The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘David Gray’

These are some of the people I interviewed this year to act as your mentors. In case you missed any of the interviews, when you get the opportunity, take a moment to read them. While you are reading the interviews, think of what you have in common with the interviewees, and ask yourself, what can I learn from them that I can use in my work and life? You can also find these interviews and more on the Mentors page of the blog

1. Mind your Qs please! She was the first female CEO of a steel company in Canada (Part I) (Part II)
2. She left a successful search consulting business to become a human excellence coach (Part I), (Part II)
3. The life coach who is also an artist (Part I), (Part II)
4. Someone who knows what leadership is about (Part I), (Part II)
5. The “hip accountant” (Part I), (Part II)
6. The entrepreneur’s friend (Part I), (Part II)
7. Head of PR for a technology firm, a writer, and very witty (Part I), (Part II)
8. The social justice film producer (Part I), (Part II)
9. A mentor directed her path to success (Part I), (Part II)
10. Someone who is a career and employment counsellor and a LinkedIn Heavyweight (Part I), (Part II)
11. A leadership and career coach, and a very straight shooter (Part I), (Part II)
12. An internet marketer and social media trainer (Part I), (Part II)
13. Someone who is a relationship builder (Part I), (Part II)
14. An IT executive who sang at her own wedding (Part I), (Part II)
15. Someone who is into food safety (Part I), (Part II)
16. She is an Assistant Deputy Minister (Part I), (Part II)
17. As a youngster he read biographies (children’s) of “great people” which taught him the importance of reading and learning from the experiences of others (Part I), (Part II)
18. The founder of Athena International (Part I), (Part II)
19. A successful business owner who attended 17 schools in three countries while growing up (Part I), (Part II)
20. Founder of Connected Women (Part I), (Part II)
21. Someone who was a former editor of Chatelaine Magazine (Part I), (Part II)
22. She started in the library and ended up in the executive suite (Part I), (Part II)
23. She launched the International Women’s Festival, and also operated a very successful business which she sold (Part I), (Part II)
24. Someone who died for four minutes (Part I), (Part II)
25. Someone who used to hide under the table from bill collectors, now she is a success story (Part I), (Part II)
26. When she first became a leader, she was referred to as Godzilla, but a mentor helped to smooth off the rough edges, now she is a remarkable leader (Part I), (Part II)
27. His best friend was embezzling so he gave him the opportunity to do the right thing (Part I), (Part II)
28. A busy senior level banking executive who escapes from it all through fiction (Part I), (Part II)
29. Someone who is a CFO of a restaurant chain (Part I), (Part II)
30. Someone who is a marketing and communications consultant (Part I), (Part II)
31. Someone knows what it means to fall down seven times get up eight (Part I), (Part II)
32. Someone who is an entertainer and comic artist (Part I), (Part II)
33. Someone who is a goldsmith and jewelry designer (Part I), (Part II)
34. An entrepreneur who blends health and technology (Part I), (Part II)
35. The medical doctor (Part I), (Part II)
36. The serial entrepreneur with mild superpowers (Part I), (Part II)
37. Serial entrepreneur and expert interviewer (Part I), (Part II) (Part III), (Part IV)
38. Founder of First Fridays (Part I), (Part II)
39. Someone who does cross-culture consulting (Part I), (Part II)
40. This senior executive made a tough decision that no parent should ever have to make (Part I), (Part II)
41. The reinvention guy (Part I), (Part II)

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Cover via Amazon

This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: The First 30 Days by Ariane de Bonvoisin, Mythologist Joseph Campbell and Interview with Leadership Coach and Career Consultant David Gray.

Mondays at the Salon

To master a topic of interest requires reading to further knowledge, and if you are interested in the topic for your personal interest, you would be reading for information. But to learn as much as possible about a subject, whether it be for information or to further your knowledge, Adler and Van Doren recommend that you read syntopically, which is reading several books at the same time about a specific topic, and looking at them in relationship to each other.

How to Fill the Information Gap Part Two

Booked on Tuesdays

According to Ariane de Bonvoisin, The First 30 Days: Your Guide to making Any Change Easier is about “a different way of looking at change; it’s about the creation of a new mind-set. The First 30 Days will guide you toward the positive in every change and will inspire you to love your life even more.” This book is important because change is a reality in our everyday lives. Change is never easy but we all have to learn to embrace it to move forward and The First 30 Days helps you to do that.

Review: The First 30 Days by Ariane de Bonvoisin

Wisdom Wednesdays

Joseph Campbell’s lifelong fascination with mythology can be traced back to his visits to the local library where he immersed himself in reading Arthurian legends and Native American mythology. Campbell’s visits to the American Museum of Natural History where he encountered Indian religious art and ethnographic literature being collected by anthropologists stirred his imagination and deepened his interest.

Joseph Campbell, Essayist, Mythologist and Author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces 

Perspective Thursdays and Workshop FridaysThis week we featured leadership coach and career consultant David Gray. Once in a while I interview the same person more than once and you get to see their evolution, David Gray is one of those people. The two interviews are fairly consistent though. David is a straight shooter, so he deals honestly with people and treats them with respect. He offers some very practical advice in his interview. Here are Part One and Part Two of David Gray’s interview.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book link is affiliate link.

Interviewee Name: David Gray

Company Name: DSG Associates

Website: http://www.dsgassociates.ca

 Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

David Gray: The concept of integration is an interesting one.  In my opinion, there can be no distinction between who you are as a business leader or as an individual on a personal basis.  In other words, your ‘Self’ has to be an integrated whole.  Otherwise, by definition it would be impossible to lead with integrity and conviction.  However, one’s personal life is one’s own.  In an era of celebrity worship this concept of the private Self can be a difficult one for some people to grasp.  My solution is to advise people that I am available as a Coach during a quite broad number of hours.  Beyond that, my time is my own. 

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it? 

David Gray: I spend my down time reading, walking my dog, Eddie, and doing mundane household chores.  I find all of these activities quite relaxing and conducive to engaging in a meditation of sorts.

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

David Gray:

1. Be humble
2. Listen actively and intently.
3. Practise empathetic understanding.
4. Reflect intently.
5. Act decisively.

Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?

David Gray: I try to cast a wide net in the initial research and planning phases and then take everything I have learned and turn it on its head.  This combination of broad search and contrarian analysis tends to enable new and innovative thoughts to emerge.

Avil Beckford: What’s your favourite quotation and why?

David Gray: “Seek first to understand and only then to be understood” from Covey’s “7 Habits.”  I find that the world can be understood with any degree of accuracy only if one first casts aside one’s own inevitable prejudicial perspectives.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success? And in your opinion what’s the formula for success?

David Gray: Success for me is defined in terms of relationships.  One is successful if one tries to give back to others more wisdom, more empathy and more joy than one takes for oneself.  We do not define our own reputation, our personal brand.  Other people do this for us.  And so, if our self-awareness and our reputation are to have any real congruency, then success can only be defined on a social rather than an individual basis.  Our success is inextricably entwined in what we give to others and what we share of ourselves with others, rather than what we take for ourselves and what we hold on to of ourselves solely for our own enjoyment.

Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

David Gray: I worked, and continue to work half days.  Sometimes it’s the first half of the day, sometimes the second.  Sometimes I break the day into quarters.  But I always try to work at least 12 hours a day.  Except on Sundays.  Then I generally only work six hours or so.  In other words, I worked hard and continue to do so.  However, one can only really work hard on a sustainable basis if one truly enjoys the work.  So the first key is to identify your life’s work, your true mission or ‘vocation’ as it used to be called.  After all, each of us is only here for a very brief period of time.

Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

David Gray: Figure out what you want to do in the way of a career.  Meantime, while life throws other opportunities your way – which probably on the surface appear to have very little to do with that desired career – work like the devil himself to succeed at whatever work you are doing at any given time.  There is no such thing as bad honest work.  Nor is there any such thing as undignified honest work.  So work hard and prosper.

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

David Gray:

1. Sir Winston Churchill:  Thank you, thank you, thank you Sir, for staying the course throughout the wilderness years when lesser men succumbed to grovelling group think.
2. Robert E. Lee:  What were you thinking when you decided in favour of the Southern cause?  Far too many men died and far too much unnecessary suffering was caused by this fatally flawed decision which prolonged the failed Southern War of Secession.
3. Prince Charles Stuart:  Stay in France.  The Highland Scots have sufficient problems without your intrusion into their already difficult lives.
4. Julius Caesar:  Beware the Ides of March!
5. Socrates:  Just drink the damn hemlock old man!  You have poisoned enough young minds with your hypocritical musings – and will continue to confuse a sufficient number of older ones over the course of human time.

Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

David Gray: Joseph Campbell’s, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.  This book brought me face-to-face with human mortality and our shared human journey, thus making clear the urgent need to become oneself, identify and follow one’s own ‘bliss’ and make a contribution to the human family, regardless of how humble or great that contribution might be.

Avil Beckford: You are one of the 10 finalists on the reality show, So, How Would You Spend Your Time? Each finalist is placed on separate deserted islands for two years. You have a basic hut on the island and all the tools for survival; you just have to be imaginative and inventive when using them. You are allowed to take five books, one movie and one music CD, and whatever else you take has to fit in one suitcase and a travel on case. What would you take with you and how would you spend the two years? T he prize is worth your while and at this stage in the game there really aren’t any losers among the 10 finalists, since each are guaranteed at least $2 million?

David Gray: The movie would be, The Natural.  I would seldom watch the film as I have already seen it at least three times.  But it would act as a constant reminder to focus on whatever is both relevant based on my own gifts and yet ‘doable’ based on circumstances at any given time.  The five books would include The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss so as to retain my sense of humour; Cervantes, Don Quixote (Penguin Classics) to ensure that I remember the absurdity of civilization; Foucault’s History of Madness  so as to understand the process as I would surely go slowly quite mad;  Kodokan Judo: The Essential Guide to Judo by Its Founder Jigoro Kano  to give me a structure that might enable me to retain some degree of physical fitness, as well as the anthology, The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged so as to nurture my soul even as my brain inevitably went a bit sideways.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

David Gray: The possibilities for self development and testing one’s own capabilities and limits.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

David Gray: Quiet reflection, exercise, and good wholesome food.

Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for?

David Gray: Enlightenment.

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

David Gray: I am happy when…I am doing what I do best…practising Leadership Coaching.

David Gray:  I am unusually direct in speech, as I consider trust to be a condition most quickly built upon a foundation of honest communication.  At the same time, I take pains to be empathetic and non-threatening in my overall approach.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Interviewee Name: David Gray

Company Name: DSG Associates

Website: http://www.dsgassociates.ca/ 

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

David Gray:  I am unusually direct in speech, as I consider trust to be a condition most quickly built upon a foundation of honest communication.  At the same time, I take pains to be empathetic and non-threatening in my overall approach.

Avil Beckford: What’s a typical day like for you?

David Gray: There is no such thing anymore.  Every day is different.  The commonality from one day to the next is that I get up around 6 am to take my West Highland white terrier, Eddie, for a morning walk.  Some days I am then in client meetings until as late as 9 pm, other days I spend the entire day reading books and articles on leadership, career coaching and related topics, doing research on the internet, or reflecting on various client situations and challenges.

Avil Beckford: How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

David Gray:  I truly enjoy my work as a Leadership Coach, a Career Consultant, and as a Sales Leadership Educator.  (I detest the word “Trainer” unless it is applied to the training of dogs, and even then I have reservations concerning its use).  As a result, the motivation flows directly from the work itself.  If you enjoy what you do, then you will naturally find yourself “in flow” without any great difficulty.  Of course, many if not most people either do not engage in work that they enjoy and thus do not get into a ‘flow’ state of mind; or, they have only a general idea as to how to make daily work actually ‘work’ for them on an individual emotional basis, and so they do not experience and appreciate the positive aspects of their work as fully as they potentially could do.  But I digress…

Avil Beckford: If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

David Gray: I would work a lot more diligently in High School and in my Undergrad years at University.  Then I would go to Law School.  After that, I would try to retain a modicum of humility – although that would probably be difficult, because even as it was, with all my youthful ignorance and indolence and all those missed opportunities, it still took about ten years of hard slogging in the Sales profession to put a significant dent in my hard-headed arrogance!

Avil Beckford: What’s the most important business or other discovery you’ve made in the past year?

David Gray: The most important discovery I have made is that each of us comes fully equipped for the life we are destined to lead.  The challenge is in figuring out what equipment we have, and then in figuring out how to use that equipment.  In my case, my sheer determination and doggedness enabled me to overcome a lot of obstacles.  My natural optimism was also an important asset, especially in rough times.

Avil Beckford: What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

David Gray: The biggest threat to my business is complacency.  I have reached a point in my consulting career wherein most of my business comes to me via referral.  Although very nice, this state of affairs does tend to breed complacency.  Rather than wait for the possibility of a downturn in this situation, I need to get out and do more business development.

Avil Beckford: What’s unique about the service that you provide?

David Gray: As with any successful consultant, the most unique aspect of my service is the specific bundle of talents and experience that I personally bring to the table.  Rather than attempt to duplicate this unique set, in associating with other independent consultants under the DSG Associates umbrella, I try to identify other individuals who also bring a unique blend of talents and experience to the table, thereby enriching our shared clients in a manner that a more traditional consultancy approach simply would not be able to accomplish.

Avil Beckford: Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it. What kind of lessons did you learn in the process?

David Gray: The major challenges I have faced in life can be boiled down to two components:  First, doing things the hard way.  Second, not listening to my own intuition.  Both of these difficulties were more predominant in my younger years.  As I have ‘matured’ (hopefully!) the challenges I have faced have tended to be more of an external nature rather than intrinsic to my own being.

Avil Beckford: Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

David Gray: I have had a number of good breaks.  No one break made my career come together so to speak.  The people who gave me those breaks all had two things in common: they were in a hiring position to say ‘Yes’, and they believed in me.

Avil Beckford: Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

David Gray:  One of my biggest failures would have to be having not believed sufficiently in my own capabilities when I was a young man.  As a result, I tended to either miss opportunities completely or else under-perform as compared to my real potential.  I gradually learned that self-belief is one of the foundations of success.  This realization has in turn enabled me to help others realize this fundamental learning.

Avil Beckford: What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

David Gray:  One of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make was to set out on my own as an entrepreneur after spending over twenty years working within more structured working environments.  Initially, this decision entailed a steep learning curve and a lot of serious concern as to whether I could hack the new course, and if not…then what would my options be?  As it turned out, working on a totally independent basis where I am completely responsible for all my successes – and failures – suits me to a ‘T.’ I am responsible to my clients and to myself.  There is no one looking over my shoulder second-guessing my decisions or trying to micro-manage my daily moves.

Avil Beckford: What are three events that helped to shape your life?

David Gray:

1. The first was actually a non-event.  Despite competing to the best of my ability in individual and team sports of various kinds, I never won a First place in any of them either on my own or as part of a team.  That experience taught me that the process is at least as important as the outcome.
2. The second was leaving home as a young man on an abrupt and unexpected basis.  Although already quite self-sufficient for the most part, circumstances dictated that I had to get myself fully organized on a completely independent basis financially whilst also commencing my first year at university.  I am immensely proud of the fact that I continued my education on an uninterrupted basis whilst both supporting myself and paying for university by working two jobs at the same time.
3. The third would have to be my marriage to Anne, my life-partner and the inspiration and foundation for all of my subsequent success, whether in business or in life on a wider level.

Avil Beckford: What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

David Gray:  Learning, while in my mid-thirties, how to paddle a white water canoe on an expert basis, having never previously been exposed to serious canoeing of any sort.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

David Gray:  Indirectly for the most part.  There was one gentleman who mentored me on an ongoing basis in my early thirties as a professional coach when I was working as a corporate executive.  This learning provided the foundation for my own coaching approach and style.  However, unfortunately although much of the advice this individual provided was very insightful, on a couple of occasions he got the whole picture wrong.  I trusted him and so the result was some very difficult learning experiences for me completely at my own expense.  These experiences taught me to be very careful to ensure that my own clients never feel compelled to act on my advice, but rather, to sift through the input from all external sources on an independent basis and then arrive at their own informed decision.

Avil Beckford: What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

David Gray: Think before you act.  Or as Abe Lincoln noted, “If I had ten hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the first six hours sharpening the axe.”

Avil Beckford: An invisible mentor is a unique leader you can learn things from by observing them from afar, in the capacity of an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

David Gray:  If your natural instinct is to rely more on lateral, gut-feel observations of people’s statements and actions than on facts, then trust your own intuition in arriving at the deeper truths.  If on the other hand you are an individual who tends to rely more on a detailed and linear observation of facts as they unfold on the ground, then trust your sensory capacity to sort through to the practical truth.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Interviewee Name: David Gray

Company Name: DSG Associates

Website: http://www.davidgraycoach.com

Avil Beckford:  How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

David Gray: My personal and professional life are seamless in the sense that I work almost every day and I set my own hours, so one blends into the other in that respect.  On the other hand, I make a very clear distinction between clients and friends.  Sometimes one becomes the other and vice versa, but for the most part my private life is just that.

Avil Beckford:  What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

David Gray: I regret not having traveled the world when I was in my twenties instead of jumping right into a career.

Avil Beckford:  What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

David Gray:

1. Treat everyone as a friend unless or until they give you reason not to do so
2. Seek to understand and only then to be understood
3. Be completely trustworthy, as trust is the foundation for all true relationships
4. Be true to yourself
5. Treat everyone with dignity and respect, but be especially gentle with the old, the young, the weak and the less fortunate

Avil Beckford:  When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

David Gray: I spend my “down-time” in one of four ways:  thinking/reflecting on my own; working out physically at the gym or at home; reading; with close friends, usually one-to-one.

Avil Beckford:  What process do you use to generate great ideas?

David Gray: Take the situation, consider the conventional wisdom and then try to turn it on its head and see what comes up.  In other words, think in a consciously contrarian style.

Avil Beckford:  How do you define success?

David Gray: Success as I define it is an intensely personal and individual reality.  For me personally, success fundamentally consists in being true to my own ideals and life philosophy while engaging in a genuine way with clients and friends such that they feel enriched for having spent time with me.

Avil Beckford:  In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

David Gray: The formula for success is simple:  Chase your dreams, not other people’s ideas of success.

Avil Beckford:  What does it take to succeed in your field?

David Gray: To be successful in my field one typically needs empathy, compassion, a conscientious work ethic and a background in HR.  However, to be truly outstanding one additionally needs a great degree of life history in a variety of business settings as well as a high degree of intuitive and innovative intelligence in order to be able to work with people from numerous diverse backgrounds who are each struggling with very individual career and life challenges.  In a word, one needs wisdom.  And typically, that can only be accumulated over a long period of time after encountering a variety of challenging situations in one’s own career and life.

Avil Beckford:  Which one book had a profound impact on your life?

David Gray: Hero of a Thousand Faces by the great mythologist, Joseph Campbell.  He taught me to ‘follow my bliss.’

Avil Beckford:  If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Give a brief summary of each book.

David Gray:

• Don Quixote, by Miguel De Cervantes:  The first modern novel, this book revolutionized the imaginative approach to the then core myth of Chivalry, itself a central concept in most European’s self-construct.  This book reminds us never to take at face value the assumptions of the society in which we happen to live because of vagaries of our birth in a particular geographical space, social context and time.
• The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History, by Philip Bobbitt.  An erudite and sweeping review of European history until the 19th century and then an analysis of world history in the 20th and early 21st centuries viewed from the dual perspectives of Law and War.  This book provides a context within which to grasp the complex geopolitics of the world we currently live in.
• The Poetry of Robert Frost: All eleven of his books – complete, edited by Edward Connery Lathem.  This book reminds one that the only life worth living is one including a degree of reflection.
• The Measure of a Man: a Spiritual Autobiography - Sidney Poitier.  This book teaches a man how to live as a man.  In a day and age when men are increasingly out of touch with their essential masculinity, Poitier’s story of his personal challenges, triumphs and philosophy of life reads like a melodic breath of very fresh air.
• Lincoln’s Melancholy:  How Depression Challenged a President and Fuelled His Greatness, by Joshua Wolf Shenk.  A biography that reads like a detective novel. The real Lincoln is far more fascinating and inspiring than the manufactured American myth of the man.  Like Poitier’s book, this one provides insights into what is possible to achieve and, far more importantly, what it means to live life as a man who is true to his own vision, come hell or high water.  Interestingly, in Lincoln’s case it was the hellfire of a bullet, whereas for Poitier it was a near-death experience with high water.

Avil Beckford:  If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

David Gray: If I could have one wish granted, it would be to have all of my future wishes granted on a reversible (if unintended consequences ensued) basis.  But seriously…it would be to see President Obama lead the world, by astute understanding and management of long-range American foreign affairs interests, out of the political and economic bankruptcy created by the current American Administration and into a new era of relative peace and stability.

Avil Beckford:  Complete the following, I am happy when…..

David Gray: I am happ(iest) when surrounded by a few very close friends, discussing world affairs, telling jokes, enjoying the warmth of each other’s company and generally having a good laugh while stretching our minds.

About David Gray

David has advised executive clients based in Canada, the UK, Europe and Asia. In addition to his own consulting practice, David serves as President of the Board, Toronto Chapter of the Association of Career Professionals International (ACP International), and is a member of the Strategic Leadership Forum (GTA).

Prior to working as a career and strategic leadership consultant, David held management positions in Canada and the UK in business & technology consulting, and started up and managed two Divisions in Canada for a blue chip, global financial services organization.

David’s quiet, incisive, highly personalized approach has inspired many executives and entrepreneurs who are in process of redefining strategic paradigms to realize growth opportunities on both a business and personal level.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.