If you read my last blog post with an update of 2021, then you probably know that I ended the last year with my first ten-day Vipassana course. The silent meditation retreat taught me many things, and is potentially life-transforming. I will be sharing more about those ten days and what changes they brought into my life in my next blog post.
Suggested read: 2021: Ready, steady, slow.
I would say that 2021 ended on the perfect note, but it didn’t(and that’s okay). I completed my Vipassana course on 26th December. Sarika(my wife) and I then took a few days to travel through the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. But honestly, we weren’t prepared. The days leading up to the Vipassana course were really busy. I had no time to plan. Having the backpacker gene, I thought we could just wing it. People who know me also know that I quit my PR job in 2015, and traveled through 14 countries in 18 months. That devil-may-care traveler identity continues to thrive in my mind. But it was a bad idea in this case.
Also read: Startup lessons from travel.
We did not enjoy the crowds, last minute bookings and the every day challenges we faced. Tamil Nadu, like most Indian states, is difficult to navigate if you don’t plan in advance for comfort. We found the trip so challenging that we got back home two days earlier than we had planned. We were back in our Mysuru home on 31st December 2021. We were happy about being back home. New year’s eve at home was peaceful. It was nice and chilly in our home city. I cooked some pasta and chicken, and we had some wine to go along with it. We went to bed happy.
But what is the point of this story?
See the point is in my mind I was thinking that we would spend new year’s eve in Pondicherry, on the beach. But we came back home to Mysuru, instead. And that wasn’t bad. It was actually good, though not planned.
Something similar happened with The Story Co as well and that will probably define the year 2022 for the company.
My professional mission is to help as many people as possible discover and use the power of stories. I had always anticipated that we will grow into a B2C learning company offering courses, cohorts and knowledge or learning products. And that’s what we were slowly working towards in 2021.
We started with a hybrid of consultation and content service to help founders build their brand storytelling kit. But the aim was to slowly move towards offering storytelling training and courses to leaders, founders and professionals. One-on-One Coaching was an important intermediate step.
And then, we got invited to deliver a two day storytelling training workshop for a leading automobile company. And it was for their stellar communications team.
On those days, that’s 9th and 10th December 2021, I was reminded how much I enjoy speaking to a live audience. And that nothing can beat the joy of getting immediate feedback from your learners. Despite all the efforts from technology companies, the online medium is still a long way from replicating that joy.
As if the fun I was having was not enough, the participants of the workshop shared rated the programme at a 9.4/10! My team and I were appreciated a lot, and the L & D lead said they’d keep calling us back(in fact, I will be delivering another session for them in February 2022).
In those moments, the plan for 2022 got crystallised in my mind. So I thought why not share it with you.
The Story Co of 2022.
This year there will be two aspects to our business. That’s B2B(corporate workshops, training programmes and keynote speeches) and B2C(self paced online courses, cohort based courses, online workshops). B2C essentially means where there isn’t a one client paying us for the training multiple professionals. In B2C, learners pay for themselves(mostly).
There are a few other interesting things. B2B pays well enough to play the long game in B2C(which takes time, commitment and the ability to build a massive online audience). B2B doesn’t really need a separate marketing channel, all of the content we share through social media, emailers and webinars bring in B2B enquiries as well. Though, yes, having regular one-on-one conversations with L & D representatives of corporates might be helpful(which we intend to do a lot more of this year).
The target is simple: we will try to deliver 12 B2B workshops or business storytelling training programmes through the year with a focus on storytelling for leaders, communication professionals and sales team members. Data storytelling is also something I intend to build deeper knowledge on this year.
As for B2C, we plan to conduct at least one workshop per month. This won’t be a course, but me sharing knowledge through an interactive two day workshop. As opposed to corporate teams, individuals will sign up for these workshops will do so out of their own accord. The target for this is 12 workshops this year which should take me close to the one all-encompassing business storytelling course that I hope to launch in 2023.
But this will be easier said than done.
While B2B has its own set of challenges, I feel it is B2C which is way more difficult to build. Though yes, it is also scalable and immensely rewarding. So let me focus on the challenges and approach for B2C.
There are two parts to building a B2C learning company, as I understand it.
- Your own learning as a facilitator
- And continuously building an audience who sees you as the authority on a subject
For part 1, our plan is simple(all our plans are always simple). Dedicate one day in a week and first half of every weekday to learning and curating. I intend to undertake deep learning projects on Mondays(so will my colleagues) with a focus on storytelling. But also other important subjects like productivity, entrepreneurship, finance and trend spotting.
First half of the rest of the days will be to break down concepts we’ve learnt and curate them into blog posts, posts for Linkedin, videos for Youtube and content for Instagram. I personally write all stories we share on my newsletter, Linkedin, on this blog and Youtube(videos for which are edited by my young colleague Tithi). Twitter is for fun(or for shit-posting as some people call it these days). My content is repurposed for Instagram by Ranjani, while she also shares a lot of her original thoughts and ideas on the platform, Linkedin and even on this blog.
Webinars and workshops.
I wish our learning and sharing itself would be enough to run this business. But it will demand more.
So for part 2 this year, we are going to increase the number webinars and free workshops. We will keep creating interesting flagship content pieces(like ‘Deconstructing Girish Mathrubootham’s storytelling or ‘Airbnb and Brian Chesky’s storytelling’). Some ideas I am excited to work on are: BJP and the stories the political behemoth narrates and Top Indian influencers and their storytelling.
While learning and content on social media platforms is something we did even in 2021, we are looking to get better and sharper. In fact, the mission is to convince a large number of professionals that storytelling is the flywheel for their business or career needs. If we do that, I think business will take care of itself.
One big insight from 2021 was that webinars and workshops is what helped The Story Co a lot. Though the attendance was not high, the impact was. This probably has to do with the fact that in webinars and workshops, audiences get to see the product live in action. This eliminates most of their doubts about storytelling or about me as a facilitator.
So if there was one major goal this year or a mantra for our team it is ‘one webinar, two workshops’. That’s one webinar a week, and two workshops a month(paid or unpaid, self hosted or with partners).
Hope you found this blogpost helpful in some way. I will keep sharing updates from our journey so it helps others who are facing similar obstacles. I truly believe that storytelling makes life and work more meaningful. And with the tailwinds, 2022 could be the year for business storytelling. If that is, then it is the year for The Story Co too.
But even if it isn’t, we are here to stay. We won’t stop till we help millions of professionals make their business communication simple, clear and compelling
If you have any advice, feedback or help to offer in this mission, feel free to reach out to me on sachin@thestoryco.in. I look forward to hearing from you.
