Call Summary: Year-End Post Review & Christian Microschool Alliance Strategy

Overview

Late-night call where Tim helped Gary review and refine his year-end LinkedIn/X post celebrating his hackathon win and faith journey. Discussion evolved into strategic planning for the Christian Microschool Alliance as a scholarship-granting organization, leveraging Trump's new tax credits. The call ended with a powerful joint prayer session and Tim's profound expression of gratitude for Gary "helping me not die" (referencing his escape from Russian conscription).

Key Topics Discussed

Prenda CEO Follow-Up

• Prenda CEO followed Gary on X and subscribed to his Substack immediately after the earlier call
• Head of sales accepted Gary's LinkedIn connection request
• Tim: "Wow. Gary's back."
• Gary sees potential for Prenda to pay him to create Christian Microschool Alliance similar to Applied AI Society model
• Tim: "What if you can get like a high salary Prenda role... they're actually going to listen because it's like directly from their competitor"

Christian Microschool Alliance Strategy

• Scholarship-Granting Organization Model: Gary realized the Alliance could benefit from Trump's new tax laws
• Gary: "If a billionaire or a business donates to the Christian Microschool Alliance, they get 100% tax credits"
• Center of Gravity Concept: Creating a hub for Christian microschool conversations without forcing platforms like Prenda to niche down on Christianity
• Gary: "It can be alienating for an organization that's trying to just create microschools to be dedicating a ton of marketing to Christianity"
• Sponsorship Model: Allow platforms to "buy a booth at a conference that I host"
• Tim's insight: "None of them will want to explicitly niche down on Christianity because they'll burn bridges to atheist parents... It just makes a lot of sense to be a Christian influencer with high credibility who organizes a Christian community"
• Trust as Differentiator: Tim: "The way to do this is to be trustworthy"

Year-End Post Review

• Tim helped Gary refine LinkedIn/X post about his transformative year
• Title Decision: Changed to "Reflecting on the best year of my life" for hook value
• Key Additions:
  • "Started building a faith and tech community"
  • "Hope 2026 is the best year of your life" ending
• Photo Decision: Single hackathon win photo rather than multiple
• Tim's feedback: "It wasn't a shitty year. You did a lot of things that made you a better Gary. I think you're a better Gary now."

Tim's Updates

• Done with school year at Kedge Business School
• Planning to stay in France for holidays, possibly Spain
• Visiting Paris with cousin on December 24th for Christmas/New Year
• Two friends' birthdays to celebrate in Paris in January
• Discussed starting a media agency with friends in France

Brenda Situation Resolution

• Gary: "The whole Brenda situation resolved itself. She was like, education is not it for me"
• Gary believes Brenda should be "a spiritual advisor to business leaders"
• Brenda resonated with that direction

Tauren Wells Strategy

• Gary wants to be a "freaking expert" in Prenda/microschools before January Tauren Wells meeting
• Gary: "If I have to bring the CEO of Prenda to that meeting, I will"
• Recalled giving Tauren a super rare 1971 Michael Jackson record
• Gary's pitch to Tauren: "You are the intersection of Michael Jackson and Billy Graham... Billy Graham spoke in front of a million people in Korea. Let's make it 2 million people"

Alpha Schools Potential Return

• Tim: "It's going to be really funny if God just brings you back in a certain capacity"
• Gary noted even Alpha could potentially pay him through the Alliance model
• Gary: "I don't even know if they want to go into faith-based schools. But there's going to be more and more of these kinds of projects"

Flow State Philosophy

• Gary recalled being in "such a freaking flow state" in April
• Tim's encouragement: "You're gonna be in a better flow state now. No pride. Entirely devoted to God. Complete obedience. You learned. It's gonna be better."
• Gary: "What is the flow state possible with God? Can I get an amen?"

Joint Prayer Session

Tim's Prayer

• Gratitude for friendship and the year
• Request for more courage and boldness
• "Please give us even more energy so that we can pursue our calling"

Gary's Prayer

• Thanked God for Tim and for "connecting the dots"
• "Our job is to be obedient. When we have an unction to call Tim, to call Brenda, to call Dennis Rodman, to call Kanye, we are going to make that call"
• Thanked God for the Christian Microschool Alliance scholarship-granting organization idea
• "If I have to bring the CEO of Prenda to that meeting, I will"
• Commitment to become Prenda expert before January Tauren Wells meeting
• "Every day is unexpected when you're with God... God is the ultimate script writer"

Gary's "Stay in the Game" Philosophy

• "Find faith-based fellowship, friendship... At any one given point, it's unlikely that both of you are in a depressed, terrible state"
• "Each friend is reminding the other just to keep going"
• "It's a cooperative multiplayer game when you're with other people that believe that great things are godly"
• Vision of doing this "on stage in front of all these CEOs"

Key Quotes

From Gary

• "I'm glad that Travis can't bring me on yet, because I don't want to even start doing that yet"
• "There needs to be a center of gravity for this kind of conversation"
• "By January, I wanna be a freaking expert in Prenda microschools"
• "Every day is unexpected when you're with God... God is the ultimate script writer"
• "He invented the metaphysical principle of surprise, bro. You don't think he can instantiate that whenever he wants?"
• "The game is this: Find faith-based fellowship, friendship... just keep going"

From Tim

• "Wow. Gary's back."
• "It wasn't a shitty year. You did a lot of things that made you a better Gary"
• "You're gonna be in a better flow state now. No pride. Entirely devoted to God. Complete obedience"
• "Thank you so much for helping me not die" (referencing escape from Russian conscription)

Tim's Profound Gratitude

At the end of the call, Tim expressed deep gratitude:

• "I wanna say thank you so much for helping me not die. I remember this, and I wanted to voice it. Thank you for helping me not die. Good night, man."
• This references Gary's role in helping Tim navigate out of Russia and avoid potential conscription

Action Items

1. Gary to post year-end reflection on LinkedIn and X
2. Gary to email Apostle's sister (Dr. Katherine Williams) about starting a microschool
3. Gary to research Christian Microschool Alliance as scholarship-granting organization
4. Gary to become Prenda expert before January 16 Tauren Wells meeting
5. Gary to email Prenda with detailed follow-up after posting

Strategic Insights

Community Builder Business Model

• Same model as Applied AI Society but for faith-based education
• Platforms pay for inclusion/sponsorship rather than Gary working for them directly
• Maintains independence and credibility while generating revenue
• Creates "center of gravity" for Christian microschool conversations

Trust-Based Influence

• Tim articulated key insight: Christian influencer with high credibility organizing community is the most effective way to reach Christian market
• Platforms can't explicitly target Christians without alienating other markets
• Independent Alliance solves this problem for everyone