đ¤ŞWhatâs Been Up Lately:
Hello guys, hope all my peeps are doing well âĽ
Everythingâs good and slow lately. Itâs summer and I am at home but towards the end of my vacation I have a very exciting travel plan on which I will write a whole newsletter issue. Recently, I found this app/website called Habitica and I have become obsessed with it. What it does is - It has you add the habits youâre trying to build and the tasks you want to do on a regular basis and then gamifies them for you. What it means is that if I, for example, stick to my goal of learning Python, tick mark it every single day, I earn coins and gems from which I can buy pets and equipment for my character - much like a game yk. It has had a pretty interesting effect on me. Every morning, I wake up and see my dailies and I am like, âGotta do them to avoid losing heath lol.â
If you like games and are trying to build a habit, I highly recommend that you check it out đ
đ¤Food for Thought:
My Journey of Public Speaking
So, today, I want to discuss how I went from having a dry mouth while speaking in front of an audience to being the only person in a room full of hundreds of people to raise a hand and accept the invitation to come on stage.
I remember my first stage fright - As usual, a ritual had in Aditya Birla Public School, all the students of a class had to come up and take over the âNewsâThought of the DayâNew WordâArticleâ etc. I had been given the task of speaking news and here I was an 8th-grader, a complete novice to the jitters of public speaking and stammered a couple of times while speaking in front of the audience (or as we called it - assembly). As soon as I saw the mic, my mouth went dry (my throat too) and as my heart pounded at god knows what beats per second, I somehow finished my short-lived gig.
I remember I felt so bad about this incident that I went to the class teacher that time and told her about this. She said it happens to everyone and that I should practice speaking. And guess what I did? I made it a point that whenever our English teacher asked anyone in the class to come and speak on a topic to kill some time, I would be the one raising my hand. I got so notorious for this that as an invitation would come, the whole class would shout, âAnamika! Anamika! Anamika!â (because they all just wanted someone to speak up and pass the time so that no studying take place)
And then what happened was a cascading effect. I started developing the confidence to speak in front of the public. Even today when I have to give any of my management presentations, I make it a point to ditch the script, memorize the keywords I want to say and just say whatever I can. I am not saying - I am the best public speaker out there. I definitely do feel nervous before my speech but that subsides as I start speaking (my college friends know this very well)
If you want to get started on public speaking, here is what I recommend -
Think that everyone in front of you is entirely stupid. Yes, this is what I tell myself. Even if there are renowned judges sitting in front, I reassure myself that they do not know this topic better than I do (even if they do, I try to be delusional)
When listening to a song (or best - a live song), stand up, get an AC remote, bring it in front of your lips and mouth the lyrics as if you are performing in front of tens of thousands of people. Pace up and down. Let the space between you and the walls be where your thousands of tiny audience sit. Try to live the experience of being this singer, being in front of so many people and singing and dancing anyway (this has worked like magic to increase my confidence, especially them rap songs)
Understand that the nervousness that you might be feeling before the performance is just excitement to share your idea. Change the narrative inside your head - fake it till you make it (just what my lil sis says)
Have a pre-performance ritual like taking 5 deep breaths repeating a few words or pacing to beat your heightened heartbeat. How does it help? More of it here.
đ¤§An Interesting Interaction:
Professor at IIM Bangalore
For those of you who donât know a couple of weeks ago, I started interning with a professor at IIM Bangalore for a research project. Though the work is kind of complicated and messy, sir has been very kind and supportive of us. We had an hour-long chat with him about life and here is what he said -
Good communication skills are rare and very important (Note: one thing that I have been inculcating is the practice of a top-down framework)
Always play according to your strengths. Do not unnecessarily dive into things youâre poor at. Go where things flow to you.
My mother always said a chant which translates to English as - if you fail today, that means youâre going to succeed next.
Math and Quant are not the only things in this world - read, read and read. Build your knowledge.
You get good at, what youâre good at.
Just because some people are able to calculate huge numbers in their heads is the reason why they are sitting in my class. I donât find most people fit to be a good manager. But this is how Indian Education System is. It has created a rat race. Abroad, you would also find a dance teacher in an MBA class but here it is very rare. (He also continued to talk down upon IITians but itâs best not to mention it here đ )
Do not worry. Never stay sad. Things always work out. Remember - Amitabh Bachchan was rejected so many times on the grounds of ânot having a voice for the stage.â But today look where he is - every ad has his voice on it.
Lastly, you never know where you might go next. One of my juniors is now at HBS (Harvard Business School) but this is something not most people would have predicted out of her :)
đšVideo of the Week:
How to Validate Yourself - Anna Akana
Ah, again a therapy video? Yes. I want my readers to be emotionally intelligent (ever read my Ana Thinks banner carefully?) and hence another video. This time on a topic called, âInternal Validationâ. I am not lying when I say that this video has been so relatable and eye-opening for me. It tells how you can validate yourself and your feelings in times of distress and turbulence. I believe this concept would largely apply to people who struggle because they seek external validation (aka a people pleaser).
Here are the key pointers:
Whenever we experience something very alarming or stressful, our first response is to spam the girlâs (or boyâs group chat), get their opinions and derive a consensus about how we should feel based on the collective data of their takes. But this act kills one of the very important elements of being YOU and that is your inner guidance.
In situations like these -
Ask yourself - How do you feel and what do you need? Say it out loud in the room.
Validate your feelings by saying - âThese feelings are so valid, XYZ can be so hard but I am proud you are out here trying.â
Cry if you want to (or schedule it for later haha)
Remember -
Not everyone is going to like you and that's okay. If you want to vent it out to a friend that is totally fine too.
But having this self-inner talk is the first defence to help you process your feelings.
You can't rely on others to make you feel good. When you do you allow them to dictate your worth which means you don't trust your own thoughts, feelings and judgement.
You also outsource your own inner guidance at the expense of your self-esteem.
Itâs normal to want validation from others and ask for help when you need it but external validation should be an addition to your strong inner foundation and not in place of it. Otherwise, you surrender yourself to the whims of the opinions of others.
(Tbh, this has happened to me - I tried venting it out to a friend but ended up feeling even worse. In this case, what you can do is - Think of yourself as a child (open up a childhood photo of you if you need to) and then validate yourself like you would validate this child.)
đArticle of the Week:
IKEAâs Leap Forward with Data and AI by Jiwon Woo
Before becoming the largest furniture retailer in the world, Ingvar Kamprad started IKEA as a mail-order sales business in Sweden in 1943. IKEA is now a global conglomerate or a multi-industry and multi-sector business organization. The success of this organization can be attributed to specific business strategies and tactics that revolve around offering well-designed and functional products at affordable prices.
IKEA Utilizing Data + AI:
1. Decision Making:
The first step IKEA made was to radically improve its ability to get high-quality quantitative information to understand how its ârecommendationâ solutions affected personalization. IKEA did this through high-volume A/B testing on customer behaviour and after initial experimentation.
2. Data for Personalization:
The qualitative data helps IKEA to understand that when a customer buys a piece of furniture, for example, a sofa, the customer is bound to make other changes â the domino effect, to ensure the matching of the couch with the room, like lamps, curtains, and pillow covers.
3. Smarter Demand Forecasting:
IKEA created an innovative Demand Sensing, an AI-based tool that optimizes stock levels to ensure the consistency of shopping experiences for its customers. To create projections and predict future demand more intelligently and effectively, the tool leverages up to 200 data sources for each product.
4. AR and VR for Visualization:
IKEA Kreativ uses virtual and mixed-reality room design technology to let customers use the app to scan and design their space and bring products into their homes. Once the customer is happy with the design, they can add everything to their online cart and check out. Or, they can save everything to a shopping list and go to the store for pickup. IKEA Kreativ brings machine learning and 3D technology into something that is immediately applicable and helpful for customers.
Source: Digital Innovation and Transformation - HBS MBA Students Perspective
đŞŹQuote of the Week:
đŽAffirmation of the Week:
đ¨Art of the Week:
đ¨Comic of the Week:
Artist: Sarah Anderson
Thatâs it for this week guys. This was again a long writing for me. Tell me how you liked it or if any of the things I mentioned resonated with you. Take care âĽ
Ciao~