Summary

Name: Jon Bradshaw
Born: January 1972, Birmingham England

Professional Qualifications: Practitioner and Master Practitioner Certification in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) with International Teaching Seminars.

Quick Links :

Professional  
Sporting  
Extreme Adventures     

Professional

Having worked in the USA after graduating in the summer of 1993 I returned to the UK and joined the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) in their international publishing division on a magazine called BBC Worldwide, the listing guide for BBC World Service radio & television broadcasts. I was soon promoted to the international display sales team and at 21 began to develop my international business experience with regular trips to Cyprus, Malta and Switzerland.

After 2 years, and a 2 month round the world backpacking adventure, I joined First Class, the membership magazine for IAPA the International Airline Passengers Association. My role as sales manager broadened my international publishing and advertising sales experience further and aged just 24 was regularly used to presenting to and negotiating with MD’s and CEO and other board level directors.

Keen to be exposed to a different industry I took the opportunity to join Sports Industry Ltd whose portfolio of marketing solutions included an annual exhibition, an area in which I wanted to further develop professionally. The European Fitness Convention in Earls Court, London gave me the opportunity to work within sport for the first time.
In 1999 the opportunity to work on an international exhibition arose and I joined Reed Travel Exhibitions on their Geneva based European International Business Travel & Meetings exhibition (EIBTM) as Sales Manager.  Unfortunately the relocation of the organising offices to London meant the role only lasted 18 months but, aged 28 and already with 7 years of sales and marketing experience, it provided me with the opportunity to pursue a dream and I took the decision to realise my long held goal of setting up my own business as a personal fitness trainer. Consequently, after a period of intense full time study, early in 2001 I launched Eclipse, my personal training business.

For over 3 years I worked with a huge variety of individuals helping them set and then achieving their fitness goals. Clients came from all kinds of backgrounds and included models, rock stars, students, lawyers, dentists as well as athletes. I gained valuable experience in understanding how different people get motivated and soon realised that I needed skills as a life coach as much as I did a fitness coach.
In 2004 I wanted to evolve my business and introduce an executive coaching angle to my services. I began to study the psychology of success and got more interested in the mental as well as physical side of coaching. It was at this point that I decided to reacquaint myself with the corporate world in order to start to promote myself internationally. I returned to work with some of my ex colleagues in the incentive and motivational travel sector on the excellent IMEX exhibition held annually in Frankfurt.

My ongoing study of personal development, human performance and life coaching is underpinned by my interest in and study of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). NLP’s study of human behaviour has helped me create content for many of my seminars and I gained my Practitioner and then Master Practitioner Certificate in NLP with the author and internationally regarded Mr Ian McDermott through the UK based International Teaching Seminars.
                                    
Whilst continuing to offer a limited number of personal training sessions via Eclipse, I launched Equinox Motivation & Performance in early 2006 offering motivational speaking services to conference and event organisers internationally.

Sporting

Although a relatively shy youngster I was lucky enough to possess above average ability in most sports. I did well enough in the classroom but it was in the playground, sports field and swimming pool where I really excelled. Sport taught me about working with others, team spirit, responsibility as well as how to handle the various emotions bought on by failure as well as success – a tool that has proved invaluable within the motivational speaking and performance coaching business.

I’ve been lucky enough to achieve county (State) level success at numerous sports including rugby, cricket, athletics and basketball. However, it is in football that I’ve achieved the most. Having moved to Sussex in the south of England as an 11 year old I have been lucky enough to play for numerous teams at various levels of senior football. It was with Lewes F.C in the Ryman’s League however that I arguably achieved the most playing in both the FA Cup and FA Vase at semi professional level.

The price for this success was high. In a match in North London in 1996 I received a serious facial injury resulting in a smashed eye socket (Zigloma) and fractured lower jaw. The resulting facial surgery included the fitting of a titanium plate below my right eye and 2 months out of the game. For two weeks my eyesight was in danger but luckily I fully recovered.

Extreme Adventures

Skydiving - 2004
In addition to the obligatory bungee jump that backpackers undertake in Australia or New Zealand I did complete a 14,000ft skydive in 2004 over Byron Bay, Australia’s most Easterly point. I captured the 62 second freefall on DVD just to prove to friends back home I’d done it!

Mt. Kilimanjaro 2004
As the world’s highest freestanding mountain Mt. Kilimanjaro poses a huge challenge. Success rates are generally given at somewhere between 50 – 75% and in October 2004 the elements where trying to keep this as low as possible. Rain turned to snow in driving winds resulting in ice forming on every part of our clothing. And having had 4 hours sleep in 40 hours my physical and mental limits were pushed to the edge. I have created a presentation based on my experiences.

Shark Diving 2004
Whilst working in Cape Town I had the chance to cage dive in shark infested water. The crew attract the sharks with bait and we had 3 or 4 huge great whites around the cage. The time of year meant that the water wasn’t that clear which mean that I wasn’t ready when a huge set of teeth appeared 1m in front of me and rattled the tiny cage I was in. It was awe inspiring to see these creatures in the wild and whilst I know this type of activity has its critics the crew were careful not to feed the sharks and to help us learn as much as possible about these magnificent creatures.

Mt Everest Base Camp 2007
It was July 2006 when I saw an article calling for volunteers to trek through the Himalayas to the base camp of Mt. Everest. The Xtreme-Everest project was being put together by some of the world’s top scientists and based at University College London’s Centre for Altitude, Space and Extreme environment medicine (CASE). The aim of the multi-million pound 12 week project was to study human systems stretched to breaking point in extreme environments in the hope of increasing understanding on the effects of Hypoxia (lack of oxygen) on the human body.

I trekked over 100km from Lukla in Nepal up the Khumbu Valley to spend 3 nights on the legendary Khumbu ice fall at Mt. Everest base camp.

As a volunteer daily mental and physical testing was part of everyday life. These included 3 tests of VO2 Max on an exercise bike, the only accurate way of which is to push the body to complete exhaustion which I did at heights of up to 5400m.

I suffered mentally and physically with the altitude although I reached the target of base camp without too many problems. It was however upon leaving the camp on the last day and embarking on a climb to 5700m, that I suffered a suspected HACE – High Altitude Cerebral Oedema - resulting in brain swelling and the onset of sickness, confusion and disorientation - a terrifying and potentially life threatening scenario.

Cycle Europe 2008
In May 2006 my brother-in-law Steve (36), father to my niece Emily (8), my nephew George (10) and husband to my sister Clare for 14 years, was involved in a serious cycling accident whilst training for a charity bike ride.

Steve suffered a compressed carotid artery on the left side of his neck resulting, in a stroke and serious brain damage. Steve was left with no speech or movement on the right hand side of his body. Ten months later his fight to get his life back goes on daily with intense speech and physiotherapy.

At the time of writing, Steve’s speech is still very limited however due to huge determination he was able to give back the wheelchair he was told he would be confined to for life within a few months of his accident and he can now walk slowly unaided. It was with an unbelievable amount of courage that he recently left his wife and children for the first time since his accident and flew to Peru to complete a charity bike ride for Macmillan Cancer Research. This was quite incredible achevement considering Steve was wheelchair bound 12 months earlier.

This is not a story purely about Steve; Steve’s accident highlighted the fact that although victims of strokes are generally perceived to be older, thousands of people under the age of 40 suffer strokes each year often resulting in limited movement and an inability to communicate or interact socially just as they enter the prime of their lives.

Steve’s accident affected me hugely and I realised what a privileged position I was in with my health and fitness. Therefore I have begun to plan a 4000km bike ride across Europe for charities specialising in the rehabilitation of young stroke victims. There will be regular updates on my website but essentially I will be taking 13 weeks off in the summer of 2008 to ride from London down to Monaco and back whilst raising several thousand pounds for charity. Please email me for more information.