How I Built Brands and Businesses with Stories

My father inspired me to become a storyteller, he loved reading books and we had a huge collection of books. In a small one bedroom hall home we had one cupboard dedicated to books and then across the home we had bookshelves.

He would also buy me books, it started with ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ a comic book publication around history and mythology. It built an ability to live in the world of fantasy. I had the full collection of Amar Chitra Kathas, I then had a space for my books which numbered in hundreds.

History and Elocutions

The love for stories continued in school, I particularly loved the subject History because it was all about stories (His-Story). I could travel in time and be at places just with visualisation.

But there was another dimension I was building, ‘Empathy’, I could empathise with characters in history. While I was studying the World Wars I could see how small events led to a chain of events leading to wars that killed millions, I saw the futility of wars.

In my board exams I topped the state in history, I not only answered questions I shared my point of view on what we could and should learn from history.

I happened to also discover I loved to speak on stage in front of a crowd, while most would feel nervous I fell in love with being on the stage and communicating with audiences. Here I built two other skills, understanding the audience and taking the audience on a journey with stories.

I won many elocution contests. Little did I know Stories and Communications would shape the rest of my life.

Building a Blockbuster Product

Early in my career I got a break as a product executing in a IT training company . My first task was to design and market a computer training program for chartered accountants, it was the first of its kind.

Now I did not love accounts myself but in a month I had designed a program that was built around understanding my audience and their pain. The CA’s were terrified of computers , till then all accounts were managed manually in books, they feared those that knew would take away their business.

I started doing talks. I yet remember my first talk in front of an audience of around 20 CA’s. I was a confident communicator but I was talking about a subject they were experts at. I floored the audience, most joined the program.

I had had used the art of ‘Story’ where the CAs were the heroes facing an existential threat , a threat of survival , I played the role of the guide and mentor who would help and guide them in their battle.

I built ‘Trust’ by demonstrating my ability through a sequence of showing how easy it was to commit fraud and why as auditors they need to be top of the game.

Later I became a much sought after speaker and I spoke on radio stations and conducted workshops across the country. The product (course) became a money spinner and beat even established courses like Autocad. I got promoted as a branch manager.

From Product to turning around a Branch

As branch manager I was assigned a loss making branch that competed with the leader in the local market. I trained my teams in the art of Story.

I trained them for ‘Empathy’ and took away the sales target.

“Make friends, that is your target” I told the sales team. they thought I was naive, just out of the campus, I did not understand business.

Business is about selling products or services , it is about helping users to solve a problem.

If there was no bonding in true sense, if the team did not feel the pain of the users how could they ever connect? No connection, no trust. No trust no business.

Things changed, the sales teams loved to come to work. We turned around the business and it became to top performing and showcase branch for the organisation.

I got called to train the national sales teams and this what I did . I fired them up to love their job because if you do not love what you do you will never make an impact, you cannot succeed with a 9 to 5 attitude.

Again I had used the power of story to help them see their job differently and the truth is, sales people make a difference to lives by helping their clients win.

No one is interested in you , your company , your product , your service , drop your agenda and think about your client , their life , their challenges , their need to win and tell them how your product and service can do that. If you cannot , tell them so , be honest and guide them to a place where they can find a solution . You may not have sale but you will make a friend for life.

I got promoted to head sales and marketing for the organisation.

Building An Integrated Marketing Company

I built the first pan India true integrated marketing company with presence in over 120 urban markets, no one had done this before and it was in the times of no internet. I started offering integrated marketing solutions to top brands in the country.

Again I used the power of Storytell to help brands shape markets . A campaign I remember in particular was for Parle Products where the campaign I conceptualised to a fictional character Shaktiman (Mukesh Khanna) to the market for Parle G and created a marketing case study for generations . We shifted sales from 50 tons to 2000 tons per month for Parle G biscuits in Tamil Nadu.

I went on the head Corporate Communications at a global IT company and then cofound a startup and later launch multiple businesses. I have helped brands build market share, coached and mentored founders, trained hundreds of non profits in the art of Story.

Why Stories, Business and Brands

Because humans are wired for stories, I learnt this first on stage, I could hold an audience attention with a story, I could make them feel the story and as I took them on a journey, they traveled with me. Later I learnt of the science behind the power of storytelling.

Mirror neurons create coherence between the brains of storytellers and their audiences. When someone hears or sees a story, their neurons fire in the same patterns as the speaker’s brain.

But we are in B2B market I am told by some of my clients, my answer, finally at the end it is a human that decides. Yet we bore our audiences with data, our presentations and pitches get audiences to sleep by the time they walk out they don’t remember anything.

Stories are memorable because they engage more of the brain than facts alone. Stories can also motivate us to change ourselves for the better.

In a world cluttered with information stories stand out but we don’t tell stories . I see founders as ‘Chief Storytellers’ of the organisation but unfortunately many of the founders I meet are more busy with firefighting.

My Message to Brand owners and Founders

With over 35 years of experience in marketing across brands, teams, organizations, startups, small businesses, people, nonprofits the one thing I have learnt is …

Stories drive Actions

I have turned around and scaled businesses with the power of story, I turned around teams from failure to being driven with purpose with story, I have helped brands capture market share with story.

Everyone has a story and if you don’t tell your story , no one else will.

P.S — As a fractional CMO and coach I help organisations and teams to tell their stories. In case you are interested please mail to [email protected]