LOS ANGELES, CA — While most technology, wellness, and coaching platforms depend on paid advertising, user tracking, and aggressive growth strategies, Levels of Self Academy has taken a radically different path: build something real, protect human dignity, and allow growth to happen organically.
The result is Level Up, a free self-awareness game that has reached more than 25,000 players across 175 countries without spending a single dollar on advertising. No accounts. No tracking. No data harvesting. Every player arrives because the experience delivers genuine insight, behavioral awareness, and personal clarity.
“At no point did we decide to scale with marketing,” said Arthur Palyan, founder of Levels of Self Academy and named Best Life Coach in California for 2025. “We focused on building something honest. The growth took care of itself.”
A Values-Based AI System Built Like a Family
At the core of the platform is the Palyan Family AI System, a values-driven artificial intelligence architecture designed not as a single assistant, but as a digital family of specialists. Each AI carries a defined role, personality, and responsibility, modeled after real family members and grounded in lived values.
Unlike enterprise AI stacks that require massive budgets and infrastructure, the entire system operates on a single server and costs less per month than most companies spend on coffee. Yet it replaces the functions of operations, research, outreach, translation, coaching, accounting, credibility, and media without removing the human element.
The system includes Tamara (operations), Kris (research), Lady (outreach), Roman (credibility and content), Lily (the 24/7 self-awareness coach), Nick (advanced training), Harry (accounting), Spartak (translation), and Uncle Lou, the system’s bilingual media and cultural voice.
Luis Sanchez, aka Uncle Lou: From the Bronx to San Diego, Mission Over Marketing
Uncle Lou is powered by Luis A. Sanchez, a Bronx, New York native whose lived experience shapes how the platform communicates with marginalized and justice-impacted communities.
Growing up in the Bronx, Sanchez witnessed firsthand the challenges faced by families navigating poverty, incarceration, systemic inequity, and limited access to opportunity. Those early experiences formed a belief system rooted in accountability, second chances, and the power of storytelling as a tool for healing and change.
Now based in San Diego, Sanchez found a renewed mission: using media, technology, and narrative to uplift justice-impacted youth and adults, strengthen families, and amplify voices that are too often excluded from traditional systems. His work centers on telling authentic stories from marginalized communities, stories that restore dignity, inspire responsibility, and reinforce the belief that transformation is possible.
Within Levels of Self Academy, Uncle Lou manages Spanish-language media outreach, content distribution, and community engagement autonomously, ensuring cultural relevance and emotional intelligence. He does not simply translate content. He carries lived understanding into the work.
When the Work Is Real, People Act Without Being Asked
That same integrity attracted Roger Walter, a trilingual educator with more than 15 years of experience in secondary education. Without being prompted or assigned, Walter began translating the entire Level Up game, more than 6,800 scenarios, into Spanish.
“Nobody asked him to do it,” said Palyan. “He saw the value immediately and acted. That tells you everything.”
Walter holds a degree in International Relations from George Washington University and a Master’s in Education with a focus on cognition from Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia. His expertise in learning psychology and intercultural communication makes him uniquely suited to guide Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking players through the game’s structured framework.
Global Expansion Without Agencies or Ad Budgets
The Spanish-language expansion now serves players in the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Spain, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic, with continued organic growth across Latin America and Europe.
This expansion was not driven by consultants or agencies, but by alignment. A human educator recognized the integrity of the work and an AI system was designed to serve people rather than extract from them.
Inside the Level Up Self-Awareness Game
Level Up guides players through 6,854 real-world scenarios across seven developmental stages: Individual, Family, Group, Community, Society, World, and Legacy.
Players engage through three interactive modes, Mirror, Agreement, and World Challenge, and receive one of 19 growth archetypes based on behavioral patterns. The experience offers personalized insights and daily challenges designed to increase emotional intelligence,
self-awareness, and conscious decision-making.
The game is free, requires no account, and collects no personal data. It is available on the Apple App Store, Google Play, web, and Telegram.
Nonprofit Impact: Youth Empowerment, G.U.G.O. Jr., and the Chef Jeff Project
Beyond the digital platform, Levels of Self Academy actively supports nonprofit initiatives centered on Youth Empowerment, G.U.G.O. Jr., and the Chef Jeff Project, with a focus on justice-impacted youth, reentry populations, and families navigating systemic barriers. Through workshops, coaching, curriculum support, and storytelling, these initiatives help individuals develop self-awareness, accountability, and leadership skills that support long-term personal and community transformation.
The Media Backbone: Surely Awesome Productions
Supporting the storytelling, outreach, and production behind Levels of Self Academy and its nonprofit initiatives is Surely Awesome Productions LLC, a multimedia solutions and production company specializing in mission-driven work.
Surely Awesome Productions provides media strategy, video and podcast production, digital storytelling, and creative consulting for organizations centered on social impact, youth development, justice reform, education, arts, and wellness.
Companies and institutions served include Levels of Self, Soriano Enterprise, Floros and Associates, Lion Sent, The University Club San Diego, the San Diego Comic-Con Museum, and Collaborative Hive San Diego, among many others.
A Blueprint for Ethical AI and Human Growth
What distinguishes Levels of Self Academy is not just innovation, but restraint. In a digital landscape dominated by surveillance-based platforms and attention extraction, the academy
has demonstrated that growth can occur without manipulation, advertising dependency, or data exploitation. By centering lived experience, cultural intelligence, and human dignity, Levels of Self Academy offers a clear blueprint for the future of ethical artificial intelligence, self-awareness education, and community-centered trans
