We were lucky to catch up with Nina Froriep recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

We’re not the only ones who subscribe to this, and there is a fast-growing trend.

We do not engage in online ad-buying, or ‘scarcity’ marketing tactics, or so-called “bro marketing.”

Our entire funnel is built on organic inbound marketing and referrals. We tell great stories and create engaging, fun, and educational content that attracts aligned clients into our ecosystem. And, we teach, coach, and support our clients to do the same.

I call all of it ethical selling; some call it joyful selling. It aligns with our offers and programs, and it’s aligned with how we want to be sold in return.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a featured LinkedIn Content Creator, Producer, and Visual Storyteller. I help business coaches, service-based entrepreneurs, and visual artists create digital content they love so they can grow their companies organically and elevate the conversations they’re having in their areas of expertise.

I have a 25-year producing and directing career, and I like to call myself a recovering film producer and documentary filmmaker.

I’ve seen it all, from the early days on independent features to big national TV commercials, corporate mega-shows, and Emmy award-winning documentaries.

I wrote, directed, and produced a feature documentary called Abraham’s Children about the experience of young Muslims in a post-9/11 world in New York.

I am also an art photographer and love spending time in nature, especially in the Swiss Alps, where I’m from. My “owner” is an 11-pound Dachshund mix called Tigger, and he’s trained me very well.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I’ve been in business for over 28 year, and as a small business owner, I’ve taken many risks over time and only overcame them thanks to being resilient (or maybe just stubborn).

One of the biggest risks, and the one I’m the proudest of, was about eight years ago when my business model of being at a traditional film and video production company didn’t work anymore. Everyone with a smartphone in their pocket was creating videos (maybe lousy), but nevertheless, they were creating videos quickly and cheaply), and with that, client’s willingness to pay for good quality video plummeted.

I knew I had to reinvent my company entirely to survive. I also saw it as an excellent opportunity to become location-independent, which I had never been before and badly wanted to be. I wanted to split my time between New York and Switzerland, where my family is.

It was a complete shot in the dark to embrace all things digital and figure out how to “do the video thing” 100% remotely.
It took many, many different iterations and failed trials to end up where I am now as a LinkedIn-featured content creator, coach, video marketer, and LinkedIn live show producer.

Thankfully, I had no clue what was ahead when I got started eight years ago and how long it would take to find new footing and figure out an entirely new business model. But that’s the beauty of the risk we take – we don’t know the outcome. We can only trust ourselves to figure it out.

One of the first things I realized was that I needed video content to market the company and what we were offering. I had to that point, for 19 years, only lived off referrals. I never had placed an ad or promoted my company on social media.

I thought, as a video producer, it was going to be a piece of cake to shoot a few videos.

Well, not so much. I had never stood in front of the camera, and I was used to big-budget productions, not one-woman shows with a smartphone.

The short version of the story is, that after a few lousy videos that took me an entire day to shoot (something I’d do in 10 minutes today, including editing), I had a tearful breakdown and went to a beauty salon for my first facial ever.
Obviously, the problem wasn’t how I looked – but the lack of confidence being on-camera, clarity in what I was doing and why, and a lack of a repeatable routine.

After that, I rolled up my sleeves to figure out how to create videos quickly, easily, and on repeat.

It took some tinkering, but once I realized that it had nothing to do with video equipment, software, or how good I looked on camera, and everything to do with having confidence, clarity and consistency, thinks licked into place.

It also gave me my signature framework to support clients on their video marketing journey.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

We could talk about attracting, connecting with, and working with aligned clients for hours. The bottom line is that you remain yourself in the selling process, no matter what that looks like for you.

Unless you’re selling widgets, I assume you are a big part of your company, and people buy from people. Show them who you are and have a clear message. What do you do for whom, how, and why?

Social media and video are great resources to do that. Your prospects being able to “experience” you before they engage in an initial conversation with you is paramount to setting you apart from your competition and building the trust you need for people to spend their money with you.

We only do organic inbound marketing on LinkedIn and some referral partner marketing, which works like a charm for us. There is no need for “bro” marketing tactics, cold calling, or expensive advertising — we rely on the great content we put out on LinkedIn and to our mailing list and in building genuine relationships with prospects through authentic conversations.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-froriep/
• Other: https://clockwiseproductions.com/quiz/