R U OK? Day, September Events and the Conversations That Matter

September is a massive month for speaking!!

With R U OK? Day and the conversations happening around it, a lot of organisations get in touch looking for a mental health speaker for their event.

This year has been no different.

I’ve had bookings coming in since early this year, and now coming up to mid August, event planners and organisations from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and all over Australia are coming in hot!

It’s an interesting one having a day, and really a whole week for a lot of workplaces, dedicated to checking in on people. And it’s great to see organisations bringing in external speakers to complement the support they already have internally.

But I used to always think, what about the rest of the year?

That question has been answered time and time again though.

After speaking with some of the biggest organisations in Australia, right through to smaller family owned businesses, what I’ve seen is that the majority aren’t just focusing on one week of the year to check in.

There’s been a huge shift towards looking after their people as people. Not just as employees.

The conversation around mental health has changed

The world we live in has changed a lot and there’s no shortage of conversation around mental health, stress, burnout and wellbeing. We could sit here all day pointing at different reasons why people are struggling.

There are workshops, stats, frameworks and programs explaining what’s happening and what we can do about it. All of that has its place and all of it can be beneficial.

While I touch on some of that stuff in my talks, I come in from a different angle. My goal is to get people sparked, inspired and actually driven to look at themselves.

To be honest about where they’re at.

To admit when they might need some help.

And most importantly, to actually make some changes.

Connection comes first

I do that through telling my own story.

Crime, violence, addiction and some pretty deep internal battles. It creates connection and relatability, which gets people open and willing to listen.

My story gets heavy at times, but it’s never told to glorify any of it. It’s there to connect.

Most people in the room hopefully can’t relate to being stabbed, violence, addiction or some of the crazier parts of my past, they can relate to what was going on underneath it all.

The inner critic.

The doubts.

The feeling of not being good enough.

Trying to fit in.

Putting on a front when things aren’t great underneath.

Those inner battles are something nearly all of us face to some degree.

That’s where the connection happens.

And once people can see themselves somewhere in the story, showing them how I got out of it can create inspiration and, more importantly, hope.

Sometimes the best conversations happen afterwards

After nearly every mental health talk I receive some pretty big emotional messages.

Sometimes people come up straight afterwards, have a cry and we hug it out.

Gotta love that!

That’s a big part of why I do this. You never really know what someone sitting in an audience is carrying.

They don’t need another statistic. They need something that makes them stop for a second and look at their own life. Maybe start a conversation they’ve been avoiding. Maybe ask for some help.

Maybe finally make a change they know they need to make.

It has to go further than one day

R U OK? Day creates an awesome opportunity to start these conversations, but the real impact comes from what happens afterwards. What happens in October? November?

Next February when someone in the team is struggling?

That’s why I love seeing organisations using September as part of a much bigger focus on their people, rather than treating it as one event that gets ticked off the calendar.

I speak on a lot of different things depending on the audience and what’s happening inside the organisation.

Mental health and burnout.

Modern leadership.

Resilience.

Team culture and performance.

They might sound like different topics, but the angle is always similar.

Look at yourself first. Be honest about what’s going on. See what needs to shift.

Then keep stepping forward.

Sometimes that starts with something as simple as asking someone if they’re OK.

Other times, it starts with finally answering that question honestly yourself.

Looking to book Luke as a speaker? Get in touch :-)