You keep reliving the past
You may have forgiven intellectually, but your emotions, body and behavior continue to react as though the past is happening now.
Swords of Illumination™ · SOFI Group Coaching
Can you imagine having a simple, elegant process for manifesting the life you desire?
Swords of Illumination is the process. SOFI Group Coaching is the program that helps you live it.
Understand how your subconscious programming is shaping your experience. Heal what continues to pull you into the past. Consciously create the person you choose to become.
48-week journey
Weekly live coaching
Small, interactive cohorts
Private global community
Personalized I AM Studio™
A practical path to conscious creation
Ancient principles. Conscious identity. Congruent action. Real-life application.
Your past may explain your programming.
It does not have to keep creating your future.
When you are ready for something different
Sometimes the life you have built stops resembling the life you want to live.
You may have read the books, done the work and reached milestones you once wanted. Yet something familiar can still take over in a difficult conversation or an unexpected disappointment. SOFI begins there: not by judging the person you have been, but by asking who you are choosing to be next.
You are easily pulled out of yourself
Criticism, disappointment or perceived rejection can activate a version of you that you believed you had already left behind.
You know more than you consistently live
Understanding is not your problem. The challenge is sustainably embodying what you already know.
You no longer recognize who you have become
A loss, relationship, career transition, success or prolonged responsibility has left you questioning who you are and what comes next.
You have achieved but still feel disconnected
Your life may look successful from the outside while something inside feels misaligned, unfulfilled or incomplete.
You do not have to have all the answers before choosing to explore a different direction. A decision to begin can be followed by meaningful work, one choice at a time.
Participant Stories
Real people. Difficult moments. Different choices.
SOFI is not measured by impressive words alone. Listen to what participants have said about the decisions, feelings and changes they experienced while doing the work.
“
The biggest change for me hasn’t been what I’ve learned. It has been where I’ve chosen to direct my energy.
“I have spent the last three months moving my energy away from the past through greater self-forgiveness, understanding and acceptance. That alone has made a real difference.”
Callum
SOFI participant
“
Today, I’m choosing peace, joy and the things that truly fill me and my family up.
“I am still growing, but I already feel more like myself than I have in a long time.”
Leyla
SOFI participant
“
This is the deepest work I’ve ever done.
“It is changing my whole life, not just surface-level things.”
Victoria
SOFI participant
“
I didn’t just learn about joy. I found it.
“The work showed me who I was and who I wanted to be. Not as an idea, but as a lived reality.”
Loka
Speaker, entrepreneur and coach
“
I had achieved the things I thought I wanted, but I was performing a version of myself rather than actually being one.
“When those patterns shifted, everything around me shifted with them.”
Travis
Business leader
“
The person I have become has changed my destiny.
Transformation becomes sustainable when the work moves beyond information and becomes identity.
Ryan
SOFI Student and Now Head Coach
“
I didn’t take it personally.
“Didn’t beat myself up, and I just came back and did more advertising.”
MayaSOFI participant reflection · name changed
“
My self-worth is definitely developing.
“This time, there was no guilt. There was just confidence, and courage.”
NoraSOFI participant reflection · name changed
“
A much stronger sense of alignment.
“The decisions that I’m making are much more aligned with what my soul really wants.”
AdrianSOFI participant reflection · name changed
Different people enter with different challenges and experience different outcomes. These stories are personal experiences, not a promise of results. Names have been changed in selected reflections to protect participant identities.
A SOFI Transformation Story
When identity changes, everything built upon it can begin to change.
Many people come to SOFI having already created success, acquired knowledge and developed considerable self-awareness. Yet external achievement cannot resolve an identity that feels internally misaligned.
Travis Steffens had achieved many of the things he believed he wanted. The deeper work was recognizing the identity patterns operating beneath those achievements and consciously creating a different way of being.
The Work
A journey that returns wisdom to everyday life.
Swords of Illumination™ is not another collection of information. It is a progressive process for illuminating the unconscious patterns shaping your life, healing what no longer serves you, consciously creating your identity and integrating that identity into the way you live.
I
Illuminate
See the programming beneath your reactions, relationships, habits, expectations and outcomes — without judgment.
II
Heal
Work with the experiences, emotional intensities and meanings that continue to hold your energy in the past.
III
Create
Stop waiting to discover who you are. Consciously create the identity, roles and outcomes that reflect the life you choose.
IV
Embody
Translate what you create into your language, choices and daily behavior. The aim is not simply to think differently, but to live differently.
Discover · Learn · Apply
Understanding is a beginning. Application is the journey.
01
Discover
See clearly what has been creating your experience.
Discover the unconscious patterns, meanings and illusions influencing your identity, reactions, relationships and results.
- Humanity’s hidden illusions.
- The relationship between ego and soul.
- Why the physical world is structured around contrast.
- How meaning influences your reality.
- Why healing the past gives you greater power to create the future.
- Humanity’s capacity to consciously create identity.
02
Learn
Understand the principles behind conscious creation.
Learn how free will, meaning, contrast, powerful questions, subconscious programming and aligned action influence the life you experience.
- The real manifestation process.
- How to reduce unhelpful mind chatter.
- How to discern between ego and soul.
- How to recognize and interrupt unconscious patterns.
- The spiritual principle of Be, Do and Have.
- How to integrate what you know with how you live.
03
Apply
Turn understanding into a way of being.
Apply the principles to your identity, relationships, habits, decisions, roles and desired outcomes.
- Create the personal systems that support who you choose to become.
- Practice behaving congruently with that identity.
- Gather evidence that change is becoming lived rather than theoretical.
- Bring the journey together through your personalized I AM Studio™.
Discover what has been creating your life. Learn how to change it. Apply the work until it becomes who you are.
Is SOFI for you?
Something keeps pulling at you.
You may not yet have the language for it. But you can sense that your current way of living is no longer enough.
SOFI may be right for you when…
- You have completed considerable personal-development work, but the same deeper patterns continue to return.
- You know what you need to do but struggle to live it consistently.
- You are tired of overthinking, comparison, judgment, control or emotional reactivity.
- You feel disconnected from yourself despite having created a life that appears successful.
- You want to heal the past without allowing it to define your future.
- You want a life guided by purpose, fulfillment, peace and authentic identity.
- You are prepared to participate rather than passively consume more information.
SOFI is not for everyone.
- You are looking for a quick fix or weekend breakthrough.
- You want someone else to prescribe your identity.
- You want pre-written affirmations rather than creating your own language.
- You are unwilling to examine your choices, patterns and meanings.
- You want information but do not intend to apply it.
- You cannot currently commit to one weekly coaching session and personal integration practice.
- You require acute mental-health or crisis support that should be provided by an appropriately qualified clinical professional.
You may be ready. You may simply be curious. Or you may decide the program is not for you. All three outcomes are valid.
The Foundational Text
The book gives you the map. The program helps you live it.
Swords of Illumination™ explores the conscious creation of identity, purpose, roles, outcomes, values and decisions.
Through the parallel stories of Yoshi and Tom, the book asks how we stop living by inherited expectations and begin living in alignment with who we consciously choose to be. Knowledge and reflection are only the beginning. SOFI Group Coaching provides the structure, practice, accountability and community required to turn the principles into a lived experience.
A copy of
Swords of Illumination™
Guided application of the foundational principles
Weekly supporting material and practical tools
A structured identity-creation process
Samurai Success Leadership
Meet the author, founder and CEO.
David C. Olcott is the CEO and founder of Samurai Success, a best-selling author, and Head Coach for the North American SOFI Group Coaching cohort.
His book, Swords of Illumination™, brings decades of experience and inquiry into a practical framework for creating your identity, living congruently, and taking an active role in the life you experience.
Through SOFI, David leads participants beyond positive thinking and information toward personal mastery, conscious choices, and real-world application.
The Europe cohort is led by Ryan Hartley, Head Coach Europe.
The Journey
48 weeks to discover, learn and apply.
Every phase moves you toward one central destination: your personalized I AM Studio™. It is not a bonus added at the end. It is the single core deliverable around which the entire SOFI journey is designed.
01
Weeks 1–5
See clearly
Awareness
Understand how meaning is created and how conscious, subconscious, physical and spiritual influences shape your experience.
02
Weeks 6–15
Clear interference
Healing
Explore the beliefs, memories and emotional intensities that continue to influence your present, and reclaim energy held in past events.
03
Weeks 16–20
Decide who you are
Choice
Move from unconscious reaction to conscious choice and accept ownership of the identity you are committed to creating.
04
Weeks 21–28
Create your identity
Creation
Develop the language of your identity, clarify your important roles and begin practicing the person you have consciously created.
05
Weeks 29–32
Live your identity
Alignment
Bring decisions, habits, relationships and leadership into greater congruence with who you say you are.
06
Weeks 33–36
Build the system
Design
Create the routines, boundaries, environments and structures that make alignment more natural and sustainable.
07
Weeks 37–44
The core deliverable
I AM Studio™
Bring the journey together in your own language and voice, then practice, observe, refine and embody your consciously created identity.
08
Weeks 45–48
Continue beyond the program
Sustain
Integrate the complete SOFI framework into daily life and leave with a sustainable practice for continuing the work.
Awareness → Healing → Choice → Creation → Alignment → Design → I AM Studio™
→ Sustain
The Destination of the SOFI Journey
What is the I AM Studio™?
The I AM Studio™ is the single core deliverable of Swords of Illumination™ Group Coaching.
It is a personalized identity and subconscious-reprogramming practice created from the work you complete throughout the 48-week journey.
Your identity · Your language · Your feelings · Your voice
You bring together your consciously created identity, purpose, defining characteristics, important life roles, emotional qualities, values, decisions and desired outcomes.
You record those identity distinctions in your own words and your own voice. They are then developed into a personalized meditative audio practice designed to help you repeatedly reconnect with, reinforce and embody who you have consciously chosen to be.
Core identity
Purpose and mission
Role distinctions
Defining qualities
Values and decisions
Chosen emotional states
Desired outcomes
Your own recorded voice
What makes it different?
Most I AM technology begins with the words. SOFI begins with the work required to make those words yours.
A conscious statement may sound desirable while remaining completely incongruent with the deeper programming operating beneath it. That is one reason someone can repeat positive language for months while continuing to experience the same triggers, behaviors and results.
Why much of what people have already tried does not last
- The language was written by somebody else.
- The statement focuses on a desired result without addressing the identity creating it.
- Old emotional interference and subconscious beliefs remain untouched.
- The recording becomes passive listening rather than lived practice.
- There is no process for observing resistance or refining the language.
- Behavior changes temporarily, then returns to the identity already programmed beneath it.
Why the SOFI I AM Studio™ is different
- Your language emerges from a structured journey of awareness, healing, choice and identity creation.
- Your Studio focuses on the person creating the outcome, not only the outcome itself.
- You use your own words, emotional qualities and recorded voice.
- The identity is connected to behavior through alignment and practical design.
- You observe your experience, gather evidence and refine what you have created.
- The Studio becomes a living identity practice rather than a static audio file.
01
Personal language
Statements created from your own identity work rather than a generic script.
02
Emotional connection
Language connected to the feelings and qualities of the identity you are creating.
03
Consistent practice
A regular meditative practice that supports repetition, focus and remembrance.
04
Behavioral application
Beingness and doingness brought together so the identity becomes experience.
05
Evidence
Notice where your experience is changing and where old programming remains active.
06
Refinement
Update the language as your awareness and identity continue to develop.
07
Remembrance
Reconnect with who you have chosen to be more often than you forget.
08
Evolution
A personalized identity technology capable of developing as your life changes.
The objective is not merely to listen to who you say you are. The objective is to become increasingly congruent with who you say you are.
The SOFI Experience
Meaningful inner work, witnessed in community.
You will not be doing this alone.
01
Weekly live coaching
One structured live session each week on Zoom, usually approximately 60 minutes, including wins, teaching, guided discussion and focused application.
02
Optional Integration Calls
Additional 30-minute calls offer an optional space to ask questions, clarify teaching, work through resistance and receive extra support.
03
Small interactive cohorts
A group designed for meaningful participation, reflection, contribution and genuine connection. The January 2027 intake plans for 14 initial participants per regional cohort.
04
Private Skool community
A confidential online space containing replays, resources, practices, homework, discussion, questions and participant wins.
05
Daily integration
The weekly session creates awareness and direction. Your personal application is where the work becomes embodied. Consistency matters more than intensity.
06
Experienced Head Coaches
David C. Olcott leads North America, and Ryan Hartley leads Europe. Both work with the SOFI journey and the community's lived experience.
What becomes possible?
When the patterns creating your experience change, your experience can begin to change.
SOFI does not promise a particular external result. It provides an opportunity to change the identity, emotional patterns, choices and behaviors from which your results are created.
Greater awareness of the patterns influencing your reactions.
Less emotional intensity around past events and present triggers.
Greater peace within yourself and your relationships.
Less judgment, comparison, control and overthinking.
Greater clarity about who you choose to become.
More congruent decisions, habits and behavior.
Renewed confidence, purpose and direction.
An identity practice you can continue beyond the program.
The program provides the process and opportunity. Your results are created through your participation and application.
Choose your level of support
Your Investment in Transformation
Every option includes the complete 48-week SOFI group coaching journey and the creation of your personalized I AM Studio meditation track. The difference is the level of personal support, continued access, and integration you choose around the core experience.
Select your region
Showing North America investment levels in USD.
Before choosing how much personal support you want, consider the investment typically associated with more individualized coaching formats.
Coaching investment reference
Equivalent private 1:1 coaching
$4,995 per month
Approximately $60,000 annually
UK reference: £3,700 per month · £44,400 annually
Coaching investment reference
Equivalent small-group coaching Group of 4
$1,250 per month
$15,000 annually
UK reference: £950 per month · £11,400 annually
These are reference prices for different coaching formats, not a claim that their services or outcomes are identical to SOFI Group Coaching. The US private-coaching annual figure is rounded from $4,995 per month. Your SOFI investment depends on the support level you select below.
Enhanced Experience Rate
The most personal coaching support
$900 / month
12 monthly payments · $10,800 total
North America · USD
Includes
- The complete 48-week SOFI Group Coaching program
- Weekly live group coaching and optional 30-minute Integration Calls
- Private SOFI Skool community, resources, tools, and practices
- A copy of Swords of Illumination
- Creation of your personalized I AM Studio™
- Lifetime I AM Studio™ access
- One private 1:1 Integration Session every month
This is for: You want the complete group journey with consistent one-on-one coaching, personalized integration, and added accountability.
This is not for: You are unlikely to make use of the additional private coaching time.
Choose the Enhanced ExperienceStandard Rate
The complete journey with continued Studio access
$600 / month
12 monthly payments · $7,200 total
North America · USD
Includes
- The complete 48-week SOFI Group Coaching program
- Weekly live group coaching and optional 30-minute Integration Calls
- Private SOFI Skool community, resources, tools, and practices
- A copy of Swords of Illumination
- Creation of your personalized I AM Studio™
- Lifetime I AM Studio™ access
Does not include
- Monthly private 1:1 Integration Sessions
This is for: You want the full SOFI experience and continued access to your personal identity practice after the program.
This is not for: You need regular private coaching in addition to group coaching.
Choose the Standard ExperienceAccess Rate
A more accessible way to take the complete journey
$300 / month
12 monthly payments · $3,600 total
North America · USD
Includes
- The complete 48-week SOFI Group Coaching program
- Weekly live group coaching and optional 30-minute Integration Calls
- Private SOFI Skool community, resources, tools, and practices
- A copy of Swords of Illumination
- Creation of your personalized I AM Studio™
- Use of your personalized I AM Studio™ during the program
Does not include
- Lifetime I AM Studio™ access after the program
- Monthly private 1:1 Integration Sessions
This is for: You want to take part in the complete SOFI journey at a supported price and are prepared to participate as a SOFI Ambassador by making thoughtful introductions when appropriate.
This is not for: You want a reduced price without its participation or ambassador expectation.
Explore the Access RateThe full SOFI journey is included at every level. The Access Rate carries an ambassador commitment. The additional private support and lifetime I AM Studio™ access depend on the level selected. Any applicable taxes, payment terms, and eligibility conditions will be explained before enrollment.
48Weeks of structured work
An informed commitment, with room for your questions.
You will receive a clear explanation of the program, support options, terms and next steps before deciding whether to enroll. Any applicable assurance terms will be provided in writing before payment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Before you decide.
Forty-eight weeks is a real commitment. These are the questions people most often ask before attending a showcase.
View Showcase DatesA structured 48-week group-coaching journey focused on awareness, healing, conscious identity creation, practical alignment and integration. The journey culminates in the creation and embodiment of your personalized I AM Studio™.
Your personalized I AM Studio™. The program helps you develop the awareness, healing, identity language, alignment and personal systems required to create it truthfully, then use it as an ongoing identity practice.
No. It is created from the identity work you complete throughout the program. It uses your identity distinctions, language, emotional qualities, roles and voice. You then apply, test and refine what you have created through lived experience.
Somebody else’s language may not reflect your identity, beliefs, values, emotional experience or connection to Source. SOFI helps you do the deeper work required to create language that is personally meaningful and congruent with who you choose to become.
The core live commitment is one group-coaching session each week, usually approximately 60 minutes, plus a short personal integration practice. Optional 30-minute Integration Calls provide additional support but are not required attendance.
Sustainable transformation involves multiple stages. You need time to see a pattern, understand it, heal what created it, choose something different, create a new identity and integrate that identity into your life. The I AM Studio™ is most powerful when created from a genuine process rather than rushed into existence.
No. You need to be open to exploring how your conscious mind, subconscious programming and connection to Source influence your experience. The program is not affiliated with one religion or belief system.
No. SOFI is a coaching and personal-development program. It is not a substitute for psychotherapy, medical treatment or crisis support. Participants should continue working with appropriately qualified health or clinical professionals where necessary.
Breakthroughs do not come only from the coach. The observation, experience or question of another participant can reveal something you may not have seen alone. The cohort amplifies the work rather than reducing the level of support.
Cohorts are intentionally small to encourage participation. The January 2027 North America and Europe groups plan for 14 initial participants each; later intake arrangements will be confirmed before booking.
Yes. The cohort size enables participants to contribute, ask questions and receive guidance. Optional Integration Calls provide additional support. The Enhanced Experience also includes one private 1:1 Integration Session each month.
Yes. The I AM Studio™ is the central deliverable and destination of the complete SOFI journey. The difference between investment levels concerns ongoing lifetime access and additional personalized support.
All participants complete the program with a personalized I AM Studio™ and a plan for sustaining the work. Participants at the Standard and Enhanced Experience Rates retain lifetime access to continue using and evolving their identity practice.
No particular personal, professional, or financial outcome is guaranteed. The program offers a structured 48-week learning and coaching experience. Any applicable refund arrangements are governed by your enrollment agreement.
That is not a disadvantage. You are not joining SOFI to discover a fixed identity hidden from you. You are learning to consciously create who you choose to be.
The participant agreements currently describe a refund request option during the first three months. The precise eligibility and written terms must be reviewed and confirmed for your cohort before enrollment.
Upcoming Journey Timeline
Upcoming SOFI Cohorts
January opens with North America and Europe groups. March, June and September 2027 are further planned intake months. The exact dates, regions and head coaches for those later intakes will be announced when confirmed.
Begins
Region
Head Coach
January 2027North AmericaDavid C. Olcott
January 2027Europe / UKRyan Hartley
March 2027 · PlannedDetails to followTo be confirmed
June 2027 · PlannedDetails to followTo be confirmed
September 2027 · PlannedDetails to followTo be confirmed
January session dates and regional times will be confirmed before enrollment. March, June and September are planned intake months only; no dates, locations, availability or pricing for those intakes have yet been confirmed.
Free 60-Minute Live SOFI Showcase
Understand the journey. Discover whether it is right for you.
Explore the ideas behind SOFI, hear what doing the work involves, learn how the 48-week journey is structured, and ask your questions. There is no obligation to join.
Understand what Swords of Illumination™
is.
See how the 48-week journey leads to the I AM Studio™.
Review the investment levels transparently.
Ask your questions live.
Showcases for the January 2027 intake are planned for November and December 2026. Additional Showcase dates for later intakes will be announced when confirmed. The calendar shows each session in your local time zone. Each live session lasts one hour and holds no more than 25 attendees.
Final Invitation
You are allowed to create a life that reflects who you choose to become.
You can heal what continues to pull you backwards. Release reactions, habits and behaviors that no longer represent you. Consciously create who you are, align the way you live with that identity and build the I AM Studio™ that helps you remember and embody it.
SOFI will show you the process.
Explore Our One-Hour Showcase
Come curious. Leave clear.
No pressure. No chasing. One opportunity to understand the work and decide whether it is your next step.
Two paths · One beginning
The Path of Yoshi. The Path of Daichi.
Readers of Swords of Illumination™ will recognize both names. At Samurai Success they also describe two ways of walking this work, and why one must always come before the other.
The Path of Yoshi
Walk the journey for yourself.
You complete the 48-week Swords of Illumination™ Group Coaching journey as a participant: illuminating your patterns, healing what holds you in the past, consciously creating your identity and embodying it through your personalized I AM Studio™.
Open to everyone · Begins at a Live ShowcaseThe Path of Daichi
Guide others through the journey you have lived.
Some graduates feel called to help others walk the same path. The Path of Daichi is the route to becoming a Swords of Illumination™ Head Coach at Samurai Success, leading SOFI cohorts from lived experience rather than theory.
Open only to SOFI graduates
The prerequisite
You cannot guide a journey you have not walked. Every Swords of Illumination™ Head Coach must first complete the Path of Yoshi as a SOFI student and graduate.
- Path of Yoshi
Begin as a student
Join a SOFI cohort and take part in the complete 48-week journey.
- Path of Yoshi
Graduate
Complete the journey and create your personalized I AM Studio™.
- Bridge
Express your interest
Graduates who feel called to coach can ask about the Head Coach pathway.
- Path of Daichi
Prepare to lead
Continue toward guiding SOFI cohorts as a Head Coach. Requirements and next steps are shared with graduates directly.
Ryan Hartley walked this path: a SOFI student who now leads the Europe cohort as Head Coach.
Begin the Path of Yoshi
Already a SOFI graduate? Ask about the Path of Daichi
Every Head Coach begins as a student, but completing SOFI does not guarantee a Head Coach role. Pathway requirements, availability and any associated terms are confirmed directly with graduates.