Right.

Um, but David, it never happened, as you know.

And my dad drowned that day.

And so it went from one of the best days of my life to the worst, just like that.

And now, um, I'm standing there, like next to my dad's body.

Like, what the heck just happened? You know, we were just in the water a few minutes ago, and now my dad is gone forever.

So fast-forward a few hours, now we're back in the condo.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.You know, we all kind of have this inner voice, kind of this critical inner voice, and you read about, uh, you know, some of these coaches that coach, like, these Olympic athletes, and they said, "Man, you know, the things that they have- I have to help them overcome is this, like, critical inner voice." Mm-hmm.

But where does that come from? It's like, well, you know, someone's inner voice, it comes from the words they hear from their children, like their parents' voice.

Mm.

Like, the things I speak to my children and the things they hear, like, that becomes their inner voice.

And so, um, it matters what I think about them, and it, and it matters that I love them, that I'm proud of them, and, and the things that I mat- that I'm proud of them for, um, and that I believe in them.

Mm-hmm.

Okay?

So I'd love it if you just kind of just run with, run with that for a minute.

I founded a legacy letter and we're on a mission to help a million people write at least one well-written, meaningful, lasting legacy letters.

Never in a million years could I have imagined that this was what I'd be doing, but man, this is what my calling is.

And, uh, So I was 19 years old.

I was a freshman up at the University of Arkansas.

And I got a call from my mom and she said, Blake, we're going to take a family vacation to Hawaii.

And I said, heck yeah, let's go.

have

So I'm excited to go through this, but I want to start with the story, that moment with your dad that kind of changed everything and think that's the best place to kind of start today.

For the last five years, I've been traveling the country, helping people write this legacy letter to their loved ones, and never in a million years did I think that I would be doing this.

But it goes back to what my dad did for me when I was 19 years old.

So we took a family vacation to Hawaii.

First day there, we decided to go snorkeling at a place called Hanama Bay.

My whole family's on the beach.

My dad and I look at each other and say, hey, like, what about me and you? Like, let's just you and I go out again to like, you know, just me and you snorkeling.

calling yeah

Mm-hmm

... "Okay, if anything looks bad, if anything's off, I could get docked for it.

It might be a reason to overlook the design." So it was just kinda me being, like, my own bully and being like, "That's not good enough." And then seeing the other competition out there and being like, "They're really good.

They have some solid ideas, so if I can't compete with that, that's gonna be a problem."

Mm-hmm.

Where as long as you have a good idea, and you have enough artistic ability to get that down on paper, and get other people to see what you have in your head, it can go pretty far.

'Cause one I always look back at is, oh, I cannot remember the name of it, but the elephant clown skin, where it's like a mascot.