Three Big Sydney Events in One Day for R U OK? Day

Three big Sydney events. Three very different organisations. All on the one day.

R U OK? Day is always a massive one for speaking events. The whole week gets busy, but the actual day is another level. This year I somehow managed to squeeze three Sydney keynote events into the one day with Aristocrat, Landcom and UNSW Business School.

It was a big day, but these are the days I love. If you're looking for a keynote speaker in Sydney, this gives you a pretty good idea of the different rooms and audiences I get to work with.

First up was Aristocrat at their North Ryde office. Their team wanted something for R U OK? Day that could connect with the people in the room while also reaching employees across Australia and New Zealand. It was a great event, beautiful people and, as always, some of the best conversations happened afterwards. Deep chats, people opening up and a few reminders of why these days matter so much.

Then it was over to Landcom in Parramatta for an all staff event of around 200 people. Their team had reached out because they wanted the mental health and wellbeing message, but they also wanted the lived experience behind it. That means a lot to me because I never want these sessions to feel like someone standing at the front throwing statistics and frameworks at people. Stories connect. Real experiences connect. And when people can see parts of themselves in somebody else's story, it can open the door to some pretty important conversations.

From Parramatta it was across to UNSW Business School in Kensington for their annual R U OK? Day event. Another completely different environment and another room full of open, welcoming people. We mixed the keynote with practical takeaways around mindset, perspective, connection and taking ownership of the areas we can actually control. The feedback was unreal and they even told me they want me back for the same event every year. Gotta love that.

Three organisations that couldn't be more different, but people are people.

Whether I'm brought in for mental health, resilience, leadership, workplace culture, performance or simply to give people a bit of a spark again, it nearly always comes back to the individual.

How we think. How we speak to ourselves. How willing we are to connect with the people around us. Where we can take a little more ownership, shift our perspective and step up.

And just as importantly, knowing when we need help.

I've been called a mental health advocate, resilience speaker, leadership expert and plenty of other things over the years. I appreciate all of it, but underneath the different topics, my work has always been about helping people look at themselves and their lives a little differently.

Sometimes that means stepping up. Sometimes it means slowing down. Sometimes it means finally admitting that you don't have to do everything on your own.

Three Sydney events in one day was a big one. But seeing the conversations happening in North Ryde, Parramatta and Kensington made every bit of running around worth it.

What a day!