"For the First Time in 3 Decades, I Connected With My Parents Through Storytelling" @vigneshbrb

3 things I learned is I learned to be composed. Second, I got a lot of self-awareness about myself. Third one, I realized my true potential. My favorite challenge was about using the voice tones and modulations to convey a better story without shouting and without whispering a lot. The outcome is for the first ever time, I was able to get closely bonded with my parents. Means, yeah, means I'm able to make them understand the storytelling is not only for people who work in corporates, who wanted to be leaders, who wanted to be political leaders. The storytelling is for everyone. As we say, uh, food, clothing, and shelter, I would add one more thing. Food, clothing, shelter, and storytelling. It's a basic necessity and essential for a human to have that. I don't say it's a skill. As I said, it should be a part of human nature.

Hey everyone, welcome to another Finisher interview. As you know, we have started a new wave of interviews because we have fresh set of finishers, people who have taken this monthly video challenge, people who have gone through a journey and have completed that. So in that series, I have my next interviewee who is none other than Mr. Vignesh Babu BRB. So let me get him added here. Hi Vignesh, welcome! How are you doing?

Hi Haritosh, I'm doing great. How are you?

I'm doing excellent. Thank you for doing this. So let's start with your interview, and I want you to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your journey.

Hey, hi guys, hi everyone, and I'm Vignesh. I'm working as a, as a coach, as a leader in a corporate company. Yeah, as part of my role, it's much required to be a good storyteller, not only for the role for living a better life as well.

Awesome, that was short and crisp. So tell us about your journey with Confident Storytelling Hub. How long have you been part of this community? Why did you join? And yeah, how has the experience been so far?

Um, the experience so far been wonderful. When it comes to the community, I joined Confident Storytelling Hub probably 2 years back. 2, 2 and a half years back when I had no job and I was kind of for the first ever time I was in a vacation since age 3. Yeah, that's when I joined the Storytelling Hub because to convey a better story we have to make our own stories better.

Yeah, and what made you join this community?

Um, when I was clueless when lot of people gave feedback to me that the way I converse story is not attractive. They're not able to get bonded with me on how I talk to them. So that's the reason I joined the Confident Storytelling Hub.

Excellent. Thank you so much. So let's now talk about the challenge. So you were one of the finishers of the last month challenge, and since you have been a member of the community for many, many months, And you also started a few times, but last month was the month when you actually finished the whole challenge. So I want to know what was your experience like with the challenge and what were some of the top learnings from the challenge?

My experience is totally driven by the community members where they post videos every day. They share about feedback. It was very energetic and the momentum was great when I was in the community. I felt like I'm not alone in the journey. I felt like I'm not starting from scratch. With every other helping hand, I was able to convey better stories. 3 learnings what I learned is I always had one thing because all the challenges, all the 15 challenges were more about journaling myself. Journaling myself, conveying a better story, motivator stories, changing the voice tones, everything. The 3 things I learned is I learned to be composed. Second, I got a lot of self-awareness about myself. Third one, I realized my true potential. So these are the 3 learnings I learned with the last podcast.

And if I have to ask you which is the most important out of all the 3, what would you say?

I would definitely say something called self-awareness about my own self. That's a huge term. The more we get awareness about ourselves, the more mature and composed we will become. I think that's a crucial learning.

Very well said. Thank you for that. And absolutely, I totally agree that once you are aware of where you are, and, and what are your values, what do you stand for, what do you want to do, That's where you can make path and that's where you can make progress. If you, if you don't even know where you are, how would you make the path towards your goal? Very nice. So there were many challenges. There were 15 different challenges. If I have to ask, what was your favorite task out of these 15 different tasks and what did you really like about that task or in general all the tasks?

My major, my favorite challenge was about using the voice tones and modulations to convey a better story without shouting and without whispering a lot. That gave— was very challenging. Always the storytelling used to be flat, but when incorporating different tonals in the voice, I really felt the impact. Yeah, when some of the thumping stories needs to be conveyed in a loud and strong way, that's when it reaches. I felt, I felt really close to my heart.

Very nice. I do remember, and I think you were also given the award of the most innovative storyteller for that month, because you came up with really, you know, visually appealing stories. And, and you had this thing where you showed something and read, then you had I think the matchstick or something like that. So there were a lot of innovation which was really interesting. So thank you for doing that. So my next question to you is, uh, we talked about the journey, we talked about what you really liked, but what is the most important thing is the outcome. So if I ask you, Vivesh, what has really changed or what has been the outcome of you completing this challenge, what would you say?

The outcome is, for the first ever time, I was able to get closely bonded with my parents. Means, yeah, means I'm able to make them understand, make them totally understand about how tough was my childhood. Because I am a natural left-hander, they always stood by, uh, say what community chooses in terms like using right hand is good, left hand is bad. And even parents were not able to stand close by me. I was not emotionally— I, I was not feeling emotionally belonging. So I was always being aggressive, defensive mode throughout my childhood. So it's been more than 3 decades since I born. I was able to convey them in a story, and I was able to make them understand where my parents really felt for the moment that they should have been with me during those times. I guess that's, that's a game changer, not only for me, for my parents as well.

That's brilliant. I mean, I've done probably dozen, dozen and a half interviews so far, but I must tell you, Vikesh, and I'm not saying this because you are here, but people have had many transformations But I have never had a feedback that this challenge helped you get connected to your own parents. That's, that's beautiful and powerful. And now I want to say story power to you, and thanks to your parents who readily accepted. Really, really, I'm amazed. Thank you.

Thanks a lot, Haritosh Srivastav, for the challenge. I'm very grateful for this.

Awesome. So let's now come to the your message and tip for anyone who want to take up this challenge in the future? Now, you know, we do this challenge every month. You know, you are part of the community, and everyone— there's a new flavor to it, yet the basics remain same. So I want you to share what is— what are some of your tips or some of your messages for anyone who want to know, whether being part of the community have not taken, or who wants to join the community and take up the challenge, what is it that you want to say?

I just wanted to say only one thing based on my experience and my own outcomes. The storytelling is not only for people who work in corporates, who wanted to be leaders, who wanted to be political leaders. The storytelling is for everyone. It's for, it's for a mother to share story to their children, is for children to share wonderful stories to their parents. And it's a generational change, generational maturity that keeps building. As we say, food, clothing, and shelter, I would add one more thing: food, clothing, shelter, and storytelling.

Wow.

So this is for everyone.

Oh, that's brilliant. Food, clothing, shelter, and storytelling. And totally agree that it's for everyone. Uh, generally people think about storytelling has to be done from top to bottom. That's another important aspect that you brought, that now generally say, okay, elders will tell story to kids, or grandparents will tell story to the grandchildren and parents too. But there's another aspect where you're talking about change management or change in generation. How do you convey your understanding is through telling the story. So it doesn't have to be from old to young, it could be young to old. Like, you are the best example for that, that you told your own perspective through a story to your parents. That's beautiful. Thank you. So my last question to you is, you've been part of Confidence Storytelling Hub for a couple of years. You have participated in challenges and, and many more things you have done. So would you recommend this to others?

Definitely, yes. It's a basic necessity and essential for a human to have that. I don't say it's a skill. As I said, it should be a part of the human nature.

Correct.

Yeah, so I would definitely recommend our Accountfront Storytelling Hub to everyone. No limits.

I love that. No limits, sky is the limit, as they say. Thank you so much, Vikesh. And you have been a great leader, great innovator, and also the— what you shared today was very, very powerful. So thank you so much for sharing that. And I must also acknowledge it's not easy to talk about these things, but unless you talk about these things, the awareness doesn't build up. So I, I want to also, uh, I commend you for building that awareness. Like, a lot of people who struggle through a lot of things, but because they're not able to tell their stories, nobody understands their perspective. Like, you were talking about them being left-handed and what kind of situation that you faced. I think not only for me, not only for Confidence Storytelling Hub, it's for them. It's very, very important that they own their story and then share the story with the world so that the world can understand what they go through. Thank you so much once again, and I wish you all the best. As I say every time, story power to you.

Thank you, story power to you as well.

Thank you. So that was Vignesh Babu BRB. If you are somebody who wants to find the right stories, who wants to work on your story that you want to tell to the world and deliver with impact, consider joining Confident Storytelling Hub, where we have 150+ members from 8 countries, each with a single vision that we want to be better storytellers. We want that world understand our stories. And as I say every time, the world needs better storytellers, and it starts with me and you. Looking forward for more such interviews. I'll see you in the next interview. Story power to you.