I really hated elementary school.

I was deeply and utterly bullied. At my first school I got bullied and beaten so much that I got hospitalized for 4 days. So when I was 17 years old I almost got thrown out of high school because of absence, but luckily I got the last chance and ended up taking a year as a foreign exchange student in California at Nevada Union High School.

One of the first days at school we were given a ballot with over a hundred classes.

Everything from horse riding to psychology, and I came across a class i didn’t understand. It was called “Speech”. I asked: “What is Speech?“. The lady at the desk answered: “You learn how to talk”. Confused, I replied “I know how to talk”. And she said firmly: “No, you learn how to talk from a stage.”.

This captivated me, and I immediately signed up.

Within the first 3 weeks of the class there was a competition between the different speech classes, and I won. For the first time in my my life I ever won something. Afterwards, my teacher Mr. Loren Brown came up and said to me: "Asbjorn, that was exceptional! This is your thing! Everybody has their thing, this is yours. I want you to sign up to all the public speaking competitions in the state. I will be your driver and coach.”

Public speaking became a huge thing for me during that year

and with my teacher, I drove around the states participating in multiple public speaking contests. Becoming the first foreigner to win California League in Public Speaking. Since that year, over 25 years ago, my love for public speaking and storytelling has not stopped.

After my time in the states, I began studying medicine at University of Copenhagen, but ended up finishing a master’s degree in social and political science. Currently, I train professionals, scientists, politicians and entrepreneurs in public speaking, storytelling and how they can get their message across in the best possible way. I have done lots of workshops, keynotes and coaching for a multitude of clients, inclding United Nations, University of Copenhagen, Panum, The Danish Cancer Society, Djøf, Mission East, Technical University of Denmark, The Danish Parliament, amongst many others.

“Asbjorn has the ability to convey and create change in the audience in a different and far from boring way” – Maja Thorslund

“Your job as a speaker is not perfection, it’s connection”