Anne Damgaard Podcast Transcript

Melody Moore [00:00:01]:
Welcome to the Secret Resume podcast, hosted by me, Melody Moore. In this podcast, we explore the people, places and experiences that have shaped my guests, those which have influenced who they are as people and where they are in their work life today, or as I like to call it, their secret resume. Before we dive in, I want to tell you about something that I’m really excited about, about which is our being free membership. We’re developing an online community which is designed for people who are interested in personal growth. If you’re navigating career transitions, maybe feeling stuck or burnt out, or simply seeking more meaning in your life, then this is for you. Membership gives you access to a range of resources, a supportive community and monthly group coaching calls. It will allow you to explore what free freedom means to you on your own terms. Head to www.liberareconsulting.co.uk being free to join the Waitlist.

Melody Moore [00:01:04]:
So, my guest today is Anne Damgaard. Anne, welcome. Anne it would be lovely if you could just introduce yourself.

Anne Damgaard [00:01:12]:
Thank you so much, Melody, and thank you for having me on your podcast. Well, yeah, I’m Anne and I’m 41 years old and I live in Denmark and I’m an entrepreneur and I’ve been an entrepreneur for the last five years. I’m a. I’m a solo entrepreneur and I’m a founder of a mentor and entrepreneurship programme and I’ve been running that for, yeah, five years now. And I’m also a business mentor and then I’ve just finished my training as a Being Me therapist as well. So I’m doing a lot of different stuff in personal development and training and facilitating mentoring. Yeah, the whole mix, it’s a big soup.

Melody Moore [00:02:04]:
Perfect. Well, we’ll come back to the big soup later on and talk a bit more about that because it’s. There are many things in there that you and I have in common and shared passions, so we’ll talk about some of those. But let’s start with your own story first and go right back to the beginning of your story and talk a bit about your parents. Let’s start off there.

Anne Damgaard [00:02:29]:
Yeah, that’s a great place to start. And I think that one of the reasons that I’ve become an entrepreneur is that I grew up in an entrepreneurship environment with my parents. My dad’s been an entrepreneur. And I think just that whole energy of that being a possible job, even like a career, that really affected me growing up. Like, I was just used to that flow of things going really well sometimes and then things just going downhill. I think maybe just knowing that whatever happened, we, we’d make it through somehow. Like whatever happened in, in business and in life. My parents gave me this belief that, you know, it’s, I can figure it out and I can overcome difficult things.

Anne Damgaard [00:03:33]:
So I think that really runs in, in my blood a little bit or in my DNA. But actually when I did start my business, my, my dad, he was like, how can you make a living off that? Like, is that like, are you seriously gonna do that? And yeah, so that was, that was really funny. And I had to like, try to explain to him how I was gonna make money helping other people. I’ll figure out their dreams and how to go about running their own business and starting their own business. And he was like, really? Are you? Because in Denmark we have loads of things where you can get all of this for free. Basically in the public sector you can just have advisement for free, you can have tax advicement for free and all of these things. So. But I’m like, but that really people also need help with their mindset and their day to day structure and their sales and their marketing and everything.

Anne Damgaard [00:04:39]:
So he was convinced. But I just think that this like, adventurous, I think you need to have a bit of an adventurous spirit to go into an entrepreneurship. So I think I, I got that from growing up in my family.

Melody Moore [00:04:55]:
Did you always think, I’m going to be an entrepreneur, I’m going to own my own business? Was that always something that was in your mind?

Anne Damgaard [00:05:03]:
No, no, no, never. Because actually I’m a, I’m from like profession or, or yeah, my education is, I’m a lawyer. So I went to law school for six years and I was, I was really into human rights and I really wanted to, you know, go out into the world and like move to Geneva or the un. So I really, I knew I really wanted to do something with people and something that could be like, create an impact in the world. But I never thought, I never thought I should have my own business, not at all. And it took me a long time to figure out even like, how could I even start my own business? Because I wasn’t like anything, you know, I wasn’t a hairdresser, I wasn’t a masseur, I wasn’t, I wasn’t a painter or writer or anything where I thought, oh, that’s, that’s something I can do. I wasn’t in any kind of profession and I didn’t want to be like have my own law firm. Like, that wasn’t very interesting.

Anne Damgaard [00:06:24]:
I thought that was not very creative.

Melody Moore [00:06:28]:
And what was it like being the child of an entrepreneur? Did you experience the kind of highs and lows alongside your dad?

Anne Damgaard [00:06:37]:
Absolutely. So like at the same time as it was very much like, you know, whatever happens we can overcome. There was also a lot of stress in my family and my dad was working really hard. So I think that, you know how many people say like, I’d rather not be an entrepreneur because I saw my parents have this shop and they always had to work or my parents were entrepreneurs, I was seeing other people be entrepreneurs and they always, they were always working. It was the same in my family. My dad was working really hard with his business and was travelling a lot and work was definitely like, well, high, high, high priority. And so that was, that was definitely something as well to be like, whoa, if I should be an entrepreneur, I don’t want to be an entrepreneur who has to work a. Absolutely.

Anne Damgaard [00:07:46]:
So that’s been really present for me about how can I create a business that can be sustainable and where I don’t work that many hours? Because that was also one of the things about being a lawyer. I always knew that I wanted to have a family and I wanted to have children and, and I thought being a lawyer, I know you have to work a lot of hours and like, what’s the point? For me, that’s what I thought, like, what’s the point of having kids if I’m never going to see them? So that was really top of mind for me and that was actually also one of the reasons I became an entrepreneur, to create a more sustainable life for me and my family. Yeah, yeah.

Melody Moore [00:08:37]:
I think it’s interesting. One of my clients talked about a working for sufficiency. That’s what she talked about, you know, this idea that it wasn’t about. And they’d had a quite a sort of hard, working hard, drinking hard, partying lifestyle. Previously very much highs and lows financially, but now we’re very much about, well, working for enough and enough not being, you know, six holidays a year kind of enough, but you know, just a different, more calm lifestyle.

Anne Damgaard [00:09:18]:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that’s definitely been like my, my top priority, starting my business and leaving my old career was to be able to homeschool our son, me and my husband together and actually have a, a part time job earning a full time wage from like that enough perspective.

Melody Moore [00:09:46]:
Yeah. Did you work out? How much was it? I know we’re jumping around here, but I’m curious about this. Did you work out? How much was enough?

Anne Damgaard [00:09:57]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And when I Started out well, when I started my business, which I. I never suggest anyone to do what I did, but that was just how the cards were at the time. So I’d quit this job that I was in or basically I’d been fired because I. I just really couldn’t. I couldn’t deal with this psychopathic boss that I had. So I. So I.

Anne Damgaard [00:10:33]:
Yeah, so I really just pulled the plug basically and ended up getting fired, which was. Which was fine because I just knew that I couldn’t go back there. And I also knew that I needed to do something else with my life. So me and my family, we. We bought this old camper and we drove around Europe for a year, which was a really difficult and interesting time. And it’s not a holiday driving around in Europe with your family. It’s. It’s like.

Anne Damgaard [00:11:07]:
It’s hardcore travel. And we just talked a lot about like, how should our life be? And at that point my husband was. He was quite sick with a lot of pains in his body and he also knew that he couldn’t go back to his former job. He. He’s. He’s also an entrepreneur and he had a. A hairdressing salon in Copenhagen and he couldn’t do that anymore. So we were basically at like, you know, complete blank here.

Anne Damgaard [00:11:41]:
Like, what were we supposed to do with our lives? And we knew that we wanted to. To homeschool our son. He’d always been home. And my husband and my parents had been taking care of. Of our son during the day. And I’d come home from work being really tired and stressed out. So I just knew that this really had to change. So we decided, after this travelling around for one year, we decided actually to stay in our camper, which we ended up doing for another three years.

Melody Moore [00:12:21]:
Wow.

Anne Damgaard [00:12:22]:
Yeah. So we ended up staying in our camper for four years. And this is like less than 10 square metres. Three people. Like full family, toys, winter clothes.

Melody Moore [00:12:37]:
And you need clothes in Denmark. It’s not like living in the south Spain, where you warmer.

Anne Damgaard [00:12:44]:
No. And it was also during COVID and we were also travelling a little bit, but not. Not very much. So that was like that. That was like really like a really strange and at the same time a very amazing time in our lives because everything was just very simple. Like you can’t really, you know, everything is just back to basic when you live in a camper. It’s just, you know, you have your computer and your books and just the bare minimum and. Yeah, so that was that.

Anne Damgaard [00:13:29]:
So when you ask me about that number I was, you know, my husband wasn’t working at the time because he was overcoming his, his, all these physical pain he had in his body and also taking a new education. So it was just really for us this time where we decided to go into a new direction but also kind of had to pay the price for it like financially and really choose to, to ask ourselves like, what’s the most important thing in our lives right now.

Melody Moore [00:14:09]:
I’m going to come back to that because I think it’s an unexplored area is the financial implications of entrepreneurship. And absolutely so many entrepreneurs I meet don’t pay themselves for, you know, a number of years when they’re starting up their businesses. And, and so again, let’s come back to that because I think it’s really interesting. I’m going to take you back again to your childhood and you talked about your dad working really hard, travelling a lot and you as a family moved to Berlin.

Anne Damgaard [00:14:41]:
Yes, so yes we did. And I think for me it was really an exciting time and I think that whole adventurous. I’d always loved travelling actually. You asked me if I always, always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. When I was really young, I wanted to be a stewardess because I had this idea that I go travelling all the time. I thought it was very exotic. But yeah, we, we moved to Berlin and I think that really had a profound significance in my life and the way I, I shaped. And also a lot of the things that I’m doing now are things that I learned from a really young age.

Anne Damgaard [00:15:24]:
I was in the, in the sixth grade, so I was around, I think I was around 11. And I, @ that time in Berlin there wasn’t like a, a free international school. They only had a German American school that they created after the Berlin Wall had come down, but in the American sector of the, of the city. And then they had this very small, very elitist international school. And that was the only place my parents could put me because my English wasn’t good enough to go to the American school where you had to have a mother tongue English or German to be accepted. So I, I came into this very small, very strange school with only seven other people in my class. Five of them I think were Russian. And it was like a complete culture shock for me coming to this school from like I’m very normal Danish, you know, just a very normal kid’s life coming to Berlin and then meeting these kids that were with different religious backgrounds.

Anne Damgaard [00:16:46]:
Some of them were very, very wealthy and some of them were not very wealthy. But this whole multi cultural diversity was just so interesting and just made me so curious of how you can live and how you can just do things in so many different ways and how families can be so different. And yeah, that was, that was a really special adventure. And I had a really hard time coming from just this regular Danish school into this really small group of seven people and having to do everything in English, of course, math and English and social science, history. And I had a very excellent teacher from New York City who was like, she really pushed me in a way that I’ve never met anyone who’s pushed me in that sense in a really, really positive way. So I wasn’t used to doing loads and loads of homework from, from back home, I think. You know, I’d go to school and then I’d do a little bit of homework and then I’d play with my friends. But she was, she was on my case.

Anne Damgaard [00:18:07]:
She was like, you know, you can do better with this math because I had a really difficult time with this math stuff. And she was like, you know, you can come in on Saturdays and then we can sit and we can do this and you can learn these things. And she would, you know, if I turn in a paper, like an English essay or something, you know, she would write two full lengths of papers back to me giving me feedback about like, wow, how I can do better and where I could improve and like really giving me credit of all the things she thought I did well. So I think that was the first time an adult really saw my strengths and challenged me into what it means if I put effort into things that I can improve. Like I really got the sense that, wow, if I really practise, I can actually improve. And if somebody just, you know, uses some time and sits down with me to explain me these things that I find really overwhelming and difficult, I can actually understand them and I can work them out and I can know I can, I can own these skills. So I really think my mindset changed and the way I saw myself in the sense that I could really do difficult stuff. And in a year I was able to go from just speaking like a little bit of English to being at mother tongue level and being able to go to this American school where, yeah, they required, yeah, mother tongue English levels to be accepted.

Anne Damgaard [00:19:51]:
So that was, that was really like a mastery learning experience for me.

Melody Moore [00:19:57]:
What was it that she did that. Because it sounds quite tough as well. It’s like almost like tough love. Like what was what, what did she do that Made it palatable for you? I suppose. So it didn’t crush you?

Anne Damgaard [00:20:12]:
Yeah, I think, I think the way she did it was just. She really saw me with like so much love. Like, I really felt supported. So it wasn’t like, I mean, it was high demands, but at the same time she knew that a lot was at stake for me. She knew like, this school was really expensive for my parents and they hadn’t really thought that they should pay that much money for an international school school for. They did have the money, but it was like, it would be really good if we don’t have to pay this one more year. So she really knew that I needed to improve and I, I.

Melody Moore [00:20:55]:
Did you know that? Did you have that?

Anne Damgaard [00:20:58]:
I knew that absolutely. I knew that they were very honest about that. They were also. They also said like, if, if, you know, if it doesn’t work out and you don’t pass that test, we’ll. We’ll be able to figure something out. So they didn’t put it all on me. But at the same time I knew that I really, that it would good if I improved my English and I worked hard at it. But the sense that I got with her was just that I think it’s like at that age, like really being seen for all your potential.

Anne Damgaard [00:21:38]:
A lot of adults really don’t do that. Like, they just kind of see you like, oh, well, you know, better luck next time or, you know, you shouldn’t take it so hard that it didn’t work too well or you know, where she was very much like, if, well, you did like this on this test or this quiz or this paper and the exact things you can improve, I’m not, I’m going to tell you what they are and I’m also going to help you and I’m also going to give you the support and I’m also going to give you the help to do it. So she was really like coaching me and mentoring me and really like in a really loving way and also saying like, you can do really great, but it does require some work from you. So I think it was that honesty and actually being taken seriously and having my potential taken seriously. And I really love that and I never ever had a teacher like that again.

Melody Moore [00:22:44]:
No, it sounds like she.

Anne Damgaard [00:22:48]:
She, she.

Melody Moore [00:22:50]:
Kind of gave you that sense of your, like you understanding your potential.

Anne Damgaard [00:22:56]:
Exactly.

Melody Moore [00:22:56]:
Not just her that, no, but I. What I love about what you said is that she, she told you what she did wrong, but she was also there to support you to learn how to do it. Better. And I think that’s where a lot of schooling goes wrong, is that children are told you need to get better at X, Y or Z, but they’re not given any support.

Anne Damgaard [00:23:15]:
Exactly.

Melody Moore [00:23:16]:
To. To help them because the classes are 30 kids in a class and you know, it’s impossible to do. I’m not, I’m not saying teachers are bad or to blame. It’s a very difficult situation. But yes, it’s that my daughter’s having some tutoring at the moment in Spanish and it’s having an amazing effect on her in terms of her confidence. She doesn’t want to do it and she moans about it, but when she comes out of it once a week, she’s always in a really good mood because she’s proud of her, what she’s achieved because she’s getting that kind of feedback and support and that reinforcement that she’s not getting at all in her school, in her Spanish class.

Anne Damgaard [00:24:00]:
Yeah, right, let’s move.

Melody Moore [00:24:04]:
We’re going to take quite a big jump actually, in time wise. So you studied law, which is something I didn’t know about you actually. And so there we go. I’ve learned something that you started law and you became a student counsellor, is that right?

Anne Damgaard [00:24:22]:
Yes, yes, I did. Yeah. I studied. I studied law at the Copenhagen University. And yeah, it was just by pure luck that I ran into this note on the hallway saying that they were looking for a new. Like, well, it should be a student who could work with the professional career counsellors. So they had this corp of. I think we were four students who were all on our bachelor degree or in the beginning of.

Anne Damgaard [00:25:09]:
I, I think I was in my second year of law and they wanted us to come in and well, basically have talks or. Yeah, sessions with other students who came in and who were really like. Who were going through difficult stuff in their life or who were, you know, having problems with their exams or anything like. Or maybe they didn’t know if they even wanted to do this degree anymore. Like, loads of questions. It could be anything from like, I don’t know how to prepare for my next exam to like, my mother has cancer and my life is in ruins. And of course we had loads of courses and we went through a lot of programmes. But this, me go looking at that board that one day, I was just looking at it, I was like, okay, this, this is, this is a sign.

Anne Damgaard [00:26:04]:
Like, I need to. I need to have that job.

Melody Moore [00:26:07]:
Why? What, what was the. Why did you need to have that job? What was it calling in you oh my gosh.

Anne Damgaard [00:26:13]:
It was just calling me, like, being able to. To talk to people, to talk to other students and, you know, help them sort out their stuff, either practical or, you know, whatever was going on in their life or their confusion or their doubt. I just thought, that has got to be so meaningful. That has got to be like, I’d love to do that. That just felt so meaningful to me. Like, I could feel it in every cell of my body. And the thing was, I wasn’t actually in the right year to become like, you had to have passed some certain exams and I hadn’t asked them. So I was like, but I need this job.

Melody Moore [00:27:09]:
And was it a paid job? It was a job.

Anne Damgaard [00:27:11]:
It was a paid job. Yes. So. So in Denmark it’s normal that when you. When you study whatever you study in university, you have also some job on the side. And mostly, you know, later I’d have jobs and law firms and stuff also on the side. Like a student job. Yeah, it’s something you do that has some relevance to whatever you’re studying.

Anne Damgaard [00:27:38]:
And this also had some relevance because there are loads of rules and in university about like, yeah, when can you do an extra exam? Or what if your mother’s sick and in hospital, can you then have an extra exam? And all these things? So there was quite a bit of law stuff in it, but. But I wasn’t so interested in the law stuff. I was so interested in the helping people stuff. And they did it.

Melody Moore [00:28:06]:
Well, it’s interesting. Even the law that you studied, you were interested in human rights, weren’t you? It sounds like it wasn’t the law so much as the people.

Anne Damgaard [00:28:14]:
No, no, absolutely. It’s always been like being able to make an impact, like collectively or one on one to one. Like, that’s just been really. I’ve been really passionate about that. And I didn’t know at the time that getting this job would actually lead me many years onwards to. To what I’m doing today. So that’s really interesting. But I did have a battle with myself in many years, like going back and forth from this counselling, doing career counselling, working with that and the other, the law side of my, my background.

Anne Damgaard [00:28:59]:
Like, you know, you should really use your law degree now that you’ve spent these last many years studying so hard. I like, I think that whole CV thought of, why did you do law.

Melody Moore [00:29:20]:
In the first place? What was it that attracted you?

Anne Damgaard [00:29:25]:
I think, well, I told my parents that I really wanted to study philosophy. And then my dad looked at me and my mom looked at me and they were like, do you want to become a high school teacher? And I was like, no. And I’m like, you can do loads of other stuff with philosophy but, but in Denmark I think it’s a lot like, I don’t know if it’s the I. It seems to be different in the uk, but when you study something that’s kind of the path you’re on and then you’re just kind of stuck there and it’s really difficult with any, with any degree to do something else. So if you do law, that’s it, that’s. You’re kind of, you can’t move.

Melody Moore [00:30:15]:
Yeah, no, I would say that is quite different. In the uk, I think a lot of people do a degree and then we’ll go and do something completely. In fact, most people I know who have a degree don’t use their degree.

Anne Damgaard [00:30:28]:
Exactly. And it’s not like that here. It’s like you need to have the degree and then you need to have all these years of experience within this exact field and if you don’t have that, you’re, you’re just not, you’re just not going to get that job. So I think the combination of. I’ve always had something about like, you know, creating an impact. I’ve always been really interested in political science and social studies and justice and equality and freedom and state, you know, your business freedom, you know, this whole freedom thing like, and also all these discussions about like government versus people’s rights. All of this I thought was always really interesting. I’ve done A level social studies and I’ve done loads of stuff so I thought that could be like.

Anne Damgaard [00:31:34]:
I was looking at all these different degrees and I was like, well, I like people, I like to make a difference and I really don’t want to become a doctor and because that’s, I don’t want anything with science or math, I want something that’s more humanistic and so I thought, well then maybe law could be a good thing. Yeah, so I, I think that was like my, my, my 18 year old self deciding like, well, it can be quite rare.

Melody Moore [00:32:12]:
And did you practise law then?

Anne Damgaard [00:32:15]:
No, I, I mean I’ve had some, some, some law jobs but it’s been, I’ve always found myself thinking like, what am I doing here? I need to, I need to do something else. So it’s been very like short, like going into it and being like, no, no, this is not for me.

Melody Moore [00:32:37]:
And what is it about it that’s not for you?

Anne Damgaard [00:32:40]:
That it’s so much more paperwork than people work. Yeah, it’s a lot paper stuff. And for me it just becomes. Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s also really detail oriented and, and I think that I can, yeah, it just become, I think it becomes a little bit the same. You know, it’s, and, and also it’s very. There’s not much creativity in that sense that I like to be a creative person. I like to use myself in a lot of different ways. And I think that’s why being an entrepreneur is also such a good match for me because I get to use so many different sides of myself.

Anne Damgaard [00:33:38]:
Like I get to do so many different things. And I think not just law, but maybe actually any kind of job where I’d have to do the same thing. Even even counselling, even career counselling, even student counselling, or even being a full time therapist, having clients every day. I, I don’t think that’s for me because I, I need that change in my work.

Melody Moore [00:34:05]:
What was it that you got from the student counselling? What was, did you, was it something that you loved? Did you think, oh, I could do this for a career?

Anne Damgaard [00:34:15]:
Yeah, I did and I ended up doing that as my career as well. I, I did pursue that way after I finished my law degree because there was an opening position that I was asked if I wanted. And. Well, I really like the versatility in the job and like doing workshops, facilitating, doing a little bit of teaching, doing one on ones and also being able to like figure out like, how can we make the student environment better for the students? How can we change things? Like in the faculty that can create, you know, you know, just that the students generally feel better, like that they learn more. Like how can we, how can we make them thrive? So I think it’s that collective change, but also the change for the, the. On the one, on one level. Do you, do you get what I’m saying? Like, yeah, there’s like a.2. Yeah.

Melody Moore [00:35:17]:
Yes, yes. It’s not just individuals, it’s not just groups, it’s.

Anne Damgaard [00:35:22]:
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I thought that was, that was really great. And there was also a lot of freedom in that job that I really liked. Like there was like a lot of spaciousness.

Melody Moore [00:35:33]:
Okay, so I’m going to take you on to your next thing, which is an NGO that you set up. Now I’ve got in my notes it written in Danish. Can you please tell me what that says? Because there’s no way I can pronounce that.

Anne Damgaard [00:35:49]:
Yeah, okay. So I think I’ll just. I’ll just translate it. So it’s the entrepreneurship help. Ah. Or the entrepreneurship helper, maybe even. Or. Because it’s like more of a specific.

Anne Damgaard [00:36:03]:
So it’s like. Yeah, entrepreneurship help was my. Was my little NGO and co. What.

Melody Moore [00:36:11]:
Say that in Danish then. Sounds much nicer.

Anne Damgaard [00:36:21]:
Yeah.

Melody Moore [00:36:22]:
So how. How did you come about setting this up? So we’re talking 2012.

Anne Damgaard [00:36:27]:
Yes.

Melody Moore [00:36:28]:
Time. How. How does this come about?

Anne Damgaard [00:36:32]:
Well, I’m. I’m in. So I’ve. I found myself. I’m. I’m in between jobs. I was really struggling. I’d done a career counselling job and then I decided to go into a law job because I was completely being, you know, going from one side to the other, battling with myself, like, which career path should I choose? And this law job was terrible.

Anne Damgaard [00:37:04]:
I work with cases, homeless people, complaints in Copenhagen about, like, all the mistakes done in. In cases with. With people who are. Yeah. Homeless and like the people who have nothing. And I completely lose this faith in. In the system that we even have a great system in Denmark. And I see all of these case mistakes that the social workers are making.

Anne Damgaard [00:37:39]:
And I quit this job because it’s terrible workplace environment. Like, people are bullying and harass. It’s awful. And I remember even my dad had to, like, drive me there. So I’d, like, run up one afternoon and pick up my things and run down to the car again because I was so scared that I’d meet anyone. And I decide, you know, okay, there is a problem here. Like, these people really need to understand this law stuff. Like, I.

Anne Damgaard [00:38:10]:
I should really go out and do like a, you know, I start my own company. I’m going to be a consultant and I’m going to go out and teach all the social workers, like, how to do this right. Because it can’t be right that we’re getting this many complaints from people. This is terrible. And so I decided to start this company and my dad is like, would you like my help? And I’m like, no, I don’t want any of your help. I’m doing this on my own. And this is my own project. And I don’t know, but I think that many entrepreneurs when they start out, are really overwhelmed with the amount of paperwork and all.

Anne Damgaard [00:38:56]:
Like the, you know, the bank stuff, the tax stuff, the account stuff. Like, you know, I don’t know what it’s like in the uk, but it’s a little bit overwhelming. It was for me. And I really look around on. Online and try to figure out, like, where can I go to get some help? And I don’t want like the government kind of help. I want like the people who’ve gone through this stuff. Like I want some people who actually know, you know, who’ve been out and doing stuff like, what should I be aware of? How should I, how should I go about this? And I was really scared to ask questions. Like, I was like, I was just really scared not to say the right words and seem stupid.

Anne Damgaard [00:39:46]:
And I figure out that there are no places like that. Like there are no places where you can ask silly questions or come in and not know how to do your tax thing or you know, all the, like, know all the right lingo. So I’m like, well, I can’t be the only person who, who needs a place like this where you can talk to entrepreneurs and accountants and lawyer people, but who are actually, you know, chilled out. So I decide to make a place like that, which becomes this NGO where we do free advisement for entrepreneurs. And I do it in my husband’s hairdressing salon, which is also a gallery in the middle of Copenhagen.

Melody Moore [00:40:31]:
Amazing. Yeah, that’s like a multi purpose visit.

Anne Damgaard [00:40:35]:
It is. Well, the hairdressing salon was closed on Mondays, so Every Monday from 5 to 7, we were this group of people and I was in my. Well, I was in my. I was like 29, I think 20. 28. 28, yeah. Probably. I can’t even remember.

Anne Damgaard [00:40:58]:
But yeah, late 20s. And this team of volunteers are mostly men in their 50s, but amazing people. Like people who really have like this passion for giving on advice to new entrepreneurs and helping them out and of course both men and women, but mostly men and. Yeah.

Melody Moore [00:41:25]:
Where did you find them? Where’d you find.

Anne Damgaard [00:41:27]:
That’s the thing, Melody. I just, I just. The, the old man, I just put up an app I put up in Denmark. We have this like. And you probably do in the UK as well, have this like, like a. There’s a job portal for jobs. Then there’s also job portal for volunteer work. So I put up this volunteer job ad saying, which is, you know, it’s free to put it out.

Anne Damgaard [00:41:53]:
They’re saying, you know, I’m starting this entrepreneurship help NGO in Copenhagen. Like do you want to be part of that? I want. I’m looking for people who’ve got accountant knowledge, who are working with small companies, legal knowledge, pr, marketing experience. You can be a student, you can have experience. I always. I’m also looking for people with practical experience who know about entrepreneurship from their own businesses. Come and share Your knowledge and do. To do and.

Anne Damgaard [00:42:28]:
Yeah, within, like, I don’t know, a month, I had, like, 10 volunteers. I had, like a whole team of people. It was so fun doing this. It was so much fun. And, yeah, it really. I really learned a lot from these. From these guys and women. Yeah.

Melody Moore [00:42:52]:
And so that went on for four years, is that right?

Anne Damgaard [00:42:56]:
Yes, four years. Yeah, that did. Every Monday. Sometimes nobody showed.

Melody Moore [00:43:04]:
Did people just walk in and say, I’ve got a question about. Yeah, accounting.

Anne Damgaard [00:43:10]:
Yeah, exactly. So. So we would. We would come down there, we’d have different shifts, and we. We’d make coffee and we’d put up our little sign outside. We had like, a sign that we put up and it was open and the. And the word spread. In the beginning, like, hardly anybody came.

Anne Damgaard [00:43:29]:
But, you know, then it started really, like, people knew that this was happening and people would start coming. And then by the end of it, we were doing events for, like, hundreds and hundreds of people. Like, people would pay, like, maybe like five pounds or something, just, you know, as like a charity kind of expense. And we get, you know, locations to rent for free because we were ngo, so we were doing it pro bono and we’d just be able to fill up loads of. Yeah. Events and venues and just do these different things. And then we do our Monday. Come and.

Anne Damgaard [00:44:11]:
Come and have a chat, ask your questions. Let’s talk about your business, whatever you need. Two hours open.

Melody Moore [00:44:19]:
Amazing.

Anne Damgaard [00:44:19]:
Yeah, amazing. So fun.

Melody Moore [00:44:22]:
And were you working alongside that? So this was like.

Anne Damgaard [00:44:26]:
Yeah.

Melody Moore [00:44:26]:
Side.

Anne Damgaard [00:44:27]:
Yeah, so this was my side hustle. Yeah, it was my side hustle. And I was just. I was working. I got a. I. I did get a job as a career counsellor again. Yes.

Anne Damgaard [00:44:40]:
In coordinator. And then I was doing this on the side. And then I became a mom. And then I was like, oh, I can’t juggle this anymore. Yeah.

Melody Moore [00:44:54]:
So that’s when it stopped is when you had your son.

Anne Damgaard [00:44:57]:
Yes.

Melody Moore [00:44:58]:
Okay. Okay.

Anne Damgaard [00:44:59]:
And they tried to keep it going, you know, like, change the leader or management or whatever, board, board, director, me. But I think because I was so passionate and it was like my baby. Everyone felt that passion in our little. In our little group. So they weren’t. They weren’t able to switch me for somebody else, even though I really wanted them to keep it going. Yeah.

Melody Moore [00:45:30]:
Amazing. And then your last story is a person who kind of made you think differently about what you’re doing. So you were in a project management role, is that right? So this would have been after your son was born.

Anne Damgaard [00:45:45]:
Yes. Yeah. So this was like, 2017. And I’d been on maternity leave with my son for a year and then. Well, my husband was staying home with him after. Yeah, he started. He started taking care of him together with my parents, and they were. And then he was working half time in his hairdressings along in Copenhagen that we could kind of like make ends meet.

Anne Damgaard [00:46:19]:
But we were in a really. Yeah, it was. It was really difficult and I was working loads and I was in this project management position where I was working on this big project with. With refugee refugees coming into Denmark. And. Yeah, it was. It was just. Yeah, it was really.

Anne Damgaard [00:46:48]:
It was a really strange job. And the. The woman who recruited me for the job, she was really. We had a really good chemistry, but then she left the workplace and I. And I had a new boss and he was just. I think that was one of the first times where I really had one of those, you know, you read about these psycho boss people, the narcissistic, like, no empathy. And he really saw me as this competitor because everyone liked me in our team and they really listened to me. And I remember even, like, shortly after he was.

Anne Damgaard [00:47:36]:
He started this new role as my. As our leader for the team. He would pull me aside, like, saying stuff like, you know, remember that your loyalty should be with me. And I was like, what is going on? And he would ask me out for coffee and he’d, like, ask me, you know, he’d just come with all these, like, ask me all these strange questions and these subtle hints that felt kind of threatening, even though he didn’t say it completely directly and it was just really uncomfortable. And he was watching who I would take a break with, who I’d be talking to with my colleagues. And I always felt like he was, yeah, like, watching me in this really uncomfortable way to, like, at any point, if I were to, like, do something that he didn’t like to, like, kind of get me down. And. Well, I was doing this project implementation, project management programme, and I did this case on.

Anne Damgaard [00:48:53]:
What’s that called? Change. Change Leadership Management. Is that what it’s called? Yes. Is that correct in English? Yes. Yes, yes. And so I presented that at my. As my final case. And the Sensor, who was from Copenhagen Business School, who is this really smart woman, she just said to me, like, you know, gold can be bought.

Anne Damgaard [00:49:20]:
It’s. It’s the saying in Danish, but gold can be bought for too much. Like, you can pay too much for gold, which basically means that sometimes the price is too high. And what she said with that was like, Basically, like, run, get out. Get out of that job now. Like, this is.

Melody Moore [00:49:42]:
No, the price to you was too high.

Anne Damgaard [00:49:44]:
Yes. You know, you can just go find yourself another job. And I think that was when I realised, like, okay, why am I hanging on to this job? Like, why am I holding on to this so dearly? But for me, there was, like, a lot of prestige because I’d been recruited for the job and I’d gone through all these things to get it and, you know, I was really proud to like, finally after been struggling for such a long time, and I could really see how, like, this job could get me up the career ladder. Like, how I could just. This could be like, my offset to the next thing as a leader. And then I just realised, like, what am I doing? I need to go out, I need to get out. And I’m not even happy. Yeah.

Anne Damgaard [00:50:45]:
So that was. That was a really important moment and I just remember it, like, so strongly. And I think it was only a few days later that my boss called me into his office the day I was doing a presentation on my project for our team, because it was like a. It was like a whole. It was a project going across all of Denmark and then we all had to give presentations. And then he called me into his office and started completely. Yeah. Attacking me.

Anne Damgaard [00:51:22]:
And, like, he was completely insane and coming with all these threats and lies and. Yeah. Really uncomfortable. So that was it. That’s when I left.

Melody Moore [00:51:38]:
I meet so many people who stay too long in jobs and. And I think sometimes you don’t realise how bad it is. It’s like the boiling frog. It just gets worse and worse as you. As you’re there and you don’t realise. But. Yeah, I think it’s really interesting what you said about, you know, there were. There were things that were keeping you there, this sort of status and the.

Anne Damgaard [00:52:01]:
Yeah.

Melody Moore [00:52:01]:
Potential for progression. Your perceived potential for progression and. But just putting up with a really shitty environment because. Because of these other things.

Anne Damgaard [00:52:13]:
Absolutely, absolutely.

Melody Moore [00:52:17]:
And what was that? Funny, I was just talking about this. It’s very similar experience from myself the other yesterday, and we were talking about that. That sense of knowing that you’d had enough and that you needed to go. Was that what happened? There was a kind of like a. Like you and I would talk about. It’s like a body experience rather than a sort of mental experience.

Anne Damgaard [00:52:46]:
Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. It was just a sense of knowing.

Melody Moore [00:52:52]:
Yeah.

Anne Damgaard [00:52:52]:
I think just, you know, just seeing through it all. Like, I’m not going to go into the butterfly, but, you know, What I’m talking about, if I’m saying true. Seeing. Knowing that kind of like. Yeah. And also this, like, you know, when you can get. Just cut through all the crap and see what’s actually really important in your. In.

Anne Damgaard [00:53:16]:
In life, like what. What actually counts and not the. The stories or the. The norms or whatever. Or whatever people are going to say or not say and everything, but actually what really matters.

Melody Moore [00:53:35]:
And it’s strong, isn’t it? It’s like a very physical sense of clarity. It’s kind of weird. Like, it’s like your body. For me, it’s like a very grounded feeling of just. Your body knows and your brain can say whatever it wants, but your body knows that. That that’s the right thing.

Anne Damgaard [00:54:00]:
Yeah, absolutely.

Melody Moore [00:54:04]:
Interesting. So then that’s when you went travelling.

Anne Damgaard [00:54:07]:
Yes. Yes. Well, we just. We. We took some months around that time.

Melody Moore [00:54:14]:
Yeah.

Anne Damgaard [00:54:15]:
Yeah.

Melody Moore [00:54:16]:
And then you were talking about when you were travelling, your husband had given up his job and you. It almost sounds like there’s a blank sheet of paper her. It’s kind of like, well, what’s next for our family? That’s what it sounded like to me. It wasn’t about you and your career or him and his career. It was what’s right for our family. We want to homeschool.

Anne Damgaard [00:54:37]:
Yeah.

Melody Moore [00:54:38]:
How did. How did that idea for your business then come out of that blank sheet?

Anne Damgaard [00:54:45]:
Yeah, well, I think it’s. You know how sometimes you have these coincidences and then a few things kind of fall into place. So as I was saying earlier, like, I’d never seen myself as an entrepreneur because I really couldn’t figure out, like, what should I do? And then I ended up doing evac. So they get entrepreneurship help. Were also around entrepreneurship, but me still not being an entrepreneur because I didn’t know what I wanted to do.

Melody Moore [00:55:17]:
But you kind of were the things that you were doing. Yes. It was an ngo, but you. That was still. I would say you. It was a business in a different way of running a business.

Anne Damgaard [00:55:29]:
Absolutely. You had to do all the business stuff, but just not getting no money for it. Yeah, yeah. And I think that was actually. That was a big part of it because I knew that I’d been doing that for four years. I’d been consistent every single Monday, I’ve been consistent in showing up and doing the work. So I kind of knew with myself that I could do something and I could do it. Consistent.

Anne Damgaard [00:56:00]:
And I also now had all the. Because I’d had this team of mentors basically of these really amazing people who Taught me everything from strategy to marketing to finance to all the law stuff. I, I just knew, you know, I felt in such a secure place. And that was just around the time when Instagram really started booming, I think. I’m not too sure about Instagram history, but at least for me, like, I didn’t, I wasn’t really into social media. I only had like a private Facebook where I put, you know, like baby pictures up or pictures from holidays. And then it happened that I ran into this woman in a cafe in the town where we’d moved to, in the north, north of Copenhagen on the coast. And she was actually like a holistic entrepreneur in the sense that she was doing programmes and online courses and stuff like that.

Anne Damgaard [00:57:09]:
And I was like, whoa, okay, I didn’t know you could do stuff like that. I’ve never even heard of stuff like that. What is this? Like, what, what is that? Was like brand new world. And we became quite good friends and she was, she was not an influencer, but like, I think like, you know, she had like around 10,000 people.

Melody Moore [00:57:32]:
Micro influencer.

Anne Damgaard [00:57:33]:
Micro influencer, yeah. So, yeah, so, so I think that was one of the things as well that gave me this idea that, you know, actually I knew a lot about career stuff and making decisions and how people learn and their mindset and their self efficacy and habits theory. Like, I’ve been training for this since I was 23. Like I’ve been just doing this and I’ve been doing like thousands and thousands of sessions and facilitating and workshops and teaching. I was like, oh my gosh. And then all the people that I’d been giving counselling and guidance and the evacs that I get, the entrepreneurship helper was like, well, I do know something about business and I do know something about people, I guess. And I’d also done a coaching. Yeah.

Anne Damgaard [00:58:33]:
Programme and education. So I was like, I actually know a lot about people and how they work and how they change and how they can work on their goals and their, and their skills and maybe I can use that for something. And then, and I think that was like, because I, I, I myself was at that very beginning point where it was all really scary. I’m like, okay, this is where I’m going to start. I’m going to talk about being an entrepreneur and being scared because fear was like, it just felt really, really fearful stepping into that for me. So that’s, that’s, I think how it all began.

Melody Moore [00:59:23]:
And you and I were talking before we started recording about. So we met through the Being Me therapy Programme, developmental trauma therapy training. Three years working together. And one of the things that I don’t think is talked about enough in entrepreneurship is working on you. So a lot of people spend a lot of time working on their skills and of course they need those skills. They need to know how to do marketing, they need to know how to, you know, but all of those things, they, they do need to know those things. But the things that stop people really succeeding, I believe, are themselves. And there are things that we carry from our childhood that, that are still showing up in adulthood and that’s what’s really holding us back.

Melody Moore [01:00:19]:
I’m interested in your view and your experience of that with yourself and your clients.

Anne Damgaard [01:00:26]:
Yeah, absolutely. I think there’s. I think there are different levels and I think there are different, like, levels you can work on things and I think they show, they show up in different ways. And I always say to my clients, you know, your, your business is only as good as you are in the sense that, you know, if you are not doing well, if your energy is stagnant, if your energy is drained or stressed out, if you’re not taking care of yourself, it’s going to show up in every aspect of your business. And I think when I work with people, well, both in my, in my mentoring programme and also with my clients, I work, I work like in, in double layers, as in. So I, I work with them cognitively because sometimes it’s really, it takes time and understanding about these things that we can move to the next level. And then sometimes I’ll bring in the trauma therapy as well, because there can be some things that are just pretty much on repeat for people, like, where they just get really stuck. So I really experienced that the two.

Anne Damgaard [01:01:51]:
Yeah. Working on these two levels and being able to shift is really amazing. But also including the energetic world in, in the sense that really understanding that business is energy, we are energy, communication is energy, marketing is energy, everything is energy. And that’s a lot. Like, I really teach that to, to my students when I teach them about entrepreneurship and how we can change that energy. Sometimes we have to go into, like, you know, we have to go digging into the deep. And also sometimes it’s only about, like an energy change in the here and now that we can do.

Melody Moore [01:02:37]:
Yes. I. Oh, everything you’re saying is music to my ears. I 100 agree. That ability to work at both levels.

Anne Damgaard [01:02:46]:
Yeah.

Melody Moore [01:02:47]:
And I think that’s, that’s where the, the coaching experience and the therapy experience is, because therapy tends to work at the deeper level and Coaching tends to work at the more practical skills, tactical level. And so being able to move between the two.

Anne Damgaard [01:03:12]:
Exactly.

Melody Moore [01:03:13]:
Is incredibly powerful.

Anne Damgaard [01:03:15]:
Yeah.

Melody Moore [01:03:17]:
Because I think sometimes people need the short term fix as well.

Anne Damgaard [01:03:22]:
Absolutely, absolutely. And I work with, I work with like a whole bunch of different tools and, and techniques. So I work, I work a lot with like the systemic coaching and the narrative because also, like this whole voicing your story is so powerful, but also being able to extract and externalise also like we do in therapy, but from a cognitive perspective and, and kind of like being able to, you know, really understand and draw out how the problems that you really feel are that you’re stuck in as an entrepreneur. Oh, I’m not making enough sales. Why is this always happening to me or everyone else? I turn on my Instagram, I see everyone else doing really well or in LinkedIn and what, you know, I only got five likes, or it’s only my grandmother and my, my, my parents or my dog who tears for me or whatever. You know, all these stories that we have going on and these feelings in this mindset about not being skillful, not being successful, you know, having these things that we’re not, we’re not competent at or that we just can’t, you know, we can’t seem to move on. We’re kind of stuck in that. I think, for instance, using the narrative method that I use a lot is really powerful.

Anne Damgaard [01:05:07]:
And then being able to also, as you were saying before, go into the therapeutic work when that shows up is. It’s just such a great combination, being able to have all these different tools and being able to, you know, navigate. So you don’t only have one set of like, well, welcome. We need to do it like, you know, step by step, but that we can have like, you know, we have all these things that we can kind of work with, depending on where, what, wherever the problem is.

Melody Moore [01:05:42]:
Yes. So it’s not. This is my approach. This is, you know, it worked for me, therefore it will work for you. It’s. I’ve got all of these different things, things that we can draw on to exactly. Help you and support you.

Anne Damgaard [01:05:57]:
Exactly.

Melody Moore [01:05:59]:
Love that.

Anne Damgaard [01:06:00]:
Yes. And that’s, yeah, that’s what I teach people. My, my mentor trainees as well. They, they’re all like, no one is doing the same thing. Everyone else, everyone’s doing. I’m not making any copies of me. Yes. Yeah, because that’s really important because it’s.

Melody Moore [01:06:18]:
What they need for them.

Anne Damgaard [01:06:21]:
Yes, exactly.

Melody Moore [01:06:23]:
Fantastic. Right. I’m gonna ask you some of my regular questions. That I ask people. So the first question is, what’s next? What’s next for you? What’s next for your business?

Anne Damgaard [01:06:39]:
Oh, it’s really. It’s such a. It’s such a great question, Melody. And. And at the moment, I’m just really in this. I’m really just at this point where I. I don’t know exactly what’s next. And I really.

Anne Damgaard [01:06:55]:
I think as entrepreneurs, we. We’re always like, you know, we always have to stay ahead and we always have to, like, you know, what’s next. And I think I’m allowing myself maybe for the first time in my business to. To kind of drop a little bit into. I’m not saying nothingness, but kind of into what are the possibilities that are opening for me? Because just like you, I’ve just finished the trauma therapy programme and I think it’s. There’s so many different ways that have shown up that I can go. And I really want to honour this time with just, you know, kind of. Yeah.

Anne Damgaard [01:07:47]:
Giving myself that space to not know a little bit. Yeah. So I’m in the not knowing right now.

Melody Moore [01:07:55]:
And how does that feel?

Anne Damgaard [01:07:57]:
It feels pretty good, actually. Yeah. I don’t think I would be able to say that. Maybe one year ago, I think that would have been a really scary place to not know. But right now it feels really good. Yeah.

Melody Moore [01:08:14]:
And. And your comfort with that, do you think that’s come from. Because obviously when you’re doing the developmental trauma training, you work on yourself as much as you work on learning the skills to do it. Is that something that’s changed about you?

Anne Damgaard [01:08:29]:
Absolutely. Yeah. I think that’s given me that. That. That trust in. In timing and just knowing that, you know, stuff is going to show up. And also I think that if you sometimes let go, then you can create space for new stuff to come in. So, like.

Anne Damgaard [01:08:52]:
Like, you know, also with my. With my old job, that was such a good sign, you know, like, I let go of that and I was able to invite new things in my life. So. Yeah. But I am. I just started. I’ve just been on kickoff with my fifth class, actually this October. At the end of October, I just did that and I’m doing an online group trauma thing in January, so I do know a little bit of what’s going on, but on the big lines, I don’t really know.

Melody Moore [01:09:32]:
Yeah, I love that. What advice would you give to your younger self?

Anne Damgaard [01:09:45]:
Trust the process.

Melody Moore [01:09:50]:
That’s advice to your current self as well, I think.

Anne Damgaard [01:09:54]:
I think that’s. I think the younger self is always there and it’s, it’s just. But yeah, I think really just trust, you know, I’m really into like trusting your gut, trusting the process, trusting intuition. The process is also kind of the gut, isn’t it? Sometimes. And maybe also just being in the process. I think we’re so goal. We’re always like looking at the next. Allowing to be in the now maybe.

Melody Moore [01:10:29]:
A little bit more and enjoying the process, I guess. No, it’s about. It’s not. You don’t enjoy it once you’ve got there. You need to enjoy getting there too.

Anne Damgaard [01:10:40]:
Exactly. Nice.

Melody Moore [01:10:44]:
What about books? What? Any book or books you would recommend.

Anne Damgaard [01:10:49]:
So one of the books that is actually a book that my, My husband was given when he opened his salon and then I read it and I completely took it in and it’s called the Go Giver and I’m looking at my bookcase because I can’t remember the author, but maybe you can look that up.

Melody Moore [01:11:11]:
I’ll look it up.

Anne Damgaard [01:11:15]:
And the Go Giver is just like. It’s a. It’s a really short book, but it’s really profound in the sense that in this world it’s all about, you know, win, win. And, you know, I, I do something for you and then. Then I expect you to do something for me. And then this whole approach of just giving freely, I’ve really taken that in, into my business. Always just, you know, giving without expecting anything in return. And I do that a lot.

Anne Damgaard [01:11:49]:
Like I do loads of free stuff that I just give out and I’ve just seen how much it’s meant to people and how many. How much it’s given me back. So when we have that Go Giver approach, it really, it’s just, it just really changes everything.

Melody Moore [01:12:10]:
I love that one of the. My favourite coaching slash therapeutic relationships is someone I work with for free. And I just love the relationship we have. Yes, it’s. I get as much out of it as she does, I’m sure.

Anne Damgaard [01:12:25]:
Yeah, exactly. And that’s. Yeah, we don’t really always need to have all these expectations and as you say, we can get a lot back from, from. From things that we, that we also do for free or just those small extra things that we can do that really don’t cost anything for us.

Melody Moore [01:12:50]:
And what about a title for your story?

Anne Damgaard [01:12:54]:
Oh, yes. What did I, what did I put in my notes? I think I’m gonna. I’ve been. A title for my story would probably be the, the. The Road Less Travelled I think would be a Good. It’s probably taken already, but I’m gonna take it again.

Melody Moore [01:13:22]:
No, no one to use that title. It is of course the name of a book. Yes. I love it. Love it. Very beautiful. So, Anne, thank you so much. I have enjoyed this so much having this conversation with you.

Melody Moore [01:13:38]:
I really appreciate your time and your energy. So thank you.

Anne Damgaard [01:13:43]:
Thank you so much, Melody. Thank you for having me.

Melody Moore [01:13:46]:
You’re welcome. This was a really special one for me. Interviewing Anne. She and I met about three years ago because we were both studying a developmental trauma therapy training and we both are applying it in our business worlds and working with leaders and with entrepreneurs to work with them both on a tactical, practical level, but also for those that want to. To go deeper to really understand how we get in our own way. And we ended up talking quite a lot about that, about her own personal experiences of having that very sort of body knowing experience of knowing that a role wasn’t right for her. I really loved that phrase, the Danish phrase that she shared. You know, gold can be bought for too much.

Melody Moore [01:14:43]:
I think that is so powerful. I need to have that written on my wall. I think so many of us get caught up in the sense of needing to progress and we’re getting a lot from a maybe being paid well or we feel that we’re successful and we’re caught up in the trappings of success without realising that the. The toll that’s taking on us and the cost to us. I really like that phrase about gold being bought for too much and that really linked into another conversation that we had around energy and working with her mentees, the people on her programmes at different levels. So there’s a more practical problem solving level and helping them understand things cognitively and understanding story they tell both consciously and unconsciously, but also how energy is really important and the energy we give out, the energy that we give out that attracts things to us, attracts people to us and a really much more holistic and sophisticated way of looking at entrepreneurship rather than I need to go out and learn all of these practical skills such as marketing etc, which are all very useful, but really understanding what role do I play in my business? Who am I? What do I stand for? Who am I really and how does that influence the success of my business? How do I lead my business either from leading the business just generally, or how do I lead the people in my business business and how do I make sure that I am doing it from the right place and doing it from a place that’s really aligned to my values and to My purpose really, really enjoyed that conversation with her. And there were a couple of other things that I thought really stood out to me. One was around her, you know, the role of mentoring.

Melody Moore [01:16:50]:
So Ann does a lot of mentoring herself now, but she had that very early experience, experience when she moved to Germany and had a really excellent teacher who, for the first time in her life, it sounded like, really saw her strengths, saw where she was struggling and challenged her, but also supported her. And I think that quite often in business, what I see is people being challenged and leaders thinking they’re challenging someone, but without giving them the right amount of support and direction that they actually need. And that was really transformational for Anne, when she really felt, for the first time, really changed her mindset and made her feel her own power and what she was able to do when previously she’d felt stuck and unable to do it. And I think that really led into her own experiences then, of helping other people right from the start, being a student counsellor and then setting up the ngo. I loved what she did there by, you know, just getting a whole load of really experienced people who would chose to volunteer and offer support to new entrepreneurs, people who were new, setting up their business, giving them advice. And what an amazing thing to do, just to see an opportunity, think something needs to be done, and just doing it just was absolutely fabulous. And the final thing that I really loved was the story she told about running into someone in a cafe and that person opening her eyes to the art of the possible, I suppose. And I think we can often get too caught up in our own circles and our own lives that we live.

Melody Moore [01:18:40]:
And we don’t get out there and meet different people and hear different perspectives. And I’m an enormous fan of engaging with and listening to as many different things as possible. I think that that’s how our creativity is sparked. And if we keep ourselves in our narrow worlds, just focusing on a particular area or just engaging with certain people, or maybe people who agree with us, who look like us, who sound like us, then we miss out on an awful lot. And I loved hearing how her business idea came from a chance meeting with somebody in a cafe. This was the final guest interview for my entrepreneur series. I’ve had the most amazing time meeting and chatting to people from all different types of businesses and with all different experiences. So what I’m going to do next week is do a short episode just summarising some of my key learnings, some of my key insights from the different people that I’ve met.

Melody Moore [01:19:50]:
So look out for that next Thursday. This podcast is brought to you by Liberare Consulting. If you enjoyed today’s show, why not click on the subscribe button? So you are among the first to hear about new episodes and we would love for you to do us a favour and click on the Share button and share this episode with one of your friends.