English speakers, they don't understand.

Like Barack Obama's book, "The Audacity of Hope," there are a lot of people who don't understand what that title means.

“Audacity” is not a super complicated word, but a lot of people don't know what it means.

So if you go up on a stage and speak for people from all over the world, like from 100 different countries, and you speak about that title of your speech, a lot of people won't come to that speech because they don't know what the speech is about.

Ryan Foland: That's a good point, using simpler language.

Fredrik Haren: That doesn't mean you should dumb it down.

Like Albert Einstein said, "Make everything as simple as possible but not simpler."

It also comes to the choice of words, it doesn't mean dumb it down, make your point.

It's the same with copywriting actually if you think about it. You should use the right word and many times that word is not the most complicated one. You're not doing an academic thesis when you're making a keynote speech.

Ryan Foland: Interesting, and I know that that is best practice for copywriting and there's a lot of talk about that. It should be at a 4th or 6th-grade reading level.

I think when we get up on stage we forget and we might use words that are more inclined to be fancy.

Fredrik Haren: Yes, but there's no reason for that.

?

A lot of keynote talks are just conversations.

People are more used to the fact that keynotes now are conversations, and the language used in conversation is usually not that complicated.

Ryan Foland: Now when it comes to your approach for crafting your talks, maybe you can share a little bit of insight with that? Do you have a standard set that you're using all the time?

Or do you customize it for each audience that you're going to?

What does that process look like for you when you're preparing what you're either going to pitch to talk about or when someone wants you to talk, what you're offering to talk?

Is it always changing or is it pretty much the same and super polished?

I'm assuming it's always super polished. I am not trying to throw that out there but just from a talk preparation right, you have been doing it for so long?

Fredrik Haren: I get almost 99% of my business through referral.

Someone hears me—I'm very bad with the business side of it, as in sending newsletters, or following up with leads and so on.

Basically, I get business because someone hears me speak, they love it, and they book me.

Because they heard me speak before, very often they say, "I heard your speech in Hong Kong, I'd love you to do the same for my team here in Shanghai."

They want me to do a very similar speech to what they've heard.

For me, it's kind of like The Rolling Stones—you go to a Rolling Stones concert and you want to hear the hits right?

But The Rolling Stones don’t want to play the same songs, they don't want to play only the old hits, they're tired of the old hits.

They also love playing the old hits, they do that, but not only.

Of course, I wouldn't change some part of the speech because I'm also trying out new material right? Basically I call them key keynote speeches.

I have 3 key keynote speeches and they're more or less based on the books that I have written because the books I've written are based on the research that I have done.

I have one speech based on my book, "The Idea Book" and another speech based on my book, "The Developing World," which is about creativity in developing countries.

I have one speech on global companies based on my book, "One World, One Company" and I have one speech on change which is not based on my book but based on kind of research that I'm doing at the moment.

And then I'm developing one new keynote speech now, which is actually, I love the title of your podcast because my book is called, "The World Of Creativity."

Ryan Foland: That's the global mindset.

Fredrik Haren: It combines the two things that I care about which is a creativity, innovation and change and global mindset, you combine the two and you get the “World Of Creativity”.

Ryan Foland: Now, how important is this creativity and innovation mindset, or innovation global mindset for a speaker in today's climate?

Because I think we both understand that there are more speakers than there have ever been in the history of time and everybody seems to be jumping up saying, "I'm a keynote! I'm a keynote!"

How important is the process for a speaker of creativity and innovation in their speaking career, in their growth?

Because it is so highly impacted with so much noise right now.

Fredrik Haren: Okay, that might be true that there have never been more speakers.

It is equally true that there have never been more speaking opportunities in the world.

The thing is though, from an American point of view, they would say,

"There have never been more speakers but there are not more speaking opportunities."

That might be true in the US. I'm not sure, I don't know.

But in the world, there have never been more speaking opportunities.

I've spoken a few years back at the first-ever HP Asia Management Conference and so this is the first time they decided to have an Asia Management Conference because the level of English in these different countries was so low that they couldn't speak to each other, so why have a conference if they can't meet and talk to each other, right?

When I came to Asia, I used to speak at conferences and there would be 12 different translators. I mean there would be 25 translators and they would translate into 12 different languages in the back of the room—it would be Korean, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian, and so on.

So, why have an Asian Management Conference when in the break, they can't talk to each other anyway?

But now the level of English in Asia has, especially for people working in global companies, international companies, increased so much that now they can have that.

When I spoke at the first-ever Asia Management Conference, it was 5000 people in Marina Bay Sands.

From a conference that didn't exist to a conference with 5000 people, because suddenly they decided that these people have to meet and that happens over and over and over and over.

Asia is 60% of the world's population, so if 60% of the world population now also starts to have big conferences in big convention places like in Phuket and Taiwan and Bangkok, and all over the place, that's a huge amount of new speaking opportunities opening up.

But if you are a global speaker, you don't care.

There might be 20, 30, 50 thousand speakers but there are hundreds of thousands of conferences happening around the world.

I have a total abundance mindset when it comes to this.

Ryan Foland: When people are trying to get into this global mindset, is there, aside from reading your book or maybe some of the tips from the book, how do you get on the radar of some of these conferences that are seemingly so far away, and seemingly so distant?

Fredrik Haren: Yeah, but that's a mindset, that's 100% a mindset again.

Let's say you talk for—what's the most local conference you can think of?

What's the most non-global conference you can think of?

Ryan Foland: Maybe something that happens in LA, like specifically for Los Angeles County or something like that.

Fredrik Haren: All right, but I would go out and say Grand Forks, North Dakota then, because Los Angeles is way bigger than Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Ryan Foland: Okay, yes, gotcha. I thought you meant my area, but yeah.

Fredrik Haren: Okay, let's say you live in Grand Forks, North Dakota, I used to live there when I was in high school that's very close to the central point of North America, so you're very far from the rest of the world when you're in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

So let's say you're invited to speak at —give me also your least global industry?

Ryan Foland: The least global industry?

Let's say, I don't know, something within education within the United States, something that's particular to US classrooms I guess, maybe some sort of I don't know—standardized testing or some sort of associations along those lines?

Fredrik Haren: Right. What's that called, the testing that you do in the US?

Ryan Foland: SAT?

Fredrik Haren: SAT, okay, fine.

So let's say there's a conference for SAT teachers and I'm invited to speak about the value of creativity in education for SAT teachers in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Now, how the hell am I going to turn this into a global speech?

This is how you do it, it's 6° of separation.

The 1st thing, you do that speech and they love it because you have to do a great speech right?

You do a great speech, they absolutely love it, the client comes up, "That's amazing, I want to introduce you to Debra, she is in charge of the mid-Western Conference of the SAT teachers."

She goes, "I would love for you to come to Minnesota and do this, we have people from 25 mid-states here," or whatever they call these states.

And so she books you.

Now you do that speech and a woman who runs the American SAT convention happens to be there because she goes to all the regional ones and she said,

"This is amazing, we have to have you at the American conference next year."

Now, they book you for the American conference and while you speak at the American conference, there's a woman from China there who runs a company who teaches Chinese students how to learn SAT and she says,

"I have 10K Chinese students that I am bringing to a huge stadium to teach them how to do SAT but we need to teach the Chinese people also how to be creative, so can you come and speak about creativity for my 5K students?"

So 4 connections away for speaking for 5,000 Chinese students in this stadium after you spoke to 250 teachers in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

That happens all the time but most people don't do that.

I used this analogy of like a slipstream—if you're down on one level, you need to think up, you need to go, "How do I go up one level, how do I go up one level?"

And when you go up one level, you're there.

Now when you're on the global level, where I am now, so when I speak, if I speak for the global like the “Future Leaders of Earth in Young Asia Conference” I just did that like last week, you have 1.2K people from 22 countries in Asia.

Of course, the people who are in that group are attending and organizing a lot of other global conferences.

So now the people who come up to me after a speech, already automatically are booking another global conference.

But they also book down, they might come and say, "Hi, that was amazing, I am in charge of the National Conference in New Zealand. Can you speak just for us?"

Now I speak just for the New Zealand people at the local “Earth and Young conference”.

But to me that's fine, I don't only have to do global conferences but I always try to move how do I go up one level, how do I zoom up?

Think about it like Google Earth. How do I zoom up one level?

Press that little small minus, zoom out, zoom out, zoom out, zoom out.

Ryan Foland: When you were describing it it made me think of a salmon that was just jumping up to different levels up the way.

Fredrik Haren: Google Earth or salmon jumping—I don't care what metaphor you use.

Ryan Foland: A salmon with a global mindset, essentially. I like that.

Now what about for those people that have a full-time job and they want to start speaking professionally and they're trying to juggle that side-hustle.

Do you have any advice on how to keep the global mentality as a speaker to keep clicking out on Google Earth, but when you have a full-time job?

Any thoughts or advice for those that are working up through the side-hustle of speaking.

Fredrik Haren: Okay, the most important thing for people who are starting out is that they need to find what I call their inner theme.

So this is actually something that I do.

I would say I had a gift actually.

Normally, I would not say this, but I have a gift for helping people find their inner theme.

The inner theme is what drives you, not only as a speaker but as a human being.

An inner theme is like the message, I call it the universal message, a message that every human being needs to hear, so it's a universal message, but it can only be told by you.

You're the best person on Earth to spread this message to everyone.

If you figure out what your inner theme is, everything else becomes clear—you get focused, you get clarity, you know what you're supposed to do, you know what you're not supposed to do.

And then even if you're just doing one speech per month as a side-hustle, and you're still on your way to spread the word to humanity.

A lot of people do, I would say almost all people including almost all speakers have no clue what their inner theme is.

And that's fascinating to me.

They know the topics that they speak on, they know the topics they're interested in, but they don't know their inner theme.

Ryan Foland: Now, do you think that those people are mistaken and they think that they have a theme but it's really not defined, or they literally just don't have and they are sort of running around like a chicken with their head cut off?

Fredrik Haren: They're too much focused on a topic.

I use Nike as an example, an inner theme is a kind of like the slogan of your life.

So Nike, they are in the industry of performance, athletic gear, or whatever they call it.

And they have the values of winning, and performing, or whatever their values are.

And speakers, they know the topics and they know their values, but their inner theme is like a slogan, it's “Just Do It”, that's Nike's inner theme.

That has nothing to do with sports performance wear, it's an attitude, it's who they are.

My inner theme is “Humanity to the power of ideas”.

“Humanity to the power of ideas”.

That means I believe in the potential of humanity and I believe in the power of ideas.

And that is why I liked the internet so much when I was 25 years old.

Because it was a way to connect humanity, and it was a new thing would change business.

Why did I move to China?

Because I was tired. I was feeling held back only being a Swedish speaker. I didn't understand it at the time, but that's what it was.

Why do I speak in 20, 30 countries every year?

And why do I do speak in countries like Bangladesh and Myanmar?

Because I want to understand the whole world, not just the western world.

I want to see developing countries.

Why do I speak to all kinds of industries?

Because I want to zoom out all the way out on Google Earth until I see the whole planet.

I believe that people learned how to pick up the best ideas, and not be held back by cultural blindfolds, then the world would be a much better place.

Every inner theme ends with, “The world would be a much better place, but in what way are you going to do that?”

And if you find your inner theme it becomes so clear what you're supposed to be doing.

Ryan Foland: Is that inner theme something that stays pretty consistent?

Or does that somehow morph and mold over time as you do as a person?

Or is it pretty much like you find it and that's the same thing that kept you going as a teenager, that kept you going college and it's going to continue keeping you going through retirement?

Fredrik Haren: Yes, I've done theme sessions with someone who's like 27 years old and I've done it with someone who's 65 years old.

It's a very good question—it can change, just like the slogan can change.

But Nike, if you find a good inner theme that is truly you, and it's very versatile, just like Nike's “Just Do It”, Nike I think introduced “Just do it” in 1988 at the Seoul Olympics, and that's been 30 years and they haven't changed it.

McDonald’s changes its slogan maybe every 5 years because they went from being a hamburger joint, now they are trying to beat Starbucks.

McDonald's has changed theirs, of course, if they changed, their inner theme has to change.

Everything in your life, from when you were a child to your first job, is that common thread. I describe it like this: every life is a story, every story has a message.

Your inner theme is your life message, just like Frodo in Lord of The Ring, or Romeo and Juliet or whatever, any character in a famous story, there's a message in that story.

If you look at our own lives, as a character in a story, what's the message of that character?

And that could be negative things too, it can be that you were sexually harassed as a child. That could be part of your inner theme.

Most likely it will be a part of your inner theme, but it most likely will not be your inner theme. It's not only positive things, everything that has happened to you in your life, what is that one phrase that can describe that?

The fact that I'm a twin means that I'm sharing my ideas with my brother. That's part of “Humanity to the power of ideas.” I'm not just me and my ideas, it's me and my ideas together with other people.

Ryan Foland: And so those speakers that have a topic, a theme, their own version of 3 key keynotes, you're still saying they're not going to get where they need to be until they take a step back and find out what that inner theme is in relation to those topics and in relationto a global mentality?

Fredrik Haren: Yes. So sometimes the inner theme can be the topic they speak on.

Sometimes it's not even close.

Sometimes it's just for you and no one else to know.

In my case, I tell people what my inner theme is.

My new book is called, "The World of Creativity," it's not called, "Humanity to the power of ideas," because that's too complicated!

I’d have to explain to people what it means and that's not a good title for a book, if you have to explain it.

But it means a lot to me. It's exactly who I am.

And then the topics I speak on are all connected, even if I speak to 200 mobile telecom salespeople from Malaysia, and I go, "What the hell am I doing talking to these people...what am I doing."

And I go, "Well, if Malaysia becomes a little more creative in how they use mobile services, that will make Malaysia better and that will make the world better!"

Now I know I'm speaking at this sales conference in a small hotel outside Kuala Lumpur.

Ryan Foland: So it helps to create that relevance and helps to create the value beyond just the value of being there.

You're not as much judging the audience size or the opportunity as much as you're judging its alignment with this inner theme?

Fredrik Haren: Yes. For example, why am I sitting with you know?

This is a Tuesday but it's actually a school holiday, so my wife and my kids are already in the swimming pool and I'm going to meet with them for one hour later. Why do I spend school holiday being interviewed by some podcast about speaking?

Because my inner theme is “Humanity to the power of ideas.” And why do I give away my book about how to be a global keynote speaker, why do I blog on ProfessionalSpeaking.com?

Why do I give away all my tips on how to become a global speaker to other people?

Why am I building my competition for global speakers?

Because if I can help a thousand speakers to find their inner theme and also help them to spread that message globally, that is the perfect example of humanity to the power of ideas!

Because I can't spread the message of sexual abuse, I can't spread the message of peaceful conversations or whatever the theme of you might be—that's your topic, you should spread it to the world.

But by helping you do that, that becomes part of my inner theme.

For most people, that's not part of their inner theme, and that's why they are not doing it.

But for me it is. I want to have a lot of speakers find their true message and spread it to humanity—their message, not my message.

Ryan Foland: And you've come to the right place so I appreciate you've invested time here today,

Typically we'll talk about tips for speaking that are more on the tactical side of how you're delivering or how you're opening, or how you're closing or how you're preparing.

And you're saying: zoom out and look at the mentality.

Are you looking at something through the lens of a global eyeglass?

Are you looking at the small opportunity as 3° or 4° or 5° away from somewhere else and if you're not looking for it, if you don't have that mentality, who cares what your speech is?

Because you're just not going to continue to progress on that global scale.

Fredrik Haren: It's kind of like saying, if you want to climb Mount Everest, show me all the tools I need to climb Mount Everest, and I can show you every single tool that you need to climb Mount Everest, but if you don't have the mindset of wanting to climb Mount Everest, you're not going to climb Mount Everest no matter how much I teach you how to use those tools.

That doesn't mean you don't need to use the tools.

So for example, the blog I have, ProfessionalSpeaking.com, every week I write one thing I learned about speaking.

And it could be how to do an opening, or it could be a how to talk to clients after the speech, “the golden minute”, one minute after your speech is done, what are you supposed to say at that one minute, what are you supposed to talk to.

Every tiny bit, it's like hundreds of articles, they are all free, I am not selling anything.

It's just those are the tools, here you go, use all these things.

But if you don't have the mindset, none of that's going to work, none of that's going to make any difference.

And it's the same with this podcast as well, all the other ones may speak about the tools they need, but someone needs to talk about changing your mindset.

I have to say though, because I know we're almost at the end, a lot of people say, "Okay, but I don't want to be a global speaker", I have small kids, I have 3 kids, they are 3, 5 and soon 8 and I spend more time with my kids than someone who works 9 to 5 and never travels and has 5 weeks of vacation.

I have hundreds and hundreds of hours more than that person. I've counted. I have an Excel sheet to prove it.

Today is a Tuesday and after I'm done with you, the rest of the day I'm going to spend with my kids in a swimming pool.

I did that yesterday too.

I spend 2 months every summer, 2 full months on a private island that we own in Sweden where I don't, literally don't leave the island unless we're buying food.

For 2 months in a row, I am with my kids every single day for 2 months on an island in the summer, and that's when I accumulate a lot of hours.

I do that also one full month around Christmas and so on.

I don't do a lot of speeches, but I do them around the world.

I think last year I did 44 keynote speeches, but I did them in 22 countries.

You can have it all, that's what I'm saying.

You can be a global keynote speaker and a great father and husband at the same time. If you focus on doing great keynote speeches and only do that.

Ryan Foland: I love it, and sometimes we just need to hear that.

For everyone out there who is on the fence or who are defeating themselves before they even get to the starting line because all those voices in your head are saying, "You can't," — Fredrick is saying that you can.

And I believe him.

We can't make them believe it but it's really up to them.

I think it's amazing what you're doing because, at the end of the day, you're helping people become creative through a larger lens.

I'm assuming that this idea of tactics and tools also goes with creativity.

You can tell us 101 things to be creative, but unless you sit down and actually start thinking, nothing's going to happen.

It's been a pleasure to talk with you, I'm definitely going to grab your book and I'll monitor your blog and I'll share accordingly.

Because I also believe in abundance.

I think that speaking can be a very, very sharp tool when it comes to spreading the message and essentially getting other people empowered with your knowledge that nobody else is going to tell except for you.

Fredrik Haren: I totally agree. It's been a pleasure.

Ryan Foland: Alright buddy, thanks so much.

Where would someone contact you, if there was one person or 100 or 1000 like, "I want to get in touch with Fredrik," what's the best way?

Are you a LinkedIn guy, are you a Twitter guy, are you an email guy?

How can we direct people so that you can create more of these 7° connections?

Fredrik Haren: Yeah, so I guess I'm an e-mail kind of a guy.

[email protected], but people spell my name wrong all the time, so you might also want to try <anything>@interesting.org, just put anything in front of the @ sign, and <anything>@interesting.org, it comes to me.

And the websites are innertheme.com and professionalspeaking.com.

Ryan Foland: I like that. This is the first time I've had somebody with an e-mail address that literally is anything before the @ symbol and it only makes sense that url.

Fredrik Haren: Everyone could have that.

Because if you spell my name wrong, like Frederick with C-K, @interesting.org it still comes to me.

You can write [email protected], you can write [email protected], everything comes to me.

Ryan Foland: I am sure you get some interesting ones, I love that.

It is what it sounds, it is interesting.com.

Fredrik Haren: No, it is interesting.org!

Ryan Foland: See? You might have to gobble up that other domain and every other domain, but that's for another century.

Fredrik Haren: I tried, I bought interesting.org in 1998, interesting.com was already taken by that time. [laughs]

Ryan Foland: Alright.

Fredrik Haren: But professionalspeaking.com is a good one.

Ryan Foland: Alright, Fredrik, this has been fun and definitely I have a global mindset and it's only going to get sharper after this.

I'm probably going to listen to this again if I have any questions about it. So thanks again.

All of you World of Speakers out there, what a great episode for you to change your mindset. That's a simple thing to do, but it's actually very difficult.

If you like this, like it, share it, comment it, say, "Hi" to Frederik, really, make sure that you're subscribing for more of these episodes, check out the past ones, check them out for the future because together we are helping everyone that is the World of Speakers.

Frederik, this has been totally fun, I'm jealous, I'm going to go to bed and you're going to be in the pool all day, but that is awesome, you deserve it, sir.

Fredrik Haren: Thank you.

Ryan Foland: Alright, adios

 

A bit about World of Speakers

World of Speakers is a bi-monthly podcast that helps people find their own voice, and teaches them how to use their voice to develop a speaking business.

We cover topics like: what works versus what doesn't, ideas on how to give memorable presentations, speaking tips, and ideas on how to build a speaking business.

Connect with Fredrik Haren:

• SpeakerHub profile

• Website

• Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

Did you enjoy the show? We’d love to know! Leave us a review on iTunes by following this link.

Listen to more interviews with expert speakers.