Claire O’Hanlon - Adding Spark to Business Growth

Claire O’Hanlon is adding spark to business growth as a local business and personal development trainer and coach by taking her new business to the next level with an almost literal baptism of fire.

Monday 6 April 2020

Claire O’Hanlon - Adding Spark to Business Growth

Claire O’Hanlon is adding spark to business growth as a local business and personal development trainer and coach by taking her new business to the next level with an almost literal baptism of fire.

Coalisland woman, Claire O’Hanlon, is well known locally for her charity work, work that saw her honoured with an MBE in 2019, but her penchant for helping others doesn’t stop there. Jumping out of planes, ziplining across rivers, organising marathon teams, campaigning for improved care for her son who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy and travelling the world learning how to become a better patient advocate are all things that Claire does on the side.

For her day job, Claire helps would-be, new and growing business owners to develop the skills, confidence and know how to develop and grow their own businesses. Now she has taken that one step further and teaches her clients to walk on fire!

After working in Dungannon Enterprise Centre for almost 13 years, Claire took the plunge into business herself in late 2019 starting 2 small businesses, LuCo Consultancy & Training and Claire O’Hanlon Coaching. Claire was at a point where she knew that she needed to grow and gain more freedom in her personal life to be able to effectively balance being a mum and a carer for a child with a progressive condition, whilst earning a living and being heavily involved in charity work. With support from her employer, Claire decided to start her own business, using the knowledge and skills gained through her years of experience to help people start and grow their own business.

Claire recognises that starting and keeping a business isn’t just about knowing how to implement a marketing plan or how keep your books, it is also about being in the right place mentally and emotionally. Over the years, Claire has spent countless hours mentoring clients on developing their confidence, building resilience, assessing what their real goals are, using their current reality to build something from scratch and helping them to push through their fears and challenges to be able to take action that gets them closer to where they want to go. Claire reflects on how “Having had my own set of extremely challenging circumstances myself, I think it’s no surprise that this was the part of my job that I loved most”.

In February, Claire added to her tool-box of skills by doing something rather unconventional. She trained to become a Fire Walk Instructor. Claire notes that she has received some funny looks when telling people what she was doing, but for Claire, the link between Fire walking and personal and business development are endless. “The course has provided me with ample activities I can use to help my clients gain clarity and focus, to become more empathetic, to work better as teams, to overcome their fears and to push through the challenges and mental blocks that are stopping them from achieving whatever success looks like to them. That could be success in their business, their work or their personal life. I now work with clients who walk on fire and glass, who bend rebar and snap arrows with their throat. It’s exciting and it’s fun and clients always leave feeling motivated, inspired and ready for action”.

If you would like to learn more about how Claire can support your business you can email: claire@lucocomms.co.uk, connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Facebook: @ClaireOhanlonCoaching

Monday 6 April 2020