From live weapon fire and poisons to seduction and poker, Secret Me will teach you everything you need to know about keeping calm under intense stress. And as co-founder and CEO, Sara Fazlali, tells us, it will stretch your limits as never before…
Secret Me has been described as a cross between hostile environment training and a spy finishing school. How accurate is that description?
Very accurate. We are a hybrid type of business that teaches real skills, pushes clients’ limits, and is transferable to the real world, but it is also exciting and adventurous.
You offer the chance ‘to be James Bond for the day’. Can you tell us more about the scenarios aspiring 007s will face?
Our motto is “We often wonder how we would react in life-changing moments, now is your chance to find out”. And that is what we do. Under the careful guidance of former UK Special Forces and Intelligence Officers you are first taught key skills, but then we create scenarios to bring it all together and test you. These constantly vary but can involve surveillance and counter-surveillance or cyber skills, or a hostage rescues operation.
What kind of client signs up for a course at Secret Me and why?
We work with ultra high net worths and there is no real type of client. Our youngest has been 27 and oldest 72. We have a 60-40 male to female split. The backgrounds are from wealth, banking, film and TV, law, and entrepreneurship. Nothing ties them together apart from this competitive nature and thirst to find out what they are really made of. They want to know whether or not they can solve problems, escape taxing scenarios, and above all … keep their head when all around are losing theirs.
What skills will they be able to master by the end of it?
We focus mainly on: surveillance, self-defence, kidnap and negotiation, live weapon fire, cyber security, drink and poisons, seduction and poker. The transferrable skills – limitless. This can be from reading the psychology of a group, to staying calm under intense stress.
People want to know if they can keep their head when all around are losing theirs
How can people apply these skills to their everyday life?
The entire business is about helping you find out what you are made of and how to apply it.
Is there anyone else offering what Secret Me offers?
Not yet.
Your training team are former UK Special Forces and Intelligence Services personnel who have served on the front line. Why is it important that they have come from this background?
Their ability to read people and provide the training you individually need is unparalleled. They are the best of the best, and only this will do.
Can you tell us more about the packages you offer? How much do they start at?
The first weekend of training is in the UK and offers three days on a private estate or castle at £10k. The second phase is a week in Europe at a private estate there with three days of advanced training and two days of a full scenario in the neighbouring area, starting at £50k. And finally we have a week of a full scenario, a cross between a Hollywood script and the instructors’ real life experiences. This starts at £250k per person.
People find out what they are really made of
You are hosting a fundraising event for Save the Rhino at the Imperial War Musem, London. Why did you choose this charity?
It is a cause that we all really believe in, one that is very close to our hearts, and it also links with the work the instructors and their colleagues in the Special Forces environment continue on to do. Understanding conservation is one of the most important questions surrounding the preservation of the world’s natural resources.
And finally, as James Bond is about to hit the big screens again in Spectre, can we take it you will be watching?
Of course!
For more information, visit Secret Me
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