Interviewed about personal branding

Submitted by kairoer on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 13:13.

Today, you may read about how personal branding is important to gain a leverage in todays market space. I was interviewed by the Personal Branding Blog, a part of the 2010 JCI Baltic conference. 

You may read the interview here: http://www.jci.ee/bc2010/personalbrandprofile-kai-roer?c_tpl=1062 

Need YOUR help: European survey about mentoring

Submitted by kairoer on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 11:34.

Trainifique , the company inspiring leaders worldwide, is conducting a survey to see how mentoring is used to create success in Europe. The results from the research will be published in a book later this year. 
Thor-Erik Gulliksen , one of the founding partners of Trainifique, says that mentoring has been around for thousands of years, the first documented mentoring was in the story of Homer in the Odyssey. “We want to see how mentoring is used in 2010, how success is made by asking for advice and using someone who can guide you when you need some direction,” he continues. 
You may also participate, just by filling in the quick survey found here . It takes less than 10 minutes. 
“We are interested in all use of mentoring, you do not have to be in a leading position right now - you may have been earlier, or you may not have reached this position just yet. Perhaps you had a mentor when you studied, perhaps when you did a career transition. Or, you may have used a mentor to help you gain the success you always wanted. “ Gulliksen says that this is the first European wide survey about mentoring. “We aim to uncover the differences and the similarities of the use of mentoring throughout Europe.”
The results of the survey will be presented the fall 2010, at the Junior Chamber International World Congress 2010 in Osaka, Japan. 
You may participate in the survey by filling in the form here !

Training in Riga, Latvia

Submitted by kairoer on Fri, 02/19/2010 - 10:20.

Riga, afternoon viewToday, I am sitting in the hotel bar at Hotel Maritim in Riga, Latvia. I have been here a couple of days, it is Friday, and I am preparing to conduct my Active Listening training later this afternoon. I am looking back at the past few days of this trip, considering what I have experienced and learned. 

I arrived in Riga Monday this week. I had a room at the Hotel Monte Kristo, located just outside the Old Town of Riga. The hotel resembles one of these small, comfortable family hotels you find in small cities throughout the south of Europe. Cosy atmosphere, narrow hallways, stairs with only a few steps, small rooms and no straight line or corridor at all. Just the kind of hotel I love.

I have visited Riga quite some times before, and this time I decided to have quality time in one of my favorite cities in the world. Arriving early, I had two full days to just roam around, to enjoy the cosy bakeries, nice restaurants, the Jugend style buildings of Old Riga, and the sky line view of some of the hotel bars. Both Hotel Albert, and the Regal Hotel Riga have nice views from their skyline bars. 

Most importantly, I wanted to spend time with some of my local friends. These two days where filled with amazing meetings of people, places, drinks and food. And as usual when meeting people, new opportunities, ideas and results where created and explored. New friendships emerges, trust is being built and respect created. And there are so many learning experiences taking place, every day, every where, through every action that is made. 

So far, I have facilitated one workshop on mentoring, and I have conducted a one day training in public speaking skills. Today I will give a training about Active Listening, then go to a Name Day party to celebrate my friend Zane. Tomorrow I will do my Coach2Lead training, before I will attend a galla dinner in the evening. The days are busy, and they fill me with energy. Energy I bring with me back home, and use to develop more trainings, more relationships, and to become better at what I do. 

I am really enjoying being here in Riga. Sitting back like this, feeling the emotions, the gratitude, reminds me of the wellbeing living really is. 

It feels great to conduct trainings in Riga!  

The image is from a previous visit I made to Riga, during summer time. It is taken on the quai in front of the SAS Radisson, with the old city in the background.  

 

The intoxication of love

Submitted by kairoer on Mon, 01/18/2010 - 11:27.

The scent of you intoxicates my mind. Every breath of air I pull through my nostrils brings the memory of you into my vision. No need to close my eyes to see you in front of me, the memories are strong and clear, enlightening my mind like a match in the darkness.

The touch of your hand in my hand is felt just as strong as when I left you there on the sidewalk. It has been a while now; the memories are as vivid as if you where here still. Your language is that of touch and looks. The language of dance and movement. The language of sensuality; of love; and that of tenderness. I cannot recall anyone mastering this language better than you.

I know that language too, yet the language of my excellence is that of words. I read books so much better than I read the looks you send. I write poetry so easily compared to how I stumble on a dance floor. My ears catch the words you say; while the melody you play passes me by like an express train trying to keep its schedule.

The scent of you intoxicates my vision. Like the fog blurs the view for the captain of the sea; are the memories of you blurring my future. My plans where made; the outlooks where all blues skies; and the course had been set.

All of a sudden enters you. As fast arriving as only the storms in the Northern Sea, you whisked across the blue waters, hinting and flirting while you stirred up the waves in my heart. Slow as I am, I forgot to close the storm hatches, leaving the path to my heart open for you to enter. And enter you did.

I decided to abandon ship and launched the lifebuoy, jumped in and accepted that you would control my faith in the stormy waters ahead. I should have been wet; I should have been cold; and I should be shivering, fearing for my life in the storm. Instead, I closed my eyes. And ever since have I been floating around in my lifebuoy, trusting you with my life.

The scent of you intoxicates my life. Your smile has left a permanent mirror on my face. Every time I blink my eyes, the smile on your face lights up on my retina, making me smile back to the memories of you. And with your smile comes the sweetest of scents that separates you from everyone else. The scent that brings back all the memories almost as strong as if you where here, memories of my hand in yours, your cheek to my cheek, your lips on my lips.

New plans are in the making, new patterns are drawn for the future. Who can predict the outcome of our paths being weaved together onto the carpet of memories. Perhaps will you leave but a small pattern, but a pattern you will leave. The scent of you gives me the confidence to move on; accepting risk and potential damage. I believe it is not the intoxication that is making the choice, I deem it is the logic of love that shows it´s true nature.

The scent of you intoxicates my mind; my vision; and my life. I am an addict. I welcome you into the rest of my life. As a friend; as a lover; as a partner on the journey ahead.

5 things I learned by following my passion!

Submitted by kairoer on Wed, 01/06/2010 - 14:05.
I believe in constant development. I believe we can evolve our body and mind, and exceed the boundaries we have been imposed by our surroundings and background. 
When I grew up, my mother would constantly tell me that I was destined for something big. She would not tell me what -truth is she had no clue, and most likely still don´t have a clue. So I had to come up with something big all by myself. 
Later, when I had grown up, I constantly heard “But Kai, you cannot do that or this! It is impossible/stupid/never done before”. And variants of such expressions. 
Sometimes I actually believe it would not be possible, and I did not follow the path to greatness. Other times, the passion I carry with me simply was too big to overlook, and I just had to do what I sat out to do.
And following my passions, doing the things I cared about, enabled me to grow as a person, friend, business man and in general. And as I grew, I learned some important things:
Your passion generates success
If there is one thing only that I have learned from my experiences, it is that following your passion generates success. All the choices that have taken me to where I am today was made on my passion. Me driving trucks as a hobby, me deciding to go against all advices and quit my job. Me choosing to train and inspire people around the world - without getting paid for it. 
All the choices I made based on my passion has helped increase the success I have had in my life. And I continue to let passion be my guide as I move forward, and by doing so I increase the success. 
Trust your instinct, your passion, yourself!
Very often I meet people who say that it is not possible to do that or this. And sometimes it is very tempting to just let them be right. But if you have a passion for what you do, then I find that following that passion will take you where ever you want to go, what ever you want to do. 
If you know deep down in your heart (or where you find your passion) that what you want to do is the right thing for you to do, then doing it will make it happen for sure. I believe that as long as you follow your passion, you can never go wrong. Perhaps others will say you are stupid, or that what you are doing is wrong. But as long as you follow your passion, it will never be wrong for you. 
So go out there, and just do it! Follow your heart, let your passion be your guide!
It may seem impossible, but you can do it!
Like most other people in this world, I have had moments where it seemed impossible to go on, impossible to create the success you want. 
I used to do mountain climbing (still do, but not regularly anymore), and I often found myself in a tight spot. I would be halfway up the wall, my feet on a tiny, almost non-existing crack, and my fingers grasping against the rock to get a hold on something. Usually I would find myself in an awkward position, knowing that the tiniest of movement would cause me to fly - and that was to be avoided at all cost. 
After climbing for years, I started to be very conscious about these moments. I started to notice that those times I did not believe I could make it, I fell. Every time. But when I focused my mind, telling myself that “I can do this”, somehow I made it. Every time. 
Today I carry this knowledge with me, and I recall these moments when I am in a tight spot, not sure of what to do next. 
At those moments, I tell myself: “Kai, you can do this!“ And it turns out that I am right about that! 
Never been done before? So what!
Back in 1995, I got an idea to build a system to automatically publish information the Internet. It had to be multilingual - supporting Norwegian, German, Spanish and English. I took the idea and sold it to one of my clients. Then I went to my team of programmers and told them what I wanted them to make. 
All of them told me that this would not work, it had never been done before. At that time, I had to show them exactly what to do, and how to do it. And I was not a programmer. I spent the night learning enough Perl to make a working prototype. When my team came to the office the next day, I showed them what I had done, and told them to clean up the code and make a high-quality delivery out of it. 
This tiny piece of code started one of the adventures of my life, building the worlds first multilingual Content Management Solution. 
And it taught me that I can do whatever I want, even if it has never been done before. 
Money is not the answer to everything
I happen to live in one of the richest countries in the world. I have all the things I need to live a very happy life. I can travel far and near, I have a nice place to live, clothes to put on, food on my table and means of transportation should I need to move around. 
But more important to me than the monetary side of things is the things money cannot buy.  With money, I can get more stuff. I can travel more - or less if I prefer. I can buy another car, or a house, or even give it to some soul in need. 
Funny thing though, is that I no longer enjoy all the stuff I can get with money. I prefer things like my family, my friends. I like to empower and help develop other people. I enjoy seeing how I can impact the world and make it a better place for so many. 
In my heart, I never had any passion for money. My passion is for other people. I lived a long time believing that money was truly important, and that I needed to do anything in my power to gather as much money as possible. And I was never happy living like that. So at one point, I simply decided that instead of following the money-trail, I will follow my passion instead - no matter if I make money or not. And I have never been more happy in my life! 
 
Do you follow your passion? How do your passion generate success for you? 
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