Wigan musician swaps heavy metal for motivational coaching

Pete Leyland, former vocalist with local group Bloodwork Salvation, has set up new business Petential which aims to help clients be the best they can with the help of online courses.

He is also bringing out Execution of the Mind, the first of three books explaining how he managed to turn his own life around after struggling with alcohol addiction and deep anxiety about being around other people.

The 28-year-old from Worsley Hall decided to swap one kind of microphone and a stage for a very different one after describing his experiences last December at a charity night for mental illness.

Battling back from his darkest times has also given Pete the confidence to try helping others in need through Petential.

He said: “Three years ago I was an alcoholic, I weighed 8st, I chose drinking over eating and I would go camping on my own just to get away from the world.

“The book shows how step by step I overcame that. Everything fell apart and I had no-one else to blame but myself. When you get to that point you realise you need to change, not the world. Slowly I’m growing, getting better and more responsible.

“As soon as I got on the stage to do a presentation at the charity night I knew I wanted to help people. I spoke about a close friend of mine and the from the feedback thought about how I could go about it.

“Some of the messages are quite similar to ones in Bloodwork Salvation’s songs, but doing this I can put it forth more clearly. It gets straight to the message.”

Pete started by writing the books: Execution of the Mind will be followed by two further volumes on the body and the spirit. The final volume will concentrate on ideas such as belief and self-confidence.

He said: “Friends have been coming to me for advice for years and I thought a lot of people don’t really work on themselves. We get education coaches or fitness coaches but not really mind toughening or strengthening coaches to grow how we look at ourselves.

“There’s an online course and if that’s not enough they can come to me I will help them step by step to fix the problems.

“I’m currently testing the courses because I want to make sure they work before I put them online.”

Pete has also been doing podcasts on his Youtube channel and hopes to begin speaking about execution coaching and motivation as well as strategy building and problem solving at schools, colleges and business events in the borough.

The first book, Execution of the Mind, will be out next month through Amazon.

To find out more, visit www.facebook.com/petential