John Shackleton has a background in sports psychology and has coached world champions and Olympic medallists. A top-level swimmer himself in his youth, he went on to become a professional coach in swimming and triathlon. In his quest to improve performance he turned to sports psychology to help his athletes achieve their potential and gain a competitive edge.
In the 1980s he turned his skills to the business world, helping managers and sales people raise their performance, running his own corporate training consultancy and delivering programmes to industries as diverse as insurance, pharmaceuticals, franchising and IT. Over the next 20 years the company grew to be the largest of its type in Europe.
In his late 40’s John sold his UK company and emigrated to New Zealand where he set up a speaking and coaching business, quickly becoming one of Australasia’s top motivation speakers, specialising in the fields of motivation strategies and goal setting.
In 2013 after a bout of depression brought on by extreme stress John began to study ways to help others cope with the pressures put on them by the modern world. He discovered the emerging area of Mindfulness and saw it had huge potential to help people deal with stress. His approach, as it always has been, was to understand the neuroscience behind it and then develop practical techniques for people to use mindfulness to reduce their stress and improve their lives.
His background, combined with his own journey through depression, has given John a unique and powerful approach to helping people deal with ever increasing stress levels. A powerful speaker with a story borne out of experience, not a text book, his humourous but hard hitting style will inspire his audiences to make big changes to their thinking processes, and take a greater level of responsibility for their own mental health, which has the added bonus of making them healthier, happier, and, therefore, more profitable employees.
