Narrative Engineer · Strategic Advisor

8 years building narratives for brands, public figures, politicians and companies. Visibility is easy. The right story is not.

"PR manages what people see. Narrative Engineering determines what people believe. One is a surface operation, the other is a structural one. The difference is between painting a wall and building a foundation."

Career highlights

9 Players Reached the IPL 2 Played for India IPL 2024 Highest-Paid Uncapped Player WPL 2025 Highest-Paid Player 75+ Exclusive Interviews 300+ Published Articles 4.5M+ Readers India's First U-19 Cricket Book Narratives Built Across 3 Industries 8+ Years Engineering Stories That Hold 30+ Athletes Represented 9 Players Reached the IPL 2 Played for India IPL 2024 Highest-Paid Uncapped Player WPL 2025 Highest-Paid Player 75+ Exclusive Interviews 300+ Published Articles 4.5M+ Readers India's First U-19 Cricket Book Narratives Built Across 3 Industries 8+ Years Engineering Stories That Hold 30+ Athletes Represented

What I Do Get In Touch

30+Athletes

4.5M+Readers

300+Articles

8+Years

8+ Years in Narrative

Who I Am

Ideas into Impact.
Stories into Strategy.

Started at 16, writing cricket when most people my age were figuring out what they wanted to do. By 17, was on Sportskeeda interviewing Olympic medalists and international cricketers. Picked up journalism, law, financial markets, and leadership along the way because understanding how systems work was the only way to understand how narratives move through them.

In 2021, founded Square The One, a boutique athlete representation agency built on conviction, not celebrity. Signed and managed over 30 domestic cricketers. 9 reached the IPL. 2 played for India. One became the highest-paid uncapped player in IPL 2024. Another went from unsold to the highest-paid player in WPL 2025.

Today the work is different but the thinking is the same. I work with brands, companies, public figures, and politicians on narrative and strategy. Most of it happens under strict NDA. That's not a disclaimer. That's the job.

Milestones

Growth in Motion

"From the first article at 16 to the boardrooms of 2026, one thing has never changed. The obsession with story. What resonates, what doesn't, how media moves, and why people believe what they believe."

The Writer at 16

Started writing for CricTracker in December 2017 at the age of 16. Not for virality, but to tell the stories nobody else was telling. The obsession with narrative started here.

2017

2018

Sportskeeda: 135 Articles, 75+ Interviews

Joined Sportskeeda as Analyst, rising to Featured Writer. Published 135+ articles and conducted 75+ exclusive interviews with Olympic medalists and international cricketers including Viktor Axelsen, Bajrang Punia, and Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Independent Player Management

Represented three domestic cricketers independently. Secured endorsements, grew one player's social media 120x, and supported an IPL entry that led to multiple commercial deals.

2019

2021

Making of the Champions

Authored and published India's first dedicated U-19 cricket book. A landmark that put the spotlight on the next generation of Indian cricket before anyone else did.

Square The One

Founded a boutique athlete representation agency built on conviction, not celebrity. Over 4 years: 30+ cricketers managed, 9 reached the IPL, 2 played for India. One became the highest-paid uncapped player in IPL 2024. Another went from unsold to the highest-paid player in WPL 2025.

2021–25

$Independent work, 2025$

2025

Independent. High-Stakes.

High-stakes Narrative Engineering and Strategic Advisory for brands, companies, public figures and politicians. The medium has changed. The obsession with getting the story right has not.

What I Do

Built for Long-Term Resonance.

I work with a very small number of clients at any given time. Because getting the story right demands full presence, not a retainer and a junior team.

Narrative Engineering

The deliberate, methodical construction of a story designed to guide public perception toward a pre-determined outcome. Built on psychology, data, media dynamics, audience behaviour, pattern recognition, and cultural intelligence. Not PR. Not reputation management.

Brands, public figures, politicians

Strategic Advisory

High-trust counsel for moments that define trajectories. I work with a small number of clients on positioning, long-term direction, and the reasoning behind decisions that play out in public. Private thinking for public outcomes.

Companies and founders

Public Engagements

Conversations about narrative, sport, strategy, entrepreneurship, media, law, finance, and philosophy, drawn from 8 years of being in rooms most people don't get access to.

Keynotes and panels

Not PR. Something Deeper.

PR manages what people hear.
Narrative Engineering determines what they believe.

I build narrative environments. Every company, every institution, every individual operates inside a story that the world has already formed about them. That story either serves them or it doesn't. When it doesn't, when the story being told about something is structurally different from the reality of that thing, I fix that gap.

Feature	Public Relations	Narrative Engineering
Objective	Manage reputation and secure positive media coverage	Guide public perception toward a pre-determined outcome
Stance	Primarily reactive to events and the news cycle	Proactive, structural, and deeply methodical
Tools	Press releases, media relations, crisis management	Psychology, data science, behavioural dynamics, cultural intelligence
Scope	Explains what happened and why the entity is good	Dictates how the audience filters and interprets reality
Measurement	Media mentions, impressions, sentiment scores	Long-term belief shift and behavioural change
Time Horizon	Short to medium term, campaign-based	Long-term, systemic, compounds over time

Surface vs Structure

PR works on the surface. Narrative Engineering works underneath it.

Building the framework through which your audience filters everything they see, hear, and conclude about you.

Reactive vs Pre-determined

PR responds to the news cycle. Narrative Engineering sets the context before it happens.

The story is already in motion before anyone realises there is one.

Visibility vs Belief

PR gets you seen. Narrative Engineering determines what people conclude on their own.

Without being told. Without a campaign. Because the narrative is already part of how they think.

The Colgate Principle

"Nobody asks for toothpaste.
They ask for Colgate."

That didn't happen by accident. It happened because over decades, Colgate didn't just market a product. They built a narrative so deep into culture that their name became the category. Generation after generation, the story compounded. Today no competitor can undo it with a better product or a bigger campaign. The narrative is the moat.

That is what Narrative Engineering does. Not for toothpaste. For the people and organisations where the story is the most important asset they own.

"The most powerful narratives are the ones people never realise they've accepted."

Work With Me

Let's Build Something
That Holds.

"The gap between two statements contains as much information as the statements themselves."

I take on a very limited number of engagements at any given time. If you're serious about what you're building or protecting, I'd like to hear about it.

or reach directly

team@shivdhawan.com