Explore every episode of the podcast The Content Universe

Does every company really need a big emotional story?

In this conversation, host Mikkel Svold sits down with Fredrik Hillerbrand, creative producer at Open Door and head of growth at Connie, a company handling contracts mainly for the creative industry. With 18 years as CEO of Danish production companies and deep experience in television storytelling, he brings a different lens to branding.

They explore what storytelling actually is, when it works for brands, and when it becomes hollow. They also dig into consumer versus B2B brands, changing narratives when the world shifts, and why attachment might matter more than attention in a world flooded with AI content.

1. Storytelling requires real values, not boardroom inventions
2. Branding is strategy plus identity, storytelling is expression
3. Conflict drives emotional attachment
4. Multiple stories can orbit one core value
5. B2B emotions exist, they just look different
6. You can’t fake values without being exposed
7. Attention is abundant, attachment is scarce
8. Transparency and credibility will matter more

00:00 – Welcome to the Content Universe 02:16 – What storytelling actually means 06:40 – Branding versus storytelling 10:10 – One brand many stories 13:16 – Consumer brands versus B2B 18:16 – Building blocks of a strong story 25:59 – Changing your story without losing credibility 30:12 – From attention to attachment

“If you don’t have it, don’t try to get one.” “A stuffed story that is superimposed will get exposed.” “Branding is strategy plus identity, storytelling is expression.” “Conflict is the base of every story.” “You must prove that the story we told about you is bulletproof.” “Attention will drive everything from that.” “It has to be replaced by a true attachment.” “If you want to stand out, you have to be transparent.”

storytelling, branding, conflict, emotional attachment, brand values, purpose, Simon Sinek, consumer brands, B2B marketing, authenticity, attention economy, attachment, AI generated content, long form storytelling, credibility, strategy and identity, boardroom discussions, brand narrative

Marketing departments in large industrial companies are sitting on enormous untapped potential.

They have the engineering depth, the application knowledge, and the long-standing customer relationships that every B2B marketer dreams of. And yet many of them are still caught in a pattern that undermines all of it.

The big-bang campaign. A flashy product launch. A beautiful video production. Then silence. Then another campaign.

Dorthe Borup Sindberg has spent 14 years at Danfoss across different roles in marketing communications, with the last three years as Senior Director of Global Marketing Communications for Danfoss Drives, one of the most recognisable names in industrial technology.

In that time, she has watched the marketing function evolve from a product-first, campaign-driven discipline into something considerably harder to execute but far more valuable.

A consistent, always-on presence that earns buyer trust long before anyone is ready to talk to a salesperson.

In this conversation, Dorthe and Mikkel dig into the real shifts happening inside large industrial organisations.

• Why always-on content is still a genuinely difficult sell internally, despite the logic being clear.
• Why prioritisation matters even more in the age of AI than it did before.
• And why the companies getting thought leadership right on LinkedIn are not the ones posting most frequently.

They also get into the growing importance of showing up in AI search results, and why the tried-and-tested work of SEO turns out to be a solid foundation for that too.

This is a candid, experienced conversation about what B2B marketing in complex, long-cycle industries actually requires to work.

00:00 Introduction and Danfoss Drives context

00:55 The two big shifts in industrial marketing right now

04:18 Why marketing is becoming more human and less product-led

07:06 Opportunities Dorthe is paying attention to right now

10:03 Why consistent content is so hard to sustain internally

13:24 Whether AI removes the need for prioritisation

17:24 How to build and maintain a genuine point of view

19:02 How to produce content with subject matter experts

27:24 The biggest struggles ahead, including proving marketing's impact

36:50 Closing reflections

Questions, topic ideas, or guest suggestions: podcast@montanus.co

Find more episodes at montanus.co

What if the reason your content isn’t working has nothing to do with ideas, and everything to do with ambition?

In this episode of The Content Universe, host Mikkel Svold goes solo and argues that the superpower of content marketing in 2026 is a slightly uncomfortable combo, being overly ambitious, and then being brutally pragmatic about how you’ll pull it off. He uses a prospect conversation as the trigger, three to four blog posts in six months, and breaks down why that kind of ambition quietly kills content before it even starts.

This matters if you’re in a large B2B or engineering company, because your constraints are real, time, tools, quality checks, the whole thing. The point isn’t to ignore them. It’s to set the bar high enough that you’re forced to build a system that can actually keep up.

1. Ambition sets direction, pragmatism makes execution possible
2. Low output often comes from low ambition, not lack of ideas
3. Fresh content still matters, even when repurposing works
4. Global audiences require higher publishing frequency
5. Constraints help shape better, faster workflows
6. Perfection slows production more than it improves results

00:00 – The superpower of content marketing

03:04 – Rethinking publishing cadence for global audiences

05:59 – Time, quality, and practical compromises

09:27 – Daily podcasts, daily posts, and bullet thinking

11:35 – Competing with AI through output and personality

How do you communicate when the rules are fixed and not up for discussion?

In this episode, Mikkel Svold is joined by Maiken Riise Andersen, Head of Corporate Communication and Branding at ALK, to talk about what content creation actually looks like inside a highly regulated industry. Where compliance is not a guideline, but legislation.

They discuss how ALK works with clear frameworks, structured approval flows, and mandatory training to make sure employees can communicate with confidence rather than hesitation. Not by tightening control, but by making the rules understandable and usable.

The conversation covers employee advocacy, content planning, and approval processes, and why structure often becomes the foundation for creativity rather than a limitation. Especially when the alternative is uncertainty.

This episode is for anyone working with content, communications, or branding in an environment where you cannot just “post and see what happens”. And for those who are starting to realise that clear boundaries are sometimes what make participation possible.

# In this episode you’ll learn:

1. Compliance is not the enemy. Unclear rules are.
2. Rules work best when people understand what they can do, not only what they cannot.
3. Training creates confidence. Confidence creates participation.
4. Employee advocacy fails when people are afraid of doing something wrong.
5. Clear frameworks turn restrictions into workable boundaries.
6. Planning ahead is not bureaucracy. It is what makes speed possible later.
7. Most content can be prepared long before it is published. Even in regulated industries.
8. When compliance is systemised, creativity does not disappear. It becomes usable.

# Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Marketing Challenges in Pharma

01:54 Differences in Corporate Communication

03:59 Navigating Compliance Regulations

07:10 Training Employees on Social Media Compliance

12:10 Creating a Positive Compliance Culture

18:37 The Shift in Employee Engagement

22:24 Approval Processes in Pharmaceutical Marketing

29:30 Recommendations for Effective Communication Strategies

This podcast is brought to you by Montanus.

Most companies on LinkedIn are doing the same thing: posting whatever comes to mind. A workshop photo here, a quick thought there, a team dinner shot on a Friday afternoon. It feels like staying active. It looks like content. But if you step back and look at the whole feed, there's usually no thread. No pattern. Nothing that tells a potential client what you actually stand for or what you're trying to achieve.

In this solo episode of the Content Universe, Mikkel Svold makes the case for content categories, a simple but surprisingly underused framework for giving your company's social media a backbone. Not a complicated editorial calendar, not a 30-page content strategy document. Just three to five defined buckets of content, each tied directly to what your business is trying to accomplish.

This is a short, sharp episode: part provocation, part practical framework. If your company is producing content that feels disconnected from your strategy, or if you have a nagging sense that your LinkedIn presence isn't doing the positioning work it should be, this one is worth your time.

• Why posting the "idea of the day" is a trap, even when those posts get good engagement
• The strategic logic behind building content categories tied to your business objectives
• The four content buckets Mikkel recommends for most B2B companies
• Why knowledge sharing posts position you as an expert, but social posts don't, and why you need both
• The content category most B2B companies neglect: services and products
• A simple test for whether your clients actually know what you can do for them
• How content categories remove ideation paralysis and make batch content creation possible

"By all means, do all of those posts. But when it comes to building thought leadership, especially on LinkedIn, I find that these one-off idea-of-the-day kind of posts, they are a little bit insufficient just by themselves."

"I don't actually sell what I'm doing right now. I'm not selling doing this video. I'm not earning money doing this video. I earn money from selling marketing, helping marketing departments for producing content for them."

"I bet you they only know that single thing because what you do only takes up like one percent of their daily work, and what you do takes up 100% of your daily work."

Mikkel Svold is the founder of Montanus, a B2B content production agency based in Aarhus, Denmark. He works exclusively with knowledge-driven engineering, technology, and science companies, turning a single monthly expert interview into a full content universe: podcasts, videos, blog posts, LinkedIn posts, email newsletters, and more. The Content Universe is his personal thought leadership channel: a space to share the frameworks, tools, and thinking he applies daily with his clients.

Questions, topic ideas, or guest suggestions: podcast@montanus.co

Find more episodes at montanus.co

In this episode, Mikkel Svold engages with Senior Communication & Marketing Manager at Ramboll Energy, Susanne Wellington Hansen, to explore the evolving landscape of thought leadership in knowledge-driven companies.

They discuss the shift from traditional technical focus to a broader societal relevance, the importance of activating thought leadership through various channels, and the challenges of measuring its impact. Susanne emphasizes the need for visionary leadership and the role of personal branding in establishing credibility. The conversation also touches on the integration of AI in content creation and the future of thought leadership in an increasingly complex world.

The takeaways from this episode are:

• Thought leadership has evolved from a technical focus to societal relevance.
• Activating thought leadership requires a multi-channel approach.
• The primary goal of thought leadership is to address client pain points, not direct sales.
• Gathering feedback from clients and stakeholders is vital for refining strategies.
• Training and support for personal thought leaders enhance their effectiveness.
• The future of thought leadership will emphasize experience and personal connection.

Episode content:
00:00 Introduction to Thought Leadership in Knowledge Companies
02:51 Evolution of Thought Leadership: Past vs Present
06:32 Activating Thought Leadership: Beyond LinkedIn
10:28 The Goals of Thought Leadership: Understanding Client Needs
14:31 Measuring Success in Thought Leadership
18:29 The Role of Leadership in Thought Leadership Strategies
22:43 The Importance of Personal Branding for Thought Leaders
26:05 Rapid Fire Questions: Insights on Thought Leadership
30:22 The Future of Thought Leadership and Content Sharing 

I’m sorry.
But thought leadership is not about you .
It never was.

It’s a mistake that many companies do when they try to promote a thought leadership strategy in their marketing .

And even that sentence doesn’t really make sense. Because thought leadership is not marketing thought leadership is branding.

So stop trying to sell your products .
Stop trying to push your services.
And start delivering industry specific value.

In today’s episode you’ll get my approach to tackling thought leadership.

how long should my podcast episodes be?
How often should I release a new episode?
Should I have guests or not?
And really, why do I need a podcast at all?

These questions are the foundation of every podcast and they are questions that you should be able to answer before starting the first recording.

In this episode, I give my view on these four questions so jump in and get your answers so you can get started tomorrow.

all across different kinds of media, different kinds of channels, different business areas and industries we see the same trend.

A trend pointing out that we are already as a consumer, as a client, and as a human being, tied out from reading and watching AI generated content.

Maybe it’s just me? Maybe you feel it too?

But yet another shift in how we produce content is around the corner - let’s hope we can rehumanize stories and content.

we’re at the doorstep of 2025 and that means budgets. It also Means that many marketing departments have to cut down.

But how do you handle budget cuts in your marketing?

And how do you prioritise the remaining resources you have?

They have four bullets I wanna go through with you to maximise your value for money on a tight marketing budget.

This is what we talk about today in this episode of a The Content Universe

See you inside.

LinkedIn's a peculiar place. 
So many untold rules and conventions. 
So much focus on standing out by breaking the rules.

It's contradictory. 

And this is why I've assembled three things, I used to do
– because it was best practice – 
but have now stopped.

Tell me, which rule is your favorite LinkedIn-rule to hate?

sometimes it feels like you spend all day copying and pasting from one program to another.

Pushing out content on your social media platforms involves tedious and dull tasks that you need to do.

But no more.

Automation has become easier than ever.
And with only a few clicks.
A few one of set ups.

You’ll be good to go with a fully automated distribution system that removes the trivial copying and pasting of your content .

That’s what we talk about in this episode.

See you inside.

The convenience of recording from home is significant.

But how do you decorate your room to avoid clutter yet still keep a professional look?

Today I’ve been working in my own home studio trying to make it look nice on camera from three different angles.

And that’s what we talk about in this episode.

See you inside.

Where's your primary focus:

Sales?
Marketing?
Or branding?

Rarely do I see all three get equal attention.

And that’s a mistake.

Sales is needed for obvious reasons.
Marketing is what drives leads to sales.

But branding -the often forgotten child- is what positions you in the market.

Could you have a business without branding?

Yes.

But not as prosperous as you could have had.

Thought leadership is a real buzzword these days.
Yet most companies do it wrong. Here’s why.

Thought Leadership is not about your product.
Thought leadership is not about your service.
Hell, it's not even about your company.

It’s about industry knowledge. About what pushes the boundaries of what’s possible.

Own an agenda.
Own the category.
Forget your product.

That’s what true thought leadership is about.

And that’s what we talk about in this episode of The Content Universe

AI already mass produces content.
But is it valuable?
Is it valuable in a year?

And is it valuable in five years?

Honestly, no one really knows.

But there’s no question that the amount of AI produced content is on a rapid rise right now and will be even faster in the future. Near future that is.

So what actually will have value in five years?

In this episode, That’s what we discuss.

See you inside.

Ever experienced that white frightening paper that just keeps blinking into your eyes without helping you put any words on it whatsoever?

Ever tried writing writing writing and then suddenly out of nowhere your brain stop. No more words?

Then you experienced writers block.

And today I’m telling you that writers block does not exist.

Who am I? What an idiot.

Well, to me writers block is a sign of not knowing completely what the story that you are trying to tell.

And if you don’t know the story, I can easily understand you have a hard time telling it.

In this episode, I’ll give you my tricks to overcome, actually never experience, writers block ever again.

See you inside.

ever looked at your to do list and just lost your mind?

Or looked at your calendar and felt the need to breathe?

We’ve changed from working with single tasks in our content production process to working with production windows.

In this episode, I’ll take you through why this is a good idea.

See you inside.

AI generated Podcasts is now a reality.

I’m completely excited. Confused. Baffled. Worried. And I must say a tiny bit afraid.

What’s going to happen to the human to human interactive podcast?

Do people care whether it is real humans talking to each other?

Does it add value that the podcast episode is based on real human experience, human emotion?

Or will AI take over yet another creative discipline and possibly make human podcasts redundant.

I surely hope not.

But that’s what we talk about in this episode.

See you inside.

we all do them.

Non-value adding tasks in our content production.

What might’ve looked good in the idea phase suddenly became yet another insignificant time-consuming boring task that you now have to do to push out content.

And no one cares.

In this episode, I’ll give you a couple of examples of non-value adding tasks that I’ve encountered in my content production and a quick idea on how you can eliminate your trivial tasks — and push out more content.

See you inside.

I don’t like the word prompt engineering, but I must say that writing a powerful prompt does take a little work.

In this episode, I will go through how we structure our prompts when we use the API solutions that the large language models provide.

And I’m telling you, these prompts are quite a bit longer and more thorough than most people would expect.

Let me know what you think.

Do you write long prompts as well?

when you say corporate podcast people tend to think big setups, cameras rolling, studios, and high-end microphones.

However, sometimes the big setup is in the way of getting stuff out the door.

In this episode will look at three different podcast setups that you should consider before starting your podcast journey.

🎥The full Monty set up
🎤The simple set up
📱And the quick and dirty

See you inside the universe .

It’s not easy to keep focus for long interview.
Lots of things require your attention.

🐿️ checking sound levels
🐿️ checking your notes
🐿️ making sure cameras are on
🐿️ what’s that noise?
🐿️ what’s the time?
🐿️ did she just move outside the camera frame?

Frankly, sometimes you lose focus.

But luckily, there are a couple of things that you can do to get back on track without anyone noticing but yourself.

That’s what we talk about in this episode.

See you inside.

There’s one thing that makes constant production really hard.

It’s not writing.
It’s not Design.
It’s not getting the ideas.

It’s planning interviews.

In this episode, I’ll give you three tips on what you can do to ease the planning of interviews that can then become master content.

See you inside.

Seeing yourself on camera is terrible.
Listening to yourself on a recording is terrible.
Standing in front of a crowd speaking is terrible.

Few people that you interview are used to standing in front of a microphone or camera.

So getting people to talk can sometimes be a real challenge.

In this episode, you’ll get three simple tricks to get the most out of your interviews even when you’re interviewee does not feel comfortable in front of a camera.

There are two types of Thought Leadership. 

-> Personal Thought Leadership
-> Corporate Thought Leadership

And while most of you probably are working with the latter, engaging with both types might just elevate your company brand to new hights. 

In this episode, we talk about what you as a #marketing professional can do to get the best from both worlds. 

See you inside! 🪐

in an era of AI commonly used words like realm or in the world off should be avoided at all cost.

Is this true? No .

Not if you ask me .

In this episode, we delve into the depth of favourite words and mitigate the risk of them being as annoying as they sound in this sentence.

if you have a podcast, there’s a big chance you also want listeners. Because really what is a podcast without listeners?

In this episode we look at how you can gain more listeners and more downloads without having to spend huge amounts on advertisement and other ways of distribution.

Tune in to learn the (cheap) tricks.

Here's the thing:
Most of you don't have a tone-of-voice.

The truth can hurt.

I'm not even sure Montanus has a tone of voice.

Why?

Because business casual or profession Al is simply too generic to be a unique branded tone.

It's an idea your branding agency has sold you. But it's not real.

In this episode, I'll try to explain why.

sometimes your brain and thoughts go in circles.
Over and over and over and over and over and over again .

There’s not much you can do once your thoughts are circling.

In this episode, I want you to know that I have brain tornadoes too - I’m guessing everyone has them - and what I’ve done to tame them as much as I can.

Hope this episode helps tame the wins and get your ideas flying (pun intended).

See you inside the content universe.

Lead magnets used to be downloadable PDFs.
Longform content, white papers and maybe Trend reports.

But what is a good lead magnet in this day and age?

in this episode, I talk about six different kinds of lead magnets that are not downloadable PDFs.

Because honestly, how often do you read a PDF that you have downloaded? My guess would be less than half of the times.

And that’s why we need to look at other types of lead magnets that offer more engagement and even more value .

See you inside the content universe 🧑‍🚀

Often there are so many steps in producing just a single piece that the continents self sinks before it’s virgin voyage.

Today, I want to go through some of the rocks in the shoe that can make or break your content production flow for social media.

I’ll go through the ideation phase, the production phase, the review face, and the distribution phase. all of those rocks that make you not publish your content.

Hope you enjoy. let me know .

AI generated content is not a bad thing. It is rather something that should be worked with.

The problem with AI generated content is not so much that it is AI generated but more the fact that it is often boring, monotonous, superficial, and in essence not worth reading .

However, it is quite easy to get AI content to a point where all of this is no longer true in this episode I will address some of the things post by one of my industry colleagues and try and give you advice on how to get your texts up to a level where it’s worth reading - no matter whether you used AI or not.

See you inside the content universe.

is AI created content good or bad? That’s one of the questions that is up in the air quite a lot all around different content and marketing departments.

In this episode, you’ll get my thoughts on created content.

- What are the ups and downs?
- What matters when it comes to content?
- What matters when it comes to AI created content?
- And what you should really be focusing on when evaluating whether to use AI to create and produce the content for your organisation.

I would really love to hear your comments on this . Hit me up in the comment section.

Thanks
Mikkel

much of the content production that you do has nothing to do with the actual content.

Often it’s things like moving files from one place to another, insuring clear communication, And forgetting the reasons why we have templates that fill up the hours of the day.

In this episode, I’m looking at how we at Montanus will be dealing with redundant and non-value adding tasks and how we will try in the coming month to eliminate as much as we can so we can focus our efforts on quality and value.

If you were doing redundant and tedious tasks as well, check this out.

/Mikkel

It’s so easy to get yourself alert into searching and working with an AI solution where sometimes it would’ve been easier to just get things done, the old school way.

In this episode, you will get my thoughts on whether you should go for an AI solution when you need to solve the problem or you Should work your way through the task manually even though it means working a little bit harder.

We will cover the difference in generational approaches to problem-solving and of course five simple advices to evaluating whether to use AI or manually solving the task.

Repurposing has finally become the go-to method for producing content.

What does it take?
But how do you do it?
And what is the easy way?

That's what we'll go through in this episode of The Content Universe. 
Hope you enjoy!

I once recommended to only use one AI service, and then get good at it.

Not to swap between services, because experience with one beats the minor capability advantages of yet a new service.

I was both right and wrong.

In this second episode of two parts, I'll explain why (and take you through all the content AI services we use).

See you inside the content universe.

I once recommended to only use one AI service, and then get good at it.

Not to swap between services, because experience with one beats the minor capability advantages of yet a new service.

I was both right and wrong.

In this first episode of two parts, I'll explain why (and take you through all the content AI services we use).

See you inside the content universe.

Products drive current revenue.
Thought Leadership drives future revenue.

One cannot live without the other. At least not if you're a top player in your industry. Or if you aspire to be.

In this episode I'll take you through a handful of considerations you should have when working with thought leadership content.

Hope you like it. Let me know!

💌 Podcast@montanus.co

Mikkel

Yes AI is truly amazing. It can do all sorts of cool things. It can create content at the click of the button and it’s super fast.

But in some cases, AI still loses ground to the oldschool of producing content, namely using freelancers.

In this episode I cover five different things you need to consider when choosing whether to use an AI service or a freelancer for producing your content. I hope you enjoy.

My guess is that you have more than one project going on right now. Am I right?

In content production, you typically have many different deliverables, many different types of content that you need to produce.

This often means swapping tasks. It means changing pace, and it means navigating different software systems in and out all the time.

This episode of The Content Universe is not specifically about producing content. It’s more about creating a healthy flow of producing content and getting things done.

I’ll take you through some of the tasks that I have on my to do list right now and give you a quick idea to how you can juggle the many tasks that content producers and marketers deal avoid every day.

It’s not rocket science, but it’s something that really help me. I hope it helps you too.

Hosting a podcast requires quite a few things. It requires technical skill. it requires interview skills. It requires editing skills and of course some kind of marketing skills to distribute it all.

However, all of those things don’t mention the hardest part of it all:

Getting guests to participate on your show.

It’s not so much that people don’t want to participate. It’s more that the logistics around getting dates places times all of this to sync up is really really hard.

How do you make sure to have enough people contacted to have a regular podcast coming out?

How do you manage the people you want as guests so you know that you can publish every month, every two weeks, or every week?

That is what we will talk about in this episode of the constant universe so you can learn some of the tricks that we use when we manage guests for a variety of different shows. I hope you enjoy.

Mikkel

Ever felt like you were stuck in the red tape of creating content?

Ever felt like doing the same things over and over and over and over and over again?

In production, we can save ourselves a lot of time if we use templates intelligently. This is what we talk about in this episode.

Five templates that will save you time and effort and leave room for results and deep work.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

/Mikkel

LinkedIn this odd place where business meets pleasure. Where professionalism meets social. Where employees become human.

This makes it really hard to find out how to behave on LinkedIn.

Should you be serious and formal?
Should you be witty and happy?
Should you be curious?
Should you be inspirational?

Well, in my opinion, you need to be human. All the tips and tricks for writing good posts you can flush down the drain if you are not writing to another human being in every single post.

Think about this: your posts need to move people. In any way possible.

Hope you enjoy this episode. Let me know what you think, I’d really appreciate your feedback.

repurposing is not a new thing.
But for some reason, people tend to forget that you can re-purpose content you have already made and get lots and lots of extra value out of it .

In this episode, I will take you through the types of content the episode itself will become once we are done repurposing it.

I can tell you, it will be about 6 to 10 new pieces of content – nearly without lifting a finger.

Automation, thank you 🤖

Is your content perfect?
Is it flawless?
If yes, you have a problem.

In this episode, we linger on the idea of perfection in content versus frequency and speed in publishing.

Because, believe it or not, proofreading your post for the fourth time is simply not worth the effort. On the contrary.

Interviews can be hard. 🥵

But there are a few things that you can do to make it much easier for yourself.

In this episode, I will go through some of the tips that I use myself when conducting an interview, be it online or in person.

if you have your own good advice, please chip in with a comment so we can all prosper. 💃

Whether or not you should share you budget with your content agancy is a good question.

In this episode I will share my thoughts on whether you should share your budget with your agency or not and go through the pros and cons of sharing how much money is actually available for a specific project.

Let me know if you agree with me

Episode 2 digs into how you can write articles, blog posts and other kinds of longform content using AI.

We'll cover
- how to structure your work
- how to use ChatGPT
- what it's good at and what not
- how to refine the first draft.

Thanks for listening.
/Mikkel