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Directors 'Go Naked' for good cause!    (October 08)

Founding Directors of Academy of High Achievers Ltd (Tony Burgess and Julie French) found themselves posing 'starkers' in a photo shoot for a 2009 calendar aimed at raising funds for Cancer Research UK

(This is a small fraction of the photo that will appear in the actual calendar)

The setting for the shoot was in one of the couple's training rooms at their base in Derrington.

Tony and Julie are used to setting confidence challenges for delegates on their training programmes - and now it was their turn - by stripping off for the camera!

It ended up being good fun and it was all for a very good cause.

Jane Fox was very professional as official photographer and made it all very easy and relaxed!

The Calendar has been put together by a Staffordshire business networking group - Stone BNI - where 12 businesses are paying to be represented, one for each month of the year.

If you would like to support the charity and would like to buy a copy (£10 plus p&p), please click here to visit the Stone BNI website where you can purchase online.

Thank You!

'Unearthing Diamonds' in Glastonbury (June 2008 NLP Practitioner training):

Another six NLP magic-weavers proudly showing off their Practitioner certificates. Glastonbury Torr is visible in the background.

We had lovely weather for much of the week which meant we could spill outside into the delightful environment around our training room in 'break-out' exercises.

Here Andy and Karen (left) and Mandy and Graeme (right) are concentrating hard in the sunshine.

Tuesday's sunrise on Glastonbury Torr provided us all with a great start to a day of learning.

Steve (one of our resident fitness trainers - left) even played his guitar for us at the top! And then Richie (our other fitness trainer and chef for the week) showed us some great Tai Chi moves to welcome in the day!

Our late night NLP games began to get a little bit whacky! What creative thinkers! (That's the politest way of putting it)

Donald accepts his winner's cup graciously!

Team work and mutual support was very much evident and encouraged during the week!

Thursday evening's firewalk provided an opportunity to step out of comfort zone and even the venue owner's 13 year old daughter, Amy, decided to join in! Well done Amy (and everyone!)

We will be back in Glastonbury again in November 2008 for our next 'Unearthing Diamonds' residential programme - will you join us?

Click here for info about the programme and click here for dates and fees for November's programme.

'Unearthing Diamonds' in Staffordshire - Non-residential NLP Practitioner programmes 2008:

Another wonderful group qualify as NLP Practitioners in Feb 2008 and are eager to get out into the world to apply their new skills to help make a real positive difference in people's lives.

Great fun was had by all - every one of them as mad as a fish!

And another group proudly qualify in May 2008 - Dave Turner loved the Jan/Feb programme so much that he came back for more in April/May - a real asset to the group and a shining star as a practitioner.

You don't have to be 'off your trolley' to work with us - but it helps!

Well done to you all and enjoy weaving your magic out there!

NLP Master Practitioner Training 2008:

What on earth has 'Dobbies' garden centre got to offer a group of NLP Master Practitioner trainees on Day 1 of their training?

Unknown to them and to the staff and customers at the garden centre, the challenges were about to begin! I think this day will be talked about and remembered for a very long time!

Trainee Master Practitioner Tony Altham used to have an extreme fear response when in the presence of worms. Only moments after using his NLP techniques to change his own fear into confidence in this area we offered him the opportunity to work with surprise visitor Julie Bryan to permanently transform her 'worm phobia' into 'worm confidence' too. What a result! Well done Julie for being willing to come along to face that old fear and well done Tony for stepping up to the challenge and making it happen so beautifully.

Trainee Master Practitioners Carmen (left) and Alex (middle) helped surprise visitor Jenny Green to face her old phobia of heights and to abseil and rock climb with confidence. Well done all!

We have had some wonderful opportunities to work outside on this year's programme. Here Christine and Sue enjoy the sunshine as they master their skills.

Alex supports Jane as she accesses her inner resources to snap an archery arrow on her throat! She does it with ease and reinforces her knowledge that she can do anything she turns her attention to because she knows how to 'get out of her own way'. Well done both.

This is one of those courses where friendships for life begin to form. A 'family' of support that continues way beyond the end of the programme.

Testing out their sensory acuity skills the trainee Master Practitioners found some spooky results in the Staffordshire countryside.

Winners of this year's 'NLP Olympics' with Tony and Julie

Master Practitioner delegates test mental strategies for physical achievement (with the help of our fitness instructor Steve Halls) as part of an afternoon of capturing 'the difference that makes a difference' and 'modelling excellence'.

Christine takes a well-earned short break in the sunshine before the next challenge!

Plenty of outstanding experiences already on this programme and we still have two days left for more magic!

And places for our 2009 Master Practitioner programme are already being booked.

Unearthing Diamonds in Glastonbury (December 2007 NLP Practitioner training):

A wonderful location for learning!

Magic everywhere!

An early morning pre-sunrise walk to the top of Glastonbury Tor gets the blood pumping and everyone's grey matter energised for another great day of soaking up new learning. Steve Halls, our resident fitness instructor provides the early morning music!

Tom puts his old anxiety of spiders well and truly in the past, using his new skills!

Wow - what a day of learning! Our youngest NLP practitioner to date, Alex Hewitt (age 17 when he qualified), takes a short break before dinner!

What an exceptional young man!

A great team effort building the fire!

What do you mean 'We'll be walking on that later?!'

Chris soaks up Steve's applause for a top performance on the fitness challenges throughout the week!

Tom and Julie know that an abundance of fun around the place makes learning so much easier!

Marie nourished our bodies with excellent food whilst we nourished our minds with the training!

All well qualified and ready to make a difference!

Also all totally bonkers!

Trainers Tony and Julie agreed that they will definitely be using this special venue again for more training in the future!

(See our Links page for details of this highly recommended venue)

A fantastic week and a wonderful group of newly qualified NLP Practitioners have gone out into the world to weave their magic! How fulfilling our work is!

Peru Trek 2007 - The Ultimate Netwalk (June 2007):

What an incredible trip - 15 intrepid networkers with a sense of adventure trekking in the Peruvian Andes

It started with a community project in the mountains - helping locals to begin to build an extension to a community school.

Long grass needed to be collected from high on the mountain and carried back down to the school ready to mix with mud to make bricks.

Trekker Andy Fairweather moulds a grass and mud brick.

Mark Dickinson (above) installs windows by trade back in the UK - a skill that turned out to be priceless when applied to the school project in Peru. Glenn Watkins (CEO of Ecademy - see below) turned his hand to this very worthwhile activity too!

It was a joy to see the wonderful smiles of appreciation on the faces of the school children as we handed out exercise books and pens.

...Unforgettable!!!

And then we were trekking...

...up...

...up...

...and up...

...and up some more! And it was certainly worth it!

Here is the Aha! team enjoying the awesome view before heading downhill again.

It's not every day we get a chance to tie the CEO of Ecademy to a trainline!

The Inca City at Machu Picchu - WOW - breathtaking!

For Director Julie French, this was a truly inspiring place to be!

Providing memories enough to last for a lifetime!

What a finale!

And then winding down gently at the end of the trek, back in civilisation in Lima - friendships established for life.

In 2008 our next adventures will be in Gambia (Feb) and Bhutan (October / November)

Contact us to register an interest in future adventures

NLP Practitioner training - 'Unearthing Diamonds' in Spain - April 2007

What an outstanding group - it was a true privilege to work with such lovely people, who were so willing to get stuck into the learning.

How fabulous to be able to extend our classroom onto the beach!

And what a great view from our hotel training room!

Early morning 'opt in' fitness sessions with Steve were very popular.

Magic was weaved everywhere we all went!

Meal times were a delight - a time to reflect and share breakthroughs.

Our fitness instructor, Steve, working hard - shame!

Andy gets ready to apply his new inner skills to experience an unusual breakthrough - snapping an archery arrow on his throat!

Easy when you commit to it 100% - Just like life, really!

It's so wonderful to welcome new friends into the 'Aha! family'

Happy faces and everyone clutching their certificates - fully qualified NLP Practitioners, ready to unleash further magic!

Julie says 'We'll be back!'

Contact us for details of our next 'Unearthing Diamonds' NLP Practitioner training programme

NLP Master Practitioner Training 2007:

One of our current NLP Master Practitioner delegates, Neil Hewitt, took the final test to prove that he had indeed put his old phobia of snakes well and truly in the past.

Neil said: "I had been carrying around a snake phobia for some 47 years. On my NLP course, I spent some 15 minutes with another delegate who worked with me on that phobia (using the swish pattern technique). The following weekend I was handling a 4ft long corn snake. Prior to this I had trouble picking up a newspaper if there was a picture of a snake inside it. This really demonstrated to me just how powerful NLP can be."

Well done Neil !

Neil was soon applying the same principles on our Master Practitioner training programme to help local business woman Bev Austin put her phobia of spiders into the past:

Well done to Bev for taking the step that allowed her to experience her breakthrough (ie turning up to the session)! Well done to Neil as the expert facilitator!

Peter Connolly (above) also permanently removed his spider phobia on the day, working with Sarah Armitage (another of our trainee Master Practitioners). Both Neil and Sarah (trainee Master Practitioners) had spider phobias themselves before they began training with us, so it is particularly rewarding for them to be helping people like Bev and Peter to be empowered in this way.

Well done to Peter for taking the opportunity to work with Sarah!

And well done to Sarah for her expert facilitation!

Chris Connolly (above, standing with trainee NLP Master Practitioner, Ian Kinnery) used to feel terrified at the mere thought of climbing up a ladder, due to a long-held intense phobia of heights.

After Ian worked with Chris for just one short NLP-based coaching session, she quickly overcame her fear of climbing ladders and here she is (above) completing a two hour 'aerial extreme' high ropes course (just to make sure!).

Well done Chris!!! And well coached Ian!

Our Master Practitioner trainees all completed the high ropes course themselves, walking their talk as usual! Well done all!

Contact us to find out how we can help you to let go of any phobia and make it history

NLP Trainer Julie French leads a group of Master Practitioner delegates on a full day 'training walk' across the Staffordshire countryside. Faced with specially designed challenges and real clients to work with at key points along the way, the group had no idea what they would be faced with next to test their NLP skills at a level of mastery. (We like to keep them on their toes!).

Our Tanzanian Maasai Adventure February 2006:

February 2006 saw a wonderful adventure for a team of six that spent a week camping in Maasai country, well off the tourist trail and with the privilege of spending time with the Maasai communities there amongst the beautiful wilderness and abundant wildlife.

We will definitely be running a Maasai adventure trip again and there are going to be limited places so get in touch with us now if you want to be one of the few to share the experience

The learning was different for everybody (as with any 'discovery learning' experience) and everyone returned with new insights and incredible memories that will last for a lifetime. Some of the experiences were very moving, including a visit to a small Maasai school where we got to spend some cherished time with the young students, many of whom walked 12 kilometres to and from school daily and had such gratitude for their education.

We learned a lot about how despite having so little materially, the Maasai had amazing pride in themselves and their community and in so many ways they had so much more appreciation of what life had brought to them.

We learned a lot about customer service - we were looked after incredibly well at camp and we were amazed at what was accomplished by our support team with so few resources. They always went the extra mile to make sure our experience was the best it could be and it really put to shame most examples of so called 'service' we had come across in the UK.

We learned so many other things and we are reluctant to specify them all here because this kind of adventure brings so many unique personal discoveries and learnings that we wish to avoid giving you too many expectations that might cloud your own unique discoveries on one of our future trips.

Let us finish by telling you that the photos don't even begin to do justice to this adventure - it was absolutely pure magic!

Contact us to register your interest in future adventures