The Compass Call

One hour with the founder. Leave knowing which way to go.

Sixty minutes on Zoom with Jamie Sylvian. Bring a coffee and your questions, and sit down with the founder for a proper conversation between peers. By the end you’ll know whether you’re on the right path, what you could offer, what to charge and where you could live.

$259 for the hour

Book your Compass Call

Credited in full against any workshop or the Unlocked programme within 90 days.

Jamie Sylvian, founder of Executive Nomad

What you’ll know by the end of the hour.

Whether you’re on the right path.

You’ll find out whether the direction you’re considering holds up, or whether something nearby fits you better.

What you could offer.

The part of your experience someone would pay for, and who that someone is.

What you could charge.

A price you can say out loud without flinching, tested against one real idea on the call.

Where you could live.

Home counts. So does somewhere new. We’ll talk through what each option means for the work.

Where to base the business.

Compare where to base your business and how different countries tax companies and individuals, drawing on more than thirty years of doing it. (Educational only; see the note below.)

A conversation, not a pitch.

You get the founder’s full attention for the hour, peer to peer. The call is recorded on Zoom, and afterwards you get a link to the recording and your meeting notes.

You set the agenda.

Your situation, your questions. If one thing is keeping you up at night, we start there.

Ask what you can’t ask anyone else.

Can I afford to stop? Could I really live in Portugal? Is my idea any good? Questions you wouldn’t put to HR, a recruiter or a colleague.

A second opinion with no stake.

Jamie isn’t your employer, your recruiter or your family, so he can tell you what he actually sees.

Bring your partner.

Where you live is rarely one person’s decision. They’re welcome on the call.

Where it started

It started on the Bakerloo line.

In the early 1990s I was a researcher at Brent Council in London. An hour on the Bakerloo line each morning, a suit, a day in an office that usually felt dreary, then an hour home. Five days a week.

I liked the work itself: solving problems, mostly through communication strategy. I didn’t like the conditions it came in. So I started taking the valuable part with me, through a consultancy called The Information Marketing Bureau, run from a postbox address on Regent Street. The name was rather grand. The infrastructure was rather less grand.

Then, on a contract in Exeter, I came across a book called Perpetual Traveller. One idea in it stayed with me: your home, your company and your clients don’t have to be in the same place. Back then business meant telephones, fax machines and a lot of patience. I still have that book on my office shelf.

That’s what the Compass Call is for: working out which part of your work is worth taking with you.

Jamie Sylvian, founder

Thirty-plus years, in one hour.

Jamie has worked for himself since 1991 and location-independently since 1993. He has lived in 13 countries, and his client base has been global from day one. Where he sits has never mattered: the business is borderless. He co-founded SIRA Utilities, the company that became uSwitch.com, which sold for £210 million in 2006, and built a 250-person sales team for Centrica (British Gas). He’s the author of The Executive Nomad Operating System and host of The Executive Nomad podcast, and he still consults, coaches executives and runs workshops today.

“Jamie helped me solidify some of my thinking around branding. He offered suggestions on how to launch and bring in initial clients. With re-purposing, this led to potential ways to grow my consulting business post-launch.”
Debra Mitchell PhD, Clinical Research Advisor and Consultant

What you get.

The hour itself: sixty minutes, one to one with Jamie, on Zoom.
One idea tested with real numbers: who buys it, what they’d pay, where the first client comes from.
One next step for this week: one concrete thing to do on Monday.
An honest “not yet” if that’s the answer. One hour that can save you months.
The recording: the call is recorded on Zoom, and you get a link to the video so you can watch it again.
Meeting notes: the key points and your next step, written up and sent to you.
The fee back: credited in full against any Executive Nomad workshop or the Unlocked programme within 90 days.

Come with a head start.

Run DecodedAi Lite first. It’s free and takes about three minutes. Bring the result, and the hour starts at the useful part.

Try DecodedAi Lite, free →

Know which way you’re going.

One hour, one coffee, one honest conversation with the founder. $259, credited in full if you go further with us within 90 days.

Book your Compass Call

Jamie is not a tax, legal or financial adviser. Anything said on the call about tax, company structure or residency is general and educational, drawn from his own experience. Take advice from a qualified professional before you act on it.