I almost left God out of my story | Becoming a bestselling author Pt. 2

In part two of this deeply personal series, Ebony shares what happened after she finally faced her story… and what it looked like to actually write it.

As she worked through multiple drafts of her chapter, she realized something was missing:

God.

In this episode of Thrive Like a Mother, Ebony opens up about growing up feeling fatherless, wrestling with the belief that God had abandoned her, and the fear of fully including that part of her story in her book chapter.

This conversation explores:

• Why vulnerability feels harder on paper
• The spiritual tension of feeling abandoned by God
• How healing strengthened both self-trust and faith
• What it means to stop editing your truth
• Why becoming a bestselling author transformed her identity beyond writing

Ebony also shares the unbelievable story of how this book opportunity wasn’t even originally meant for her — proving that sometimes God is positioning you long before you realize it.

If you’ve ever questioned your purpose, struggled with self-worth, or felt afraid to fully own your story… this episode will meet you there.

📖 Join the Book Launch Team

Be You Brand Volume 3 officially releases on September 1st, and I would love for you to be part of this journey with me.

By joining the launch team, you’ll get:

✨ Early digital access to the book before the public release

✨ A first look at my full chapter and story

✨ Behind-the-scenes updates throughout launch week

✨ Opportunities to support and celebrate this project alongside our community

If these episodes resonated with you, this book will take you even deeper.

🔗 Join the launch team here: https://atigbranding.myflodesk.com/supporttheauthors

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Transcript

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Welcome To Thrive Like A Mother

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This process becoming a bestselling author has not just made me an author. It made me truly own who I already was. Hey love, I'm Ebony and welcome to Thrive Like a Mother, a podcast for women who are ready to slow down, nourish themselves, and build lives that feel anchored and intentional instead of rushed. If you're tired of surviving and ready to thrive physically, mentally, and spiritually, you're in the right place. Each week, I share grounded conversations and practical rhythms to help you regulate your nervous system, strengthen your relationship with food and rest, and return to yourself. So love, take a breath. You don't have to do this alone. Let's thrive together.

Part Two Of Becoming An Author

SPEAKER_00 1:04

If you listen to part one of the series, Becoming My Journey of Becoming a Best Selling Author, the you know that we talked about in that episode what it initially looked like to first of all face my story before I even really started writing. And today we're talking about how it felt and what it meant to write it and send it off to the publishers and the editors and things like that. Because this is the part where there was like a point of me starting to hold back a little bit.

The Part I Tried To Hide

SPEAKER_00 1:40

And so in my first draft of my chapter, I barely talked about God at all. I was nervous to face the fact that there was a point in my life where I truly believed that he had abandoned me, that he was not there for me, that I was forgotten, that I asked the question a lot. Did he even see me? And I almost, I almost did not mention my own journey, my own struggle with that, about why and what it felt like to grow up feeling like I didn't have a father. I did not want to talk about that. And that's because I hadn't truly faced what that meant in my own life. And so I kept it real surface level. I talked about the abuse, I talked about building my bricks of self-trust, but I kept it really on that level. I did not at first want to talk about my relationship with God. I kept, I felt like bringing that in was going to keep my story safe, keep my story, you know, easy to, easier to digest. And then I was reading my my chapter. Now remind you all, this chapter has gone through iteration after iteration. I've got like seven or eight drafts. The last one was like the eighth draft of my chapter. As I started to get closer and closer, I just felt like something was missing, like someone was missing. I was wondering, like, okay, is this fully my truth? Or am I sharing a version that feels easier to share? And that one part of my story is easy to share, but that part felt hard for some reason. That part I realized like I couldn't tell my story in its full capacity without telling that part, without sharing that I didn't believe that God was there for me. I truly, truly believed that I was without a father completely. And throughout this process, what I came to understand is that even in those moments when I felt the most alone, when I felt that no one knew what I was going through, when I felt that I didn't understand my purpose in this world or my purpose, the reason I had to go through what I went through. Even through all of that on my darkest days, he was still there. He was always there. Maybe it didn't look the way that I expected it to look. Where in my mind I thought, Savior, he's going to save me. And it didn't exactly look like that. It may not have been him showing up in the way that I wanted. But in the way that a father is, he was present. He was covering me in ways that I couldn't understand or see at the time. He was holding me, noting space for me, even when I could not see it, even when I could not fathom what that meant, what that felt like, even when I didn't believe he was still there. And so that ended up in the chapter. And to be honest, like it started to become this two-way thread of not only was I building my bricks of trust brick by brick, but I was also building or growing my trust in God. And you see that throughout the story, where I go from this, I don't even know that you know I'm here. I don't know that you care that I'm going through this. It went from that to realizing finally, my gosh, you've been here all along. My gosh, I'm standing at this table with 18 women, and now it's starting to make sense. The birth of my children, it's starting to make sense. Not since as in make sense of the trauma that I had to endure, but it made sense that because of a result of that, I am who I am now, and I'm making the impact that I'm able to make now. And so this process becoming a best-selling author, it has not just made me an author. It made me truly own who I already was. I've been saying like all along I'm the Kitchen Wingwoman, but this process forced me to step into fully owning that, to fully embody being that Kitchen Wing woman, not just for others, but for me too. And it it was never just about the food. It was never just about the food. It was always and always will be about walking with women through real life, walking through seasons that we often don't get to talk about as we're in it, through the messy middles, through the healing, through building your own self-trust, your confidence. Sometimes we don't get to be in spaces where we can feel safe enough to be fully seen.

The Opportunity Meant For Someone Else

SPEAKER_00 7:25

And so I want I want to share a part of this story that is absolutely wild because this is the part where I think you'll understand when I say like he is truly with me every step of the way. Even when I don't understand, or even when I question as I am as a human, as one of his children, when I question if he's there, he shows me. You know, the wild part about this entire process was that this opportunity to be in this book, writing alongside our leader, uh our leader Ati and five other women sharing their own stories. It was not even meant for me. And when I say that, I mean let me, let me, let me get into the story, y'all. First of all, Ati reached out to me on Instagram. Um, I have been in her world, I would say probably about two years, probably since the the first one, the first volume came out. I remember seeing her at one of the events. Yeah, I just I remember seeing her speak at an event, and I remember getting this book and being introduced to her world and being like, okay, yeah, I see it. I she's what she's got going on. I see the gold, I see the magic, I see how she levels people up. And so we've been connected for a while, right? And so she messaged me on Instagram and she was like, hey, so I wanted to chat with you about this opportunity to write in a book and become a best-selling author and wanted to hop on a call with you. And I was like, Yeah, of course, let's chat about that. Because I had seen the book, seen the volumes coming out. And so I knew, okay, yep, I know about this opportunity and things like that. And we got on a call, we're chatting. And for me, it was immediate yes. But of course, as the woman that I am, I need to sit and think with decisions for a while before I make that, before I make them. That's just who I am. And so I sat with it. But even after getting off that first call with her, it was an immediate yes for me. I knew that I was ready to share my story in the way that it needed to be shared. This chapter, y'all, this is just the first part. For me, this is like, this is a chapter that is absolutely going to become a full entire book. But back to the story. The initial message that she sent me on Instagram was not meant for me. Because you see, the people that she was reaching out to had submitted an interest form for being a part of this opportunity. And I had not done that, but I definitely in my head was like, that absolutely sounds like something I would do. So of course I was like, okay, yeah, I'm I'm in. I'm in full body, yes. And that was before I knew what this process will look like. That was before I knew what it would actually pull out of me. And that's how I know that although it was the wrong ebony, it was absolutely 100% the right time. And so I share that to say God will be speaking your name in rooms before you even know that He has. He is placing you in the path of people that you need to be connected to in some way before you even meet them, before you know. And so as we just start to end this conversation, as I know this chapter, this book has gone off to the editors and will be released September 1st. I

Breathing Through Courage And Truth

SPEAKER_00 11:27

want to take a deep breath with you. Because this process, me facing my own relationship with God head on, even going back to the years when I was a kid. We need a breath. Because telling the truth of your story, facing it head on, whether it's in a book, whether it's speaking it on stage, whether it's a conversation with someone that you trust, whether it's just singing it out loud to yourself, any of it takes courage. It takes a certain level of trust to believe, to own your story. So whether you're out there and you are maybe an aspiring author or you want to face parts of your story, I am sending you literally the biggest hug because I know the amount of strength that it takes to do something like that, to tackle something like that. And maybe it's at a point where you're not quite ready to do what I did and write a story, but then publish it to the world. Maybe you're not there yet. But you can start by being honest with yourself. Get the words out on paper, fully own who you are, your threads that make you you. And instead of asking like what to do next, I want to give us a moment to a place to land. So let's take another deep breath. Instead of asking what to do next, with only your story, I want you to ask yourself where in my life am I ready to stop editing myself? Where am I softening my own truth? Where am I shrinking parts of myself that I know are real? Because for me, that's where the next level of freedom was. I survived. I not only I not only survived, I thrived and I did that with God. But the piece that I think I had been missing all along was fully owning my story, and that's where I found my next level. That's when I started fully embodying who I am is by not softening anymore what I know to be real, not shrinking anymore, not editing anymore.

Recap Plus Book Launch Details

SPEAKER_00 14:06

And so, to recap, what we chatted about today, um, and a few details about the book. So we talked about like what it actually looks like to tell the truth, the things that come with that, not just the comfortable parts, because the things are gonna get uncomfortable when you start sharing your truth. We talked about how this journey, the journey of becoming a best-selling author, really truly required me to step into who I was fully to stop editing. And why, for me, saying yes, even when you don't have all the details, can change everything if you just say yes to an opportunity that will allow you that next level up. Okay, a few things before we close. So the book BU Brand Volume Three, this is one of the previous volumes. I have the other ones, the other one on my bookshelf, BU Brand Volume Three, that comes out on September 1st. But if you join our book launch team, you can get access to this book, my chapter, before everyone else. You can get your your hands on it and read it. Not hands, because it'll be a digital version, but you can get access to it before everyone else and be able to read the full chapter and understand everything. I didn't want to give too much away during these because I want you to read the chapter. I want you to understand everything, but I did want to share my journey with you. And so I hope these episodes, part one and part two, have just reminded you that it's not about having the perfect words to start your story, to start writing down your story. It just needs a willingness, requires, it requires a willingness for you to be honest with yourself and to know that your story is safe with you. All right, love. So I will see you on the next episode.

Share It And Keep Thriving

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Thank you so much for listening, love. If anything in today's episode resonated with you, share it with your bestie or share it on social media and tag me so we can chat about it. As always, sending you light and love. And remember, you are worthy, you are enough, and you deserve to thrive.