This is the ‘Win with Stories’ newsletter. Every week I send an email with a message wrapped in a short story. I also share one actionable tip and a recommendation to help you enhance your storytelling skills.
The story I am about to share is the one I shared on Linkedin yesterday. I try to share only fresh stories in this newsletter. But this story is too close to my heart for me to not share it with our community. So here it goes…
Bollywood Dancers of Bolivia and Personal Stories in Business.
It was November of 2015, and I had stumbled upon an interesting YouTube video. The video featured young Bolivians dancing to ‘Marjani’, a song from the movie ‘Billu’.
I was travelling through Brazil at the time and writing stories for NGT, Mint Lounge and Forbes Life. After watching the video I could not resist the temptation of chasing down these Bollywood dancers of Bolivia.
I took a flight from Sao Paulo in Brazil to Santa Cruz in Bolivia and made my way to Oruro. It is a mining town in the heart of the country. The dance group belonged to that city and their name was ‘Danca-Indu’.
For two days, I shadowed these Bolivian youngsters. I realised that they were self learnt dancers. They stitched their own Indian clothes. And they would painstakingly sub-title pirated CDs of Hindi movies so everyone could watch them together.
Their love for Indian dance and Bollywood in general was awe inspiring. I was to write about them for Mint Lounge. While departing, I asked Norma(one of the girls in the group) about what’s her dream in life.
She said words that ring strong in my ears despite the years. Norma said, “My only dream in life is to perform an Indian dance in front of an Indian audience in India.”
That day I realised the soft power of Bollywood. But was also reminded about the power of passion. That is what made these Bolivian dancers pursue Indian dance despite many challenges.
Communication tip for today:
Now pause for a bit. And ask yourself what did the story tell you about me(the narrator). In most of my workshops, people notice the below messages.
- Sachin has travelled to lesser-known places.
- He has narrated stories in good publications(like mint Lounge).
- He has good storytelling skills.
So this story helps me further my business interest as a storytelling coach. But notice, I am not the hero of the story, the Bolivian dancers are.
This technique can be called ‘narrating stories of others’. It comes in super handy whether you are a leader, manager, salesperson or a founder.
And that’s my communication tip for today. Personal stories need not be about yourself. You can shine the spotlight on someone else and yet deliver messages about yourself.
Join my free webinar next week to get a glimpse of how to win with personal stories in business and career. Details: Wednesday 23rd March at 6pm IST. This is the link for registration.
One thing you could watch today:
About a year and a half ago, I made a video about an interesting example of using personal stories in business. The video is about a presentation made by Vineeta Singh of Sugar Cosmetics(and now of Shark Tank India fame). I am sure this video will help you understand the ‘personal stories in business’ idea better. You can watch the video here.
That’s it from me today. Hope you enjoyed this edition of ‘Win with Stories’ newsletter. I’d be delighted to get a few words of feedback from you 🙂
One last request – forward this to friends and colleagues who’d find this story and the tips useful. If you received this email from someone and liked it, you can subscribe here.
