Drew Dudley
“A guy’s walking down the street and he falls into a hole…”
Personal Leadership, Mental Wellness and Psychic Safety for Busy Men
It’s difficult to balance our mental wellness with our desire to make and meet obligations to our family, coworkers and communities. In this presentation, Wall Street Journal bestselling leadership author Drew Dudley provides a roadmap to finding this balance and maintaining the commitment, focus and self-respect necessary to maintain momentum through the most difficult times in our lives.
Drew melds self-care insights from all over the world with his own story to present practical strategies for embedding self-care and building self-respect into your personal leadership philosophy. Over the past decade these strategies helped him achieve and maintain sobriety, lose 100 pounds, manage his mental health, and process a profound personal tragedy.
A presentation that acknowledges the dark parts of life and work with humour and compassion, this practical exploration of self-awareness, forgiveness, resilience and healing will remind you that we cannot lead others until we can lead ourselves and show you how great leaders can put themselves first while still serving others.
You will learn:
- The framework of “The Leadership Test”: an easy-to-apply approach to more consistently engaging in positive leadership behaviours
- Strategies for more effectively embodying the values of impact, courage, growth, empowerment, class and self-respect on a daily basis.
- Strategies for embedding self-care into your personal leadership without sacrificing your impact at home or work.
- Simple daily habits that can provide strength and energy on your most difficult days.
Speaker Biography
Somewhere around the middle of his undergraduate education, Drew Dudley realized engaging with the world was a lot more fun than writing papers about it.
While still a student he became heavily involved in Canada’s largest post-secondary charitable initiative in support of Cystic Fibrosis Canada, eventually serving as the National Chair of the organization. As he moved into his career, he took on the challenge of creating and building the Leadership Development Program at the University of Toronto, which became the largest and most dynamic in the country.
It was those leadership students who changed the course of Drew’s professional life: they secretly organized a campaign to put him onstage at TEDx, Toronto 2010, where he delivered a talk that would go on to generate more than 5 million views around the web. A high-achieving lifestyle took its toll however: undiagnosed bipolar disorder set the foundation for binge eating and drinking, and Drew grew to over 300 pounds while struggling with the emotional challenges of a career that kept him on the road 250 days a year.
Drew credits the Day One process with saving his life—he began applying the process to improving his mental and physical health. Recognizing how many people were struggling silently with similar battles, Drew began infusing these experiences into his keynotes, hoping to remind people that their scars in no way stand in the way of their leadership.
In 2018, Drew shared both his story and the Day One process in his first book This is Day One: A Practical Guide to Leadership That Matters. Today, Drew continues to travel the world sharing the Day One process with organizations of all kinds—aiming to redefine leadership for as many people as possible.
