What do you do when you realize you’re about to have a business meeting with a client, and at the reception desk you hear the person next to you is going to meet the same person at the same time? 😃
You network. 😃
I said ”Excuse me, I get the impression we’re about to meet the same person at the same time”.
We introduce ourselves to one another and assume there must be some kind of a misunderstanding.
While waiting for the meeting to begin, the Swedish guy and I have a conversation and realize we’re not competitors to each other. We exchange contact details and agree on a meeting about potentially working together at some point.
This happened yesterday.
I’ve seen a lot of interesting situations in meetings, but this was a first.
Sometimes buyers like to put people in awkward situations, but not that buyer I was about to meet, he is not that kind of a guy. Yesterday was about a misunderstanding.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve encountered in a meeting? 💥
Photo: A blast from the past, when we used to meet at a local café in Helsinki, in 2019.
Join us tomorrow and practice your Spanish! 🇪🇸 🇨🇱🇵🇪🇨🇴🇻🇪
Finlandia Toastmasters meets again and as always, the program includes improvised speeches as well as prepared speeches that receive tailored evaluations by experienced speakers to maximize learning and personal development.
As to the atmosphere, we are a deadly serious club 😃
Join the meeting either online or face to face at Oodi Central Library in Helsinki, in meeting room #1, Wednesday Jan 21 at 6pm Finnish time.
The membership fee is a ridiculous 60 euros for half a year (plus a one-time fee of 20 euros for new members), and it’ll give you a tremendous boost on your Spanish and public speaking skills.
Having said that, you’re always welcome to visit for free to check us out.
You’ll meet people from various Spanish-speaking countries, as well as a couple of non-native speakers.
We meet twice a month, always on Wednesday’s at 6pm Finnish time.
January last year I flew over Greenland with a gorgeous sunset on the one side of the plane, and a full moon on the other.
In January 2025, flying over a gorgeous Greenland 🇬🇱 landscape, I had a conversation with a Danish woman about Greenland, war — and dog sleds 🐾. This chance encounter reminded me of the importance of listening more and talking less.
She knew someone who served in the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol (Slædepatruljen Sirius), the special military unit that tours remote parts of Greenland by dog sled.
The two of us had been randomly seated next to each other on a flight from Copenhagen to San Francisco, so we had time (11.5 hours to be exact). I enjoy listening to interesting strangers in airplanes.
She showed me a photo of a group of young men with long hair and a smile on their faces, somewhere in Greenland. These guys serve a two-year tour in Greenland, doing reconnaissance patrol on the uninhabited coastline. A single patrol trip may take months.
The dog sled isn’t about the Danish military being primitive. It’s that the conditions are primitive.
You can’t spend months in the icy wilderness relying on motor vehicles. There are no gas stations or motels.
Even though the patrols get supplies by air drops and from storage depots around Greenland, the dog sled is still superior on the ground compared to motor vehicles, as there are no roads in that part of the huge island.
In addition to the dog sleds patroling on the ground, the Danish military flies American F-35 fighter jets above Greenland. Also their navy is there.
We talked about all this because on January 7, 2025, Trump had publicly floated seizing Greenland.
Many people are asking why Trump is doing this. ”Why?” is a common question when talking about war.
One of my strongest memories from the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Days in Mariupol is about bewildered local people asking exactly that: “Why? Why are they bombing our homes? We have done nothing, we want to live in peace.”
The sad thing is that for some things in life no sensible answers seem to exist. I believe there is no reason here that makes sense, except the flawed character of an authoritarian ruler.
You listen to such rulers talk, and sometimes listening simply reveals that there’s no coherent moral logic there. That, too, is useful information.
Europe has seen already before the damage authoritarian rulers may inflict. Practically speaking, World War Two in Europe began with Stalin’s and Hitler’s alliance. For both of them, a million people killed was just a statistic, as the saying goes.
Today, Europe lies again between two authoritarian rulers, and we need to be ready for whatever may come.
We need to take action, but we also need something else.
As a public speaking coach, people assume I’m mostly interested in speaking. I am — but I’m even more interested in listening.
I learn more by listening to the stories of others than those of my own. In the bigger picture, if we want to get along in this world, we don’t need more talk, we need more listening.
Because with enough patience, we sometimes find moments that open a door, a chance to build common ground. Not with everyone. But with some people. And that could be a beginning of something positive.
On this flight from Copenhagen to San Francisco, I learned about the famous dog sled patrol in Greenland.
👉 When was the last time a stranger taught you something useful you didn’t expect?
Me in front of my old house in Monterey. When I came back on January 14, 2025, it looked just the same as in January 1993 — even the paint colors were the same.
This photo could have been taken yesterday — or 33 years ago ⏳. That’s when this house in Monterey, California, became my home for six months, a period that in many ways made me who I am today.
Already at that time, California was an inspiration to the world in many ways, so I felt I was at the right place at the right time.
Looking back, three things stand out from my six months in Monterey:
🌱 I became confident I could build a life in another country. Until then, I wasn’t sure I could thrive outside my home country.
🌱 My interaction skills improved, and it was not just about learning to speak English with more ease than before. For example, many people in my native Finland are not used to giving casual compliments to others. Hence, learning to say a simple ”thank you” after receiving a compliment was a revelation to me.
In Europe, Americans are sometimes perceived as superficial, but my experience is they simply tend to have the skill to interact with people in a friendly way, often more so than in many other countries.
🌱 I met someone who helped me grow as a person. We didn’t last, but my belief that I could one day find the right match did.
We are defined by the choices we make that others don’t. Every ”road less traveled” becomes a chapter in our life’s story.
For example:
📍 My high school didn’t require me to study Spanish and to spend a year in Caracas, Venezuela, as an exchange student, but I did.
📍 My exchange student organization didn’t require me to visit the Soviet Union for two weeks in 1988, but I jumped at the opportunity to travel to Mariupol in what was then Soviet Ukraine. I stayed with a host family and got to know the locals.
📍 My business school curriculum didn’t require me to study a semester abroad in 1993, but I decided to go.
📍 January last year, I took another trip to California to get together with family I hadn’t seen in quite a while. Another important motive was to be there to witness a historical breaking point for the US and for the world. I wanted to be there during the last days of the America I had come to know and to feel the looming change. I knew I would regret it if I didn’t make that trip.
In 1993 my room was behind the upper right-hand window in the photo. In the mornings, I woke up to the sea lions at the nearby Monterey harbor. Writing this now, I can still hear them.
I believe that, in addition to the place where we grew up, we all have at least one place in the world that forms a part of our heart and soul. ❤️
What’s the one choice — and the one place — that has shaped you more than you expected? 💡
What keeps you motivated?🔥🔥🔥 What keeps me going is feedback like this message I received from someone I was able to help recently:
”Happy New Year to my mentor in the toughest of times.
There are moments when I wonder why I don’t simply walk off stage and exit quietly. But then I think of people like you. Full of wisdom, clarity, and kindness, and whose presence has made the whole journey meaningful.
Your feedback, your perspective, and the way you helped me grow mattered more than you probably realise.”
📌 Giving honest and positive feedback doesn’t cost you anything but it will make at least two people happy. A piece of feedback can mean the world to people. It will certainly boost their morale and their motivation to keep going and work harder to achieve something even better.
👉 When you catch someone doing something good, tell them.
Would you like to become a better communicator? 