BLACK MEN'S HEALTH, LLC
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA

We had just finished church service one Sunday morning and I was making my way to the back towards the children’s area to scoop the baby boy. Darryl, a good friend of many years, specifically from the church family, was on his way out and I was headed in. “Oooooh, a ‘k’. Well, a 5k is 3.1 miles, so a ‘k’ is about, I don’t know, a little less than 1.1 miles or so.” Totally wrong. As in real, real wrong. I am a solid math guy, always have been, so I pride myself on calculations in my head. I blew it on this one; totally. Who knows what I was calculating? I tell myself (only to feel better) that I was doing the quick running distance of how many miles were in the race, visualizing quickly how many I would have to complete while actually running a race, and I made the quick conversion and spit that out. Again, incorrect. I am grateful that Darryl stopped and asked me that question that morning. I don’t know how long it had been brewing in his mind, but what I do know is that, when he saw me in that moment, I embodied two things that provided him enough comfort in moving forward with the initial baby step of inquiring: When we see most movie/television stars, musicians, athletes, supermodels, and business titans on the cover of magazines, it can be aspirational, but it’s not always obtainable. Many people process this subconsciously, but might not realize it consciously. So Darryl seeing me at church, knowing my family and friends, having my number in his phone, all provide him access. He didn’t reach out to Olympic gold medalist and marathon runner Mo Farah for advice or insight. Even though the Olympian has far more expertise and experience in this field, he’s not necessarily accessible to Darryl. The point is, because I started running, because I made a life change in my physical activity, and because I leaned up and I’m a little lighter on my feet now, Darryl, like many others, have asked, “Hey, what are you doing?” This is why my team and I are actively working on the launch of Black Men’s Health; an initiative, laser focused on creating more balance through health in men of color, that I have been cultivating since 1999. A seed planted; eighteen years in the making. It is now time to bring this initiative to fruition. The mission, “Provoking positive change for balanced, healthy lifestyles in men of color everywhere,” was developed during a face-to-face meeting with my advisory team in Atlanta several years ago. The statement’s strong start is deliberate. In the session, we dropped a “To provoke…” option and went straight for “Provoking…”. It is a push in the chest for men of color. The word is not “Try” or “Striving”. It is not an arm around the shoulder. It is a challenge. ‘Provoke’ is often used with a negative connotation. This is a positive call to action; an intervention. . We have been cultivating it ever since and are preparing for a global soft launch by the end of 2017 via the roll out of micro-summits in the southeastern United States. An initial offering of the new media components of the initiative are scheduled for deployment by late summer 2017. Additionally, we are currently exploring partnership opportunities to host a two-day conference in early 2018. Our Mission: Jon D. Brown is Chief Advocate of Black Men’s Health. He has a background in Civil and Software Engineering, and began his more than 20-year journey in technology and communications with training at the Kennedy Space Center in central Florida and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He has since co-founded a college-born technology startup that transitioned into an award-winning, full-service integrated marketing and creative solutions firm and he has also served as the Director of Community and Media Relations/Communications Director/Public Information Officer for two county governments in Florida. An honors graduate of Florida A&M University, Jon is a strong proponent of creative marketing, economic independence, entrepreneurship and empowerment, and has lead many seminars and workshops for youth development to assist in the perpetuation of such ideas. Most importantly, he is a blessed husband (she’s kind, smart, patient, pretty, so fine, and smells good… all the time) and proud father of three boys; 10, 7, and 2.5 (into everything; yikes!). In his spare time, which is limited, Jon runs, swims, and is in constant motion of figuring out how to better shoot rockets off the roof.