Heidi Dening

Heidi Dening's Biography

“I’ve survived a gunpoint kidnapping, a paralysing illness, a life-threatening tsunami and petrol bombs. If you’d like your audience to know the truth about being resilient, I’m your gal.

When Heidi Dening shares her empowering insights from stage, in workplaces or via online platforms, she leaves people wanting to do more, give more, have more and be more. She is the author of a best-selling self-leadership book called ‘Her Middle Name Is Courage’, and has dedicated her career to inspiring thousands of people across the globe with resilience, self-leadership and wellbeing programs from small children on remote pacific islands to professional teams across 19 different industries.

Over the last 22 years she has started, scaled and sold an award-winning health and education business; founded an international not-for-profit with hundreds of volunteers across three countries; and delivered empowering presentations and programs to business leaders at Accenture, Westpac, ServiceNSW and Metcash to name just a few, on topics such as resilience, self-leadership and wellness.

Heidi often appears in the media as a resilience expert, including a recent segment on Channel Nine’s Weekend Today and a full-page newspaper article about the mental health pandemic following COVID-19.

She was named ‘Best International Keynote Speaker’ in the Asia Pacific region at the Influential Businesswoman Awards, listed on the NSW Government’s Inspirational Women showcase in the entrepreneurial and empowerment category and been awarded Westpac’s International Women’s Day Local Hero Award.

She has been a global advisor for the International WELL Building Institute since 2018. Her advisory group looks at how our workplaces impact our stress levels, resilience, productivity and mental health. This gives her access to cutting edge data on these topics.

Since transforming her own setbacks such as a paralysing illness where she lost the use of her legs, to gunpoint kidnappings, from tsunami terror, and narrowly escaping being burnt alive when petrol bombs were thrown at her room, she now empowers organisations and their people to find the courage to keep moving forward during tough times.

This means her presentations and programs are a unique compilation of science-based facts from her degree, knowledge from the 20+years of business experience, and insights from rising above these real-life adversities.

Heidi believes that education changes lives and that is why she has made it her mission to empower as many people as she can on how to strengthen their resilience and embrace self-leadership strategies so they can overcome adversity and rise out of tough times stronger than ever.

She is humbled by the fact that her training and development programs, keynote presentations, online masterclasses, insightful content and regular contributions to global education projects have already transformed the lives of thousands of people worldwide.

Heidi is a globally respected speaker who transforms overwhelmed and disengaged professionals into optimistic, high-performing humans. Her powerful, yet elegant presence has impacted thousands of lives with her practical strategies, relevant storytelling and her natural ability to inspire audiences to listen, learn and laugh.

Her empowering presentations can be delivered on-stage, as a pre-record, or streamed live from her own professional speaking studio in the Sydney CBD.

Speaking Topics Include

REPLENISH YOUR RESILIENCE RESOURCES

To have a resilient organisation we first need resilient leaders and teams. This presentation is designed to help you replenish your professional resilience resources so you can better deal with the curveballs and cannonballs that we can’t control. Whether you are experiencing changing business models, financial challenges, disengaged teams, or feelings of overwhelm in this uncertain world, this impactful session will empower you with practical strategies that you can immediately implement.

You will learn about:

Priorities - the number one daily habit you need to prioritise to ensure your professional strengths and capabilities are maximised so you can adapt to this ever-changing business environment.

Performance - a strategy on how to flip your automatic response to stressful situations and conversations into a high-performing state of flow so you can get more done, in less time, with fewer mistakes.

Perseverance - to proactively replenish your resilience resources with my signature 5-part formula that will help you to persevere when everything feels overwhelming which will mean you can bend rather than break during high-pressured times.

This inspiring presentation is based on the resilience and perseverance insights Heidi learned from hitting rock bottom after petrol bombs were thrown at her room during an overseas volunteer mission, with the intention to burn her and her team alive while they slept.

COURAGEOUSLY BOUNCE FORWARDS, NOT BACK

Our greatest skill as professionals during these uncertain times is being able to embrace change and extract insights from our challenges so we can keep moving forward. We know now more than ever before that adversities come in all shapes and sizes … but so do opportunities. When we find the courage to maximise the opportunities in our challenges, it allows us to continue to grow as professionals and become better leaders, better mentors, better colleagues and better humans.

You will learn about:

Mindset Management - how to quickly transform feelings of overwhelm into focus and determination so you can show up to the next meeting, sales presentation, or customer call with optimism and assertiveness.

Mentally Healthy Workplaces - the four most important qualities to implement that will create a thriving work environment for yourself, your colleagues and your clients.

Micro-wins - how to keep your momentum going by acknowledging the small milestones along the way, which enables you to continue to strive for your big, hairy, audacious goals.

This inspiring presentation is based on the business insights Heidi learned from leading the planning, building (and eventual destruction) of a community library on a remote tropical island, and the impact that courage has when striving to achieve professional goals.

MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS: STOP. REVIVE. THRIVE.

This wellbeing presentation is designed to show you practical micro-changes that you can make in life, to transform daily stress and feelings of overwhelm into productivity and performance.

We know that work is much harder when we are feeling mentally wobbly. These practical mindset and self-care strategies will help you to take back control and prioritise your mental health so you can continue to strive for your professional goals.

You will learn about:

Boundaries - the 'non-negotiable' boundaries to incorporate that will improve your mental health and ability to cope with setbacks.

Burnout Buffer - a simple yet powerful formula to ensure you can effectively create a buffer between your work life and home life (even if you WFH) so you don't burn out.

Brain & Body Reboot - structured self-care habits to help you focus and concentrate when it matters, and rest and rejuvenate when it is needed.

This inspiring presentation is based on the mindset and self-care insights Heidi learned after contracting two random viruses – one that left her without the use of her legs for eight months and one that caused so much pain when she moved it felt like every bone in her body was smashing.