Meet Beatrice N. Kabutakapua, founder of the Business Storytelling Centre, a business coaching firm helping leaders amplify unheard voices. Beatrice shares her journey, challenges, and the power of storytelling to drive real change.
The Business Storytelling Centre is a boutique leadership development firm that trains and coaches corporate leaders and entrepreneurs so that they are able to articulate their stories.
There are many stories behind its formation but the truth is that we exist to amplify the stories that aren’t often shared. As a woman-led, Black/Brown-led organisation we know all too well what it means to have our voices unheard.
And as the founder of it, I realised a few years ago, how that was affecting the success of entrepreneurs and the diversity, innovation and growth of corporate organisations.
I won’t say that launching the company was easy. However, because we have been doing the same type of work for the past six years, many traditional challenges do not belong to us.
We were always clear about our audience, we have increased our rates and successfully worked with hundreds of leaders. Right now, the two goals are impact and growth.
Finding the right people to join us is a big thing for us at the moment. And to make sure we find team members who are value-aligned, professional and reliable, we are looking in unexpected places all over the world.
Right now we are an executive team of two, myself Beatrice N. Kabutakapua and Maria Victoria La Terza. And we have other two amazing people who support us behind the scenes.
Our team work remotely and we can count on our fractional CFO, Ellen Elmore and several different consultants who join us on a specific basis. What we are looking for next is someone to help us with strategy and systematisations.
Impact. As well as revenue, we are focused on how much we improve individuals and how much we support organisations.
One of our earliest clients who didn’t feel comfortable sharing their stories went on to be featured in a Netflix documentary that won a BAFTA; another client created the strongest team of their organisation; another one gained confidence in speaking in public.
That’s what we want to see.
We use so much tech and we love it! Because of our distributed team, we rely on tech for communication, CRM, operations and sales. But we could use some help in finding a way to synchronise everything.
You’ll have to join the company to know. But I can tell you, it’s a very expensive tradition and it gives us joy.
We don’t yet, but it’s among the things we have to consider moving forward.
It’s an entrepreneurial journey, every step we take can be seen as a challenge. However, we like to see it as a chance to get creative, self-reflect, and strengthen our connection.
My personal dinner party line-up would be made up of Trevor Noah, Oprah Winfrey, my grandparents, my kids and a plethora of writers and creatives. What a dream!
(Crush) Bon Jovi!
Good choice. Thanks so much for your time and insights, Beatrice!