From Broken English to Building an Empire: Elan’s Untold Story of Courage & Communication

Real challenge is one should not try to like, you know, remember word by word. Maybe you can take a point, but actually when it comes to like, you know, actually storytelling, it has to be like a natural flow of words. During 1995, you know, struggling to communicate to English, struggling to get a job, Haritosh Srivastav had a very hard time to like, you know, meet his both ends, like, you know, even to manage his like, you know, day-to-day expenditure. And finally he got a job, then, you know, he started his own company, okay? He started his own company and the company journey is about 10 years. Then today, the young man who really struggled, stumbled upon, like, even to speak basic good English, today he provides employment to 120+ young people. Okay, there are two types of people, Haritosh Srivastav. Okay, leave alone somebody wanted to lead a normal life, okay, there are other type of people, okay, who wanted to, like, you know, be little ambitious and have aspiration in their life that they wanted to professionally do well. Those people, okay, if they wanted to make impact in their communication to others, if they wanted to really make good effective communication to the teams and colleagues, okay, those who wanted to like, you know, really make good impact in public speaking, mind you, the only one tool you have to pick is storytelling skill.

Hey everyone, welcome to another another finisher interview where I interview people who have persisted, who have created more than 21 videos as part of our Video Confidence Challenge. And today we have another amazing personality who is going to enlighten us with his experience, his breakthrough, and what is his message for us. So help me welcome Ilyan Govindarshakar. Let me add you to spotlight. Welcome, Ilyan. How are you doing?

So thank you, Haritosh Srivastav. I'm doing great. So I'm very happy to be part of this interview session. I think you really supported me well from the day one that I started my journey with Content Storytelling Hub. So I feel really proud to be like, you know, as one of the interviewees, I mean, one of the participants in your interview. Happy to be here. Thank you.

So let's get started. Tell us a bit about yourself, your background, what you do, and what's your day like.

Cool. I am Ilan Govind Rajasekhar. Okay, I am leading a company which is named Mentor Infocomm India Private Limited, based in Chennai, and we are into providing top-notch IT technology, hardware technology solution to customers. We are into IT and the cloud infrastructure. We are into networking and cybersecurity. We are into audiovisual system integration. We are into AI-driven call centers. We are into intelligent security system, and we cater into like multiple domain like education institution, corporates, industries, many more industries. We provide our solutions. That's the background of the company. We are about 120+ employees. We work for this company. This is a small introduction about myself. Thank you.

Awesome. Thank you so much. So how long have you been part of the Confident Storytelling Hub?

Yeah, that goes on to 18 months. So I really, I don't feel proud, you know, to be part of this hub or group because which makes me to be in touch with regularly. I think we used to have like, you know, every week session, we used to have like every week some kind of a challenges. Otherwise I would have like lost my touch of, uh, you know, touch of storytelling skill development or like, you know, my public speaking public speaking development. This group really helps me to be in language touch and to make progress slow by slow, and but gradually, consistently, that's important. So I'm really happy to be part of this group. It's been 18 months. Thank you.

Awesome. Thank you so much for being part of the group. So the next, uh, question for you is that you were also one of the participants of Video Confidence Challenge. So how was your experience in being part of this challenge?

Well, uh, the day one was very tough to me, okay. Uh, in fact, I remember the day one I wanted to make a, you know, actually post a video. So what I did, I was like driving my car, I, you know, I halted my car on the roadside where there was no traffic. Then I started like, you know, actually, you know, shooting my video, uh, and I posted it. So that was experience for me day one and day two. Then day 3 onwards, I started like doing some kind of a content preparation. Okay, that was amazing. So it was a wonderful journey for me, to me. So I really enjoyed it. Okay, see, the reason being like, you know, why I enjoyed is that I took it as a passionate. I thought, you have been very poor, like you are not posting any video, and don't you have a basic skill to post a video? Look at the teenagers, look at the youths, you know, they post video like any. It could be Reel or it could be any video, but what is stopping you to post it? Absolutely. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to like know that, uh, brush up or like, you know, scale up, improve. So when this opportunity came, I took it, I grasped it. So that's how it started. Thank you so much.

Absolutely. And you didn't mention, you started out with in the car and then you started going. So I want to know what were some of the challenges faced. Of course, everybody wants to know the good thing and great things. But first I want to know, because I've— I think this is probably the 6th or the 7th interview that we are doing, and everybody has their unique challenges. So I want to know, what were your challenges and how did you overcome that?

Fantastic question. This is very, very important. Okay, so what's the difficulty in like, you know, storytelling or like narrating a story? The difficulty is that for me, I used to refer a story, or I used to like maybe write down the story, then I used to like actually remember word by word to deliver or to narrate a story. That has really made me like, you know, actually stumble upon, not able to like deliver it free flow. Then what I did, I didn't keep quiet. I gave a call to my coach Haritosh Srivastav. Haritosh, I have a problem. I have a difficulty that I could not deliver it very naturally. What to do? Then you, of course, being a coach, you guided me. No one in the world like, you know, delivers a story as it is written in the book, okay, or as it is like, you know, they prepared a content. They refer the content, they prepare the content. When they come to like storytelling, they naturally like, you know, actually narrate the story. That's how it has to be. Then though it was difficult for me to naturally narrate story, but I developed that habit, then it went on well. I really did well. So the real challenge is one should not try to like, you know, remember word by word. Maybe you can take a point, but actually when it comes to like, you know, actually storytelling, it has to be like a natural flow of words. That was a big learning for me. Big eye-opening for me. Thanks to you, because at the right time I called you and you also intervened and explained to me. Thank you so much. That was a challenge.

Awesome. And as one of my mentors say that don't verbalize or don't memorize story, internalize it. When you know, then the words may change, but the emotions that is required is conveyed. Awesome. So what was your main aha moment or breakthrough moment of this journey, which like, wow, I didn't believe I can do this?

Aha moment is that during the 21-day video challenge, you also told me to post some of the videos in the Instagram and Facebook also, social media. You asked me to post it. Okay, though I did post it like in a couple of days. In the one of the video, I narrated actually my real life, you know, real life story. The story was like, you know, a young man during 1995, you know, struggling to communicate to English, struggling to get a job. Had a very hard time to like, you know, meet his both ends, like, you know, even to manage his, like, you know, day-to-day expenditure. And finally he got a job. Then, you know, he started his own company, okay? He started his own company, and the company journey is about 10 years. Then today, the young man who really struggled, stumbled upon, like, even to speak basic good English, today he provides employment to 120+ young people, okay? And I have a vision to even provide employment to 500 to 1000s of people. So I think that video when I posted on like, you know, actually social medias like Instagram and Facebook, many people liked me, many people like me, in fact, called me and appreciated me. "Elango, good, yeah, you have come such a long journey that you really actually good in your life." So, so in fact, it was not the first video, it probably like a fourth or fifth video. But see, when I, you know, actually narrate my real story, people appreciate it and it was a genuine story. So people liked it. So I find like that's a haha moment. Oh good, I could also like, you know, narrate my own story and I could also impress upon people. Thank you. So that was a real aha moment for me. Thank you.

Very nice. And I, I do remember that. And I think, uh, as business owners and founder, you are the brand first, the company is the brand second. And one of the best way to brand yourself is by telling your stories. I think you did a fabulous job of telling your story of how your journey started and how you are— you have that vision to grow your company into doing amazing, amazing things. And I also remember you took on some side projects as well, like adding a lot of video editing into that. You want to talk about that?

Of course. See, in my journey, I did not have a proper corporate video for my company as a brand, you know, brand video, which has been pending for quite a long time. This is the time I took up to, in fact, revamp my company website. The work is undergoing. And also I also like took initiative like prepare corporate video. Though I prepared, it was— it came out very pathetically, but that has given a confidence to me. This is how you need to do it. Then I didn't stop that. I thought like there are specialist, okay, there are specialist who could actually prepare like corporate videos. So I approached a few of my friend, okay. In fact, I also approached like, you know, fellow group member Prem also. He also given a good reference. But end of the day, like, you know, one of my other friend who was into like production company Possibly come forward to do my corporate video that is getting ready. Maybe another 1 week or 2 weeks, the corporate would be ready. But that corporate video was the instinct of the video I posted through our like the Video Challenge Pro, you know, Video Challenge program. So you could see that, you know, how it creates impact. So yes, definitely it's going to come out well.

Absolutely. And, and, and yes, uh, as, as they say, version 1 is better than version none. So you got your version 1 in the challenge, and then of course you can have 2, 3, 4, whatever version. You can always update and upgrade. Excellent.

Thank you so much. I absolutely agree with you. Version 1 and version 2 is always better than version 1, and we should go on.

Yes, absolutely. So if I ask you now when the challenge is over, what do you think has been the impact of completing this challenge personally for you?

Confident. Before the challenge, I cannot do such a videos. Like, in fact, I would have a lot of hesitation and I would go on, go on, like, you know, preparing the content and, like, remembering the word by word and, like, trying to, like, you know, make up and all. I wouldn't do it. It would take probably 4 hours to me. Today, you tell me any subject, I think you— I think I would, like, probably prepare a video and post it in about, like, 30 minutes time. So I got confident now. No more I have an incident that like, no, I need to remember this word, that word. I— the words naturally comes to me. I became more confident. So that is the biggest, like, you know, uh, achievement I had. Then I developed a habit of consistency. Okay, whatever you do it, like, you should have a consistency. If you have to do, like, you know, post a video 22 days, you have to post a video. So that consistency of, like, a habit I developed it. And perseverance. Yes, I could see myself, I could do it anything. There are a lot of challenges to me, and most importantly, I could like narrate in only one word: confidence.

Love that. Confidence, consistency, and perseverance. Amazing. So what's your message, Elon, for anyone who wants to participate in this journey of building confidence and learning storytelling and public speaking?

Okay, there are two types of people, Haritosh Srivastav. Okay, leave alone somebody wanted to lead a normal life. Okay, there are other type of people, okay, who wanted to like, you know, be little ambitious and have aspiration in their life that they wanted to professionally do well, those people, okay, if they wanted to make impact in their communication to others, if they wanted to really make good effective communication to the teams and colleagues, okay, those who wanted to like, you know, really make good impact in public speaking, mind you, the only one tool you have to pick up, storytelling skill, because storytelling skill connects with people. I learned this like in a very, you know, very, after a very long time, but I understood now it's very, very important tool. So one, if anyone wants to become like an effective communicator or a good public speaking, public speaking person, he has to become like a storytelling as a tool, and he has to really to connect with people. So yes, it's very, very important. Those who desire, aspire, and have ambitions to become a public speaker, he has to like be a good storyteller first of all.

Amazing. Thank you for that inspiration. So my last question to you is, you have been part of the Confidence Storytelling Hub for last 18 months. Would you recommend others to join the same?

Obviously, okay, because I got benefited by joining this, like, the Storytelling Hub, okay. I got benefited, so there is no doubt about it. In fact, I've already spoken to like couple of my close friends and like my kids, but they have to like take a step and like to join this group. I look forward to them joining. So definitely I would be always open to recommend this group to anyone and also ask them to join this group.

Thank you so much, Elan, and your journey, like others' journey, is very inspirational because you've got your unique flavor. And what is important is not only taking the challenge, but how do you take that challenge to do something more meaningful. In your case, I love that You not only took the challenge, you learned some new skills like video editing, and then you took the inspirations to get your corporate video at least started from there and then get it amazing. So congratulations once again, you are doing great job and I wish you all the best. And thank you once again.

Yeah, my sincere thanks to you as a coach, Haritosh Srivastav, as well as to our great group, Confidence Storytelling Hub. I wish all the best. Thank you.

Thank you so much. So this was Ellen Govinda Sekhar, who is also a finisher of the Video Confidence Challenge. And if you're somebody who wants to build your confidence, who wants to grow your public speaking and storytelling skill, consider joining Confidence Storytelling Hub. I'll be back with another amazing interview of another finisher. So stay tuned. And as I say every time, until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and keep going out of your comfort zone. This is Haritosh Srivastav.

I'll see you in the next video.