AN EIGHT-WEEK RHYTHM
Only the Brave
A practical rhythm that helps people and teams reclaim agency and make clear, courageous decisions in uncertainty. your whole organisation, or just for for you.
Cohorts start Monday 3 May and Monday 26 July 2027 and run for 8 weeks.
Cohorts start Monday 3 May and Monday 26 July 2027 and run for 8 weeks.
Cohorts start Monday 3 May and Monday 26 July 2027 and run for 8 weeks.
The Challenge
Progress rarely stalls for lack of intelligence or data, we have that in spades.
It stalls for lack of clarity, and simply because we avoid our own terrifying agency.
When people don't know what they're moving toward, and don't take up their part in getting there, decisions drift, responsibility is avoided and momentum dies.
In a team it looks like safe decisions, borrowed strategies and people waiting to be told.
In a person it looks like comparison, second-guessing and the nagging suspicion that you’re living someone else's story.
Most of us respond by asking, “What should I do?”
Only the Brave starts one step earlier with “Who am I?” What we do grows out of who we are since,
“Who is always greater than what.”
Four movements
The rhythm moves through four essentials, four movements and aspects necessary for you to find your way They aren't once-off boxes to tick, we cycle through them throughout our lives and careers. A way of moving in the world that will move your forward.
Identity
“Who is always greater than what.” Knowing who you are beneath the labels, the expectations and the job title gives every decision a solid place to push off from.
Desire
Who we’re becoming. Most of what we want, we picked up from someone else. Learn to tell your own wants from the copied ones, and only then can your priorities start pulling in one direction.
Discernment
What matters now. You can’t think your way to certainty, but you can learn to pay attention. A simple, centuries-old practice shows what gives life and what drains it, until the signal stands out from the noise.
Bravery
Acting before we’re sure. Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s moving while the fear is still in the room. Not the twenty-year plan, just the next small step, then the one after that.
“What is good, you ask? To be brave is good.”
How the rhythm works
Only the Brave is built for busy people. It consists of micro bites of learning, the practices are small yet focused, and most of the work happens away from the desk, in conversation, at home and the office, on a walk.
Daily Prompts. A few minutes a day: a question to sit with, a short note from Pierre, or something to notice.
Weekly Practices. One focused practice a week, tied to the movement you're in.
A Printed Notebook. Couriered before you start. Your reflections live on paper, not in a system. There’s still space for pen and paper in this world.
Your Triad. The same three people for all eight weeks, meeting each week to say out loud what they’ve been learning.
Live Sessions with Pierre. Regular Online live sense-making sessions for the whole cohort, recorded for anyone who can't make it.
A Cohort Host. A real person who gets everyone started, keeps the rhythm going and follows up when someone falls behind (life happens).
What Changes?
In each person
A clearer sense of who they are, what drives them and what they truly want
A daily practice for noticing what gives energy and what drains it, allow for clear and aligned decision making.
The courage to bring their full, gifted selves to their role and life
In how decisions get made
Faster, cleaner decisions under uncertainty
Decisions that are aligned with their identity, not merely a copy of a copy.
Less drift, over-analysis and avoidance
Confidence to act without perfect information
In the team and organisation
A shared language: identity, desire, discernment, bravery
Fewer stalled decisions and clearer ownership
Insight that turns into visible action
Trust built in conversation, beyond job titles.
(This isn't about getting people to quit and move to Bali. It's about taking ownership of your life and work, right where you are.)
For teams and organisations
Only the Brave works best across the whole organisation, from EXCO to the front desk. When everyone learns the same four ideas and the same habits of reflection, you get a shared language, which is the bedrock of any culture, and clearer, braver decisions at every level.
How it runs
Before Week 1. We enrol your people, group them into triads across reporting lines so nobody is grouped with their manager, and courier the notebooks.
Eight weeks. Your people move through the rhythm together, in short daily pieces. A named cohort host (a real human) keeps it moving and follows up personally where needed.
Live with Pierre. Online sessions for the whole cohort, recorded for anyone who misses one.
Afterwards. You receive a cohort report: participation, live attendance, and how the group's sense of agency, clarity and courage moved from start to finish.
Private by design
What you see
Who has started and completed each week
Attendance at the live sessions
The group's average check-in scores at the start and the end.
What stays private
Everything people write
Each person's own check-in answers
What is said in triads
2027 open cohorts
Cohort 1: Monday 3 May – Sunday 27 June 2027
Cohort 2: Monday 26 July – Sunday 19 September 2027
From R3,000 per person, excluding VAT.
Applications are open now, and we'll be in touch with next steps before bookings open.
Leadership Immersion
A high-touch layer for executives who carry disproportionate risk and responsibility. It runs alongside the rhythm for the rest of the organisation.
It includes
A private leadership diagnostic before you start, looking at identity, fear and decision bottlenecks
Two closed-door sessions with your leadership team, 90 to 120 minutes each, working live on real strategic tensions
Fortnightly one-to-one conversations with Pierre
Your leadership team leaves
Aligned on who you are before what you do
Clear about the unspoken fears slowing your decisions
Sharper on the few decisions that actually matter
With three to five brave commitments owned at Exco level
For individuals
You don't need a company behind you to join the rhythm.
Cohorts bring together people from different organisations and walks of life who are asking the same question:
“What do I want to do with my one wild and precious life?” - Mary Oliver.
You might recognise yourself here:
You're doing well by most measures, and you're not sure it's what you want.
You've reached a transition, chosen or not, and the old map doesn't fit.
There's a decision in front of you that you can't think your way to.
You've spent years doing what was expected, and you'd like some of your life back.
You could be 25 or 65. It's for anyone ready to take more authorship of their life.
2027 open cohorts
Cohort 1: Monday 3 May – Sunday 27 June 2027
Cohort 2: Monday 26 July – Sunday 19 September 2027
R4,500 per person, including VAT.
Applications are open now, and we'll be in touch with next steps before bookings open.
Only the Brave is different
It starts with identity, not skills or behaviour. Most programmes try to change what people do. This one starts with who they are,
and then moves to what they truly want and who they're becoming, so decisions have true direction.
Desire becomes a pull toward meaningful goals, not borrowed ambition. A time-tested discernment practice equips people to act well under pressure and without perfect information. And each week ends with a concrete, owned action, so insight turns into momentum.
This isn't yet another productivity system, a pep talk or a personality test. It draws on philosophy, psychology, literature, film and the great moral traditions, and works for people of any walk of life since it speaks to that which is fundamental to the human experience.
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you are.”
Your guide.
Pierre is the founder of Be Brave, a strategy design lab that helps businesses and people find their way, find clarity in the chaos. With over two decades of experience developing people, building products and designing strategies, he blends ancient wisdom, systems thinking and gut feels to create brave roadmaps for the future.
He has spoken on four TEDx stages, written four books, won the Desmond Tutu Gerrit Brand prize for literature, and worked with global brands like Tencent, BP, Yum!, Allan Gray and HATCH. His keynotes feel more like conversations around a campfire than boardroom lectures.
Part strategist, part modern-day philosopher, Pierre holds a Master's in Systematic Theology and is fascinated by what it means to be human in an age of machines. He lives in Cape Town.
Trusted by
Questions People Ask
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South Africa
For teams the cost start at ZAR 3000 (ex VAT) per person depending on the size of the team.
Individuals are R4500 (including VAT)International parity pricing available on request.
Prices are subject to change.
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Both. Organisations can put a team, a department or the whole company through the rhythm together.
Individuals join the same cohort with people from other organisations.
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Triads lie at the heart of the process. When people learn together, the learning sticks.
Triads are formed from people within the same organisations, across departments, never placing a manager and direct report in the same triad.
Individuals are place with other individuals in a triad. You’re welcome to invite a couple of friends and complete the rhythm together.
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No. Triads are formed across teams and reporting lines, so everyone can speak freely.
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About two hours a week, in short daily pieces, most of them away from the screen.
Then triads meet for an hour on Fridays, online or in-person where possible.
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No. It's a programme about agency and decisions.
One part of the rhythm looks at fear, and people choose how deep they go.
We point people to support where it's needed, including your employee assistance programme if you have one.
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No. Pierre draws on philosophy, literature, film and faith traditions, and the course works for people of any belief or none.
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Each week stays open, the live sessions are recorded, and the cohort host follows up with anyone who goes quiet. Catching up is normal.
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Yes. A small team can join an open cohort together.
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The rhythm itself runs online, so it works across offices and cities.
For larger office-based teams, an in-person opening or closing can be arranged, and many organisations start with the Only the Brave keynote. These will be quoted separately.
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People leave with a personal compass, practices they keep, and their triad who can continue to check in with them. For those who want to go further, there's the Only the Brave retreat and one-on-one coaching.
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The fee is payable upfront before the commencement of the rhythm
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Simply use one of the buttons below for individual or team enquiries and we’ll take it from there.
“Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”