Tom Boyd
Former AFL Player & Positive Mental Well-being Advocate
Profile
During an AFL Football career littered with individual and team success, fame and a $7 million fortune – Tom Boyd went through the most difficult time of his life. Suffering severe insomnia, depression and anxiety, Tom was forced into retirement at just 22.
This was the beginning of a new perspective, one where traditional measures of success like money and fame no longer drove him.
After years of struggling, Tom leveraged the skills and strategies that helped him cope to turn his life around. Tom left the AFL (and a $2 million contract) behind to change the course of his life.
Now a passionate mental health advocate, father, author, ambassador and speaker – Tom is passionate about sharing his story with audiences all over the country – in a bid to shift the traditional mindset and stigma associated with mental health.
Media
Feedback
One can debate that the private school environment is comparable to an elite sporting environment with the day to day demands and pressure associated with performance. This is the reason why we chose Tom to educate the Haileybury community.
Tom presented to a broad variety of Haileybury stakeholders, students, staff and parents, presented with such professionalism, respect and empathy, adapting each session to the relevant audience. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive. I would highly recommend Tom to any organisation wanting to invest in their students, community or employees. We can’t thank him enough.
Tom’s story was both fascinating and intriguing. To hear about the issues Tom faced and how he dealt with them was a real eye opener. With everything that is going on in the world and how busy we get it is very easy to get caught in a rut. Tom’s story really highlighted the fact that by recognising key aspects of our life we can control our situation.
Toms honesty and willingness to share his journey and openly answer the questions was greatly appreciated. It was real lesson in resilience, taking control and taking care of yourself.
Thanks Tom it was a great insight.
On RU OK Day, Tom presented via a National Webex to over 250 Partners and staff with deep insight and maturity. He spoke about the challenges of mental health issues, and his own challenging journey.
His observations from the world of high-performance professional sport were highly relevant to our corporate world in professional & legal services.
Tom was candid demonstrating an acute awareness that the solution for each individual may be different.
He is a considered voice, speaking about important issues, at an important time.
Tom, thank you for sharing your story, learnings and advice on mental health, wellbeing and resilience with our team at Coca-Cola Amatil ahead of R U Ok? day.
We have a wonderfully diverse team here and our safety motto is get home to what you love'. You engaged with every member of the team in a professional, thoughtful and approachable way and helped us to make mental health more visible. You could have presented as an AFL football star, but you offered so much more.
Tom Boyd presented to our team of approx. 65 staff and we were all impressed with how open he was about such a personal and difficult topic. Tom had our attention for the full length of his talk and didn’t discredit any clubs or players in the process.
I liked that he shared some of the ways he tried to overcome it and can see what an awesome role model he would be for young people going through similar situations. Fantastic presentation and speaker and would highly recommend having Tom present to your team.
