We recently connected with Neda Kellogg and have shared our conversation below.

Neda, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I am an ecstatic business owner. Do I ever sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job – NEVER! The last time I had this thought was when I received a meme from our Marketing and Branding director, Keeya Allen. The meme said “Trying to explain my schedule to people with normal working hours”. That meme had me cracking up so good. I love being inspired by the people that I work with, as well as the girls we serve. The freedom that I have with creating my schedule and what I work on from day to day is priceless. The conclusion that I’ve come to is that its my birth right to create how I serve the world.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My father named me Neda Renee and I am from Omaha, Nebraska. I’ve lived in the Twin Cities for the past 16 years. Along my journey, I came across this quote that said, ‘The definition of hell is – during your last couple of breaths, the person you became gets to meet the person you had the potential of Being.’ I’ve chosen to leave this earth experiencing heaven instead of hell. I live with no regrets knowing that the person ‘I AM’ is the person I choose to BE right now and everyday until my last day on earth! I live by this daily. A fun fact about me is that I love the Boondocks! The hood in me lives vicariously through Riley and the independent thinker in me lives vicariously through Huey! LOL!

I found in my late 20’s that I LOVED hosting workshops for girls back home in Omaha, Nebraska. In moving to Minnesota, I had the opportunity to work with girls on a deeper level and more intimately.

​During this time in my life, Project DIVA International was born and its mission is to guide Black girls, ages 11-19, through a self-discovery journey, toward results. Girls explore finding alignment with themselves through articulating and embodying their version of their life’s vision. They expand their sense of inner power and purpose obtaining the envisioned lifestyle through my team’s ‘whole’ girl support approach. Project DIVA International’s goals for its cohorts and school clubs are emotional and intellectual ownership, as well as, economic sustainability, while in middle and high school. With the confidence and skill set habits created and nurtured by the Project DIVA International’s programming, middle and high school girls enter into developmental stages of their lives with a connection to themselves, a knowing in their own abilities and an eye on a sustainable future ahead as they remove obstacles in the pursuit of their life goals and dreams.

The thing that I’m most proud of is that we are 15 years in and the level of excitement and passion we feel towards our organization’s growth continues to expand. I invite your readers to join my team and I into changing the trajectory of the girls’ lives that we serve. There are several ways to do this, one being by visiting our website www.projectdiva.org donating your time and treasures or share resources that you may have to assist in expanding our growth.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I did have a full time job when I decided to wrap my programming around the lives of the girls at the school I worked at as the Business Administrator. It was a side hustle/hobby that I truly enjoyed and would do without getting paid at first. After the girls genuinely asked me to bring it back the next school year, I knew then that I had a gift to love on girls in a special way in which inspired them to move forward in their lives.

Since the beginning we have added double the program and triple the girls. Our budget has increased by 60% and our staff/volunteer has tripled in the past 15 years.

Key milestone include our organization reaching our 15th year.

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 unlearn how not to do business by ‘society’s’ way! I was told for so many years that I needed a business plan when what I actually needed was a strategic plan. Once my team and I completed our first strategic plan 3 years ago, the business has skyrocketed! We have been more cohesive in how we work together towards a goal that we all understand both in programming and in funding. We then pulled in our EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) tool that has us truly tackling our SWOT analysis effectively and feel exceptionally confident about our next five years growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.projectdiva.org
• Instagram: @projectdivainternational
• Facebook: Project DIVA International
• Linkedin: Project DIVA International
• Twitter: @ProjectDIVAMN
• Youtube: Project DIVA International
• Yelp: N/A

Image Credits
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