This is the ‘win with stories’ newsletter. Every week I send an email with a message wrapped in a short story. Along with that I share one actionable tip and a recommendation for you to enhance your storytelling skills.
Can you build a company to help people form better habits by narrating stories on Linkedin?
The answer is yes.
Let’s meet the Indian entrepreneur who is doing exactly this.
The best storyteller on Indian Linkedin.
Stories and story techniques have innumerable applications in business communication. But can one build a business on social platforms using storytelling? This was the question I faced last year.
That is when I was introduced to Rajan Singh. Or to his Linkedin posts, rather.
Each one of Rajan’s posts is an important message or tip wrapped in a personal story. His recent posts include interesting personal stories. How morning runs during his IPS training helped him. Or how he wins his day with his daily routine. Or something we can all relate to, how the ‘quick phone check’ is robbing us of productivity.
Rajan was the answer to my questions about the power of storytelling in business. He uses personal storytelling to deliver HabitStong’s key messages.
I started experimenting with Rajan’s format over six months ago. And I have made significant progress. Once you get a hang of his technique, posts are (relatively)easy to write, they communicate your beliefs and more importantly make audiences develop a strong connection with you.
Now for today’s communication tip:
Storytelling for social media:
But you are thinking, “Rajan is a natural, I am not. I don’t know how to write, and coming up with ideas is way too difficult”
Well, then let me help you out with some quick tips.
If I were Rajan, I’d have something called a personal storytelling matrix.
Here’s what the matrix would look like:
Business or Company Beliefs(in this case, HabitStrong):
Habits:good habits form the basis of a meaningful life.
Deep Work: Separates effective professionals from mediocre ones.
Focus: Distraction is a choice. Focus is a superpower.
Interesting phases of my life.
IIT
IPS
Wharton
Lessons I have learnt in life.
Valuation is vanity. Customer happiness is sanity.
We don’t need a lot to be happy.
Your work speaks better than your designation.
You don’t need to stop at three points. But having fewer points is better than having many.
Now to come up with story ideas.
Put habits + IIT together and you may remember an instance where habits helped you do well.
Put focus and Wharton together and you may be able to come up with another interesting story.
Think of lessons learnt.
You can use the same format again:
Lessons learnt(customer happiness) + life phase(for ex: Wharton) and so on…
This does need some deliberate practice. But as Rajan says, nothing worthwhile in life comes easy.
One thing you could read today:
Reading a few of Rajan’s posts will help you pick a few tips yourself. I have selected a few of his recent posts for your easy reading. It won’t take you more than 10-15 minutes, and will be worth your time.
When you read these, you will see the personal storytelling matrix in play. Do use the matrix to come up with your own story ideas and let me know if this helped(and even if it didn’t).
Hope you enjoyed this edition of ‘win with stories’ newsletter.
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.
Wwsxx: Amit Jaipuria – communicating intent.
