Anja Klemp Vilgaard
Be Remembered Through Stories
Have you ever considered how many stories you tell in your personal life – amongst your friends, colleagues, dinner guests, competitors… and family?
Have you considered how happily you enter into other people’s stories – in the flesh as well as from behind your screen, desk, computer, newspaper, magazine… and book? Have you considered how rarely you use storytelling in your daily professional life, and how much you stand to gain by doing so – now, rather than later?
Anja Klemp Vilgaard has.
Throughout her entire life, she has tried her hardest to acquire, tell, and listen to stories. She has – like most of us – used stories in order to understand the world.
“Stories are disguised as fairy tales, life stories, news, jokes, speeches, cases, empiricism, and much more, but what all of these have in common is that they are shared by people. They are told and retold because they entertain, enlighten, and open doors to diversity – they enable us to understand one another. If you listen closely, our shared stories always leave you with food for thought, and very often also grant you an opportunity to be understood and achieve a sense of belonging,” says Anja and explains that this is the reason why she moved from the world of journalism to that of storytelling.
From Journalism to Storytelling
Anja took her first baby steps into the world of storytelling through journalism. She did this through publications as varied as Politiken, the free newspaper URBAN, the Scandinavian magazine Science Illustrated, and the publication Computerworld Online. During this time, she was a writing and editing journalist, managing editor, and chief of local as well as international editorial departments.
“I guess you could say that I have been moving in high circles as well as trotting along on the ground, but stories have always taken centre stage. People and their life stories were alluring and I was – and am – very much driven by curiosity and a desire to understand,” she says.
And maybe this was why Anja, in 2013, chose to start her own company – the storytelling agency Get Ajour, which helps businesses discover their core stories and use these in a strategic way on an everyday basis. Two years later she founded the storytelling publishing company Get Ajour Publishing, as an addition to the main business. Both are located at the foot of Kronborg Castle in Elsinore.
