The Pendulum Summit has been bringing big names in the worlds of business, lifestyle and health to Ireland for a number of years now, and it's set to relaunch as 'Pendulum 360˚' on June 25th.
Frankie Sheahan, who co-founded Pendulum Summit with his wife Norma Murphy in 2013, spoke to breakingnews.ie about the changes at Pendulum as they plan for the future.
“What’s in it basically is, from the history of Pendulum Summit we’ve had eight or nine pendulums and the majority of these presentations will be available for people to view. There’s also a pendulum-inspired leadership programme, which is eight modules, it was put together by global experts, and it’s done in a micro learning format.
Well-being
“We have 20 plus courses, we feel that while people can be quite resilient there is a huge void in the well-being area in Ireland, physical and mental well-being.
“You do have some companies doing that, but we’re looking at the person in a holistic way, and we want to build them up from the foundations.
“Of the new courses a number are physical focused along with heath and well-being.”
Mr Sheahan said the new format will be more of a day-to-day platform for people to work on achieving their goals in terms of personal development and careers.
“There’s a myriad of these courses, we want to give people more than a one-day, one-off event, we restructured in it a way that there’s four different speakers throughout the year after the summit.
“One on self leadership, one on becoming a better version of you, one on performance and purpose and one on self empowerment.”
American author, coach, speaker, and philanthropist Tony Robbins will be giving a masterclass to celebrate the launch of Pendulum 360˚ on June 25th.
Global following
Robbins has previously appeared at Pendulum Summit, and he has a huge global following.
“To launch this we’ve managed to procure Tony Robbins, he’s massive he recently had 900,000 people on a Zoom.
“We brought him to Ireland for the first time in 2016, so he agreed to give a virtual masterclass to celebrate the launch of this.
“He’s going to be joined by Dr Maki Mandela, Nelson’s oldest daughter. She’s going to share her wisdom on how difference matters, perseverance, resilience, diversity, that side of things.
“We’ll have a virtual event on the day to launch it, there’ll be thousands with companies, individuals and organisations.”
The fee for a year-long membership to Pendulum 360˚ is €360 but Mr Sheahan feels this represents good value for members, saying “even one thing taken from one of our speeches can help to make a big life change”, not including the additional seminars and workshops that are included with membership.
“This is for anybody who is in that space of maximising their potential in all aspects of their life,” he explained.
“There is no better time to do it now when people need this more than ever, people have got into their comfort zone and quite introverted as well not necessarily in a positive way.
“There’s a lot of challenges and there will be a lot of legacy issues with well-being, so we’re focusing on providing a solution to individuals, companies and clients to tackle this huge area that’s coming.
“As far as we at Pendulum are concerned, there’s an umbilical cord between things like leadership, performance, wealth and empowerment.
“You can’t be great at what you do if you’re shaking like a leaf inside, it starts with the self first.
“We’re trying to build you from the foundations up, and you’re at least walking before you can run. There’s no point in jumping straight into a leadership course or a high performance course if you’re not fully mentally up for it.”
Mr Sheahan says the “osmosis” of being around like-minded people can help people improve and achieve their goals, comparing it to his experience as a professional rugby player with Ireland and Munster.
“I played professional sport for 14 years and if I stopped training for a few weeks I’d fall off a cliff, I’d lose my fitness levels, my muscle development, some of my skill and skill memory.
“It’s the reason we’re looking to build a community, the people who register will be coming back day after day and that helps for a pure view, for accountability partners, to help each other.
Covid challenges
“This is easy for me to say, but people have to focus on the positive. Now depending on what they’ve gone through, some people have gone through horrific loss with Covid; losing family members, jobs, they’re on the breadline, they’re huge challenges.
“You’ve got to try and not get pulled into the negativity and focus on the positives that are happening out there.
“It’s nearly embarrassing to say, but a lot of companies have done really well, there’s great entrepreneurship out there.
“A lot of people have found positives in working from home. Reconnecting with family, bringing back community spirit. A lot of positives and it’s important in life in general to be mindful of where you’re focusing your attention because energy goes where attention flows.”
While Mr Sheahan hopes to return to live events, he praised the hard work of his team in setting up the Pendulum 360˚ launch as a virtual event.
“There’s nothing easy in a new venture. We’re lucky in that we get to work with some of the best people at what they do, the best companies around.
“We’ve a fantastic team who are always very willing, they gauge when there’s a new challenge and every one of them has rolled up their sleeves.
“It’s tough, but we’re all putting in 12-hour days and that’s what it takes to get this thing going, we won’t shirk the challenge.
“Like everyone, we’ve had to adapt in general way quicker than we’d normally have to.
“Business is tough, but that’s just the reality of it, it’s a challenge, but it’s a good one I like to say.”
He added: “We’re providing a solution for people who are looking for the help, in some ways we’re just an agent putting the people who want to learn and improve and putting them with the best teachers on the planet.
“When you get these wonderful testimonials from people thanking you for helping them for getting them to a stage they wanted it makes it all worthwhile.”
Pendulum Summit has had some big names over the years including the likes of Robbins, Richard Branson, John Cleese and Boris Johnson.
Mr Sheahan said he couldn't pick a favourite, “that's like asking me who my favourite child is!”
“We’ve been so lucky, we’ve had Robbins, we’ve had Jack Canfield (he has nearly a billion copies of his book Chicken Soup for the Soul in circulation), Deepak Chopra.... he's a great friend of the organisation, Randi Zuckerberg, John Cleese, Colin Farrell, Richard Branson....when Conor McGregor got on stage with him, it got nearly it got 10 million views internationally in 24 hours post event.”
So what can people expect from Robbins' address on June 25th?
“You measure speakers on a few things, number one being how good of an orator they are. He is an outstanding orator the way he can present his ideas. I can say what he’s saying, you might give me a 4/10, but he’s going to get a 10/10 in how he communicates that message to you.
“What he’s mastered, the amount of different skills he has mastered. He believes if you want to be good at karate, he’d find the best person in the world in karate, he would bring him in and learn 24/7 for a month until he becomes an expert at that.
“He’s done that with many disciplines. He’s very empowering, and he’s the same off-stage, which I can’t say for every speaker.
“A lot of people are doing most things right but not getting the results they want, very often it’s just one small tweak or change. This guy is as good as you could come across.”
This article was amended at 11.30pm on Sunday May 3rd, 2021
