From one acorn → a living legacy. 🌱
The greatest transformations begin with something small.
An acorn in the soil.
A question in the mind.
A decision made under pressure.

In 1996, Sir John Whitmore reminded me: “We are more like an acorn which contains within it all the potential to be a magnificent oak tree.”

At The Alchemists, that truth lives at the heart of what we do. Within every founder, leader, or CEO lies the potential for greatness. It just needs to be unlocked and nurtured.

This story begins with an acorn and ends with a reminder that:
“A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.”
👉 Read the full reflection in our latest newsletter.

🏎️ The Corner Comes Fast

Business at the top feels like racing at 200mph.
Every quarter is a lap. Every board meeting a corner. Every decision a pit stop that can win or lose years of progress.

Formula 1 drivers train for this pressure with simulators, pit walls, resets, and recharge.
Most CEOs don’t.

👉 What would change if you treated your next five years like a high-performance race — with the same infrastructure champions use to win?

Our latest newsletter explores The 5 Musts — how lessons from elite sport map directly into the realities of founders and CEOs:

• Run the Simulator

• Prime Your Pit Wall

• Reset at Kick-Outs

• Sustain Focus with Variability

• Protect Active Time Out

Because your race is business. And every corner counts.

We’ve decided it’s time to make it official:

👉 Friday 19th September is the first ever “Ignore the F*ckers Day.”

Why? Because every founder, CEO and entrepreneur knows those people.
The ones who:

• Write 20 ways to say no before even trying yes.

• Love tick-boxes, programmes and “ologies” more than possibility.

• Confuse predictability with wisdom.

• Sit in the boardroom waiting to pounce with “But what if it fails?”

They don’t build. They block.
They don’t catch. They control.
They don’t get it.

So on the 19th, we’re creating an amnesty. A day where you mute the noise, calm the chimp, and get back to the business of building something worth your life’s energy.

🧡 Read the full newsletter here:
🧡 Share your “f*cker line” that you’ll be ignoring this year.

Because sometimes, the only way to go from good → greater is to laugh, shrug… and just ignore the f*ckers.

You’re in the room… but do you belong here?

Most founders and CEOs know the feeling.
From the outside, success looks obvious.
On the inside, it’s emptiness behind the smile.

• No real feedback.

• No straight talk.

• Endless second-guessing.

• That 3:48 AM voice whispering: “You’re not the real deal.”

Research shows imposter feelings cut decision quality, erode trust inside teams, and drain leaders cognitively, socially, and emotionally. The cost isn’t just internal it shows up on the balance sheet.

That’s why the next article in The Don’t F*ck Up What’s Next Path is live now:
👉 “You’re in the Room… But Do You Belong Here?”

Read the article →

Because the shift every founder must make is simple:
Outsider → Confident Leader.

If you’re the only engine, you’re already overheating.

Founders and CEOs don’t usually break because of the market.
They break because they’re carrying it all.

• Every decision flows through them.

• Every fire is theirs to put out.

• Every result feels like it rests on their shoulders.

At first, it feels noble.
But over time, it becomes the bottleneck.
And bottlenecks always break.

👉 That’s the third villain in The Don’t F*ck Up What’s Next Path: Atlas Syndrome.

This article is about the hidden cost of carrying the weight alone and the shift from Indispensable Hero → Confident Leader.

The new piece is live now:
“If You’re the Only Engine, You’re Already Overheating.”

Read the article →

Because strength isn’t proven by carrying it all.
It’s proven by building something that lasts.

When everyone says you’re right > that’s the problem.

Most founders don’t get derailed by the market.
They get derailed by silence.

• No pushback.

• No challenge.

• Just polite nods around the table.

That’s the echo chamber.
And it kills clarity, confidence, and creativity faster than any competitor ever will.

👉 That’s why I wrote the next article in The Don’t F*ck Up What’s Next Path.

It’s about the villain of the echo chamber — and the shift from Lone Pioneer → Confident Leader.

The article’s live now:
“When Everyone Says You’re Right — That’s the Problem.”

Read the article →

Because what you don’t hear… can break you.

“The Market Won’t Break You. 3:48 AM Will.”

Most founders don’t get beaten by the market.
They get beaten by 3:48 AM.

Not cashflow.
Not strategy.
Not even the board.

It’s isolation.
The silence at the top that kills clarity, confidence, and creativity.

That’s why we’ve launched a new series:
👉 The Don’t F*ck Up What’s Next Path 👈

Five villains that sabotage leaders.
And the shift from Lone Pioneer → Confident Leader.

The first one’s live now: “You’re Not Alone. It Just Feels That Way.”
Read the article

Because the real risk isn’t out there.
It’s in your head at 3:48 AM.

🛑 Stop chasing unicorns.

They don’t exist. Not in the wild. Not in the real world.
And not in your business or your life.

Yet leaders get sold the myth every day, the perfect growth story, the flawless exit, the next magical move that makes everything fall into place without cost, risk, or sacrifice.

The reality?

• Only 0.00006% of businesses ever become unicorns (CB Insights).

• Even those who “make it” often report burnout, broken relationships, and identity loss (HBR).

• Many exited founders describe what comes next as an emotional crash, not a victory lap (First Round Review).

You don’t need to become a unicorn.
You need to become undeniably you the leader who grows from Good to Greater without f*cking up what’s next.

That’s what this week’s Alchemists newsletter is about:
🐴 There’s a Reason Unicorns Don’t Exist (As People or Businesses)

🦊You scaled it.
You systemised it.
You brought in the “right people.”

And now you’re quietly wondering if you’ve just f*cked up everything that’s next.

That advisor.
That investor.
That scaling partner who cared more about margins than mission.
That senior leader who talked culture while killing it.
That team member who stopped making eye contact… but kept saying all the right things.

There’s a fox in the henhouse.
And you let them in.

You didn’t mean to.
You thought you were protecting the business.
Future-proofing it.
Doing what every playbook told you to.

But now?

The thing you built doesn’t feel like yours anymore.
You’re still the founder.
Still in the room.
But somehow… no longer in power.

This isn’t about blame.
This is about not fcking it up again.*

🧥 This week’s post is for you:
👇
The Fox in the Henhouse
A founder-to-founder invitation to take back your clarity, your power, and your next move.

Freedom From. Freedom To. And the Pressure in the Space Between.

You’ve made it.
You got out.
You built. You survived. You succeeded.

So why does it still feel so unclear?

At The Alchemists, we work with founders and CEOs who’ve earned their Freedom From…
but are now facing the far harder task:

Figuring out what their Freedom To is really for.

That space in between?
It’s heavy. Lonely. Sacred.

It’s also where everything meaningful begins again, if you’re brave enough to sit in it.

👇 This new piece explores the pressure, identity, and power of being in that space and why so many leaders quietly get stuck there.

If you don’t want to f*ck up what’s next… read this.

You’ve built something real. Something good.

But when you’re the one leading it,
the pressure to get the next part right is intense.
The questions get bigger.
The stakes get higher.
And the old way, being the one with all the answers, staying in control, starts to crack.

What if the edge you’ve been missing isn’t more hustle…
…but space4change?

Space to think.
Space to let go.
Space for your people to step up.

That shift, from being the expert to becoming the environment

is what we call Leader as a Performance Coach.

It’s not soft.
It’s not passive.
It’s presence.
It’s clarity.
It’s trust, in yourself and in others.

🟠 This new article explores what happens when you stop pushing for performance…
and start removing the interference instead.

👇 If you’re asking what comes next, this might be it:
What if shifting to Leader as a Performance Coach was the edge that stops you f*ing up what’s next?**

🏌️ Swing… Hit. > Honour the Space Between.
As The Open returns to Royal Portrush, the silence will be deafening.
Imagine you’re Rory McIlroy.
Recently crowned in a Green Jacket after 11 years of trying.
Back home.
Back where it started.
Back where it matters more than words can say.

Or you’re Shane Lowry.
The man who lifted the Claret Jug on this very turf.
Returning not just to compete, but to carry legacy.

You step up to the first tee.
The wind moves.
The Northern Irish rain falls.
The crowd settles.
The noise inside sharpens.
“Don’t f** this up.”*
Not fear.
Focus.
Not panic.
Presence.
This is what pressure sounds like, when the course is watching,
the stakes are real, and the story could go either way.
Most leadership thinking focuses on the outcome.
The strike.
The decision.
The bold performance.
But in my experience, like in golf, that’s not where the transformation happens.
The shift begins earlier.
In the quiet tension before the swing.
In the invisible pause between intention and contact.
Where breath, rhythm, and doubt all fight for space.
Where leadership doesn’t shout… it steadies.

This is the space we honour inside The Alchemists.
Not fixing the swing.
Not forcing the hit.
But holding the space in between.
The space where presence returns.
Where identity realigns.
Where “I don’t want to f*** this up” becomes
“I know exactly how I want to show up.”

🟡 If you’ve ever stood on the tee, or in a boardroom, steady in stance but spinning inside…
This story is for you.
👇 Read the full reflection before The Open begins:
Swing… Hit: Leading in the Space Between

🧥 I’ve been thinking a lot about Charles Handy’s Empty Raincoat lately.

Not as a business metaphor.
As a mirror.

There are moments in your career — maybe in your life — where everything looks right on the outside.
The coat fits.
The success is there.
But something inside… has quietly gone missing.

And if you’re honest, you can feel it.

The movement’s still happening — but you’re not really in it.
The business is growing — but you’re shrinking.
The pressure to keep going — but you’re wondering what for.

This week’s newsletter is a personal one.
It asks a hard question, but an important one:

👉 Are you an empty raincoat?

If the answer is maybe — you’re not alone.
I’ve walked that line.
So have many of the founders and leaders I work with.

This piece is about recognising that moment…
and choosing not to stay there.

You can read it here:
[Link to newsletter]

And if it lands — reach out.
The space4change starts with a question.

— Alan

🚨 Your Board Has One Job. But Who’s Got You?
You’ve built a good business.
Maybe even a great one.
And as you grow, the advice is clear:
“Surround yourself with a strong board. Stack it with NEDs. Get serious governance in place.”
That’s not wrong.
But it is incomplete.
Because your NEDs have one primary job:
Protect the business.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth most founders only discover too late:
The business has a board.
But you don’t.
You are the single most valuable (and vulnerable) asset in the system.
Your clarity = the company’s clarity.
Your growth = its ceiling.
Your decisions = everyone else’s direction.
So who’s protecting that?
That’s the job of a coach.
That’s why I created The Alchemists.
To be Your Personal Board — built for you, not your spreadsheet.
Not to replace your NEDs.
To complement them.
Because scaling a business takes structure.
But becoming the leader who can?
That takes something different.
📬 I wrote this newsletter for the founder / CEO / business owner standing on that edge:
PS: If your brain is wired differently (dyslexic, ADHD, neurodiverse)…
You especially need this.
You don’t need fixing.
You need a space that gets you. And helps you get yourself back.

🎨 Why Most Leaders Still Draw Red Flowers with Green Stems
(And why we use LEGO at board level)

At The Alchemists, we don’t believe in manuals.
We believe in masterpieces.

But most leaders we meet have spent years being taught to colour inside the lines.
To “wait for instructions.”
To build what’s expected — even when it no longer fits who they are or where they’re going.

That’s why we use Serious Play — including LEGO — at board level.
Not as a gimmick.
But because sometimes the only way to unlock real strategy, real identity, and real change
…is to stop talking and start building.

The story we’re sharing today is 30 years old.
But it captures the invisible tension we see in every founder, every CEO, every team in transition:

“Yes, I want to lead.”
“But what should I draw?”
“How should I draw it?”

And too often… they still reach for a red flower with a green stem.

At The Alchemists, we exist to change that.

Because what’s next won’t come from colouring in —
it comes from creating, experimenting, and building something that’s uniquely yours

“Every decision you make is a bet on the future.”
I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.
Because most of the founders, CEOs, and MDs I work with aren’t just making decisions.
They’re making bets.
On their people.
On their timing.
On their identity.
On what matters next.
Some are holding a strong hand.
Some are burning out behind the performance.
Some are still spinning a wheel they no longer believe in.
And yet we keep playing.
Because that’s what leaders do… right?
But what if it’s time to pause and ask:
“Is this still my game?”
That’s where this month’s newsletter begins:
Inside The Casino of Scaling, where the noise is loud, the pressure is real, and the tables are not all the same.
🟥 Roulette or Hold’em?
🎯 Performance or Presence?
🎨 Paint-by-numbers or your own damn masterpiece?
If you’ve built something good…
and now feel something deeper calling…
You’re not alone.
🔗 Read the newsletter
or DM me if you're between tables right now and want to talk about it

🚨 BREAKING NEWS: The mice are back.
And this time… they’ve upgraded. 🐭💻🌍
You thought AI was here to help you write better emails?
Wrong.
It’s here to finally finish the experiment they started millions of years ago, turning Earth into a giant brain (again) to uncover the Ultimate Question to the Answer we already know is 42.
And you?
You're not the user.
You're the data.
In true Hitchhiker’s Guide fashion, I wrote this article for anyone who's ever felt like:
Something invisible is going on…
You're accidentally part of a much bigger question…
Or your AI knows more about your inner life than your therapist.
Read on to find out why the next stage of evolution might just be pan-dimensional rodents running ChatGPT…
🪐 “Still Mostly Harmless.”

🔥 You don’t always see the fire.
But you do feel the heat.
There’s a moment, before the decision, before the fallout, where something inside you knows:
“I’m still here… but I’m not sure I should be.”
Most leaders ignore it.
They wait. Delay. Rationalise.
Until the platform burns.
This post is for those who feel it before it shows.
The ones who are starting to question the version of themselves they’ve been leading from.
It’s not about change.
It’s about what change is asking of you.
👇 Read the full piece:
Leadership at the Speed of Change: Are You on the Burning Platform Yet? on the Burning Platform Yet?

Putting the cat amongst the pigeons…
We’ve glorified the “fast in / fast out” model for years.
Raise. Scale. Exit.
But what if that very formula is f*cking up the founder, the team, and the soul of the business?
I’ve seen it. I’ve lived it.
And I’m not the only one quietly asking:
“Is there a better way?”
This isn’t anti-growth.
It’s pro-alignment.
Pro-legacy.
Pro-building something you still love a decade from now.
🧵Here’s my take:
When Fast In and Fast Out Money F*cks It All: The Bootstrap Debate

You’ve changed. But the world around you didn’t pause.

That’s the tension many leaders feel after doing the inner work:
You’re ready to return—
but this time, it has to be different.

Not faster.
Not louder.
Just… clearer.

Part 6 of the Identity Shift Series is here:
The Return
How to re-enter your business, your leadership, and your life—aligned, present, and ready.

This one’s for those quietly holding a new version of themselves,
while the world still expects the old one.

Be gentle with yourself.
You’re returning as a changed person