From front line and movies to consultancy: building a psychology business grounded in resilience and results.

Neil's Bio

I’m Neil Chester, BSc, GMBPsS. I am currently completing my MSc in Business Psychology and am the founder of Elvorta, a consultancy dedicated to driving workplace evolution and human adaptability. I specialise in leadership enhancement and workplace culture in the age of Artificial Intelligence. My experience is built on serving 12 years in the military, then going on to set up a business serving the TV and filmmaking industry, visual merchandising, and global players in the aeronautical and manufacturing businesses, offering a niche product that revolutionized the way they made props and prototypes. Following this, I work with local charity and CICs organisations as a local government advisor for business. The approach I take enables leaders to remain composed, decisive, and effective when under pressure from a constantly changing environment.

Neil's Blog

The decision to enter the world of business psychology and establish a consultancy was not a complete leap into the unknown. It was an extension of two quite different worlds I had already lived. The first was highly intense action-orientated and emotionally charged period of military service. The second was the fast-paced, chaotic arena of the movie industry.

Both taught me life lessons that now sit at the centre of everything I do and how I work, stay calm under pressure, focus on the outcomes, and never lose sight of the objective.

Barracks to the boardroom, what the military taught me about business.

From an early age I learned a profoundly different kind of discipline. Serving in the Armed Forces as a reconnaissance soldier, a role demanding endurance, precision, and deep understanding of both my own and others behaviour, shaping my world view significantly.

Being a reconnaissance soldier is not about running towards danger, it is about seeing without being seen, thinking analytically, and remaining focused on the bigger picture. You are trained to identify patterns, predict actions, and most importantly, make decisions when under extreme pressure. You quickly understand how teams work.

What the military taught me is some situations cannot be controlled; you must accept them for what they are. What you can control and something I carry forward into business today is how I choose to respond to the uncertainty.

After leaving the military and then building my first business I saw how being an entrepreneur mirrored aspects of my service. There is a mission to complete, you’re on your own and learning to navigate ambiguity. The challenges and stakes are different, but the psychology is remarkably familiar.

The lessons I learnt whilst in the military now influence the way I run my business:

1.     Mission Focus: Before beginning, define the starting point. Everything needs clarity on what the objective is.

2.     Adaptability: Your plans will not survive first contact, adapt, overcome, and move forward.

3.     Discipline and Motivation: you will feel deflated and ready to quit, keep a consistent routine and always remember your why, this will carry you through.

4.     Team above your Ego: leave the ego at the door, collaboration helps to succeed past the competition, remember your clients are part of your team too.

5.     Calm under Pressure: Things will not always go according to plan, staying composed will earn the trust of others.

Following these principles has shaped two key areas: the way I design my work for clients and how I understand my own identity.

Taking the leap of faith: selling the idea, what about the solution

Before psychology shifted my focus, I built a highly successful business offering a niche product, which would eventually go on to serve the movie industry. providing a specialist nanotechnology coating which would make anything look shiny. This innovation was entirely new in the UK, we offered something nobody else could, so we became the industry leader in this field. It was exciting, thrilling, highly creative and high-risk.

I will admit the early days were a slog, years of research and development and pouring my life and soul into it. I just needed others to see how amazing and clever it was and get as excited as I was. I spent hours at trade shows explaining how it all worked, what made it unique and why it was innovative, Jordan Belfort comes to mind when he asks others to “sell him a pen.”

I was still learning, but the harsh truth hit me:  people don’t buy the idea, they buy the solution.

It came from after a conversation with a film industry client that the penny dropped, they were not looking for a new concept for shiny things, they wanted to know how it would speed things up in the productions of props. I had found their pain point, and I had the solution. From then on everything changed.

Once I understood this and shifted from “here’s what I have, to here’s how this will help you,” transformed the business.

That insight though hard now shapes my approach to business psychology. Whenever I speak with clients I just listen, I don’t even take notes. Everyone has a surface-level problem, but not the reason they are stuck, underneath lies the real issues and the one psychology has a solution for. Whenever I discuss coaching, workshops, or assessments, I focus on resolving what is preventing the business moving forward.

From vision to consultancy, built on serving a purposefully.

When I first considered becoming a business psychologist and offering a consultancy service, I approached it like mission briefing. I defined what I wanted to achieve, identified the market, and studied those I wanted to serve.

I quickly realised that this space required a high degree of empathy and credibility. Clients want to know the transformation they will experience, not which theory or model used to achieve it. They need to know you understand their pain and pressure, not that you have all the right qualifications.

From my military experience, I understood that pressure is not abstract but an emotional and physical experience. You make decisions based on fractional amounts of information, but accuracy is essential. You keep going even in uncertainty. Guided by this experience it gave me perspective which is often lacking in the corporate world, a balance of calm analysis and practical actions.

From a business psychology point of view, this is interpreted into helping leaders and teams manage stressful situations effectively, maintain continuous cohesion, and make confident decision when things are unclear.

The mindset shift, creating memorable change.

Reflecting to the time when I first worked with the movie industry, I realise what it taught me was everything I needed to know about how not to sell. I had perfected something I was extremely proud of it, but missed the core question, what problem does it solve for the client?

·       Rather than explaining leadership coaching, talk about building leaders whose teams have the best members.

·       Instead selling culture building diagnostic models, tell them how you reduce tension and increase trust.

·       Don’t offer psychological programmes, explain you help create teams that have confidence to speak up so problems don’t grow bigger.

·       Reshaping the language used creates resonance, allowing the client to feel understood.

·       Ultimately when you sell the solution you are showing empathy, a doorway through to the client’s world, helping them move from pain to progression.

Resilience from the quiet moments

There will be times when nothing happens, and you will struggle mentally to cope with these quiet times. Weeks will go by, the phone will not ring, and your inbox will come to a standstill. You continue to work, sending proposals, then self-doubt creeps in, questioning your every move, it will test your resilience the most.

There will be times things will slow down; it’s natural, what I fall back on is keeping a structure to my daily routine. Even when there is nothing in the diary I show up, I learn new things I write, I read, and most of all I reflect. Doing this maintains a form of discipline, creating stability.

I remind myself that everything I do has one thing in common, whether being on a reconnaissance mission, business venture, or a consultancy project, the landscape is not as predictable as the map suggests, so keep going.

The takeaways that will help build a psychology consultancy business.

Define the mission – know what you want to change and for whom.

Start with the outcome – design what you offer based on what your client is looking for, not how you’re the expert in X, Y, or Z.

Actively listen and speak less – Jargon and fancy programmes don’t impress, just listen and they will tell you what they need.

Have a ready built system – save time with pre-built templates, proposals, and processes.

Have a routine – motivation is sustained when there is consistency.

Take care of yourself – consultants who are not at their best or burnt out cannot help anyone.

Final thoughts: Have purpose as your anchor.

Everything I’ve achieved setting up as a consultant is the culmination of what I’ve learned from being on operational tours, where composure and clarity are survival tools and the pressure from working alongside a demanding movie industry.

Every experience has shaped how I lead, listen, and stay focused on the outcomes. Whether on the front line, or in the boardroom, the truth is you need to deal with it purposefully.

You cannot control the terrain, but you can control how you move through it.

PBI thoughts

At the PBI, we love it when lived experience meets psychological insight. Neil's journey from reconnaissance soldier to business psychologist embodies applied adaptability, the art of translating high-pressure experiences into leadership wisdom. Neil reminds us that business psychology is about purpose. It’s about helping people stay composed in chaos, find meaning in uncertainty, and make confident decisions when the path isn’t clear.