It could be a local school. The local government. A camp program. A corporate team. Maybe your program has been around since 2007, but it just hasn't been told yet. Meaning exists, but it may be invisible, poorly articulated, undocumented, inaccessible, inconsistently communicated, culturally specific, buried in history, or obvious to insiders and invisible to outsiders. You need someone to say, "Wait, what's actually going on here? Something is here."


WHO I AM : " THE COMMUNITY RELATIONS & PR GUY "
Hi, I'm Robert. I'm a Public Relations Specialist based in West Michigan, specialized in Community Relations. At my core, I'm a journalist, connector, and host—an observer who participates. I believe that institutional place-based stories have the ability to welcome families together through shared narratives and bring in cultural perspectives that can change lives. And it is my mission to facilitate these deep stories to positively change the world.

Many people describe me as earnest. I think that's a true descriptor. Others describe me as hyper-curious. Oor similar to an investigative detective. True also. Or whimsical. Analytical. Hyper-local. Relational. Exploratory. Theatrical. Hospitable. Outdoorsy. Cheerful. Colorful. Adventurous. Artistic. Playful. Jack-of-all-trades. Philosophical. High-energy. Possibility generator. World-builder. Deep thinker. People-oriented. Idealistic. Trend-seeker. Psychology-obsessed. Interested in the magical. Probably a good therapist. The list goes on. Some even describe me as the male version of Tangled's Rapunzel (which honestly, I love that comparison so much). 

But I think what these don't capture fully is the hidden editorial motivation in my life. To me, I'm motivated by these simple statements: "Here's this interesting place, its history, its happening. Let's share this to other people around me, through events, visuals, music, and text."

MY BELIEF : SOME PLACES JUST FEEL LIKE HOME . . .
Deep down, I believe that a long-term meaningful place can build a strong emotional attachment that can feel like home. Places that people don’t always get growing up. And they can be transformational for life—showcasing new cultural perspectives that enable the economy to thrive, students to thrive, citizens to thrive, and employers to thrive.

These places can include:
• Participatory creative digital communities (like The Flash, comedy skit YouTubers)
• Charter school with interdisciplinary, immersive project-based learning
• 100-year old outdoor education relational leadership-based ministry
• Art education center with a strong student pathway
• Local library with a significant Facebook news + book club culture
• Underground DIY arts association with recurring meetings
• City with a town square festival with stewardship-based volunteerism
• Museum or theatre group with opportunities to the nearby culture
• Civic-based library, county park team, or road commission that holds local interactive festivals
• Town with significant hands-on neighborhood revitalization
• Senior living that feels more like a home than a class
• Corporation with a significant community affairs + employee culture
• An old retreat destination that holds beautiful weddings and anniversaries

These places build the feeling that you are known—and belong—no matter what. And that's rare. And I find that it is my role to find these places, learn from them, immerse myself within them, and share their feelings out to the world to get others connected.

MY PAST AND HOW IT GOT ME HERE : A CURIOUS KID !
When I was a kid, I was interested in mainstream fictional story-based worlds with depth—The Land of Stories, Barbie, Tinker Bell, LEGO, Disney, Disney Pixar, My Little Pony, Ever After High, Twilight, Teen Wolf, The Flash. From 2015-2021, I built an audience of 64K subscribers on YouTube by making fan edits about top-hit CW shows, like The Flash.

And what I enjoyed about this experience was that it taught me how to appreciate how places, franchises, experiences, and cultures that create feelings of belonging. It taught me to look for cultural motifs, conflicts, recurring locations, aesthetics, audience participation, archetypes, mythology, ideologies, taboos, artifacts, heritage, iconography, traditions, rituals, and symbols. The Flash has CC Jitters, the lightning symbol, Central City, Team Flash, Iris West's beat reporting. The Good Place has "What Do We Owe To Each Other" philosophies and Chidi + Eleanor's romance. Riverdale has the town's mysteries, actors' press campaigns, Entertainment Weekly's promo pics, and dramatic family dynamics. All things that built buzz on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. They bring people together. 

And I still enjoy using these stories as inspiration. There is always something new to learn about how TV networks coordinate press interviews and project phases within complex productions—and build audience connection through characters, friendships, romance, and attachment to place.

Now, I've taken this interest and focused my professional life on brand journalism, editorial content, and documentary filmmaking for institutions that have been building this sense of belonging.

WHY THIS WORK IS URGENT . . .
The economic problem? Educational enrollment is declining nationwide, consumers' attention is fragmented, civic trust is is volatile, grants are often unstable, job prospects are looking for more than a job, and isolation is, too, at an all-time high. Through my work experiences, and my finishing degree in Public Relations, I've learned what influences stakeholders to support, advocate, or get involved is through explicit proof of value. 
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Belonging and shared values are invisible and can be hard to describe, which naturally creates a push for this kind of work. So what I do to expose the culture is to absorb and immerse myself within the culture—learning things like grassroots traditions, educational knowledge, rituals, symbols, relationships, and emotional attachments. This is because knowing how a community is differentiated within its lived culture allows us to position the brand authentically, which allow for stakeholders to take action.

WHAT MY THINKING PROCESS LOOKS LIKE : ASSOCIATIVE CREATIVE MODELS
1) I first start with the past: documents, talking to people, past folders. I develop hypotheses about the emotional significance—why does this place matter to people?

2) Then I look over where the stories are headed. I review the unfolding school schedule for the month, the camp schedule for the week, the employee program for the quarter. We develop themes. That way, I can develop a creative production model in my head of how we can tell the shared narrative in an organized fashion. I talk to people and ask: "What's going on? Who are we about? What's the pulse? Trend? What matters right now? Who are the main characters and their trajectory? How should we tell this interactive story? How is everything connected? What should the audience perceive about us and eventually do?"

3) Then we develop ideas. Planned deliverables. A shared content calendar. Media list. Outreach contacts. An updated research document with lore, market analysis, and history. I show what competitors are making as ideas. It gets approved. We produce two boots-on-the-ground stories a week. Or one. Or more. Sometimes it's a podcast. Or a highlight reel-style video, with talking points. Or high-end brand reputation film. Highly designed web + print piece, with a warm interview. Graphic slide social profile post. It could be driven by character, relationship, mood, music, voice, concept, milestone, setting. 

4) Then we choose the creative specialties: drone shots, camera movements, story arcs, Sony A7 IV, tripod, gimbal, prime or zoom, lighting, iPhone, design templates, script guide, curious interview questions. And then we pull it together through film editing, creative writing techniques, and more. And then we plan it on the shared calendar, develop the organized production spreadsheet, execute it well, send the stories to the right people, and evaluate the campaign!

One of the mediums I am particularly specialized in is documentary filmmaking, which allows people to understand the culture through music, visuals, and more.
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​THE CREATIVE ASSOCIATIVE RHYTHM CONTINUES IN MY FREE TIME . . .
This type of thinking style never stops. In my free time, I enjoy consistently engaging within recurring creative communities around me, such as GR Junk Journaling Club, Snail Mail Club, YouTube creative + TV vidding communities, meetings with local Grand Rapids PR & Creative teams—where we network, talk about happenings around us, develop creative processes, and build ideas together. This helps my work stay current, while optimizing professional creative processes.

I also enjoy being a part of local participatory, creative groups—Grand Rapids Original Swing Society, YMCA's Zumba & WERQ program, Scorpion Hearts Cafe, Grand Valley State University's Outdoor Adventure Club, West Michigan Coast Riders (WMCR), Downtown GR Inc. festival volunteerism, West Michigan Trail Runners (WMTR), Ottawa County Parks programs (kayaking + nature journaling!) to help me get in my body, observe symbols, network, and stay connected to others and the outside world.

The campaign, aesthetic thinking never stops, either. I love staying immersed in the cultural memory, asking questions like, "Why do people feel certain ways about harmonious mainstream trends?"—listening to mainstream 2000s-2020s pop culture music (Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Katy Perry), discovering knowledge about phenomenology, anthropology, and epistemology, reviewing Buzzfeed quizzes + articles, revisiting virtual worlds like Poptropica + Just Dance, and more.

I create creative challenges and archival campaigns on my Instagram and YouTube to build inspiration and new perspectives for my network. Right now, on my Instagram, I am doing an Instagram Stories challenge called #BRINGBACKOLDINSTAGRAM in which I document moments in my life daily that seem to fit 2013 IG's aesthetic. I also keep a bucket list. One of the items on my bucket list is to visit all of the untold, open West Michigan Parks and document them on my Instagram page. Another item is to continue to get involved in the pop culture YouTube space again, documenting new shows universes like The Green Lantern or The Summer I Turned Pretty. Or even collecting souvenirs on small town Great Lakes trips. Or even reading and blogging about mainstream mystery and fantasy books. Whatever inspires and connects my network!

Even during solo time, I'm still inspired by pattern mapping. I like review YouTube creators and brand competitors and how they do their social media—like local schools—for inspiration. I also search for new places and communities that have strong feelings of cultural belonging, and moodboarding (chalk art, journaling, decorating). I also enjoy binging Reddit, Instagram, and YouTube for ideas—constantly mapping out new patterns and perspectives through adventures—updating my digital scrapbook and physical aesthetic. And then take meditative time out in nature to journal, bike, draw, hike, trail run, and defragment. Aesthetic choices atmospherically communicate identity, belonging, era, values, nostalgia, community membership, emotional tone, shared references—which are cultural signals that are key to my work!

KEEP UP WITH THE CULTURAL DISCOVERY !
If you'd like to keep up with me, I use my Instagram as my hub for main connection with local creatives—and consider myself the leader of connecting others to untold places. And my YouTube serves as a scrapbook hub for online vidding communities and those interested in pop culture and creative storytelling. You can check me out @robertfrancoisiv