Call Summary: Christian Education Pilot and Navigating Self-Doubt

Overview

Gary called Marina while driving back from Vegas holiday visit with family. He shared his current state of uncertainty between two funding opportunities (Travis Oliphant's Applied AI Society and Mike Ajouz's Christian activism funding) and his fascination with Christian education. Marina provided spiritual counsel on patience and running experiments, and they landed on a concrete action: Gary will run $100 ads targeting Christian special ed parents in San Antonio to test interest in a Christian micro school.

Key Topics Discussed

Gary's Current State of Uncertainty

• Holiday Visit: Visited family in Vegas, brother brought girlfriend, played board games
• Existential Wrestling: "As soon as I feel like I have the right idea, I'm like, I'm not sure anymore"
• Self-Doubt: "Sometimes I just feel like I'm overhyped... Am I making it up in my head that it's about patience? Or am I just making everything up?"
• Grateful but Searching: "I'm happy to be alive... I do believe in God, I do believe in Christ, and I want to go to heaven. And the suffering of this current world, of not really feeling like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing... there has to be a better way"

Two Funding Opportunities

• Travis Oliphant: Offered to pay Gary to build Applied AI Society community for engineers in Austin - "not entirely related to my faith"
• Mike Ajouz: "Historically funded political activism projects. He wants to fund Christian activism, but in a way where it's more like businesses. But I don't even know what fits in that category"
• Tension with Scale Mindset: "He is a scale guy... But is that the right way to go about things if you're trying to be led by the Holy Spirit and let God do something that a financial analyst can't imagine?"

Marina's Spiritual Counsel on Self-Doubt

• Childhood Wounds Driving Need to Prove: "Maybe there is this still in us childhood thing where we didn't receive enough acknowledgment and love from our parents. And we kind of like trying to prove God... oh, here I am, I want to do this great things for you"
• God's Unconditional Love: "Maybe all he wants us to calm down and just trust him and build patiently relationship with him. And knows that he loves us, no matter what we do, if we do great things or if we don't do anything"
• Experimentation as Valid Path: "Don't be afraid. If you're praying, God will guide you. Even if you're going to make like 50 other project mistakes, he will guide you to the one which you need to do... There is no failure in it. It's just the path"

Christian Education Fascination

• TEFA Program: Texas program allowing $10k per student for alternative education, $30k for learning disabilities
• February 4th Deadline: When parents can start applying for vouchers
• Spiritual Mother Connection: Ida Villavicencio - 30 years in education, licensed counselor, "broken the law before to pray over kids. Because she knows it can work"
• Core Insight: "What if you didn't have to break the law to treat kids?"

Marina's Related Idea

• Museum of Conversation Experiment: Set up ventilation tube at Metropolitan Museum with "Museum of Conversation" sign - had conversations with strangers through tube
• After-School Program Vision: "For teenagers... after school program which brings theology, philosophy kind of thing, discussions"
• Connection to Columbia Self-Organized Students: Chris brings her to speak to student groups

The Pilot Idea

• Target Demographic: Christian parents with special needs/learning disability kids who qualify for $30k TEFA
• Why This Segment: "When people have no other options, they will agree for any options because there's nothing to lose. They already tried everything"
• Test Method: Run $100 in ads targeting Christian special ed parents in San Antonio, survey interest in Christian micro school for fall
• Data for Next Step: "I'll be able to have data to bring to that teacher [Ida] to be like, let's consider doing this"

Church Buildings as School Infrastructure

• Empty Churches Thesis: "Churches are basically empty throughout the week... the right move is for me to demonstrate that there are parents that want something that doesn't exist and the church could help provide this service"
• Revenue Model: Pay church to use space, helps with sustainability

Ten Commandments Discussion

• Texas/Oklahoma Mandate: Mentioned controversy around mandating Ten Commandments in every classroom
• Marina's Response: "It's not going to really change the thing... if they just hang in there as an art piece... People need to look at other people who hold them to face and want to be like that"

Marketing Philosophy

• Marina's Caution on "Miracle" Framing: "Better to not use word miracle because not to oversell it. Undersell and overdeliver"
• Avoid Brain Rot Content: Gary self-reminder: "It's important to not be envious of people that are clearly not doing things that are honorable. Like increasing the brain rot"

Marina's Life Update

• Living Situation: Was on Long Island, now staying with friend in Manhattan for a month
• Friend Context: American friend she "brought to God" four years ago

Key Quotes

Gary on Self-Doubt

"Sometimes I just feel like I'm overhyped... Am I making it up in my head that it's about patience? Or am I just making everything up? That there's any opportunity that I'm meant to do anything. That's very possible."

Gary on Scale vs Spirit

"Is that the right way to go about things if you're trying to be led by the Holy Spirit and let God do something that a financial analyst can't imagine?... Maybe the Spirit wants me to do very unscalable things. And then the next step will unlock."

Marina on God's Unconditional Love

"Maybe all he wants us to calm down and just trust him and build patiently relationship with him. And knows that he loves us, no matter what we do, if we do great things or if we don't do anything."

Marina on Experimentation

"Don't be afraid. If you're praying, God will guide you. Even if you're going to make like 50 other project mistakes, he will guide you to the one which you need to do. There's nothing to fear and there is no failure in it. It's just the path."

Gary on Christian Education Calling

"I think that God put Christian education on my heart for a reason. We really do need prayer back in schools... But it's not going to happen through the public education."

Marina on Targeting Parents with No Options

"When people have no other options, they will agree for any options because there's nothing to lose. They already tried everything."

Action Items / Takeaways

• Gary's Homework: Run ~$100 in Facebook/Meta ads targeting Christian parents of special needs kids in San Antonio area, surveying interest in Christian micro school
• Gary to bring survey data to Ida Villavicencio to evaluate launching pilot
• February 4th TEFA deadline creates urgency for testing
• Focus on special needs segment where parents are desperate for alternatives ("nothing to lose")
• Avoid overselling "miracles" - undersell and overdeliver
• Churches as untapped infrastructure for weekday education