220: Protect Your Flame with Michael Karsouny + Adventure Meditation!

Hi, this is Charles Michael Davis. Toyotathon is on, so stop by your local Toyota dealer for incredible year end deals on the cars, trucks and SUVs known for their legendary reliability like the stylish and efficient Camry, the Ready for anything RAV4 or check out a rough and rugged Tacoma or Tundra, all with great financing and lease options available to qualified customers. Visit buyatoyota.com to find out more. Toyota let's go places.

What's next? This is a question we're all having to ask and answer more frequently. I'm Jenny Blake, your host of the Pivot Podcast and author of Pivot. The only move that matters is your next one.

For show notes from this episode, visit pivotmethod.com podcast if Change is the only constant, then let's get better at it. Here we go.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm excited to bring you another installment of the Jenny and Michael Show. We recorded this at the same time as the We're Bored episode and the follow up, We've Gone Overboard. Those are episodes 217 and 218. Listen at your own risk. As we said, we debated calling those Infinitely Boring and Do Not Click or the Household Rambling. But if you happen to like it, this one is very interesting. And I decided to hit publish as well, because in the first half, the first 20 minutes or so, we do talk about the usual random stuff. Although Michael shared a really insightful message from one of his professors about how to protect your flame, your creative spark. Each of us riff on how we protect our flame, and then Michael takes us into this surprise meditation around minute 2122 that just neither of us saw coming. It's the first time he's facilitated anything like that. And if you're used to guided meditations, they're usually so sonorous and soothing. And Michael is this epic adventure guide leader. So if you want to listen to the second half, when you can actually pause, close your eyes and go through it, I found it to be very interesting. He'll ask me at the very end what came up for me, and I encourage you to hit pause and make sure you record your own visualizations before you hear me say mine, because I have a feeling that like a dream, it will be easy to slip out of your mind if you hear something that would influence it too soon. Last note. I start this episode talking about one of my favorite bands of all time, Naqo and Medicine for the People. There's not really a clean intro because we recorded just this four hour binge Recording session. All on the same day. We recorded these back on Saturday, May 9th. So the NACO album is already out. It's called Take youe Power Back. I am absolutely obsessed. If you're not familiar with this band, go listen to their albums right now and just prepare. I hope to be overjoyed and delighted. One of my favorite songs is from their Dark As Night album, and it centers around the lyric, I believe in the good things coming. I hope you enjoyed this conversation. Have fun with the meditation. And we both can't wait to hear what you think. Now onto today's show.

Knock on medicine for the people I Adore. And that was Shout out to Ari, who introduced me to them. I went to their concert in Bali in 2015, and I'm obsessed. I've listened to their songs more than any other artist. Yeah, he has an album coming out, so I was seeing where he was interviewed, and one of the places was Danica's show. So I followed the rabbit hole just as you do. You learn so much about these people that you wouldn't otherwise, particularly the hosts. The guests are sometimes kind of on a script, especially the less creative questions. It's tempting when you interview an author to just ask about what's in the book, but that's kind of fossilized knowledge frozen in time. And it's not always what's fresh? What's here now?

All right.

Yeah.

So ask me, then, a question that's compelling, that one would ask in a.

Dialogue, or what has surprised you since the book came out.

Love it.

Like, what's not in the book? What's missing from the book? What do you wish you had included in the book? What do you think you got wrong? Those would be fresh.

What do you think you got wrong?

Yeah. What's here fresh. What's fresh for you right now? Although I'm learning from Steven Shapiro, who's also gonna be on podcast, if not already Invisible Solutions, this is his book that you probably don't want to ask questions about the negative.

Right? But that's such a good question. What did you get wrong? That. That. Just ask me that, you know. Yeah, yeah, that's what I want to. That's what I want to riff about. What did I get wrong?

What did you get wrong about your life of a Lebanese artist? Because that was. We talked about it on the podcast.

You know, I didn't. I didn't sit and think about that.

Yeah, well, I'm asking you now. See how fresh it is. You don't have a canned response. It's Good.

But one would assume. One would assume that people, you know, kind of revisit. Revisit some things. But it's funny, I haven't. I haven't revisited life of Lebanese artist at all. What did I get wrong? What did I get wrong?

Wow.

I think I stopped early for that one, so I didn't give myself enough leeway to really hit a groove. So.

I've gone everywhere with my writing. I've gone everywhere with the different style of post that I posted. I was doing a lot of experimental gif work along with text, and. And now I would make it maybe a little bit more concise. Although, again, like this podcast.

I'm just going to pause you, though.

What?

Because I think you said it. You didn't give it long enough.

Yes, yes.

And then you got into the technical, which is more comfortable to talk about than why you didn't stick with it from a psychological standpoint.

I don't know if it's. That's the thing. I don't know if it's a psychological or. It was more of a dipping my toe into this medium, seeing what it is and boomeranging it. And I do that a lot with all of my work. And what I like about it is that, you know, three, four years down the line, I stumble upon this medium again, and I'm in different place, and I use it in a better way. And it's like revisiting going back in time, but you're a completely different person.

But I digress. But that's. That's what I do all the time. I don't know if it's wrong or not, but that's how I view the evolution of my artwork. And I really like that in it.

But I still haven't answered the question of what I've done wrong with it.

Well, I agree with your assessment.

I know what I've done wrong. There it is.

Tell us.

Okay.

I wish. I wish. I wish.

It wasn't on Instagram.

Why?

Because I. I really like the idea of. Of. Of writing, of gifing, of trying all these things. But posting it on there got me into this. This. This side rabbit hole of. Of marketing and hashtags, and that really dragged me down and, and users and. And I shouldn't have done that. And the thing is, there has to be a place where one can publish things maybe like medium.com.

That doesn't have that much engagement and that doesn't have that many tools and metrics and meta stuff to promote the work. And I started promoting it very early in parallel while experimenting. And I think that was a huge mistake. I learned a lot.

Don't get me wrong. Yes. Sometimes it was motivating for you. Like you learned exactly what times to hit publish. Absolutely. That motivated you, got like your butt in the chair and you'd create the memes. But then I also saw how every day you'd be disappointed by the numbers and that that was draining. And you'd feel like you even took down memes that didn't instantly get enough likes, for instance. Yeah.

Or not even disappointed by the numbers, but more curious about the numbers.

You were, though. I'm just telling you from the outside.

Yeah, maybe. No, no, I was. But no, maybe not. Not. Probably not only disappointed.

Mainly what it was, was distracted by the numbers.

Yeah. Yeah. Both disappointed and distracted.

Sure. But disappointed and ecstatic sometimes.

But, but every now and then. But on the whole, once you started looking at the numbers, you were more down than not about the numbers.

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah. And I kept telling you, ignore the numbers.

You can't, you can't, you can't, you can't.

I don't know. I think you can, you can spread out the frequency that you check the numbers. So you are checking daily.

I can't.

If not per meme. But I'm saying, like with the podcast, I check in maybe once a month.

Yeah, because you've been doing it for.

Five years, so there's still people that check every episode. Someone would look at every episode stats.

Okay, I, I, that's, that's the thing again, I do not want to. I want to be in a place where I don't even know about the numbers. I can't see the numbers.

I agree.

I don't want to handle anything about that. And I just want to go, man. I just want to go and create and write and have these ideas and have fun and that's it.

Absolutely.

Yeah. It's like when you write a book, you publish it, you know, after three years of doing the thing, and then you get the feedback and then you understand, or then you do the publishing on, on the side. I don't know how you did that.

No, that's true. I mean, with a book. Yeah. And that's a big risk, but it's also a riskier way to create because you're not getting any feedback unless you have beta readers. That's just early readers. I agree. It'd be impossible to write it because there would be people who you have to send it to, key readers that you most respect.

Yes, yes. That's it.

But if you open it up too early, everyone will have a different opinion and you'll be frozen. You can't hear yourself.

You know, one thing I liked about doing the master, doing my master's in SVA is that you used to have a lot of people visiting your studio and giving you feedback. And so you'd get maybe two to five to 10 studio visits a week. And that was great because you would realize that if you listened to any of these guys, you'd go crazy. You'd destroy your work completely because there's so many opinions out there. The only thing you can do is have it be constructive and then take whatever they're saying with a grain of salt, realize that they're coming at it from a completely different perspective and move on.

Isn't it interesting that one by one their feedback can be helpful and thought provoking?

Yes.

And, and yet on the whole, the takeaway is if I listened to all these studio visits, I wouldn't have my own voice, wouldn't do anything. So it's very funny that it could be both at the same time. Helpful, diluted. And then you're writing or creating something to please the maximum number of people, which isn't always a good thing. You actually want half the people to hate your work and then the other half to love it.

Yeah. Especially when you come into. Come into the field, when you're fresh in a field, so you don't really know, like, you don't really have an opinion of your own. That was, for me, the contemporary art world in New York. It's like, okay, I've been painting for a while. I'm very, I'm fairly technical. I've done, I've had a few shows under my belt. But, oh, maybe it doesn't work with the contemporary art world. This isn't contemporary art. This isn't my niche, this isn't where I belong. But I want to discover it more. So you start hanging on to other people's feedback way more. And for me, it affected my work in the beginning in a. I don't want to say in a bad way, but it's. And I was open to surrender my work completely, actually. So it helped me build, but on the long run, not directly.

I also think you're speaking to. If you create work to get to land a gallery or an author writes a book to get an agent or to get a publisher, it's not going to work.

You can't do that.

You can't do that. You cannot create to Please anyone other than your calling around this work.

Yeah.

And that's why I think trying to get an agent or a publisher too early for a book is also a mistake because especially if it's your first one, you kind of have to write and know where you stand and know what you really believe in. And with Life After College, so many people said this is not gonna work. It's too general. Young people don't buy books, you don't have a hook, any number of things. And then it's done well enough. It springboarded my entire career, got me years of keynote speeches. And then there's even more successful books now called Life After College. That's probably done better than mine. And there were many before me too.

It has the trail and only your own trail.

Yeah. And I knew I wasn't gonna change the format. So if the publisher didn't like it, then it's not the book for them. But I wasn't gon change it. And I think it is helpful. It's good to be flexible, but it's also good to get to that point where you're so clear.

Yeah.

In your direction. And this is what I can create. And this and only this.

Yeah. One one main 80, 21 main lesson that I, that I, that I took, that's been helping me so much. But I learned that back in 2006 from Professor Karim Nader. Protect your flame. That's what you need to do. You need to know, you need to find that little flame in you and you need to. To build around it and barricade it in the beginning so then you can have a forest fire without having to.

Love that that comes without harming nature. That's so nice.

But really, really like, you have to protect your flame. You have to go inward. You have to keep feeding it. And to add to that as a complementary, you can't have people that are energy suckers and toxic people around you just suck you dry. Take away that energy, Take away that flame. So also be aware. Be aware of that.

Yeah.

Be aware of who you let in.

Oh, my gosh. We saw the funniest show about vampires. And there's all the traditional Dracula style fang teeth vampires. And then there was one guy in the show. It's Comedy Central. What we do in the who is an energy vampire? Remember the one that's an energy vampire. And he would just come into a room, be like, hey, guys.

And he really drained everyone's energy. He was really funny. But I love what you just said about protect your flame.

That's, that's beautiful.

Yeah.

And it goes back to the fire metaphor. And I think we're going to call this episode Protect yout Flame. That's like a book, even though you didn't make it up, but still.

Yeah, I even wrote about it in my thesis.

How do you, Michael, protect your flame?

Well, I like to take a lot of time for myself and.

Yeah, I like to take a lot of time for myself. I like to isolate myself, be a hermit and give myself enough time to have a real opinion, if that makes sense. I love that, you know, not echo what other people said or use things I've read and claim it as mine. You know, really needs to be ingrained, my foundation, what I believe, who I am and really what I'm doing and feel it. And I think the best indicator of if that's working is you're productive. You're productive how? I mean, you can put your hand, your paintbrush on a canvas and it would work all by itself because you just, you paint what you know and these things just happen in real time. And you don't have to go open a copy book or a sketchbook to copy what, what you've discovered because it's become part of yourself. And I try to do that all the time now.

I love that. Yeah, I second being a hermit.

And I also try to minimize phone time. I feel that our phones are this 247 tether to everything. The Internet, email, text messages, notices, apps, browsing. And for me, that's really dangerous. As rewarding as any one activity could be, they all add up to this flame diminishment for me because I'm not just quiet or reading or contemplating. And if I'm not doing those things, what do I. I'm. That's what I live for, is what you said. I like reading, even if it's the newspaper or a magazine or a book. And then synthesizing information and looking for patterns and, and then the luxury is when I then have an opinion that's actually different or an original idea, knowing that not much is original, but as original for the time that we're in from the perspective I can offer, that's what I live for. And I simply will not have the space and the journey to create that. If I'm constantly ping ponging my attention.

Into my phone, you to add to that is, let's say you're on Instagram or on Twitter. Wherever you are, you curate. Right. You need to unfollow so many people. Trust me. I. I used to follow 3,000 people on Instagram, and now I'm down to 100. I'm like, you know what? Why am I doing this? Why am I peering into other people's worlds that I'm not interested in?

Right.

Or I don't approve of, or I. That don't challenge me, or that's just. I don't want to. I don't want to see any. Any picture. I don't want to see any content that I know is going to be dull.

No, no, I get it. Dull for me.

I get it. I totally get it.

And. And to add. To add another thing about how do you protect your flame and develop it? Surround yourself with a handful of people or people in general that you trust, and if you can't find a friend, do it with a shrink. You know, like, create. Create a safe space.

Where you can be you and where that space is sacred for you and a space that can't be hijacked. You know, preferably maybe someone who isn't in your field that you don't work with. That's why they probably say friends. And you can't. You can't mix friends, work in family, or work and friends together. Not always, but it's a tough thing to do.

Right. Because then the relationship merges into a hybrid thing.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think for me, protecting my flame also has to do with am I able to get quiet enough to hear my intuition? Because I know that the times I'm confused or overwhelmed, I'm actually just not listening to that voice. The voice within or the voice of the universe, however you want to call it.

You gotta be able to recognize it.

Yeah, recognize it. Tune into it. I actually think that for me, I can tune into the cosmic collective consciousness and ask for information and then receive it, even if it's what podcast to create, what episode to create. I believe the answer is always within me. It's always there. I just need to have the awareness to slow down, get quiet, and ask. And if I'm not doing that, and I'm just sitting around saying, I'm confused. I don't know what to create. I'm bored. I don't know what to create. I just did the episode called I Don't Know, and I asked people to take the listener survey, and I talked about, what do I do when I don't know. Well, that listener survey has been amazing. I'm so thankful for everyone who's filled it out because it gives me some new clues. And I also know that if I really want to channel my next direction or my next work, that it's exactly that. I got to open the channel, got to turn the radio, tune the radio to a listening station that is available, but it's unseen. And it's really, you know, I listen to so many podcasts, but it's probably not going to come directly through that. Although I do think that synthesizing a vast array of information is something that I've always enjoyed and has always led to my next thing.

You know, it's very funny you say that because. So remember when we talked about feeling and method? I use data as ways to build my universe, right? And we all do. To build my universe, build my, my prism to, to the world. And then I use feeling to ask the questions that would get me to a solution. Solution is never ending, it's never final, always keeps moving. But I don't necessarily rely on quote, unquote problem. You know, just like sitting down, using your left brain. And if this, then that. And using systems to come up with my next thing. Because every time I do that.

It ends up not being that. Does that make sense?

I'm processing.

I'm going to give you an example. I'm going to give you an example. I read, let's say, a bunch of things about Carl Jung, okay? Depth psychology. And then I, in parallel, I look at rites of passage, let's say. And I've had in the past fascination for tarot and not divination, but more of tarot as a way to parallel my life or my perception through projecting onto these symbols. Anyways, so I trust the process of learning things that I. That I feel really compelled to learn, and then that the solution is just going to come out of nowhere. And remember when we walked into the Jung Institute, CG Jung Institute, and in New York, I went into this bookstore, very, you know, in Complete Synchronicity, and the first thing that I saw was a book about how tarot in a Jungian way, mimics male initiation. Remember that?

Yeah. Your dream.

Oh my God. It's as if you took my whole life back then and then synthesized it in an episode or like in a title. And that opened up like a whole world because it was so specific, but it was so real to who I was at the moment and who I am right now still. I'm delving into that world, but this is how I, I keep my flame going by not trying to over manage it.

Yes, well, yes, as per the Pondering Method episode.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That you specifically don't want. I love that you just said that and you just synthesize it really well, like by not over managing it. Yeah, that's a great addition to this conversation.

Yeah, yeah.

Of. Protect your flame. It's like nurture it, but don't manage it.

Yeah. Keep finding. Keep finding combustible.

Combustibles and keep. Keep throwing fuel on it.

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah.

All right, you're driving this one. I'm in the passenger seat because I'm tired.

Okay. I'm driving.

Yeah.

Okay.

Beirut style.

Okay, close your eyes. Everyone.

Imagine an empty space.

What color is the sky?

Is there a ceiling or an open space?

Are there limits to your space? Is it a tiny cocoon or is it a vast ocean?

You had me there for a minute.

I'm gonna keep going. All right, so.

Look around. Look down into your hands. Let's start with your right hand.

What are you holding?

Is it a tool?

Is it food?

Okay, what kind of tool are you holding? Or what kind of toy are you holding?

Now look at your left hand.

I'm actually doing this. That's why he's laughing at me.

Is it another toy or a continuation of the other toy that's in your ride?

Why are they toys?

Because it's a playground.

Mine was the toy because it's a playground.

Okay, now.

What happens now, Jenny?

Go with your intuition.

Now. Go into your intuition with your intuition. Not you.

Now.

Something appears in front of you or someone. What is it?

They're your companion on.

A quest that you're going to lead in this space. A journey.

Of creation.

What are you creating?

This is hilarious. What are you creating, Jenny? Right now.

Right now, Ryder and I are in a forest.

Oh, you went for it.

And we're creating a path forward.

Okay, well, you know what? Let me do this again.

What are you creating? Well, no, you were leaving.

No, I'm leaving.

You're creating.

So what? I was.

Countless visualizations.

What I was trying to do, I was trying to do is I was actually trying to walk through my meditation at the same time because I've. I don't know if I've ever led the meditation. So I need to think about systems again.

No, you're doing great. Oh, okay.

Okay, let's do it. Okay.

Okay.

All right, so I like that you.

Asked, what are you creating?

What are you. Really cool. What are you creating?

Suddenly, it's very drawing meditation.

A figure, ominous figure, comes out of nowhere.

It's making a.

Large sound, a loud sound, and it's telling you.

Something. What is it telling you?

It represents your fears.

And ominous characters of your unconscious.

And you're terrified. What is it saying to you?

Now? You reach into your pocket and you come up, come out with.

A huge tool.

And the tool is a megaphone, actually.

Magic megaphone that's gonna conquer your ominous, scary figure. What do you scream into the megaphone right now? Ego.

The ominous figure is taken aback by the power of your words, runs away, and then.

Leaves you with a treasure chest that's gonna help you build your space. It's the one missing piece. It's gonna help you build your space.

And create an Axis Mundi, turn it into a sacred space, gonna link you into the universe from that space.

What is it.

Now? You realize that you can float. You can start flying actually into that, into that space. You can go back in time and forward in time and you can be super big and super small.

Where do you go right now in that space to start building? Your first.

Think.

Why are you building this thing?

You feel a lot of joy in you. Swelling, swelling. Oh, my God, what am I doing? I'm building this world. And it's so fascinating, so exciting. And I have the tools and I create. I can create all the tools I want. And you see in front of you an army of these ominous creatures.

So you reach again into your pocket and you take out a mega megaphone. You know, it's like a. It's like a turret type megaphone that just launches words onto them. You've got the most powerful weapon ever.

And you know that once.

You send this big word to them, you're going to open up leagues and leagues of the space. Open up so much potential.

What word do you say?

What sentence do you say? What do you scream in that megaphone?

All of these creatures start leaving you. Treasures, treasures, treasures everywhere. And now you know that you've got so much potential everywhere.

I'm going to leave you to this meditation. I'm going to let you go from one treasure to the next and find series and series of tools that will help you build your universe. Even better, Take yourself through that.

Let's say you're going to go and visit three chests that remain. Let's do it quickly. Run to the first one. Open it. What do you find?

Now run to the second one.

Open it. What do you find?

Now run to the third. Open it. What do you find?

As you look around you, you realize that your sacred space that you're creating is starting to take shape. You have an idea in mind. You have an ethos.

What do you believe in? Where is the Space taking you. What is it going to create.

Right in front of your eyes? All of this potential is starting to develop.

And you can see five years into the future.

At a very rapid development where it's leading.

How is that space transforming?

Now one of your teammates.

Runs at you.

And calls you.

To help them with one of your goals, one of your missions. What is that mission?

As you run with him to get things done or tell him what to do, you're filled with joy and purpose. And you know that the most important thing on this earth you're here to do is.

You close your eyes again.

Super happy with where you're at, and.

Slowly but surely open your eyes and come back to reality. This was the first time that I lead someone.

To a vision, and I hope this helped. Did that help?

It was great. I have a whole world I created. You did? Really? Yeah.

My God. Can we discuss real quick?

I'm very impressed.

Come on. Yeah, tell me.

That was cool. You're such an adventurous facilitator.

I've never had a guided meditation that was. Had so much energy and surprises. You know what? This goes all the way back to that. Your sitcom. That's not a sitcom. It's an epic, rollicking Lord of the rings like, adventure.

Oh, my God.

Wow.

That was total larping.

That was cool. Oh, larping.

Live action role playing.

Wow, that's very nerdy. Yeah, cool.

Tell me. Tell me about your quest.

I continued on into the forest, but see, I don't want to. Sometimes I hesitate to share mine in case our dear listeners, I don't want to. It's like telling your dream too soon.

You know what?

Am I getting around?

How about we record it and maybe we can publish it later? Or maybe not publish it, but I would really like to listen what you have.

Well, I. I saw my role as creating a clearing through the forest. Rider was by my side.

Yeah.

The ominous being was a lion.

Oh, really?

Yeah. And to get this lion to. To. To let me pass, because there's a clearing, of course, where there's joy and ease.

Okay.

And that's what I'm creating, leading people toward. And then I said to the lion, settle. And my tool that I gave him was a piece of steak. So then I got him to just relax. Like we say to Ryder, settle. And he settled. And then we got to the clearing, and it's very peaceful there. It's like idyllic. An oasis in the chaos. And that the treasure chest one was a checklist.

Really?

Yeah. Treasure chest two was Money.

Okay.

And. And Treasure chest three was time. So that the tools that I was going to be gifted in such abundance was maybe I'm creating a checklist, but also there's money and time. So it was like this. These gifts. And there were lions. The ominous beings were lions surrounding the perimeter. And then I got them all to settle. So the lions, to me, represent society, sort of roaring at trying to do something differently. Because the first Mayan said, in a way, the message was, don't go. Don't take the obvious path. Turn left, veer off 90 degrees, and go somewhere different. And so my feeling at the end was that I want this thing that I'm creating to be a game changer. I feel that life after college and even Pivot is helpful, but I don't know if they're a game changer. We've talked about Tim's books. They're a game changer. So that's pretty much where I got. And then another talent, because you had us. It was so cool how much help we had and talents and things. When I was flying over the clearing, I had almost X ray glasses, so I could see the path before it happened. I could see where the beautiful vision and it reminds me kind of what I'm trying to create with momentum is this clearing, this oasis of small business with ease and joy and abundance. That seems so different from the path that it already exists for work and career and even business. And that's my prototype, I think.

Okay.

Yeah, Cool. That was mine.

I like it.

Thank you. All right.

All right. Dear listener, hope you had fun with this impromptu meditation. Guided meditation.

Send Michael a note and let him know what came up for you. Yeah, I think you'd like to see that.

I'd really. I really.

He may or may not respond. That's his style. That's true. But he will happily and with gratitude and appreciation and excitement.

That's true. Read it.

Read it and receive it.

Enjoy it.

Yeah.

Yeah. For sure. Cool.

Thank you.

Yeah. Checking out.

Thank you so much. Thanks, everybody, for being here. Happy adventuring. Thank you. Michael. What a great epic meditation.

Better meditations coming soon, and congrats on your first one. Thank you.

How cool.

I hope it worked out for you guys.

Yeah.

It wasn't too, like, all over the place or.

I hope so, too.

Yeah. All right.

Thank you. I love you.

I love you.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Pivot podcast. Make sure you don't miss an episode or my insider tips and templates by signing up for Pivot List a Curator twice monthly newsletter where I share the inside scoop on what I'm reading, watching, listening to and the latest tools I'm geeking out on. Sign up@pivotmethod.com pivotlist get show notes from this episode@pivotmethod.com podcast and connect with me on Twitter ennyblake.

Remember, build first, then your courage will follow. Hasn't it always sa.