San Francisco to Ystad, Sweden

I’m in a hotel room in Ystad, Sweden. It has been a hectic, tiring but exciting week. My trip began last Sunday when I flew to San Francisco. On Monday, I delivered an all-day seminar to a group of insurance agents from State Farm Insurance. Right after I finished, I showered, changed, packed my bags and left for the airport for a VERY long flight to Stockholm, Sweden; arriving there on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday afternoon I was the keynote speaker at a meeting for a large Swedish dairy company. The audience consisted of many of their retail customers, along with a few suppliers and partners. It was not only my first time speaking to a Swedish audience, but also my first time visiting Sweden.

Although I had no idea what to expect, everything turned out great. The audience was terrific, not very different from most of my audiences back home. People are people wherever you go and one thing we all have in common is deep down we all want to succeed, and if you have something to say and can deliver it in a way that’s entertaining, energetic and both easy to understand and implement, the audience will respond.

On Thursday, Hans Olsson (my representative who set up my appearances) and I went to visit with a Swedish Venture Capital firm who is showing interest in bringing me to Sweden next year to speak to the many companies they have a stake in, which is very exciting. Not too long after that Hans and I flew from Stockholm to Ystad, a small town in the south of Sweden, about fifty miles from Copenhagen.

Yesterday (Friday), I delivered a four hour public seminar to salespeople and business people from the area surrounding Ystad. We had about 250 people in the audience and I doubt it could have gone any better than it did. Again, the audience was fantastic; enthusiastic and very anxious to find out how they can be even more successful.

I don’t think anything here in Sweden has surprised me because, never having been here before, I went in with a completely open mind. Both hotels I stayed in (Stockholm and Ystad) were terrific. The service everywhere (hotels, restaurants, cabs) has been excellent. My only regret is there really hasn’t been enough time to see as much of Sweden as I would like, though I’ve enjoyed what I have been able to do.

I’ll be heading to Copenhagen on Monday for one day then flying back home Tuesday, October 2^nd. It has been a great trip and I look forward to visiting again soon.