We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tod Meisner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tod below.

Tod, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

This would mean meaningful to me really. Did the work itself have some deep, profound meaning? Probably not. Maybe it helped Aflac sell some policies in the long run (which was the goal), but the teamwork and collaboration are what’s meaningful to me. Back when I was on the brand and advertising team at Aflac, we had a concept approved and were going to film some social content beginning in early March 2020. You know what that means just by typing that date!

Yes, the project had to be put on hold dude to the Covid pandemic and resulting restrictions/precautions around production shoots. What our team pivoted to next was so fun and honestly brilliant. The creative team I managed at Dagger pitched a lean production shoot that would use mannequins as the main talent. The mannequins would perform actions demonstrating the story of how Aflac can help. In post-production, narration and captions were added to being the story to life.

The quick thinking and ability to adapt on the fly was remarkable to be a part of. To be around creatives that could re-think storytelling in a clever (and safe) way will always stick out to me as a highlight or my branding career.

Tod, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Upon graduating from Illinois State University as a Mass Comm major, I began my career in sports communication/sports information at the collegiate level. My journey began in college athletics as a sports information director with stops at SMU, the Missouri Valley Conference and Conference USA.

While I made a strong impact within college athletics, I also created relationships early in my career with professional organizations. I worked for both the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks in the early 2000s and continue to work Maverick’s game day stat crew to this day.

I left the collegiate athletics space in 2010 and briefly worked for a boutique PR agency in Dallas before beginning a 5-year stint at Associa in Dallas. While there, I worked my way up to Digital Marketing Director and helped Associa launch its social media presence in 2010 and overall directed the company’s digital marketing strategy and day-to-day digital marketing execution.

I moved to Auburn, AL in 2011 and once again found myself in the agency space and served as Director of Client Leadership for Verge Pipe Media. I served higher education clients and helped them adopt and expand their usage of HubSpot, while also working to help land new clients.

This role was challenging in such a small market and after 18 months I moved once again from agency life to the client-side and began my tenure at Aflac. Working my way up through the brand and national advertising team, I concluded my term as Brand Manager. As brand manager, I developed and formulated the company’s social media key strategies and executional deliverables that supported the overall brand and national advertising strategy, core brand promise, program/campaigns and overall business objectives.

I spent my days leading and driving the company’s social media strategy. I rebuilt Aflac’s social media strategy from the ground up and grew Aflac’s connected community on its main social media channels, most recently launching the brand’s TikTok strategy in 2022.

In April 2023, I joined the Corporate Communications team at State Farm. In my role as Sr. Analyst, I’m responsible for identifying and improving the brand’s communications goals to drive business and communication efficiencies. I create detailed reports that are used to provide actionable insights to various business partners across the enterprise to make data-driven decisions and communications improvements.

In addition to my day-to-day duties for State Farm, I teach undergraduate and graduate level classes for Auburn University, Arizona State University, West Virginia University, the University of Florida, Southern Methodist University and New York University (NYU). The courses focus on social media campaigns and engagement for public relations as well as, branding, advertising, and digital marketing.

What does all that mean? Well, I cosplay as a data analyst at the moment. I’m a communicator and marketer mostly and my career has focused in those areas. But at State Farm I’m blending that expertise along with data capabilities to serve as an internal consultant for communicators. I try to help them use data and other metrics to “see the forest from the trees” in essence.

I’d say I am known for helping people and my way to relate with people. In the 5 voices assessment I test as a nurturer, which is defined as: Nurturers are champions of relationships, harmony, and values. They are self-giving, the relational oil inside teams, they delight in the success of others, and they intuit how people will react to change.

Nurturers account for almost half the population. They shy away from conflict, but can provide invaluable benefits to the team:

They intuitively feel how an organization will react to a new idea

They defend values; people will always come before profit

They function as the relational oil inside teams and organizations

They are pragmatic realists who ask — “has this really been thought through?”

They take genuine delight in celebrating the achievements of others and are natural team players.

This helps set me apart in certain cases. I have learned to use the above as my core strengths and play to them. I know what I am good at and what I am not and put myself in positions to succeed.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are many! But the one that has completely re-shaped how I operate both personally and professionally is the 100x Leader book and training course. What is 100x leader you ask? It is both a book and a toolkit designed to make you comfortable in your own skin, more self-aware and helps you become the best leader and person you can be.

100x helps you learn the lost art of leadership–the intentional calibration of support and challenge for everyone you lead, your team and your family. You will learn to become a multiplication master as you learn to bring the best out of people for their highest good and that of the whole team.

Google 100x Leader and you will find many results to learn more and to buy yourself a copy.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

In addition to 100X Leader, here are some of the more impactful books that have shaped my career:
Atomic Habits – James Clear
The Making of a Manager – Julie Zhuo
Big Feelings – Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy
The One Thing – Gary Keller
Essentialism – Greg McKeown
Resisting Happiness – Matthew Kelly
Everything That Remains – Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.todmeisner.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/todmeisner
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/todmeisner
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/todmeisner