Table Of ContentTitle: Don’t Shut Up - How To Talk So The World Listens
Author: Prakhar Gupta, Mudit Yadav
Self-Published by
PG Expression LLP
Printed by
Thomson Press (India) Limited
18/35 Delhi-Mathura Road,
Faridabad 121007, Haryana.
Edited by Nishant Mulay and Alex Horn.
Book design by Asim Sayed
Cover design by Asim Sayed and Jai Gurnasinghani
Typesetting by Jai Gurnasighani in Inter and Crimson
Cover photography by Arush Dua
Copyright @Prakhar Gupta & Mudit Yadav 2022
ISBN - 978-93-5659-283-4
Dedicated to my audience- Sher Gang
- Prakhar Gupta
Dedicated to family, friends, and mentors who encouraged my voice
- Mudit Yadav
PREFACE
When was the last time you read a book or consumed content that was
impressive, or brilliant at best, but left you thinking how you can use it?
There is value in producing and consuming such content - wisdom is not a
servant of application. For this book, our goal was different. We wanted to
create a toolkit that you default to when you face a problem, rather than
hunt for a problem once you have the tool. Your success is proportional to
your ability to manage the world and get what you need while building
sustainable relationships. Communication in its various forms is the
technology that allows you to do this. We set out to create our version of a
handbook or a dictionary of communication related situations and how we
would solve them. This is a simple and directly applicable toolkit for a
communication-related situation you might have Tuesday morning for a
presentation, or Friday evening on a date.
This book is a compilation of strategies and principles by two authors who
have led surprisingly different lives and had very different experiences.
Prakhar studied psychology and economics at Columbia University in the
City of New York. He is the host of Prakhar ke Pravachan and PG Radio
podcast, with a following of close to half a million people across all social
media. Mudit is a Chartered Accountant and CFA Charterholder who
started his career with strategy consulting. He transitioned to executive
coaching and works with leaders across the world on their influence,
communication, and presence. This uncanny combination of people coming
together to work on any project, let alone write a book, seems antithetical.
Apparently, that’s why it works. Both of us, despite coming from different
backgrounds, found a common calling in our experiments with
communication.
Prakhar’s experiments ranged from finding a voice in a top college in a
different continent, making friends from different nations, and growing his
social media influence to a many million views in less than two years.
Mudit’s experiments are with senior corporate leaders who need to present
to thousands of shareholders in the next general meeting, executives who
are interviewing for million dollar package jobs, and political leaders who
need to rely on their voice to create impact. It is also for this reason that you
will find distinct writing styles and diverse examples between chapters.
In preparation for this book, we worked backward from what YOU need.
What do you need with friends, dates, college, work, and life? What causes
you to hold your voice in these situations and shut up? We magnified your
life one conversation at a time, and discovered 23 situations which have the
potential to impact your life and happiness. These 23 situations became the
chapters for this book. We split these chapters between ourselves with
Prakhar leading the section on ‘Studenthood to Adulthood’ and Mudit on
‘The Grownup Zone’.
We don’t want this book to live in fancy libraries or downtown bookstores.
We want this book to find home in your backpack. It is hardcover by
intention, because it is meant to last you through adulthood. How to use this
book? The instructions are simple. Read the chapter you need, prepare for
that conversation and when the time comes, don’t shut up.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: STUDENTHOOD TO ADULTHOOD
1. “We went to school together”
How to make friends in college. (And keep them)
2. “Hey, are you free tonight?”
How To Ask Someone Out On a Date
3. “So… What’s your favourite colour?
What To Talk About On The First Date
4. “Where’s the dance floor?”
How to Have Fun at Parties (Without Drinking)
5. “That’s a nice sweater”
Striking up a Conversation with a Complete Stranger
6. “Yikes!”
How to be Confident in Nervous Situations
7. Duck Duck Go
How to Turn Around Embarrassing Moments
8. Balm for butt-hurts
How to Respond to an Insult
9. “But dad!!”
How to Have Tough Conversation with Parents
10. “No.”
How to Say No
11. “I’m sorry”
How to Apologise
12. “It’s over”
How to Break Up
13. Enter the grownups zone
How to Convey Disagreement
PART II : THE GROWN UP ZONE
14. It’s a new job!
How to Build Your Personal Brand at the Workplace?
15. “Your highness...”
How to Talk to Powerful People?
16. “I’d like to say..”
How to Present an Argument?
17. “Sell me this pen”
How to nail that interview?
18. Zesty Cold
How to write an impactful cold email?
19. “And what do you do?”
How to network at networking events?
20. “Good morning team”
How to lead better meetings?
21. “Once upon a time”
How to tell better stories?
22. “Check 1, 2, 3,..”
How to deliver a compelling speech?
23. Elephant in the room
How to have a critical conversation?
PART I:
STUDENTHOOD TO
ADULTHOOD
