On May 31, 2016, I arrived in Louisville, Ky., to begin a 30-day assignment with Humana and its Bold Goal team.
Taken directly from their website, here is how Humana defines its 'Bold Goal:'
Our Bold Goal is to help make the communities we serve 20 percent healthier by 2020 by making it easy for people to achieve their best health. Through physician, non-profit, business and government partnerships we are dedicated to finding solutions to complex health problems. Together, we are addressing social determinants of health like food insecurity, loneliness and social isolation because good health is good for everyone. Join us!
Humana, based in Louisville, is currently focused on seven communities through this initiative: Louisville; San Antonio; Knoxville, Tenn.; Baton Rouge, La.; New Orleans; Tampa Bay; and Broward Co., Fla.
As a traveling social media consultant, my first assignment was the base community of Louisville. (Above is a photo from a day with the Metro United Way in early Nov. 2016, when I highlighted a number of their programs, including the Little Free Library.) I had 30 days to quickly learn the ropes at Humana, then meet with as many of our key Bold Goal partners as possible. Each meeting lasted between two and four hours, and was completely individualized to the organization's specific social media needs. At the conclusion of each meeting, we'd shoot some video: generally, a live-stream interview on my Facebook page; and a Snapchat interview, to be re-purposed, also onto my Facebook page. (The photo below is taken from the deck of the Ideas XLab artist-in-residence area, where I lived in June 2016.)
Within those four short weeks, and after undergoing standard onboarding procedures, I met with over a dozen Bold Goal organizations, using social media to highlight their efforts and share on social media how their mission is positively impacting Louisville and the Kentuckiana area. The full list of organizations I worked with in June 2016 is available here, along with links to the various videos we shot on premises. (Pictured below is my first meeting with Charlotte Stites, visionary and founder of the Smoketown Family Wellness Center.)
Perhaps the most impactful meeting I had in this first month was with the Community Foundation of Louisville, a philanthropic leader whose objective is to "connect donors, nonprofits and civic partners to create lasting impact." Each September, the Community Foundation hosts its biggest event of the year -- an event now called "Give For Good Louisville." After meeting with me for several hours, marketing director Cara Baribeau implemented a digital promotional strategy centered around a series of Facebook Live videos she called "Getting to Know the Good." The series was a huge success, and that September, the Community Foundation went on to raise more than $4.3 million for nonprofits in and around Louisville. (A year later, the Community Foundation would invite me back to co-host their Facebook Live coverage of the event along with Cara; this year, even in the immediate aftermath of natural disasters in Texas and Florida, we raised more than $4.6 million. See all of the videos here.)
As June 2016 wound to a close, Humana and I agreed to terms on a six-month contract extension, that would allow me the opportunity to travel to the company's six other Bold Goal markets to offer the same in-person, individualized services around the country, while also continuing to serve various organizations in Louisville. (Needless to say, I was ecstatic about this opportunity.)
I worked closely not only with London Roth and the Bold Goal team in Louisville, but with strategic leaders in the other six communities to coordinate tightly scheduled week-long visits. Meanwhile, as live-streaming technology evolved, I began acquiring new cameras, microphones and other tools, including the DJI Osmo (pictured below) that would further improve the look and feel of what we were creating.
In August, I flew to San Antonio, the first of the six other markets. The organizations I worked with, including Eva's Heroes and the San Antonio YMCA, were eager to meet with me, and several of them have continued to implement Facebook Live as part of their digital marketing strategies. Pictured above is my meeting with the American Heart Association in San Antonio.
In September, I traveled to Tampa Bay for a week, followed by a week in Broward County. Organizations like Metropolitan Ministries, FLIPANY, IMPACT Broward and the Tampa Bay Healthcare Collaborative were particularly receptive to the idea of implementing live-streaming into their broader strategies. Again, you can see the complete list of all the organizations I worked with in all seven Bold Goal markets here.
October was my busiest month, as I flew to Baton Rouge, roadtripped for a week up to Knoxville, and then concluded with a full week in New Orleans. The city of Baton Rouge had been hit particularly hard by localized flooding just weeks earlier, and so we coordinated fundraising efforts and a day of corporate volunteerism at the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank (pictured below), in conjunction with Humana's 'Carry the Baton' 5K. At this Saturday morning race, part of their broader partnership with the Rock N Roll Series, I went live on Facebook from Humana's company page, broadcasted live from @Humana on Periscope, and created an Instagram story for the brand.
In November 2016, with visits to the seven markets in the books, my responsibilities shifted from Humana's Bold Goal team to their social media team. I focused primarily on live-streaming efforts with the company's Guidance Centers, including a trip to Chicago -- ironically, the morning after the Cubs won the World Series -- to highlight Chef Nino Thibodeaux and his healthy cajun-style cooking. That video received more than 437,000 views on Facebook.
In December, I helped orchestrate and film a Facebook Live video on the brand's page titled "Harmonicas for Healthy Lungs," a digital representation of a popular class offered at the Louisville Guidance Center.
At the conclusion of my contract with Humana, I launched 'I Am Here, LLC,' my social media consultancy that has opened doors for me to speak at conferences from Atlanta to San Francisco and many places in between in 2017. In June, I hosted the Facebook Live efforts at the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America National Conference in San Diego, and in September -- just last week, as I'm writing this -- I was invited back to co-host #GiveForGoodLou 2017 in Louisville. I am still in contact with a number of the organizations I met with during my time in Louisville and six weeks of traveling to individual markets.
To see all the interviews I conducted and other content I created while working with Humana, check out www.Facebook.com/TeamStrub. The videos I contributed to are listed among the brand's other videos at http://www.facebook.com/Humana/videos.
Me with Chef Nino in Chicago