2020 was a fabulous year.
I know it sounds weird, but I say this from a purely personal standpoint.
It was back in 2015 that I quit my PR job with the intention to achieve three objectives a)travel extensively b) become a travel writer and author a book, and c) build my own business.
Early successes and challenges with entrepreneurship.
The first two objectives were achieved in 2015-16 itself. My 18-month trip took me to 14 countries, most of them in South America. My childhood dream of chasing and writing travel stories came alive during this time. Stories I wrote on culture, problems and progress of South American countries appeared regularly in Natgeo, Mint Lounge, Forbes Life and other leading titles. Although the book despite four attempts is nowhere close to its final draft.
Though travelling and journalism were anything but easy, it was nowhere as tough as I would find entrepreneurship to be. One of the main reasons why I accepted a Sri Lankan startup’s offer to build their India digital content operations back in 2017, was to understand startups, funding, and of course, entrepreneurship.
Things didn’t go as planned, and we shut operations after 18 months because we could not build revenue at a good enough pace. This was a personal failure and I realised that I had a lot more to learn about building a sustainable business.
But a voice inside my head kept telling me that this was a journey, and giving up on it would always make me wonder whether I should have tried a little bit longer.
Cycle tours and communications
So I got back to working again. I had two options, 1) to pursue my passion for travel by building an experiential travel company and 2) to build something in the space of communications.
The first half of 2019 was spent on experimenting with long and short distance cycle tours. My Mumbai city tours on Airbnb became popular almost instantly, and I organised three long-distance tours along the western coast. The interesting thing was despite those being early days, I made money. But interacting with others in the same field made me realise how difficult it was to go big with long-distance cycling tours. Furthermore, this niche market was clearly moving towards people planning and executing their own long-distance trips. Scalability and return on effort & investment seemed unattractive(at least to me).
But what made me decide against pursuing cycle tours as a business had an altogether different reason. I loved travelling, and at my own pace, but managing trips was not something I particularly enjoyed.
Business storytelling showed a path
This meant it was time for me to go back to what I was popularly known for, ‘communications’. With over 12 years of experience, knowledge and industry know-how, I had a stronger right to win.
One evening while doing my favourite indoor thing to do, that’s watching talks on youtube, I stumbled upon a brilliant talk by Ameen Haque. This was a part of the series of ‘Talks at Google’ and Ameen shared insights about business storytelling.
An everyday evening turned into a fabulous inspiration.
I realised that business communication tends to be dull, boring and confusing, while it does not have to be. The possibilities of using stories to make communication clear and compelling were limitless. From public speaking to website messaging, from presentations to team meetings, all of them could be more effective if information and assertions were turned into stories. And in many ways, I had been doing the same thing for years. Making communication effective was my foremost preoccupation in life.
This was also a field that complimented many of my interests – public speaking, creative writing, probing and designing business pitches. I was totally fired up!
The lockdown was announced on 25th March and I decided to launch my new brand anyway. I shared a Linkedin post about The Story Co on 2nd April, which received a lot of encouraging responses from friends and my network. But I am sure many did not understand what I was offering. And to be honest, neither did I. I only wanted to combine my interest in stories, writing and public speaking to see if I could help businesses communicate better.
Green shoots of success.
Nine months into this journey and there are green shoots of success. The Story Co now helps businesses win with stories. Our medium of choice are sales and investor pitch presentations or ‘decks’, as the cool kids call them 🙂
Luckily, all the previous experience and research on communication and storytelling started paying off quite early. Xiir, one of my startup clients from Ireland, won fintech contests with the deck and story that we designed together. SatSure, a decision intelligence company from Bangalore, found the storyline and resulting animated video to be effective in explaining what they do to potential clients. A PR agency reported that an automobile client they were pitching to found their pitch deck and ideas to be super impressive.
So for millions worldwide, the year may have been disappointing(and that’s a mild way to put it). But for me, it truly was the year that taught me to apply all the things that I had learnt in the past.
The year and its lockdown arrived when I had silently begun questioning my ability to build something sustainable. And while these are still early days for The Story Co, a strong foundation is being built.
The year that’s termed as a monster otherwise, taught me that persistence pays off, but only when it is coupled with focus.
And while many of us may want to forget the year if we had the choice, I will always remember it as ‘2020: the year that saved me’. Wish you a happy 2021. I wish that the new year brings you more wisdom and contentment.
Do you want to tell your brand’s story better to customers, employees or investors in 2021? If yes, then you know who to talk to 🙂
