Student Testimonials
"The coolest thing I ever did on a Sunday afternoon. It was amazing!" - Amy B.
"I had no idea some of these things were so easy!" - Sean W.
"My daughter is going off to college, this is the best money I ever spent" - Jennifer W.
"This is fantastic! I can't get enough and hope to be an instructor soon." - Elias R.
"I just want to say [20 minutes into a session] this is far beyond my money's worth. It's great!" - Johnathan C.
Register for a special event here or submit a request for a preferred date of a selected workshop. A deposit reserves a seat. You can register without a deposit. All deposits are refundable if unable to attend. Workshops run weekend afternoons, and Tuesdays & Thursdays late afternoons -- tell us in the Comments field if you have a preferred date, we'll do our best to accommodate you. Nobody expects they will be robbed or carjacked at the moment it happens. People victimized by home invasions and kidnappings did not wake up one morning thinking it would happen to them that day ... but it did. This workshop will help ensure it doesn't happen to you!
If you and your family travel overseas yet sometimes wonder about the potential for harm awaiting you, this workshop is a must. American students in a foreign country are especially at risk, they often have few resources to turn to while possessing little experience to deal with severe adversity.
This workshop will address these serious concerns using fun situational exercises. It's one thing to watch big screen actors turn the tables on bad guys, it's much more fun to actually do it yourself! Using a mock kidnapping scenario, you will get a chance to escape and evade your pursuers and frustrate them while laughing at attempts to counter your movements.
Founder / Chief SpyMaster Every day people find themselves in situations they would have rather avoided, and sometimes it's not possible to remove one's self from the confrontation. We tell our children to just walk away but how do you walk away when there is a weapon at your chest? Would you know when someone asking for directions is legitimately lost or trying to distract you while your valuables are stolen? When that drunkard at a ballgame goes from just being obnoxious to getting physical, can you dispel the situation without getting locked-up with him?
Covert Academy can teach you how to recognize the potential for situations of physical aggression and how to respond appropriately. You will learn to avoid and dissipate threats destined to evolve into a physical conflict. If finding yourself in a life-and-death struggle or unexpected attack, you will be able to defend yourself with extremely effective combat techniques ... and you don't need to be a MMA fighter to do so.
Founder / Chief SpyMaster There is often no way to know when terrorists will attack. Authorities monitor chat and movements to plan for intercepting them but when and where is often an educated guess, yet there are plenty of techniques you can learn and practice to be prepared.
Do you know where in an airport you are most likely to become a victim? What time of day or night is most common for a bombing? Can you recognize a mass-shooting suspect before he draws a weapon? And where do you run when the bullets start to fly?!
A workshop on terrorists and how to survive a deadly, well-planned, attack requires being mindful when others are vulnerable, focused on themselves. You will learn techniques to be vigilant and prepared for that moment when chaos brings death to others.
Founder / Chief SpyMaster This workshop is designed to teach you how to develop a comprehensive plan for dealing with any catastrophic unknown of the future --a pandemic, civil unrest, electromagnetic pulse, coronal mass ejection, economic collapse, superstorm disaster, etc.
You will need to collect and connect with family, reach resources, obtain accurate official information, and know what to do … while avoiding life-or-death pitfalls along the way. You may be at the office when disaster strikes, your partner working out in the gym or stuck in traffic, while kids are at school. Who goes to get them? Can they get home on their own? What about having plenty of food and water to last a while? Will it be days, weeks, or something permanent? And how do you manage any of this when the cell network is down? This workshop helps you build a roadmap to be prepared. It exposes challenges you might never have thought of and reveals how to solve them.
Founder / Chief SpyMaster Learn skills that can save your life and those you love. Starting with three core concepts critical to survival, this workshop teaches hands-on practical skills and covers aspects of both short-term and long-term concerns most people never incorporate to their survival strategies.
Taught through four modules, every attendee receives special gear for each module. Together with the training, this is a great foundation to build from.
In addition to receiving both a small and large survival kit, you will become acquainted with equipment and essential items to add for always being prepared.
Survival 102 is an extension of the basics learned from Survival 101. Tough decisions have been made for you, such as staying in place, moving to a better location, gathering with like-minded friends and family to tough it out indefinitely.
It's now time to gather more resources, grow your own food, create defenses, and monitor for intrusion. You'll need an unlimited supply of water, and it will be critical to know who you can trust, and who poses a threat even when unintentional.
All participants receive a copy of Bill Shaw's popular survival guidebook 'Planning for WTSHTF'. Survivalist SpyMaster Covert Academy schedules wilderness retreats where you practice skills of bushcraft and outdoor survival. You make your own tools, build your own shelter, and set your own gear to be comfortable in a survival scenario.
This isn't your typical survival class, you will learn well-kept military survival secrets and perform tasks with ease that most struggle to do even at a fairly proficient level.
You will create various types of pot hangers for cooking, use plugs for setting gear, and practice simple one-handed knots, a critical skill when injured or extremities frozen from the cold.
Survival SpyMaster Did you know you can protect your home from break-ins
using a $3 item from Walmart? Alarms and video
surveillance are also good, they're also expensive. This
workshop will teach you practical methods to better
protect your home. Included is a list of best practices
and inexpensive tips for alarm and video systems along
with guidelines to better protect your family from harm. Do you know the things not to do when planning a
vacation? Does your home have a window or door that is
easily defeated? You will be surprised to discover how
easy it is for anyone to get in! How can you protect
your valuables from a robbery at home, on your person,
or in a hotel room? What if your family become victims
of a home invasion? Would your children, especially
teenagers, understand how to react without endangering
themselves and others? In this workshop, you will gain
the information and understanding to deal with these and
many more situations.
You will see how easy it is to open a door by picking a
lock because you will get a chance to do so. You will
actually install a hi-tech wifi alarm system by yourself
and test it. You will get to play the intruder and probe
the defenses that your classmates implement. Families
learn life-saving tactics and have fun critiquing one
another's strategies ... or lack thereof. Founder / Chief
SpyMaster Long gone are days of malware and viruses held at bay
simply with software, today social engineering scams and
identity spoofing abound. Threat actors are not
individuals looking for a quick score, they are mature
groups coordinating efforts around the globe using
automated bots which number in the tens of thousands and
reap untold advantages from artificial intelligence.
Today you can have your home stolen from you, and a
business ruined, simply by a computer connected to the
Internet. There are places in the world where the norm
is young people hired to scam people daily who live on
the opposite side of the earth, and they don't think of
this as immoral or inappropriate. It's simply an early
step in their career, the same as everyone else they
know.
Opening a bank app on your phone, clicking an email you
recognize as perfectly legitimate, just answering a call
from whom you think is a member of the IT team can mean
the loss of thousands, sometimes millions. Use this
workshop to learn about crypto pitfalls, understand
cyber-crime, ID spoofing and how AI is battling on both
sides of the threat landscape. Founder / Chief
SpyMaster This workshop could save your life! It is an opportunity to get out and see how well suited you are for dealing with dire situations. You may need to bug-out during a civil collapse after a mega-storm --remember Superstorm Sandy? Katrina? The Japanese earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima Daiichi disaster? Survival could be the new norm. You could find yourself in the midst of a mob like the Arab Spring or Baltimore riots and need to get your family to safety. Perhaps you'll get a Special Ops assignment to locate a double-agent, thwart his actions and return safely. Individuals looking to learn life-saving skills should sign-up immediately for this elite agent spy class.
During Phase I of this workshop you'll receive special training and the opportunity to practice your new skills. In Phase II you will be given an agenda to follow, locations to visit, and contacts to make, all while avoiding being identified, tracked and ensnared by those trying to counter your efforts. Our special Q Branch may supply necessary gadgets to help you get the job done.
This is a scavenger hunt, treasure search, geocache quest, and intelligence strategy role-play game all rolled into one exciting adventure. Will you choose to accept a mission? The tactics you learn could save your life!
Founder / Chief SpyMaster This is a fabulous practice lab. You get to use and become familiar with hi-tech, and some low-tech, spy gadgets that are easily obtainable for your own security, entertainment ... or special ops missions. You will actually get the opportunity to …
Event Manager This dovetails from our Spy-trade Secret Gadgets workshop but instead of playing with toys, you learn to put them into real world practice. Become familiar with covert tactics, recognize when to use them, and when they are being used on you.
Track people, objects, money, and trace where and who is handing out misinformation, … and what to do about it.
Program Assistant The first step in being prepared for adversity is to recognize its potential for reaching you. The next step is to do something about it. There are no physical requirements to any of our workshops.
While it is advantageous to be in good shape for any physical
activity, Covert Academy exercises do not involve intense
work-outs, strength conditioning or running and jumping. If
you can walk, talk, and think at the same time, you can excel
in our sessions. Individuals with health risks
or disabilities should let us know in advance. Bring writing materials for taking notes. iPads,
tablets,
etc. are encouraged but cameras, recording equipment, i.e.
capturing our materials and exercises with any device, is prohibited.
This interface provides registering in one workshop at a time. Workshops are $350 per person for Non-members, $300 for Members. Students must be 18+ years of age.Our Workshops
Survive, Escape & Evade
Essential Street Defense
Survive a Terrorist Attack
SHTF: Lessons for Day One
Survival 101
Bushcraft: Thriving in the Wild
Home Security & Family Defense
CyberSecurity, ID Theft Protection
Agent Field Exercises
Spy-Trade Secret Gadgets
Work with these and more. Perhaps you'll want to add some to your own collection of spy gear.
Advanced Surveillance & Detection
Learn a very particular set of skills
Important Info