Hey, Hey, via fam, Welcome back to the show.

I'm taking you from Harlem to Hollywood today, y'all with today's guest, the beautiful and brilliant, talented Edwina Finley, is on the show.

You may recognize her from so many incredible iconic shows from The Wire to Netflix's The Residence.

All Hail Shonda Rhimes, Uzu Aduba and Edwin Finley.

She is a powerhouse performer, but even more than that, she is a loving wife, a mother, and now the published author of one of those little inspirational books that is going to make the best like holiday gift, birthday gift.

Just someone who you need to you know, someone who needs a little lifting up.

I think you just slipped this book in there in their pocketbook, and that's, you know, the perfect gift.

The book is called The World is Waiting for You.

Embrace your calling and manifest the God dream over your life.

And I was just saying a little bit back vertu stage, how I genuinely think this is a book that the girls need today.

We need a.

Little take us back to church, honey, take us back old fashion.

I'm like, get your three ninety nine journals from the Marshall's recks out, get your poster board and your vision boards out, because we need to just reset and feel inspired.

So today Aduena's here so generously to talk about her new book again.

It's called The World Is Waiting for You.

It's a faithful guide with a forward by Viola was it?

How do you pronounce this again?

Is it?

Viola Davis?

Up and coming up and comer.

One of the joys of reading the book is getting to peel the curtain back a little bit and just like understand how your relationship with Viola, you know, blossomed over the years.

And I just A'm so grateful to have you here.

A Duena, Welcome to Brown Ambition.

Thank you so much.

I'm excited to be here.

Oh lordie, So tell me a little bit about yourself.

So, I mean, obviously for those who don't know much about your personal story, you can get a bit of that in the book.

But where did you grow up?

What was it?

Do we not as a little girl, like.

Yeah, I grew up in Washington, d C.

Funny enough though, prior to that, my parents were in Liberia, West Africa.

So so I'm literally African American Liberian American There was a big coup that broke out in Liberia when when my parents were there, and so my mother fled the country and that's how I ended up being born in DC.

And it's kind of funny now doing the Residents.

It's set in the White House, and so much of that has been a full circle manifestation.

My grandmother worked in the White House, and you know, growing up it was interesting.

I felt like it was in some ways it toggled between two worlds.

And I think you're listeners will understand, especially since you are rooted in finance and that kind of thing.

Right, It's like, on one hand there was a very wealthy, very kind of cultured environment or part of the family or you know, part of growing up.

Then it was also an extremely urban you know aspect too.

You know, I remember growing up and hearing gunshots and you know, seeing crack vials right like in Washington as well, and so and even the city kind of breeds that sort of dichotomy also, right, Like there's the monuments and you know, everything's so pristine, but then you come outside of that two mile radius and it's like you could be right in a hood and so, you know, I think that I sort of lived between both worlds growing up.

I did come from a family though, that was very, very very much focused on education, very focused on achievement, you know, but also focused on God, right, and also focused on purpose.

And so I think a lot of my journey has been about bringing those two aspects together.

Yeah.

I mean, you write about being very precocious and always wanted to sing and dance and perform, and I mean I get the sense that your mother was very supportive, but not always.

Other people in your family are people that you would encounter as a kid like being so bright and vivacious, they would try to kind of dim your shine.

Yeah.

Yeah, talk a little bit about that, I think a lot.

Yeah, Yeah, I mean I grew up as an arts kid, right, So my earliest memory was at five years old just doing musicals and dancing and singing, and my mother was very supportive of that, putting me in every type of art class you can imagine, from creative writing to dance to all manner of styles of dance, to choral singing to private vocal lessons to you know, you just you name it, drama.

And so there was there was really you know, my my Uh, my grandfather had encountered Leontine Price and Paul Robeson and all those people, you know, very early on.

And so I think there was a certain type of revere for great artists Leontine Price, you know.

And then there were other parts of my family that were just very scientific and very calculated and you know, kind of emphatic about you need to be a lawyer or a doctor or kind of do something secure with your life.

And yeah, right, so so yeah, I did feel like this kid kind of swinging from the chandeliers as far as you know, artistry, but then also kind of being told to like sit down and shut up and it doesn't take that much.

So I had to navigate that too.

Right.

One of the things like, now that I'm a mom, I just kind of encourage parents now, like listen for the gifts that are in your children.

Discern what the gifts are.

Sometimes we want to put so many restrictions on them as far as what decorum looks like and how they should be and oh, you're too bossy or you're too loud, or you're too you know, unfocused or whatever it is.

But sometimes your children are manifesting gifts that if you give them a little time, you'll realize that, oh, this actually is meant to bless a lot of people, including them.

You have two girls, right I do?

Yeah Victoria in London?

Six and four now well six and eight now yeah?

What okay?

I have a five he's almost six.

I have an almost six year old at two boys?

Oh real, yeah year olds.

He'll be six in November, and then I have a two year old.

It's wild.

I need to have my two year old studied.

Sometimes I'm like, how is he?

He's so I'm like, is he going to be an actor or something?

He's he loves performing, he loves showing the different emotions.

I'm not going to do them.

I'm not gonna be that mom right now.

One I feel like I'm getting to watch a one act play, like a one man play, one polity play.

And I was like, oh, what are we?

What are we giving tonight?

Are we giving like you know, drama Shakespeare?

Are we giving like Kevin Hart comedy?

You know you never?

Right?

Isn't that fantastic?

I mean that, you know, I speak so much about that in the book, right, like how we're born with our superpower, We're born with our gifts, and a lot of life is about unwrapping this gift that we've been given so that so that we even recognize the depth to which we've been gifted, right in all the many ways that we can use that to bless the world as well as to game prosperity.

Yeah, well, I'm sure they're really lucky to have you as a mom, because, like curiously, you were born to a strong woman and a curious woman.

I love the little nuggets you shared about your mom's fascination with Black history and how she would take y'all on like what field trips around the South?

You know, oh field trips.

I mean those were you know, we were traveling.

She would take me.

I was an only child, so she would take me to South Carolina, North Carolina.

We went to plantations that owned us, you know, owned our family.

We found bills of sail, you know, I talk about that in the book, too Built, you know, finding bills of sale for our family and these different things, you know.

And yeah, she was very, very passionate about genealogy and Black history, and many of my family members have been Yeah, that's beautiful.

Well, I want to get into the season of your life that you call the you call it a couple of different things, the three year season of waiting, and then I also saw you said the three year season of surrender, and we got to go there because I feel like so many of us, especially BA FAM right now, I mean, our audience is something like ninety percent women, and of those like eighty percent Black women and fifteen percent Hispanic women.

And you know, I'm so grateful to have this audience and to really get to speak to who I call BA Fam.

But this economy, the world right now, I mean we know the stats.

I don't like to dwell, you know, on the odds that we have of succeeding and all of that, but it does feel harder than it has.

I mean, it's very, very hard to keep the faith and to keep focused on the bigger goal.

So I wonder if you could talk a little bit about what it was like for you during those well, first, describe those few years you had instead of waiting and slash surrender and that struggle.

Where did you find hope during that time?

Yeah, and thank you for asking and also acknowledging that it is hard out here right now, you know, in our economy and then our government and there's so many things happening, right, it feels like there's a lot of obstacles to buffet our path.

Right.

And so for me, you know, kind of coming out of coming out of college, you know, it was a time of real inspiration.

And that's when I created my vision book.

You know, some people have a vision board.

I told Oprah, I have a vision book, right, and I had just I filled that book up on every page, marriage, motherhood, career, you know, just went down affirmations, finance, you know, just went down the list of what do I want my life to look like?

And then I created a goals book to go along with the vision book.

You know, some of these things I even help people create in the world, is waiting for you your own vision book, your own goals book.

Right.

But then what do you do when you when you encounter a shift?

Right?

And so for me, I was faced with a huge contract.

There was so much money attached to it, and I thought, Wow, this is my big break, this is amazing.

I'm going into the Promised Land, you know.

But then it had a clause in there, which me as an actress, you know, for me, it was a nudity clause and I don't do nudity.

I don't feel comfortable with that, and so it was a prerequisite as far as this contract.

And that made it very very difficult for me, because, yes, did I want to get out of the low income housing that I was living in.

Did I want to see my life change?

Yes?

I did.

But at the same time, I wanted to be in God's will for my life more.

And I knew that if I said no to this opportunity, it may mean that I'm going to have to go back just a little while longer.

And so that's what happened.

But that season that I entered into, that that three year waiting season, you know, it's it's almost like, so, yeah, a sister was unemployed.

I didn't have a lot of money, as I said I was.

I was living in subsidized housing in New York, which already New York is not the easiest place to live.

I was pushing my pre was this around early two thousands, mid two thousands, Yeah, Okay, so I'm trying to place like the recession and if that might have hadn't picked that.

Oh well that's well, I'm going there.

I'm going there.

That's the turning point.

Actually, yeah, thank you for your mind that's putting days together.

Because that was before the recession and so and so that three years kind of almost ended up leading up to it.

And so you know, in that time, I was I was not rich in possessions, but I but I became rich in faith.

So you asked me, like, well, what got me through it?

Like I really, I really tapped in.

And sometimes it's the need that you have that pushes you to tap in in ways that when it's just abundant and everything's flowing, you're like, I'm good, but I knew I needed Jesus.

Like with the fan, it was like, okay, God, you know what's my purpose?

Why am I here?

What do I need to learn?

What do you want me to do if I'm not gonna be on stage or if I'm not gonna be performing or you know, fully flourishing in my job or in my career the way I want to what else is it that you have for me?

During that time, that's when I started an organization, a nonprofit, you know, started speaking, was leading workshops.

I was doing so many things because I felt like, let me pour into someone else's dream while God is preparing mine.

And so I talk in the book about that, like, we don't always realize how God is using even those behind the scenes places to prepare you for your next place of prosperity.

You don't see it, you don't know it.

It can feel so painful, but on the other side of it, it's a huge blessing.

And so once the recession came two thousand and eight, that's when I said, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, uh uh no.

And that's when the real faith kicked in because I kind of it was like the buckstop here, you know.

It was sort of like, Okay, I've already had my own personal recession.

Now y'all trying to tell me it's about to be a global recession and everybody's And I literally got indignant, and I got indignant with God, and I said, this will not be my story.

I will not continue down this path.

Even though things are not working out for whatever percentage of Americans, they are going to work out for me.

Hey ba, fam We're gonna take a quick break, pay some bills, and we'll be right back.

And that's when I really started leaning into the power of being into existence.

Right the things that you want to see or this god dream that I talk about in the book, and the world is waiting for you, having to contend for that dream, and you rising up right like you rising up in your power and making declarations.

And so right around that two thousand and eight, that's when I started making real declarations.

And when I tell you that two thousand and eight going into two thousand and nine and beyond ended up being the most prosperous times of my life, Like that was the turning point into incredible prosperity.

Because my thing was, God, I've been I've already been like in poverty, I've already been struggling.

I've already been like I'm not about to do it again with everybody else.

This, you know, and a gift.

It was a gift to be broke during that time because we didn't had much to lose.

We didn't have much.

They had their four O one k's, they had properties.

You know, you didn't have much.

You're just like, well, the cans, the cans of beans that I got, you know, on discount, there's so on the shelf.

I got my everything.

You know, it's sort of stable.

I think that's such a such a and you probably never knew or probably never thought maybe this will happen again.

But I think we're in such that time right now, and there's so many you know, I do a lot of coaching as well, and I there's women I think of in this community that I created, it's called the Mandy money Makers, so original, and they they're working in sales, they're working part time, and it's not the thing that they want to be doing.

And you know, it's it's what you've just captured, is like the power of just deciding to be the exception, just deciding that that's not entrusting in the power of that decisiveness.

Is that mindset, It's it's one of the most hard the hardest things to do to like go against that current of negativity.

Absolutely absolutely.

I mean even in our industry, you know, as far as entertainment, you know, it's affecting everyone.

Every sector is affected.

And it is very easy to go into the glorific case of the struggle, right and what's happening, and oh, you know this is down forty percent and you know these this this percentage of people are unemployed, are not working, Like it can feel so overwhelming that you repeat it every day, right, every day and you see the obstacles, so the obstacle becomes so grand that we all also lose sight of ourselves and the possibilities within it, right of the divine possibilities that even if ninety nine point nine nine nine nine nine percent of people are experiencing this, I can be a part of the point, oh one, you know that is going to be prosperous in this season.

And I think that that we do have to start cultivating that discipline of positivity and that discipline of seeing seeing a great outcome.

You know, in the book the world is waiting for you.

I ask the question what's the best that can happen?

A lot of times we go for what's the worst that can happen?

What's the worst that can happen?

You know, and we just slowly begin to diminish our life.

But if we can live each day honestly thinking about what is the best that can happen and allow ourselves to see it, then what we'll do SELB consciously is begin to move toward opportunities that we did not even realize existed when we felt even more defeated.

Right, and so, and I love that you have a community right Like, I have a community to Abundant Life University and the God Dreamers Academy, you know, and we just keep each other encouraged, right like, what is the best?

Not only what's the best that can happen, but also also what miracles, what miracles can happen.

So in the world is waiting for you.

I talk a lot about divine intervention and miracles, and there have been things that have happened in my life where it's come to open doors or financial breakthroughs or contracts or business opportunities or motherhood marriage.

All I can go down the list where it was literally divine intervention that came, you know, and it was still in response to my faith or my you know, active faith in relationship to being able to hear God's voice and move in a particular direction.

So, you know, I just want to say, like, let's not discount the fact that the weight of it all does not have to fall squarely on our own shoulders.

You know.

I strongly believe that, I strongly believe that if we're walking with God, that a part of what He's doing for us is holding us up, and not only holding us up, but also creating a new beginning.

Yeah, one of the my favorite parts of the book, and something that I talk about a lot is I mean, I think we've talked about the mindset right, and the faith element and the trust, and I know in the book, you there's a lot of I love these like little moments of what do you call them God nods or just like you have an experience and then you come back to that same place, like you're on You're in Hollywood, you know, is it that you're in You're you're in downtown Hollywood.

You see this sign that says Harlem to Hollywood.

You're not a star at that point.

Actually, and that's the funny thing.

I didn't even see it.

My camera took a picture by itself.

That's what I mean about divine interventions.

It's right.

I was trying to envision, like, how did it happen?

It was my camera.

Literally, I was walking down the street.

But I'd seen the sign two days And guys, if you don't know, if you haven't read the book yet, the first chapter is called from Harlem to Hollywood, And yeah, and I was at the top of Running Canyon, saw a sign in the distance, couldn't make out all the words Two days later, I was walking.

My camera flashes on its own and here's the sign that I struggled to see now up close.

And personal point.

I had.

I had an actual camera.

It was like one of those cameras that that hang from your you know those back in the day.

And hangs like yes, I used to take my.

Oh oh, you're saying that type of right.

But it's like my hand wasn't even nowhere on the you know.

It's like here I am walking with the just like swaying in a distance, and it captures up close, perfectly framed this picture from Harlem to Hollywood.

Your star, congratulations, And that is what Soon thereafter I was I was casting a show in Hollywood, and my entire life changed.

Yeah, it's beautiful.

And then so you have like that, you have the openness to you know, the best outcome, and you start to think that way.

But at the same time, you're not just.

Sitting there like it's coming any day, like just waiting.

You're also you're moving your feet, you're still showing up, you're engaging, you're acting, You're doing a lot of stage performances.

You said, you know in the theater world where you got your start.

I know, you did some acting in DC, and then when you moved to New York, you went to NYU and there's an up and coming, incredible talent.

Viola Davis is making her way, you know, as the stage actress said, she became and you have this chance encounter.

You're still putting yourself in these rooms.

You know, you show up at the Tony's and what capacity.

Were you there?

Were you like a student guest or Yeah?

So at the time, I was interning at the Joseph pat Public Theater and I was doing Shakespeare in the Park.

And one of the people that that was, you know, a part of this staff of that was nominated for Tony that year, and he offered me a ticket, My nineteen year old self offered me a ticket to the Tony Awards.

I could not have been anymore elated.

Got there and who wonted Tony that night but miss Siola Davis.

And that's where it could end.

But you're you're Duena and you see signed from God.

So you go out into the street and Viola is there with her husband Julius.

Yes, I don't know if he's.

The first or second most famous Julius after Beyonce's bodyguard, Like, I don't know, but we all know Julius and they're on the street and you just what you just walk up to her and next to you're what do you think?

Yeah, tell me about that encounter and how that.

Yeah, I mean, you know, earlier on, I didn't realize the pattern.

Now that I'm you know, further along in this in this life, in this manifestation life, you know, I realized that one of the techniques that I kind of implement is taking is taking pictures and actually marking, marking a moment, marking this day.

There's something about this moment that I'm supposed to lean into and pay attention to.

There's something about this moment that I'm supposed to clock that I don't may not understand right now, but that's gonna come to me.

So literally, yeah.

So, So she had her Tony Award and Julie supposed to beside her, and they were out in front of Radio City Music Hall.

I was on my way to the subway, and I turned around.

I'm like, and so I make a B line for them and congratulations.

I'm so happy for you.

I'm so inspired by you because at that time, as a student.

Many of the August Wilson plays that I was performing in, you'd open up the front of the book or the front of the play and it would say role originated by Viola Davis.

And so I said, you know, can I just take a picture of you?

This is before selfie's and like, let me get in it right.

It was like, can I take a picture of you?

And so I took that picture of the two of them with that Tony Award.

And it's funny because you know, just a few years later, I ended up writing a play for them, I end up living with them, and what picture was right there in their home framed but that picture that I had taken all those years, Oh, I go.

Yeah, So many things come full circle.

And I think, you know, taking pictures, whether it was my camera taking the picture by itself, you know, or me going to the Oprah Winfrey Network and believing that hey, one day I'm going to work here and intentionally taking a picture of myself in front of the sign.

I posted it to Facebook that day with a scripture Joshua one to three, wheresoever the soul of your foot show tread God will give you?

That was nine to nine, twenty eleven, the first year own ever opened by not not even by.

On nine nine, twenty fourteen, exactly three years later, my new show was premiering on the Oprah Winfrey Network, you know.

And so that's why I say some of these things, as far as you know, when there's economic downturn or when we don't have a job where you know, there's so many things that can impact us, and if we only see them through natural eyes, we may not see a way out.

We just may not see a way out.

But if we allow ourselves to elevate and see through spiritualize, then we may be able to start claiming things spiritually or by faith.

That yeah, that that realistically or practically, that's not how it works, right, that's not how it works.

But spiritually you can begin to open up places for yourself.

The same thing happened with me at shondaland the same thing happened with me at Tyler Perry Studios, you know.

And so and these were all in times where a lot of people were struggling, including myself, right, And so I know what that feeling is to feel defeated, but also to be wrestling in faith and saying, oh, but I believe.

Right, I feel defeated, but I believe.

And there's something about the power of belief that really is directly connected to manifesting your God dream.

That's so true and for anyone.

Again, the book is the world is waiting for you.

You have to pick it up.

I think it's it's almost inviting me.

I feel like I'm in the season right now.

You know, I mentioned how these two kids, it's so hard being a mom.

I live with I don't live near my family.

You know, I'm an entrepreneur and I'm doing all the things.

I'm working on my first book as well.

I thank some in my like third manuscript.

It's it's so it's wild, it's a gift, but it's also it's just a.

Lot, you know.

And I think I had to delete Instagram off my phone for the.

First time this week.

It's a crushing amount of like challenging imagery and news and all of that.

And one of the things I keep going back to, and and I'll touch on what you cover in the book too, is like this embracing of like your peers, not as competition, but as like your compete, like your companions on the journey and I wanted you to talk a bit about how you embraced your peers because it's extremely I mean, any industry is competitive, but Hollywood of course has this like reputation for pitting women against each other and all that.

But I mean, you were in LA and you're hosting these what kind of like spiritual like gatherings are you hosting?

And like, yeah, profits, which I didn't even know was a job, but like apparently you can be a profit and you bring them together and you're like crazy in this community.

How did you start that and how important did that become to you in your own career journey?

Yeah, you know early on when I was in college.

Actually, I just felt this calling to start a spiritual community for artists while in college, and so I didn't at the time feel like I could start anything, you know, like I'm pretty much a kid, right, like, God, what are you asking me to do?

But when I just follow the voice and put it out there, so many students came, So many students came, and I realized that oh this you know, this kind of gap that I'm feeling right where I'm pursuing the arts.

But also I'm a person of faith, and I don't necessarily have a community for that.

Suddenly I found all these people who were feeling the same way, and so I didn't know that that was just the beginning of this journey that I was going to go on even into my professional life.

But yeah, now we're bringing hundreds of directors, writers, producers, actors, you know, various celebrities, musical artists, all of that together in these spiritual gatherings.

And so a lot of times I will bring in, like you said, a profit or you know, someone who is able to minister to the entertainment community on on a level that we can receive, right, not only receive, but need in addition to creating community amongst ourselves that is encouraging, that is not competitive, That is really about seeing one another succeed, helping one another succeed.

You know, tomorrow night, Viola Davis and I are doing an event at the Grove, and so many of you know, artists and entertainm and publicists and you know, people who have been a part of that community like yes, I'm coming.

You know, they're the first ones buying the tickets, they're the first ones there, and I just I feel like that's what it's really supposed to be about, right, Like, one of the things I say in the book is that we're each born to brighten our corner of the world, and sometimes we can compare ourselves one another.

Are talking the book about the curse of comparison, you know, how comparison makes us feel small that oh, this person's doing that and that person's doing that, will little o me not realizing that, No, you have a wonderful, beautiful gift as well that needs to be shared.

There is a sense of urgency around what we all have that needs to be shared in this world, especially now.

Yeah, in your career, can you talk a little bit about how you've approached it, because you have a lot of different things going on.

I mean, obviously you're an actor and you're an artist and all of that.

But when did you start to decide, Okay, I'm gonna weave in these other streams of revenue, these other business ideas.

I think you you had you had a vision of yourself owning real estate someday.

So can we make it about money for a second and just kind of talk about how you was it strategic or has it been out of necessity?

You know that you've brought in these other you know, business models into your into your career path.

Yeah, you know, I'm going to be very honest with you, and I'm sure that your listeners and certainly people that read the book will see a through line of faith right throughout it.

A lot of things I did not know to do, it was God telling me to do them.

It was really an act of obedience, even this book.

It was not now, I'm going to write a book and now I'm going to open up a whole new stream of income for myself.

And actually I'm going to time it to come out right now because that'll be exact time when there's a downturn in the entertainment industry.

But I'm going to be traveling all over the world with the book, right like I did not I wasn't that smart to put that all together.

But it was literally me responding to each instruction that I was given.

So when it was time to begin an organization, I received the literally God spoke to me begin Abundant Life University, just like I did when I was nineteen years old with that spiritual community at at the school.

It was just it's been things I have to think, do this and That's why in the book, I say, embrace your calling, because you're being called to do something right And a lot of times we wrestle with and I have a whole chapter about the things that hold us back, the things that hold us back from manifesting our God dream.

But if we can if we can connect it with a sin of timing right, like if you're feeling called to do something, like you feel called to write your book, if you're feeling called to do something.

A lot of us we procrastinate, we delay, we talk ourselves out of things, We get fearful, all of these things that hold us back, and so it takes years and years in the years for us to bring something to completion, many of us.

But what I've seen now is that when you say yes, when you say yes to the calling, you may not realize that that yes is designed to bless many others, but also designed to bless you.

I'll give you an example.

During the pandemic, again, I felt this calling and my husband felt it too, to begin this nonprofit initiative.

Right, This was not paid It was us actually putting our resources together to bless other people during the pandemic, and we created this series called twenty one Days of Happy.

We brought together celebrities, mental health professionals, faith leaders, you know, and for twenty one straight days, we just blessed people, right, helping them to get through the pandemic.

Well, at the end of the twenty first day, I get a phone call.

Who do you think is on the other line?

Oprah Winfrey turns out that she's been following twenty one Days of Happy and now she's inviting me to come and host on the network and try to create a model like that for Oprah Winfrey Network.

Now did I see that coming?

Did I see this revenue stream coming as a result of doing this thing where where it was just about blessing people.

No, But by answering the call, It's funny, but God can back you into tremendous abundance and income streams and revenue streams that you may not have even known were a part of the abundant life that you're meant to live.

So you know, there's there are different you know, I'm definitely an entrepreneur.

I'm definitely someone who is brown and ambitious, right as this grenaudience is, as this community is, you know, but just also saying like Hey, one one aspect of you know, there's one aspect of ambition that's like hustling, right and grinding and like about my business and getting my paper and all these things right.

And listen as someone who lived in New York for fifteen years, like, I am no stranger to the grind or the hustle.

But when I moved here, interestingly, I received a prophecy and this woman came to me.

She said, sweet and simple.

She said, you've been striving and straining to reach you know, your next level.

She's like, but God is saying, if you say in a sweet and simple place, He's going to take it from here.

And that was hard for me to embrace because that was not my normal tempo.

That was not my worldview.

But when I began to settle into another level of faith, I started seeing doors open for me that I knew I could not have opened for myself.

Hey, ba, fam, we're going to take a quick break, pay some bills, and we'll be right back.

So I'm trying to understand.

So, when you had the opportunity to come to La, your housing falls through.

Julius Viola's husband happens to call you.

You just can't you mentioned?

He's like, well, come live with us.

Was that your door to LA at that point?

Was that what enabled you to come to LA and not have that like housing insecurity kind of weighing on you and give you the space to build that career out.

So what you know, I talked about Harlem to Hollywood, right, and that and that supernatural sign.

So after that, literally the day and I talk about in the book, the day after my camera took this Harlem the Hollywood you're a star, congratulations, my agency dropped me.

So it's too again these dichotomies of what's happening in the spirit and what's happening in reality.

In the spirit God saying you're a star.

I'm gonna take you to Hollywood.

In the natural, it's literally the very next day, my agencys you're a small actress, You're only destined for small roles.

You'll never make it in Hollywood, and you need to find a small agency and drops me.

So now I'm confronted with two different realities, right, And I had to make a choice what voice am I going to believe?

Whose report am I going to believe?

And I chose to believe I'm a star.

I'm going to Hollywood.

God has a.

Plan for me.

I don't exactly know what it looks like.

But God, if you're sending me to Hollywood, I'm open to go.

I just need you to My prayer was I need you to open the door.

That was my prayer.

I'm willing I surrender.

I hear you.

I don't know how to do that by myself.

I need you to open the door.

The instruction that I received was to go.

And this is again, I'm not living a fabulous life, right.

I don't have a car, I don't have a get on the bus, get on the train, walk across town to a Bible study.

What does that have to do with an open door?

Nothing?

But I do it.

Follow the instruction.

Pray over a woman that's there, and turns out that this is a big, big creator, big writer, producer.

Did not know.

I'm just praying over her.

She's crying.

Finally we exchange names.

I recognized her name and was like, wait, are you are you?

Are you a writer?

Did you create this show?

I said, I've been trying for three months to get an audition for your show.

She said no, really, and that's the show that brought me to Hollywood.

That's the show that brought me to Hollywood because I was willing to do at church, to step out on fact.

You know.

So it's like I for three but I will tell you for three months, I did literally everything in my power to try to be cast on that one show.

I never even got an audition.

I mean I called, I texted, I emailed, I physically mailed.

I went to the post office and mailed materials to them.

I did everything I could think of for that one show.

But yet I hear I get these spiritual instructions to do something that seems so you know, far fetched, like why would I do that?

And then it backed me directly into what I had been struggling to do the whole time.

You couldn't be describing more the experience of trying to find like trying to be like a senior mid to senior level you know, career woman today, woman of color, and like trying to find work because it is so hard just to break through because a lot of these big companies, the dream jobs they're not hiring.

They're so competitive.

They post the job even though they've already promised it to an internal candidate, like and it can.

Feel like you're doing everything right.

You got the right, you've got the coach, you got the.

Cover letter, you got your you got your all your skills on paper, you're doing your on LinkedIn, You're doing the thing.

But that secret like.

That, that going a little bit, you know, to the in a different direction, following a little path, a little side quest.

I love that so much because it really is.

It's the power of going a little bit off the beaten trail and just letting a little bit of opportunity, you know, not not luck, but chance, like you know, lead you and trust and faith and the unknown.

That just like going off a little bit.

It's hard to articulate.

You do a beautiful job in the book.

That's why you've wrote it, not me.

I mean, listen, That's why chapter five is called the secret power of hearing God's voice, because God can can lead you in a way that you would not.

You know, everybody's going this way, everybody's on LinkedIn, everybody's on this, everybody's on that, everybody's networking.

Everybody's doing all the things that we know how to do, and we can do them with our eyes closed.

But you know, one of the one of the kind of business strategies my husband likes to say is when when when you zig, you know when they zig, you zag right, but you may not even know, like well, where's the zag?

Where's the zag?

But God can call you?

Ay, yeah, like like you know.

So, so we were doing all the things we know how to do.

But that's why I call this manifesting your God dream.

The world is waiting for you.

Embrace your calling, manifest your goddream because if you're just trying to manifest your own dream, then you're limited by whatever outcome you yourself can manifest.

But if you're partnering with God to manifest a God dream, which is higher, then you have help.

I listen when when my show and owned ended, if loving you is wrong?

I was pregnant.

I felt this internal clock of like, okay, I need another job.

I need another job, and I had a time frame because I'm like, I'm having this baby by May, so somewhere in here before May, I need my next job.

Well, for months and months and months, I tried and tried and try.

It was not working.

Well.

While I'm pregnant.

You know, my husband received, we're gonna name our baby Brooklyn because We met in Brooklyn, got married in Brooklyn.

My husband says, God is saying, name our baby London, London.

Why will we name the baby London.

God is saying, Brooklyn is our past, London is our future.

He's gonna open the door for us in London.

By faith, we're supposed to name our baby London Joy.

By faith, we name the baby London Joy.

Do you know when London Joy is four months old, I received a huge contract to move our entire family to London to begin a whole new television series.

My children had British accent.

You know, it's like this whole the world is waiting for you.

The world opened up for us, not because of all the things, you know, It's like, yes, you lay that groundwork of the work right, Like that's the groundwork, that's the seed.

But sometimes the harvest, sometimes the manifestation is spiritual, and sometimes the instruction is simple.

Sometimes the instruction is more simple than we think that will open the door even wider than we dreamed.

I keep thinking, as you're speaking of how much we need to turn off social media and just let our own intuition, our own well, our own intuition.

And then also God or whatever someone else would call it the universe.

But let that spiritual energy come in because it is all we need.

Sometimes we don't need the noise or to see what everyone else is doing.

And I think about man and this, like especially during the pandemic and this finance world, it was like all the crypto bros.

And like, you know, should I get a trucking company?

Should I get should I do drop shipping?

Do I need?

You know, do I need to start an online business?

And all this stuff because everyone was doing an online or I want to be an influencer, I want to do makeup tutorials, blah blah blah.

No shade, but we're kind of looking.

To these We're looking to social media, and that's like the limit of our dream are our own expectations for ourselves, Like if you see it, you can dream it.

But I think we're seeing so much outside noise, which is making, you know, making a lot of us pivot in directions just based on what we're seeing, like, oh, maybe I should be doing that, Maybe I should be doing this instead of just like turning everything off and just bringing it back to basics, like you have, you know, a journal, some deep thinking and just like almost like open hands, open ears, eyes to like what the possibility could be from the higher power that voice.

I mean, that's that's what it's all about, you know.

That's what this book is all about.

The world is waiting for you.

No matter what your circumstances are in life right now.

You must believe that.

You must believe that the world is opening up for you in new ways, is calling you forward, and you're this is just a season.

It's just a season.

And that's the thing.

You know, when I talk about the waiting season, it can feel long when you're in the middle of it because I don't know when it's going to end.

But the tears is that long time, you know.

But that's the thing.

But I was still sustained, you know what I mean.

It's like you don't always know.

Sometimes it's it's it's spiritual, like you don't know how how did I get through that month?

And how did I get through the next month?

You know, And then you turn around and look like, wow, you know what, I got so much out of that season.

It felt so painful, But you get to the end of it and it's like, wow, I wouldn't be who I am without the season I came out of.

I would not have the book that I have without that season.

So it's all working together for our good.

It's all working together for our good, and if we can just hold on, we will see the manifestation of our god dream, of our abundant life on the other side.

And on that journey.

I think it's so important to have voices like yours in the mix and just know that you don't always have to be your like even there's times when you have doubt, you don't always have to be your own voice of inspiration.

You need to surround yourself by people who can lift you up and remind you, you know, of that positive And so you mentioned a couple of ways to connect with you and join your community.

Do you want to talk about that briefly?

Just around sure everyone comes?

Is it?

The world is waiting dot Org.

There there's a page called the God Dreamers Academy, and it's for anyone who's like, listen, I want to dream much bigger than I have been.

I need to take the limits off of my vision of my imagination, you know.

And there are things in life that I am looking to manifest, to bring into fruition.

But I feel, like, you know, after reading the book, like I would love to be a part of a community.

Come join us, Come join us.

Abundant Life University is really all about that, right, is about people experiencing prosperity in each level of life.

There's a contact me page.

You can contact me on that website as well as you can follow me on social media.

I'm active on Instagram at Edwina Finley.

Come on, the more the merrier, This is a great journey, and of course pick up the book right like, there's so many gems and the world is waiting fetching on YouTube.

Here it is, which I hope you are so glad of a shine.

I got that goal to remind that gold, to remind you of your royalty.

Ever we knew it was going to be a best they said, spring for the gold, given the shine, We got the budget.

We need reminders, even visual reminders.

We need reminders of our royalty, you know, and who were called to be in this world.

Well, thank you so much for sharing your positive message and your story with Brown Ambition.

I'm going to put all the links.

Don't know we got you bea family.

Put all the links to Edwina's work and where you can find the Abundance, the Abundant University and all your other great initiatives in our show notes.

Please go check them out.

And can I just say I'm so pissed that they canceled the Residence.

That was such a good show.

And I'm sure it's the bigger plan, but damn, that was.

Such a good show.

I'm so glad it exists.

But you were brilliant as you were.

Thank you with that amazing asymmetrical bob like listen.

Yeah, I appreciate your time and thank you so so much.

You take care and best of luck with everything.

Okay va fam, thank you so much for listening to this week's show.

I want to shout out to our production team, Courtney, our editor, Carla, our fearless leader for idea to launch productions.

I want to shout out my assistant Lauda Escalante and Cameron McNair for helping me put the show together.

It is not a one person project, as much as I have tried to make it so these past ten years, I need help, y'all, and thank goodness I've been able to put this team around me to support me on this journey and to y'all be a fam I love you so so so so much.

Please rate, review, subscribe, Make sure you sign up to the newsletter to get all the latest updates on upcoming episodes, our tenth year anniversary celebrations to come, and until next time, talk to you soon.

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