Shavonne Reed With OPUA Agency

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Shavonne Reed with Opua Agency. Welcome.

Shavonne Reed: Hello. How are you today, Lee?

Lee Kantor: I am very excited to be talking to you. For folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about your firm? How are you serving folks?

Shavonne Reed: Absolutely. So I’m with Opua agency. It stands for Optimistic People, Unified for awareness. And we’re all about helping people to think about the marginal decade of life and how their future health starts now. So we focus on behavioral change and making sure that everyone is kind of informed about how their behaviors today will affect their future health in the future.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How’d you get into this line of work?

Shavonne Reed: Well, I spent more than 20 years in corporate in the healthcare space and always had an affinity for just the healthcare industry. And I pivoted outside of corporate and saw quite a bit of things happen in my personal life. My mom ended up passing away from several diseases that were preventable. And just as the pandemic hit, I noticed that I was not necessarily prioritizing my health as much as I should have been, and then also saw that in my Zoomers. And so I wanted to affect change in the world, and that became my heart’s work and my legacy in the building.

Lee Kantor: So now in your agency, are you working with corporations or are you working with entrepreneurs, like who is the ideal profile for your ideal client?

Shavonne Reed: Yeah, so we love to work with mission driven organizations who are looking to stand up marketing communications that will have a call to action for behavioral change. So think chronic disease prevention and health promotion.

Lee Kantor: So you’re working with the corporations so they can share that information with their employees. Is that what you’re doing.

Shavonne Reed: So we do have an internal communications arm that really focuses on workplace wellness. And we also have an arm that focuses on direct to consumer communications.

Lee Kantor: So let’s talk about that. Any initiatives in that area you can speak of.

Shavonne Reed: Oh yeah absolutely. So right now we’re working with the CDC Foundation as a communications partner for the How Right Now campaign, which is an evidence based campaign that is targeting school teachers and school staff in the K-12 school systems. And what it really is all about is helping them to build resiliency and have awareness of their mental well-being. A lot of times they are just really focused on the students and getting the work done. But they’re not necessarily focused on making sure that they take care of themselves. So as part of this campaign, what we’re doing is really pushing them to make their own wellness a part of their daily lesson plans and highlighting ways that they can actually prioritize self-care. How can they make sure that they are, you know, tending to their mental thoughts and things of that nature? So that’s how we are actually helping right now. And so we recently held the Empowered Ed Project Summit, where we were speaking to school teachers and staff and brought in specialized thought leaders and experts who brought amazement and stories of resilience and encouragement just to really hone in on how to leverage the tools of the How Right Now campaign to just drive mental health and well-being.

Lee Kantor: So can you walk us through what it’s like to create a campaign like that for the CDC? So potential corporates out there that are doing work that might be able to hire. You can understand what. So like, did the CDC Foundation come to you with this challenge? Did you start working with them and start brainstorming different initiatives like how did this come about and how did you help them, you know, execute?

Shavonne Reed: So actually, the How Right Now campaign is a long standing, evidence based campaign that was led by an elite researcher by the name of Amelia Burt Garcia at Newark University of Chicago. And it started back in like 19, I mean, 2019, just as the pandemic was hitting. And, uh, so they actually, you know, did all of the background work, did all the research, social listening and surveys to just really understand what, um, the challenges were from a mental health capacity. And initially it was more of a global campaign that had a broader audience. And so in this iteration of the campaign, we’re focused focus solely on school teachers and staff because based on the research, we found that they are the ones who are actually really stressed out, and they’re up against a lot at being asked to do so much more with less. And the idea is to really make sure that we have a variety of channels, that we’re actually reaching the audience to get them kind of, you know, prioritizing this mental thought process of their overall well-being and self-care. So we’re incorporating things such as TikTok, Instagram, videos, going out to do speaking. I actually had the opportunity to go to the Newark Board of Education and facilitate a workshop at their annual women’s conference, and so really just building up the momentum during Mental Health Awareness Month, we actually did a full activation.

Shavonne Reed: And right now for Back to School month, we’re doing a huge activation and incorporating, um, influencers to just really help us to amplify this message and get it out there in all kinds of cool ways, on every level, so that the teachers and school staff know that they are very much appreciated. They’re not in this alone, and we understand just what they’re going through. And it’s really a hard and tough space to be in, because everybody is looking to them to be more than just a teacher. Right. We know they are being looked upon as a confidante, as counselors and so many other hats that they play. And they even played a special role in my life growing up because I had a ton of adverse childhood experiences, and it was the teachers that really poured back into me and helped me to see that I was something and someone that was worthy to, you know, be here and to thrive in life.

Lee Kantor: Now, how did the CDC Foundation ask you for something that’s measurable to say that, okay, this campaign is working. We should do this maybe in more verticals or like, how do you kind of measure the success of a campaign like this?

Shavonne Reed: Yes. So as part of our. Activation campaign periods, what we’re doing is collecting metrics. So that would include things like impressions. How many people are actually seeing and getting exposure to these messages. Also, how many people are actually engaging with our communications on the various platforms and how are they accessing the tools that are available. So we have everything from toolkits to resource lines to guides, resources that can actually help them to bring all of this to life and make it tangible and valuable, so they can know exactly what to do with it. Um, something as simple as meditational practices. So as part of the summit, we actually recorded all of our sessions, and we have those available now online so that folks can actually get the message and, you know, really just indulge because like one in particular was featuring, uh, a thought leader by the name of Keisha Ferguson, and she led us through a ten minute meditation moment. And it was so powerful because when you just be still and you activate in gratitude, you just don’t realize how wildly your thoughts can run all over the place. And this gave us a chance to just really sit in silence and mind our thoughts and listen to the words and the guidance that she was giving to us. And so that’s one of the things that we are, you know, tracking to see how many people are actually watching those videos, how many people are downloading the resources and actually visiting the website so that they can, you know, tend to the mental well-being of themselves and making it a part of their daily practice.

Lee Kantor: Now, how has it been for you as an entrepreneur, kind of making this change from your more kind of corporate past to the entrepreneurial present? Was that a difficult transition?

Shavonne Reed: Well, I will say it wasn’t necessarily a difficult transition because it was something that I really wanted to do deep down inside. Um, but there are some highs and lows that come along with entrepreneurship, especially when you’re on the micro level and when you’re trying to scale your companies. Um, but it’s something that I definitely would encourage anyone to do if they’re really, you know, passionate about something. Finding their, um, their why and following their North star. Because there is nothing, absolutely nothing that compares to it.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you speak a little bit about your work with Future Health Now Foundation?

Shavonne Reed: Yes. So the Future Health Now Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the opioid agency. And what we do is look to give back to the community. And we have like three pillars where we are really focused on workforce development, also health promotion and then women’s empowerment. So as part of those three initiatives, what we’re doing is standing up programs that will help to cultivate the next generation of health communicators, for one and then for two. Helping to promote health, especially in marginalized communities because the statistics are there. I mean, if you think about in Georgia, maternal and infant health is really huge because we have the greatest mortality rates among African American, uh, babies and moms. And so it’s one of those things that’s really critical, that is near and dear to my heart, because I actually had a preemie as well, and she spent nine days in the NICU. And so, as you can imagine, my experience was not as grave as some of those experiences. And so but I empathize with them because I’ve walked in their shoes. And so I really want to just elevate that space and try to do as much as I can, um, to drive awareness, to help, to promote and get more resources for the cause. And then, of course, for women’s empowerment. Every year we’re hosting the International Women’s Day event celebrating women Real Talk with Siobhan Reid. And so we’ve had a great spread of women to come in and share their experiences in corporate spaces and entrepreneurship and show business, you name it. And it has been a really incredible experience just pulling these women together and building camaraderie. So I’m looking forward to just continuing to champion these things as we move forward.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Shavonne Reed: Oh my gosh, I’m glad you asked that question. Always need advocates, always need sponsors, always need voices. So we also host the Future Health Now Foundation. And what we do is interview, uh, thought leaders in the space. And there’s so much change with how communications is being done from the old times to the new times. And I remember very vividly how when I was graduating college, it was like, oh, the convergence of media, because it was became the three screens. Right? Um, and then now it’s like the new advent of information design and technology. Right. And so we have like this advent of AI and how it’s just transforming everything. And so with that, it is just incredible to see how the trajectory of things are going and being able to interview these folks and highlight their thought leadership in the world to increase their funding. Like, for instance, um, Adrian is, uh, Adrian, uh, Amarin. She has a platform called Artlist, and she’s really revolutionizing the way that we approach health communications. And it’s just so great to see all the new changes and being able to amplify the messages. And so I would love for folks to go and tune in and listen. Give us a review if you feel like it’s a five star rating and just engage with our content. We are all over social as an agency. And of course you can follow me directly. I am at Siobhan Reid. Um, I am Siobhan Reid on all platforms. And then for the foundation, it’s health harmony and the Future Health Now Foundation.

Lee Kantor: Now, before we wrap, I want to talk a little bit about your book, Ugly Duckling. What you see is not what you get. Can you talk about the thinking of, hey, I’m going to write a book because a lot of folks dream of writing a book, but you actually did it.

Shavonne Reed: Yes. Oh my gosh, this book has been living in me forever. Uh, as I mentioned before, I grew up with a lot of adverse childhood experiences. And as a part of that, one of the results of that was the trauma that caused me to feel like I didn’t have a high self-worth, and I felt like an ugly duckling, which is the title of the book. And for so long I felt isolated, and I thought that I was the only one that had these experiences and going through, you know, growing up and then matriculating into To adulthood and becoming this young woman and finding myself. It was really just a transformative experience. And there have been so many highs and lows, and I’m an overachiever by nature. I think that’s just something that’s deeply embedded and ingrained in my DNA. And as a result of that, there have been so many disappointments. No matter what I have been able to accomplish on my own. And so I really wanted to write about it because there are women who are actually struggling with these things right now, that if they just had this word, you know, and they could see how I was able to emerge and overcome the many obstacles and challenges that I’ve gone through, that it would empower and encourage and inspire them to do more of the things that they have embedded in their hearts and that they want to do now.

Lee Kantor: Any advice for that person that’s out there that’s struggling and is feeling kind of like there’s no hope? Is there anything you can share that can help them. You know, other than maybe getting this book and reading it, you know, kind of help them get back up on their feet and move forward.

Shavonne Reed: Absolutely. So what I like to do is to make sure that I have a way to show gratitude and being in the moment. So understanding where I am, one of the things that I started doing early on, and it came from my grandfather because he just loved to take pictures, was on my worst days when I feel like I’m just like the ugliest or the I just feel the worst, I make sure I take a picture of that moment because when you look back at it, nine times out of ten, you’re going to see something very different than what you saw when you were actually in that moment. And so I love to have those because they help me to have more gratitude as I go on each day, to be able to reflect back and see how I was able to get over those things. Another thing I would like to encourage folks to do is to identify at least 1 or 2 people that you admire that seem like they have it together, that can offer inspiration from afar. Um, a lot of times we get into this comparison game, and so if you step away from that and you realize that you’re in it, you have to be able to know how to have that awareness and separate yourself. But have those 2 or 3 people that you can look to to say, wow, okay, she’s doing the thing that I like to do or I want to do and be able to use that as inspiration. I know I have so many that I look up to, um, right now, but just identifying those individuals that really can, you can hold on to and then also making sure that the circle that you have around you is lifting you up and giving you positivity and being able to identify when there is something that is not for you, and not being afraid to separate yourself from it no matter what it is.

Lee Kantor: Well, Siobhan Reid, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you one more time. The website, and maybe also where they can get the book.

Shavonne Reed: Absolutely. So the website for the agency is Apua Dot agency and you can find the book on Siobhan Read. Com it’s also available on Amazon. And um, yeah, that’s where I am. And you can follow me on social at I am Siobhan Reed and the agency is Apua agency.

Lee Kantor: All right. Well, thank you again for sharing your story.

Shavonne Reed: Thank you for having me. This has been great. All right.

Lee Kantor: This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.