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
—
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
—
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?
—
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
—
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
—
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
—
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
—
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!
—
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
—
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
—
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:
—
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