Shavonne Reed is a change agent and confidence builder, keynote speaker, and author of “Ugly Duckling: What you see is not what you get.”
She is the founder of OPUA Agency, a behavioral change health communications firm that makes healthy choices desirable, accessible, and obtainable through awareness and connection. She promotes change and drives awareness through her charity, the Future Health NOW Foundation, and the Future Health NOW Podcast.
FWM: You are the founder of OPUA Agency, a behavioral change health communications firm that makes healthy choices desirable, accessible, and obtainable through awareness and connection. Share your background and your desire to help people in their health and wellness.
OPUA Agency offers clients marketing consulting, strategy, and activations. This includes the overall marketing strategy development from ideation, research, strategic partnership collaboration, and custom campaign creative development through execution. We deliver experiences through activations that incorporate virtual and live events. Our goal is to help our clients amplify their messages to ensure marginalized communities connect with them and are mobilized for change. It requires a special skill set that comes easily to us, as our strengths lie in a deep understanding of traditional media, and we are savvy with new media. This, combined with our medical writers, allows us to provide accurate messages that are informed through clinical research and with a spin that meets the intended audiences where they are.
FWM: Tell us about your book, “Ugly Duckling: What you see is not what you get,” and your work as a change agent and confidence builder.
This story is one that needs to be told. There are too many girls who suffer in silence and grow up with great hopes and expectations about what the world has to offer. However, there has traditionally been an overarching theme of low expectations when it comes to hiring black women and funding black women-owned businesses. I want this story to be a light for black girls and women to understand there is hope and a paradigm shift changing this narrative. It still requires a lot of tenacity and grit, but with a vision and alignment with the proper community, the sky is the limit. I am hoping to be a representation that dreams are achievable.
FWM: You are the founder of The Amplify Your Inner Rockstar Initiative, an emerging leader’s blueprint for career advancement. Tell us about your mission to inspire and empower 1,000,000 African American girls to be more confident and create harmony in their lives to preserve their future health.
As the token black in many rooms I was invited to, it always came with a huge burden to prove I belonged. I started out confident, and many of us do; however, after experiencing the many traumas afforded us in the traditional corporate culture, we lose that confidence and our voices. I was overlooked for so long and not heard when I spoke up that I had become numb and silenced. Not having the luxury to pursue activities to unwind and decompress, I found myself wound up tighter and tighter as I compartmentalized the pain and neglected to prioritize my health for fear of retribution. I often felt like I was the only one who experienced this, as I didn’t see many others to connect with and relate with in my many circles. There is strength in numbers and having a community to identify, relate and empathize with your experiences and share their lived experiences and advice of what has worked for them and how it could work for you. Navigating a career is challenging in and of itself. Compounding it with discrimination and unfair practices further perpetuate the burden and stress that affects women’s health. This program helps provide community and guidance on what will work to develop and maintain confidence to build and sustain a career while maintaining harmony in your life.
FWM: You are known as one of the most dynamic presenters of our time. What do you enjoy the most about presenting? What are your favorite topics?
I will be at the Connected Women’s Summit on March 18th, at the Beyond Epic event in Dallas, on April 28th and 29th, and at the Mother-Daughter Brunch on May 13th in Atlanta, GA. I will also be a featured speaker at the Women on the Move Conference in Sept in Atlanta, GA.
My favorite topics are health promotion, well-being, self-care, and confidence. I always thought I was an ugly duckling and lost my confidence after having found it. It took some major life events to happen in order for me to know who I am and be comfortable in my own skin and walk with pride. After losing my mother to several diseases that were preventable, it became an imperative for me to change this narrative not only for my family but also for the families that look like mine.
FWM: What will people notice when working with you?
People will notice we are very attentive to detail and have a knack for seeing the bigger picture. We take our client’s vision and deliver perspectives for diverse audiences and carefully curate messages and graphical designs that have a deep and rich meaning. Each and every client is provided white glove service, and we underpromise and over-deliver time and time again. We are in this business on purpose, and our work is centered on heart work. Our greatest achievements have been the most impactful projects that have helped marginalized communities see their future health through a lens with urgency to modify harmful behaviors.
FWM: You promote change and drive awareness through your charity, the Future Health NOW Foundation, and the Future Health NOW Podcast. Tell us more.
The Future Health NOW foundation is rooted in the belief that each and every day, we make choices that will dictate future health. After witnessing the harmful practices of systemic racism and how it affected my mother at the cellular level and ultimately contributed to her demise, it has become my life’s work to ensure this does not continue to happen in our community. The Future Health NOW Foundation provides an outlet for generational health through health literacy programs and activities to keep girls active and build self-confidence, empowerment, and financial stability for lifelong health and harmony.
FWM: Can you share your best advice when it comes to health and wellness?
Laughter is the best medicine. So, laugh hard and often! Jim Rohn once said, “Take care of your body, it’s the only place you have to live.” You can’t control what goes on outside, but you can absolutely control what goes on inside. It is imperative you tend to your four interior empires for future health now–soulset, mindset, heart set and soulset.”
