In this powerful episode of the BucketWish Podcast, Erica Nicole Malone shares a masterclass in intentional living. Drawing from her high-stakes experience as a filmmaker and researcher—including the nine months of meticulous preparation required to tell the story of the legendary Mahalia Jackson. Erica reveals why your life deserves the same rigor as a hit screenplay.

Are you moving forward with a roadmap, or are you just "doing you" without a destination? Erica breaks down the essential elements of "scripting your life," from drafting your personal beat sheet to auditing the "cast" of characters currently occupying your space. Key Takeaways from This Week’s Episode: The Power of the Script: Why showing up prepared with a plan is the only way to ensure you don't end up in "New York" when your soul is calling you to "Texas." Character Audits: How to identify the "bad actors" and "set fillers" in your life—those who consume your energy and time without moving your story forward.

The Energy Exchange: Why it is not only okay but necessary to expect a return on the love and inspiration you pour into others. Protecting Your Interior: Strategies for dealing with "triggers" and difficult people (the "Google" method) to ensure no one else takes the remote control to your spirit. Horse Blinders & Focus: The importance of maintaining a "storyboard" mindset to remain impenetrable against distractions and stay focused on winning your own race. Your time is your most valuable asset—more precious than a billion dollars.

Join Erica this week to learn how to reinvent yourself and become the person you’ve always dreamed of being.

You are expensive. You are treasured. You are special. Stop letting people spend your energy without a script."

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Butterfly Girl" — A Conversation with Alexia Faith This week on The BucketWish, Ericka Nicole Malone sits down with someone very close to her heart — her daughter, singer-songwriter Alexia Faith.

Alexia has been quietly ascending for years, and this conversation is your chance to truly meet her. She opens up about the pivotal moment that sparked *Butterfly Girl* — her breakout single with over half a million views worldwide — and what it really means to rescue yourself when the fairy tale doesn't show up on cue. She talks about growing up feeling different, learning to fly away from the towns and the people who wanted to keep her small, and why softness in a Black woman is not a weakness. It is, in fact, the whole point.

They also get into her brand new single *Incognito* — what it means to disappear on your own terms, let people lose access to you, and come back exactly when you're ready.

This one is equal parts inspiration and joy. Because if you know Ericka and Alexia together, you already know — the laughs are coming too.

Come with us. Your dreams are worth fighting for — not for the accolades, but because you love them.

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I want to tell you about a memory from my childhood — laying out in the sun with my friends, not one of us thinking about who was white, who was Black, who was Latina. Just kids. Just happy to be together. That kind of innocence stays with you.

This week on The Bucketwish, I'm holding that memory up against the world we're living in right now — full of pain, full of chaos — and if you're an empath like me, it can feel like too much to hold. But I believe that when voices come together, there is change. When we choose love over fear, there is healing. I'm sharing something personal this episode — about growing up, about the moments in history we thought we'd never live through again, and the quiet courage it takes to keep showing up for each other anyway.

Because here's what I know — your dreams still matter in the middle of all of this. They matter *because* of all of this. The world needs you whole. The world needs you living, not just surviving.

That's what The Bucketwish was built for. To remind you that your dreams are worth chasing, that you don't have to do it alone, and that the life you're imagining for yourself is possible — even now, especially now. We are all our brother's keeper, and part of keeping each other is giving each other permission to rise. Come sit with me. Let's find the light together — and let's go after everything we were meant to be.