However, disaster would strike for that group shortly because Payson looked over his shoulder to assess the damage that had been done to our group and in the process overlapped wheels with Jasper and both riders went down. Welcome back to the channel. This video is fueled by The Feed. Gravolokos is only in its third year, but it's already seemed to become the unofficial tune-up race for the Unbound 200, probably because it's in relatively close proximity to Kansas, the terrain is similar, and it's only 50 miles short of the Unbound distance, which is long enough that it's still a good test of endurance, arguably the most important factor for the Unbound 200, but it's still not so long that riders won't be able to recover in the two weeks between the two races. And this seems to be particularly true for the Europeans. For whatever reason, this race seems to bring a bigger international presence than any other gravel race in the US other than Unbound itself. This year brought the lights of defending Gravolokos winner Jasper Aucalon, defending Unbound winner Evar Slick, Laurence Tendam, Nicholas Roach, former quick-step rider Petter Vatcock, and others. North American talent at this race included former Unbound winner Ian Boswell, former US road national champion Alex Howes, Admiral Baerge, Payson McKelvin, Brennan Wurz, Ted King, etc. etc. Yeah, needless to say, in typical Gravolokos fashion, the race was absolutely stacked and would for sure make for a hard day on the bike. I've never heard of any of these guys. Are they even on Strava? This 157 mile course has just under 7,000 feet of climbing, so it's certainly on the flatter side, although there are plenty of rolling hills out there to contend with and the three worst climbs of the race come back to back around mile 50. Although they aren't very long, they are steep and the gravel is quite loose, making it a critical spot of the race. The other critical point comes just 13 miles from the finish and is the North Bost River Crossing. This river is normally so deep that it's not rideable, but this year the water was low enough to make it through and with it being so close to the finish, fireworks were flying at this point, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Before I get into the race breakdown, just a quick note on my bike setup for this race. As you may have noticed, I did not have arrow bars on my bike despite the fact that they are not against the rules for this race and it is a good course for them. So what gives Dylan? I thought you were Mr. Arrowbar. Well Unbound has had a rule change and arrow bars are no longer allowed for the pros for safety reasons, even though they're still allowed for amateurs for some reason. I know, it makes perfect sense. I think you may have misinterpreted the rule there. You see, it's not for the physical safety of the pros, but rather for the safety of their fragile egos. Anyway, being that this race is kind of a last dress rehearsal before Unbound, I decided against using them because I wanted to work on being in a very aerodynamic position without them in a race scenario, which is easier said than done when you're out there for seven plus hours. Perhaps I'll make a video on my bike setup for Unbound after the race. Let me know down in the comments if that's something that you're interested in seeing. Alright, let's get into the race itself. There aren't really any critical sections or pinch points until those three climbs at mile 50, which meant that the start was relatively tame, requiring a normalized power of just 260 watts for the first 30 minutes. There was a bit of shuffling in the group to try to get in good position, but nothing too crazy, and some early attacks did go, but for the most part, things felt in control at this point. Around the 45 minute mark, things started to heat up though, mostly due to attacks being thrown by Lawrence Tendam and Nicholas Roach. Personally, I did not want the race to come down to a big bunch sprint because there were a lot of good sprinters in this race, and my sprint is more mediocre amongst pro gravel racers. So I was looking for strong riders like Tendam and Roach to make moves and then latch on to them. Maybe if we could get five strong riders together, we could make something stick. The first attempt was unsuccessful, but required an NP of 356 watts for over 20 minutes, which is quite a hard effort for the first hour of a 7-hour race. The pace calmed down after that, but not for long. Tendam was added again at mile 36, and this time we actually did manage to form a small front group that worked well together, but there was still a chase group of over 30 riders at this point, and this second move would be short-lived. Not long after we got caught, we had the three back-to-back climbs to contend with, and Payson McKelvin was the main protagonist here, not only riding hard up each of the three climbs, but also pushing the pace down the backside of each of the climbs on the descent to try to create some separation in the pack. We exited the climbs and riders were dangling off the back, but none of the favorites had been shaken, and we still had a group of over 20 riders at this point. Hitting these three climbs, my NP was 385 watts for 10 minutes, but this includes the downhills. If you look at the individual climbs themselves, we were doing well over 400 watts for a minute to 90 seconds of each one of them. And if you include the attacks from Tendam and the pace set up the climb by Payson, this turns out to be the hardest hour of the race, requiring an NP of just over 320 watts. As we left the 8th station at mile 50, the pace mellowed out quite a bit. I think everybody was a little bit gassed from the first third of the race, and we only did 238 NP for the next 30 minutes. Around the halfway point, moves started going again. This time, mostly thanks to Ian Boswell, who probably attacked the group five or more times over the next hour. However, he wasn't the only one. Tendam got some digs in, and Petter Vatcock was very active as well as Ivar Slick. My tactic here was simply to follow wheels. I didn't initiate any of these moves myself, but I was really hoping that one of them would stick. However, whenever we looked back, there just didn't seem to be a lot of separation. The group may have been getting smaller, but at no point did we establish any sort of breakaway from the front pack. These efforts spanned another hour of the race, and my NP from this portion was right at 300 watts. After that, we slowed down before the next 8th station at mile 100. I think everybody knew that the race would be decided after this point and decided to buy their time. When we exited the 8th station, we still had over 20 riders in the group, and we rolled at a relaxed pace for a while. But with the finish line now within striking distance, it would not stay like that for long. A flurry of attacks came again from Tendam and Boswell at mile 110. These attacks required a 356 NP for 13 minutes for me. Shortly after that, there was another cluster of attacks at mile 125, with 310 watts for 10 minutes. During that second surge, Tendam did manage to get away solo, and it's pretty incredible that he was able to stay away for as long as he did considering that we had 15 strong riders trying to pull him back in. I can only imagine what kind of power he was probably doing. When we did manage to catch him though, we would slow down a lot for the next 20 minutes, only doing 187 NP, but the last 40 minutes of the race was nothing but action for every minute of it. As we approached the infamous river crossing at mile 143, Payson quickly sprinted to the front. Payson recognized exactly what was happening. We weren't going to neutralize through the river, not at all. Payson was going to bank on his mountain bike skills to create some separation on the most technical part of the course, and that's exactly what happened. Sure enough, it was full on attack mode going through the river, and when you come out of the river, the gravel is quite chunky and Payson just kept on the gas. His plan had worked too. We found ourselves in a group of five riders containing Payson, Jasper Aucalon, Adam Robirge, Brennan Wertz, and me. This move seemed to contain enough strong riders that we could potentially hold it to the finish, which would be great, because then the worst I would be looking at is a fifth place. However, this race is on open roads, which is normally not an issue as there's very little traffic. However, there is a highway crossing three miles after the river crossing, and when we hit that, there was a car, and we had to slam on our brakes, which was enough of a momentum killer that the chase group caught us. So, so much for that one. And this move took 370 watts NP for seven minutes. However, no time was wasted getting back on the gas. Counterattacks were thrown by the likes of Alex Howes, Tan Dam, Ian Boswell, and more. At this point, the race had become a boxing match with punches being thrown left and right, and we were just waiting for someone to crack. With less than five miles left in the race, Payson, Jasper, Adam, and Brennan started to create some daylight between themselves and the rest of the front group. However, disaster would strike for that group shortly, because Payson looked over his shoulder to assess the damage that had been done to our group, and in the process, overlapped wheels with Jasper, and both riders went down. Adam Robers wasn't slowing down for anything at this point and continued on solo, and the rest of us chased in a pack of 12. We had Adam in sight for the remainder of the race, but we simply couldn't close the gap. I myself was at my absolute limit at this point. I think the last 30 minutes of this race was the hardest that I've ever gone when I already had seven hours in my legs. Ian Boswell was particularly motivated to catch Adam because he was not happy with the fact that Adam wasn't pulling much during the race, but it was all for naught and Adam came into the finish solo, which left us sprinting for second place from a group of 12 riders. I was actually in very good position going into the sprint. I was second wheel behind Ian Boswell, and Ian just seemed to leave the rest of us out. I think he was more concerned about catching Adam at that point than he was about his sprint. I launched my sprint, but to be honest, I had very little left in my legs at this point. It's not like we gave ourselves a minute to breathe before we started sprinting. Also, I did kind of start my sprint a little bit too early because I ran out of gas before hitting the finish and riders came around me. Ah yes, going too early. My favorite excuse for a poor sprint and also other non-bike related activities. In the end, I got eighth in that sprint, which meant I was ninth place on the day. That 40 minutes of the race required an NP of 304 watts, and the last 10 minutes was 330 watts, and this was seven hours into the race. In the final sprint, I hit a max power of 920 watts and 745 watts per 10 seconds, which really goes to show how tired I was. That being said, I'm very happy with how this race turned out. My jukebox teammate Adam won the race, and I managed to get into the top 10 in a group that contained many of the top contenders for the win at the Unbound 200 in two weeks time. This, along with my numbers from the race, seemed to indicate that the form is there right now. For the entire race, I had an NP of 284 watts for seven hours and 12 minutes, which I think is a record for me for this duration. My average power was 232, average speed 21.7 miles per hour, average heart rate 148 beats per minute, max heart rate 189, and 463 TSS. All this gives me confidence heading into Unbound for sure, especially amongst the European competition. An interesting fact, out of the top 10, only three of us were American, which is absolutely wild for a gravel race that takes place in the U.S., but I guess it goes to show that U.S. gravel is gaining international recognition, which is awesome to see. So, are you going to talk about the controversy between Ian Boswell and Adam Roberge, or what? I mean, that's the only reason I even clicked on this video. Instead, I had to hear about how you didn't win a race again. Thanks for watching. If you want to follow my racing closer, be sure to check me out on Instagram. If you enjoyed this video, be sure to give it a like, subscribe, and share it with your cycling friends. I'll see you in the next one.


Welcome to Enhance.Training YouTube channel. This is the second episode in our pricing confidence series. Whilst last time we looked at ways to increase your confidence before a meeting, here we focus on how to show confidence in the meeting itself. The more confident you are and the better prepared, the more likely you are to succeed. The more likely you are to be able to sell your product for its true value. Don't be tempted to sell yourself short. Throw these five tips for being more confident in your sales meeting. Five ways to put yourself in a better place to be more confident in your price and your proposal. My name is Anna Taylor and if you're new to this channel Enhance.Training provides online business courses to help professionals, managers and business owners improve their performance. For over 15 years I've worked in finance alongside sales and marketing teams for companies such as Unilever, Mondelez, SAP Miller and Asahi. I've seen firsthand the importance of getting pricing right and I want to do the same for you. If you like this video please give it a thumbs up, subscribe and share it with friends. So it does matter what you do in the actual meeting, clearly as well as what you do before it. It takes confidence to go in with that initial price that you want. So how do you show confidence in a meeting, even if you don't completely feel that way? Even if you've prepared thoroughly for a meeting with a buyer you're likely to still be apprehensive, especially if you've not had much experience in these types of meetings or if this meeting is particularly important but this is completely normal. However, there are ways to prepare and ways to conduct yourself that will mean you're more likely to succeed. So what are they? Well, the first tip is to be confident. I know the title of this series is Price in Confidence. Someone might say just be confident, it may sound a bit too obvious, I know you would if you could. But in the meeting itself, even if you don't think you are confident, you have to act confident. It may test your acting skills to a greater or lesser extent, and if you have to, imagine the most confident person you know and channel yourself to be more like them. After all, if you don't have confidence or belief in your product, who will? However, you are there for a reason. The retailer or buyer wouldn't agree to see you if they didn't think it was worth their time. You've worked hard on your product, you've done your research and you've prepared well for the meeting. You have every reason to believe in yourself and be confident. Now one way to show this is to use confident language.  So let me give you a real up example from an X4, a big X4 grocery buyer. They told me about suppliers who would start a sentence with the words, well, my starting price is, now she said that the minute they said starting price, she knew she could get a much better price and they were not confident to be easy to negotiate with. Don't hint you'd be willing to lower the price unless you have no other option. Start strong and simply state the price is, you don't need to say anymore. So what's my tip number two? My tip number two is actually to stop talking. Once you've communicated your price, you need to have the price and confidence to wait and hear what the buyer has to say about it. Now you may well be greeted by just complete silence, but don't worry about this. Just pause. Don't worry about silences, they are completely normal. After all, a buyer needs time to think through what you've just said and if they're making notes, let them do it. Whatever you do, don't be tempted to fill this gap by talking and saying too much. This can be uncomfortable, but don't fill it with justifying the price or worse offering a discounted without being prompted. Just relax and wait for their response. If you do feel the urge to talk, then ask if they have any more questions. It's hard to keep quiet as you may have nervous energy and you probably have more to say and this is completely natural because if you've done your research, you will naturally have more you could say. The question is should you or do you need to? The answer is probably no. Wait to be asked a question and then answer accordingly. Answer calmly because you've prepared. This will show you're confident and in control. So tip number three is to listen. The buyer will comment on your proposal and will then have questions for you, but the key here is to listen carefully to what you're asked. You know, it's a bit like an exam. I'm sure we all remember being told to answer the exact question and not the one you wanted to be or the one you had revised for. Well, the same the same is true here. Make sure you keep your answer to what is being asked and listening is also important to glean more about what the buyer needs. Listen really carefully to what they say so you can answer their specific need and not the one you thought they had. And if you haven't highlighted how your product or offering can solve the need that they highlight then then make sure you tell them. This way you can ease any concerns or hesitations they may have. Now you may have to think on your feet here. It's not unusual to find out new information in these meetings, but price and confidence is key. If you're confident, you can adapt your proposition to suit this latest information. It doesn't mean changing the price necessarily, but maybe the package. But if you know what you can afford and what you value, then you're in a much better place to do this. Tip four, focus on value. So using these tips and tricks will certainly help your price and confidence be easier to communicate what you want confidently and clearly. But how you manage price pushback or objections will tell the buyer a lot about you and your business. It's really key to focus on the value you provide. Always stick to the value you provide rather than the cost. Drill down into what they need and show you how you can fulfill it. If they do appear to value cost the most, then your preparation will come in useful here as you'll be able to exchange a discount for something that you value. Examples could be faster payments, volume commitments or location on shelf. But make sure it's a fair exchange of value. You both should get something that you want. This shows your customer you're happy to discount as long as they can give it a value in your direction. It is what buyers expect from experienced sales teams. It's normal for them. So don't be shy about it and respond to any price pushback confidently. Tip five, body language. This should run throughout the meeting. Whether the meeting is in person or online, body language is key as it is in all situations. If your body language says you're confident, then you'll be perceived that way. So head up, shoulders back, keep eye contact and smile. Now, I don't claim to be a body language expert, but it can help to reflect on what you see as confidence in others and copy that. That practicing in a mirror that we spoke about last time will also help. And finally, if your meeting is over video conference, then you may have to sort of exaggerate your body language slightly. Of course, not in a sort of comical amateur dramatics way, but enough to make yourself clear and to avoid misinterpretation. So in summing up, pricing confidence isn't something that will just magically appear overnight. There's a reason we have the phrase practice makes perfect, but actually we don't even need to be perfect. Don't worry if you're not as perfect because no one is. Do enough preparation to increase your confidence. Work through these tips and tricks and remember you're passionate in your product and you will be fine. Just remember, don't sell yourself short. If you need some extra pricing advice, visit us at enhance.training and select articles, or better still, sign up to the Pricing Learning Hub for access to pricing calculators, fact sheets, how-to guides and more. If you like this video, please hit the thumbs up button below and subscribe and hit the bell to get notified of our weekly video releases. This really helps us produce more videos to help you. Thanks for watching and I look forward to seeing you soon.


Thank you, Adam. So this is the year of the Olympics. This is a relay. So Adam has passed the baton. I have it here And so what we want to do is we're going to take the implications of those ensembles as we're called 400 runs of the IGSM leads to 6,850 year sequences we have to run and So that that requires a large team and this is a number of them are in the room here and The we can go forward and talk about that. So what we used to do what I want to talk about is bash myself This is what was done for the World Bank and looking at multi-sector investment opportunities in the Zambezi River and Using the classic IPCC techniques all we're able to do is look at the extreme event or the extreme cases Or the worst-case scenario. So we would look at what is the wet of all the IPCC GCM? What is the wet one and what is the dry one and you can look here and see as Adam showed? This is the only information we're providing to decision makers and in some they're on both sides of the both signs Here there is very little change And so what policy makers come back and they say What is the likelihood of that if that's the extreme do I respond to that? They they do not like this. We we can do it mathematically. It's really nice and easy to do But this is the classic approach and we want to go beyond that to give some more information so we can make investment decisions So as we look at these various things these shortcomings when we make decisions on hydropower roads Agriculture we are doing a risk-based approach currently we use something called design storms the return period of one in ten Year one in one in a hundred year for flooding we make those decisions with risks in mind What are those things saying to risk? We're not able to address that. So what has happened is the team? developed by wider the external director Channing aren't brought us together and we have this framework which is to look at things analytically So what Adam pointed out was this box right here What I'm going to talk about now is what goes on in the dash box and then Channing's going to talk about What comes out of that and what leads to that so we take these things of temperature in precip in fossil fuel prices But we have to take them both in terms of monthly values Adam showed seasonal We look at monthly values here And we take those monthly values in temperature and precip together and we look at how they'll influence Stream flows how that would then be looking at flooding in particular We'll look at that in a minute how these temperatures and precip affect Agriculture in terms of irrigation demands and rain fed yields how they affect energy in terms of hydropower as they come Into runoff and then come here also the evaporation from reservoirs And then how these floods and these precip together will impact roads and the pavements from pre from rainfall And then flooding from our streams and bringing that all together and putting it into there So that's why I'm here because I am the translator. I have degree in engineering But I also spent time and got a degree in economics, and that's why I sit between them as well So I'm hoping I'm not going to drop the baton right now I'm going to go through and all that we can talk about these details. So this is what Adam Talked about and so you can get a picture Here's the Zambezi Basin and in the Zambezi Basin We have this western part and the eastern part and these are some examples that remind you of what Adam just talked about And here is the case of Precipitation distribution between two scenarios. So what does it mean for the runoff in the Zambezi? What is the flow that's in that river and this is for the West Zambezi this part from Zambia parts of Angola and and a little bit of Zimbabwe culminating that would be entering the Cariba reservoir as well as the the development on the Cofue that the Zambia has looked at and this is a case where the difference between the unconstrained and the 450 or or that's the level one stabilization is not much difference in The mean impacts the modes are about I mean the modes are about the same But the important thing is look what happens at the tails There's a significant shift in the extremes between the unconstrained or no no policy and Not so much on the lower end, but we're seeing less likelihood of of drying, but it increased Much more decrease in in a wedding We go ahead here and look on the eastern Zambezi in here. We see an interesting thing. We see a shift Almost the exact same distribution, but a shift over of the mode So we're having a mean shift to the drier side and a decrease in this flooding But also a decrease in the lower end. So basically we're shifting the distribution So this is really important the Zambezi is not a unified body. It's not homogeneous It's changing we're here. We're seeing right here between east and west and it even changes by basin by basin So now if we look at this at flooding for the west Zambezi Look at this again the mode stay the same, but a big reduction in the the tail So what does that mean? Well, that's really important when we look at flooding impacts on road infrastructure And one of the things that people tend to think about for climate change in water resources It's droughts. We're worried about droughts and lower flow We are seeing in our research and hopefully the document in our next our next special issue It's flooding that is most damaging and Channing will talk about that because it destroys infrastructure So not only do you lose? Economic activity that year you have to take money that you're going to use to develop your economy to repair the past So there's a double impact on you So we have these flooding and so we use this approach developed by Professor Chanowski to look at the The impact on the road infrastructure, which goes directly into the economic model We then say all right. What's going on in terms of the the river? We're going to look at the Zambia the the river in Zimbabwe and the river in Zambia and we see between the unconstrained at level one Distribution the runoffs again the cutting down of the higher flows in both cases We're seeing this behavior. So you can see the country here Here's Zambia is in Bobway and we're going to talk in a minute about Mozambique and the thing about Mozambique only a small part of it Is part of the Zambezi Basin, but it's very large Kaborabasa hydropower plant very important to the energy Infrastructure of Mozambique, but the other thing it's downstream of everybody else So if they're going to adapt to climate change, are they going to think about what they're going to do to Mozambique? That's another issue. So again, we see this probably Bubbalistically the next thing is what happens to irrigation demand, which is a combination of temperature and precip precip goes up We don't need so much but if it gets warmer we need more and what we see is a Increase in the demand for irrigation in Mozambique under the unconstrained emission and if we have the level one Stabilization we say a big shift back to almost a maybe five millimeters Per year and so a big shift of the mean back this way and we lose this tail again So we're seeing this behavior in the stabilization is bringing the PDFs in So this is water resource systems This is a model of the Zambezi Basin and Alyssa McCluskey. Will you raise your hand, please? This was done by Alyssa who's part of our team at the Institute for Climate and Civil Systems and This is using a tool where we model all these components and all their interaction because it matters what you do here on What happens here what you do here? So this is classic water systems We now take all these probabilistic funds through that and produce impacts in 2050 on hydropower development and So you can see right here here in Zambezi the in the unconstrained emissions We have Distribution around zero with a little bit of a table here But with the level one we see almost no negative impacts on hydropower and its positive impacts on hydropower While we look in Zambia and both of them have a mean in the negative side But there are some the unconstrained has a little peak here in a tail in the positive And you see that the distribution is different for each of the countries So as we talk to policy makers that's important But then what we get out of this is if we look at all the hydropower together what we see is a Distribution that will help us look as we look at regional power pools and in cooperation in the basin So one of the messages from a water resource side and from a hydropower side is here is the probability Distribution we can make decisions about our reservoirs and what to do, but it also tells us if we cooperate Amongst the the riparian countries in the basin we can go ahead and make some benefits The other thing it tells us is we don't know what the future is going to be so we can do some clever things in design one of the things is you design a small dam and then you put bigger dams on top or You build the dam with multiple outflows because we don't know how much water is going to come out The high as one dam has their outflow here and if it ever drops below here This water is not usable we could put this in when we're building it at almost zero cost But to do it later hydropower leave it blank and you can put it in later So these kind of adaptations we can take on So what we see is that there's no single answer related to water resource infrastructure We need to make flexible design This variability is very very important and as Adam pointed out the means you have to be careful because the means mean zero Many times means are zero so if you just look at that there's no impact But it's these tails that affect us in design and each of the sectors behave differently And sometimes people say oh, I'm going to adapt for the agriculture by irrigating But then the hydropower people say I'm going to adapt by building some more reservoirs and then you find out There's no water at all. So when you do sectoral based adaptation It's it's almost the null set that may not exist So where there's a need to move to economy wide multi-sector approach through economy wide models, which is what Channing will talk about how they all these things feed into it Thank you


and he's with you today, wherever you happen to be, wherever you're watching, hope today. God is with you and he's got plans and purposes. It's going to be a great day in him. Thank you for joining us on Hope Today. I'm Tom. I'm here with Sydney. I'm here with Amy. A great day is in store, Amy. Oh man, I am really excited for you to hear from a young, cool adult girl who has written a book. Grace Valentine is our special guest today. She's covering topics such as body image, disappointment, navigating relationships, failure, purpose, and faith to the girl looking for more. This devotional encourages girls to stop settling for the world's image of post worthy perfection and live for more joy, more peace, and more meaning. This is not only for the young adults, this is for the middle-aged adults as well. I love these topics like these because I feel especially as women, when we see things in the media, we see magazines, we see movies, we see music, there's this whole image that sometimes we feel like we have to live up to. But this is something even Amy and Tom that I just remember being a 20-year-old like 10 years ago and just having these moments of just feeling I have to look a certain way or be a certain way. But the moment that I just came into Christ, the moment that I started surrendering all the moment that he began to speak to me about my identity and how he made me fearfully and wonderfully made, it really transformed my life.  There's something that we can all glean because it is so important for us now more than ever to understand our identity in Christ because that's what truly sets us free, Tom. It's so true and it's not just ladies, it's guys too. I mean we have the same kind of struggles. I don't know if maybe not in the same way, but there's so many things that can make us insecure and one of the greatest freedoms in my life. It's interesting because I used to think as I had this real strong Christian leader as a young adult and I thought, well, one of these days I'm going to be like that person. And I found out, hey, you know what? God made me to be me. He made me to be the person I am and use the gifts I have. There's so much freedom in that when you finally have that.  Man in a world where we're inundated with images and words and thoughts about what woman should look like, be like, what man should look like, be like. Now's the time for truth. That's right. And speaking of truth, we're going to find out how much we know the truth of God here on Stump the Host. Dave, they put out the challenge here. They're saying they're too easy. I didn't say they're too easy. I just felt like they're just easy. I just felt like it was okay. That was last time. We challenged them and said it was too easy. So they took up the challenge. This is, by the way, this Stump the Host is woman of the Bible themed and we don't know the questions. We're going to nail it. Oh, okay. Let's go. Here we go. Here's the first question. What woman helped the Israelite spies who were scouting out her city of Jericho? Easy. Tell me. Rahab. Rahab. Are we all good with Rahab? I think we're going to say Rahab. Okay. We got the first one. Amy, I think you got the next question. I love these questions. Okay. In the book of Acts, who was the business woman who dealt in fine purple fabrics? Lydia. Boom. Okay. Yes. Let's go. Sprinkle the joy. I am so happy. Wow. You guys are like on that. Women of the Bible give us something hard. Okay. Here we go. Uh-oh. Here's the tough one, I think. Who is the most mentioned woman in the Bible? Okay. I feel like it can't, it's not going to be Eve because that would be too easy. It could either be Sarah or Mary. I feel like Sarah. Mary Magdalene has mentioned a lot too. I feel like throughout the whole Bible, like Sarah. Sarah. Right. We need a final answer. I'm going with Sarah. Sarah? Okay. The mother of our faith. We're going to say Sarah. Take that. I'm so excited. See? Today's questions and answers can be found on the Hope Today page on our website if you want to see how great we did. Oh wow. Okay. Now let's get to some real amazing discussions about women, girls, and all that entails in today's world. It can be frustrating, especially for young women, to live up to the expectations that the world has placed on them. Our next guest has felt the pressure of our culture's conflicting messages firsthand and has made it her mission to help young women navigate their own journey of faith. Grace Valentine is a podcast host and an author and in her new devotional to the girl looking for more. She encourages young women to live a life of meaning and authenticity. Grace, welcome to Hope Today. I am so thankful to be with y'all today. So thank you so much for having me. Did you know the answers to Stump the Host? Yes. Okay. Well, Sarah made more sense. I was close to thinking Mary Magdalene. So I thought that maybe it could have been Mary Magdalene. It was like a plot twist. But then it makes more sense for an Old Testament woman to be mentioned more. And so yeah, that one got me. Or Lydia, I almost stopped to have that for a second too because I know she was in the sewing nervous too. But that one kind of stopped me, but I was between those two. I absolutely love your new devotional. I actually text several people this morning and said, you must get this into all young women's hands because you're so honest. And I can really hear your voice through it.  Is it in your old teal bedroom that you grew up in at the little girl or is it in your messy dorm room? Is it somewhere in the south? But what I really want to know is where are you mentally? Yeah, I mean, I pray for my readers a lot of knowing that they're going to be different locations. Like maybe they're reading it on an airplane, maybe this is their dorm room where they're getting, they have a bad roommate situation, which some of us have had that in college. Maybe it's at home in this tension, their families getting divorced. And so like you might be physically somewhere, but where you are spiritually and mentally, that's what matters more to God.  Like whatever that space you are, whatever the insecurity you're feeling. And so that's always the first thing I like pray for when I think of my readers is like, where are they at? Like, I get curious. I'm like, Oh, is anyone in Montana? I've never been to Montana, you know, but also where are they at in their hearts? And like, are they going through a breakup? Are they going through an eating disorder? Are they, you know, feeling very lonely? Because that's so many young women today are going through so much.  Do you feel in a way like you are the big sister just talking real to the younger sister? I mean, that's my prayer. I love the quote, be who you need when you were younger. And it reminds me of a be who you needed before Christ. It's kind of the way I look at it, like be who you needed when you were broken. And so when I think of like my readers, I'm like, I just want to be who I needed. I never had a big sister. I never had a little sister. And I have a big brother, which I'm very thankful for. But so I do look at my readers as like my little sister, I'm like, here's the advice, here's the mistakes I made, like please do better.  Here's what scripture means. Like, this is hopefully a guide for young women. Like that's been my prayer is that this will be something they can open to and they'll be like, I'm going through shame. Like I need to find a devotion or not. Like I'm going through loneliness. I feel overlooked. Like, let's see what what scripture aligns with that. And so I do view them as their little sisters.  And, you know, as you're scrolling through Instagram and that girl is now dating a pilot, you know, of all people and just the just the realness. How important was it for you to be honest and real versus perfect and flawed? Yeah. Well, I think honestly, in today's social media world, there's so many young women who see a lot of other young women who are posting their best. Like, you know, it's the social resumes these days, TikTok or Instagram. And so and I would read Christian books and for a while, I felt like I was hearing about stories that when people did things right, and that is so beautiful and so powerful of hearing people who did things right. But I'm like, you know what, like, I want to be honest about my insecurity and the things that like everyone else thinks I think they're thinking too. Because I'm probably not alone in that. And talking about the things that I'm almost a little more embarrassed about or that feel lonely because there's so much power when you speak a lie that the enemy is saying. And other people realize that they're being targeted to that same lie and helps the body of Christ just be built up and work together. And so yeah, I feel like I try to be relatable, I try to be honest, probably to that fault. But like sometimes I'm like, oh my gosh, my parents reading this, you know, so but other than that, it's like so fun and so powerful when I get to meet a girl who's like, wait, I was upset that my this one girl of my time was getting a pilot due and it made me jealous, you know, so that is very much my goal for it. And you're very honest about, you know, going through the party life and the sorority life in college. And what is your Christian faith story? Like, were you raised in a Christian home?  When did you find Christ again? Yeah, so I mean, well, I grew up in South Louisiana. And I think in general, it was, South Louisiana has a different culture in the drinking. So I never, I never really prayed about conviction. Like, I just looked around and was like, I'm better than these people. So like, I'm good, like, you know, and then I went to college and I chose Baylor because I went to public high school. So I was like, Baylor will be great. And in high school, I went from being kind of weird to very popular at once. And I was more insecure than ever before when I was popular. And I thought like, if I became class president, if I was on homecoming court, my problems with Bivedy Bopney Boo. And that didn't happen. So I thought I had a strong foundation for my faith. My family knows Christ. But I didn't really have that strong foundation going to college. So then when everyone was drinking, and that was what was cool. And that was, you know, there was other Christian groups, but I didn't want to be, they looked like, you know, so I was like, I'd rather be with the cool girls in this group. And that is when I think I believed the lie that it was fun. And I think when it comes to young adults who drink in that party lifestyle, you can tell them, yeah, it's illegal to do because you're underage and like that does make it a sin. But I'm like, it's also just not fun to like drink a lot of shots and get loaded and text someone that you regret, like, and wake up with a headache. Like that's not fun. Like, and I feel like that's finally what I realized is like, Oh my gosh, this isn't freeing. I was sold a lot. Like this is, this was supposed to be a fun experience. I'm just waking up with a lot of regret, a lot of hurt, a lot of like miscommunication due to alcohol. And I think young adults today are told either like, it's a sin because it's illegal or it's true, but that's not going to stop them. They would speed, you know, and especially in South Louisiana, I didn't stop anyone anyways, but it's a sin because it's illegal or that like, it's okay. Like this grace and that's also not the truth is grace convicts you and helps you turn away from sin. And so I just feel like I need to be told in that age that you're not having fun. Like this is not God's best. Like God has better plans and like obedience isn't going to stop you from having fun and venture. If anything, it's going to help you gain adventure and gain fun and gain actual freedom. And like freedom doesn't come from going to a frat party and dressing like an animal. Like, you know, like freedom comes from Christ. And so I'm learning that there's a lot of girls who actually want to be told that like in like big sorties at SEC schools on childhood to speak a lot. And they're like, thank you for saying something as simple as that. You know, gracious hearing you talk, it reminds me of just like, I went to Temple University. So I understand like being in that college life and that, you know, partying and the drinking and waking up, hanging up all of those things. I've done like, I was like, yes, I'm totally experienced exactly the same thing that you've experienced. And can you just share like how in the midst of that, in the midst of like, you know, it's at that inner conflict and the turmoil, how even in the midst of that, that you did finally just started to discover that God in the midst of it, that he was with you the whole time. What did that look like in that part of your journey of your life? Well, honestly, I think for me, it reminds me of the story of Hagar, where like, you know, you're in the wilderness. You're the most vulnerable ever. You're like, everything seems against me. I've run away. I've trying to escape what feels like it against me, but now I'm in a more dangerous position.  And now you're in this party scene and you feel more lonely or lonelier than ever. And so I really resonate with sort of Hagar, because I think sometimes when you wake up and you feel like you're in that wilderness, that's how like, you know, a hangover and feeling like you're stuck in that party phase can feel like. But just realizing that there was a God who sees me, was one of the most beautiful things that I had found them. The idea that like, God has seen me at my worst, but he's calling me higher. He's also going to protect me. He's going to leave me and give me the things he knows I need, and also provide me the strength I need to power through and to tread on the unknown, the confusion, the insecurity. And so I mean, I would honestly, the way that I came to know Jesus in the midst of that was like, I just had a night where I felt so alone.  I was like, this is some fun. Like I feel more lonely than ever before. And it truly felt like there was a God who saw me in that moment. And I had the most honest prayer at that point. And I was like, I felt the conviction of I need to take steps away. Like this is great that I'm crying. Like I think sometimes people are like, don't cry because it's something you can't control. It's the past. But I need to feel that conviction for the first time ever so that I could turn away and walk towards obedience. And so that's kind of how it went for me. And I think there was no Bippity Boppity Boo. It was a lot of learning because I think wisdom is something the Holy Spirit comes inside. And like slowly you start learning the voice of the spirit. And like, I'm going to choose wisdom. I'm going to follow scripture. And it was, it was work, you know? Christ enters your heart, but you have to also start saying, I want more. And that's kind of like the book that like, I want more contentment and not more hangovers. Like I want more joy and not more group texts that are gossiping. You know, I have to choose the more that is worthy of God's best. Grace, I haven't grown up really insecure myself right at the time. You know, you've got this kind of toxic mix of insecurity and peer pressure right when you're the most insecure. There's all this peer pressure that you're experiencing and some of the most difficult pressures of my life. And I'm sure that it's that way for everyone. What does a Christian do? What does a person do to guard themselves against all this peer pressure that wants to pull them in a certain direction? Yeah. Well, so especially with young people today, I always say we've lost the ability and the respect for mentorship and wisdom. Like Ecclesiastes says, there's nothing new or designed. What has been will be again. And I think older generations have realized if you want to learn how to change attire, like you had to talk to someone older than you and you're like, can you give me steps? How do I change attire? This generation and my generation, we YouTube it. We're like, I don't need to talk to anyone. Like I'm going to YouTube it. Like I don't need any advice like that from someone else. I can figure out on my own. And I think when you're struggling with insecurity, that is the, that's the most lonely thought you can think of that I'm going to figure this out on my own. Like if I just like keep these thoughts to myself and try to work on this on my own, I don't want anyone to think I'm pathetic for thinking this. So I'm not going to admit it. And that almost makes insecurity worse at this age, especially because when you try to do it on your own and then you don't find God's strength and you don't find the body of Christ. And without those two things, like you're missing out on community and being seen. And that's a very lonely place to be, especially when you're insecure. And so for all young people, I'm like, you need to find someone older than you. Like someone who has walked through it. There's nothing under the sign. And so social media may be different, but the same time when you're going through is not that distinct, you know? And so it's not different sin is sin. And so finding mentorship that you can be honest with, like crazy, honest, like this is my worst thought. And also when it comes to insecurity, I've noticed a lot of people, you see problems that are worsening you. Like you just open the news and you're like, wow, my life is pretty good. Even when you are struggling with body image or insecurity or feeling left out. But it's so important to acknowledge that just because someone's whole body aches doesn't mean that your arm doesn't ache. That just because there are bigger problems today does not mean that God doesn't care about your insecurity, your lies, your stress. And for during finals week, that your family issues, your parents divorce, it happened 10 years ago. Like he cares about that too. So thinking of not only that there's a God who cares, but there's also people who are willing to walk with you if you give church another chance, even if you've been hurt.  Like that was one of the most important commandments that we are called to do. And so I think this generation is being disciple without realizing it by online voices. And so it's important for them to actually have that Christian discipleship that comes from someone older than them that they can be honest about those insecurities with. Grace, I was shocked by a statistic that you wrote in your book from the Dove study that 90% 96% of American women wake up in the morning and do not feel beautiful. Let's say today you are taking my 23 year old daughter to coffee and of course has to be a bougie place because you've got to get pictures of it all to post on your Instagram. But what would you say to her today? Yeah. Well, I think my favorite thing to tell young women is if it, if you died tomorrow, this is like kind of morbid, but like if your funeral, if everyone got up at your funeral and said, wow, she was so hot, like that was she was so beautiful. Like she was so like her body on spring break was so like it was bomb. Like you think that's the worst funeral ever. Like please I need to read out funds like I talk about my character, talk about my kindness, talk about my humor, talk about the way you saw love, gentleness, goodness and faithfulness in me. And so that's the legacy you want and that's the legacy you should be working towards. And so I've like at the end of the day, like my looks like there will always be someone in the world's terms prettier than me and I can't control from the prettiest girl in the room, but I can't be the kindest. I can't be the most inclusive. I can't bear the freedom of the spirit and make someone see the goodness of Christ. And so and that's beautiful and like the way I love and if I focus on loving instead of trying to prove that I'm worth loving, that is a legacy worth living. And so I love to tell girls that like, okay, you know, maybe your ex-boyfriend left you for someone who's quote unquote hotter. There's nothing you can do about it.  And not as a legacy you want to live. And I think that's so freeing to think because some of this generation has grown up being like, you're the prettiest princess, like when they're 10 years old, and then they realize, wait, no, like Sarah in math class is definitely a lot prettier. But I'm like, beauty is as beauty does, you know, and like if you have the characteristics of Christ, that is something that is worthwhile and meaningful. And that is who I want to be. Like that's the legacy I hope to live that if people stood up at my funeral and we talked about my looks, it would be pathetic and I'd be annoyed. And so I want to live a life where people talk about my kindness. Grace, you just want to pull a surprise for that answer. Would you take a minute and will you pray for all of the young women watching?  There's daughters watching that are rebelling against God. Will you take a minute and just grasp them in the spirit? I would love that by your head. Dear God, Lord, I just pray for everyone watching this first for their own heart, Lord, that you will continue to pursue it and that they will see the God who sees them, Lord, and that they'll realize that it is better to be loving than to waste their time trying to prove that they're worth loving.  I pray first for the person watching us who knows you, Lord, that they will text and they will reach out to them. They will get coffee with them, that they will be that mentor, that wisdom and that guided force, Lord, that points them to you, Lord, a bridge that shows them your goodness and your faithfulness so that in the hard seasons of their 20s, their teens, 30s, or whatever age they are at, that they will be able to see your glory in the midst of the confusion, Lord. I pray for anyone struggling with insecurity and trying to feel like they need to be more, that they'll remember that you are God of more, that you give us more than we ever need, Lord, and that with you all things are working for your good, Lord, and we trust that, Lord.  In your name, you're praying, amen. Amen. Thank you so much, Grace. To the girl who is looking for more, thank you so much for this incredible book. You can pick it up. Please pick it up for that young adult woman in your life. Grace, you are both sweet and powerful and we're so grateful for your ministry. Thank you so much. Y'all have a great day. You too. We'll be right back after this break. We'll send you Listen, Love, Repeat, which presents scriptural examples of those who lived alert, including Jesus, who noticed those who least expected to be seen, gives creative ideas for showing love to friends and family, suggests practical ways to reach out to the lonely, marginalized outcast, helps you comfort the grieving, and so much more. Ask for your copy of Listen, Love, Repeat when you give today. Call<PHONE_NUMBER> or go to ctvn.org slash donate. Thank you for your generosity. Hope happens here. We're so glad you're joining us on Hope today and we thank all of you that support us, that we're able to bring conversations like we just had with Grace. You know, I know we're all right now just sitting and saturating and the wisdom that she poured out. You know, one thing just even here in Grace Talk, you know, maybe a little nostalgic because this week actually marks 13 years since I graduated from college and it popped up on our Facebook and my best friends, we were like messaging each other and just saying like, wow, just looking back and reflecting on that time. And when Grace was speaking and she was talking about some of the things that she walked through, some of the things that she's gone through, then when it comes to partying, when it comes to drinking, when it comes to men walking away from you, I think I have been there and maybe you have been there too. And right now my spirit, I just hear God talking about the spirit of rejection that comes about because you're trying to be something that you were never called to be. You're trying to fit into a mold, you're trying to look the part, you're trying to act the part, you're trying to post the pictures, all of these things, but they're meaningless and they don't mean anything because the most important thing is what's on the inside. When Grace was talking about what it looks like when it comes to the day that we die, like what are people going to think of us? Nobody's going to talk about the way that we look or how beautiful we are or the outside, but it truly has to do with who was living inside of us. And today we just want to ask you this question. Who is living inside of you? Who is living inside of you? Is it the image of the world or have you surrendered your life to Christ? No matter how drunk you may have been, no matter how many partners you may have had, no matter if you woke up with a hangover this morning and no matter what the state of your world or your life may look like, there is a great man who came to earth and his name is Jesus and he paid the ultimate price for you and in the middle of your binging, in the middle of your insecurity, in the middle of your shame, he saw you in the midst of it and he died for it and he wants to give you beauty for all of your ashes and because he rose again and because he resurrected and because God loved you so much that he sent his son, he wants you to know that love, that freedom and that joy today. So today friend, ask yourself who is living inside of me? Is it Jesus? Because when it's Jesus, everything changes, everything shifts and it's the greatest relationship you can ever have and you can call our prayer line at<PHONE_NUMBER>. Tom, what are your final thoughts? Well, I just think that the fact that you can have that, you can have that relationship with God right now.  We come to God as a mess. We come to God out of our mess and out of our difficulties and we can just say, God, I need you today. I need you in a way more than I've ever needed you. God, I've messed up. God, I haven't followed after you, but we can come and be part. He can make that difference today. When you come to Jesus, you don't have to perform. You don't have to people, please. You don't have to pretend. You don't have to act fake. You just come to Him as real you. Flawed, disappointed, discouraged, whatever it is, dealing with self-esteem, worth, value. Jesus is here. He hears you. He sees you and He knows you and you have hope today. On Tomorrow's Hope Today, learn how to conquer your triggers, fears and worries with God's truth. Author Tara Lynn St. Ellen shares how you can take negative thoughts captive and live victoriously as God intended. Don't miss Tomorrow's Hope Today.


I ran from the town because there was a wall in the town so I came here seeking safety. That was in December 2013.


All right. All right. All right. We got some Interesting stuff to talk about here about Zelda. That's right the legend of Zelda because E3 is coming up and We got some kind of rumors floating out there about what's going to be at E3 Specifically in regards to a legend of Zelda potentially some other games are getting that for a bit But first it looks like we're actually gonna hear about something from Zelda coming up next few weeks now This originally sort of came out from the E3 rumor batch We did from Samus Hunter But since then we've had some reconformation on about a time period We can expect the Zelda announcement to come and some ideas of what that announcement might be Could just be Hyrule Warriors age of calamity DLC information as some of you guys have speculated But Samus Hunter actually kind of teased something to me that potentially could be what we're going to see Let's just say there's a chance we might see Breath of the Wild to a little teaser bit Before E3 on a massive chance that E3 itself is going to contain a huge breath of the wild to blow out now First let's get into the stuff So this guy named Shreyas was talking on Twitter and responded to Samus Hunter I'm one of their recent tweets showing off some how they got some muscle hunter information correct And it says so what exactly are we getting on May 6th? Or is it still unknown? And you said there will be something around May 21st from Nintendo and a chance at Zelda related Thank you Samus Hunter responds and says around May 6th I don't know the exact date if that is like a public reveal date or if that's just an internal Staff date Nintendo will release official statements for their E3 plans So either on 6th all the employees at Nintendo will know what the E3 plans are or it'll just be announced to the public They're not really sure either way We found out on May 9th back in 2019 So I would say somewhere in the first 10 days of May we're gonna publicly find out anyways and said and yes The second date is for Zelda related stuff. So okay. Yeah, so May 21st Zelda related stuff So I DM'd a Samus Hunter and said hey So for that Zelda thing on the 21st Is it just an update on the age of calamity DLC release or is it something else? I know first four figures plans unveil more champion figures and such But you know what I mean is it related to other games don't have to tell me what names I'm working on a video So I don't want to mislead people And he says Samus Hunter responded to me said that is the maximum date for its announcement Most likely it will be even earlier. So what he's saying is sometime basically in early May to the 21st It will not go past May 21st We're gonna hear something about Zelda and he says at the moment I do not have precise details as I often say Nintendo is very secretive about things concerning Zelda But I would say the DLC for Hyrule Warriors could safely fall among those announcements It's like I don't expect a major new reveal. So, you know, he's not expecting a game although that he doesn't really know But it's possible they could tease that we are going to get more information of a sequel Breath of Wild E3 So like that when their E3 plans get unveiled there could be a tease a hey this E3 Breath of the Wild 2 Baby, which is exactly what they did back at E3 2016 we knew ahead of time Breath of the Wild Breath of the Wild Breath of the Wild So that could be what he's talking about it could just be a teaser for that now This is where things get really really interesting because someone noticed an old four-chan post now Typically, we don't talk about four-chan rumors unless we're just laughing at it Or we just think it's a really interesting idea, but we don't give it any credence But the weird thing about these four-chan rumors is kind of like Samus Hunter Everything seems to be checking off the further and further we get into the year this post came up at like the very beginning of 2021 and Here is essentially what this four-chan post said and we can just literally start checking off things That were right on this post that could just be guesses, but it's pretty accurate guessing. So it says 2021 will have a bunch of anniversaries no particular reveal order and some might be early 2022 So you say we're gonna see a bunch of stuff, but he's not gonna tell us the order of these games are coming out This is just you know in general what Nintendo is going to talk about this year Mario Kart 9. Okay. Haven't heard anything about that yet Mario Golf. Hey, we got Mario Golf enough and I know it's Mario Golf Super Rush by Camelot a breath of the wild sequel Getting a full reveal and planned release this year. That would obviously be E3 blowout time Skyward Sword HD already announced Diamond and Pearl Remakes already announced Pokemon snap, obviously 2d Metroid which is supposedly coming. I don't know maybe this summer by Mercury steam and Metroid Prime trilogy. He said we're also going to see a new Kirby game a retail release version game Not just like a digital game Famicom detective series, which we already have that confirmed a new fire emblem echo style games like a new fire emblem remake Grezzo has a Zelda title planned to come out this year We've talked about this in the past about how that the Grezzo very very likely has some sort of remake or something for Zelda this year Ninja Gaiden Sigma trilogy is coming to switch very soon Dark Souls 2 is getting part of the switch We've had recent rumors about that Also smashed apparently has Ryu Hayabusa is somewhere in this wave of the final smash characters So basically the final two smash characters will be Ryu Hayabusa according to this person And there'll be additional fighters confirmed to be in development So what he's saying is there's going to be a third wave a third wave of smash characters So they're not done according to this person and they'll be a fighter from Sega's fantasy star series is planned Seemingly being fantasy star online twos Matoi now again There's more information in there beyond Zelda But the point is that a bunch of that stuff seems to be checking off and so when that happens We can't just ignore that that exists So there's potentially a bunch of information there now It's kind of weird because Samus Hunter who I haven't given a lot of credit to because literally they've never gotten anything wrong They've put out there at least to me that they know that Mario Kart 9 is even like Even a thing this year. They feel like they would have saw something about it by now But again this person says that some of these could be 2022 Could Mario Kart 9 be something that's talked about at the end of this year and releases in 2022 and thus Samus Hunter wouldn't know Because Samus Hunter I don't want to give away exactly how Samus Hunter gets their information But let's just say they wouldn't be privy to that to the information based on the method They get that information this early if it's not gonna announce to later this year, but still I think it's pretty crazy I think it's really really cool Zelda baby breath of the wild blowout breath of the wild to blow out baby and could we get a small tease a Some new official art even new official art would be crazy. I'd be oh my gosh I'm like tingling just at the idea. I had to put on a Zelda shirt I know it's not a breath of the wild shirt or whatever I wear the breath of the wild blue shirt all the time for me three because I got like 12 of those damn things I played the demo so many times back in 2016, but baby. Oh my pumped am I pumped this is Some of the most exciting stuff to ever happen as I know my TV and what TV we kind of blank over here It's actually a split tune background, but it doesn't fit the resolution of this TV It is what it is Thank you guys so much for tuning in This has been a lot of it. I'm just oh I'm excited try to enter our giveaway. We're giving away a hundred dollars cash money still a handful of days to enter I head down to the description of the pink comment to find out how to enter otherwise Tune in to our e3 coverage. We'll have a link to our very first e3 2021 stream happening on june 12 so you can go set a reminder for that. That's right We already have that stream set up Although we're still building out the things that are going to be on that stream still Tune in and I'll catch you guys in the next video