Lilly is the personal trainer for the readers to convert them into BAWSES, a bawse is a person who excels in their professional and personal life with true determination, effort, and dedication. To be a Bawse is not an easy task as it seems to be. 

The book is divided into four sections each with specific lessons and rules. In the first section, there are 12 chapters through which Lilly guides the readers to master their mind. She teaches them to be less emotional, to not overthink every situation, teaches them to conquer their thoughts and to be secretive and not jabber around about their strengths and powers. My favorite saying from this chapter is “ Don’t just try to pass your classes; try to ace them. Don’t just aim to pay your bills; save enough to travel. I don’t want you to write a script just to see a movie made; I want you to win an Oscar. That’s the difference between settling like a survivor and conquering like a Bawse.” My confidence just boosts up reading this every time! After every section Lilly has a section called ‘Out of the Blue’ in which she narrates some of her personal feelings and experiences, the title of this out of the blue segment is the years about which she writes. The next section is about Hustling hard.

In this section, there are 17 chapters. The first chapter teaches one to commit to their decision no matter how many obstacles they might have to overcome for this, Lilly insists the readers be inspired because Inspiration is the fuel for one’s hustle. She also teaches them to aim high and have visions for their future, to set a plan towards their goal and to not take any shortcuts to success, try to be active and eliminate stress.

-By Lilly Singh

            A GUIDE TO SURVIVING  Conquering LIFE.

       

Lilly Saini Singh, an Indian born but raised completely in Canada, is an actress, comedian, host, motivational speaker and more importantly a Superwoman! Which is also the name of her popular YouTube channel which has more than 14 billion subscribers. Lilly struggled with depression at a young age and that’s when she started making YouTube videos – The beginning of a beautiful journey. Lilly has collaborated with many A-list celebrities like Selena Gomez, Dwayne Johnson, Madhuri Dixit, Priyanka Chopra, James Franco, Bill Gates, Zendaya, Rita Ora and many more. Lilly started her first World Tour back in 2015 “A Trip to Unicorn Island.” She has been presented with various awards like People’s Choice, Teen Choice, MTV Fandom and Steamy awards. Lilly has been listed among the 40 most powerful people in Comedy in 2019 and had ranked 1st on the Forbes list of top Influencers in Entertainment. In March 2019, NBC announced their new talk show “A Little Late with Lilly Singh” through which she became the first woman to host and executive produce an American Broadcast Network late-night talk show.

                    In 2017, Lilly published her first book How to be a Bawse, which became No 1 New York Times Best-Seller. This book is a guide to conquer life. My favorite quality about this book is how she guides us to success with her valuable lessons and experiences. It is not a book filled with fancy quotes and hopeful thoughts because there is no secret stairway to success, one has to put in all their hard work and dedication to achieve their goal just like Lilly herself. Lilly says that success, happiness and everything else that feels great in life has no escalators, there are only stairs which is the most real talk I have ever heard in my life.

How to be a good PR manager is written by Dr. C. V Narasimha Reddi, who is the editor at Public Relations Voice. He was also the Director in the Department of Information and Public Relations for the government of Andhra Pradesh. Dr. Reddi has held key executive and academic positions such as cultural affairs, academy of rural development, press secretary to four chief ministers, advisor, Osmania university academic consultant, Dr. B. R Ambedkar Open university academic facilitator. His first book on PR was “How to be a good pro” in 1974. He has written 16 books on media and public relations. Awards and accolades conferred on him are a testimony to his outstanding contribution to the field of public relations. He has divided the book into four parts. In the first part, he talks about Participative management. He says that management helps individuals working together in groups efficiently accomplish selected aims. According to him a manager must be willing to work hard, be perseverance, determined, be able to take risks, inspire enthusiasm, be tough, management and interpersonal skills and must have technical knowledge. He also talks about stakeholders include two facets: 

1. Industrial relations 

2. Public relations                                                                                                                         

In part two that is public relations practice, he defines: public relations is the management of a two-way communication process between an organization and its publics to promote the corporate’s mission, goals, services, products, reputation and earn public understanding. He says that PR in India is evolving and is worth Rs 10000 crore. The author talks about different ways of operation, job titles, and functions, misconceptions, expectations of managers in PR. The author gave us 10 takes that a manager must do:

1. They plan
2. They manage
3. They maintain relations
4. They organize
5. They write
6. They edit
7. They publish
8. They speak
9. They research
10. They train

He spoke about global PR, spin doctor, guidelines and the three stages of public relations in India such as:

1.The state of Propaganda

2. The era of publicity

3.The era of public relations

He also spoke about the ten commandments which are research, identification of problems, setting objectives, target audience, action plans, PR programme, media strategy, budgeting, communication, and evaluation. In part three which is eight attributes of a good PR manager, he talks about how essential good PR planning is for the success of PR practice. Good PR is highly dependent on skills, knowledge, and attitudes of individual PR practitioners and also talks about the barriers of good PR. The public relations communication has five facets which are talking and listening, reading and writing, body language or non-verbal communication. The four ‘As’ and ‘Ps’ are also very important the success of a PR manager is entirely dependent on this. A stand for analysis and P represents performance. The functions of a PR manager are four-fold. The Analyst, the Advisor, the Advocate, and the Antenna. He also gave us the four P’s which are as follows: personal characteristics, professional qualifications, professional skills, and psychological mind. He also gave us the four don’ts for a PR profession.

1. Don’t speak panacea for everything or every problem.
2. Do not indulge in a panegyric on your boss’s achievement.
3. Do not seek personal publicity for yourself.
4. Do not have a negative attitude.

He ended the third chapter with the ten golden guidelines for PR writing. He ends the book In the fourth part he talks about great PR professionals like Ivy Ledbetter Lee, John W. Will, Edward L. Bernays, Sanat Lahiri, Farrok S. Mulla, and Anil Basu.

Khadi, also known as Khaddar, is a handspun, hand-woven, natural fiber cloth that is made out of cotton. The term Khaddar is also used in Bangladesh and Pakistan. The cloth is usually woven from cotton and may also include silk or wool. Mahatma Gandhi started his movement for khadi because he thought of it as a way to increase employment in the non-agricultural sector. He wanted to make Indians understand that they could be self-reliant on cotton and avoid the high-priced foreign cloth. We are one of those countries that used fabric khadi to achieve freedom.

Origin:

Around 2800 B.C the Indus civilization had a well-developed tradition of textiles. Alexander the Great discovered printed and painted cotton. He introduced cotton to Asia and passed it on to Europe. Indian textiles were soon polished with natural dyes and broader prints. Every yarn of muslin has a thickness that is 1/10th of a strand of hair. Hence hand-woven Indian muslin was in great demand all over the world for its quality. There was a time when the emperor Aurangzeb’s daughter, Princess Zeb-un-Nisa, was admonished by her father for wearing a transparent dress. Much to everyone’s surprise, she was wearing seven layers of muslin. 

Back in 1918, the father of our nation Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi introduced the Swadeshi movement. He encouraged Indians to spin their yarn and wear khadi in order to demolish foreign goods. In 1925, the All India Spinners Association was established to promote the production and selling of khadi. Their main aim was to work hard to improve khadi production techniques and provide employment to Indians. 

India is one of the few countries in the world where this kind of hand-spinning and hand-weaving still exists. Since khadi is such a versatile fabric, we can easily incorporate the origin of dying khadi with vegetable dyes and transforming it by adding natural medicinal herbs like neem, tulsi, mint, Carmon, thyme, kola kolsa, etc. making khadi fabric with medical values.

SCoRe (school of communications and reputation), recently performed a writing lab workshop which was managed by Priyanca Vaishnav and Chaitanya Deshpande the cofounders of Content Conspiracy. It was a three-day program held on 23rd, 24th and 25th of October from 9.30 to 4.30 pm at the premises of SCoRe itself. The session included writing activities for us.

As dean Amith Prabhu quotes,” Writing and reading is essential for a PR professional’s life.”

This workshop helped us to have a better perception on content writing, how to write press releases, dossiers, pitch notes, background briefs, FAQs and emails. It also helped students perceive how to write better. On the first day Chaitanya taught us about Thakur’s thumb rule that can help the writers omit out unnecessary words. He also discussed how a book or a movie can be distinguished into Set Up, Conflict and Resolution for better understanding. On the second day conducted by Priyanca she carried out writing activities and guided us through different styles of writing. They also highlighted the correct way of citing references. On the third day we were given feedback on our writing skills which helped us understand which areas of writing required improvement. Students received tips and techniques for writing. The workshop was interactive and was successful in enhancing our skills for better business writing. We also understood the dos and don’ts in writing. We also gained a perspective on what kind of writer each individual was and gave us tips and tricks on how we can use writing styles and be a better writer.

Rashmi Naik works at IndiaSpend in the external communications and outreach department. She is a communication and public policy professional with over 15 years of experience. Recently she conducted a masterclass at SCoRe and I got to attend it. Her session was definitely what we needed after a day-long session talking about the PR faculty, how it works, about crisis management and the importance of communications. She entered the class with a positive vibe that just cheered up everyone’s energy. A refreshing session that everyone needed. She did not talk about the importance and paths of entering the world of Public Relations but how important it is to take care of yourself. She spoke about other things that are equally important along with our work life. Which are as follows: 

1. We must always invest early. Little of your salary has to go into something productive. 

2. There will be a time when you’ll get fed up with the same circle of work life. Take a step back and think if you want to continue and if not what you want to do. 

3. Never postpone your life decisions because of your work. 

4. Always push yourself one step further because why not?

5. Keep up with the latest technology. It will always be handy. Do not just depend on traditional methods.

6. Be curious and always ask as many questions as you wish.

7. Always know your sector well. Everything linked or connected to your sector, bodies related to your sector you should be aware of.

8. When planning for preparing tactics for your client or organisation always think about what will be good for your sector rather than for your client or organisation. Which can bring a change for the better even for the sector?

I had a great time and hope to connect with her in the future.

Gillette is owned by P&G –  a company that sells personal care products. Recently they created a campaign where they brought a story from rural India to shave gender stereotypes. This campaign was made by an agency called Grey India. In an extension to the global campaign “The Best A Man Can Be” Gillette India’s campaign is based on a true story of two barbershop girls Jyoti Narayan and Neha Narayan who have challenged gender stereotypes by running their father’s barbershop, basically adopting a profession associated with men from the village of Banwari Tola in Uttar Pradesh. The campaign is shown from an eight-year-old boy’s point of view through his inner thoughts about everything that happens around him, as he notices that women are restricted to household work only. A curious boy who starts comparing everything to his father’s wise words, “children always learn from what they see”. Until he walks into a barbershop with his father, where he is surprised to see two girls instead of a man ready to shave his father. While the boy is muddled at the sight, his father explains that a razor doesn’t know the difference between a boy and a girl. The video ends with the boy smiling and realizing that jobs do not have sex. This campaign has an inspiring message, Gillette shows that it supports gender equality because the boys of today are the men of tomorrow. Gillette as a progressive man’s brand believes in topics that are going to inspire the future generation of men. And with this campaign and a powerful message like #ShavingStereotypes, Gillette concluded that we need inspiring role models so that they grow up to be better men. The campaign has received over 16 million views in four months. These campaigns reveal how each brand portrays its message in their unique manner and to what extent they can use their creativity.

Back in 2014, the P&G brand Always launched a campaign with a powerful message for the pre- and post-puberty girls out there. Created by Leo Burnet with the help of famous female documentarian Lauren Greenfield, they designed the campaign and it currently has more than 67 million views on YouTube. Publicis Groupe’s MSL was the one that originally came up with the idea. ‘LIKE A GIRL’ also won the PR Grand Prix. I have presented this campaign in the form of a storytelling arch in order to understand the idea behind the campaign in a much better way. 

The beginning: The campaign is about a social experiment to show the impact the phrase #LikeAGirl had on society, especially on girls “pre-” and “post-puberty”. The video shows how people of all ages interpret the phrase ‘like a girl’.

Dilemma: The challenge was to build a meaningful understanding of confidence which would resonate with the next generation of consumers. Girls limit themselves. Society manipulates girls by telling them what they should or shouldn’t be.

The journey to resolve: A conversation was created in the video to encourage people to share their opinions regarding the phrase ‘like a girl’. Between puberty and adulthood, all the women internalized the phrase to mean weakness. But the younger girls symbolized ‘like a girl’ as being strong and confident. The experiment also showed how a little encouragement can go a long way in changing perceptions of what ‘like a girl’ means.

Impact: More than 67 million views on Youtube. Turned a phrase that was used as an insult into an empowering message. 

Lessons learned: #LikeAGirl means winning the race. With a majority of girls feeling that societal pressure to be perfect drives this fear of failure. But the truth is, failing is a good thing! It helps us learn, grow and ultimately build confidence. #LikeAGirl means Amazing things.

The worst feeling of when one wants to scream on top of their lungs and let it all out but is forced to shut the gates of emotions. All the frustration and sorrow have to be bottled up and made to throw deep into the ocean where no one could ever fish it. This clogging of emotions initially turns into the term known as depression. It is said that depression is like being colourblind and constantly told how colourful the world is. In a certain stage at depression, one becomes so paralysed that any sort of emotions whether fear or happiness is directly converted to the feeling of numbness. Depression feels like a person has fallen into a black hole and there is no way out. A place where one loses its ability to feel or care.
People always linger around with a particular perception about people who suicide that why didn’t he or she commit the deal of sacrificing their own life? Here understanding that every human being’s tolerance towards maintaining their emotional levels is very different from one another. The feeling of feeling nothing is quite terrifying to imagine, but perhaps for the victims even more daunting.
Asking for help is the key to escape the torturous trap of depression. Never allow oneself to think for once that there isn’t a way out and that there won’t be a sunny day even between thunder and storms. There are people especially for people suffering from the haunting nightmares that depression brings along waiting to help one and save one from losing oneself into the maze. It won’t be a short process like a walk in the park but within days positivity will be sprinkled in one’s life. One can see the storms passing and just between the dark clouds peeks a tiny ray of sunlight to bring back hope into one’s life. The purpose of life would be clear.

In Knight in Shining Suit, several breakdowns later, Astrid decides that she will put on a show for everyone to see. She’ll show them she is better now. And she is in love with a better man. She decided she will even pay a guy to pretend to be rich, successful and totally into her, even for just one night. At a new club, the night before the wedding when she almost gave up she met Ryder, who works as a bartender. Smoking hot and quite a charmer. Astrid thought he was the perfect man for the job. She hires him and at the wedding, everybody thought Astrid was really with a smoking hot guy who wears Armani suits daily, drives a luxurious McLaren, and is totally in love with her. She invented the perfect guy every girl would kill to date, and every ex-boyfriend would hate to be compared with. Her revenge plan was a great success until she finds out that the sweet bartender was not one and he was hiding his true identity. Ryder turns out to be Ryder Van Woodsen, a billionaire who runs chains of restaurants. Ryder falls in love with Astrid the first night itself and is persistent to have her. Astrid’s trust issues resist her from being with him but knowingly or unknowingly she can’t help but fall in love with him. There comes a point where they finally accept that they love each other and begin their journey together until Ryder ends up in a car accident and loses his memory of Astrid completely. During this time Astrid stays strong fights for her love, for her Ryder even though Ryder disses her thinking she is a gold digger. Finally, Ryder wakes up from his nightmare, runs back to his Astrid. If something is meant to be yours no matter what happens it will be yours. Astrid finds her knight in shining suit and finally has a wedding with her name on the invitation. Her wedding surpasses her dream wedding and the author has described it elegantly. True love always finds its way back we just have to be patient.