Have you spent time and effort promoting your business online and felt no one was listening?
I help business owners like yourself build and communicate your stories creatively and effectively.
Madhav Kochunni
CREATIVE HEAD, DIGITAL
SITOSO is a made up word, a combination of letters from three of the main senses - sight, touch, and sound. The idea? Use your senses to remember every moment of your life.
In moments of crisis we all retreat to a safe place. Some people tap into a happy memory. Others go to the gym and take it out on the punching bag. I always found my safe place among books.
This is my story. The story of how I started my business.
In the spring of 2019, I went on a vacation to India for four weeks.
If you ask any person of Indian origin, they will tell you that four weeks is never enough and a trip to India is no vacation. But I came back with a suitcase full of happy memories. I also put on 10 pounds around my waist. I’m still trying to lose that extra baggage.
Bursting with stories
When I went back to work on Monday morning, I was bursting with stories. Stories of mouthwatering dishes my wife and I tasted. Stories about my jet lag, when I dozed off during lunch at my aunt’s house. Stories about marriage brokers trying to find out intimate details about my son who is still single.
At nine that morning I was called to the second floor. In one of the meeting rooms I met my manager who avoided all eye contact for the next five minutes. She read out from a single sheet of white paper. In short, my 10 years of service became a casualty of restructuring.
In moments of crisis we all retreat to a safe place. Some people tap into a happy memory. Others go to the gym and take it out on the punching bag. I always found my safe place among books.
That morning I do not remember crossing the road to get to the library. But when I sat down in the leather chair surrounded by the familiar sights and smells of books I began to calm down.
Bouncing between strong emotions
For the next six months I bounced between strong emotions and every shade in between. To get away from things I went and stayed with my uncle in New Orleans. When he got tired of listening to my sob stories he took me to the Everglades.
There in the middle of the swamp, sitting in a small tin boat, I told my story to the alligators. They listened to me with their mouths wide open. There is something mesmerizing about staring down the mouth of an alligator that brings out the worst in you. When I finished my story they snapped their jaws shut narrowly missing my head.
During this time I applied for many jobs. All I got was the standard response that began, “We regret to inform you that we have decided to go with another candidate.”
In January 2020 I decided I am not going to let anyone else control my life. Except for my wife!
My name is Madhav. I help people in business promote their products and services through the power of storytelling.
So what’s your story? Talk to me. Together let’s change the world one story at a time.
A rollercoaster ride from publishing to advertising, IT, marketing, and back!
‘Write’ time. Right place.
My rollercoaster career ride began in Bombay, India. The first part of the ride took me through the world of journalism and publishing, instilling in me the finer aspects of writing, editing, proofing, production, and conducting interviews. A few years later, I embarked on the second leg of my career into advertising. Besides enjoying the duties of a copywriter and creative lead, I taught myself graphic design.
Digital transformation
Two decades ago, I moved to Toronto which coincided with the third and most exciting part of my career. The learning bug made my mind its permanent home. I tackled the internet teaching myself web design and development keeping in mind the constantly changing digital trends and raising my standards intuitively. I am well versed in the latest digital technologies.
In my digital role at a financial company I successfully tackled the challenge of converting corporate publications in PDF format to an interactive, responsive, and engaging one saving tens of thousands of dollars and shortening project timelines to 1/10th the timeframe leveraging existing work flows, skills, and software.
Practical. Creative
My assignments in diverse but inter-connected fields of journalism, publishing, advertising, digital marketing, and information technology have shaped my thinking, knowledge, and expertise. I am adept at connecting the dots and finding practical and budget-conscious solutions, implementing ideal workflows, and maintaining end-to-end processes.
Together let’s build on your story for the world to engage
When I got restructured, I decided to mind my own business!
Passion for doing the right thing
Thirty years of my corporate life ended in the spring of 2019. My contributions were truly appreciated but I had become a byproduct of restructuring.
For the next two months, conflicting emotions coursed through every figment of the mind and fibre in my body. I went into the depths of my soul to search for answers and clutch at straws of sanity. I did not know what I was searching for as I had not attached keywords or metadata to any of the thoughts.
My passion for doing the right thing had kept me going way beyond what was required from the job.
Inspiring projects
When my vision cleared, two paths branched out clearly from the crossroads: the well-worn path of job hunting and the risky way of entrepreneurship. I ventured into the road less travelled. Over the next few months, my mind was in a whirl and my hands a flurry of activity.
As in the life-work balance, I believe that every company should give back to the community and the world at large. So I decided to contribute my time and skills pro bono while I was working out the structure of my business.
On giving back
For a non-profit community-based organisation, I built an eCommerce site and integrated it with an accounting backend; I am maintaining and updating the content weekly.
A non-profit group that promotes writers to create inspiring content had different requirements. I designed a WordPress site with author profiles, online payments, and drip content that displays online courses for paid subscribers with ongoing maintenance and updates.
The third is a project very close to my heart and is inspired by a movie about autism. I am working on a WordPress website that will become the marketing platform for the movie.
My business
I started my business three years ago to help people create and publish content for mobile devices. Most of the content online is distributed as PDFs which is impossible to read on small screens. My service offers to make it readable and engaging at the same time. There are three ways to do this.
Convert existing PDFs to a readable format and add other mediums such as audio and video.
Take the mobile first approach and create content from the ground up. Interactive and multimedia elements can also be added to tell you stories better.
Create and build a content strategy that leverages content across all platforms and devices. This will help reduce the time taken to publish content as well as bring down the costs.
My audience
Content creators and designers who do not have the time or are struggling with the technology to create and manage their content pipeline.
Magazine publishers who would like to push storytelling to the limits and digitise their publications.
Small and medium businesses who are looking for new ways to design, publish, and distribute their content
We also automate a majority of the tasks and workflows in publishing content.