Daily Inspiration: ““It’s clearly a vastly different, far more complex future. This futurist has the necessary command post to guide you!”

“It’s clearly a vastly different, far more complex future. This futurist has the necessary command post to guide you!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

This is a behind the scenes shot of my new, virtual home broadcast studio.

LOL. Not!

But that’s the thing about virtual presentations – I can take you and your team anywhere they need to be : not only in terms of insight, but with respect to the future scenarios that I can put up on the screen for them to explore. You obviously still have a future – it’s just very different from what you thought it would be.

To align to it, you need to understand it, explore it, comprehend it. That’s still my job – for over 25 years, I’ve guided some of the largest and most successful organizations in the world into their future.

I’m continuing to do so – from my basement!

And while the idea of a future that involves broadcasts from my basement rather than keynotes from a stage still seems somewhat staggering to comprehend, this is my reality – and your future. And so I’m investing a huge amount of time into mastering the format. There are lots of speakers who will tell you they ‘do virtual.’ There are few who do it in the way that I can.

Why this focus? Isn’t the world going to be back to normal one day soon?

Not a chance. In particular, like you, I’m watching the news coming out of my biggest market, the US. Every day, what I see continues to cement my earlier understanding that this is going to be a long, slow, and difficult economic recovery. Covid-19 has no respect for the desires of people – this breath of death just marches on, wreaking havoc in its wake. In its path, a nation that lacks the maturity and social structure to deal with the implications is a nation quickly headed for some sort of catastrophic failure.

My reality? The idea of being on a stage in Las Vegas, a conference room in Phoenix, an event facility in Orlando – all the places that were my previous place of ’employment’ – is probably gone for far longer than even I might have earlier thought. The US simply cannot manage itself.

So I’ve been doubling down on the capabilities of the home studio. New cameras, new gear, new backdrops. When I take an audience into the future, I can now actually take them into that future with a well designed show!

More important, I’m doubling down on experience. I’m forcing myself to do live, short shows on a regular basis : not just to share great leadership and trends insight, but to ensure that I am well trained, battle tested, in fighting form for this complex new virtual world.

Battle tested, trained, weapons ready, control centre primed! Virtual!