We were lucky to catch up with Kelli Melissa Reinhardt recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kelli Melissa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
How I started my business wasn’t like the typical idea of a business, I lost my middle sister to a completed suicide on February 20th, 2017. I knew after she passed that I wanted to do something, but for the first year I was merely surviving, and my coping strategy was to stay busy. I was helping another nonprofit who focused on adolescent risky behavior, the choking game and teen suicide. But since my sister was a 43-year-old adult I wanted to do something in the adult space alongside youth.
The idea of a new nonprofit was born; however, it took me almost a year and a half to bring it to reality. Like I said before I was just surviving the first year and ended up hitting an invisible wall and figuring out that I needed to take some time off from the job I was working at the time and process my grief. I found a talk therapist and it helped for what I needed for that moment. But it wasn’t till I went to a 3-day seminar called “The Greatest Year of Your Life” where I found Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and a community of incredible people who lifted me up vs. dragged me down.
With the NLP process we did, I went back to the day I was born, and all the thoughts became centered around my sister. I was able to forgive her and forgive myself, which was something that I never knew I needed to do. That process was so impactful on my life I chose after the seminar to go to a 2-day NLP training. There I did another process that allowed me to see that I was living my life in fear of losing another person close to me because I had paired two traumas together and it was ruling my life to the point that I was pushing away those that mattered the most to me, and with this process I was able to change the fear into curiosity. From that moment my whole life shifted.
I started researching how to start a nonprofit and one of my friends recommended an attorney who could help me. I looked up the fees that were associated and at that moment started panicking because at that time it was a lot of money that I didn’t have. However, my nonprofit idea became so much clearer as I researched more.
I went to a retreat that summer and shared my thoughts about my nonprofit as a goal that I wanted to accomplish within that year of 2018 and as I was sharing my mentor challenged me to raise the funds to get it going. He donated $100 and others in the retreat chimed in and matched his donation. Within 24 hours I raised enough money to file for the business license and the 501c3 status. Like that, my goal of starting my nonprofit BCC Evolution was possible and within my reach.
Within a week I reached out to the attorney to get the process rolling. He got the business registered and helped get all the info together for the 501c3 application. I was going to have him do it, but he was going to charge more, so I did it myself. I had to create bylaws, find at least 2 people to be on my board, figure out what this nonprofit was going to do and which categories we fell under plus learn all the rules and regulations of nonprofit businesses. I filed the 501c3 paperwork and started the waiting process. It took a little over 4 months for the 501c3 application to complete and BCC Evolution became an official 501c3 mental health and suicide awareness nonprofit in 2018.
After this a lot of time and effort went into what exactly we do, who we serve, what our mission and vision is, what events we host, and what problem we were trying to solve other than suicide prevention. Throughout the years these things have changed and grown, however once the 501c3 paperwork was in my hands there was no stopping the progress. We launched and that was half the battle. I have learned it doesn’t have to be perfect to launch because everything changes over time as you develop, understand, learn and grown into your full purpose.
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
My name is Kelli Melissa Reinhardt, married in the summer of 2022, maiden name is Hansen. I am the Founder of BCC Evolution. Warrior for Mental Health. Speaker, Author, and Mental Wellness Coach.
I wear a lot of hats as that is how life has progressed from that moment in 2018 when I created my nonprofit. I never thought this would be my journey of life, however I think my sister knew, I’ll get back to this in a moment.
After losing my middle sister Carrie to a completed suicide in 2017, I knew I could not sit around and do nothing, I wanted to make an impact on this thing we call life.
What I found is that I was not educated, I did not have the resources or the knowledge to understand what my sister was going through prior to her death. She struggled with mental health challenges, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and attempted suicide 6 other times.
She was the one sister that I grew up the most out of 4 other sisters. She was my one person that I went to for everything, yet I called her my crazy sister and overdramatic. But through attempt after attempt, I shut off my emotions to her, because I was trying to protect myself and I could not understand why she did not want to be on this planet. She had millions of friends, and we have a large family. She was a caregiver for a paraplegic and a CPR instructor. She was a giver. I did not understand.
This is why I started my nonprofit BCC Evolution because I wanted to educate people about mental health and suicide and prevent others from feeling alone like my sister so often felt.
Why BCC Evolution??
BCC stands for “Because Carrie Cared”. BCC also reflects on the theory behind Blind Carbon Copy emails, a person’s name is on the “bcc” line, and they do not know who else’s name is there. It is hidden and that is how we think about a Mental Health challenge, it is there, but you may not know it is there. Our goal is to get the hidden names listed on the “bcc” line to the “to” line to open up the conversation about mental health, so that we start breaking down the stigma. You cannot always see a mental health challenge or know how to address it until it is too late, and we lose a life to a completed suicide.
Our mission is to empower people to get educated and speak out about mental health and suicide, so that we break down the stigma and start saving lives.
Our vision is to stop the stigma and normalize the conversation about mental health and suicide through educational classes and community events to reach one million people by 2030.
BCC Evolution is a movement…
We bridge the gap by educating people to support those who are faced with a mental health challenge.
We aim to ACE; increase Awareness, cultivate Conversation, and provide Education. To Make Mental Health Matter!
We offer several levels of mental health classes:
Mental Health First Aid Adult, Youth (Adults assisting Youth) and Teen versions
Breaking the Cycle of Trauma
BTCOT Instructor Training
NLP Practitioner level 1 training (in partnership with NLP Worldwide)
Masterclasses: Shift Your Mindset Bootcamp, Re-Engage Resilience and will be adding more each month with our monthly program membership.
Mental Health Mondays Podcast Show every Monday at 11am MST streamed to BCC’s YouTube channel, LinkedIn and Facebook page and loaded to 7 podcast streaming services, iHeart Radio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, AnchorFM, Audible, and Amazon Music, so you can watch or listen wherever you prefer.
We guide free support groups on the platform Circles on Mondays at 12:30pm MST.
Room name: “Never Alone Through Grief and Loss”
During the holidays we have a 2nd room on Tuesdays at 6pm-7pm MST.
Room name: “Mental Wellness Through the Holidays”
We host 3 events per year:
Annual Gala in February around the time my sister passed to celebrate her life.
MHSA Film Festival which showcases films from across the world centered around mental health and suicide awareness in a hybrid in-person and virtual event in May which is Mental Health Awareness Month.
And adding a new event in 2023 at Comedy Works in September for Suicide Awareness Month. Laughter is the best medicine for releasing your brains, what I call “happy juices”.
We run the organization through 8 pillars:
Arts for Mental Health
Business for Mental Health
Coaching for Mental Health
Education for Mental Health
Speaking for Mental Health
Travel for Mental Health
Warrior for Mental Health
Youth for Mental Health
And have amazing board member leaders over almost all the pillars. Everything we do is centered around education and aligns with our pillars.
I now speak on in-person and virtual stages to help companies, organizations, and schools create a safe space with easy to implement mental wellness strategies around mental health, self-care, and resiliency.
Why is this important to you, your company or organization? Because this ultimately leads to more productivity, less burnout, more happiness, less stress, and a thriving environment that people want to be a part of vs. the mass exit we have seen in the last couple years. It also gives people a purpose for living and succeeding in all the things they do.
Back to what I had mentioned at the beginning of this section about my sister knowing. I often get the question; do you think your sister lead you to your purpose?
The answer is yes, I think she saw more capability in me than I ever saw in myself and that is why I do what I do now. I now see what she saw in me. For that, I am grateful. I would rather have my sister alive, but I am honored to be able to continue her journey and showcase her life through my nonprofit BCC Evolution. My hope that she is looking down and proud of what I have and what I’m going to accomplish through this nonprofit with the support of our donors, corporate sponsors and those that follow us.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I was working a full-time corporate job alongside building the nonprofit. I thought we had a good base, and I made the leap of faith to quit my corporate job in 2021 and jump into my nonprofit full time. I thought the transition was going to be easy and smooth. I set certain goals for myself before I quit my corporate job like paying off all my credit card debit and getting a surgery that I needed before I lost my company insurance.
I successfully paid off almost all the credit cards except one which was a much higher balance, and the plan was to pay that off with one of my last commission checks. I got my surgery, recovered from that, and made the leap in May of 2021.
I thought I knew what I was doing, and everything seemed like it was a go. I got a business coach earlier that year and she was helping me line everything up, get organized to start running the nonprofit as a successful business. What I realized is I had no idea about running a business full time and the nonprofit was not set up with a sufficient business structure. Plus, I was exhausted. I was tired of working 2 full time jobs for 3 years. Once I finally was able to make my own schedule and do my own thing, I found myself doing a lot of things that were not helping the ROI of the company. I was now starting over, actually building the business and I spent almost a year spinning my wheels trying to create new things for the business.
What came out of that year, I felt like I was spinning my wheels, was amazing looking back on it now. I created our own proprietary curriculum called “Breaking the Cycle of Trauma”. I started a separate business for speaking and NLP coaching since I got my Master Practitioner certification. I taught more Mental Health classes in one year than I have ever done in the past 4 years. Became an author in 4 collaborative books. Have been on more stages, Podcast, media outlets than I thought was possible. Started a Podcast called Mental Health Mondays Podcast Show and have released those things that do not serve me or my businesses to make space for those that make more impact and align with my mission, vision, and goals in life.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to shift my mindset several times throughout the building process of my nonprofit and my other businesses. I thought that nonprofits weren’t ran like other businesses, therefore I had to start an LLC to make money for myself as the Founder. I had it in my head that I had to give and give and give with all the money that we receive otherwise no one would want to donate to the nonprofit. It was so stuck in my head that nonprofits weren’t ran like “regular” businesses, but we had to have a way to make money other than fundraising, so I created classes, events, and found other ways to bring in money.
We tried grants and got denied for them all. I had a whole grant team and we found that the business structure wasn’t completely there for what we were trying to apply for. We didn’t have all our ducks in a row to either apply or get selected for the grant. We also found through the process that you can’t get grant money if you aren’t making money, which seemed silly to me because if I was making money than I wouldn’t need the grant money. Grants are not easy to get, funding is the biggest challenge for nonprofits as there is so much competition for grants and each grant had completely different requirements.
After trying so many new things and some of them working and some not, I had to shift my mindset and learn that Nonprofits are businesses, and they should be running that way. They must have revenue to be sustainable. Sustainable was the key word. You must have a business plan in place to be sustainable and the ability of receiving has a lot to do with that.
This concept brought up a lot for me personally as I am a giver and a helper, and I have put others in front of my needs. I came to a point that I had a complete mindset shift and started working on me and my ability to receive. I had to unlearn that receiving is a bad thing. It is not selfish, and I am not unworthy. I have to be able to receive to be able to give more. This was a profound revelation and a complete shift for me which opened my eyes to where the block in my nonprofit was coming from. To think a Founder of a nonprofit doesn’t know how to receive when receiving has everything to do with donations and ability to impact others lives. Interesting, isn’t it?!
There are many, many more things throughout this journey that I have had to unlearn, but this was the biggest one by far.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bccevolution.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bccevolution
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BCCEvolution
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bccevolution/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/BCC_Evolution
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MakeMentalHealthMatter
- Other: https://linktr.ee/bccevolution