KXMGroup

24/06/2025

And that's a wrap! Final speech of 1H 25 - a great Novo Nordisk audience at Marienlyst Strandhotel that asked wonderful questions.

From January-June this year I spoke to, among others:

🔴 Spoke to a multicultural group of 80 patent specialists on building equality, trust, and cross-cultural communication in international workplaces, with a special focus on how this plays out in Danish working culture.

🔴 Led a session in Sønderborg for 25 international spouses exploring what Danish managers expect from new hires—a crucial part of navigating the path to employment in Denmark.

🔴 Gave a keynote to 170 Latin American bankers on why Denmark is a global innovation leader, plus an honest look at the advantages and challenges of Danish workplace culture.

🔴 Facilitated a workshop for a 12-person team at a major Danish infrastructure company, helping participants uncover cultural expectations and identify their own cultural blind spots at work.

🔴 Delivered an inspirational session to 75 employees at an automotive company in Horsens recently acquired by a U.S. firm, offering practical insights into working with Americans and navigating Danish–American business culture.

🔴 Designed a highly interactive session for a newly-formed, multicultural life science team of 25 people—including one joining in from Italy via iPad!—on how to work better together across cultures in a Danish business environment.

Want to add your team to this list in 2H 2025? Let’s talk.

I can tailor a presentation or workshop - and a price! - to your group and your needs.

Book me either directly or via my speaker agency A-Speakers, which some clients prefer because it's already in their payment systems and Athenas takes care of all the contracts.

I look forward to speaking for your group in 2H 2025. 🔴

07/06/2025

My "Working with Americans"/"Working with Danes" double-sided book is one of my top sellers, frequently purchased in coordinating with a presentation or workshop for multicultural teams.

But today at an event in Copenhagen, someone asked me if I could quickly sum up my top tips for working with Americans.

Here's what I said:

- 𝘎𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴. Americans grow up in a culture of positive reinforcement - academically, socially, in athletic environments, and business environments. Show that you appreciate their efforts.

- 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘴, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘦𝘵. I've noticed that many of my Danish customers receive a question from their US counterparts, and then carefully research the answer before responding. This leaves their American colleagues wondering if the message was received, or if they said something hurtful. Just respond with a brief note saying you're working on it!

- 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘚 𝘫𝘰𝘣 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵. With the backup of their welfare state and tradition for long vacations with the phone turned off, Europeans don't understand how scary it can be to work in the US, and how incredibly competitive the US market is. This is why your American colleagues take short vacations or no vacations; this is why they send emails on evenings or weekends. They feel they need to show their value on the job every single day.

29/05/2025

Here’s a clever way to use affiliate marketing: www.Shepherd.com asks authors to create a category and name their five favorite books within it. Then it posts the lists – topped off by one of the author’s own books, of course – and collects a small premium every time someone clicks through to Amazon and buys a book.

It’s a business structure that benefits everyone. Readers find new books. Authors, who are usually passionate about books they read, can also promote the books they wrote. Shepherd benefits. And of course, Amazon benefits.

If you're looking for something to read in your Danish summer house, my list of "Best books about women leaving home to find success in the big city" is here: https://shepherd.com/.../women-leaving-home-to-find...

But you might also want to check out "Mysteries with sleuths with canine companions" or "Light-hearted gay romance books about men in their thirties" or "The deaths of US presidents" or whatever other quirky category sparks your inner reader.

https://shepherd.com/best-books/women-leaving-home-to-find-success-in-the-big-city

08/08/2024

Enjoyed working with Cassidy Graves on this fun piece for via and

Licorice, LEGO, hygge galore.

31/07/2024

Come enjoy our series of GPS Audio tours, in co-operation with VoiceMap with additional distribution by Viator and Tripadvisor.

All the tours are designed and voiced by Kay Xander Mellish.

These are GPS-guided tours, so you can put in your earbuds then put your phone away while Kay tells you funny stories about what you're seeing.

Check out our tour of Helsingør - better known to Shakespeare fans as Elsinore, the home of Hamlet - right here.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g189542-d28004220-Helsingor_Castle_and_Historic_City_Self_Guided_Walking_Tour-Helsingoer_Helsingoer_.html #/media/28004220/?albumid=-150&type=ALL_UNRESTRICTED&category=-150

07/05/2024

Here’s a clever way to use affiliate marketing: www.Shepherd.com asks authors to create a category and name their five favorite books within it. Then it posts the lists – topped off by one of the author’s own books, of course – and collects a small premium every time someone clicks through to Amazon and buys a book.

It’s a business structure that benefits everyone. Readers find new books. Authors, who are usually passionate about books they read, can also promote the books they wrote. Shepherd benefits. And of course, Amazon benefits.

If you're looking for something to read in your Danish summer house, my list of "Best books about women leaving home to find success in the big city" is here: https://shepherd.com/best-books/women-leaving-home-to-find-success-in-the-big-city

But you might also want to check out "Mysteries with sleuths with canine companions" or "Light-hearted gay romance books about men in their thirties" or "The deaths of US presidents" or whatever other quirky category sparks your inner reader.

Kay Xander Mellish shares the 5 best books on women leaving home to find success in the big city. Have you read Manhattan Memoir?

12/03/2024

How to deal with haters. Get my take on this topic on the Work FORCE podcast with , Director of .

Thanks to the London School of Economics Inclusion Initiative for inviting me.

Listen here: https://work-force.captivate.fm/listen

01/02/2024

Is the voice on this video real or fake? Or, more precisely, is it me, or is it “Katie Xander Mellish”, an AI duplicate of my voice?
It’s fake. It’s Katie, who was constructed for $11 through a website called ElevenLabs.

While I had the advantage of a lot of old podcasts 🎧 that could be quickly uploaded for the AI to sample – podcasts with high-quality sound because they were made with a good microphone in my home sound studio – basically anyone can produce an AI version of their voice 🗣️ in under an hour.

Elevenlabs promises that no one else can use your voice 🛑 – they have a verification procedure to make sure the uploaded clips match the voice of the person uploading them – but it’s hard to imagine that this technology won’t be abused.

(Already, there have been cases of people receiving desperate phone calls from a family member “in trouble” who “needs money fast” when the family member in question is actually sitting next to them on the couch. 🛋️)

In my case, I created the AI voice to produce an audiobook version of my book 📕 “𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐧𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤: 𝐓𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐉𝐨𝐛, 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐁𝐨𝐬𝐬” in my own voice.

I recorded the audiobook the old-fashioned way last summer 🗣️, but have never found time to edit it, a lengthy and precise process which I frankly hate. Readers keep asking for the audiobook version, and I’m hoping the AI will allow me to deliver it quickly.

Elevenlabs also offers a large number of premade voiceover personalities that sound very real.

In general, AI voiceovers have been terrible for the human voiceover industry 🤑 – my number of voiceover jobs has dropped precipitously in the past year – in part because they are so easy to update.

If you’re producing, say, e-learning 👩🏼‍💻 and you want to make a slight alteration to the course material, AI can do that instantly. Much easier than calling a speaker to go back into the studio with a sound engineer.

It's amazing how quickly the technology is developing. I remember that when Top Gun Maverick ✈️ came out in the spring of 2022, much was made of how the voice of Val Kilmer – who was mute due to throat cancer - was recreated from his old movie roles using AI. Now this technology is available to everyone from their laptop.

Thanks to Juan Teppa for introducing me to Elevenlabs.

05/07/2023

Corporate photography is an art, and nobody does it better than Morten Larsen Photography, who has done my profile pictures for more than a decade, somehow managing to flatter a subject who keeps getting older.

Morten is also an accomplished rock n’ roll photographer – check out his book of photos, “Any Colour You Like.” If you’re trying to persuade your company’s executive team to update their photographs, tell them you’ve hired a guy who has also done Beyoncé, Lars Ulrich, Iggy Pop, Liam Gallagher, and seemingly every Danish music star out there.

Updating your profile picture is key in my keynote speaker business - there's nothing like seeing the disappointment in your audience's faces when they've been presented with 5-year-old photo of you and the real, 2023 version of you arrives to give a speech.

Just did a new session with Morten in June - the pink dress is one of my favorite shots - and will be using several of the photos on an updated website due out later this summer.

Check out Morten's work at https://mortenlarsen.dk/

18/03/2023

When I first began delivering presentations about Danish working culture, TTimeXtenderwas one of my very first customers.

Nearly a decade later, what a privilege to be asked to join them for their podcast!

In this episode of Because Time Matters, we talk with Kay Xander Mellish about working with Danes and Americans across cultures and time zone.

31/05/2022

01/09/2021

Are you Danish and working with Americans, or American and working with Danes?

Book Kay Xander Mellish for a live or virtual presentation, or check out our flip book "Working with Americans/Working with Danes."

https://www.kxmgroup.dk/workingwithamericans/

Kay Xander Mellish specializes in helping Danes and Americans work better together. Book Kay to deliver a presentation or half-day workshop to your team, or consider one-on-one coaching to help develop strategies for improved cross-cultural understanding.