Meet Velina Velikova

We recently connected with Velina Velikova and have shared our conversation below.

Velina, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

As a nonprofit founder that started my organization with a focus on untraditional fundraising – I found it difficult to relate to my mentors because I was starting something new: using social media to not only raise funds; but cover all operations costs.

Jamie Kern has a moving book called “Worthy,” where she distinguishes the differences between self-esteem and confidence. When I first started, I wouldn’t necessarily say I had high confidence. In fact, I was probably the most confused I have ever been – being so passionate and called to do something different without having the necessary “experience.”

My self-esteem, which I define as my innate belief in myself as human, has of course fluctuated like anyone, but in the last years I have held a strong self-esteem, understanding that I am worthy of any and all love and can do no wrong with the right intentions at hand.

So I as journeyed into unknown territory, it was my self-esteem that kept me going, not my confidence. Now, with some more experience, more success and definitely more failures, my confidence in my work is much higher.

To continue to sustain my self-esteem and grow my confidence, I practice visualization meditations almost every morning. I also create vision boards/journals to remind myself of my goals everyday, which help keep me motivated. Just as importantly, I make sure to work out at least 4 days a week so I can keep my brain health (and body health) right.

Without sounding cliche, if I am feeding my body crap and not getting enough rest, my mind and emotional well-being suffers, which directly affects my confidence. So avoiding inflammatory foods and trying to optimize my health is important to me.

At the end of the day, if I am not mentally strong – how could I possible successfully run a nonprofit with a goal to help thousands of kids in need?

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

My passion is creative fundraising, specifically in the digital world. With CA currently have mis-tracked and mis-used $24 billion of funding for homeless resources, we started a new initiative. You can choose to send supplies (water, healthy snacks and toiletry kits) directly to families experiencing homeless with Amazon, so financially it is very secure. This is an example of how we support local communities while covering our overhead fees. As Amazon affiliates, we get a small percentage of amazon purchases. This helps cover our digital platforms and marketing.

https://actumgiving.carrd.co/

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Embracing all experiences, you never know how they will end up helping you. For me, this meant the amount of marketing that came into my life that I didn’t understand why. For instance, I found myself being in charge of multiple marketing campaigns (before I ever knew anything about brand, ads, etc) only to realize later I use these skills daily for my nonprofits digital marketing.

Not being afraid of failure. This is a big one because I grew up a perfectionist. Without failure, you cannot have success.

Having the courage to ask for help. My life changed after relaxing my ego and asking people for help. There are so many people that are willing to help you and grow whatever project you are doing, you just have to take the initiative.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

My partner has been my rock, not just for cheesy reasons, but professionally he has taught me foundations that I live by; like not taking failures personally and standing up for things I believe in. He was the true catalyst for making my passion my actual profession.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Velina Velikova
East Bali Poverty Project

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