It’s been a year for many. Including me.

In late February 2020, my big year of traveling the world and speaking to audiences about how to decode the future came to an abrupt halt.
As the chaos of the global pandemic kicked in, I found two things happening at the same time:

1. My public presentations were being delayed/pushed to this year/cancelled.
2. My public presentations were shifting to virtual/online events.

I was one of the lucky ones.

While I was resistant to changing my events to virtual in the beginning (I did not believe that what happens on the stage is easily replicable in a Zoom meeting), I was forced to adapt and innovate.
Like the rest of us.
My life of early flights, random cities, hotel rooms, pounding the pavement looking for coffee, hitting the stage, and racing back home shifted to…
Webcam, RodeCaster Pro, ring light, Stream Deck, Ecamm Live software and much more hardware, software, learning, and getting my reps in.
I went from the person onstage to…
The person in front of the camera and the entire av team in one.
I had gone virtual.

It quickly became a lot of fun.

Playing with new toys.
Thinking of new ways to connect with an audience online.
Building out a professional broadcasting studio space.
Using technology in ways that it was never intended for… and more.
Remembering how many decades I have spent using and understanding digital tools (so, why should this be any different?).
What seemed strange was, ultimately, a perfectly natural habitat for me.

With that, I still long for the road (bring forth the vaccines and let’s get on with this…).

Still, in this time, I had time to reflect (even more) on how I want to show up in this world.
How else can I help businesses to decode the future beyond keynote presentations, articles, a weekly podcast, and my media appearances?
One place that I constantly found myself attracted to over the years (in terms of their content, awards and members) was the Thinkers50.
I had friends, colleagues, and people that I really respect who were awarded this title.
I even interviewed one of the co-founders, Stuart Crainer, on my podcast back in 2018 (you can listen to our conversation right here: Six Pixels of Separation #644 – Thinking Bigger With Stuart Crainer).

I am very proud to now be a member of the Thinkers50 Radar 2021 class.

For those who don’t know what Thinkers50 is…
“Thinkers50 is the world’s most reliable resource for identifying, ranking, and sharing the leading management ideas of our age. We are based in London, with partners and affiliations around the globe. Our ambition is to provide innovative access to ideas with the power to make the world a better place.”

Thank you!

I do not believe that I would have won this award without each and every one of you who take the time to read, listen, follow and share the work that I do. I also want to thank both Stuart Crainer and his business partner, Des Dearlove, for their belief in my work. Big thanks to Dan Pontefract who made the initial introduction. Plus, an extra special thanks to David Burkus, Dorie Clark, Whitney Johnson, Henry Mintzberg, and Tom Peters for their vote of confidence. I don’t normally care much for awards and accolades, but with this one… you can knock me over with a feather.

Now, let’s get back to decoding the future…

Are you interested in what’s next? How to decode the future? I publish between 2-3 times per week and then the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast comes out every Sunday. Feel free to subscribe (and tell your friends).