A six-week live program for instructors in HEMA, FMA, historical fencing and other niche arts. Concrete steps to transform your group into a successful school, without giving up what makes the art worth teaching.
The founding cohort is closed. Add your name for the next one.
My goal is for you to leave this course not only knowing how to run a successful group, but having already taken concrete steps to build one.
With my guidance and group support you'll come away with:
You will build a school plan one unit at a time with my guidance and group support. This is an active process with real outcomes that you can't get from a book.
Thematic 90-minute lessons that include structured work on your personal plan. Available live or on demand.
Deepen your learning, get your questions answered, and troubleshoot your plan as you go.
Ask questions and get support between sessions from your peers, at whatever hour suits you. Useful in its own right, and helpful if you're not able to attend live.
The course runs six weeks, and you have access to monthly coaching calls for school leaders for six months afterwards. Building your school does not stop when the course ends.
Keeping the group small allows for personalized attention from me and facilitates a close-knit group of peers.
Each week you'll receive a packet with practical frameworks, completed examples, and templates to fill in. By week six these materials will come together as your complete school plan, yours to keep and use.
The recordings are yours, and I'll give you access to future updates to any of the core materials for the next two years.
The structure that makes the right person feel they have found their place.
Beginner intake through to ongoing curriculum development. Programs that retain members.
Building your funnel: marketing and awareness building, from setting prices to sales and sign-ups.
Rituals, traditions, and structures that build tight-knit, inspiring, welcoming schools.
Meeting the practical world of business well informed and prepared.
Your whole plan in one piece, and your next ninety days.
Two sessions a week, both live and recorded. You do not have to attend live to get the full value.
Ninety minutes, where we work through that week's topic together, recorded and posted that same day.
A sixty minute Q&A session where you can submit your questions in advance or ask them live.
I started Academie Duello in 2004, teaching swordplay at a broken outdoor skating rink with a starting budget of $600. Six people came to the first class. Today, Academie Duello is the world's largest centre for Historical European Martial Arts. We employ more than 20 instructors and serve more than 300 actively attending students and over 3,000 clients per year at our bustling 7,500 square foot downtown Vancouver location. Schools and satellite groups across the Americas, Europe, and Asia have thrived with my model and guidance.
This program is what I wished I had when I was first building my school.
In addition to more than 20 years in this industry, I am an experienced leadership coach and mentor. I have worked with global companies including Microsoft, Activision, and Cisco Systems, as well as small businesses and nonprofits, providing guidance in organizational design, business strategy, project management, leadership, and team building.
My leadership and team-management skills have been central to building the success of my own school and supporting the growth of thriving satellite programs.
I look forward to bringing my experience and expertise to the next generation of school leaders.
I've been successful through Devon's regular guidance in our monthly meetings, and by bringing his business expertise together with my own social and project management skills. Having Duello as a blueprint and a vision has been a huge boost.
Andy PlymateBridge City Blades · Portland, Oregon
There was nothing structured here when I started — some LARP groups, some fight clubs, no real way into the art. I trained through Devon's instructor program and built on the Academie Duello model, and we went from three people in a park to more than thirty members in under a year.
Vitor HugoPraeliator · Porto Alegre, Brazil
We started with a handful of people in a park. Using the Duello methodology, we built a strong community, became active in participating and hosting international events, and today we’re helping other clubs build thriving communities of their own.
Quintin TansecoBaguio, Philippines
The founding cohort filled and began on Monday, August 10. Add your name below and you will hear first when the next one opens.
Every session is recorded and available on demand. The Monday course units are completely followable without live attendance, and questions can be sent ahead of the Q&A to be answered whether you’re there or not. The online discussion group also offers a place for questions and group support any time of day.
One lesson session per week and one Q&A, plus an hour or so of your own work on that week’s course materials, over six weeks.
No. Two of the six weeks touch attracting and keeping students, and even those are about structure rather than ad tricks. The rest is your model, your promise, and your program — building something that holds, without giving up what made the art worth teaching.
Yes. The framework is art-agnostic, and the people around the table span HEMA, FMA, classical fencing, Japanese sword arts and others. What these arts share is being outside the franchise playbook, which is exactly who I built this for.
It is a good time, actually. Making these decisions before you open is far easier than unpicking them afterwards.
Because this is the founding cohort. When it runs as a full program it will be $1,497 USD. You are getting it at this price for helping me shape the first run, and I would rather have engaged people in the room than a bigger number.
You will hear first when the next cohort opens.
You’re on the list. I’ll be in touch when the next cohort opens.