Enlarge. Excel. Evolve.

Story Talks is a series on business storytelling, with short videos (ranging from 2-5 minutes) that answers FAQs on business storytelling.  Guest: Dr Amit Nagpal To watch the complete series, click here

Your story is your brand . But which brand do you build and which story do you tell -organisation or people? Organisations want to build organisation brands, yet people prefer to read people stories. This is one of the greatest paradoxes of branding. It has no simple solutions and the answer varies from situation to situation. One point is common viz to align personal brand with organisation brand, to align people story with organization story and to find the delicate balance. A balance where organisation brand benefits due to the CEO or entrepreneur brand and vice versa. Organisational stories need to be interwoven with people stories to make them more effective and catchy to read.  Twitter and Personal Branding Social media is slightly biased towards people branding, because people want to converse and build relationships with people and not faceless organizations. Social media platforms are also social networking platforms after all.  While Twitter has a bias toward...

The Story of 6 Years on Twitter It was November 2010. I had been reading a lot about Twitter  (in Indian newspapers)  especially what celebrities were tweeting. Twitter had captured my attention and I decided to “ Join the conversation ” as Twitter calls it. “Wouldn’t it be a great idea to learn from the most successful people in India and abroad and that too straight from the horse’s mouth?” I wondered. Learning from the best I was right. From the best journalists to the most influential authors, speakers and coaches across the globe, almost everyone is active on Twitter. Twitter turned out to be the platform of the smart people. It was neither the kiddish Facebook nor the ultra formal LinkedIn. It was semi-formal, concise and was like an ocean in terms of the mystery and learning. I had always been blessed with a mentor at the workplace and I had realised that the fastest way to grow professionally is to learn from the best brains in the industry. As I evolved from ...

Dr Kousar Ali Shah- A Story of Healthcare Leadership More presentations from Dr Kousar Ali Shah

Here are some mini-stories on human bonding and deeper relationships:- Bonding and Higher emotions The disciple, “Guruji, I am very disturbed these days. Are we basically selfish? Are our base feelings stronger than higher emotions? Does our communication reveal our selfishness? Are selfish thoughts the first to come in our mind, even in case of a tragedy? And most importantly are we all selfish or some of us are?” The Guru, “You have fired a volley of questions. Let me answer in brief one by one. Firstly, to make it simple we can have a scale where one end represents base feelings and the other end represents higher emotions. We all belong to different points on the scale depending upon our evolution and level of consciousness. It is like being at different points in the journey.” He continues, “Selfish thoughts often come to the mind first because of our self protection mechanism, yet we also feel guilty. We cannot stop the thoughts from coming yet we can stop them from sta...

I was fortunate to listen to  Dr Bala V Balachandran  sometime back. A US based management Guru and Faculty at Kellogs, he is the Founder of Great Lakes Institute of Management (and Co-Founder of MDI, Gurgaon and ISB, Hyderabad).  What struck me were Dr Bala's words, "Today there is obesity of data, yet starvation of information." There is too much data out there, still lack of relevant information and information presented properly in formats such as story. ( Read the full article on LinkedIn )

If you interact with CXOs, top bureaucrats and leaders, senior journalists, top entrepreneurs and so on, networking does not work much. If you deal with high value clients, networking does not help much either. What works then, you must be wondering. I would say, time to bid goodbye to networking and say hello to ‘Bonding’. Bonding is the Vitamin-Connect The inspiration for the title of this article comes from Cliff Richard’s song, “Goodbye Sam, Hello Samantha.” Yes as we gain puberty and hormonal changes take place in the body, we feel a strong physical attraction for the opposite gender. And it is time to say Goodbye Sam (for guys). Similarly one fine day, we grow from young professionals to mature professionals. Irrespective of age, we develop a mature mindset-the mindset of evolving from Networking to ‘Bonding.’ And then the time has come to say, “Goodbye Networking, Hello Bonding.” ( Read the Full Post on LinkedIn )

Let me tell you an interesting story. The story is about two amazing people who have influenced and coached me  Jennifer Sertl  (President, Agility 3R) and  Michael Margolis (Chief Instigator, Get Storied) and the coincidence is that they both are Americans. They have played an important role in my journey and influenced my evolution  from branding to bonding. The American Stereotype I have always been told that USA and its citizens are loyal only to their interests and not to nations and people. I have read articles on how an American asked for a connection fee for connecting people and similar blah blah. The mass media has always given me the impression as if Americans are the most mean people in the world. I have been a victim of stereotyping myself and can empathize with anyone who does not belong to the stereotypes they are associated with. I wrote  an ode to Jennifer  about the ways she has influenced me and keep joking with her, “I am so prou...

Introduction The paradox is that trying to build a brand does not build a brand. What rather builds a brand is mindful content, passionate engagement and soulful collaboration. What builds a brand is perception enhancement over a period of time, sharing our achievements as inspiring stories. What builds a brand is our actions and consolidating our successes. What builds a brand is our love and passion for our domain, the excitement in our speech and the joy in our personality. The two hour talk will focus on:- · The paradox of branding · Personal Branding on social media-The Starting Point · Understanding our audience and its psychology · Enlarge as a collaborator, Excel as a communicator, Evolve into a story narrator · "From Branding to 'Bonding'"-The Journey · From deeper wisdom to deeper connection with customers · Holding your hand in the storytelling journey-The mentor Key takeaways -How to create ...

                                  Mini-Stories and Musings on Wisdom and Love Wisdom From 'grudge story' to 'guilt story' to 'peace story'  Then one day she came to know of his complete story. And she decided to forgive him,  But the 'grudge story' had now become the 'guilt story'.  And then one day she decided to forgive herself too. And now the 'grudge story' finally became the 'peace story'.  And with the peace story in place, she lived happily thereafter. ------------------------------- "How do I invite magic and serendipity?" The student asks,"How do I invite magic and serendipity in my life?" The master, "Match your frequency with the frequency of the universe by staying in a state of love and gratitude." The student, "But how do I stay in a state of love all the time?" The master, "Firstly surround yourself with people and thi...

Mini-Stories and Musings on Wisdom and Love Wisdom And in the story, is the truth Behind the reputation, stays a character. Behind the action, stays an intent. Behind the perception, stays 'A Story.' And deep within the story somewhere, stays a truth. ----------------------- So what have you done today? Quack Quack or Soar Soar? She was working hard to get out of her cribbing habit. But inspite of the best of intent, sometimes a trait becomes so deep rooted, it can take years to get rid of it. So with the intent of helping her progress faster, the coach decided to be a little provocative. First he told her that eagles soar above problems and only the weak, unassertive ducks quack.  Then he began to ask her in the evening, "So what have you done today, Quack Quack or Soar Soar?" ----------------------- The Storyteller-Entrepreneur Daily Lifecycle 1) Intensely feel emotions of life's rollercoa...

  Let us understand why we should use stories for brand building in 5 sections viz. 1) How do stories work? 2)  Why stories are best tools for online promotions? 3) How do stories integrate? 4) Why stories for organisation branding? 5) Why stories for personal branding? 6) How stories inspire action? 1) How do stories work? Stories inspire action and also connect emotionally and build reputation. Business is all about building relationships and by staying back in the memory, stories help in connecting people and strengthening relationships. Stories also persuade through embedded messages. In the end, we all will become storytellers. Our hearts connect to stories, our brains are wired for stories and our ears want to listen to stories. We want our stories to be heard because our experiences are stories, our complaints are stories and sometimes the biggest burden on our soul, are our untold stories. Great people / legends leave behind legendary storie...