Our story
A mother and son who've done it themselves
Why we build experienced people a trusted advisor practice, instead of teaching them to build one.
What we believe
Your experience deserves a better vehicle
There are thousands of talented consultants, directors and business owners walking around with decades of knowledge in their heads. They know how to solve problems, how to improve businesses, how to lead, and how to create results.
But they're still selling their time. Still chasing projects. Still starting over every time a contract ends.
We believe they deserve another option.
Owners don't need more hired help. They need a trusted advisor: someone who knows their business, holds them to what matters and helps them decide what's next, for years. That's what your experience is worth. So we build the practice around it for you, and you do the advising.
Where it started
Zander's story: the engine
Long before the Academy existed, Zander was immersed in high-performance coaching. From his early 20s he coached Olympic athletes and their coaches, people operating at the highest level of performance anywhere.
Along the way he discovered something: the principles that helped elite performers improve weren't limited to athletes or executives. They could transform businesses.
He went on to build a personal growth brand serving more than 22,000 entrepreneurs and coaches, using many of the same tools, frameworks and systems that now sit inside the Academy.
But a bigger question kept surfacing: what if experienced business professionals could access the actual engine behind it all, instead of spending years trying to figure it out themselves?
That's when the idea for the Academy began to take shape. But Zander wasn't going to build it alone. He had the perfect person to build it with: his mum.
- Coached Olympic athletes & their coaches
- 22,000 entrepreneurs & coaches at his previous brand
- Coached FTSE 100 executives
- TEDx speaker
The proof it works
Pam's story: the practice
Pam started her first business at 17, equipped, as she puts it, with unbridled enthusiasm, a hard work ethic, and nothing else. Twenty years later she had five businesses, a great team, money in the bank, and a life that looked perfect from the outside. It only worked because of the hours she put in.
Then, on New Year's Day 2000, she caught the flu. She went into work anyway, because she believed the business couldn't run a single day without her. Two days later she was in hospital, paralysed from the neck down. The virus had attacked the nerves in her spinal cord. On the tenth day, the doctors called the family in to say goodbye. Zander was 10 years old.
Pam pulled through. Recovery took three years, learning to walk, to hold a book, to do everything again. She spent those years studying business for hours every day, first through audiobooks when she couldn't hold a page. She came back with nothing: the house gone, the cars gone, £70,000 in debt, and one conviction that changed everything. A business has to be built on systems, not on the owner's hours.
In five years she achieved everything the previous twenty had failed to give her, and sold out at 46. Then she became the coach she wishes she'd had at 17. She grew her coaching practice from zero to £1 million a year, in three years, was recognised as the number 1 coach in the world within the world's largest coaching franchise, and coached business owners in 69 countries.
She still speaks with almost everyone who considers joining. Not a sales team. Pam.
“Don't wait for a life-changing moment to make a better decision.”
Pam Woodford
- Started her first business at 17
- Global Coach of the Year 2014, 2015 & 2016
- £0 to £1M/year coaching practice in 3 years
- Coached business owners in 69 countries
Why we built it together
Two worlds, one build
Zander brought high-performance systems, modern tools and a decade of building at scale. Pam brought the thing every advisor ultimately needs: decades of experience getting clients, keeping clients, and building a profitable practice.
And there's a reason we build the whole practice, not just the advising. Pam's story isn't unique. We hear versions of it all the time: capable owners working themselves into the ground because nobody reached them in time. If a good advisor had reached Pam before January 2000, she might never have ended up in that hospital bed. An advisor who can't reach owners can't help them. So the marketing has to be excellent, the sales conversations have to be honest and effective, and the advising has to create real transformation.
For years we taught it. Members did well, but too many spent months building websites and campaigns instead of talking to owners. So now we set it up for you: your position, your campaigns, your sales process and the system that keeps clients, in the first 30 days. Then we teach you to run it. You win and advise your own clients.
Because you shouldn't have to reinvent what has already been proven.
“You don't have to start again. You don't have to become a different person. You simply need a better vehicle for the experience you already have.”
The room
This is what it looks like in person
Members who were consultants, directors and business owners a year or two ago, comparing notes, sharing what works and reminding each other that this is doable.
The next step
From hired help to trusted advisor.
Book a 15-minute call with Pam, our co-founder. We'll look at your experience, the owners you could help, and what we'd build for you. If it isn't right, we'll say so. We start 10 builds a month.
If you're still weighing this up — ask. We'll tell you straight.