When visionaries start a business together, clarity is powerful — but execution becomes everything.
For married founders Garland Vance and Dorothy Vance, building AdVance Leadership wasn’t just about entrepreneurship. It was about solving one of the most overlooked problems inside growing organizations:
Leaders feel stuck — and they don’t always know why.
Since launching their company in 2016, the Vances have worked primarily with large organizations (typically 1,000+ employees), helping develop mid-level and senior leaders through structured leadership frameworks, executive training, and scalable growth systems.
Their approach is clear: strong organizations are built by unleashed leaders.
From Nonprofit Foundations to Enterprise Leadership
Before founding AdVance Leadership, Garland and Dorothy spent 15 years building leadership development initiatives within a family nonprofit — essentially creating leadership systems from the ground up.
That experience became the blueprint for their consulting model.
When they stepped out independently in 2016, they brought with them:
- Deep organizational development experience
- A structured leadership philosophy
- A shared long-term vision
- And a partnership refined over decades of marriage
Working as spouses in business isn’t always seamless. Interestingly, their biggest challenge isn’t conflict — it’s similarity.
“We’re too much alike,” they shared.
Both are big-picture, future-focused thinkers. Vision comes naturally. Breaking that vision down into detailed execution plans? That required support.
The Real Challenge: From Vision to Execution
Like many high-level thinkers, their early years were marked by overlooked logistics and operational gaps — even arriving at events without materials or navigating to the wrong locations.
Their solution wasn’t to “try harder.”
It was to build the right support system.
Today, they intentionally outsource operational execution and are actively seeking a strategic executor — someone who can translate vision into strategy, projects, and clear accountability.
For growth-driven founders, this is a powerful reminder:
Vision builds momentum.
Execution builds sustainability.
The Core Framework: Unleashed Leadership
At the heart of their work is a proprietary framework called Unleashed Leadership — now also the title of their first book in an eight-part series.
The concept centers around identifying the “leashes” that restrict leaders — the recurring patterns, blind spots, and internal barriers that create 95% of leadership struggles.
When leaders can name the issue, they can address it.
And when they address it, performance shifts.
Their work spans:
- Enterprise-wide leadership training programs
- Mid-level manager development
- Executive leadership consulting
- Books, keynotes, and podcast appearances
They were also named one of the Top 20 Leadership Development Companies in America — further validating the impact of their methodology.
Two Client Segments, One Mission
AdVance Leadership primarily works with:
1️⃣ Organizational Decision-Makers
CEOs, HR leaders, and Learning & Development heads who oversee leadership teams and bring them in to train 10–80 leaders at a time.
2️⃣ Mid-to-Senior-Level Leaders
Professionals responsible for teams, budgets, and performance outcomes — often navigating the pressures of people management without formal leadership training.
Across industries, they’ve observed something consistent:
Leaders feel isolated in their struggles — but their challenges are rarely unique.
The relief that comes from realizing “I’m not alone” often becomes the turning point.
What They Love Most About the Work
For Garland, it’s watching a leader move from confusion to clarity — seeing that visible shift when someone realizes they finally have language and tools for what they’re experiencing.
For Dorothy, it’s the human side — the privilege of stepping into diverse industries and witnessing firsthand how similar leadership struggles are across sectors.
Leadership, at its core, is universal.
Growth Plans for 2026 and Beyond
The next chapter for AdVance Leadership includes:
- Expanding their eight-book leadership series
- Increasing podcast visibility within their ideal audience
- Hiring a strategic executor/director of operations
- Scaling structured leadership training across enterprise clients
Notably, their books are intentionally concise — around 120 pages — based on research showing most readers stop nonfiction at that length. Their philosophy: clarity over volume.
A Gift for Emerging Leaders
To support growing leaders globally, they’re offering a complimentary audiobook version of Unleashed Leadership, including bonus insights not found in the print edition.
(Access link provided by the founders.)
Leadership Insight for Founders
If you’re a founder or executive reading this, consider:
- Are you clear on your leadership “leashes”?
- Is your organization investing in mid-level managers — or only senior leadership?
- Do you have someone translating your long-term vision into operational execution?
Leadership development isn’t an expense.
It’s organizational risk mitigation.
