Those who couldn’t make it to our inaugural Catch the Momentum event in Wellington during March, we bring you some highlights from this life-changing event.

Here we speak to the MC, Edmond Otis, who was just as excited about attending this event as the participants were.
Edmond hails from Southern California and moved to New Zealand two years ago. He now lives in Hawke’s Bay with his wife and two children. A licensed psychotherapist, speaker, success coach and distinguished university lecturer, one of his aims in life is to “teach people to be fearless”.

“I’ve been involved with events like this in the US and was delighted to see one come to Wellington,” says Edmond. “My role was to encourage participants to take on the mind set of being receptive and responsive to the presentations and get as much out of the material as possible.”

Edmond was pleased to see his encouragement paid off and believes the high quality of presenters and broad group of participants made for an extremely successful event.

“There was a great range of topics and perspectives and every presenter held their own,” says Edmond. “The participants were very focused and responsive and provided a high energy level at all presentations. In fact, the energy levels didn’t stop there; many participants made the most of the breaks to share their thoughts and leanings with others in the audience.”

The ‘stand out’ moment for Edmond was hearing Jason Barrell speak.

Jason is an ordinary New Zealander who has experienced more than his share of challenges. Suffering from dyslexia and low self-esteem and dropping out of high school, he beat the odds by going on to have his own successful business and play rugby in the NPC and Super 12 leagues until a freak accident during a game ended his professional rugby career.

After a long rehabilitation process, Jason embarked on a new career, which was going really well until he began suffering from a series of small strokes. An MRI scan detected an inoperable tumour and he was told he might die. After a risky operation of more than nine hours that caused further brain damage, Jason had to start all over again – he even had to learn to walk and feed himself. Over time he gained strength both mentally and physically.

Jason got through these harrowing events and now uses his story to challenge others to focus on the good things in life, to gain strength from adversity and to reach for the sky.

“Jason was fabulous, easy going, insightful, funny and sincere,” says Edmond. “He really caught everyone’s attention and had a major effect on everyone in the room!”

Edmond is excited to hear that a second Catch the Momentum event is planned for Wellington in September and wholeheartedly encourages everyone to attend.

“This is the first event of its kind in Wellington and I’d expect to see a lot of people return for the next one and bring their friends and colleagues with them,” says Edmond. “I’m hoping to be there!”