Story Rules is the brainchild (and passion project) of Ravishankar Iyer.

Ravi is a storytelling coach and consultant. He is a Chartered Accountant… But wait, that’s not how a story begins. This is how it does:

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Once upon a time, a boy was born

To a creative mom and a structured dad

Shy and socially-awkward was his norm

When lost in books, he was most glad

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Comics, novels and thrillers he’d enjoy

Then it was non-fiction, especially history

Movies and music were a source of joy

Later he realised – all were forms of story

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Writing also made him keen

To express his thoughts in clear prose

Perhaps in an alternate life he may have been

A history prof, a journalist, a writer – who knows?

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But life’s more practical and so he qualified

As a Chartered Accountant (with a rank to boot),

But while the numbers and financials he could ride,

He realised, as a career, it wasn’t a hoot

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An MBA from IIM-A gave him wider exposure

To business domains of Ops, HR, Marketing

His real learning happened however

During 7-years of management consulting

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He still (tries to) think, talk and write MECE

And never fails to ask the “So What”

It’s a skill that he felt ‘at home’ with, you see

And in his training career it’s helped him a lot

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But after 7-years with for-profits, he yearned for impact

And joined a social enterprise that trained the young

His 3-year stint taught him a great deal in fact

But the over-dependence on the government stung

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So he moved on, and life took a different direction

His love for history made him co-found a start-up

CaptivaTour: to tell monument stories, engaging and fun

It got great reviews (but no revenues), so that was a wrap-up

—

While working on CaptivaTour, he met someone

Who trained corporate leaders, which was interesting

A session on Effective Data Analysis was his first one

And he realised, hang on – this could be working!

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Data Analysis soon evolved into Storytelling

And it was when writing a content guide

For CaptivaTour’s stories’ better writing

That he had an epiphany and realised

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It doesn’t matter whether it’s science, history or finance

Compelling stories can be found everywhere

Stories which share common principles – perchance

Just the knowledge of these principles is rare

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And so that boy of a structured dad and a creative mom

Decided to become a life-long story-nerd

And help others get a better outcome

Using the power of that magical five letter word:

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Story.

Oh, and they learnt happily ever after. 🙂

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By the way, here’s the boring profile:

Ravi is a leading storytelling coach and consultant. He enjoys enabling mid-senior level leaders improve their work outcomes by using effective storytelling techniques. He has successfully delivered training programs to varied clients.

While his overall work experience is about nineteen years, his core skills were learnt in a seven-year management consulting stint, where he led teams that made information-rich presentation stories to demanding clients such as PE funds and leading corporates. 

These skills were enhanced in his role as co-founder and chief storyteller at CaptivaTour – India’s leading mobile audio-guides app for historical monuments. 

Ravi is a rank-holder Chartered Accountant (2001) and subsequently did his MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad in 2005.

Ravi loves reading history, other non-fiction, and listening to podcasts. He writes on business storytelling on his LinkedIn page and at www.storyrules.in/blog.

For storytelling advisory services, training/workshop and speaking engagements please get in touch at ravishankar@storyrules.in