Bryan Dunlop - News

Business Eye

15 December 2008

Motivation & the Art of Firewalking

Bryan Dunlop is a Northern Ireland-based sales trainer and motivational speaker with an understated style and a unique selling product of his very own ...... as attendees at his first home-based open event found out.

 

The ex-army officer and international rower might live in North Down, but he spends most of his working life working with the financial sector in the City of London, Edinburgh and the rest of the UK.

He has only just started to organise local events aimed at local business people, the first of which took place last month at the Hilton Templepatrick.

And that USP?

Bryan doesn't just teach confidence and motivation. He also teaches his participants how to walk across burning coals at anywhere from 400 to 1000 degrees Farenheit!

Some 40-odd participants at Bryan's recent training event, entitled 'What Really Is (Im)Possible?' found themselves fire walking at the end of their training day.

The man himself quickly refutes any suggestion that the fire walking exercise is a 'gimmick'. Instead, he says that it proves the power of positive thinking.

"What I try to instil in people is the importance of mindset, and the benefits which can be gained from tackling challenges, as well as life's major reference points" he says. He has completed over 150 firewalks himself over the years (and always leads the way at his own events)... with only one blister to show for it!

"Fire is one of our greatest natural fears. Yet we can walk across a 10-foot bed of burning coals providing we approach it with the right state of mind. It's a very powerful lesson".

Now a sought after motivational speaker, Bryan Dunlop splits his time between his home in Northern Ireland and training sessions for major financial institutions and FTSE Top 100 companies in GB. His clients include HBOS, Standard Life, Dell and BDO Stoy Hayward.

"When I set up this company in 2001, sales training was the big focus. But I've also worked with a range of other groups, sports people and others. Positive thinking can be applied almost anywhere".

His training is based on experience-based learning. He examines experiences and events in our lives which affect us and programme the way that we think about ourselves and face up to the challenge of adversity.

"It's true that everyone has untapped potential. One of my objectives is to wake people up to this, to ignite something within them. And, quite often, that just requires a relatively small alteration to our mindset".

And, in doing this, he takes a refreshingly practical approach .... with no psycho babble or theoretical rhetoric. Instead, Bryan Dunlop challenges the way that we think in a remarkably friendly and pragmatic way.

He isn't always called in by major companies to boost the sales training effort. One regular assignment has been to help prepare dedicated teams for major business pitches and presentations.

"We've managed to make a big difference by working closely with these teams on their positive approach to pitches for a couple of days before they go into action".

Bryan's own story goes some way to explaining his passion for positive thinking.

Educated in Enniskillen, he attended the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst before serving for six years with the elite 2nd Gurkha Rifles.

Leaving the army, he found himself leading a team of former Gurkhas to Angola where they were charged with providing security at a diamond mine. During this time, a political uprising took place and the mine was attacked and overrun by rebels.

"My experiences during and after the attack have had a bearing on my approach to life. The experience is my major reference point .... and that's a concept we look at closely in the training sesssions" he says.

Bryan reckons that the timing of his new series of events here in Northern Ireland couldn't be better.

"The economic downturn is leading to a mood of despondency and doom and gloom" he says. "My message is that, rather than being reactive to external circumstances, people can look for ways to beat the despondency by taking action themselves. And adapting the mindset can be the first positive step towards making a positive change".

"In recent weeks, I've received bookings from two major financial institutions for a series of seminars next year ...... an optimistic sign that organisations are looking to build confidence as we move into 2009".

"What is even more important here is that these training sessions don't just have a short-term 'hit'. They can and do produce long-term benefits in terms of mindset for those who take part".

 

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