“Powerful in influence, authority, resources, or means of prevailing or succeeding” …. That is but one of the dictionary definitions of the word strong, but that is the complete embodiment of a woman who goes by the name of Phoenix White, for she is strength redefined.

With a name as unique and alluring as the woman that walks in its power, Phoenix White is a sheer force to be reckoned with as she navigates the competitive yet influential arena of life coaching, motivational speaking and inspiring woman of purpose through her own self-made journey of survival and success. For this stunning soul is more than just a pretty face, she is a TV star, host on Maria Menounos network ‘Black Hollywood Live’, television producer and director for companies such as; We TV, HBO, Glassman Media and CMT., photographer and now highly acclaimed author of her first memoir, Redefining Strong, a gripping and honest account of a life of unimaginable loss, abuse, pain and above all the fight to live her ultimate purpose as a mother and healer is a story that resonates deep with anyone who reads her incredible journey. For this San Diego native, surviving an early childhood torn from her family and placed in the foster system where she survived rape and abuse to dealing with a life threatening condition in her adult years that eventually resulted in intense brain surgery, Phoenix White is the epitome of the strength of a women. It is within this incredibly dark period of her life that her hearts purpose presented itself to her, unearthing her desire to use her journey as an empowerment tool for others whom have or may be experiencing similar in their lives and it is within this desire to help others that White indelibly healed her life and set upon an adventure she has never looked back upon.

I discovered thin incredible woman through the wonders of Instagram, initially drawn to her vibrant and positive page filled with inspirational quotes and pictures that make you stop and take a minute to peruse. Like a breath of fresh air in a stagnant existence, that is how I would best describe the essence of White and the work she delivers on a daily basis. Since the release of her debut book “Redefining Strong”, which is available on ITunes, Amazon.com and her amazing website www.phoenixwhite.net , she has been reaching her followers and readers through weekly series of live webinars and chats and book clubs that has brought her closer to her growing followership. With her self-coined term of “ Walking in Flow”, White is a her greatest promotional engine as she is authentic in the life she has lived and the life she has created for her and her beautiful son, who serves as her highest blessing and motivation.

Having a conversation with a women of intent and purpose is like an answered prayer for my writer’s spirit. Phoenix White has a gift of healing and empowering not only women who have gone through challenges and similar experiences to her, but for everyone who needs and seeks inspiration on a variety of mediums. As a respected photographer, she has become a go to favourite for Hollywood’s elite seeking that special something that a Phoenix White image captures. She has gone on to shoot covers of some of the leading magazines in the US under her Emkron Studio’s brand and feels photographer for her is all about capturing the essence of a person’s spirit. Serving her community is paramount for White as she proudly serves as Ambassador for CYFC-LA, also known as Children Youth & Family Collaborative – Los Angeles, which is an organisation that services over 10,000 foster children and one she works tirelessly to raise awareness and provide her support.

In this her first Australian interview, Phoenix White provides an intimate, honest and truly inspirational look into her amazing life and how she has created her destiny through positivity and inner belief that she is bigger than her past. Something was transferred between our souls during our almost hour long conversation and I felt a little more inspired and at peace with my own journey, knowing that even though some days are hard and we all carry the weight of invisible sorrow, the strong are often the ones who love the hardest, smile the biggest and give the most through a life built on purpose!

Hi Phoenix, such a pleasure to talk to you, how is life treating you? 

Thank you Maxine, so nice to speak to you and thank you for this opportunity to feature on your blog, which is awesome by the way. I’m doing really well and feeling very blessed in life right now. 

I first discovered you on Instagram through your beautiful and inspirational page and I was totally hooked following your life story through that page. After some research and discovering there was more to you than just beauty and motivational quotes and images, it appears that Phoenix White is a story that deserves to heard and shared with women of all works of life. Author, TV Host, Producer, Mother, Brain surgery survivor and so much more, Phoenix White is a Renaissance Woman! That’s my definition of who I believe you are, how does Phoenix White best describe who she is and what her purpose in this life is?  

Well you know what I am all the things you have said and described but ultimately at the end of the day I am a person who is just walking in purpose. I love to create, I love to inspire I know that a part of my purpose is to help people to heal and to grow so I you know the things that I go through in my life I feel a responsibility to share with others out there who may reach out to me and are going through similar things that I have, to help and encourage people to overcome their difficulties through positivity and that is something truly powerful I have learnt to share over the years.

 

Congratulations on the release of your new book “ Redefining Strong”, which is a personal reverie on your life story to date, the pain of a childhood faced with abuse, rape, foster homes and in your adult years having to endure painful and life threatening brain surgery, you have experienced some truly dark periods of despair. It is a lesson in survival and overcoming adversity and highlights the formidable spirit that lies within such a beautiful and unique soul as yours. It is an inspiring, yet quite polarizing read at times that really highlight your definable purpose in what you are doing with your life today. What do you hope your readers will take from your story and what is strengths definition to you? 

I definitely learned that I am more capable and a lot stronger than I thought I was and I had more layers and more depth that I gave myself credit for. When I wrote the book I wrote it out of my fear ( laughs) because I just kept hearing this little voice in head yelling at me like “ you better right this book” and I’m like “ I don’t want to write no book, I don’t have the time to write “ you know (laughs). So I decided to face my fear and write this book, I booked a plane ticket to Costa Rica and I literally went there with the intention of I need to write this book in a place that will provide me with the peace and inspiration and solitude to still my mind and just write. I couldn’t be anywhere that I be near social media, on my phone, no distractions, I had to face my fear and write this book and do it then and there. I was like in a hotel in a rainforest, 2 hours from any airport with no connection to anything other than my thoughts and my purpose to write and that’s all I did for like a week. This book is writing like a conversation between myself and the reader and it befits the process of how I wrote it so well being that I had conversations with myself about my life and how I would share this story, so it’s not structured to be really perfect and traditional book like. I wanted this book to be brutally honest and I kept going back and reworking it until I felt I had told my story in the most honest voice I could and that’s why I kept it like a conversation ….. this is my conversation with you and I’m super happy about the way it eventually turned out.

 

Let’s talk TV …. You’ve appeared in Match Made in Heaven, which I don’t believe has been shown on Australian cable TV as yet, but we are well and truly engulfed in the world of reality entertainment and catching onto everything that is coming out of the US. There is so much in terms of the medium of reality shows and social media reaching the masses right now that taking care to ensure positive messages and content is involved in it all can at times seem quite hopeless. It’s like people are angry and drawn to negativity so much more so than goodness and some of these shows tend to portray people or situations in such negative ways yet appeal to the public on huge scales – it’s like one of life’s greatest paradoxes. How have you managed to remain so together, gracious and empowered through all the atrocities your life has been through and not fall prey to the toxicity that social media and reality TV can so easily bestow?  

That is so true Maxine and y you know what, for the person that I am, who works in the media across all the mediums, at the end of the day I just really love conversing with people and learning about their lives and stories so TV for me is just a great medium in which to speak to and reach people on such a broad level and help them share their lives and stories in an inspiring way. When I did “ Match Made In Heaven” reality show it was crazy, a lot of ratchet activity going on ( laughs) and I was like ok, just because all of that behaviour is going on I don’t need to endorse it if it is not who I am or how I wish to portray myself. Once you get to see the show you will understand what I am talking about. When viewers were watching the show they would write in with comments saying “wow you are so chill and laid back”, “no negativity from you”, such a positive person” and I was happy to know that I remained true to myself through the whole show and people got to see Phoenix White and who she is so it was a great experience that I learnt a lot about people and myself through as well. You have to let me know once you watch it ok (laughs), I’d love to know what your thoughts are on the show.

 

You have bared your soul and your story in such a way that it makes it almost hard to look away from the searing truth of your reality Phoenix. Foster child, abused, raped and brain surgery survivor – seriously how much can woman take? Looking back on your journey, how have you managed to deal with it all, apart from being so fabulous, beautiful and stylish to boot? 

(Laughs) wow well when you break it down to me like that I’m like ok hahaha. You know what, I thought about that the other and I feel like in order for you to help someone else to heal you have to be relatable. So for me, going through all this stuff at the time I was like, what the hell you know, but then when you come out of it then you start to think oh my gosh I was so much bigger than this, I’m still here and survived it. I thought you know here are so many girls who get raped, I’m not the only one, so many girls who have been abused, abandoned, foster homed and life threatening conditions daily that they feel like they can’t move forward and I thought about when I was having brain surgery that the doctors told me that I would have a hard time putting things together, words together, things together and that I would be a high risk category of brain disease for like 2 years. But 5 years later I’ve written my first book, I’m reaching people globally through my own TV show and I am inspiring others to live their lives with no boundaries and to walk in flow. I’m creating things on a constant basis and was told I would never be able to create again giving the intensity of that surgery, but here I am doing all the things I was told I couldn’t do. So I guess for me the lesson there is that trust your fear, the outcome is always greater than the circumstance and when you start to look at things in life a different way you start to see and deal with life in a better perspective. I make a choice every day to wake up and seek positivity in my day and use the tools I have and continue to operate in the flow of my purpose and I make that choice every day.

Tell us about your TV show and where we can tune in?

Ok so my TV show is called “At First Light” and you can watch it on my website (www.phoenixwhite.net). It started out as a morning inspirational show and its now developing into a full blown talk show so yeah that’s exciting. I’ve done eleven episodes in its first season online and they are sent directly to your email when you sign up to my site. You can watch them on my website also at any time and I’ve developed them as morning inspirationals so they kick you into step every morning and give you that boost you need to get you through the day. I also send out motivational emails every day and I’m constantly developing other ways of sharing and launching At First Light to reach everybody that wants to receive it.

You have also made a name for yourself as a photographer, with an emphasis on celebrity photography. I have seen some of the images on your site of some of the people you have captured and they are truly stunning images. How did you start off in this business and what do you enjoy about photography?

Well it’s not just celebrity photography that I do I just ended up shooting a lot of celebrities ( laughs) so words of mouth spread and business grew in the celebrity world. As far as photography again it is something that I have just happened to do without knowing I could do it and do it well. I just like taking pictures and capturing the essence of a person’s spirit and it’s really as simple as that. When I first started taking photos it was on a trip to Egypt and the images ended up being put in National Geographic I was like, mmmm maybe I’m onto something here (laughs). So I took these pictures of these people’s faces, captured their energy and rawness and true beauty of their faces and when I came home I loved the feeling I got looking at these images knowing that this was something so special and blessed to be able to capture. So I just spoke to some people I knew that would be inspired by the idea of me doing photography and the business just took off from there really. Literally within 3 months after that I was a celebrity photography and I just started shooting magazine covers and making a good income from something I taught myself how to do by not walking the traditional path that others may take and have fallen in love with it so much, so yeah that would probably be the best definition of me walking in flow (laughs).

What legacy do you want to leave for women through your work and what message do you hope that they receive through your works when one day when it’s all said and done?

Mmmmm good question. I would love for people to take away to never give up on themselves. And that everything that you go through, that you’ve survived is all for a greater purpose. We are all here for a greater purpose and should not be defined by the things we have gone through but how we have overcome them and live our lives through purpose. You have a purpose, you have a reason and you have to find your own story and I want to leave here feeling like I did everything I set out to do and have no regrets.

 

Your life’s greatest inspiration and why?

There have been multiple people that have inspired and continue to inspire my journey. My mom is one of them, she is like my co-producer on everything I do and she is so good in pushing me and keeping me motivated in everything I do and to stay in my purpose and stay inspired. Oprah Winfrey, Ilyana Vanzant, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Angelina Jolie , so many women inspire me and that I watch and I’m like wow, their strength and courage inspires me every day.

For more information on Phoenix White and her incredible creative and inspiring works visit:

Web: www.phoenixwhite.net

Twitter: https://twitter.com/phoenixontwit

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phoenixwhite

Instagram: https://instagram.com/phoenixwhite

 

To purchase a copy of Phoenix White stunning new book “Redefining Strong” head to ITunes or www.phoenixwhite.net

 

Blessings

 

Ms Hennessey