After winning the Wellness Advocate of the Year award at the Australian Broking Awards 2023, nMB partnerships manager Anthony Wick spoke to Josh Needs about how he’s looking to see the broking industry increase education around the importance of health and wellness.
ork hard, play hard. What does that mean to you? For many in the finance industry, it means burning the candle at both ends. While ensuring a balance between work and pleasure is commendable, nMB partnerships manager for Victoria and South Australia, Anthony Wick, believes the industry needs to encourage discussions and action around the importance of health and wellness.
Speaking to The Adviser after winning the Wellness Advocate of the Year award at the Australian Broking Awards 2023, Mr Wick says he knows the struggle brokers and others in the industry can face while getting caught up in the “work hard, play hard” mentality.
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Seven years ago, Mr Wick said he began to see the issue of people prioritising work above their health and consequently burning out. According to Mr Wick, it was after receiving calls about members of industry facing breakdowns of relationships and, in some cases, requiring medical support, that he felt compelled to do something about it.
He said it awakened him to the realisation that “there wasn’t enough conversations around looking after your own health and wellbeing.”
“It was all about chasing the dollars and trying your very best to cover the hard work or the pain with a few mates and a few beers,” Mr Wick said.
He was no stranger to the feeling himself, after finding that he didn’t feel in control of how much he was drinking. As such, he took a month off drinking alcohol, which he later extended, but lamented that several people tried to encourage him back towards drinking.
Mr Wick noted: “I went for three months; enough that people got to know that I had changed my behaviours. But the more I stayed in that path the more I realised that not many brokers really have the support, or a tribe that would help them go down that path.
“So, little by little I started on the wellness side of things; taking brokers out to the gym, talking to them about having a good work/life balance and, little by little I started setting up groups …”
One of these communities is #WorkoutWithWick, a morning activity group he started during the lockdowns of COVID-19 where members of the industry work out together online via video conference.
“I’m trying to get people to come into groups and then hopefully get these people to feel comfortable in talking to each other, using what support is available, and making it normal to actually be okay with having a problem,” he says.
His messenger group has now grown to “about 90 to 95 people” and ranges from workout tips to mental health support.
“The group is not all about going to the gym and lifting heavy weights … because I understand there are different levels of fitness, like there are different levels of depression.
“If somebody is in fairly deep depression it’s not like you can just wake up and go to the gym.
“So, the group is more about putting a photo up if you’re doing something and that photo might encourage somebody else to go for a walk, or go to the gym or something like that, and that’s where #WorkOutwithWick came from.”
Aside from the importance of physical health, which he looks to address through #WorkOutwithWick, Mr Wick says he hopes the industry will speak more openly and frequently about mental health.
“What I would like to see is that every conference or every business meeting has some sort of element around health wellbeing.”
When asked for one actionable piece of advice when it comes to health and wellbeing, Mr Wick said he would love to see brokers implementing 15-minute walks without phones or devices.
“The mobile phone gives so much of the wrong type of dopamine, so at a bare minimum we need to leave the phone and go for a 15-minute or 30-minute walk, which would make people look up, breathe deeply, and look around,” he explains.
If you require mental health support and want to talk to a counsellor, free, confidential counselling is available from Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.
If you are concerned for your immediate safety or the safety of others, call Triple Zero (000).
