We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dieula Previlon Previlon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Dieula Previlon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

The idea for my nonprofit ElevateHer International began long before I knew how to strategically and legally form a nonprofit. It began in the streets of Gonaives, Haiti where I saw dozens upon dozens of women entrepreneurs. The energy and spirit of those women created not only the desire but the drive to create something to meet the needs of others. It all came full circle after I took a trip to Mt. Elgon, Kenya where I led a team to teach a group of traumatized women about trauma and how to heal from trauma. The visible change I saw in those women connected something I had already gained from the Haitian women in my community to the present moment of seeing a real need that I had the skills and expertise to meet. Soon after that trip where I knew my assignment to start this nonprofit, I did a number of searches to help make my dream of empowering traumatized women to heal into a reality. One was to find a business and strategy coach and another to the SBA (small business administration) to get mentorship. Both helped me position myself to launch and begin offering services.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I love the strength and power of women and my desire is to help them thrive and flourish. I grew up one of five sisters and one brother. When I close my eyes to think of my childhood there’s an overwhelming presence of women all throughout my adolescence. They nurtured me, mothered me, cleared the path for me to be where I am today. My purpose is to continue to clear that path for other women. I do that through counseling, coaching, speaking, preaching and writing. My services are geared towards helping women live well in every aspect of life. I’m most proud of the book I recently wrote: “Does God see me?” This book is an ode to all of the women I’ve worked with throughout my career in Haiti, Kenya, DR Congo, Uganda, Brazil and the US. I give these women’s stories a platform. I share our stories of struggle and how to get through pain and suffering. I also share our stories of hope and joy. This book is for women especially women of color but I believe everyone will be touched and move forward in their healing journeys through this book and the stories of women.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I’ve had to unlearn hyper independency and asking for help.There’s a back story to why this lesson was so profound for me. I grew up in Haiti surrounded by poverty. And when there’s poverty, there are needs all around. Not only that, you’re often disrespected and looked down on for being in a lowly position in life. And one of the worst and most shameful things you can do is to let people know you have a need because it exposes you to even more pain. Families often drill into their children to never ask anyone for anything even if you’re in desperate need. I can often recall my mother’s instructions to me to not beg for things, pa fè mandyan in Haitian kreyol. Intructions like this can be heeded by children, however it’s much harder to do as adults because adulting requires needing help to manage relationships, leadership and socializing. These were all of the areas that suffered the most because of my hyper independence. I’m the founder and executive director of a nonprofit that focuses on teaching women about trauma healing our survival is contingent on asking others for help and financial support. The very thing I feared the most. Leading my business is causing me to unlearn hyper independency and instead partner with others and ask others for help.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I have a love/hate relationship with social media. On good days when I’m myself and I don’t overthink marketing my business and what I’m working on, I love social media. However on days where I feel overwhelmed, I’m overthinking and I need quick results, I absolutely abhor social media. I’ve learned to be steady and ride the waves of social media. There are days when I think that my content is not making a difference and then I’ll meet someone randomly and they’ll tell me how my content helps them. Those days are reminders to me to not let the algorithms dictate how to feel about my strategy as long as I’m being authentic, staying on brand and connect with my audience then I’m fine. My advice for anyone looking to market themselves on social media is to; be yourself, don’t worry about the algorithms, stay on brand and be consistent.

Contact Info:

• Website: dieulaprevilon.com
• Instagram: @dieulamprevilon
• Facebook: @dieulamprevilon
• Linkedin: @dieulamprevilon
• Twitter: @dieulamprevilon
• Youtube: @elevatelifewithdieula