Step out of your usual operating environment and into a weekend specifically designed to challenge you, inspire you and develop you into a high performance leader.
Developing excellence in leadership and resilience…
When was the last time you really challenged yourself in a leadership capacity outside of the boardroom?
How often do you stop to acknowledge and reflect on the daily personal and professional challenges that are shaping how you show up to work and interact with family and friends?
Are you ready and willing to push yourself out of your comfort zone to learn more about yourself and to develop and grow?
…that will take you to new heights.
We offer the opportunity for executives and teams to spend 48 hours in outdoor environments participating in team building, leadership, resilience and reflective sessions under the guidance of former Australian and British special unit operators.
It’s an unrivalled opportunity to learn resilience and leadership from individuals who have led high performing teams in life threatening situations. The immersion builds both leadership capability and mental resilience by conquering challenges and reflecting on your own experiences and how you have overcome the adversity of your own challenges.
Who’s it for?
The Immersion is for executives, entrepreneurs and business owners who strive to be high performers in your field – people who are ready to be challenged to step outside your comfort zone and overcome the fear, doubts and insecurities that hold you back.
It’s also ideal for groups of executives within an organisation, to learn how to interact effectively, problem-solve and forge strong relationships that support disruption and innovation.
The Immersion is for people who want the edge over the competition, who want to be truly great leaders who can engage your teams in a positive way to achieve amazing results.
About Us
We first connected in 2015 and quickly identified a shared passion to bring greater awareness and development in resilience and leadership across Australian industry. We leverage our personal and professional experience in these areas. Between us we have over 50 years experience in military, policing and corporate sales and consulting and corporate leadership. Together, we have designed a course that allows you to reflect, shape, validate and endorse your learnings in a unique environment that leads to maximum personal gains and growth.
Shaun O'Gorman
The Strong Life Project
Shaun has seen his fair share of challenges throughout his life. During a 13 year Police career, 9 years as a tactical K9 handler and two years working on major and organised crime in a covert and surveillance unit, he experienced violence and witnessed depravity on a daily basis. After leaving that environment with a diagnosis of PTSD and depression and facing an extended battle with suicide, he then experienced a bitter divorce and prolonged family court custody battle. But he never gave in, and never gave up. He continued to build a successful corporate career in commercial property, but all the while was continually studying, learning and developing into the person he knew he could become.
Shaun now lives an amazing life, has connected relationships, is healthier and fitter than ever before and enjoys a successful and fulfilling career impacting high performers across a range of industries. The lessons of his 13 year Police career and 15 year corporate career, along with years of immersing himself in personal development and growth, form the basis of his message as a high performance coach, mentor and speaker determined to inspire people to live their best life.
William Gooderson
Unconventional Leader
William is a former British Army Major who, over a 9-year military career, served across Europe and the Middle East, including active deployment to Afghanistan. As a paratrooper he gained experience leading teams on combat operations as part of the special forces support group and commanding multinational groups in large-scale humanitarian and peace-keeping missions.
Moving to Australia in 2012, he battled with mental wellbeing and PTSD as he transitioned into the corporate world and in overcoming these challenges, he has gone on to lead, coach, train and develop executives and teams on their own leadership and resilience journeys.
I’ve been working with Shaun one on one for years and I know every time I work on myself with him, my life excels in every area. So the decision to join the immersion was easy – as I wanted my life to go to the next level.
My biggest recent challenge was not being able to give up my nicotine/smoking addiction as a self-medication for stress and pressure. I went into the immersion with this as my focus, and the challenges put forward by Shaun and Will allowed me to make the necessary changes to break this habit, and were a HUGE part of me being able to move forward in my business and personal goals.
A standout was also having the chance to share thoughts, challenges and life events with other CEOs and leaders and hear from them and share experiences. As an MD of a construction company, I rarely give myself the chance to slow down, breathe and dive into working on myself. So being able to challenge myself on this level was a great win for me.
To anyone considering attending an Immersion with Shaun and Will, I say don’t hesitate. Be vulnerable and do this – you will not be disappointed. What they offer will benefit you in every way you can think of.
The weekend spent with Shaun and Will gave me an insight into how we integrate in a group and how different personalities handle certain situations and responses. The way we deal with stress in our personal lives relates to how we handle our corporate experiences and stressful situations. This weekend opened my eyes to accepting there is more than one way to get things done and it’s always worth taking in other people’s advice before you move on a decision.
The weekend for me was not about what we did but how and why we did it.
After the Immersion I feel more confident in myself and my decision making. I now take the time to talk bout the harder things in life rather than bury them.
Course Overview
The program has been designed to provide you with both a physical and mental challenge, taking you away from your usual operating environment and challenging you with ‘leadership in the field’ scenarios. We deliberately ensure you understand as little as possible about the course before attending. The rationale behind this becomes clear as the course unfolds and provides a learning opportunity based on how you react to stress and lack of control in challenging situations.
The expectations and outcomes will be different for each participant based on your self-awareness and approach to the experience. The techniques used and coaching provided has been designed based on our extensive experience developing and coaching executives, frontline first responders and military personnel. Having held positions of leadership in many complex environments over our careers, we are able to leverage our own insights from our tried and tested approaches to leadership and resilience, as well as sharing our reflections from when things haven’t worked effectively.
You’ll leave the Immersion with a new-found motivation to push yourself outside your comfort zone as a leader. You will gain valuable education and insights about how to manage stress, develop resilience and perform at a high level. You’ll gain a new confidence in what you are capable of and will walk out of the experience a stronger, more effective and focused version of yourself.
What the Immersion involves..and just as importantly, what it is not!
Shaun and Will will tell you to go climb the mountain. See that as a metaphor for accepting your personal challenges daily. Don’t climb it because it will make them happy or because you will find yourself at the top or because it’s good exercise; do it because when you mount and succeed at that challenge you will be a little more confident about yourself.
These courses are not about bush food, first aid, navigation or fitness. These courses are about rediscovering what you can be to yourself and that will provide you with the strength when you are lonely and increase your dependability when other people are around you…
I was privileged to attend the Executive Immersion facilitated by Shaun O’Gorman (The StrongLife Project) and Will Gooderson (The Unconventional Leader). What I learned about myself and others in those 36 hours is invaluable. The Immersion was a complete break from my usual “day-to-day” life, a much needed “circuit breaker” and dedicate time to reflect. It has given me insight into what I need to develop to be a better leader of others and myself. I always thought that I was quite resilient, but the Immersion allowed me to look at my so called resilience through a different lens.
Without giving away their many secrets, Will and Shaun pulled the levers on my surroundings to jettison me beyond my comfort zone. They simultaneously created an environment in which all participants felt safe to be vulnerable and honest. I was startled and heartened to find that many of my fellow participants (all of whom were high achievers) shared the same fears and vulnerabilities. Shaun and Will then introduced scenarios that challenged me and caused me to critically asses my usual patterns of: decision making; teamwork/interaction; communication; resilience; and, dealing with adversity. The scenarios and exercises were designed to “push the envelope” of mental, emotional and physical boundaries. Through reflective exercises, I was able to observe the patterns of others and learn from their differing styles also. I had some deep insights and “blinding flashes of the obvious” about myself and others that, had it not been for the Immersion experience, I expect I would not have had or would have taken much longer. I feel the Immersion accelerated my growth.
This was not SAS Australia. However, the scenarios and environment were carefully designed to push my mental, physical and emotional endurance to place me in a position that was uncomfortable, unfamiliar and where I could not “coast”. Having said this, not once did I feel unsafe. Will and Shaun created the perfect space for learning: one where we were pushed but not too far. Shaun and Will are clearly experienced operators and their support team, including a very experienced paramedic, were expertly chosen. They were sufficiently tough and direct whilst also compassionate and supportive as required.
On my return to “normal life” and work, I feel refreshed, rejuvenated and focussed on being a more strategic and involved leader. I’m inspired by my fellow participants and their achievements during the immersion. I’m also inspired by what I achieved personally during those 36 hours. As an added bonus, in my fellow participants, it seems that I’ve collected a group of impressive new friends.
I’d recommend the Immersion to anybody wishing to learn more about themselves, build resilience or enhance their leadership skills.
Schedule
- The program runs over approximately 40 hours, starting on the afternoon of day one and finishing late morning on day three.
- It can be scheduled to occur during the working week, or on a weekend depending on your availability.
- Participants are provided with a kit list prior to attendance, however details of the course are deliberately with-held.
- There is a requirement for participants to have a moderate level of fitness, however none of the activities are physically overwhelming. If you can walk 5 kms you are fit enough.
- We are currently delivering courses in areas near Brisbane and Canberra, and we also have provisional sites available in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne.
Fees & Inclusions
The investment per person to attend the course is $5,000 (excl GST). For the pilot program on 27th – 29 August, this is reduced to $1,500 ex GST. This does not include travel to the designated collection point, however we are happy to work with you around these logistics.
The investment includes:
- Meals throughout the immersion
- Two nights’ outdoor accomodation
- A participant’s pack of carefully selected equipment
- Transportation throughout the course
Scheduled Immersions
We hold scheduled immersions at intervals throughout the year. By bringing together a group of individuals from different organisations and industries, we create a unique environment of teamwork and resilience. Participants leave not only with enhanced skills and greater insight into themselves, but with a network of contacts who have bonded over a shared experience.
Upcoming Dates:
October 15 – 17, 2021
Corporate Team Immersions
When you bring your team into the immersion experience, you leave with individuals with greater self-awareness, leadership skills and resilience, and a strengthened team with share experiences that can be taken back into your corporate environment.
We understand that it may be difficult to take 48 hours away for your whole team, so we also offer a one day (10 hour) immersion for established teams. This compressed experience lets you take your team out of their comfort zone to disrupt their way of doing thingsfor greater learning and development.
To enquire about an immersion for your team, please fill out the enquiry form with a few details, and we’ll get in touch to organise the next steps.
Now William and Shaun were not able to magically “fix” me … and I never expected them to, and no one can but me. What they were able to do was to get me to a point where I realised that the biggest mountain I have to climb, lies deep within me. And that is a massive start. Why? Well I have constantly been looking externally for that mountain, that obstacle, that reason for my failures, my unhappiness and for everything else that has ever gone wrong in my life. And all this time, it has been right in front of my own eyes…The best part of the experience was being able to feel comfortable around a blazing fire in the ice-cold night, talking openly about matters that can ultimately help change my story.