Di Krome
As a child, Di would help her father and brothers with the family milk run, getting up in the wee hours to do the rounds. She hated the early mornings but loved coming home to count the money. It was no surprise when accounting became her favourite subject in high school and she went on to become a Chartered Accountant.
However, working in the money business felt shallow and Di came to realise that people are more important than any metric, and decided to start her own business, Wildfire Business Consulting so she could make a deeper impact for businesses.
Then on March 26, 2017, Di woke with a start in the middle of the night. Her right arm numb, her speech slurred. Confused and disoriented, Di was rushed to hospital and underwent a battery of tests but the doctors could find no physical cause.
Conventional medicine could not help Di, so she turned to trauma therapy and discovered how anxiety and stress was the major cause of her struggle. Di learned that mental health issues can be triggered by many things – trauma, loss, illness, poverty, but she also believes the Western lifestyle and values are a significant contributing factor.
Our ‘busyness’ and focus on the superficial, transient and material possessions; our obsession with competition, winning and achievement; means, that we are rarely content or satisfied, and always wanting more. We focus more on what we lack, and think we are not enough and not worthy.
Di now works with not-for-profit organisations, companies and small businesses to help them implement good mental health strategies, working alongside the leaders and owners to let go of societal expectations, and create a culture where everyone can live life with purpose, love and compassion, creating peace, joy and wonder while you work.
How Di went from burn out, lying in a hospital bed with a suspected stroke, wondering how on earth she’d ended up there, to fighting back, healing with help, to now spreading her message of hope to others struggling with anxiety and depression.
We all have the risk of burn out – a feeling of physical and emotional exhaustion, due to stress from working with people under difficult or demanding conditions. Di has been where you or your team are and came out the other side. This topic inspires the audience to shift from “Burnt Out” to “On Fire”.
With anxiety levels at epidemic levels in Australia, we can no longer view anxiety as a problem just for individuals. As members of a working society we can choose to continue to behave in ways that add to the anxiety epidemic, stand by and do nothing or take action and build a culture of compassion, kindness and inclusiveness and start to reverse this anxiety epidemic.
In this presentation Di shares insights into anxiety, depression and suicide prevention, along with good mental health strategies to improve the lives of everyone in your workplace.
So often it is those in the wellbeing industry, professional and community services and not-for profit organisations who put themselves last. It is critical that those who help others, also care for themselves, so they don’t burn out taking on the difficulties of others.
Di provides tangible action steps for dealing with overwhelm, identifying helpful versus harmful behaviours
and provides insights into the power of presence, with daily habits to boost mental wellbeing.
Accounting, finance, project management, aged care, government departments and high-stress workplace environments. These audiences value the insights into why they are not being as productive as they could, why teams are not connecting, staff are unhappy and unfulfilled, turnover is high or the business culture is breaking down. Businesses that are merging, changing or growing and need to ensure workplace mental health is managed also benefit from the presentations and onsite workshops.
Business leaders, management and HR teams value the insights into good mental health, helping them make better decisions and set priorities to implement processes for a happier, more productive workplace and culture.
Many small business owners are overwhelmed and exhausted, trying to be the Jack or Jill of All Trades, and it can impact not only their physical and mental health, but also their bottom line. When you are trying to be everything to everyone, when you aren’t aligned with your purpose, you can feel conflicted and anxious, which impacts critical business relationships. Di shares practical strategies to ease overwhelm and come into alignment, so you can create a life and business with more money, meaning and good mental health.
Wellness practitioners, aged care, natural therapies, not-for profit and community sectors make their services unsustainable and unprofitable because they burn out. Their entire purpose is unachievable because they are not looking after themselves. By learning to read the signs, using tools and systems to better care for themselves, they can be more productive, more profitable and create more positive impact on those around them.
Mums in business, solo entrepreneurs, women in business and personal development organisations in need of expert guidance to sustain a good mental health balance in life all benefit from Di’s presentations. Group environments are interactive and rewarding, where stories are shared and a deeper understanding of the effects of good mental health, along with the tools and systems to take better care of yourself as well as your business, all lead to a more fulfilled, purposeful life.
Di is a passionate and insightful speaker who has experienced her own mental health struggles. She considers herself one of the “lucky ones” who came out the other side, because not everyone does. Di knows what it is like to walk in the shoes of her audiences.
Di knows first-hand how frustrating and difficult it can be to find your way out of the depths of depression and what it’s like to battle crippling anxiety every day. She spent years putting together her own mental health toolkit and feels driven to share her strategies with business leaders who care about the mental health of their people and want to create more collaborative, harmonious workplaces. Making a deep impact on their employees and everyone else they touch.
Di is a natural storyteller and connects deeply with audience members. Not only do attendees walk away inspired by Di’s personal story, but they get real, tangible action steps they can implement immediately to start improving their mental health.
Research (1) shows 1 in 5 adults report symptoms of stress and anxiety in the workplace. Now more than ever, we need to take action to create good mental health practices for the well-being of our people and businesses.
(1) Source: https://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/tools-resources/workplace-health/mental-health/index.html
