Childhood of Dreams

I grew up in a small town near the city of Silkeborg in Denmark. The countryside was just around the corner although we lived in a rural community with really good neighbors and other children to play with. I had the best childhood home imaginable and it was filled with a deep genuine love that I will always look back on with joy.

During summertime my brother and I often played football on the field in the neighborhood and we were often on teams with and against other peers from the neighboring houses. I remember the evenings as long, and Mom always coming out and yelling “Dinner’s ready!” – We were, of course, often minutes late as we were hell-bent on playing on.

Other times she had to go to the nearby cornfield during harvest to signal me to come home and eat. But it was hard for a young kid like me to say goodbye to the farmer who taught me to drive the very big and super cool combine!

My mother and father were both primary school teachers at the local school where my older brother, older sister and I all went. This meant that I occasionally had them for English, German or Sports if they were substituting for the teachers we normally had for lessons. It was strange and also intimidating at times, but I remember I also felt very safe.

The Tragic Turn

It was a sunny June morning in 1996 when I came walking down the stairs to the living room. My father met me just as I entered the room and told me that my mother had been admitted to the old Aarhus University Hospital the night before for a brain hemorrhage she had suffered while they had been out partying. Although he was obviously worried, he was restrained and said it in a normal voice.

The following week was the worst of my life. Mum was in a coma on a ventilator and we saw her a few times. At the end of the week she was briefly awake and I had the opportunity to talk to her alone. She suffered from short term memory loss but was very happy to see me. Little did I know that would be the last time I saw her alive. 

Unfortunately, Mum had a serious relapse and by the end of the week was no longer conscious. Together with Dad we made the almost unbearable choice and a few days later we laid Mum to rest. The tragedy, of course, left its mark on all of us, and was to shape my subsequent teenage years far more than I could ever have imagined.

Youth in The Fast Lane

The next years were very hard for all of us. For me personally, I walked around like a ghost with no direction – it was like a bubble I couldn’t get out of. My classmates took all the consideration they could. Dad not only had to deal with his grief while working a full-time job, but also had to look after me and my siblings. 

And then there was basketball, which ended up becoming my all-time favorite sport (still is) and somehow helped me get through it all.

Eventually, I managed to get into one of the most renowned boarding schools for basketball in Denmark in 1998, namely Oure Idrætsefterskole. When I first got the letter that I had been accepted, I was so happy.

The start of the school year went really well and I made many wonderful new friends. Everything was so new and exciting and I suddenly had to learn to fend for myself without Dad around. Our basketball training programme – at least if you had any aspirations of making the elite team – was brutal. We played basketball about 20-25 hours a week with 3 weekly morning practices starting at 6am. That was my access ticket to the elite team. Occasionally, I fell asleep during the school day due to fatigue.

Highlight of my stay at the boarding school was our 2-week trip to New York, living at the historic West Side YMCA Hotel and playing against talented local high school teams. We had a blast but lost most of our games! 

The ’00s started with my high school graduation from Silkeborg Amtsgymnasium in 2002. Over the course of my study period there I got to know so many new people, some of which I still run into now and then, since they now live near me. Looking back, my time in high school really matured me and helped develop my academic and social skills. Meanwhile, I also partied almost every weekend with friends. I felt the world was at my feet.

In the wake of my eventful stay abroad, a difficult number of years began as I tried to find the right start to my career. Studying Spanish at Aarhus University in 2005 wasn’t my call at all. Suddenly I felt like my life had no direction, even though I was approaching 30.

I earned my way through unskilled work before my childhood dream of becoming a pilot burst into light again around 2008 when one of my friends was about to graduate from pilot school. Consequently, I became totally engrossed in the goal of becoming a commercial pilot. Dad wasn’t keen on the idea and the financial crisis didn’t help my position. I ended up taking a private pilot’s license (PPL) to at least see it through and get flying. In 2009 I got my PPL and after a few years, I decided to stick with that only.

I still fly to this day with my share in a Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee and as full member of Billund Motorflyveklub (flight club).

New Horizons

In 2011, I hit the jackpot among countless educational opportunities in the Danish education system. I found the perfect combination of languages and science subjects in the Global Business Engineer programme at VIA University College (VIA).

I had four and a half fantastic years at VIA as a student and made several new friendships, numerous interdisciplinary projects, got a student job at Siemens Wind Power and had a unique study stay in Madrid. During my time abroad, I also managed to actively work on myself and some of my bad habits, which I eventually kicked completely.

However, the most momentous year of my student years was without a doubt 2014, when I married the love of my life Marie, became a father for the first time and sadly lost my beloved father. All at the age of 32.

With my new professional bachelor degree in the baggage, I got my very first job straight from school in early 2016, when I started as Junior Sales Engineer at AIR SUPPORT A/S, a software company in Billund.

In my first job at this amazing company I started to build a strong interest in digital marketing. In 2017, this translated into a position as Marketing Manager, a job that involved several exciting business trips to major cities, including London, Amsterdam, Geneva and Orlando. And with a good steady job at a software provider to the global aviation industry and a huge passion for flying, it couldn’t get any better. I had a steep learning curve and the future looked bright for both myself and the company.

But then…Corona.

Digital Marketing as a Career Path

Yes, the Corona pandemic put an end to my very first real job. But since I had realized that digital marketing was a really interesting field of work, I knew that it was going to be my career path. Now I just had to get back on the horse and find my next career adventure.

After a short stint as Sales & Marketing Manager at a small software company in Silkeborg, I joined Alfotech as Digital Marketing Manager, a position I still hold today. In my current role, I am responsible for the strategic as well as the operational part of the company’s digital marketing efforts. Furthermore, I’m also a frequent guest speaker at VIA, the place where I graduated as Global Business Engineer.

The digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving and with the emergence of AI, content creation has become even more powerful. AI-driven content creation tools are revolutionizing the way businesses create content, from generating ideas to personalizing content according to user preferences.

My blog aims to provide you with the necessary knowledge, insights and skills to up your content creation game by exploiting the power of AI.

Enjoy!