Million Dollar Business But Spiritually Broke. Money, Entrepreneurship & Meeting Jesus with Victoria Washington

Welcome back to the Bloom Collective podcast. I am your host, Danielle Weeb, and we have a very special guest today. Victoria Washington, Victoria, welcome to the podcast. I am so thrilled to be here with you. It's going to be a good one. I can already feel it. I am so honored to have you here today, and it's been so cool to just build this relationship with you and to get to know you as an entrepreneur but also as a woman of God. And so I just wanted you to start by sharing who you are and what you do in this world. I know that's a big question. Oh, man. I think it's every entrepreneur. They're like, what do I say? Yeah. I am first and foremost, a daughter of God, an ambassador for Christ. My life exists to honor the Lord. And it's been a glorious, adventurous ride. The things that he's called me to do in that. One of the things I do is I train women how to speak. So women that feel silence, that feel like they ramble, that they don't know how to articulate themselves. I run an academy that teaches them how to speak. We have a yearly conference called She Shall Speak where we meet in person and train on the ground, women in business, ministry, leadership. And I also love teaching business. So I'm also a business leader, a business woman. I enjoy entrepreneurship, teaching it, talking about it, flipping it upside down, innovating, pioneering. And I'm also an auntie. It's one of the greatest joys of my life. And I love God's people. And I'm here to serve His will and support people in whatever way that He calls me to. So good. I love that. And we connected. I started following you a couple of years ago. And I think the first time that we really got to connect was about a year and a half ago when I joined one of your programs. And what really drew me to you was that you were so bold about your faith online. But then also you were talking about money, you were talking about entrepreneurship, you were talking about all these things. And really like talking about the things that I think sometimes aren't really dug into the way that I think I was craving to really dive into them. Because it's a lot of either very on like the spiritual side of things, which is great. And I we have churches and things like that. Or really on the entrepreneurial side that maybe doesn't align with some of my values. And so I was really refreshed to see someone who was talking about both. And so I would just love to know what has that journey been like for you. Because I know it's been a wild ride for you. And I would just love to know. It's been a wild buckle up. Love to just hear what's that journey been like. Here's what's so interesting. People usually do comment on how bold I am about my faith. And it's shocking to most people because there's this we'll talk about this later in the episode. I'm sure. But there's this hesitation to say God. We've seen that in the self-development industry. We've seen that in the business world. Well, even when I started saying God, it was this big shocking thing to my audience, to other people. And then you go step further and you name who that God is, Jesus. And it's even more shocking. But here's the thing. I didn't grow up in church. I didn't grow up in this like big Jesus loving home. I was never disciples. I was given the chance to choose. Like I had some family members that were Christian. I went to a Catholic school for like two years. And then ultimately decided, I don't get this whole sin thing. This whole thing with the blood. Like what's I don't know who Jesus is. And so I ended up going down a new age path of spirituality. And basically thinking, I'm God. I will create my own reality. The universe will co-partner with me to do what I want. And that felt very powerful and very safe. And I was also quote unquote rewarded and good at it. I started to build a business around it. I started to teach other women how to do that. Manifestation, divination, sorcery, all these different things. At one point, I thought I was going to be a shaman. I trained as a yoga teacher for eight years. I went down so many different paths within that sector of spirituality. And if you look back on any of my posts, any of my presence, I was bold about it. Screamed it from the rooftops. Never hit it. So why on earth, when I have a supernatural encounter with Jesus who radically saved my life and changed my heart, would I be silent? So I've never not been bold. I'm just now bold for the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of darkness. And that's where people get a little bit confused with, oh, all of a sudden she's changed. No, I haven't. I was bold even when the industry was falling apart during COVID in 2020. That was one of the first times my whole account went viral because I got online and started to call forward some of the white supremacy and some of this, the deception that was happening at that time. And shortly after that, I would come to know Jesus. But there's nothing, there's not one point in my career where I've not been bold. It's just now my boldness is for the right reason. And my boldness is for the throne of God and the severity in which the Lord saved me from matches my boldness. So I don't have a little testimony. Not that there are any of them are little, but I don't have a testimony that's, yeah, I've known it my whole life. My family was Christian. I grew up Christian. I always knew who the Lord was. And I love those testimonies. And it's amazing because they lay such a beautiful groundwork. There's such a powerful fabric of the body of Christ. But for me, I was so far off. I was so deep in witchcraft and deception and new age and adultery and sexual addiction, all kinds of things. So my testimony and the radicalness of it matches the boldness that people see today. Thanks for sharing that. Yeah. And it makes a lot of sense. I think that today there is a huge draw to think of yourself as a God. Like you mentioned that. And I think that's a popular stance. And even like myself as a Christian and then also going into the space of entrepreneurship and starting to recognize even trying to find, trying to find different mentors that maybe align with my values and then getting caught up in maybe not so much of the spiritual, super spiritual side, but definitely the self development side of you can do. It's almost like the, the scriptures taken right and then taking out God, right? You can do all things, but then taking out like with Christ too strengthens you, right? So it's, it is I think important to really understand when we're learning and when we're trying to build our businesses and when we're trying to grow a business. Yes, we can learn and grow from different leaders, but really understanding like what's behind that because it can very quickly get into. Oh, I can do everything. Anything that I put my mind to, I can accomplish. And I know part of my story is that I would pray to God and be like, okay, God, here's what I'm doing. This is what I'm up to. Please bless this. And it's like add over here. I'll tell you what to do. Yeah. I hear people a lot say I told God and I'm like, you told the creator of the universe. You told the king of kings, the creator maker and ruler of all things. It's, and if you look at self development, the word self development exposes the deception right there. It's self development early on in my walk with the Lord. I, you, if you would have come up to me and said, hey, Victoria, you think you're God. I would have said, no, that's not what I'm doing. I had really good intentions. I wanted to help people. I wanted to be a more evolved human being. I wanted to understand the ways of this life and to live a great life. And so if you would have come up to me and been like, you're in witchcraft, you're, you're trying to do it all by yourself. I'd be like, no, I'm not because that's my mind was so far off from God's original design for his creation that no one could have convinced me at the time that what I was doing was actually killing my soul. And then I remember in the very, very beginning of my walk, I stopped saying I'm the creator of my reality. And I had this revelation from the Holy Spirit back then I probably wouldn't have said Holy Spirit because I didn't know who that, who he was yet, but it was a Holy Spirit where there was a choice I made. I was like, I could spend the rest of my life worshipping the creation. That creation being universe, that creation being crystal, that creation being my idea, whatever it is in certain creation, or I could truly get to know the creator of the universe was God, Jehovah. And that choice is what shifted the trajectory of my faith. I didn't, I never opened up the scriptures. I hated a God that I didn't even know or get bothered to get to know because this generation is brainwashing to thinking that the scriptures are trying to limit you and oppress you. They're trying to hold you back. They're trying to keep you, keep women small. Yet I never read about any of the women in the Bible. I never read about Jesus. I never took the times to actually get to know who this God that everybody was so offended by was. So in the beginning of my walk, I was like, let me just start to see what this is all about. And come to find out every proverb. The proverbs is a book of wisdom in the Bible was basically the real development that God has left for us. It's like a book of wisdom. It's a manual for your life. And self-development has taken a lot of God's original design, removed the creator of it from it, and then positioned human or man as the one who's going to make it happen. And so I started to see that all these self-development phrases that we see from the most popular mouths that most stages are filled with. If you look in the Bible, it was all originally there. But the reason why people would rather worship the creation and not the creator is because one requires submission and the other doesn't. And so then I had the next choice, which was, okay, I can live my whole life knowing this is true and never actually following it. Like believing it's true, but never actually following it. Or I could submit to God and let the one who made me tell me what is best for me. And I remember one time I felt God remind me, he was like Victoria, you were not your idea. Yeah. She was not her idea. I made you. So why don't you come to me and I'll tell you the best conditions for you, my creation. But I was all puffed up on pride. I was, I thought I truly knew it all. I thought I had all the answers after all these ceremonies I did and initiations that I did. And just I could go on and on about all the things that I did to try to reach this enlightenment. I never once considered that I and my human limited finite mind and not wise enough to actually know what's good or bad. But the creator of me, the creator of the universe, this whole thing, you, me, was his idea. Money was his idea. Business was even his idea. We see in the first book of the Bible, he talks about business, why don't we go to the one who designed it, the designer, the creator. And that's a question that I think makes all of us confront where our loyalty is, where our faith is. My faith was not in the creator. My faith was in me being the creator and that faith will crush you. That faith will actually suppress you. That faith will tear you down because it's all reliant on you and your will and your strength and your power and eventually you get tired and eventually you get worn down and eventually you turn towards the truth and that truth will always lead you to Jesus. Wow. That's so amazing and I want to ask you a question because this is definitely something that I think a lot of women maybe struggle with when they're contemplating what is truth and what does it look like to be a woman because what you said before I think is so important when you know you hated a God you didn't even know and you thought the scriptures were suppressing women. I think a lot of people have that belief and I think because a lot of times the Bible is taking out of context, right? We take these like scriptures and then we just say see. The Bible says this means X, Y, Z, whatever the point that is trying to make but then when you actually look at the overarching story of the Bible it's in getting shivers thinking about how many times like Jesus allows women to be in leadership roles and even the like the first people to see Jesus like raised from the dead and I think there's so many things in the Bible that actually put everything on its head of what you thought it was. But why do you think people are so resistant to actually reading the Bible and actually wanting to dive into this because I think there's so much, I see so much resistance to it. It's like even you say the Bible or you say Jesus and people like nope I'm done. You don't even want to look at that. What do you think that is because I know you were there at one point? I'll speak from my perspective and there's three things that come to mind. The first one is church hurt so we have a person who has gone to church sorry to believe maybe was in a journey of believing maybe just grew up in the faith and then realize that people are imperfect the church rejected them in some way made them feel a certain way and then they projected that pain on to God and said you know what I'm done with the whole thing I'm just gonna throw the whole shabang out. I was partly there I thought church was really weird I thought religious people were weirdos like literally I was like all you must be really messed up that's why you need all that. Meanwhile here I am hiding an alcohol addiction and hate my life but I was fine I had my crystals and I was very enlightened and I was traveling with a backpack and quote unquote happy so just the irony I'm like I really did think they were looney-tune and I thought you know that's full of contradiction so that I think there's that camp of people and I was there partially then I think there's also the group of people who would say to you I do believe in Jesus I believe he existed I believe in Christ's consciousness I believe that he is a prophet or he is a teacher and all these things I just don't follow him or I'm just not religious and I was there as well for a short period of time when I was transitioning out of new age into what I now know to be the truth I was coming I was a mixture trying to mix Jesus into what I was doing and the root of that was I thought that the Bible was written by man as if this is a bunch of men they wrote the Bible and this this isn't a literal text that you need to follow like it just didn't hold any value to me I thought that you could still experience Jesus apart from that you could experience God apart from that but then I remember the Holy Spirit told me I heard God say people will use the word God and never know the word of God and I remember reading in John one one in the beginning there was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and that's Jesus Jesus is God in the flesh he is the word coming to life that was beyond what I could comprehend I was like no this is written by a man you couldn't convince me that the Bible was a living breathing text until I had my own encounter with the Holy Spirit so that's why I don't get offended when people say these things I'm like I I'm more than get it until I was face planted on my floor because the Holy Spirit struck through my heart which was so cold and so bitter and so hard and all of a sudden these words that were on pages started to fly at me and I was like this is alive he is alive he's not just a teacher he's not just this prophet he's not this consciousness floating around he is Lord he is savior that required me to surrender in a way that I'd never experienced before the third thing for me the third camp is people who don't like authority I hated authority I was an older sibling grew up faster than I should and saw more than I should at a young age so I was like 16 going on 40 and moved out at early age taking care of myself I was the parent of the family parent of my mother parent of my father mediator of all things just a hyper vigilant young girl who took on way too much and became burdened with responsibilities she never should have had and so when someone tried to come to me and tell me what to do I said you need to leave because I figured this whole thing out you don't know what I've seen you don't know what I've had to carry and so I had a chip on my shoulder I was bitter I was angry I was stressed out I didn't want to hear about a God who loved me who wanted a savior a Lord what are you talking about you're insane it's literally what I was going on in my head and that threatened my nervous system it made me actually itch I was like oh Lord I can't imagine it's calling anyone Lord I also had a broken relationship with my father so when I would hear Heavenly Father I'm like I like a picture was my dad who I couldn't stand and I projected all of that anger all of that bitterness all that hardness onto God and then when I came into a spirituality that didn't require me to confront any of that that told me that I could alchemize my shadow that I can like Carl Young teaches I can alchemize my shadows I can use them to create I can manifest I can take all these things I can integrate them I have past lives I have different souls this is all part of my soul past life coming back at like just the looney to include that's looney to into me now but at the time that was like oh this is great forget that was that's asking me to confront all the stuff this I can just use it for my leverage my plans and I can be in control. This is what I learned to do at a young age. I could be in control. Perfect. I'll stay right here. And then I can have people come and worship me. Perfect. And then I can get people to pay me millions of dollars. Perfect. Like the benefits for me at that time are like, this is it. That looks like I have to lay way too much down. So that's why people are resistant. If we really just want to call it what it is. Yeah. And I know somebody listening, you might right now be wanting to turn this podcast off because I'm offending you or you might even feel like I'm saying a little I'm whatever I'm saying is agitating something in your spirit. And so I pray over that person right now I pray right now that every spirit of offense and agitation falls flat to the floor and I pray God that the truth will come alive right now. I'm not your enemy. I'm not your enemy. I'm someone who thought the same thing and was also used to be offended hearing these things because I was hanging on to control. Yeah. And I didn't want to confront the three things that I just listed. So I think it's a mixture of those three things, depending on where you are or even your past where you've come from, your family, you might resonate with one of those more than the other. Yeah, I think especially as entrepreneurs, I think we all like control. We're a special bunch. We like to white knuckle life. What do you mean? I love control. My flesh loves. This is my thing because I grew up knowing God and loving Jesus and all the things. But my wanting to have control over my life and over my business and over my relationships and over every aspect of my life was so strong. And so I can relate to that so much. And I think it's just so interesting too when I love what you said about how God was reminding you like you didn't create yourself. You weren't your own idea. And that's something that I've really I think recognized this year too as well like God's plans are so much greater than our plans. And we don't understand what he's doing when he's doing it. I think that's the hardest part for any of us is when we actually surrender and we actually come into relationship with God. He'll start to move things and shift things and have us moving different places. Or I know both of us have experienced that. And we're like what is going on and it can feel very we feel maybe very out of control. But then also I don't know about you but for me it's like the most like content. And it's this knowing of he's in control. I don't have to hold everything on my own. I think as entrepreneurs we it's like we put so much pressure on ourselves to produce, to create, to make money and to think of new ideas and all of this. It's we're just like constantly putting like more and more pressure on ourselves. And I think for me that was my breaking point was having like a mentor a couple of years ago, say Daniel, what is it what is actually holding you back from just letting go and letting God handle some of this. And I was just like it was the way that she said it. That made me realize wow I've been carrying it's like this like heavy burdens that I don't need to carry on my own. So it's I would say every entrepreneur has had that moment. Yeah. So I'd love to talk about entrepreneurship, money, all the things because what it seems like is in order to have that successful business in order to have money and in order to be a success we have to go down that road, right? That's how the world I think projects that is if you want this is the way to do it. And there's no other way. And so I'd love to talk about that a little bit because I think for me when I when I started to actually look into scriptures and I'm like, yeah, like the Bible does say a lot about business and knowing that it was there but not really being like that's like a bit confusing. So I'm going to look at this that's like more tangible because I'm like the tactical tangible things. Yeah. So I would talk a little bit about that. What's your journey been like to figure that out from shifting your business to be doing it in a way that glorifies God? Was that challenging for you at the beginning? It was really challenging and I didn't really know what that even meant when the time came to make that shift. So I'll take everybody back to 2021 is when my business really took off. We had a $300,000 a year $100,000 a year. So we were doing between six and mid six figures and then I went from $300,000 into a million in less than 10 months and it was it was just so fast that I couldn't even keep up with the growth. My infrastructure of my company had a hard time keeping up with the growth and that was when I started to understand this pressure that entrepreneurs feel because the business was growing so fast and everything that we were producing relied on me producing more of it. And so there is this prison that I didn't realize I created for myself for it. Yes, we had millions and we had a community of people and on the outside it was great. And even on the inside at times I was like this is everything I dreamed of as being the first woman in my family to make a million and more to be an entrepreneur. There's a lot of things I talked about at that time that represented women. And I think that people enjoyed that because a lot of the women in my community were first generation entrepreneurs. This wasn't in the cards for their family line. And I didn't realize this but at the time I was creating this prison of I'm the savior. So my success was no longer just me, but now I needed to let it trickle down to my family. Especially as a woman of color and I think just women in general might feel this but specifically women of color when one makes it then you have to make sure that yields makes it. So now my success I'm trying to pour it out to everybody else and then the pressure became even more a lot. And so it's month 10 we just crossed a million. I fly my family in to have this big celebration and I was so proud and I was also in shock. It just wasn't on my bingo card. I remember in the beginning of the year being like let's see if we could do 500k. We did 300k so like logically 500k can make sense. And then we blew past a million and I was like oh man this thing is this thing is flying like it's working. And this was after you guys listening like years of failure. Like years of like somewhat lukewarm launches barely being able to get five to ten people into a program. So when you hit a million it's man no one saw the other five years where I was like this sucks and I don't even know if it's worth it. And so I really I looked back at that girl and I really thought I made it. You couldn't have told me I didn't enter into the promise land of life. And shortly after that I started to see how the industry shifted towards me. Now because at the time this was back in 2021 we're like making a million was a big deal online still. It was in our little coaching bubble which was still fairly new to the online business world. When you started across a million you started to become one of the experts in the field. And so now all of a sudden I had leaders looking to me. People who wouldn't have looked at me twice before are now looking to me and I start to notice their posture towards me change. And I start to see at the very tippy top of our industry. I'm getting invited onto stages I never thought I'd get invited onto. I'm starting to see the behind the scenes of this matrix of a fake reality. But I was so in it that I and I was so a part of it that I could not see the truth yet. So flash forward we keep growing. And I'm starting to feel my body is physically now breaking down. And one of my ways of coping at the time was having a glass of wine at the end of the night. I would pour a glass of wine after a big day of teaching or even just the sensation of making a lot of money of having a lot of success. I didn't know how to regulate through that. And so I would drink wine. And I want to also note I was somebody who quote unquote taught nervous system regulation. So I was a mover. I would move my body. I would do all the things that we see popularized in the nervous system world. I'm talking about a deeper regulation that piece that you were mentioning that you feel no matter what's changing. No matter what I did through somatics or healing I couldn't access the piece that I feel now today. It was almost like I'm like I couldn't access the bone marrow. There was like this deeper piece that I knew was there but I couldn't get there. I would get there for day or I get there for a weekend or for a short period of time. But then I was slipped back into this pressure cooker and I had over the years was always a drinker just by nature. It was normalized in the Midwest. You drink like it was disnormalized in our culture. It's not looked down upon to have a drink even every single day. So from the age of 20 to 25 I was drinking just like the rest of really 28 people would do. When I was 25 I was living in Chicago at the time. This is before I got really into my business and I was living a, it was a darker part of my life and I remember waking up so home over one morning and I didn't know it at the time of this was God reflected this calendar over my life and I heard the words you have until the age of 30 to get sober. It was almost like a deadline and I just will never forget hearing that but I avoided it and was so convinced that I didn't have a problem because I wasn't like on the street falling apart. I was very functional, put together one that I had I had on. I had my makeup done like I was good and so flash forward to 30 I did not get sober but God that was his first knock that was his first from what I remember his first like true I heard from him. Then when I crossed 30 and now I'm headed into my first million dollar a year I'm still drinking even though I have this member I know that's what I was told but I'm ignoring it and after a coaching call one day I remember my visions started to blur on the call I couldn't really see straight and all of a sudden I got really flushed and I had to shut down the call and I sat there in my office and I was like something's not right and I called my boyfriend at the time and he was like you need to go to the hospital because this is like stroke like symptoms and I was like what's going on so go to the hospital and I remember sitting on the edge of the hospital bed no one knows I'm hiding this alcohol addiction and no one knows that I'm feeling this pressure and that I'm feeling crushed but the doctor is looking at me and he's you're like early 30s you're showing stroke like symptoms what's going on ma'am and I'm like I don't know he's like we need to do some scans and deep down I did know I heard God in that room being like this is the end of you babe like you need to do something has to change and I look over on the right side of the hospital I remember and there's a dry erase board and it says you are loved and those words felt so unfamiliar I knew that I was important on some level because look at all the success I knew that I was seemingly necessary because look at all the people that I'm helping I didn't not feel valuable but this word loved was very unfamiliar and I remember leaving that hospital didn't give me any answers it gave me some brain scans or like we can't figure out why you're having these symptoms your scans are coming back pretty normal and you know you're released and they handed me back my bag of things because you have to take all the metal out and all the things I had nose ring at the time and I heard God say don't put that back in when you walk out of these doors nothing's ever going to be the same again so I leave the hospital this is at the very end of the year and the following year I'm about to enter into what is going to be the year that I meet Jesus flash forward I'm still drinking even after that I in I think I stopped for a month and then I ended up going back and just back to the same patterns over working drinking performing pushing but seemingly living this soft life I'm in five star hotels you guys I'm traveling whenever I want I'm on the ocean I'm getting airbnb's across the world on the outside it's not like I'm over here holding a suitcase and pushing myself in an office but I'm empty I am literally dead inside and I remember at the time I started to listen to this worship music I don't even remember oh that's right I remember seeing this woman online this is really long but I think it's gonna tie back in yeah if you're listening it's good there's an ending point that ties us all together I've ever seen this woman online and she was a coach that I was going to wire twenty thousand dollars to go on a manifestation retreating to loom as we do as coach is back then and I remember on nowhere she started talking about Jesus and I was like oh this woman's lost her mind like all the rest of these people like what the heck's going on and I was so turned off by I was just like what but I could tell that there was this peace she felt it was undeniable this peace this freedom and there was a whisper in my spirit that was like I want that I want that I want that and even though I was so agitated with her and so turned off by it I could not stop watching so I would look forward to her stories and I didn't tell anybody is watching them and she would share sermons I started clicking them she shared these worship playlist I started clicking them so I started listening to this worship music talking about a king talking about glory to the Lord and I can't stop listening to this music and I'm like what am I feeling what is going on this guy that was friends with my boyfriend at the time most unexpected character in the plot invites me to church because he hears I'm listening to this music and he starts going to church for the first time he's like they play that music there and I'm like what the churches play this music I thought the churches I used to go to when I was little at a fuzzy dress on their screaming I don't know I didn't know they played that it was like completely different music so I walk into this church for the first time I remember getting ready and I hear the same songs that I've been listening to in my own little secret closet and I was like Daniel I was overwhelmed with joy I was like what is this why am I at church feeling joy told myself I never come here this was weird so I'm sitting here yeah like I don't I'm this is I'm just here to check it out I'm here for the coffee so I'm sitting there and I am watching observing all these people there got their arms in the air I'm like swaying I'm like it's my song I'm swaying and I see this woman down all the way in the very front row she's got this skirt on and a t-shirt and she's barefoot and she's just dancing with joy absolute done care who's looking at her and I'm not talking about ecstatic dance like I used to do in the Guatemala jungles with all my witches I'm talking this was like a different type of joy and a different dance and I remember saying to God I want to be that free whatever is on her I felt an anoint I felt the oil of heaven on her I was like I want to be that free one day with my faith and here I am tight barely sway and just checking things out so every Sunday I keep going back I keep going back I keep going back in the past year one Sunday before resurrection Sunday you're gonna give something up for God and this was my first time even acknowledging that you give things up so for somebody who thought she was God and he needed to do what I said talking about giving something up already I'm like oh here we go religion and I'm like actually lemme pause and I heard the Lord say you're gonna give up alcohol for 40 days and so I immediately rejected that and I was like what and I started to negotiate I was like I'll just give it up for these days or I'll just go into my usual negotiation tactics and there was something that I couldn't shake it was as if the decision had already been made and he reminded me of when he gave me the deadline when I was 25 in my bed in Chicago and he said you're about four years late but I'm gonna give you grace give it up so my boyfriend at the time was like I'm gonna give up social media and I go I'm gonna give up alcohol no big deal he's made it to day four I think I was like I'm seeing this all the way through but by day four day five I am furious I'm like I am so angry I'm so anxious and very confused why I'm feeling all these different things and I started to realize how much of a grip alcohol had on me and how sin you think you're free and tell you try to walk away from it and the strength that I used to make millions didn't work the strength I used to fly my family and the strength I used to create this huge world this whole community all these things I tried to take that same strength and it didn't work when it came to breaking this chain it didn't work when it came to breaking this anxiety this burnout this lukewarm dead feeling and I look back at my journal and I started shifting from begging God to take the pain away to praying to Jesus and I remember thinking I've heard of you I've been in the church now I'm hearing all these testimonies of how you heal people and how you love them that was a foreign thought to me and how you save them so I'm here Jesus can we do that here and I continue to stick through and over the 40 days he started to reintroduce me to myself and by the last day I looked in the mirror and I could not remember the taste of alcohol I could not even find it in my memory bank he made it like it never happened and I'd come from a line of drinkers my sister at the time is in her addiction my mother all of us don't drink anymore four years later he broke the chain not just in me but in all of us and after that moment I had to admit to myself okay so Jesus is real and he's stronger than me and he's wiser than me he's a better healer than me because I went to hypnosis therapies all these different things and what he did in 40 days what he undid what he broken 40 days none of that even touched the surface but I still had yet to give my life to him so after that moment everything in my business had to change he took me from being this self ambitious performer to the scripture say to everything out of a love for Christ. So I had to confront with my myself. Am I doing this because I love God? Or am I doing this because I feel like I have to or because I love myself? And so naturally he started to separate. That's not it. He started to burn things off. He started to move things. And the first year was really tough because that required me to lay some things down that were really comfortable. I moved locations, ended a relationship. Anyone who's encountered Jesus who's listening to this, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The sanctification that comes with being pierced by the love of the Lord. But then he started to renew my mind around money and around business. And I was somebody who taught money, but I taught money from the perspective of we can will our way to have more. And the tricky part about that is you can. But money made outside of the will of God will always come with handcuffs. Money made within the covenant with God will always come with peace. And so as he was renewing my mind around money, the same thing he reminded me about myself. He was like, Victoria, I money was my idea. So whenever you're ready, I'll tell you how to do it. Whenever you're ready to lay it down, I'll show you. And you start to show me in the Bible in Genesis where he mentions gold. In the very first pages of the book of life, he mentions gold. He says in Genesis 2 that there was gold and it was good. But he created gold in a very specific environment. He created it in the garden of Eden. Now the garden of Eden was a garden of delight. There wasn't anything you could need because you already had and there wasn't anything you could want because you already have everything you need in him. So that told me, and he'd ministered to me through the scripture, money was never meant for you to want it, Victoria. I placed it in an environment where you wouldn't even need to want it. But if we look at the scriptures, it says that the garden of Eden was created, the gold was created, these rivers were created. And then he created man to look after the land and to manage it and he gave man dominion. And then the Lord said to me, you were never meant to attract wealth. You never had to do that. You were always meant to govern it. You were always meant to have dominion over it. It was never for you to have to attract for you to have to go get for you to want. It was always meant for you to govern it. I gave you dominion over it. Then we see with Abraham, he's named as a wealthy man in the Bible, meaning God has no issues with you being wealthy and God also has no issues with money because he created it. And so he started to put the pieces together for me and I started to see where the world lies, where Satan is a liar, where Satan has convinced a generation of people that God is this punisher that wants you to live without. He's convinced a generation of women that Satan doesn't exist. That's his biggest scheme. He convinced a generation of people that evil doesn't even exist. That Satan doesn't exist. That's just this weird spiritual thing. He's convinced people that money that money is God. That money is something to worship. He's also convinced people that God doesn't want you to be rich, doesn't want you to be wealthy. And all of that is a lie. And I'm a testimony of that because I think the broken woman in the world is a millionaire who doesn't know Jesus. Jesus. I was rich in all the material things, but bankrupt, spiritually, dead inside. And now we are still successful. I can talk about all the things he's done since then in the business. And I go to sleep at night at peace. I'm not depleted. I'm full. I'm vital. I'm alive inside. I have more passion, more joy, more desire for family. All these different things have shifted. And so that's all that to say. There's a lot of deception around this topic and it's no coincidence that the enemy Satan attacks entrepreneurs specifically when it comes to money. That's how a lot of women start to get pulled into all these different things. And then they come back to realize, hang on a second. This can't be my life. This can't be how things go. So I'll pause there, but that was a huge part of my testimony as him completely rewiring my brain around money and success. It's so good, because I think that I love that you said, like, enemy, he twists it to say, not only that God doesn't, because I think there's so much out there that's, oh, the Bible says that money is evil and all these things. But it's like, they're just, again, it's like the twisting of Scripture. But then there's the two extremes of God doesn't want you to have money at all. And then there's the prosperity gospel of money is the God, right? God's going to bless you when you do this. Yeah. And both of those things are deception. And I love what you said. And again, like I see it a lot in the entrepreneurial space of so many women who are chasing those things, but yet they're putting things that they say that they value. And this is coming from, I've done this too, like saying you value these certain things, yet if you're actually looking at how you're living your life, are you actually valuing those things? Like you say that this is, these are, this is the order of your values. God at the top, and then your family and then, and then your business. But is that actually how it's ordered? Or is it that you're chasing money first? Because I think a lot of people have really stuck in that. And then everything crumbles because you're putting that as your idol. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like there's so much more. We'll probably have to do it part two at some point because I feel like there's too much more that we could dive into. But before we wrap up, one more thing I'd love for you to share about because I'm going to be there. And I'd love to share for people who would also like to come is, she shall speak because it's a really cool opportunity for people to, yeah, learn how to use their voice. And I love that you teach women that because I think the enemy would love to keep people quiet, you know, keep women specifically quiet. And so I'd love for you to share a little bit about that. And then we can end off. Yeah. I think this is a perfect segue even after talking about money. I want to share the backstory of how this whole, she shall speak, came to be when I was transitioning my business and no longer making money in idol. One of the things that God had me confront is, did I actually know how to run a business or was I just relying on talent and fumes to wing some sort of make-believe success? And in the world, success is how much money do you have and how many things do you have or how put together do you look, but in the kingdom, success is how intimately do you know God? And so as I started to prioritize my intimacy with him and deprioritize all these other idols that were running my life, he started to show me what business and what sustainable business actually looks like. And I got a flashback of before I ever started striving and all the stuff with new age and one of the things I had was my boys and knew how to speak and knew how to articulate. And he had me start to go on a scavenger hunt of what are my high value and high income earning skills. And these skills can translate into any chapter of life because let's be honest, if you're listening right now, there are seasons of entrepreneurship, y'all. There's seasons where you're in a spiritual winter where things are more quiet. There's seasons where it's summer. There's seasons where it's fall. There's seasons where you're just having a hard time in life or you're challenged by something. I mean with you Danielle, the things that happen with your family this last year and you can't just keep pushing on with entrepreneurship. So when we don't know what are our high income earning skills that don't require us to push or run on fumes, but there actually gifts from God that continue to be circulated through the world for his glory. He started to show me the voice and my whole business model shifted from I used to offer all kinds of things like tons and tons of offers and I simplified it down to this one thing where God was like get my daughters speaking. Get them speaking. If you know how to speak, you will be able to transition through any season of business because what I see with my clients, the biggest breakthrough they have is it's now that they don't know what to sell and they don't know what to do or they don't even know what direction to go in. They don't know how to articulate themselves on the way there. So they'll hide and squirrel for a little bit and then they'll come out and be like, okay, here's the finished product and then nobody's listening. And it's like, all right, you only talk when things are perfect and you only speak when you're in full control and you are on your own timeline says I love you but that's not going to work. And so he started to show me this generation of women that actually have a voice that can and speak through the winter, that can speak through the fall, that can speak through hardship, that can speak through world events, that can speak and represent who God is and glorify God as they're doing it. But there was nothing that was actually teaching women how to do this. There wasn't actual structure or from what I was looking at, anything that really prioritized God, it all went back into more self-development of here's messaging hooks and here's how to frame your bio on Instagram and here's how to create a talking head video. But I knew that there was something deeper for this generation of women where they didn't just have voices that would be on Instagram, they had voices that were going to shape the next generation. And the women that come out of our academy now, the podcast that they start, where they go to speak in schools, the way that they build with their voices, that's what excites me the most. Instagram ends up being this like byproducts, small thing off the side. And when we just went all in with that, it was so beautiful to witness 'cause I had no idea how much women were spending thousands of dollars on all these programs trying to get this solution, this hidden solution. When the whole time, they just needed to learn how to open up their mouths and articulate and speak. Do you know how to articulate value that's selling? Do you know how to articulate a story that's marketing? Do you know how to articulate yourself? Do you know how to articulate a word that guy gave you? You might be called to minister. You might be called to speak to a corporate. There's so many different arenas that will send us out into. So she shall speak as a conference we've run once a year to train up the women of this generation to actually use their voice. And women don't know this, but they're gonna find out in this year, I think, especially that your voice is actually a wealth producing asset. The way that God designed your voice is to produce well. And when you start to speak and articulate yourself, you automatically set yourself apart from 99% of the room. It's called the vocal advantage. And if you think about every industry, there's always one person that has what seems like the advantage and it's usually the person who speaks the clearest, who isn't afraid of being clear. And so I've realized that a lot of women don't have visibility fear. They're not afraid of being seen. They're afraid of being clear. And they're afraid of actually articulating themselves very clearly and letting people know this is what I stand on. This is what I believe. This is who I am. This is who God made me. This is where God is asking me to go, on apologetically shamelessly. And once they do that, their business starts to grow, not on fumes, but the fuel of the Holy Spirit, the anointing that God has actually placed on their life. I have a vision that women know what that feels like. It because it comes with a peace and an understanding of business that is beyond what most women are currently operating within. So we're gathering in April. It's in Phoenix. Danielle's gonna be there. She's gonna be speaking. It's gonna be amazing. And if you've been hearing Danielle speak on this podcast for however many years, just prepare to hear a different version of her. She shall speak. And it's gonna be amazing. It'll be absolute breakthrough on so many levels. - That's so fun. Yeah, I'm really excited. And I think there is something so powerful 'cause there's so many people who have so much to say and even seeing, and I know you see it in your programs too, of so many women that have so much to say, so much to say but it's like how you say it and the clarity in which you speak to love that you shared that 'cause it's game-changing. So thank you. And yeah, it's been such a joy to be able to work with you on so many different levels. - I know. The Lord has really been good to us. And it's so true. I think so many women have something to say. They sound monotone. They sound lukewarm. Whenever I hear a woman and I ask her, why do you want to shift about your voice? What about it? I want to speak with more conviction. I want to speak with more passion. And I'm like, all right, you need to come alive first. So it's not an intellectual training. It's so much more technical. So yeah, we geek out for three days. It's absolutely amazing. And I think specifically for your community, the women that I think do best with this work, they're already experiencing some level of success. There's not a question about whether you are an entrepreneur or not. There's no confusion around whether you're in business or not. But there are things happening in your life and also things that are moving in your spirit that you don't have the words for yet. And it starts to create this frustration. Have you ever felt that word? Now I'm like, piss, and I don't know why. Just because you're vocally constipated is what I call it. You're not, it needs to come up and out. It needs to move. There needs to be articulation. Our growth relies on that in so many ways. And so I think even for the woman who's, I'll get to that later or do I really need that right now? I feel like that's for her. There's a freedom that starts to come alive in you and you can rely on your voice to articulate clearly. Absolutely. I think, too, there's a difference between being a part of an event or a community that is, changes your business, but it's something different where it's like, it actually changes your life. There's something about it that changes you and there's something different about it being in a room with other women who are also wanting to glorify God and being in that space or something. Like you said, it's like the peace and the joy that comes from that. Yeah. And you really brought my, you opened my eyes to that. 'Cause I remember I was like, look at this page. Let me know if we are missing anything. And you were like, what if you wrote to the mothers? And I've always loved my mom's and my community if you've been around. So you know that I just have a burden for mothers. I love them so much. I'm not a mother yet, but I just, I think that they're here to shape this generation and one of the ways we do that is through the voice. And what I've seen in you, Danielle is the work that we've done, the work that you've in the time that you've put in hasn't just impacted your business, but it's impacted your home, the ministry that you started in your home, the way that you speak at the dinner table in the house, in the home. I couldn't agree more. And when I was writing to the mothers, it just really hit me that this isn't, we become so obsessed with investing in our business. It's our idol. We become so obsessed with what is the call? What is the gift? What is the thing? And we become obsessed with monetizing it and posting it. And there's something we're refreshing about, she shall speak, because yes, it impacts your business, but it's three days where you tear that idol down and you're like, who am I as a woman? What, where is my identity actually? I'm not just this woman monetizing on Instagram and putting her thoughts in a box and posting it every day. How do I speak at the grocery store? Do I know how to address people? If I needed to step in for something, do I have the voice to do that? If I needed to go build something in my neighborhood because it's missing, do I have the voice to go bring that to life? Or do I only have a voice that can be fit into an Instagram box or a sub-stack post or an email? And that's where the burning passion is for me, is I feel like there's a generation of women, a mother specifically, that are going to roar not only in the marketplace, but in their homes and in ministry and throughout the world. So good. Victoria, would you do us the honor of closing us in prayer? I just want to say first of all, thank you for joining us. And by the way, I will put all of the information in the description of how you can connect with Victoria and also sign up for she shall speak if you want to come to that. So I'll put all those details. But yeah, before we wrap up is there anything else you want to say or should we end in prayer? We can end in prayer, let's pray. And if there's anybody on this call that's, I don't do that. Just close your eyes or just listen. And I trust that that will open. Except if you're driving, I always do that caveat. If you're driving your eyes open. I would hope you keep your eyes open, Joe. Please don't close your eyes. Heavenly Father, God of everlasting wisdom. I just thank you for Danielle's obedience. I thank you, Lord, that you've guided her to open up this conversation. You've guided her to host this podcast, to put her voice to a mic and glorify you in all of your attributes and tell the story of your glory and her life, Lord. I pray that whoever landed on this episode, that they would feel in this moment that it wasn't by accident. That even if nothing we said made any sense, that there's a recognition, that there is a familiarity, that there is a knowing deep, deep, deep, deep down in their spirit, that this was not by accident. I pray that eyes would be opened and ears would be opened in the mighty name of Jesus. I pray that the name above all names, Jesus would captivate their hearts, Lord. I pray that everything that me and Danielle discuss would honor you and glorify you, that these stories would not fall in vain, but that they would shape and shift and move whoever is listening on the other side of their phone or their screen or their headphones, Lord. I pray over the women in this community that Danielle has built. I pray over their hearts, Lord. I pray over the ways that they're moving in the marketplace. I pray that any woman who's striving, that's pushing, is trying to keep it all together, Lord, that you would just meet her in this hour, that you would take her by the hand. hands and move her, move her heart, Lord, I pray over any hearts that feel hardened or calloused or resistant or like this is edgy, I pray, Lord, that you would tenderize them, that you would soften them, that you would open them to the truth. And I pray over the women in this community that are right on the brink of being bolder with their voice, being more bold with their faith, being more unapologetic about who they are in you God. I pray boldness from the throne of heaven would be deposited into them that all fear, all anxiety, all worry, all fear of man or what people think, people pleasing, perfectionism. I pray that it would fall flat to the floor in the mighty name of Jesus, and that there would be a peace that overcomes, that overwhelms them, that there would be a righteousness, a boldness and a courage that overwhelms them to speak, to share their testimony, to talk about who they are. Lord, I remember before, when I was in that same fear, you said to me, Victoria, how could you tell people what you have without talking about the one who gave it to you? And Lord, I pray that same revelation would meet their heart. How could they keep going on business as usual without talking about the one who put breath in their lungs, without talking about the one who woke them up, without talking about the one who gave them a testimony, without talking about the one who moved them, who equips them? I pray, Lord, whenever you're taking this community, that you would give Danielle the wisdom and the revelation in this hour to steward it well. I pray that whatever transitions and doors need to open, then they would happen seamlessly and with ease and that the Holy Spirit would breathe on it, that it would be set apart for your glory, for your kingdom. I pray a hedge, a protection over Danielle and the women in this community, that as you do your mighty good work, Lord, there will be no distractions, no delays, no weapon formed against them, shall prosper and you will get all of the glory in the end. I thank you God for this time, where we just get to, as sisters in Christ, as daughters of the most high, come together and just joyfully and gleefully talk about you and glorify you. These are moments that we once prayed for and I thank you that we are just continuously sitting in an answered prayer. I thank you for being Jehovah Shalom, God of peace, the peace that surpasses all understanding. Would you move this community in the direction of your will? Would you have your way, Holy Spirit? You are the entire point and so we give this to you, this episode to you, this conversation, and we ask that you move it wherever you would have it go. In the mighty and the matchless name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Victoria. I love you. I love you.