A "Thanksgiving Special" Post

..and a chance to win some stuff.

Future Guardian,

I am overwhelmed with gratitude.

Not because Thanksgiving is tomorrow, but because we just wrapped up the Gray Wolf Summit last weekend and we have so much love and appreciation for both the people that have been with us for years as well as the new faces adding their unique personalities to the group.

Crypto is doing crypto things. OpenAI is doing new, exciting tech things.

…and as much as we love to think about and tinker in the future of tech, we’re here for the people, first and foremost. In fact, I was just interviewed by two Guardians about The Guardian Academy mission and origins, yesterday. You can listen to it here:

You can also see a thread with everyones favorite photos from the weekend here.

Good times with good people

But I want to take a moment…

If you’ve seen any of my videos or photos, you’ve probably noticed I’m always wearing the same hat:

..and that we are always donating to the same foundation:

Believe it or not, those two things are related.

Let’s start with the hat.

Before the very first Gray Wolf Summit I asked the Guardians if there was anyone that wanted to tackle the design of the Gray Wolf Logo. Zachary Good offered to help, which we accepted because we knew that he was one of the best tattoo artists in the entire country.

The logo on the hat is the first one he sent over and we decided to roll with it.

Fast forward to last December.

I got a text from a close family friends of Zach’s saying that he had relapsed and they were worried about him and needed help - apparently it was pretty bad. As soon as I talked to them, I called Joe Polish, the founder of Genius Recovery. Joe immediately connected me with a handful of people that I connected with Zachary’s family and family friends.

A few hours later I got a text that with the help of the Genius Recovery connections, they had a plan to move Zach to Arizona where he would get treatment - which he agreed to - the very next day.

**Insert sigh of relief here**

And a few hours after that I got one more text:

“Zach was just found unresponsive. He’s gone.”

Losing such a gifted, loving, and loved community member was hard. It’s still hard.

I never had a chance to get the tattoo he promised me, so I wear his design every day out of respect and as a reminder that you never know what others are going through. We give to Genius Recovery hoping to get more resources out to people that need help before it’s too late.

So here’s the deal…

I just counted and I have 23 Gray Wolf Summit hats. (Okay, I have 25 but I’m keeping two for myself)

Once the 23 hats are gone, they are gone. We are not going to have any more made. And… there is only on way to get one:

23 referrals to the Guardian Academy Knowledge center.

It’s super simple:

1. Navigate to the Leaderboard here¹

2. Grab your referrals link.

3. Share with others.

A percentage of all TGA revenue goes to Genius Recovery, including paid substack memberships. We also encourage Guardians to share 1% of their profits made from doing business with one another inside TGA:

Our data tells us people want t-shirts and hoodies. Those will be coming as soon as the 23 hats are rewarded for referrals. If you don’t want a hat, I get it…

Here’s what you can do instead:

Make sure the people you love are okay.

That’s it. Just do that.

The reward will be far greater than anything we could send you.

Happy Thanksgiving To You and Yours,

Nic and The Guardian Academy.

1. Leaderboard and Referral Link