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Captivity in Angola
Business Leaders Learn to Firewalk to Boost Confidence
13 November 2008
As business confidence wains in the current financial climate, a group of business leaders in Northern Ireland has taken a dramatic step to tackle the doom and gloom:- by walking across burning coals at 1100?F.
The event was no publicity stunt. It was part of a one day seminar run by motivational coach Bryan Dunlop who trains attendees that by changing the way we think about challenges and problems, anything is possible. He proves the power of positive thinking by confronting one of our greatest natural fears: fire. Bryan walks across the 10ft bed of burning coals and through the day’s coaching, shows his delegates how they too can complete the challenge if they have a focused and positive state of mind. Bryan has completed over 150 firewalks and has only ever received one blister. He puts it all down to the power of the mind and positive thinking.
Bryan Dunlop is a highly successful motivational speaker and sales trainer, from Holywood, Co Down. He grew up in Northern Ireland but has worked mainly in the financial sector in the City of London and Edinburgh, training sales teams and senior management for some of the major banks and financial institutions. He is passionate about what he does and he is not in it for evangelical empty promises – he is results-driven. Following Bryan’s coaching, one salesman in a bank went from 550th in his order of merit to 17th with no formal sales training. A team which had not won a pitch for 6 months won 10 in a row and following another event, the course was rated 9.89 out of 10 and the business saw an uplift in new income of 16%.
Bryan Dunlop’s training is based on experience-based learning. He examines the experiences and events in our lives which affect us and programme the way we think about ourselves and how we face challenge or adversity. He uses practical lessons to “re-programme” our thinking and to see challenges in a different way.
Bryan Dunlop said, “It energises me to run this course – people generally get something very positive out of it. People find it inspiring to think that they can challenge their own pre-conceived perceptions of themselves. Everyone has enormous untapped potential. One of our objectives is to wake people up to this, to ignite something within them.
“We provide methods for solving problems and for successfully developing new habits. Our main focus is attitude. You can’t implant the desire to do something, but if you want it, I can show you how persistence, determination and belief work together to calm the inner voices which put you down and to keep you going towards any goal. Basically, I develop strategies for achieving excellent results, regardless of the challenges being faced in the business, sporting or personal environment.”
The timing of this event couldn’t be better – the economic down-turn is leading to a mood of despondency and “doom and gloom” which is inevitably affecting business confidence. Bryan Dunlop’s thinking is that rather than being reactive to external circumstances, people can look for ways to beat the despondency by taking action themselves – he sees this event as the first step towards making a positive change. In the last four weeks Bryan has received bookings from two major FSE100 financial institutions in London for a string of seminars next year – an optimistic sign that everyone is looking to build confidence again in the New Year.
This is the first time Bryan Dunlop has run his event in Northern Ireland and he will be running another larger event in Belfast on 22nd January – see www. bryandunlop.com for details.
For further media information, please contact Vicki Caddy on 07814 380487 or by email vcaddy121@hotmail.com
Notes to Editors
- Bryan Dunlop is a motivational coach with many years of experience training sales teams in the financial sector, having worked with some of the world’s leading financial institutions in the City of London and Edinburgh. Bryan has a unique offering in Northern Ireland.
- Originally from Southern Ireland, Bryan was educated in Enniskillen before attending the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where he won the opportunity to serve with the elite 2ndGurkha Rifles for 6 years.
- Following a period in the army, Bryan led a team of Gurkhas to Angola, providing security at a diamond mine. During this time, a political uprising took place and the mine was attacked and overrun. Bryan’s experiences during and after this attack have shaped his approach to life and he brings these experiences to bear in his motivational training events.
- The event is titled “What really is (im)possible?”
- Bryan doesn’t do psycho-babble, nor does he do theoretical waffle. He is a practical, pragmatic and inspiring speaker who believes people can achieve much more in their lives with positive self-belief. He challenges people’s pre-conceived perceptions of themselves and demonstrates the power of the mind by giving participants in his training sessions a chance to take a fire-walking challenge: to walk across burning embers at 1100?F.
- Bryan is a qualified firewalking instructor (Fire Institute of Research & Education) having spent 5 days learning the techniques in Sweden, during which time he completed 140 fire walks.
- Bryan’s techniques are used very successfully in the sporting world by world champion sports teams and Olympic athletes, and by figures such as Paul McKenna who use the power of the mind to quit smoking, gambling and over-eating.
- Bryan ran this event on 13th November as a platform to promote another similar event on 22ndJanuary. He has just completed a successful event in Dublin attended by a number of high profile figures in the Irish banking sector, receiving extremely positive reviews.