Ricardo Zaal, one on one

You are the one everybody leans on. So who do you lean on?

I sit with men who are carrying something they cannot say out loud. Some of them run companies. Some of them are barely holding on. The room is the same. In ninety minutes you will say the thing out loud, and you will leave knowing your next move. No judgement, no lecture, no report card.

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Twenty minutes with me. Pick a time that suits you. It costs nothing and you are not signing up for anything.

Ricardo Zaal, coach for men, Pretoria North
Ricardo ZaalPretoria North, South Africa
Ricardo Zaal, coach for men, Pretoria North

Ricardo Zaal is a coach for men, based in Pretoria North, South Africa. He works one on one with men carrying pressure, grief, burnout or pretence they cannot talk about anywhere else, from business owners to men who are barely holding on. Sessions run ninety minutes, on a call anywhere in South Africa or in person in Pretoria, and every man starts with a free twenty minute conversation. He takes five men at a time.

28 yearsInside real businesses, so I know the week you are living
26+ yearsSitting with people at the worst moment of their lives
12 yearsA pastor, and 10 of those running my own business
5 menThe most I work with at one time. Right now there is room.

The short version

What changes, and what it costs.

A first callTwenty minutes, to see if we fitFree
One conversationNinety minutesR2 000
The RoomSix sessions over twelve weeksR12 000
Six monthsTwelve sessionsR21 000

Payment plans available. If your first session is not worth it, you do not pay for it.

Book my free call

Or keep reading. The rest of this page is why I am the man for it.

Let me say it before you have to

Everybody thinks you are fine. That is the problem.

You are the one people phone when it falls apart. You have carried men through things that would have finished them. You are steady, and everybody has quietly decided that means there is nothing to ask about.

So when it is your turn, there is no queue at your door. There is just you, sitting in the car a minute longer than you need to, working out the numbers before you walk in and greet everybody like a man with no problems.

You have read the books. You have done a course or two. You know what you should be doing. And you still lie there at half past one going over the same thing, and by the time the sun comes up you have put the face back on.

It is not weakness. You have simply never had one room where you were allowed to stop performing. Not one. That is all this is.

Am I the right man for you

We should talk if

If two of those landed, you are the man I built this for. Book the call.

And if you want somebody to hand you a plan and tell you what to do, do not book it. That is not what happens in this room.

Before you worry about it

I have never judged a man yet and I am not going to start with you.

I do not care what you drink, what you have done, what you are still doing, or how far away from where you should be you think you are.

Every person is walking their own road at their own pace, and it has never been my job to grade anybody. I have sat with men in the middle of things they were sure would make me get up and leave. I did not leave. Nothing you say to me is going to change how I look at you.

And this is real life, not religion. We deal with your money, your marriage, your work, your temper, your grief and the Monday morning you are dreading. Whatever you believe or do not believe is yours, and it stays yours.

What actually changes

You stop managing it and start moving.

Not motivation. Motivation is finished by Thursday. This is what men tell me is different.

You make the decision

The one you have been circling for months or years. The business, the job, the move, the thing you keep putting off until it decides itself. You make it, and you know why.

You have the conversation

The one with your wife, your father, your business partner or your son, that you have been avoiding because you do not know how it will go. You have it, and it does not blow up.

You stop taking it home

The pressure stays at work instead of coming through the front door with you. Your family gets you back, not the tired short version of you.

You say it out loud

The thing you have never told anybody gets said, in a room where nothing bad happens afterwards. Most men have never had that once in their lives.

You name what is actually driving it

The anger, the avoiding, the exhaustion. Underneath it there is usually one thing, and once a man can name it he stops fighting five problems that were only ever one.

You leave with a plan you will keep

Not a ten year plan. Ninety days, written down, in your own words, made of things you have actually agreed to do.

How I work

I will not hand you a system. I will show you what you cannot see from inside it.

Generic advice is just what worked for somebody else. It fits their life and not yours, and you drop it the first week things get hard. So I will push on what you are avoiding, name the thing you keep walking around, and challenge the story you have been telling yourself about why it cannot change.

You leave every session with one clear action, in writing. Not homework. One thing you actually do before I see you again. And when something out of my own life is useful you get it, as a light and never as a map.

1

A free call

Twenty minutes. You talk, I listen. At the end I tell you straight whether I am the right man for this, and what it costs if we carry on.

2

One session

Ninety minutes, just the two of us. Most men get further in that one conversation than in a year of turning it over at night.

3

Twelve weeks

Six sessions if you want to go further. Long enough for something real to change, short enough that you cannot hide inside it.

What I sound like

This is what I sent my own brother the day he was breaking.

Ek gaan nie preek en se hoe goed God is nie, maar ek vra wees mens. Huil as jy moet. Skreeu as jy moet. Vloek God as jy moet. Doen net dit wat jou beter gaan laat voel.

I am not going to lecture you. I am asking you to be human. Cry if you must. Scream if you must. Swear at God if you must. Just do the thing that is going to make you better.

That is not a slogan for a website. That is how I talk to a man who is in it, and it is what you will get from me.

About me

I am not asking you anything I have not had to answer myself.

Written by Ricardo Zaal, coach and pastor, Pretoria North, South Africa. Last updated 1 August 2026.

Ricardo Zaal, coach for men, Pretoria North

My name is Ricardo Zaal. I could give you a list of things that would make me sound impressive. What I would rather you know is that I have been where you are sitting, and I did not have anybody to phone.

I have worked inside businesses for twenty eight years, ten of those running my own, so I know the week you are actually living. Targets, month end, the drive home, the pressure you do not put down at the front door. I have pastored for twelve years alongside all of it, which means I have sat with people on the worst day of their lives more times than I can count.

On 10 July 2010 I lost my two sons, my mother and my stepfather. All four of them in one day, a few hours apart. I know what it is to sit in a room full of people who love you and want every single one of them to go home.

I have been broke. I chased money for years thinking that was the answer. I spent a fortune on courses and coaches looking for the thing that would finally make me feel like enough, and it was in none of them. I have stood in a room telling everybody I was fine while I was working out how to get to month end.

So there is very little you can put in front of me that I have not either lived or sat with.

What you actually get

The Room. Twelve weeks where you stop performing.

You have never had one place where you could put it all down. This is that place, and it is built so you cannot drift out of it.

Included

The Room

  • Six sessions of ninety minutes across twelve weeksEnough time for something to actually change, and close enough together that you cannot quietly disappear between them.
  • A written intake before we startSo session one opens on the real thing instead of forty minutes of background. You start where it hurts, not at the beginning.
  • One action after every session, in writingOne thing, this week, that you actually do. You leave every session knowing exactly what your next move is.
  • A message a week between sessions, answered within two working daysFor the Tuesday it hits you sideways. You are not sitting alone with it until the next session.
  • One emergency call inside the twelve weeksIf it goes bad, you get me within forty eight hours, outside of your sessions. Once, because I mean it.
  • A written close at the endWhere you started, where you are now, and what you carry on doing without me. So the change outlives the twelve weeks.
  • Me, personally, every single timeNo assistant, no group call, no recorded module. Five men at a time is the reason I can promise you that.

Two ways to work with a coach who has been there

 One conversationThe Room
How longOne session of ninety minutesSix sessions across twelve weeks
Best forOne thing you cannot see pastSomething you have carried for years
Between sessionsNot applicableA message a week, answered in two working days
Emergency callNoYes, once, within forty eight hours
You leave withOne action, in writingAn action every session and a written close
If it is not worth itYou do not pay for that sessionSame, and what you paid comes off the price

What it costs.

Work out what this year has already cost you first. The nights you did not sleep. What your wife and your children have been getting instead of you. The chances you did not take because you were too tired to see them.

Six months

Twelve sessions

R21 000

R875 a week

Or R3 700 a month for six months. R22 200 in total.

  • Everything in The Room, twice over
  • The second half, where we get to what started it
  • Six emergency calls instead of one
  • A three hour session each quarter
Book a call
Most men start here

The Room

Six sessions over twelve weeks

R12 000

R1 000 a week

Or R4 200 a month for three months. R12 600 in total.

  • Six sessions of ninety minutes, one every second week
  • A written intake so session one starts at the real thing
  • One action after every session, in writing
  • A message a week, answered within two working days
  • One emergency call inside forty eight hours
  • A written close at the end that you keep
Book my free call

One conversation

A single session of ninety minutes

R2 000

One thing, dealt with

If you carry on, this comes off the price.

  • For one thing you cannot see past
  • You leave with one action, in writing
  • If it was not worth it, you do not pay for it
Book a call

Every price above is the whole price. No VAT on top, no admin fee, nothing added later. The monthly totals are shown so you can see exactly what you pay either way.

There are five places. As of today there is room. When it is full you go on a list and you wait, because I would rather you wait than get half of me.

If your first session is not worth it, you do not pay for it.

To be completely clear about what is free and what is not. The first twenty minute call costs nothing, always. After that, your first full session of ninety minutes is paid. If at the end of it you tell me it was not worth your time and money, you pay nothing for that session. No argument, no awkwardness, no chasing you. And if you carry on into The Room, what you paid for that session comes off the price.

I can say that because I have watched what one honest conversation does to a man who has been carrying something alone. I am not asking you to trust me yet. I am asking you to test me once.

Before you ask

The questions men actually ask me.

What does it cost?

One conversation is R2 000. The Room is R12 000 for twelve weeks, or R21 000 for six months. Payment plans are available. The first twenty minute call costs you nothing, and if you start with one conversation and then carry on, what you paid comes off the price.

What happens on the first call?

You talk and I listen. That is most of it. Near the end I will ask you a question or two, and then I tell you honestly whether I am the right man for this. If I am not, I will say so.

I have tried this before and nothing changed.

Most men who sit down with me have. Usually they were handed somebody else's system and told to fit into it. We start from your actual life instead, and we go at the thing underneath rather than the thing on the surface.

I do not have time for this.

You already spend more than ninety minutes a week going over it in your head at one in the morning. This is the same time, spent somewhere it actually moves.

Do we have to meet in person?

No. Most of it happens on a call, so it works wherever you are in the country. In person in Pretoria North if you would rather.

What if I break down?

Then you break down. It will not be the first time that has happened in front of me and I am not going to rush you through it. That is the point of having one room where you do not have to hold it together.

How long before something is different?

Something usually shifts in the first conversation, because saying it out loud changes it. The rest takes as long as it takes, and I will not sell you a timeline I cannot keep.

Is this confidential?

Yes. What you say to me stays with me. The only exceptions are the ones every honest person has to keep: where the law requires it, or where somebody is in serious and immediate danger. I would rather tell you that up front than promise you something I cannot keep.

Ninety days from now, one of these two is true.

You did nothing

It is November. You are still the strong one. You are still doing the sums in the car. The thing you have never said is still not said, it is just three months heavier, and you have gone one more season giving your family the leftovers.

You booked the call

You said it out loud in week one and the roof did not fall in. You have moved on the thing you had been circling for years. Your wife has noticed. And for the first time in a long time you are not carrying it on your own.

The difference between those two is twenty minutes on a phone, and it costs you nothing to find out.

Yes, book my free call

Pick a time that suits you. Twenty minutes, and you are not signing up for anything.
Would rather just message? WhatsApp me or email info@ricardozaal.com

Not ready to talk to anybody yet? Start with the ten questions. Twenty minutes on your own, nothing to book, and nothing comes back to me.

If tonight is bad, do not wait for me. Phone SADAG on 0800 567 567, any hour, day or night. If you are in immediate danger, phone 10111.
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