James Johnson: I would think that it would also be helpful to them because now someone is involved that is a third party, and is not judging.
Traci S. Campbell: Exactly. The idea was that this program would be a third partner in the relationship that can identify things the teen may be struggling with. The program really hones in on journaling, writing, expression, and often times it’s much easier for a young person to confide in someone other than mom and dad. This program was designed to bring out those things, and help them develop great habits and goal setting.
James Johnson: How does Heroes at Home Radio fit into the scheme of things?
Traci S. Campbell: That was a project, kind of an experiment. I wanted to see what the response would be if we added a visual aspect to the project, and that whole experiment came before we were a 501(c)(3). It was a video blog and it actually grew organically. We didn’t do any real marketing. It was an ongoing video blog. We interviewed all sorts of people who were single parents, or they were an entity supporting the single parent space. It took off. We had quite a lot of followers. It was great. Then we shifted gears, forming the 501(c)(3), C.H.A.M.P. Community Project. We got away from Heroes at Home. Fast forward to a year ago, we created “Inside Out with Traci S. Campbell” as a podcast. We gained a large following with that. For the last 8 months we have not aired an episode, but we are re-launching “Inside Out with Traci S. Campbell” in January 2015 with a whole new crew of experts and also some people who will join me each and every week on that podcast. We’re excited about that.
James Johnson: That’s good. That’s really good that it’s going to re-launch now.
Traci S. Campbell: Yes. We regrouped, and had a bit of a break, if you will, and joining us will be a recurring panel of experts. Each week will be a different expert, providing expertise in many different areas that affect all of us: business, health, wellness, relationships, you name it. I’ll have another co-host joining me for her segment. It’s going to be a team effort to share the responsibility and share great information with the audience.
James Johnson: It’s great that it provides different resources for people to tap into.
Traci S. Campbell: Absolutely.
James Johnson: So how did this all transition into BIBO?
Traci S. Campbell: BIBO….the initial idea came directly from the C.H.A.M.P. Within program, and the C.H.A.M.P. Community Project. BIBO is a direct result of C.H.A.M.P. and from borrowing from my own personal past experience as a young woman. One evening in 2012, I was on the phone with a girlfriend, talking about various things, and I confided in her that while doing the seminars [for C.H.A.M.P.], several women would come up and share a lot of the same things over and over. Low self-esteem, low confidence, or they simply didn’t know how to go about pursuing something. They were having relationship issues. They were having a teen who was acting out. All sorts of things you started hearing over and over. The undertone to that, James, was that they needed someone they could look up to. They needed another woman they could emulate. So I’m on the phone sharing all this stuff, and I said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could take the stuff that we advocate through the C.H.A.M.P. Within program, and all this hard work we do through C.H.A.M.P. and apply it to women, and at the same time give them other women they can look up to. Then we can celebrate those successes. I figured it was just an idea, but she encouraged me to stick with it. It went from there, and then the next thing you know, we set up
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