Have you ever felt like you’re just a face in the crowd, lost in the monotony of similarity? Our guest today, Ayanna Pope, a multi-faceted creative professional, radio broadcaster, and published author, teaches us that our differences are not our flaws, but rather our strengths. She shares her inspiring journey, from her Detroit roots to the creation of two successful media platforms, Silver Line Radio and Paradigm Television Network.
Her show, “Healing and Hope with Ayanna Pope,” provides biblical truths that can be applied to everyday situations, providing healing and growth not just on a personal level, but for businesses as well.
Diving into her latest book, “Symptoms of Greatness,” Ayanna takes us through the journey of recognizing and embracing our unique traits to rewrite our life stories. According to her, we are not meant to blend in, but to stand out and make our own mark in this world. Ayanna challenges the myth of the importance of starting points, emphasizing instead how you choose to finish your journey. By tapping into our internal wisdom, we can navigate through life’s challenges and become the best versions of ourselves.
So, join us for this thought-provoking episode, where we uncover the beauty within us, rewrite our stories and find our path towards greatness.
Brief Bio for Ayanna Pope
Ayanna Pope, the Founder of Ascended Volition, was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. She is a published Author and a TV and radio broadcaster who has built two media platforms: Silver Line Radio and the Paradigm Television Network. She uses these platforms to share her program “Healing and Hope with Ayanna Pope” and provide Biblical truth and perspective.
Ayanna has dedicated her life, as a believer, to helping individuals through her businesses and ministry to heal, thrive and shine in the light of all they are (in Jesus’ name!).
Ayanna’s husband is Terrance Pope, who shared his main thing wisdom here in Ep. 68 from April 2022.
Resources
Buy Ayanna’s book “Symptoms of Greatness” on Amazon or on our Bookshop site
Connect with Ayanna on LinkedIn
Connect with Ayanna on Facebook
Learn more about Ascended Volition – Ayanna’s broadcast company
Credits
Editor + Technical Advisor Bob Hotchkiss
Brand + Strategy Advisor Andy Malinoski
PR + Partnerships Advisor Rachel Bell
Graphic Design Chloe Lineberg
Episode Chapters
[0:03:10] – Ayanna Pope the Media Maven and Author
Ayanna Pope shares her journey. We learn about the mission and purpose of her broadcast network and her platform “Healing and Hope with Ayanna Pope.” She give us a snapshot of her new book, “Symptoms of Greatness.”
(0:05:33) – Embracing Differences and Rewriting Our Stories
Ayanna discusses embracing unique qualities, rewriting stories, and living a fulfilling life. She encourages us to explore our inner beauty and become our best selves.
[0:07:00] – Hopeful Wisdom With Ayanna Pope
We discover Ayanna’s main thing – the most important wisdom she’s learned in her lifetime so far.
[0:09:00] – Making a Life Transformation and Speaking Boldly
Ayanna shares authentically how she made a life transition. She offers tips and advice on how we can learn from her experience. We get a special, hopeful intention and blessing from Ayanna as she expresses her parting thought.
Full Episode Transcript
0:00:00 – Announcer
Wisdom. It’s an incredibly valuable asset, someone say, more precious than gold. It’s attractive, appealing, admirable. Conversely, a lack of wisdom is the basis of immaturity, blind spots and bad decisions. Wisdom, it can be gained over time, but it can’t be rushed. But wisdom can be shared. That’s precisely what we are here to do right now. Today. We are here to hack wisdom, to distill it, to understand it and to process it. Why? To get better at life.
Welcome to The Main Thing. This is your new 9-minute podcast. I’m your host, Skip Lineberg, and I’ve set out to interview the wisest people I know. We’ll see what we can learn from each one when they’re faced with an incredibly difficult, soul piercing question.
Welcome to the main thing podcast. I’m your host, Skip Lineberg, coming to you today from Parkwood Studios. I’m very excited to introduce you to our wise guest, who’s an absolutely dynamic person. She’s a passionate and multi-talented, creative professional who lives to inspire others and to help restore hope to struggling people. You’ll get a first-hand taste of that today.
Also very notably, today marks the first time we’ve had a spouse of a prior guest on this podcast with the exception of my wife, Lisa, of course. More on all that in a bit.
Ayanna Pope, the founder of Ascended Volition, was born and raised in the city of Detroit, Michigan. She’s a published author and a TV and radio broadcaster, who has built two media platforms Silverline Radio and Paradigm Television Network. She uses these platforms to share her program “Healing and Hope with Ayanna Pope” with her audience, providing biblical truth and perspective. Ayanna just published her book “Symptoms of Greatness” this month, and we’ll learn more about it today.
Ayanna has dedicated her life as a believer to helping individuals, through her business and ministry, to heal in their lives and businesses, to thrive to shine in the light of all they are … in Jesus’ name.
Ayanna’s husband is Terrance Pope, who shared his main thing wisdom here in Episode 68 from April 2022. I’ll say this with great certainty: God is doing big things fo—and through—this amazing husband and wife duo. Now, don’t worry, stay with us. This is not a church sermon, and you don’t have to be a religious person to benefit from the powerful wisdom you’ll hear today.
So buckle up and get ready! Over the next nine minutes, you’ll discover why Ayanna Pope is one of the wisest people I know.
0:02:58 – Skip Lineberg
Ayanna Pope, welcome to the main thing podcast.
0:03:01 – Ayanna Pope
Hey, Skip, thank you so much. It’s good to be here with you.
0:03:11 – Skip Lineberg
Hey, folks just heard in the introduction that they just listened to before you came on that you are married to a former guest of the main thing podcast, Terrance Pope.
0:03:22 – Ayanna Pope
Yes, sir.
0:03:26 – Skip Lineberg
He and I have become such good friends and encouragers. And gosh, what a powerful testimony your husband has!
0:03:32 – Ayanna Pope
Yes, yes, I’m truly blessed to have him, especially considering his story.
0:03:38 – Skip Lineberg
He was on with us in April 2022, and so now I have the distinction and the honor of having my first husband-and-wife-duo as guests of the podcast.
Ayanna, you’re a media maven in your own right. You’ve got a TV network, a radio network. I wondered if you would take us inside “Healing and Hope with Ayanna Pope” and just tell us what the mission is there and where that came from.
0:04:06 – Ayanna Pope
Healing and Hope with Ayanna Pope. The mission of that show, that program, is to help give biblical truth and perspective to everyday situations and circumstances that we come against. And I found in my personal journey that there was a time where I did not have the tools. I didn’t have the tools for some of the things that I was coming up against, and so I used this platform to help equip individuals with the things that they need for whatever may come across their path and give God’s report.
0:04:43 – Skip Lineberg
Okay, hey, let’s talk about your new book. Folks heard me say in the introduction that you’ve published or self published several books and this is, I think, maybe your fourth … “Symptoms of Greatness.” Ayanna, tell us about your book and where this one came from and what folks are going to get out of it when they read it.
0:05:05 – Ayanna Pope
“Symptoms of Greatness” is to help people be able to understand themselves, identify those things that they might consider weird or peculiarities, those things that they may feel makes them the oddball. It helps to give them a new perspective about those things, so they can understand that they’re not weird, they’re not strange, they’re not odd … they’re great.
I think when we begin to see ourselves differently and begin to understand ourselves, that we can begin to really hone in on those areas of difference about ourselves and begin to truly live. We can maximize those qualities about ourselves and even be able to live successful lives, because we see our own value.
0:05:54 – Skip Lineberg
Wow, that’s really fertile soil, really rich ground that you’re laying out there. In modern culture, a lot of forces want to make us all be more alike, and so we would shy away from those things and maybe try to hide them or push them to the background.
0:06:12 – Ayanna Pope
And the Bible actually tells us not to not be conformed by the patterns of this world. And if you really think about it, if we all were the same, if we all acted the same, we all only knew how to do the same things, we only had the same interests, that would be a really boring life. I believe that God made us all different for a purpose: to be effective in different areas. Where I’m weak, you might be strong, and ultimately, our differences really are like colors on a canvas.
We make the world beautiful, and so I just encourage everyone who is listening to this podcast to embrace your difference, embrace the color that you are on this canvas called Earth, so that we can make a beautiful picture together.
0:07:04 – Skip Lineberg
Yes, I love that.
Ayanna Pope. What’s the main thing you’ve learned in your lifetime so far?
0:07:14 – Ayanna Pope
Skip, the main thing that I’ve learned in my lifetime so far is that it doesn’t matter where you start, it matters where you finish.
0:07:24 – Skip Lineberg
Oh yes, gosh, that is so powerful! It’s not about where you start, it’s about where you finish. Would you take us deeper into that? Tell us more about it, please.
0:07:34 – Ayanna Pope
Yes, we all face challenges. We all have obstacles. We all have a hand in life that was either great or not great. But what really matters is how you work that hand that you’ve been given. So that’s why I say – it doesn’t matter how you start, it matters how you finish. Because if you apply yourself, if you take hold of information, and you apply yourself to your journey, you will have a great outcome. So you just have to engage with your hand.
0:08:08 – Skip Lineberg
Yeah, in our minds there’s a narrative playing – a talk track that’s playing inside our mind. Now, if I’m digging into and leaning on what you’re saying, you’re going to tell me that we can step out of that narrative, can’t we?
0:08:23 – Ayanna Pope
We absolutely can, and we can rewrite our story.
0:08:26 – Skip Lineberg
Yeah! God wants me to hear that. That notion of rewriting our story keeps popping up in my world. So … “I’m listening, God. I’m listening.” We can step out of the script, we can rewrite our story. That’s so powerful. I love your main thing: it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.
0:08:44 – Ayanna Pope
Yes, it’s so true. It’s so true. From experience, I can tell you that.
0:08:52 – Skip Lineberg
Can you think back to a time when this wisdom clarified for you? Was there a particular challenge? You mentioned 10 years ago? Would you want to share with us a little bit more of the detail and the color of that situation, where you said, I need to change my life?
0:09:08 – Ayanna Pope
Yes, because I didn’t understand then what I understand now. Instead of me standing out and being that color that I am, I chose to blend in. Instead of speaking boldly, as I am with you today. I wasn’t saying much of anything then. I was quiet.
If I can be honest … I felt dead inside. I felt dead inside, and it can be likened to clipping a bird’s wings. The bird is meant to fly. The bird is meant to be in the air, but a bird without wings, what life is there for it?
That’s how I felt then. So I had to embrace what I am, and it’s the freest thing ever. Yeah, it’s the freest thing ever. It’s the lightest thing ever! It’s the most empowering thing ever!
0:10:04 – Skip Lineberg
Ayanna, I can guarantee you right now someone’s listening that feels dead inside. They feel like a bird that’s had their wings clipped. What can they do to make the sort of transition and life change that you did? Could you offer some guidance or encouragement?
0:10:20 – Ayanna Pope
Absolutely. What I would encourage them to do is to get into those books that help to encourage you. They might be self-help books. You know, there’s the word of God that gives you clarity.
What you listen to and what you watch matter. If you’re listening to depressing music, you’re going to feel depressed. Get in an environment that’s conducive to celebrating who you are. Get in an environment that is that not only celebrates who you are, but embraces who you are and does not force you to be less than what you are.
Those are just a few things that can start to change their perspective about how they see themselves.
0:11:10 – Skip Lineberg
Terrific advice! I might also say maybe a step they could take would be to get a copy of your book, “Symptoms of Greatness.”
0:11:19 – Ayanna Pope
You know what? That’s a great idea!
0:11:22 – Skip Lineberg
Ayanna, I have loved this conversation. I’m inspired. I’m really, really motivated to, to take your wisdom and carry it forward.
0:11:39 – Ayanna Pope
What I hope that each listener leaves with is just understanding the beauty of themselves, who they are, and it’s beyond what’s in the mirror. It’s beyond what looks back at them in the mirror. It’s deeper than that. If we’re going to go on any quest on this in this world, let it be the quest that we take internally. To be able to see and take inventory of the great things that are within us and embrace those things … because it’s there.
0:12:11 – Skip Lineberg
Yes! Yes and amen. That’s a great place to leave it.
Ayanna Pope, thank you so, so much for sharing your heart and your wisdom today. It’s just been wonderful.
0:12:25 – Ayanna Pope
Yes, it has been great, and I enjoyed every moment of it. Thank you for inviting me and having me on today.
0:12:32 – Skip Lineberg
You’re welcome, and so long for now.
0:12:34 – Ayanna Pope
So long.
0:12:36 – Announcer
Wow, that goes by incredibly fast, doesn’t it? Time flies when you’re hacking wisdom. I hope you’re left wanting more.
Sync up with us again next time, on The Main Thing, for nine more minutes of wisdom.
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Transcription by https://podium.page
