Mental Health Communications with Dj Tyson of VOA Alaska

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In this episode, we sit down with Dj Tyson from VOA Alaska to explore practical strategies for mental health communications. Dj shares his journey and role at VOA Alaska, offering insights into the unique challenges and opportunities in promoting mental health in Alaska. We discuss the importance of focusing on hope and positive outcomes in storytelling, and Dj discusses how his personal experiences have shaped his professional approach. Listeners will gain practical advice for improving mental health messaging and hear inspiring stories that highlight the power of positive communication in reducing stigma.

About the guest

Dj Tyson entered non-profit communications after exploring an array of career paths, including four years in the military. A call to serve his community led him to VOA Alaska, a youth behavioral health non-profit, where he is the Director of Communications and Engagement. For over four years, he has used his creative skills and personal connection to the mission to share the organization’s story and connect with the statewide community. Dj holds a Bachelor’s in Psychology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, a Professional Digital Marketing Certificate, and is pursuing a Health Non-Profit Leadership and Management Certificate. 

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Contact DJ

Full Transcript

00:04

Welcome to Health Nonprofit Digital Marketing, a podcast for nonprofit marketers in the health space. Join us as we discuss how to use the web to drive awareness, engagement and Action for Health causes. This podcast is part of the thought education of Brooks Digital, the web agency for health nonprofits. Now here’s your host, Spencer Brooks,

Spencer Brooks 00:26

Hello and welcome back to another episode of health nonprofit digital marketing. My name, as always, is Spencer, and today I have the pleasure of being joined by Dj Tyson. Now Dj is the Director of Communications and Engagement at VOA Alaska, where he uses his creative skills and personal connection to the mission to tell the organization’s story and connect with the community. Dj holds not only a bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, he also has a professional digital marketing certificate and is pursuing a health nonprofit leadership and management certificate as well. I brought Dj on the show today to talk about mental health communications, which I think he’s the perfect guest to do. So, Dj, first of all, welcome on the show today.

Dj Tyson 01:15

Thank you so much. I’m excited to be here as a topic I’m super passionate about, and it’s just been great in the past couple weeks to kind of go back to some of the basics and refresh in my mind, all the strategy and all the important things that go into mental health communications.

Spencer Brooks 01:31

Absolutely, I’m excited about this too. I think this is going to be an awesome conversation. I’d love to kick it off by Dj, just having you share a bit about VOA Alaska, what is it? What’s your background there? And what do you do?

Dj Tyson 01:45

Sure, so VOA Alaska is a behavioral health nonprofit, so we provide mental health counseling, substance use services, throughout a full continuum. So, we start with prevention, education, community coalitions through school-based services, outpatient clinic supportive housing for young adults. We have a residential treatment center, which is currently the only youth residential substance use treatment center open in Alaska. And we also have a Family Services program which provides support for all of the families with youth in our care. And we are the regional affiliate for Volunteers of America, which is a national organization, and none of us are volunteers, Volunteers of America has been around for over 125 years, and volunteers, back when it was founded, means serving others as a vocation. And I think that’s at the core of what we do here at VOA Alaska. We serve Alaskans. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure that their behavioral health needs and well being needs are met

Spencer Brooks 02:45

Absolutely due to both engagement and marketing, if I’m remembering that correctly. So, what does that involve in your role there? What does your day to day look like?

Dj Tyson 02:55

Wow, it’s a big question. Every day is different. So I started kind of as a communications and development specialist in this role over the four years that I’ve been here, has evolved and changed. And about a year ago, we created the communications department, and then even within that year, it’s evolved to communications engagement. And something about VOA Alaska is that we’re just very innovative. And it’s not just our program innovations, but, you know, it’s admin, it’s finance, it’s billing, but it’s also our communications and outreach and our development. So as the Director of Communications and Engagement, I oversee a program that, you know, does all the obvious communication stuff, all the digital stuff, social media, website, all the traditional communications and marketing, like blogs, newsletters, ads and, you know, content creation, videos, photos. But we also do a lot of community events, either tabling events that partners are hosting, or hosting our own community events, like a back to school barbecue coming up next month and our annual Fall Festival and a number of prevention related events. But we also do partner outreach, s referral partnering. Alaska is a gigantic state, and it’s hard to reach individuals, so we do a lot of work with other social services organizations, Department of Juvenile Justice, community organizations, primary care health clinics, things like that, all across the state. I also am involved with our advocacy, meeting with legislators, other government officials. I oversee our prevention education, which is Prime for Life, and two community coalitions, which VOA chairs. Our coalition coordinator is on the communications and engagement team. And then, of course, media relations and everything in between.

Spencer Brooks 04:37

Yeah, that’s a lot of stuff. It is a lot of stuff. I’m curious. Dj, how did you get connected with the organization in the first place? Was there something specific that inspired you to get involved in mental health communications? Was there something else, like, how did you get started there?

Dj Tyson  04:55

Yeah, very much. So, uh, so me coming to VOA, very much felt like. Like a right place right time, I was at the right place and right time in my life, and kind of my career progression. VOA Alaska was at the right place, right time where they needed a communications person. They had a development person at the time, kind of a development department, but it was one or two people, so I came in to help out with that, but also start adding in more social media management and website development and those, those very basic things. And since then, it has grown. But leading up to that, I had a array of professional and personal experiences. I was an Army for four years. I worked in remote Alaska in a kitchen for a year, when I, kind of was figuring out my career. I ended up at a environmental nonprofit in a communications internship in DC, which really connected me to nonprofit communications and this idea that I could be in a creative field, you know, I was always interested in photography, creative writing, drawing, everything creative. And then I was trying to find, you know, I thought I needed to be an artist, or something like that, which I didn’t have the discipline to do art on my own, so I needed it to be part of my job. And I discovered nonprofit communications. Then I was in an environmental organization for a couple years, which was great and important work, but I wanted to feel more involved in the community, more I wanted to sense the impact that I was having with my work, within individuals, and not sort of adding to these long term goals, which, of course, behavioral health, there’s a lot of long term goals there. But when I discovered VOA Alaska and learned about the mission and inside about my own personal story and mental health struggles as a kid and as a young adult, I realized this was, this was a really exciting chance to really bring everything together, all of my personal and professional experiences and it really came to the point where it’s like, oh, all of those array of experiences, that wasn’t me wasting my time, it was me learning all these things that I needed to bring to this particular role, which is which has been really exciting.

Spencer Brooks 07:05

Yeah, that’s great. One of the questions I had Dj that it kind of occurred to me as you were talking, I know that there are some unique things, or I would assume at least there are some unique things about mental health communications in particular. So, I mean, just from your experience, what do you feel like is different about being a communicator in the mental health space, versus maybe either in another nonprofit arena or just, you know, like, for example, when you’re doing environmental work, what has been the unique thing or things that have stood out to you about mental health communication specifically?

Dj Tyson 07:43

Yeah, I love this question. So, in a more broad sense, you mentioned I have a professional digital marketing certificate, and like taking those classes where they’re talking about communications in general, it’s not focused on nonprofit. And you know, obviously in the corporate for profit world, you’re, you’re doing communications to sell something, to make money for a company. And obviously every nonprofit is like, it’s not there to make money, it’s there. It’s there to serve and support a community. But mental health communications in particular, because we are connecting with youth and families across the state who are potentially in the darkest moments of their lives, or they’ve experienced, you know, something intensely traumatic, possibly feeling incredibly hopeless. And that’s a scary place to be as someone experiencing that, but it’s also a difficult place to market to. So it takes, it takes a lot of thought and sensitivity, and you have to really go into it with, so something you said in a previous episode, so I’ve been listening to a few episodes, is matching the tone to a visitor’s emotional state when you’re thinking about content creation, and that applies to mental health communications, you know, tenfold, whatever the math is there, but, but really beyond that, , not reminding people where they are is the key for me, for mental health communications, they know that they’re suffering, or they’re in this dark place, they already feel like there’s no hope, we don’t have to remind them, hey, you’re feeling you’re feeling hopeless, you’re in a bad spot. The goal isn’t to remind people where they are, it’s to meet them where they are and empower them to discover where they can go. And so that’s kind of the goal behind all of our communications is we’re not selling them on our services. We’re, I suppose, selling them on the future that they can have, that we’re going to help them find that but, but really it’s, it’s all in their court. We’re just going to help open up the door and give them the resources they need to get there.

Spencer Brooks 10:01

Yeah, it sounds like a lot more like the you’re selling. It something that’s intangible. I mean, selling probably isn’t even the perfect word for that, right? But it’s not a product, it’s something that it’s like an intangible benefit that they’re getting, right? Which I imagine like that’s a very different process it sounds like, then something that might be a lot more straightforward in the corporate world.

Dj Tyson 10:24

Yeah. And sometimes, you know, it’s literally, hey, we have this event. Come learn about resources. And those are kind of refreshing, because it’s, you know, everybody needs mental health resources, whether you’re, you know, suffering from depression or anxiety or other mental health challenges, or you’re a youth or a family member, but some people just need to talk with a therapist or talk to others. So there, there’s definitely a range. So it’s not all like cautious and sensitive communications. There’s a lot of fun in it, and we can, you know, we’ll talk more about the hope and joy and everything that goes into it, but yeah, the foundation of all of it is, is remembering that if someone is interacting with VOA, it’s likely because there’s no other place they can go,

Spencer Brooks 11:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that’s, I think that’s great, yeah, well said, I was curious. Dj, too. I mean, this is a something you mentioned earlier. Is how you know, for example, Alaska is very spread out, so you have to kind of tailor your approach to, you know, develop partnerships and things like that. And it also made me curious, what the things are that you found unique about specifically doing this work in Alaska. Do you feel like the environment there has lent unique challenges to you that you have to overcome, or have you found that, oh, this, you know, maybe 5% is a little bit different, but more or less it’s the same as you know, for example, being in the lower 48. What’s been your experience as as, I guess, someone who’s doing this in a more spread out, remote place?

Dj Tyson 11:58

There’s definitely unique challenges to being in Alaska. I think you can ask, ask this question of someone in any industry, nonprofit or for profit, or educational, or law enforcement or government, any industry, and they’ll say the same thing, we have a small population in a massive state. It’s, it’s spread out, and, you know, it’s what, the third of the size of the lower 48, it’s just massive. And lots of small communities, tiny communities, spread out. Most of them don’t have road access. You know, you have to fly there or take a ferry. But it’s also incredibly unique that even though we have small population and we’re spread out,  there’s really a sense of a statewide, close knit community, like any time in Alaskan succeeds outside of, well, in Alaska, but you know, outside of Alaska, whether it’s an athlete or an artist, musician, you know, what have you, there’s a sense of pride from all Alaskans. So, there’s, there’s a challenge there, but it’s also really a benefit, because there’s a sense of we’re all in this together on some level, living in this remote location. And obviously it’s, you know, easier to get resource in Anchorage than it is in Kotzebue, or, you know, some of the more remote communities. But at the same time, it’s still hard to get things here in Anchorage. Things are more expensive, you know, all of our goods come up on boat. So yeah, there’s that, that sense of the close, tight knit community, and yeah, and we have to really rely on partnerships, because, say, with our youth residential center at any given time, half the kids there from rural Alaska, and if they’re graduating from ARCH and going back home, there might not be any services out there. So sometimes we can partner with an organization, one of the tribal health centers or a primary clinic there. But oftentimes, you know, we have to continue telehealth services, because that’s the only option to continue providing them the support they need. They can’t just, you know, drive into the city once a month and talk to their counselor, you know, they have to fly on an airplane. And then another unique challenge is that, because we’re so vast with a small population, there are not a lot of behavioral health services here, or not at the level that that is needed, and it’s difficult to support it from sort of the public side, the government side with funding and figuring out how to provide those resources to all of Alaskans., you know, most of our resources are concentrated here in south central Alaska, and then some up in Fairbanks, maybe down in Juneau. So really the challenge, not just for VOA Alaska, but for the entire behavioral health system of care in Alaska, is providing those services to the rural communities, which is a huge topic in wave of the scope of this conversation, but an important piece of it.

Spencer Brooks 15:00

Yeah, Dj, I forgot if I’ve asked you this or not, but are you a native Alaskan? Were you born there and raised?

Dj Tyson 15:06

No, so I was born in Washington, but came up to Alaska in second grade, so been here most of, most of my life, most of the life that I can remember has been in Alaska, yeah.

Spencer Brooks 15:16

And so, yeah, I would it be fair to say that you have through that time, you’ve gotten to know the people there in that the broader Alaska community pretty well as a result of being there for so long?

Dj Tyson 15:27

Yeah, you know, on some level, I’d say it’s difficult to know Alaskans well, even as an Alaskan yourself, because we’re Alaskans are unique folks. But yeah, I’ve lived in south central Alaska. I went to College up in Fairbanks. I lived in Kotzebue for a couple years, and has traveled all around the states. This weekend, I’m actually going down to southeast for a hiking adventure. So yeah, in those years of I’ve lived all around and got to meet a lot of different communities and really get the sense of that tight knit community, that even though we live hundreds of miles apart, we’re all, you know, we’re all very much the same in many ways.

Spencer Brooks 16:03

Yeah, the reason I ask is because you are, you know, fairly familiar, and you’ve in some sense, grown up in that community. You’ve understood how tight knit it is. How has that knowledge of the fabric of the people of Alaska, the fabric of that community influenced how you’ve done your work compared to say, like if you were someone who had moved up here a year ago and had no clue, how is that? How is your knowledge influenced how you’ve approached your job as a communicator?

Dj Tyson 16:34

Yeah, I’m trying to think of how to how to put this in words, because I definitely have ideas. I think it can be summed up as you know, Alaskans are very weary of outside influence. I mean, in our politics, in everything that was that was something I got a lot of sense of in the environmental nonprofit space, where, you know, all environmental organizations are seen as, you know, being from outside of Alaska. So that really informs kind of the approach to communications. Volunteers of America is a national organization, but the uniqueness of Volunteers of America is every affiliate is providing services that their region that they’re serving needs. And so here in Alaska, our focus is on youth and families, where other affiliates might do that, or veteran services, or other type of social services. So it really offers the chance, both with the flexibility of Volunteers of America and what we do, but also what is needed here in Alaska in terms of communications, is being an Alaskan nonprofit, an Alaskan provider of behavioral health services and Alaska social services organization, and really speaking to Alaskans as an Alaskan and being careful about being viewed as, you know, being influenced or, or being from, you know, the lower 48 or all the way on the East Coast, which, which is along way away, yeah, from Alaska, yeah. So yeah. It really comes down to just speaking to Alaskans as an Alaskan, and not that someone who has moved up here in the last year wouldn’t be able to understand that, but Alaska has both a young history as a state, but also a very deep history as the Indigenous communities, the Alaska Native communities that have been around for 1000s of years. And that’s definitely a very important aspect to be aware of and to always be thinking about and building partnerships with, and is in a super important in behavioral health communications.

Spencer Brooks 18:38

yeah, well, I guess then using that as a jumping off point is kind of setting the stage of this is the environment that you’re operating in. I’d love to talk a bit more about how you’re approaching mental health communications at VOA Alaska. Would you mind sharing that in any particular lessons you’ve learned over your time there that could be helpful to listeners?

Dj Tyson 18:59

Sure. So when I joined VOA Alaska, it was, there wasn’t a lot of set communications, obviously, you know, there was some communications. We had a website and social media presence, but not a lot of set kind of local brand standards. We obviously had national brand standards, but nothing that have had quite been adapted to an Alaska audience, but also, like behavioral health focused. So one thing I looked into right away is like, what, what is the best way to go about this? And, you know, anyone can Google mental health communications and get some great tips about, you know, people first language and telling stories and just educating and going about it in a responsible way, but how I’ve adapted that to our work and to my work, and what I do here at VOA Alaska is really leaning into our core values. I have the benefit of being an organization, not just a, you know, a behavior health organization. But just an organization that that really does care about the people we serve, the community we serve, and the people who work here. So our core values, our programs or our strategy reflects that. So I can you know, there’s a lot of things to pull from there, like our core values, some of them are joy, connection, courage and hope, which for an organization, are great values, for communication strategy is great values. And what I was what I was talking before, of the goal is not to remind people where they are, but it’s to meet them where they are, and then, you know, empower them to discover where they can go. You do that by infusing joy and connection and courage and hope in all your communications. And we do that not just by telling people, you know, there’s we hear all the time in storytelling or communication, show, don’t tell. There’s some more show and tell, obviously. So, we’re not just saying, hey, come to VOA Alaska, you know, find hope, but showing that in all of our visuals. So right away, we figured out a process to be able to tell the stories of our clients as not just anonymous people. You know, I see that in some organizations where the story becomes so anonymous and so sanitized that you get the sense of, like, is this a real person they’re talking about? Especially now with AI, you can just say, hey, write a story about someone who was struggling but is now doing better because of our organization. So we figured out, you know, the legal process, because obviously we’re sharing protected health information and HIPAA policies and you know, all that, all the compliance and legal stuff. So we worked with a lawyer, developed, you know, a media release, but then also develops a process of, you know, how do we go about identifying, you know, the youth and families that I’m going to talk to, you know, I make sure it’s always through our direct service providers to make sure that they’re comfortable. And then during the interview, you know, it’s sharing exactly how this is, you know, where, where we’re going to share it. This is why we’re sharing it. We’re doing this to encourage others to find help, to encourage partners to join us, to encourage government officials or funders to support our work. And then, you know, writing the story and doing it in a way that’s authentic to their story and not, you know, adapt, not changing it too much to fit a certain narrative. Obviously, there’s a narrative we have as an organization and as a communications department. There’s a story we want to tell. And I, I suppose that’s another unique aspect of this communications that, you know, we can plan and strategize this narrative. But when we’re telling the story of a client of ours, of someone who’s been in our services, it is their story. We do not own that story. And you know, we can  summarize some aspects, but as much as possible, we have to tell it authentically. And, you know, use their quotes and tell it how they want to tell it, because that’s, that’s why they’re, they’re sharing that story. So there’s the sharing the story in an authentic way, and putting a name to it, but also putting a face to it, especially these youth and not, not a face where it’s, you know, they’re, they’re looking at the camera, and they’re looking super sad to reflect on, you know, the difficult, the journey that they’ve been on. You know, readers, viewers, will get that when they listen to their story, but it’s showing them where they are now, with all that hope and all that joy and pride, and all the work they’ve done, if, if I’m talking to a youth or family, you know, they’ve graduated our services, and they’re really excited about their future and a future that maybe just a few months ago, they didn’t think even existed, or maybe they thought they wouldn’t have a future at all because of, you know, various reasons. So sharing those stories in an authentic way and not sanitizing them, not sensationalizing the pain and suffering you know that begins that story and then really focusing on that joy and that hope and the courage that it takes to inspire others that you know are reading that story and recognizing themselves in that story. And yeah.

Spencer Brooks 24:21

Yeah, I think that the idea that you expressed of the hope, the joy that that positive life, I think, is a really cool and I think unique approach to mental health communications. And I wanted to ask you Dj about how the idea of combating stigma relates to that approach that, you know, kind of this hope, forward joy, forward approach. I know that other folks that in the mental health space there is, you know that something that they do fight is, you know, it’s the stigma of maybe speaking out or admitting, you know, mental health problems or going and actually taking action on it. So how does your approach using those values of hope and joy and stuff like that? How does that influence how you tackle the issue of stigma in your work?

Dj Tyson 25:11

Yeah, so there’s two pieces to this, I think. And one is that I want to make sure I cover is that this reducing mental health stigma is not, there’s not only the responsibility of the communications team, whether you’re a mental health nonprofit or, you know, in other health nonprofit, but it is an organizational effort, like if you’re sharing the best you know mental health communications, but your organization, you know everything behind that, is not reflecting those values and that story, and someone comes to our organization to receive services and feels stigmatized, or feels stereotype against and a lot of this connects to, you know, diversity, equity, inclusion, and all those important initiatives and objectives, but just focusing on the mental health piece, if, if they come and don’t feel that support, like, what’s the point that’s, you know, just going to perpetuate that stigma, or potentially, you know, re traumatize them, traumatize them more because they reached out for help and they didn’t feel that, you know, they felt lied to, or that organization just reinforced the stigma. You know, they might not reach out for help again and potentially not get the help and care that they need. So this is really an organizational effort. And you know, that’s a lot to put on the shoulders of a communications person. So, start small, start having the conversations. Talk to your boss, your CEO, and your leadership. And do kind of a do, kind of an audit of your organization and think about, Do I feel comfortable talking about mental health? o I hear that from leadership. One of the big signs with our organization, beyond being a behavioral health nonprofit, is that we give two wellness days every spring that’s focused on self care. The winter is really hard in Alaska, and spring is often the time where people are starting to experience a lot of those anxiety and depression, because the sun is back and that extra energy, there’s just something about it that mixes in a complicated, challenging way. So we give two days of extra bonus PTO that is intended for folks to take during the spring time. So look at things like that, and, yeah, look at the organizational wide efforts, but another piece of that is then to look inwards and look at your own story, and whether you’ve experienced trauma or intense behavioral health, mental health challenges in your life, or just think about the moments where you felt really sad or anxious or stressed, maybe it was tied to a certain event in your life, and then think about, Do I feel comfortable sharing the story, mentioning it to a coworker, mentioning it to loved ones, or sharing the story publicly? Because if you’re going to be asking you know the individuals that your organization is serving to share their story, it’s a bit disingenuous, or it feels wrong to then not be sharing your own story in some way, and not that you have to share it with them. But before, when I first started, before I asked any of our staff to share their stories, or even started talking with the youth and families we serve, I wrote a blog and shared my story, and that’s also a great way to just think about, okay, I’m sharing my story. What are the details I want to share? What are the details I feel comfortable sharing? Where do I find the hope and joy in this story? Where am I at in this recovery journey? And then, you know, it becomes easier to to then flip that role, and then ask others and talk to others and share the stories from others.

Spencer Brooks 29:04

Yeah, you know, Dj, you’ve alluded, I think, in earlier conversations and in this one as well, about, you know, your personal story and how that’s, you know, certainly a part of your work. So would you mind sharing how your own personal journey with mental health has has influenced your work, and you know, in any advice or insights that other people might be able to take away from that?

Dj Tyson 29:28

Yes, of course, so growing up, I had, you know, some mental health struggles, lots of anxiety and depression and just lots of lots of feelings of isolation and just kind of fear of being in social situations, I didn’t receive any therapy or anything at the time. And you know, perhaps some of that is connected to to some of the stigma, especially 30 years ago or 25 years ago. And then as a young adult, I was working out in a remote community, and it was just at a really interesting time in my life. It was after I was out of the army after four years, and working in this place where, you know, I had no idea where I needed to go next, just feeling kind of hopeless and really, just feeling this existential crisis of a lack of meaning and the value in my life. And so one of the ways I was coping with that was drinking a lot, and that was how I connected with others, to feel like, you know, I was becoming part of a community, but I was really only doing that if I was drinking. But another piece, and, you know, I still don’t know exactly how this started was some self harm, and I was, I don’t want to get into too many details, but, you know, I would do it at do it at work. I would, I would go into the bathroom, and, you know, by the point of it, or, you know, after a few weeks, you know, my arms had been, you know, covered in evidence that this was happening. And finally, someone I was close to at work, noticed it, and, you know, commented on it. And that was kind of, kind of the beginning of, kind of recognizing that, that, hey something more is going on here. And you know, whether or not I’m, I’m ignoring this mental anguish there. Here is physical evidence that I’m that I’m struggling with something. And then an important lesson I learned in that was to be aware of shame, because that was kind of the first motivator to get me to the point of, you know, reaching out for help or sharing my story was shame, and then the feeling of like, okay, I want to do this to cope with how I’m feeling At this moment, but I’ve told all these people now that I do this, like there was a point where I ended up sharing it on Facebook to all my friends and family. And you know, that was how I told everybody, and that was my way of getting it out into the world because if everyone knew about it, you know, then I would know, and people would see, you know, if there was a mark on my arm, then, you know, their automatic thought would be, oh, Dj, is self harming again. So shame was kind of my, my original driver. But shame is not a sustainable solution to preventing, you know, that kind of behavior, or to recovering and healing. So that’s something I think is important to think about in mental communications, as well as we don’t want people to feel ashamed of what they’re doing. And that’s attached to, I think, a lot of the he terms and the thought around what are the words we’re using, and the people first language. So like substance abuse, instead of saying abuse, you know, it’s substance use or substance misuse, and really thinking about what those words mean, and how someone experiencing that are going to be hearing those words. So that was one of the lessons there, and the sense of hopelessness, I think, is really the, the key, the key lesson I learned in in my personal story, because in those moments, I didn’t think it was going to get better and in a way, it was easier and more comforting to kind of keep that cycle going because, you know, that was what I was familiar with. And you know, at the time, if someone would have just saw me and said, Oh, get over it, or just, you know, smile, it’ll make you feel better. Or if someone just gave me a hug, you know, I like hugs, but I’m more of a happy, joyful hugger. I don’t want to be hugged when I’m sad. I’m more of a like, Don’t touch me. And using that as a metaphor for communications, like, we don’t want to, we’re not smothering people. We’re not saying, Hey, do this and you’ll feel better. It’s, it’s more of opening our arms, inviting people in, letting people access our services, come to us on their own terms, but really starting as that encouraging friend, that encouraging, loved one, family member, trusted adult, because that’s, you know, in the end, what was really the, what influenced the beginning of that kind of healing journey was just knowing that there were people out there that that cared about me and were allowing me to come to them when I was ready, or to talk to them when I needed it. And, you know, maybe they do some check ins like, Hey, how’s it going? But it was never, I didn’t feel smothered or overwhelmed or, you know, there wasn’t someone checking in with me every single day, because, you know, that’s not what I needed, yeah. So expanding that into communications, it’s, it’s really meeting people where they are, and empowering them to come to you, to start that journey on their own, but just opening up that door, showing them everything that is available for them, and then, you know, some light nudges of encouragement.

Spencer Brooks 34:49

 Yeah, that’s really wonderful. I appreciate you being willing to share that Dj. I feel like those personal stories, like literally, as you’ve been telling all of us for most of this interview, they are so powerful. So, I appreciate your willingness, your bravery, you know it to lead by example there and then to leverage that into some great insights as well. I did want to ask you Dj kind of moving into the last couple questions in the interview that I like to ask pretty much every guest. And you know, of course, I have so many more questions that I would like to ask you, but you know, the timer is always the enemy here. So I don’t know if you’re a listener and you want longer episodes, just shoot me an email, let me know. Maybe I’ll extend future episodes longer. But Dj, the first question I wanted to ask you is, just, what’s one thing in digital that you’re working on right now, it’s consuming a lot of your brain space, and what takeaways can you share with listeners who might encounter that same challenge?

Dj Tyson 35:48

I’ve been thinking a lot about this question because I know it’s a question you ask with every interviewer, and I really couldn’t settle on one thing other than that, just all of the challenges or the challenges, all the possibilities that exist in communications, and that’s constantly on my mind, like, how, how am I choosing the things to pursue, especially as rapidly as things are changing, like, TikTok was the thing to be on and now it’s like, what’s gonna happen to TikTok? Or suddenly Threads exists, and I would have wanted to talk more, but I just listened to the strategic communications episode that was a couple episodes ago, and I think that really outlines the perfect answer to kind of the solution is building that strategy. But I would add on to it as focusing on the foundation and just building a foundation and never pursuing just one thing, not putting all your eggs in one basket. And that’s really helped me kind of calm that urge to pursue the latest, shiniest thing is to just really make sure I’ve crossed all the communications and now that, you know, I have a communications specialist and a community engagement manager that you know all of all of the bases are covered, all of the avenues of potential communications are covered in a way that’s most effective and engaging and not getting too distracted by trying to achieve all of the possibilities. So that’s, I’d say, that’s my challenge, and what’s always on my mind, and one way that I try to solve that.

Spencer Brooks 37:19

Yeah, no, that’s a fantastic answer. And focus, especially when, you know, everyone seems to be a small communications department, and so that focus is, you know, that’s, I’m certain you’re not the only person with that challenge. And I appreciate you also mentioning, I think it was the Taya Jarman, I think was the episode that you’re mentioning, the strategic communications, right? So if you’re listening to this and you want to check it out, that’s also a great episode. I can make sure we get a link to the that particular one in the show notes, too. And Dj. I wanted to also ask you about some resources that you regularly used to keep up on news and trends in your work. Do you have two or three that that made your list as the top ones that you want to share?

Dj Tyson 38:02

I do, and not that I’m trying to get on your list of favorite interviewers or interviewees, but I’d say this podcast, which I unfortunately hadn’t heard about until you reached out for an interview, but I’ve been listening, and it’s a great reminder of not just learning new things, but going back to some of those fundamentals. And I have a terrible memory, so I kind of try to learn through immersion, listening to things over and over again and you know, so I’m not memorizing it’s just, you know, becoming part of ingrained into my brain. But, but other great resources, you know, as I mentioned throughout the podcast, Alaska is unique, so getting that perspective from the local chapters of the Public Relations Society, the American Marketing Association. I mean, we have a lot of great, effective and engaging local PR firms, marketing firms that put out newsletters and give a lot of great Alaska focused advice and tips about communications. But then another important resource I think that no communications person should forget is your staff, your program staff. This has become incredibly important in mental health communications is talking with our clinicians and our peer support specialists and joining some of the trainings they’re in. I joined a week long peer support training where you learn how to share your story and how to connect with people sharing their story. It’s not a communications training, it’s a peer support training. But there’s a lot of lessons to be learned there in communication. So, I would encourage folks not to just find those communications trainings, but you know, become the expert as much as you can alongside your program staff.

Spencer Brooks 39:39

Yeah, excellent advice. Love that a lot. And by the way, it is a quick way to get it, you know, into one of my favorite people on the show. If you do mention that the podcast is one of your favorite resources. So, although it shouldn’t work, it does. So, yeah, I only have one more question for you, which is, how can listeners get in touch with you if they’d like to learn more about your work?

Dj Tyson 40:00

Yeah, so I’m on LinkedIn, if you just want to get connected through there, my organizational email is DjTyson@VOAak.org if you want to learn more about VOA Alaska, it’s pretty easy, Google VOA Alaska. There’s only one of us, or you can find us at VOAak.org and we’re also on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn if you want to, and YouTube if you want to see some of these mental health communications tips in action, that’s awesome. Yeah? Always happy to talk more about this and always open to feedback. That’s an important part of this too. Yeah, wonderful.

Spencer Brooks 40:36

I appreciate it. Dj for listeners, that wraps up our show today, like I always mentioned, if you enjoyed this episode, it’s a huge help if you rate and review the podcasts on Apple podcasts, or whatever platform you listen on, to make sure that other folks get connected with the insights and with interviews with people like Dj. The show is also a part of the thought leadership of Brooks Digital. We help nonprofits in the healthcare space transform their website into an intuitive resource that creates measurable impact. So if you like this podcast, definitely check out our website at Brooks dot digital. You can find more of our insights there and learn about our work and as well, if you want to be notified via email of future podcast episodes that come out or other insights that we produce. You can sign up for the newsletter there. I mean, you can just get this stuff dropped right in your inbox. But with all that said, Dj, I really appreciate you taking the time to come on the show today. It’s been a blast to have you so great to

Dj Tyson 41:35

be here and talk about this important subject. Thank you.

41:44

Thanks for listening to health, nonprofit digital marketing. If you liked this episode, leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform, and don’t forget to check out the Brooks Digital website at www.Brooks.digital where you can find other resources like this podcast, learn how we help nonprofits like yours and get in touch with our team. See in the next episode.

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