May 2024 Life Recap

Last updated: June 3, 2024

Austin, Texas is getting much warmer and summer is settling in.

After a whirlwind last month, it was nice to live a bit slower and travel less.

In May 2024, I worked a conference, led a little workshop, went to an amazing wedding, Neville’s bachelor party, recorded some podcasts, hosted a party, and hung out with a lot of my friends.

Key learnings and lessons:

• Be careful with jet lag
• Host more events
• Baby goats are so cute
• My First Million is a great podcast

Keep reading below to see my favorite photos and moments from each.

I’m testing out writing these public monthly recaps as a way to reflect on how I spend my time. See other entries from past months here.

Conferences and Events

People keep asking me to help with conferences, which I love.

GoBundance

I was hired to be the Master of Ceremonies for a business conference here in Austin, Texas called GoBundance. It was a two day event with speakers and activities every hour.

Their CEO, Matt Smith, said that hiring me was the best decision he made. It allowed him to relax a little and have more time to work on his speeches and connect with the other VIPs.

“Hiring Nick Gray to help with our conference was the single best thing that I did this year. We have already invited him to work with us again at our next event.”

– Matt King, CEO of GoBundance

This seems to be a theme: many young or bootstrapped companies have the CEO or Founder lead the conference. Then when they can afford it, they hire some professional help. That is exactly what I’d do.

GoBundance also invited me to be one of their speakers. I spoke on stage for an hour and led a workshop and Q&A about why you should host your own events or meetups. It was great.

I was one of the last speakers on the last day, which is tough from an energy and attention perspective, so I tried bringing my own energy down to match and then elevate the room.

Key takeaways:

• I was obliterated from Tokyo jet lag the first afternoon. I almost didn’t make it up on stage for closing comments.
• The real MVPs were the GoBundance events team: they made it so easy for me. Shoutout to Kelley Prosser especially.

Nick x Courtney Party

I hosted a meetup with my friend Courtney but I almost didn’t want to. Then it turned out great.

I always forget how hard it is to get started! To pick a date, to invite people, to invite more people, to build a good ratio of attendees, all that stuff.

But then you start to invite people and it builds and it goes and everyone is so excited. Everyone wants to be invited to a party. (continued post)

Key takeaways:

• This was my first time hosting a party at a house for sale. David Shapiro, the real estate agent, asked me if I wanted to host an event at his client’s home. It was a win-win for everyone. They provided the venue, the snacks, and the drinks. Me and Courtney then filled the room with interesting people.
• Shoutout to Courtney for pushing me to host this. She’s been hosting a lot of her own events and is making a name for herself as someone who can fill rooms with interesting people.

My First Million Shoutouts

One of the highlights of the month was being featured on two different podcast episodes of My First Million with my friends Shaan Puri and Sam Parr.

In this first one, about The Richest Men in Texas, Shaan talked about me hosting a party for him as mentioned in the April 2024 recap. He also talked about the “gag” that I did– see the video I made about that here. (or on Instagram or YouTube Shorts)

Then in this one, titled The Greatest Episode We’ve Ever Done, Sam and Shaan recount my Tokyo Blind Date story for the My First Million audience.

I love these guys and really appreciate their support of my wacky adventures. It’s also neat to meet listeners of their podcast. Twice a week I get a phone call, email, or am stopped on the street to say Hi from someone who knows me from their show.

Friend Hangouts

I spent quality 1-on-1 time this month with Baron Ryan, Amanda Holmes, John Arrow, Adam Robinson, Noah Kagan, Neville Medhora, Sameer, Sam Parr, Zac Rollins (thanks for hosting!), Courtney, Madison Taskett, and more.

My Tokyo Blind Date came to visit me for a short weekend in Austin. I took her to visit baby goats on a farm and then out on my paddleboard in Barton Creek. That was pretty awesome.

• I went swimming in Barton Springs Pool one morning with my friend Adam Robinson. He and I just hung out and treaded water and talked for about an hour and it was awesome. Treading water is very hard, and after 10 or 15 minutes, I had to take a break. I’m always happy when I go to Barton Springs Pool.
• I attended a documentary screening of the movie Join or Die that was hosted by my friend Steph Smith and her internet community called Internet Pipes. This was pretty cool and makes me think I should host my own documentary screening sometime.
• I hosted my friend Baron Ryan to help him set up his new website, www.americanbaron.co This is in preparation for his book launch. He was very happy to have this.
• I spoke to John Fitchthorne, who I randomly wrote an article about years ago. He found me and we had a nice 30 minute call where I learned more about him.

Neville’s Bachelor Party

Noah Kagan put on a bachelor party for Neville Medhora with a bunch of our friends. We all went out to a huge lake house about 90 minutes outside Austin.

We rode ATVs on rugged trails in 100F heat. The guys shot guns. I made a presentation that got a lot of laughs. We ate a few meals together. And on the last morning, me and Noah raced around the lake on electric surfboards called eFoils.

My favorite memory was the slow Sunday morning we all had together sitting on the porch and talking about love, life, and everything in between.

Jonathan and Rachel’s Wedding

I went to Los Angeles for a long weekend to celebrate my friend Jonathan Wegner’s wedding to his dream woman, Rachel.

I made this video compilation from various moments on the first day. Check it out:

I hit the jackpot flying there with my airplane seat. Seat 12A is the closest that Southwest has to extra legroom on their 737-800s.

Their wedding was the most well produced and well designed wedding that I think I have ever attended.

So many little details: the beautiful agenda handout, set design of various rooms, sweatshirts and hats and water bottles, many tens of thousands of dollars of flowers, and so much more.

This wedding was the result of hundreds of hours of Jonathan and Rachel working with graphic designers and event planners to create a magical experience.

Health

This month I finally hired an in-home masseuse to give me a Thai massage. I have been saying that I need to get a massage for a long time and I’m glad that I finally did it.

I participated in the My First Muscle Challenge. It was the hardest workout I’ve done in a LONG time: 100 air squats, 100 pushups, and 100 burpees. The burpees were miserable. My time was around 30 minutes.

Tooth issues: I visited my dentist about 5 or 6 times this month. One of my back bottom teeth continues to give me problems. I finally had my crown removed and a temporary crown added this month. Unfortunately, that resulted in lots of pain for several days, and the dentist still is not sure whether this tooth will die or not. This is a longer story, but I’ve been dealing with this for two years, and I hope to have it figured out soon.

Favorite Photos

Conclusion

May was great. Good friends and good times.

This month I tried writing my notes and recap along the way, which should help me publish closer to the start of June.

These updates are still taking a long time to write and compile. If you enjoyed reading it, please send me an email or leave a comment below. It means a lot to me to hear from readers like you.

This has been my May 2024 recap. I type these notes and share them as a way to reflect on how I spend my time. See other entries from past months here.