Frankie Sheahan is probably still best known as an Irish rugby legend. However, the Munster and Ireland star is now conquering the business world.
After retiring in 2009, the rugby hooker transformed himself into the founder and CEO of Pendulum, the world’s leading business and self-empowerment summit.
Speaking to Dublin Live at the Pendulum Summit in Dublin's RDS, Frankie said: “I’m very lucky, I’m 45 now but when I first started rugby, I was about 10 years of age and it was a game I adored.
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“I was about 17/18 when rugby union became professional. It was a dream come true, I finally had the chance to follow that and see if I could make it as a professional player.
"The Heineken Cup then started and I got the opportunity to spend the next 14 years playing with Munster and Ireland.
"I went to the same school together as Ronan (O’Gara) and we would’ve played all the way up together.
“There was a group of us, Brian O'Meara, Mick O’Driscoll, Peter Stringer, Anthony Horgan, David Wallace and Tom Tierney, there was a great crew of us at the time.”
When his career on the pitch ended, Frankie decided to continue with his passions and went into a career that focused on personal development, self-help and leadership.
He said: “I always gravitated to those types of books when I was younger.
“I’d the opportunity to play with and against the best players in the world and then I found myself in a situation where I set up a business called ‘Front Row Speakers’ which brought speakers into companies and organisations covering performance, leadership and wellbeing.
“By doing that, I got the lightbulb moment that all these speakers work in different sectors but all their principles are the same."
Frankie decided to set up one event a year to cover the key pillars such as authentic relationships, business excellence and leadership and team performance.
He said: “We came up with the Pendulum Summit. We started it in 2014 and it’s fantastic eight years later, even with the pandemic.
“We were dealt a curved ball over the pandemic, things went against us but we reacted. We followed the advice and we had a virtual event at the end of 2020.
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“Is it as good as an in-person event? For me, no but for some it was okay, it was a bit of a novelty for some.
“It was a great learning experience and we now have a new revolutionary learning and lifestyle platform which is online. We made the time work for us.
“What we have here is an amazing energy in a room of like minded individuals who are looking for that extra bit of wisdom to take themselves to the next level. It’s amazing to be back after 27 months.
“It’s passion, if you follow your passion you will do that bit extra. In rugby I had passion and I wanted it, it made me go to a different level. I was hugely passionate about this too, I read the books, I follow these speakers so bringing them all in feels like more of a hobby.
“I always remind myself to be grateful that I'm somewhere I enjoy. When you surround yourself with like minded people there’s an osmosis.”
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