I have a rule that I learned from my dad. It’s called full disclosure drinking.
I’ll explain. 

There are certain kinds of drinks. Delicious drinks. Drinks with fruit, sugar, and pizazz. Drinks that are lying to you. They slide up next to you, slide their arm around, and whisper in your ear, “Hey man. I’m super nice. I’m never going to hurt you. I’m going to be your best friend!”. 

Then you take a sip and think some version of, “Oh man! This is great! It doesn’t even TASTE like alcohol!”
Then you wake up chained to an oar 3 miles out to sea.
The kind of drink that gives you a shoulder rub, then beans you upside the head and sells you to the circus. 

I prefer my drinks to be honest. Like a neat smoky scotch that smells like bandaids and rotting seaweed.
I’d rather sip on something that sits down next to you, leans over with a far-off gaze, and whispers to you quietly, “I’m going to kill you.”

Full disclosure. Honesty. At least we both know what we’re in for. 

I don’t know exactly why I’m telling you this except that, I hope it helps? 

Maybe there are some activities or humans in your life that you need to switch away from. 
Maybe you need to spend more time around Smoky Scotches instead of Mai Tai’s. 

It’s likely better for your health.

Daniel Whittington – Chancellor

Sometimes the most important thing you can do is to stop everything and take a rest. 

We have a rule at Wizard Academy. We are 100% an opt-in culture. Just because you paid to come to our campus, doesn’t mean you have to participate in everything on the schedule.

One of the most important things people can do is stop everything, pause, and take stock. 
Look back, and celebrate the milestones you missed while your nose was in the weeds. 
Listen to your body and realize you’ve been burying your anxiety and exhaustion in busyness and action. 
See the faces that surround you and remember why you chose these people and this time. 

The people who attend Wizard Academy tend to be just like that. Only more so. Because entrepreneurs always feel the need to do it more and do it better than everyone else. (Look, a new t-shirt slogan!)

On the first day of class at Wizard Academy, I walk to the front of the room and say these words.

“You are here today because you thought you would be helped by whatever we are teaching. But last night, you checked into a beautiful private room in a mystical valley on ancient holy land. It’s possible you took a true deep breath for the first time in months. 

In that moment you might have felt your soul breathe a sigh of relief and whisper a gentle, “Thank you.” 

If that’s you, know this. 
It’s possible that the most important thing you can do for the next three days is to leave the tower, head back to the valley, and rest. 
Drink a cup of tea. 
Sit in the courtyard and read a book. 
Take a day trek to Austin. 
Then join us for dinner and whisky in the vault after you’re done. 
If that’s you, then at the first break, sneak out of here. Or you can do it now, if you’re bold enough. I promise you can take this class again for free the next time you’re able. 
We’ll see you at dinner.”

I love that about us. Sometimes, I forget that I need it too.

But just so you know, you don’t have to wait for a class. Alumni can stay on campus anytime they want as long as there are rooms available. A nightly donation helps us cover the expenses of preparing your room and cleaning it after. But all you have to do is ask, and we put it on the calendar.

Let us know if what you really need is a deep breath at your home in Austin, Texas. 

Daniel Whittington – Chancellor

Wizard Academy is a place we return to. It’s a place that resets something in us and reminds us who we are when the world gets loud.

You’ve probably had the same thought at some point:

“I really hope this place is still here 20 years from now.”

But then life takes over. You go back to work and back to building your own future. There are too many things competing for your attention. Every now and then, you give when we ask, but mostly you just hope it works out.

WHAT JUST CHANGED?

Last month, something meaningful  happened.

Dewey and Renee Jenkins made the founding gift that officially established the Wizard Academy Endowment.

It’s possible you may not realize how big that moment is, because most people don’t really know what an endowment is. An endowment is not a donation. It’s a permanent funding engine.

It’s a pool of money that is invested, where only the earnings are used to support the organization. The balance of the donation stays intact. That means one donation continues to contribute every single year to the future of the Wizard Academy.

It’s the kind of thing that takes Wizard Academy from surviving to enduring.

Institutions like Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution operate this way. Not as a matter of scale, but as a matter of structure. That same structure is now in place for Wizard Academy.

That’s what just became possible for Wizard Academy. 

Before an endowment does anything, it has to reach a critical mass. For ours, that number is $250,000. That’s the point where it begins generating meaningful support for the Academy.

And beyond that?

The real vision is a $5 million endowment. At that level, Wizard Academy is no longer dependent on any single season, market, or moment.

At that level, Wizard Academy can start investing in other people instead of maintaining itself. We can offer scholarships, invest in future startups and growth, help fund things that we believe in and bring people to the campus that turn Wizard Academy into a destination for forward thinking entrepreneurs all over the world. 

Maybe this still looks like “just another fundraiser.” But it’s actually the structural step toward continuity at Wizard Academy.

What’s the current goal?

Large donations take us a long way towards our goal. But just as important is our entire alumni community saying, “Yes, let’s go on this journey together! Let’s protect this place we love so that it’s still here when our grandchildren start their own businesses!”

This is what we’re asking for.
Not a reluctant yes. Not a “maybe later.”
We’re asking for a, “Hells yes. I’m in.”

Think about what Wizard Academy has meant to you… this is your moment to help shape what it becomes.

You can contribute to the Wizard Academy Endowment by:
Heading here and donating any amount with a credit card. (please put “endowment” in the notes field)
Mailing a check of any amount to Wizard Academy, 16211 Crystal Hills Dr, Austin, TX 78737

If you’d like to talk about a larger gift, we would love to have that conversation.

Wizard Academy exists today because people like you chose to care. Now we have the chance to ensure it exists for everyone who comes after us. Let’s build something that lasts.

Daniel Whittington – Chancellor

Today I’m thinking about the family you have and the family you choose.

I don’t have any advice on marketing or business today. I just feel a general sense of thankfulness that this wacky band of wizardly misfits has made me feel like part of a family.

In the early days of being at Wizard Academy, I felt like the odd duck in a room full of swans. You spoke a language I didn’t totally understand. You had relationships that went back decades, and you had truly incredible and sometimes insane traditions. I loved it, but it sometimes felt like I was a steward of the community instead of a part of it.

But this year marks 13 years at Wizard Academy for me. And now, I’m not just hosting from the sidelines. I’ve even created a bunch of the traditions we currently follow.

And now, every class, there are people walking through the door that I look forward to seeing. People that are a joy, and that I wish lived in the same city as me. People that I consider family.

We create classes on campus that I hope will contribute to the health and growth of your businesses, your families, and your impact. But I also find that I’m starting to come up with more excuses to bring my family back. A once-a-year family reunion is not enough.

So today, I hope you’re well. I miss you. I can’t wait to hang out with you. Let’s figure out a reason for you to get here soon. If you have your own ideas, I’m all ears. Anything that means we get to spend more time together.

See you soon.

Daniel Whittington – Chancellor

I was reading G.K. Chesterton last week and stumbled onto this quote:

“There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, ‘I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.’ To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: ‘If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.’”
 — The Thing, G.K. Chesterton

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, especially watching the constant branding changes in the whisky industry.

Every time I turn around, someone is redoing fonts, changing bottles, rewriting websites, altering packaging, shifting color schemes. Reinventing. Refreshing. Modernizing.

Now, to be fair, I’m not anti-change. I’m currently helping one of the companies I consult for go through a significant brand evolution. So yes, pot meet kettle.

But too often we start changing before we understand.

Change for change’s sake is not necessarily progress. Sometimes it’s just motion.

The same thing is true at Wizard Academy.

We run more than 30 events a year on campus. There’s a well-worn path we follow each time: meals, tower prep, tastings, classrooms, logistics, the entire rhythm of hosting and sending people back out into the world.

When you repeat something that often, it can start to feel predictable to the team. Familiar. Maybe even boring.

And that’s when the temptation creeps in.

We once stopped using a restaurant we regularly hired for catering. We liked them. There was no problem. We were just tired of eating the same thing every week.

What we forgot was that our students don’t eat it every week.

They experience it once. Maybe twice a year. For many of them, it’s part of the ritual. Part of what they look forward to.

In a class of twenty people, more than half were visibly disappointed when the meal changed.

It was a quiet but very real lesson. Change is not always improvement.

All of this to say, be patient.

Before you tear down the fence, understand why it was built.

If you can’t explain what purpose something serves, don’t assume it serves none. Go away and think. Then come back.

Sometimes change is necessary and powerful.

And sometimes it’s just change.

Daniel Whittington – Chancellor

There’s a remarkable thing that happens in whisky tastings. First, some brain science. Four of your five senses get routed through your thalamus, the relay center that connects sensory data to awareness, conclusion, and action. Your sense of smell is unique. It bypasses the relay center completely and makes its first stop in the parts of your brain responsible for memory and emotion. It goes to the lizard brain first. That’s why your first reaction to smelling something might be a memory of a moment or a person, or even just a feeling. If I said, “This smells like Christmas,” you wouldn’t just think of pine or cinnamon. You’d think of your Christmas. Specific rooms. Specific faces. Specific emotions. Smell isn’t just data and deduction. Your brain throws up memories and emotions first, and only then does the rest of your mind try to deduce what’s happening. That’s a really roundabout way to arrive at, “This is a smoky single malt scotch.” The moment you come to a conclusion about what you’re smelling, you stop taking in new sensory data and start experiencing only the data that reinforces your conclusion. The moment you come to a conclusion is the moment you eliminate discovery. In sensory training, we try to delay that moment for as long as possible. We hold the glass. We revisit it. We ask better questions. We let it change. Because the longer you postpone certainty, the more there is to find. But this isn’t just about whisky. This is about how we experience reality. The moment you decide someone is arrogant, you stop seeing their insecurity.  The moment you decide someone is foolish, you stop noticing their intelligence.  The moment you decide a group “always does this,” you stop seeing the exceptions. Your brain is efficient. It loves shortcuts. Conclusions are shortcuts. Discovery is slower. It requires humility. In a whisky glass, rushing to certainty just means you miss a few flavor notes. That’s harmless. In a marriage, a friendship, a business partnership, or a culture, rushing to certainty means you stop seeing the person in front of you. If you want to become better at tasting whisky, you learn to delay your conclusions. If you want to become better at living with other humans, you might need to do the same thing. Because the moment you become certain, is usually the moment you stop discovering. Daniel Whittington – Chancellor

The Old Man in The Woods:
Life Lessons for Young Entrepreneurs

Nearly 30 years ago, Roy started teaching what he had learned and figured out about the world and marketing. Lessons he had learned by spending millions of dollars of other people’s money. He learned what worked, what didn’t and why. Following his trilogy of best-selling business books, Roy’s wife, Pennie, encouraged him to start teaching what he had learned. That was the start of Wizard Academy.

Many of the students were young. They listened. They learned. They went on to build empires of their own.

Now it’s time for the next generation of Wizard Academy entrepreneurs.

Think of this class as an Unstructured Adventure for people under 30 (maybe 40).

All young entrepreneurs face two questions.

• What do they THINK they need to know?
• What do they ACTUALLY need to know?

We’d like to answer those questions and help you set a path towards decades of incredible growth and impact.

This is aimed at the next generation of business leaders. It could be you, it could be one of the people in you’re company that you want to setup for success. You can even join them for a good reminder of the fundamentals.

This is not a class on tactics and tricks. This class is building the framework for a successful career.

Spend May 26-27 with Roy Williams.
Click here to sign up.

This last year has felt a bit like riding a pedal bike through a tornado. Every time we’ve tried to make plans and take action, the ground shifts again. In my peripheral I keep catching glimpses of debris, parts of houses, and dust clouds spinning in circles. I’d swear I heard a whisper of “and your little dog too!!” in the distance. 

I understand we’re not the only ones who are feeling that way. 

Dave and I have been trying to figure out how Wizard Academy can push back against the rolling dust clouds of chaos. We have a few things in the works, but one of them is ready now. 

Wizard Academy is putting two of our main classes, Magical Worlds and Whisky Marketing School Level 1, on the 2026 calendar right now. 

These are core curriculum classes at Wizard Academy. The fundamental bedrocks of the twin arms of education we host at the Wizard’s Tower. We want you to be able to count on them. 

The dates are set. You can plan ahead knowing they won’t move or disappear.

We’ll still add other classes as the year goes on, but we also need to keep room for Private Academies, retreats, and group events. Those special sessions help keep the campus running and let more people experience what makes this place special. And if you’ve ever thought about bringing your own business or team to Wizard Academy, now’s a great time to ask about it. We’ll help you pick dates, and lock them in for 2026.

Wizard Academy has always been about learning, adventure, and a little bit of magic. It’s also a retreat. A resting place. A home where you can take a deep breath. 
Get outside the whirlwind. 
Step off the pedals of the bike. 
Slide on your ruby slippers. 
No need to click.
You’re already home.

Daniel Whittington – Chancellor

PS, we also just moved the “Marketing with Heart” class up to the first week of December this year. We still have spots if you want to join us before the Christmas season kicks in!

2026 Schedule:
Magical Worlds – January 13-15, 2026
World of Whisky 1 – March 10-11, 2026
Magical Worlds – April 7-9, 2026
Magical Worlds – July 14-16, 2026
World of Whisky 1 – August 11-12, 2025
Magical Worlds – October 13-15, 2026
World of Whisky 1 – December 8-9, 2026

Are you ready for a musical adventure?

Last month during our post-class hangout, I was walking a small group of self-selected music lovers through all the bands, artists, and music history they had somehow missed in their musical upbringing.

If you’ve ever sat in my office after class, late into the night with a whisky, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Gordon Seirup was there, and he said, “Man, what if we did a random one-day Worthless hangout that was just this? We show up, pour some wine, and you deliver a one-day, deep-dive musical education/experience?”

I said, “Man, that sounds really fun for me, but I’m not sure who would sign up.” Within a few minutes he had a handful of people ready to go. So we’re doing it. And we’ve decided to make it a small fundraiser for Wizard Academy.

THE FIRST PART OF THE PLAN
For a tax-deductible donation of $1,000, you can join us for one day (Friday, February 9th) of wine, whisky, and good food while experiencing the musical journey of a lifetime. If you want to stay through the weekend and hang out in Austin or on campus a little longer, that’s fine with us as well.

We’re going to use the donations to create a vinyl-record-listening space in the art gallery at Wizard Academy.

THE SECOND PART OF THE PLAN
If you are attending this class, you are required to bring a vinyl record for the collection. After lunch, we will all make our way down to the art gallery, where we will take turns playing one track from our vinyl records for the assembled group.

THE POSSIBLE THIRD PART, OR TECHNICALLY A DIFFERENT PLAN ALTOGETHER
If you aren’t able to attend this gathering but still want to contribute to the vinyl club, mail it to us at Wizard Academy along with a note about the best song on it. If it arrives in time, I’ll play it for the assembled group at the gathering.

Let’s spend a day, in the midst of this chaotic world we’re in, listening to music together.

See you soon.

Daniel Whittington, Chancellor

P.S. You can also simply bring a vinyl record with you next time you come to campus. We’ll gratefully add it to the collection.

Wizard Academy Vinyl Club
Friday, February 6th, 2026
$1,000 donation
There is no alumni rate for this class since donations are not tuition. But we’ll still honor the spouses and partners attend free rule!

I’m getting married in 16 days. 

Emma and I will be tying the knot and then hopping on a plane to Scotland for a few weeks. It’s all whisky, bagpipes, and rain in our future. Just what the doctor ordered. (on a side note, if it’s not the kind of thing your doctor would order, then it’s time to get a new doctor.)

In the last month, as the wedding has crept ever closer onto my horizon, lovely friends like you have been asking if they could contribute to a gift registry. I didn’t have an answer because we already have plenty of whisky, two households worth of stuff, and we’re financially healthy. But I wanted to honor the intent.

So I came up with a plan. 

If you have any desire honor us with a gift on our wedding day, would you consider donating to Wizard Academy? The Academy, the campus, and our alumni family are close to our hearts. As my friend Jeremy says, seeing a gift sent to Wizard Academy in honor of our wedding would “warm the cockles of our hearts”. (it sounds better with an accent). 

If you’re up for it, click here and donate any amount. Put “Daniel & Emma” in the notes section so we know what it’s for. Once we get back from our honeymoon, I’ll put together a total of the donations. Then we’ll decide on something really lovely to do for the campus in your honor. 

Cheers to you all. 

I’ll see you in person in November. 

Daniel Whittington – Chancellor

The Ad Writers’ Guild is a two-year online masterclass in persuasion, storytelling, and communication. It’s the most ambitious writing course Roy H. Williams has ever created, designed to sharpen your skills one assignment at a time.

BUT

Dave Young had an idea. What if we allowed Roy to spend two days walking you through an introduction to the cornerstone lessons that form the foundation of the Guild?

This two-day workshop is your chance to step inside the Guild with Roy as your personal guide. We’ve hand-picked four of the Guild’s most transformative lessons to teach live, in the full Wizard Academy style: part insight, part practice, part revelation. You’ll wrestle with words, test ideas in real time, and walk away with tools you can use immediately.

Purple coffee included along the way.

Four Core Lessons with Roy Williams – Live at Wizard Academy
October 21-22, 2025


************************

For those (like me) who need the details:


The Four Core Lessons

• Speaking to Identity – Craft sales messages that connect with who people believe themselves to be.
• Brain Lateralization (the Neuroscience of Ads) – Write to logic and emotion, engaging both sides of the brain.
• Creative Handcuffs – Discover why constraints spark creativity, then test it in writing drills.
• How to Sell Illogical Things – Persuade when reason alone won’t close the deal.

The Bigger Picture

This workshop won’t attempt to cover all 52 lessons. Instead, it offers a concentrated taste of the Guild — a shortcut into four lessons Roy believes will make the greatest impact on your writing today.

Join us for a a foundational walkthrough of powerful ad writing guided by Roy Williams. 

Daniel Whittington – Chancellor

This is a question we ask in DaVinci and the 40 Answers, a class taught at Wizard Academy. The idea behind the class comes from a Russian inventor’s “Theory of Problem Solving,” called TRIZ.

The theory was developed by Russian inventor and science fiction author Genrich Altshuller. He proposed that there are only 40 possible solutions, or “lenses,” to any problem. His insight was based on a pattern he noticed while approving patents in Russia.

No matter the solution or invention, it was always a product of one of these 40 fundamental problem-solving principles. How is that possible?

Let’s just say they’re very large umbrellas.

Problem: How do you take a one-mile-long metal vehicle and make it turn to navigate through a city?
 Answer: Lens 1, Segmentation. That’s the same principle that makes an assembly line in a production facility work.

Problem: How do you handle budgets and raises when your departments have different metrics, income streams, and pay scales? You adjust your calculations and reward systems asymmetrically to meet the needs of the moment.
Answer: Lens 4, Asymmetry. This principle describes changing something from symmetrical to asymmetrical.

At Wizard Academy, we have suggested that people tend to have “default” problem-solving lenses. When trying to fix or improve something, they naturally lean toward certain preferred approaches. When those default solutions don’t fit the situation, it can feel like you are facing an unsolvable problem.

What TRIZ teaches is a deliberate way to look at problems and methodically work through the possible answers. It is one of the best team workshop experiences you will ever have.

Mark Fox, one of our instructors and a former member of the Wizard Academy Board of Directors, literally wrote the book on it: DaVinci and the 40 Answers.

We are teaching the class again in October, and we would love to see you there.

Daniel Whittington – Chancellor