Asking for a Friend

What a fantastic week!

I had the pleasure of facilitating the Biomed’s Guide to Working Through Burnout to a group of 100+ Biomedical Technicians.

These are a great group of healthcare heroes that often work behind the scenes testing, maintaining, calibrating and repairing medical equipment in healthcare facilities.

I have worked with the Biomeds for years and was honored when the President of the NC Biomed’s Association invited me to be the Keynote Speaker at their Annual Symposium in Pinehurst, NC.

I’ll admit, I kicked off the session with full force, however, things were a bit quiet at first. They were just served a gourmet lunch, so that was part of the quiet (other than the munching noises!), however, everyone seemed to be focused on me and what I was saying. They were able to answer trivia questions and nodded when the nods should happen and their body language reflected the sentiment of the content.

The presentation was focused on mental health and I used a model that aligned with their own work model around equipment repair. In this presentation, however, the equipment was them – we focused on their heads, their hearts, and their bodies.

In a roomful of 99% men, it was quite interesting to watch how things unfolded compared to the kumbaya session I did in Florida last December to a 99% female audience. In December we were hugging, crying, laughing, sharing our deepest fears and traumas.

This week’s group was much more reserved until a participant in the back put up his hand and said “asking for a friend, can you share that mental health tests web site again…”. After the chuckling died down, there was a cascade of other questions and real discussions began – often beginning with “asking for a friend”… 😉

Note: this is the web site – and it provides a variety of quick anonymous ‘tests’ on things like depression, anxiety, adult ADHD, PTSD, job burnout, and more. It will not replace an official diagnoses from a professional, but it will give you a place to start. https://www.mind-diagnostics.org/

I had such a great time, talked to some fascinating individuals, and was able to make contact with quite a few people who wanted me to do similar talks – one asked for their husband who is in the police force another person inquired about me facilitating in-service workshops for his wife’s school district.

The best part! I saw old friends who I used to work with and felt completely safe and welcomed by their hugs and smiles.

Five days later and I am still pumped up! This week I finalize my presentation for the 2022 FNCE (Food and Nutrition Conference + Expo) and start planning my travel to Orlando as one of their featured speakers on managing through crisis. I think they are expecting up to 10K attendees!?!

If you are interested in talking about how I can support your events, whether in person or digitally, I would love to learn more and chat about how we can co-create a custom and memorable experience.

I can facilitate on any content related to well-being from a professional and personal development standpoint with the goal of self-reflection and practical strategies to help us show up to work and in life as our best selves.

Special thanks to Codi Nelson and Sterling Brown for making this week possible!

Hope to reconnect / connect with you all soon. Take care y’all! Colleen