Havilah Malone – Ms Louisiana Universal 2018
Overview
Crowned Ms. Louisiana Universal 2018, Havilah Malone’s nurturing spirit, inspirational voice, and magnetizing personality are not only a unique representation of the state she calls home but also the future of our country.
Havilah is a woman with vision who believes self-mastery and success begin on the inside. This millennial powerhouse embraces her mission to inspire and equip female leaders with the strategies and tools to fearlessly and successfully pursue their life’s calling while consistently breaking through the barriers and limiting beliefs that get in the way. Havilah has been featured on FOX, CBS, NBC, the Huffington Post, and more. She was crowned Ms. Louisiana Universal for 2018.
At the age of 19, Havilah graduated from the University of New Orleans with degrees in Dramatic Arts and Communications with a minor in Psychology. By age 21, she was managing a $160-million-dollar technology division for Hewlett-Packard and serving as their television spokesperson on QVC & HSN.
Currently, Havilah is a two-time bestselling author and an International Inspirational Teacher and Speaker. Additionally, she has several professional accreditations 
including being a Certified Napoleon Hill Leader and Master Certified Practitioner of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). She also serves as the Education Chair for the Louisiana Diversity Council and was selected as the 2017 SBA InnovateHER Challenge Winner for her youth entrepreneurship project, “Fueling The Future Now.” In 2015, Havilah’s non-profit foundation, “Living Beyond the Box,” was honored by the City of Kenner, Louisiana, which proclaimed June 26 to be Everybody Loves Barbie Day, named after the premier program that inspires women and youth to break the silence of abuse and live more empowered and fulfilled lives.
The road to success was not an easy one for this inspirational thought-leader. After being sexually abused as a child, Havilah was crippled by feelings of low self-worth, shame, and a lack of belonging; which nearly led to suicide. For years, she played small in life and suppressed her voice of individuality while trying to please others and fit in. Severely depressed and at a crossroads in her life in 2012, Havilah embarked on a powerful journey of self-development and discovered the secrets to unleashing her gifts and harnessing the true power that lies within. She now shares this message with audiences around the world. Havilah passionately encourages people to follow their dreams because anything is possible.
Recently, The Lyfe Magazine got an opportunity to meet with this outstanding woman. Here’s our interview with Havilah Malone.
Interview
The Lyfe: How did you get your name?
Havilah: My name comes from the Bible, a land in the Garden of Eden. It is a land of gold. My nanny named me. I love my name because I am a land of gold.
The Lyfe: How do you inspire women to take the leap?
Havilah: My purpose is to be a catalyst for positive change
through my actions. It is important for me to “Be Proof of What is Possible” in life. My life is my ministry. If I can do it, then you can do it too.
The Lyfe: How are you leading the way as an example?
Havilah: It starts with being an overcomer. Everyone has gone through something in their life. For me, I was a victim of child molestation. I had very low self-esteem and self-confidence. I covered my pain with my accomplishments: doing well in school, excelling in the workforce, and receiving accolades and praise. That was just enough to keep my cup with the one last drop in it.
It was a constant struggle to go after the things I really wanted. I didn’t have a sense of worthiness. I thought I was going to take my pain to the grave because it was a close family member [who 
molested me]. I didn’t want people to know the guilt, the shame, not wanting to break up my family; all of these things. I just accepted that I would struggle with this. Like many of us, I just struggled in silence.
Even though I was extremely successful, I was not happy. My accomplishments went on and on but, again, I was not happy and I was not living my truth. I was not being who I truly was because I was too busy trying to fit into the mold of what everyone else wanted for me. This is what I was doing as opposed to finding my own voice, knowing my own truth and being able to authentically speak no matter what anybody thought. In 2014, I finally came to a place where I finally broke my silence.
The Lyfe: How did that happen?
Havilah: One of the hardest things I had ever done was to verbalize it and let it out because I did not know what was going to transpire afterward. Thank God that I did because the energy that it was taking for me to hold that in and to suppress that within myself was also the energy I could not use to go after my dreams. It was the energy I could not use to be my powerful authentic self in front of people. It was the energy I could not use to show up fully because I was too afraid how people would perceive me.
What finally got me there was taking a risk! I didn’t know what was going to happen on the other side of this step but everything inside of me was guiding me and telling me to do it. I had to walk by faith. I decided to take steps in faith and actually do it. That’s living, that’s gold!
The Lyfe: You said so many powerful things but the one thing that stood out the most was the energy you used to hold it in was the energy you could not use to move forward. What gave you the freedom to break the energy of repression?
Havilah: It all comes in steps. We think that it’s a big explosive moment, but it’s just one courageous step at a time. Because I’m a public figure and I live my life in front of a lot of people, I knew my story was going to come out once I broke my silence. I knew my story wasn’t just for me. I made it through this to help people so I couldn’t stay silent.
With me, it started when I was sitting on my best friend’s bed. I had been working on my own self-development and I felt it inside of me that it was time; this is my next breakthrough moment. If I could just get this out. The one thing I was avoiding was the one thing I needed to address. I needed to allow these words to come out of me while sitting on her bed. I revealed who it was at that point. I already shared what had happened, but I was still protective of my family and the circumstances around it.
The Lyfe: I love how you broke it down, that it takes steps to break the silence. Starting with that one person propelled you into your life. Let’s talk about the Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich book. Tell our readers a little about that.
Havilah: I’m a huge student of Napoleon Hill. When I was introduced to his work, it was through the Napoleon Hill Foundation audio renaissance series called The Richest Man in Babylon. There were two stories on that audio cassette, “The Richest Man in Babylon” and “The Magic Story.” The principles I learned in “The Richest Man in Babylon” helped me start taking control of my money. I started looking into the Napoleon Foundation which led me to Think and Grow Rich. The first time I went through it, I didn’t grasp all of it. I thought I’ll get it one of these days but it planted a very powerful seed.
The Lyfe: What happened after that?
Havilah: I saw an Oprah Winfrey special where she attended a Tony Robbins Unleash Your Power Within event. She walked on fire and experienced huge breakthroughs. I was like one day I’m 
going to that event and eight months later, I was at that same Tony Robbin’s event. Tony is also a big proponent of Napoleon Hill Principles of Success. I ended up joining Tony Robbins’s platinum partnership program and it took my personal development journey to the next level. I started doing a lot of personal reading and I got back into Napoleon Hill’s work.
The Lyfe: Tell me about Ann McNeill and Don Green.
Havilah: Once you get to your next level, there’s always another next level of growth available to you. I decided I wanted to go to my next level. I really wanted to put the Napoleon Hill principles to work in me. I connected with Ann McNeill who runs the International Mastermind Association. She had been teaching the Think and Grow Rich principles for over 30 years.
My connection with Ann led me to Don Green, who is the Executive Director of the Napoleon Hill Foundation. Through him, I found out that they had a program to become a Napoleon Hill Certified Leader.
I went through the course. It typically takes people about a year to complete the course. You really go on a deep dive into the principles as well as applying and incorporating them into your life.
During the live leadership portion of the course in French Lick, Indiana, our entire class was given the assignment to write a one-page children’s story based on one of the principles of success assigned to us. I was given a slip of paper with #10 on it and immediately my writing partner and I went to work on the story. Within our hour lunch break, we wrote a powerful rhyming tale called “The Town of Lost & Found” on the principle Enthusiasm. After the class was over, the Director of the Foundation, Judy Williamson, came over to us, extremely impressed with the story and asked us to create short rhymed children’s story for all 17 principles. It took us about three to five months to create these powerful, principle-based tales. I knew this was nothing but God because the original principle we had been assigned in the class, principle #10, was not Enthusiasm. Principle #10 is actually Accurate Thinking. I think God put a blinder on my eyes so that I saw what I needed to see at the time because it took us two weeks to write the story for Accurate Thinking. There was no way we could have come up with that story in an hour. It was God who made me see Enthusiasm and gave us the inspiration to write it in that timeframe.
In December of 2016, those writings were published in a children’s book which was released from the Napoleon Hill Foundation called The Amazing Adventures of Oliver Hill. It teaches the 17 principles of success in 17 short stories that take kids on amazing adventures with Oliver and his friends while expanding their minds and empowering them to lead successful lives.
The Lyfe: Are you named as an author on the book?
Havilah: Yes, I’m the co-author of the book.
The Lyfe: What advice would give to the high school Class of 2018 as they prepare for their journey?
Havilah: I would encourage them to keep an open mind and an open heart, to follow the internal voice that is always trying to guide them. Don’t ignore those hunches
or sparks of inspiration because there are much greater forces at play in this universe that are conspiring to give us everything we want. And we are co-creators in our own experience. No matter what your past may have looked like, you can create whatever future you want, you are just that powerful. Ask for help. Be willing to try and fail because all failure is learning. Learn, readjust, and keep going after your goals. YOU GOT THIS!
The Lyfe: What about the Class of 2022?
Havilah: I would tell them the same thing. I think, by 2022, more women will be in positions of power and influence. The balance of feminine and masculine energy will be well on its way. I would encourage people to continue to lead from the heart, to be authentic and transparent, to be inclusive and supportive and keep creating from a place of love. Keep taking risks, pushing the boundaries of their imagination, and delivering to the world the unique gifts they came here to bring. We all have a note to play in this amazing symphony called life, and I can’t wait to hear your music!