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Where It All Began

Founder Frankie Sheahan was always passionate about personal development. Never a bookworm, as a young man he nevertheless devoured cassette tapes by Tony Robbins and Tony Quinn, and was intrigued by the concept of creative visualisation and mindfulness by such visionaries as Shakti Gawain.

As time passed, he worked through an expanding library of works on both business and sport, consistently finding a common vein that linked the two disciplines through resilience, perseverance and self-belief.

Frankie soon found his passion in rugby and became a professional, representing Munster and Ireland. He won several major tournaments under the guidance of world-renowned coaches, and played alongside some of the best players in the game

Overcoming Adversity

Curtailed by injury, Frankie’s sporting career came to an end in 2009 at the same time the world economy fell to its knees. Frankie, alongside his wife and business partner Norma had reared five children and invested all of their savings in property in order to secure a pension for his family when he retired. Property prices had tumbled in some places by up to 70% and after lengthy litigation, Frankie went bankrupt despite his negative equity standing at only €500,000. To this day he maintains that if his creditor had given even a 12 month period this would have been flipped to positive equity.

Just prior to this, he and Norma decided that both they and the nation needed to assume a more positive and upbeat attitude. Backed by family, they founded Pendulum Summit in mid-2013, with the initial theme of “getting Ireland back on track.” Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, it featured profound wisdom from inspiring minds, who showcased how they achieved mastery in their respective fields.

Its maiden year saw 600 delegates attend, a figure which rose to over 7,000 across two days in 2018 and saw them host speakers including Deepak Chopra MD, Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield, Jo Malone MBE, Baroness Michelle Mone OBE, Robin Sharma, Randi Zuckerberg and Sir Richard Branson.

The Ripple Effect

Frankie, Norma and their team’s mission is to spread Pendulum’s movement across the globe. Exiting bankruptcy in April of 2018 enabled Frankie to take Pendulum Summit, now the world’s leading business and self-empowerment summit, to the next level, bringing the event to New York. Many locations tried earnestly to bring the summit to their city, but for Frankie and Norma, New York embodied the resilience, tenacity and can-do spirit that Pendulum Summit strives to epitomise.

In addition to the summit, Pendulum Talks, an online learning platform showcasing the best of Pendulum’s previous speakers, enhances this ambition, enabling delegates to incorporate the wisdom from previous summits into their daily lives.