[0:36] Welcome to the Confident Live Marketing Podcast with Ian Anderson Gray. Helping you level up your impact, authority, and profits through the power of confident live video. Optimize your mindset and communication. And increase your confidence in front of the camera. Get confident with the tech and gear. And get confident with the content and marketing. Together, we can go live!
[1:04] Ian: Hello and welcome to the Confident Live marketing podcast. My name is Ian Anderson Gray and in this series we're talking about confidence and communication. Are you afraid of getting in front of the camera? Are you worried about making a complete idiot of yourself? I've just done that because this is actually the second take.
[1:23] I've even forgot what the name of the show was. So if it happens to me, it happens to everyone. I'm excited because I've got a repeat guest. We've got Nanna Sondrup back on the show let's tell you a little bit more about her if you don't remember her. She is the Danish LinkedIn content queen who practices, teaches and preaches the give first strategy.
[1:43] Welcome back, Nanna. How you doing
[1:45] Nanna: Thank you. I am doing hilarious. Thanks to you. So thank you for that.
[1:50] Ian: I always tell people the, we talked about teleprompters last time, and I'm not a big fan of writing out your script. I think, that's, that ends up becoming really boring. But I do actually use a teleprompter. For things like the first thing that I'm going to say because I don't know about you But when I press the record button, my brain sometimes goes to mush and I forget I you know I almost forget what my name is.
[2:14] So I hadn't actually put in the teleprompter what what I teach people Completely forgot what the name of the show was but I do did have your name and your bio So we're doing well. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming back on the show For people who haven't, who didn't listen to the previous episode, we do recommend that you do that.
[2:32] But tell us a little bit more about yourself. You're from Denmark. We met at the Uplift live conference in Birmingham, which was all about LinkedIn and you are a big LinkedIn advocate. Just tell us a little bit more about you and also just a reminder about the give first strategy. Cause I think that is really cool.
[2:49] Nanna: Thank you very much. Yes. So I'm from Denmark and I am very much nerd in the LinkedIn and especially the content. That is what I love. That is what I do. That is what I preach practice and teach. I think was what I said to you. The gift first strategy, just to be clear that is built about, You giving some value to the other people first, to the target audience, to your target customer, whatever you want to call it.
[3:16] Because when I started the I keep on hearing these pitch something ask where, do you want to buy? Do I want to hear what I can sell? Do you want my stuff? And that doesn't build connection that doesn't build a trust that doesn't build anything. It might sell something, but you have to do that a lot.
[3:33] And I didn't like that. So instead I focused on, can we just give value and build connection, build trust? And that is basically the content marketing strategy. But I just said as a Side comment or something that it's a just instead of asking first just give first just give people something valuable And then it stuck.
[3:54] People said oh that sounds great. I was like Thank you. And then I kept saying and now six years of entrepreneurships Just doing linkedin content. It still sticks. It's a really good piece of gum under my shoe It just keeps on being there
[4:08] Ian: That, that's great. And you need to stop watching now. You need to buy my high level product for $997. No, I'm joking. You see that, that, but isn't there a balance? Isn't there a balance? Because I see entrepreneurs like go either way. So some people will take like the idea of give first, but they never actually end up selling their own products.
[4:29] They're they're too nervous of that, and so it's always give first. And then the opposite thing is that they don't give first, they just sell without that. So there's a balance.
[4:37] Nanna: It's very typical because when I wear I go out, teaching somebody I have to ask them like how is your mind mindset? Now i'm stereotyping a lot just to warn you if i'm standing in front of a group of sales people They are very focused on when should I mention my product? How should I mention, all its features and yada to them?
[4:56] I have to preach very much give first how it builds connection and trust and so on so on But most of the times I actually found that when I go out and teach people, they say, okay, but how do I create something that's valuable? I don't want to be noisy. I don't want to be spam is what they are very much saying.
[5:15] And to them, I have to talk about what is value. What are you giving? Because people tend to undermine what they self have, what they give, what they have of knowledge and value. It's not as interesting. It's not as good as somebody else's. So we have a different talk about, okay, then what is value?
[5:35] And you have it as well. And something that's very basic to you can be very high level value for somebody else. Just because it's basic to you doesn't mean that it's not good. It just means that you're probably good at what you're doing since it's basic to you.
[5:51] Ian: Yes, and that brings us quite nicely into, talking about your journey in the content world, particularly video, because I think that's quite often the what happens in our heads. There's a mindset journey that we need to go on because First of all, when we get in front of the camera, we might be worried about people thinking that we look like an idiot, that we don't know what we're talking about, and we need to start to think actually, I do know what I'm talking about, and I do have a message, and people actually want us just to be ourselves.
[6:20] Yes, we want to improve. Can you maybe go back to the time when you first went in front of the camera and share with us, like, how were you feeling inside? Did you have those kind of moments of fear? Yeah. or nervousness, and can you maybe take us through how you overcome them? Because you obviously have, you are here today, you might still be nervous, I don't know, but you look confident and you're able to communicate really well.
[6:45] So tell us a little bit more about that journey. Yeah,
[6:52] Nanna: and I think one of the first thing that was very difficult for me was hearing and seeing myself whenever, you, you go in front of the camera, you try to take one take and you mess it up. Okay, fine, I'll try to do over. And you do it a lot of times and edit.
[7:08] And I ended up being like, okay, I'm going to edit it. But then I sat down and actually looked at myself and was hearing myself. And that is. And horrible experience. I do recommend everybody doing it, but it is a horrible experience and so what's For me it was being very conscious about how I look what I didn't like about myself and I only saw that so be very specific I do not like that.
[7:34] I have More how to say I don't like that. I have more fat on My body neck. I think that's very visible when I talk. That was something I was focusing on every damn time. I started, and now it's very hands on with what they do. I started stretching my neck so it looked very elegantly to be sure I couldn't see it myself.
[7:55] But that made me very much less natural. such of small little things that I was like, I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. So I became very stiff and not natural, very like a mannequin. Whenever I was in front of a video, because all of my self conscience just appeared massively. But what changed that is that at some point I was looking at it and I think actually it was somebody else who did a recording at me and I was like, Oh my god, there it is again.
[8:23] There's the neck. There's the eyebrows. There's everything that I hate about myself. And then I realized this is how everybody else sees me every damn day. This is how I look. This is how I sound. That was scary. It, I realized, okay, but I'm still married. I still have friends. I still have people around me.
[8:45] So maybe it's not as bad as I'm thinking. And this was really something huge for me, just realizing other people see me like this. All the time. I just don't, I see myself in the mirror turned the way that I like, I see myself on pictures posing the way I like. But when I saw that other people took pictures of me, friends and family, and I looked the way that I hated, I just realized, but this is just how I look.
[9:13] And that just gave me some kind of it took a little bit of time more than that but still that started my self acceptance of being like, okay, yeah, you can post all you want. But you still look this way normally in every day and that's fine. That's okay. That was one of my biggest first step.
[9:30] That was the appearance thing. Like, how do I feel about myself being being confident in that? I still, as everybody else, I have a lot of things that I could like to change and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But, it's not something that. That I'm very focused on now. It's not something that bothers me.
[9:45] That's not why I'll do a retake of a video or whatever. That was very, a very important first step for me. That, awareness of other people viewing you as this.
[9:57] Ian: that's really interesting. And again, I hadn't thought about it like that because We don't see ourselves, and it's the same, we don't hear ourselves, we do, but we don't hear ourselves in the same way as other people do. And I really struggled at first hearing my voice, because I hated the sound of my own voice.
[10:14] And I think sometimes we can just, we come, I don't know, it's almost like a form of self obsession, in a sense, that we're just focused on ourselves. Like you were mentioning about your neck, you didn't like the way it looked. Nobody else. is thinking that. Or if they are thinking that, they're not really going to be part of your, they're not going to be your perfect customer if they're obsessed with that.
[10:36] Oh, I couldn't possibly work with them because I don't like their neck. What kind of idiot are they, you know? so I think that is so true. And so that I just would,
[10:44] Nanna: bad negatives.
[10:45] Ian: yeah, there you go. That's your tag. That's your tagline. That's your tagline for you. You put it on your website. Uh, Did, have you had any so that was a pivotal moment for you.
[10:55] Have you had any like disasters or anything that has gone wrong? And how did you get through that? Did you, was it a learning experience for you?
[11:05] Nanna: Something that went wrong. From the outside world, I don't think there was much going wrong. But for me, it is. Again, the perfectionism fighting that that I think this self awareness thing, journey really helped me because the things that I feel like was mistakes was fault, something that went wrong.
[11:28] It's not something anybody else saw. So for instance, the first time I did a live that was on LinkedIn when it just came out, you have to apply for it and everything. I knew for myself that I wanted to go tech and I wanted to nerd and I wanted to prepare some great content and everything.
[11:44] That's what I wanted to do. But then I knew that, okay, but then I'll focus on that. That'll just be my new posing of the neck. That'll just be my new, something I'll be hiding behind. Not that you shouldn't do it, but I just was aware that'll be what I was doing. So instead my first live, I had just a very simple topic.
[12:03] I think it was, how does the algorithm works? And not in a is it like better than Comet? Not like that, but basically, what is it's purpose? What does it serve? And then I took out a whiteboard. It's behind me, and then I just draw on it when I was talking. So telling okay, so it really loves this and put in a heart, but really hate this, put in a cross, and so on.
[12:27] That's what I did, because, For me, the first live was more about, testing and trying to get comfortable with it and not as much about what I said. And I made it a lot easier for myself by saying, okay, away with the tech, away with the PowerPoints, away with everything. I'm just going to talk with a whiteboard.
[12:45] Then there is less preparation and less things that I can mess up or just hyper focus about. So that was me removing all the things that I wanted to hide behind. And, not do it today I'm gonna do it when this is ready and so on. But for me, I felt like I, when I watched the live back, I felt like there were so many things wrong.
[13:08] I didn't account for the sound that me moving away made the sound, obviously less great because I had a bigger distance between me and the microphone. So I hated that. At that time, it was just new and people were excited because there was a live and you're doing live. How amazing. We see you in person.
[13:26] That's what people, what they were reacting about. So they forgave everything. The bad sound the bad quality the messy going through, the content that I was going through all of it. They forgave it because. They saw it was just starting and they were hyped because I was hyped. This is not the point about Don't prepare or don't have something great, but it's just my self awareness.
[13:50] What is my struggle? How do I hide behind something and how do I make sure that I actually execute instead of just delaying? Working on a new pose.
[13:59] Ian: Yeah.
[14:00] Nanna: gonna be the thing by now So for me, there was a lot of felt like mistakes and failure. Because I know what I wanted to do to feel safe.
[14:10] But I didn't even though it seemed a little bit messy, but it makes sure that I actually got to do something and that gave me confidence. It's funny how successing something gives you confidence.
[14:21] Ian: Yeah. Yeah. And this is this is the story of what it's like to be a perfectionist or recovering perfectionist, because these are the thing. It may seem very strange, like why obsess over these little things. It is a real thing. And I don't think it's all negative, because you, at the end of the day, it shows like you, your heart is that you're wanting to serve and create amazing content.
[14:45] And some of those things like you were saying that you really hated the fact that when you went away from the microphone the audio, the volume went down. But the cool thing is you can reframe that and think that was awesome because I now know that I need to sort that out for next time. I either like you've got a new microphone, a lapel microphone, because that works much better for you.
[15:05] So you learn something with that. And I also think that when people, when things go wrong, I think it makes you more approachable as well. If you're too perfect, then that's not, I think that can put people off. And finally, the whole thing with live, and this is, I think this is your experience.
[15:21] Live video is it's a really hard thing for perfectionists. It's like jumping in the deep end and you can't swim. It's that kind of thing. But through that process, I think it's that perfect antidote to perfectionism because you realize it can't be perfect. You make all the mistakes and guess what?
[15:40] You're still alive. And actually people like it and it goes really well. Is that kind of your experience?
[15:46] Nanna: very much. I remember having a small panic attack almost every time the first couple of lives. And not just in a ha but literally hearing my heart beating being like about to leave my chest and all I was thinking is Okay, what are you gonna say? How are you gonna say it? Are you sure you can say that right?
[16:05] Is that good enough? And you know the perfectionism just going insane being like stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it That was all of my natural instincts saying don't do it. Shut it down right now. So that's That's how I felt. Sometimes I still get that feeling but not not as intense obviously I think it's a healthy thing to still be a little bit nervous about it because that means it means something
[16:27] Ian: I think you're right. It, but it's turning that nervous energy into the excitement because it shows you that you care, but it can be quite debilitating, but you've obviously, you've got through that. And that that's an amazing. Yeah. Yeah. And same. Like I could have called myself the reluctant live video guy because I was in a way the last person to do this, but.
[16:46] I ended up this bit was my thing. So just before we finish, just aware of time. Let's talk about personality because I think, you've already mentioned that, we all have different personalities, different ways. Of expressing things. You're quite you like to use your hands, you move around a bit, which is great.
[17:02] Not everyone does that. Some people are quite static, and that's cool. So would you describe yourself as a, like a shy person, a bold person, so that there's that or, and then the other thing is introverted, extroverted. Like how would you describe yourself and how does that affect the way you turn up in front of the camera?
[17:21] Nanna: So I'm actually an ambivert which means that you're both extrovert and you're also an introvert. Most people that meet me say no, you're definitely an extrovert. And it's yeah, because when I meet you, that's the side that kicks in. But I'm telling you when the introverted part just takes over, it's like a switch.
[17:39] But that's more like an in person kind of thing. Whenever I doing lives, I can feel like it's the very, It's the very bold side of me. I want it to be bigger. I want it to be better. I want it to be loud because I for myself love content that is both teaching and entertaining. So I'm basically a child.
[18:00] So that's it. That's what I love, and what I really like, I want to give to others. I do know that there is a saying, a great saying You are not your customer, which is important, meaning that just because you do not buy through an email doesn't mean you shouldn't do email marketing because your customer might do it.
[18:22] For instance. But when it comes to, value, personality and so on, I very much believe that the more I can be the version that I am when I'm out with a customer the better it serves everybody so they don't get a shock when I'm out there. I can play both the outgoing side, whenever I am teaching, whenever I am doing lives, I am very the bold and I love to laugh at myself.
[18:48] I love to have a great time. I'm doing my best to make sure that I do because then I know at least one person is having it, being a part of that life. when I talk with people, especially if I go in my analytic mode, I will seem a little bit more shy because I asked just a lot of questions and then I listen.
[19:07] So I feel like this sounds very schizophrenic. I feel like I have a lot of different personalities, but in, in reality, I just adapt to different kinds of situations. And I know whenever I meet people at first, and when I do teach and workshops, I have my outgoing very make myself happy personality. And I'm very aware that, okay, that's what I'm going to bring to the lives because that side of me is what I'm going to also show them.
[19:36] I think everybody have different side of you. Of
[19:38] Ian: Oh, yeah.
[19:39] Nanna: just be aware that the way that you use the person that you are in the professional context, like networking, in my opinion, That personality you have there is what you should bring to the live because then it's authentic. It doesn't matter if you are a little bit more laid back, if you talk slower, if you're not the same energy.
[19:59] You don't have to. If that's the energy you have whenever you meet people, I think that's great to present that in lives. Because somebody will find me very off putting and if they do that's great because then we know we're not a great match but people who is more laid back and talk slower and have more, you know They think about, but more about what they say, they will attract somebody else.
[20:21] And that's great because then they will fit great together. I'm a strong believer that we should work with people that we fit very well with. Of course, also make sure that we challenge ourselves with people who is very different from ourselves. For instance, for me, marry somebody who is very different from yourself.
[20:39] You learn a lot from it. know if that answers your question, but it just got a little bit
[20:43] Ian: It does. And it's we put people in boxes. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? And it's not quite as simple as that. I would, I'm not sure I would necessarily call myself an ambivert, but I'm an introvert who has learned the skills to be an extrovert when needed. But if I'm an extrovert, if I put on my extrovert hat too long, there are consequences.
[21:00] And I, I have to, sit in a darkened room for a week or something, I'm joking, but it's a little bit like that. Yeah. Just before we finish so what would be your final words of encouragement or advice for listeners who are maybe just starting out, or that they're looking at themselves and they're wanting to improve their confidence and their communication.
[21:19] They have, they know they have a message,
[21:22] Nanna: Okay.
[21:22] Ian: but something's stopping them and they want to improve.
[21:25] Nanna: I want to say a lot of things. What is the most important things? Think when we're talking about livestreams start with very much self awareness. Because confidence for me what I believe is that it's built a lot about who am I, because that's a very difficult question to actually answer.
[21:42] What is my strengths? What is my weakness? What do I like? What do I don't and so on. Start with self awareness because the more you have worked with yourself, the more natural and authentic confidence you will have. For somebody who can put on a very extrovert personality, You can fake having confidence, but it doesn't show who you really are and it's very hard to keep that up.
[22:07] So if you get self awareness read a self help book or whatever it's your kick. Going through that, that really benefits on lives and so many other things in life. I think that's the way to become the very authentic and natural version of yourself. on lives and people will resonate with that.
[22:26] We can buy amazing equipment, we can practice our content and all of that, but that confidence, authentic charisma connection is best built the more you have worked with yourself and being basically happy with who you are. It really shines through. I think. It's a bit of a funny message here.
[22:48] We're talking a little bit of marketing and but
[22:50] Ian: Yeah.
[22:51] Nanna: we are doing live stream, there's a little bit of personal branding. And I think personal branding is strongest serve when somebody has a great person behind them serving it, which means having work with yourself and confident in who you are, no matter what that is.
[23:06] Ian: Yes Podcast is all about really. Yes. Marketing is important. We believe in the power of live video, but if you don't work on yourself, this is the confidence thing and confidence doesn't necessarily mean hello, this it's, it's like being confident in who you are and that might be quite a chilled out, laid back person, but you've got a message to share in front of people.
[23:30] Like people who want to watch you. So thank you so much, Nanna. That was amazing. That if anything was going to be like a little video snippet, I'm going to post on Instagram, that was it. Thank you for that. No, it's been awesome. Just a reminder for people who if they want to find out a bit more about you, where's the best place I presumably LinkedIn, but to tell us a little bit more about that and what you're working on next.
[23:55] Nanna: Please follow me on LinkedIn I do write in Danish, but you are welcome no matter what language that you speak You can use the translation button. My life is also in Danish. I am sorry Whenever I have a guest it might be in English might see Ian. That would be awesome But follow me on LinkedIn if you care about Content, if you care about LinkedIn, if you care about B2B marketing, because that's what I talk about.
[24:20] Right now, what I am working a lot of on is being better at going out live because I've been a bit in a stuck and now I'm taking my own medicine and planning on what should I do next. So I'm putting a structure on and making sure I'm doing the stuff that I preach.
[24:36] Ian: Awesome. Looking forward to that. Well, Yeah, do follow Nanna and all her links will be in the show notes. So you can just go to IAG. me forward slash podcast and you can find out. all about that. But yeah, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on. You've just given so many value bombs, as my American cousins say.
[24:54] I really appreciate that. It's been awesome. Thank you so much.
[24:58] Nanna: Ian for having me. It was a real pleasure.
[25:00] Ian: Thank you. And we are at the end of the show. And I'm hoping I'm going to get the words, my words correct at the end and not start gibbering on about something else. But thank you so much for plugging us in. into your ears or for watching or for reading. This is a podcast. It is a blog post. It is a video as well.
[25:20] So thank you so much for that. And if you haven't come across the podcast, you can follow it in your or subscribe to it in your favorite podcast app. Just go to iag.me/ podcast. Thank you so much. And until next time, I encourage you to level up your impact authority and profits to the power of confident live video.
[25:36] See you soon. Bye.
[25:37] Thanks for listening to the Confident Live Marketing Podcast with Ian Anderson Gray. Make sure you subscribe at iag.me/podcast so you can continue to level up your impact, authority and profits through the power of live video. And until next time, Toodle
