The Corona Shift - tips for global speakers, trainers and facilitators

If, like myself, you have already had travel plans, conference speaking gigs and retreats postponed or cancelled, it’s a perfect time to create a shift in focus.

The coronavirus may be just what the world needed not because it will lead to a global recession of a magnitude that has not been experienced before but as Li Edekkoort, trend forecaster suggests, because it will eventually "allow humanity to reset its values."

Edelkoort has suggested the epidemic has created a "quarantine of consumption" and will have a profound cultural and economic impact. People will have to get used to living with fewer possessions (less toilet paper use) and travelling less, as the virus disrupts our global supply chains and transportation networks.

If you’re a global speaker, teacher and facilitator like I am that may greatly challenge you as travel, wheelie bags, hotel rooms and shaking hands with strangers is an all too familiar way of life. Until now.

How fascinating that this reduction in consumption could just be the key to helping us relearn how to be happy just with a simple clothes, playing cards with our family, reading a forgotten book, working from home with no commute and getting creative in the kitchen. For our profession it may mean more online training and facilitation, learning new software and platforms to conduct online citizen panels and more time to finish writing that damn book.

I am hopeful for a better world which is why I build my tiny home The Joy Box. For over 2 years now I have been practicing slow mornings and beginning to reset my pace of work and living.

The impact of the outbreak is that it has now sped up and forced all of us into slowing down our pace, refusing air travel, working from home, entertaining with close friends or family, learning to become self-sufficient and more mindful. How delicious!

Our topics, teachings and style will need to shift. Our ability to engage and relate will need to transform and our decision on proximity of where to live and work may shift also. I for one am excited at what the future may hold, and I am looking forward to walking slowly beside you all as we navigate slow mornings, online meetings and quiet calm.

Why not make the most of the opportunity this brings for you and your brand? Perhaps focus on some of the back end work you may have been putting off? You could update the copy on your website to reflect a new online offering, revisit your LinkedIn profile and make connections with new prospects, send out pitches to be a guest on other people's podcasts (I'm doing this myself - please let me know if you are looking for a podcast guest!) or start your own podcast (watch this space I will be launching my second podcast in addition to The Theatre of U called The 10 Degree Shift soon). You could also use the time wisely to write your next book (yep I'm all over this one too in fact I’m writing 10 pocket books in the next year!)

For several years we have understood that in order to survive as a species and to keep the planet going we need to change way we live, travel, consume, commute and co-create. And now it is time to make the shift, to begin. It may have been forced a little faster than you wished but it is here and now.

We will find we no longer need to take planes, continue working from our homes, working in and with smaller businesses closer to home rather than global giants. Suddenly conferences and exhibitions will look stupid and over the top. Our gigs will become more intimate, deeper and longer and our impact more slow paced change of 10 degree shifts than flashy suits, smiles and rah rah from the stage.

The impact of the coronavirus will be layered and complex, going from horror and disbelief to the stark reality of the impact on our lives to an eerie apprehension of what the future might bring and eventually to the realisation of clever solutions to living in a new world order.

This is an unprecedented change to our speakership business model where we may have enjoyed high ticket days with lots of travel in between. It’s time to stop and recalibrate.

The reality for us all in this profession is that our bread and butter events are all stopped as of today. Event organisers and businesses will now have to find new and innovative ways to communicate and relay the information differently. And so will we.

It’s time for you to take your future into your own hands, to improvise and become flexible, nimble and creative. This is an opportunity for a new beginning, for a new launch pad, for the next evolution of your brand U practice – the pen is in your hands.