A limo ride in Miami. A “dream” career. A knot of anxiety that wouldn’t go away. That’s the moment our guest, Luca Firenescu, realized something was deeply off, even though her fashion industry success looked flawless from the outside. If you’ve ever wondered why you can achieve more and still feel less, this conversation meets you right there with honesty, depth, and practical next steps.
Luca shares how she walks away from modeling, moves through uncertainty, and eventually becomes a happiness coach focused on self-love, self-acceptance, and feeling “enough.” We get into positive psychology and the real-life work of reframing thoughts, especially the painful ones like “Everyone is doing it perfectly except me.” I also break down how we challenge those thoughts by asking for proof in the present moment, then replacing old fear-based beliefs with truth, faith, and a healthier identity.
We talk about authorship and courage. Luca explains what finally helped her publish 99 Mistakes I Made As A Mom And What I Wish I Knew: accountability, a team, deadlines, and the decision to stop waiting for perfection. From ego, mind, and soul alignment to being the light (Matthew 5:14), you’ll leave with language for what you’re feeling and a clearer path for what to do next.
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To connect with or purchase Luca’s book, connect with her on Instagram @lucashaked or purchase her book on Amazon.
To download a free chapter of host Sylvia Worsham’s bestselling book, In Faith, I Thrive: Finding Joy Through God’s Masterplan, purchase any of her products, or book a call with her, visit her website at www.sylviaworsham.com
Transcript:
If you’ve ever struggled with fear, doubt, or worry and wondering what your true purpose was all about, better than this podcast is for you. In this show, your host, Sylvia Warsham, will interview elite experts and ordinary people that have created extraordinary lives. So here’s your host, Sylvia Warsham.
I’ve still got a lot of fun left.
Hey Lightbringers, it’s Sylvia Warsham. Welcome to Released Out Review Purpose. And today’s Luca Firenesco. She is in Lisbon, Portugal, and that’s where I’m headed over the summer. So I’m excited to get to know her on a deeper level. And as y’all know in this podcast, we get deep with our conversations. I want to know more about Luca’s journey from being in the fashion industry for 10 years. From the outside, her life looked complete. It was it looked fulfilled. But we as Americans, as human beings, consider success. Big time career. But inwardly, she didn’t feel like that. How many of you on the other side of this interview can relate? I know I can. I came from the corporate world. I came from the pharmaceutical world. I built a career for almost 20 years. Six-figure salary. Outside, I lived in the perfect neighborhood, had a pristine family, I had a little boy, and then everything came tumbling down. But it’s in those dark chapters that we find the light within us, our true essence. And that is what Luca is going to be talking about. She wrote a book, she’ll get into that later on in the show. So without further ado, Luca, thank you so much for joining us on Release Tower Review Purpose.
Silvia, thank you so much for having us. And you did mention that we’re gonna go deep, but I didn’t know how deep. And I must admit that I already got goosebumps just to hear, just to listen to the beginning of the podcast. It’s an honor having you here, having been here with you today.
Oh, I love that. I know I’m getting goosebumps too. And so I know the Holy Spirit is in the room, and he basically this was a divine connection. This is not a connection just because it’s because someone on the other side of this needs to hear your amazing story of transformation. So if you would do us the honor of sharing that with us.
Thank you so much. So exactly how you said I had the perfect life, everything looked great from outside. I was working for more than 10 years in the fashion industry, and I was feeling more empty than ever. Um, I was, you know, having um campaigns all over the world, I would travel, I would make in a day what a family makes in a in a month, you know, sometimes I appreciated nothing. And I understood that something was really off. I understood that instead of getting excited about jobs, instead of getting excited about traveling and you know, things that people would only dream of, things that I will I was dreaming before, um, I was just getting anxiety. I was um I actually wrote a chapter in a book that will come out, another book of mine, about happiness and fashion. And um I described there, you know, how I started and where I got there. And I rem I remember one night I was in Miami and I was heading the next day to New York, and I was in a limo, I was by myself, uh, the driver was taking me back home because I had to pack, and I just remembered that I was so, so anxious, and I understood that something was wrong, and it was not the only time when I felt that. So slowly, slowly, it was not overnight. I just took the decision to basically um stop modeling. Uh I think I was 27, and uh decided to, you know, I didn’t know what I was going to do. Uh, but slowly, slowly I became a happiness coach. And I turned, you know, um, I became um that person that helps the others feel comfortable with themselves and um create that space where they can, you know, feel self-love instead of hating the person they see in the mirror. So self-love, self-acceptance, and feeling happy and feeling enough with who they are. So um it was a long journey. I think I’m you know I’m still continuing it, but it was not easy. But I think that um that would be my biggest um transformation.
Oh my goodness. I can see you in that limo. I I can see you. I’ve been there more times than I can count, by the way. As a woman, you know, having built a life, having built an identity, because I don’t know about you, but as women, sometimes we feel like we must earn our the love in our life, and sometimes when we achieve so much, when that we it’s like a drive we have. Um and there comes a point, a breaking point, a turning point, and it seems like that lima ride was that turning point for for you. Can you help us by breaking down how what first steps you took to begin that journey to become a happiness coach?
I think that the first step was awareness. You know, the first and I also tell my my clients now, I think that the first thing is you know to aware to to really get to the point to understand that there is a problem, and it’s okay to ask for help, and it’s okay to to say something is wrong here, you know. So it took me time to acknowledge that, but once I got what I understood there was a problem, then okay, what can I do? Um what else? I I think that you know it just we’re the idea is to start doing something, and the idea is to not you know not to plan in our heads so many things, and uh you know, just go for it. Start and and and see how it goes without being completely perfect, you know. So for me, also, you know, I stopped doing that, but I didn’t know what I was going to do after. I went to school, I was um studying advertising, and uh, this is what I also I had my first degree in communication public relations, and I was like, okay, I’m going back to this. I went, I worked for more a bit more like a year for as a strategy director, and again, as it looked like, oh, this is a perfect job on paper, but it was not me. It was not what I wanted to do. So after that, I moved to Portugal, we moved to Spain, we moved to Portugal. Um, I I had like some other companies, and I it was through trial that I got to the point that I understood this is what I want to do, and this is this is me again, you know. So it’s not that I just you know stopped modeling and the the next day I was like, oh yeah, I want to be a happiness coach, and I just became a happiness coach. It took, I think, more than four years also for me to study, and um it took a lot of um failing and you know and learning to get to where I am today. Um and yes, I think the only way to do it is just to to try and to see what fits you because you know there’s not I don’t believe in one size fits all. I believe in different solutions, different opinions, different um different trails, if I could say that. Have I answered your question?
Yes, very much so. And here’s one thing I want to remind the listeners of the podcast. Failure becomes a failure when you fail to learn the lesson of that failure and apply it. That’s failure when you fail that completely, it’s not the failure itself. So tell me, Luca, what was the greatest lesson you learned from these failures?
So, first of all, my one of my favorite quotes is learn to fail or fail to learn. And uh it’s also um one of the the quotes of my professor, Dr. Talburn Shahar, that I uh have been had the pleasure to to study with, and he helped me a lot, and he’s my mentor. Um I think um that when you when you mention about failures, I do have to talk about my books. Uh it’s called 99 mistakes I made as a Mom and What I Wish Um I Knew. Because from the moment I gave birth, maybe even before, I feel like the I felt like the biggest failure in my life. I felt that I know, you know, that I will ruin the lives of those kids. I felt that everything I do, it’s a mistake, and it’s I’m I’m the only one who does that. Everybody else knows how to do it perfectly, except for me. So I’ve learned that uh 99 mistakes or 99 failures can be lessons and can help you bring your personal growth instead of putting you down, but it’s in your power to turn that mistake or that failure into a lesson. It’s nobody’s else. And uh I think that one of my favorite tools in positive psychology is reframing, looking at the situation with other eyes. It’s something that we can always, you know, work with it. And um yeah, I think um that’s one of the that’s one of the lessons though. This is one of the the um this is the the the take that I um I have on on failures.
I love that take because as a life coach for the church, we use that take a lot. See, people have these thoughts, and you mentioned one of them, like everybody’s doing it perfectly except me. And we all think that. This is the father of lies that’s coming in to attack you because you have a beautiful light and a beautiful purpose to fulfill, and he wants to distract you from that. He wants to pepper you with these thoughts, but when you take them captive and make them obedient to Christ, everything starts to shift because you start to see the truth. The truth is hidden beneath all these lies in your head. So to reframe those thoughts is key. So, how do we do this? This is how we as coaches kind of coach our clients through it. So, so she she made a thought of like everybody’s doing it perfectly except me. So, one of the things that I start to help my clients understand is well, tell me what in your present moment provides the proof that that is true. And when you ask that question, you see them like sit back in the chair and go, I there’s no proof. I just think that. So then it’s like identifying, okay, we know then there’s a belief at the root that is driving those thoughts. And when we identify that belief, which is something that you talked about earlier, then we can shift it very quickly because then we can provide the proof in our present day that that belief is simply not true anymore. It’s just something that created long ago when we were little kids and something happened in our life, and and for the time being, it it protected us from feeling the pain. That’s how beliefs work. So now it’s moving forward. Let’s reframe that thought using truth, right? Truth of our of what our present life looks like, and truth of what of who God says you are through his word. And when we provide that, then you start to see it, and you’re like, yeah, this is just BS, this is not true. And that shift occurs. It’s not it’s not this big dramatic thing. And I think most people think, oh my gosh, it’s gonna take so much pain and so much work. It’s gonna take reflection, it’s going to take you sitting with some of these feelings that are not the easiest feelings to sit with, right? And once you do that, you allow them to surface and you sit with them and you grieve with them and you identify these patterns of behaving that you’ve been doing for so long and break free from that spell you’re in. Now is the time to really start moving in the direction of what your soul is leading you to do. And I heard you say, I went through so many trials to get here. We know that our purpose, when we discover it, it’s not this linear thing. It’s this a lot of it is messy. Yes? I heard you say it was messy for you. Um, so you discovered your purpose. When you at what point do you think you discovered your purpose to be an author?
Well, this uh first of all, I just want to to say that I agree with every word that you said, you know, words of wisdom uh that you mentioned before, and thank you so much for sharing that because I think it’s really important to stop and to really reflect uh and you know to to give it place to these patterns and beliefs and our childhood. I think it’s a whole topic. But to go back on the author, um, I always like it. I I enjoyed writing. Writing for me, it’s like something that came out very naturally, even since I was a kid. It was a way of expressing myself. Now, there are these, we talked about beliefs, there are these beliefs that we are not good enough to write. Who am I to write a book? Who am I to get like to be a published author? This, you know, this is something unbelievable. More than that, I have some statistics that more than 80% of the people have an idea for a book. Now, 16%, I don’t remember exactly the numbers, but drastically lower, they actually start writing the book. 8%, they actually finish the book, and I don’t know, five or something like that. Uh a very, very low number of people that actually finish the book, publish the book, and get, you know, take the book out and um and do that. So for me, I had this idea, I had many, many many ideas, and I got this idea. I have the book here with me. And um, so 99 mistakes I made as a mom, it was uh an idea that I had more than five years ago. And what happened was that last year I turned uh no two years ago, I’m 41 hour and a half, and I’m a December baby. So I was born um when I after I turned 40. I told my to myself, no BS anymore. I just I had this idea and I’m going to work on it and I’m going to take this book out in the world. Now I didn’t do it. I think that the secret is by myself. I didn’t do it by myself. I just uh the secret is creating like a team around you. So I had a coach that was my accountability partner that she would check on me. I had a publisher and um so the editor in the publishing house that they were helping for uh and you know cheering for me. So it was a process that what happened was um I had these people that they gave me a deadline, they put me a deadline, they were working, they they were literally checking on me every week, and um I wouldn’t have done it without my coach. I we we set up a goal and I started writing, like really writing in uh January 2025, and the book I I launched the book in January 26 now. So it took me one year, and people are like, Wow, how did you do it so fast and how with the editing? And I was like, Wow, I wanted to finish it much earlier. Um so just to answer to your question, I became an author through uh a lot of work, uh through a lot of trials, through a lot of courage. Uh I have a friend who he told me he couldn’t believe that I published my my book, and he said, you know, I wrote five books, I have five books in my in my uh computer. I never published one because I was too afraid to hear the other people’s opinion. So for me, my um I think my my success is about you know taking like getting a big goal from the beginning till the end and accomplishing it, you know. Um so it was something very important for me. So I didn’t become an author overnight, I just followed the passion and then grabbed the right team of people to support me, to cheer for me, and then I got it out. That’s all email. Congratulations.
Let’s just pause right now and like big old clap because we know, and I’m an author too, I’m a three times best-selling author, and it’s not an easy feat to sit with all that and just write and have those deadlines. I too had left deadlines, I too had coaches, and I I myself am like you, Luca, in that I set that goal up for myself. My husband would say, but nobody’s holding you to it, you’re holding you to it. And I said, Because my purpose is so divinely attributable to me, in that that was my passion. That’s what I could do forever and not feel like it’s work. It’s work though, because you’re sitting there, you’re writing these chapters. I know my first manuscript was 15 chapters, and I was just like, oh my goodness, like, but like you, I spent 13 years telling God no. God had prompted me back in 2007, eight time frame to write my first book, and I said no. I said, Who am I? What do I have to offer? What am I gonna talk about? What am I gonna write about? And finally in 2020, he said, It’s time, trust me, write your book. Write your book, it’s time, trust me. That was the prompting over and over and over again until I said yes. Because at that point in my relationship with God was much closer. I had been through a lot with him, he had been with me through thick and thin. I’d been through a divorce, I had been through um turning an underperforming territory to number one in the country for Pfizer at the same time as getting divorced and going through all of that muck. Um, I’ve been through my father’s illness, um, who eventually passed away about two years ago, but it was a lot of grief and a lot of striving and a lot of resilience. Like my perseverance is unlike most people, that’s one of my strengths. And like you, I felt unworthy for a long time. I strove to feel worthy. I still to this day, he had to stop me in November of last year and said, enough. Uh, you don’t need to strive for my love. You have my love. Quit doing that. I just want your heart. And I think as authors, we need to sit back and think, like, this is this is this is who we, this is our divine purpose. This is why we are chosen to be those authors so that our light, our struggles can be put on paper, our failures, so that one, people don’t feel alone in that journey, because it sucks to do this alone. Second, that what our journey becomes the survival book that people currently going through that chapter will use to get out of that dark space. Because when we put it on paper, it comes alive. People can relate, people can sit with it and go, oh my goodness, this author knows. I mean, it’s like she zipped my soul, took a peek in it, wrote about it, zipped it, we’re right back up. That’s what it feels like for the people on the receiving end. It is a huge gift you are providing humanity to share that with them. And it’s not ours to keep. See, this is it’s not ours to keep. It’s a gift that we have received from God the Father to share with His with your brothers and sisters. And we’re all your brothers and sisters out there. We are all one. There’s no us versus them. This whole concept of the fallen world, it to me is like it’s a foreign concept. I don’t understand it. See it when I see you, Luca. I see a sister. I don’t see a division between us. I don’t care that you’re in Portugal and I’m in Austin, Texas. I don’t care that you are, you know, your background, I’m from Mexico. It doesn’t bother me. I see you as someone, I don’t compete with you, even though we’re both authors, even though we both have books out there. I see us as co-collaborators because we’re part of one body of Christ. We we are both co-collaborating and sharing our lives to bring more people into the light and out of that darkness. Because the darkness wants to keep us in the dark, because we have such powerful purposes to live out. And so I’m grateful to you, Luca, that you were courageous, that you took those initial steps, that you got your book out in a year. That not just written, edited, and published and released. That’s a huge accomplishment. Bravo to you. I hope for those listening, Luca, did you? Reward yourself for that for that big accomplishment? I think not enough.
You know, not in there, you can never reward yourself so much for that. So first of all, thank you for your for the beautiful words. And uh I just want to say something regarding to the when you mentioned that it’s a gift, most of the messages that I got from the mothers were like, this is so reliable. I can so much rely on um on what you wrote. So how I told you, like people make mistakes and think they think that they are the only terrible moms, and they’re it’s only them, and you know. So uh definitely I would say that um no, I didn’t reword myself enough. I’m being I’ve been working on a review edition of the of the book, actually, and I’m uh working on the marketing part, and you know that I studied the easiest part is to write a book, to promote it, it’s something different, or the editing, and not easy, not easy. It isn’t, but you know what?
It’s so rewarding to hear it, to read it. I know I’ve read God, has actually prompted me to reread my book to remind myself of that journey. Now, why I say the reward, and here’s for those who’ll sing as coaches, she Luca and I understand this concept, but for those that are not a coach, when you accomplish something big, the reward comes in to say to your mind, you do you have this is a good thing to continue the momentum moving forward. The mind needs to know that the it stayed obedient to the heart, to the soul. For for the ego, mind, and soul to become one, and these are the concepts that I talk about in my book, In Faith, I thrive, finding joy through God’s master plan, is to number one, empower the ego. The ego is not the enemy, the ego is the self-image. The mind is very powerful, it can keep you in these dark chapters for a long time. Luca and I understand this concept very well, so it’s important to reframe to go back to initial um the initial tips she gave at the beginning of the interview. And the soul is there to guide you into that divine calling. And you’ve had it since you were born. This divine calling. What happened is that things happened in your life, moments, significant emotional events, and they fed the soil of your mind, and they fed the soil of your heart. And the soul has been there from the beginning with spirit, trying to help you understand that divine calling, and been trying to prompt you to get in, to step into the light, but your ego and your mind, and this is where it’s really important to understand who you are in Him, they it will attack you. It will attack you, it will deceive you, and it will keep you in the dark. So it’s important to take that first courageous step and to allow the spirit to lead you, allow the soul to lead you. It initially it will terrify you because the ego will is comprised of that fear, those fear-based belief systems. So that’s why it’s important to identify and work with people that can help you identify those belief systems so you can easily shift them over. You can work with therapists, you can work with coaches, you can work with whomever you feel will understand your journey best and guide you best. And you’ll know, you’ll know when you meet that person, it will be like you were meant for each other, kind of like your soulmates, but in in a different capacity. So it’s empowering the ego, which is what we’ve talked about, empowering that mind and reframing those thoughts, and then being spirit-led and soul-led. And when those three become one, that’s what’s called alignment. That’s when things just start happening very quickly. You’ve leveled up, and you’ve leveled up beautifully, but it does require this. It requires intentionality on your part, it requires acceptance of that plan, acceptance that your ego is doesn’t really know you well, acceptance that the the way you’ve been operating simply does not work anymore, and that’s why you don’t feel fulfilled. That’s why you feel so empty, like Luca and I felt in our first acts. So it requires that of you and requires you sitting like we sat and and truly living out our purpose on purpose. And we’re doing it now. And I I’m grateful that Luca is here to write even more books because I have more books in me. I don’t know about you, Luca. You do, right? You said you’re working on the second manuscript. Any last words of encouragement, Luca, that you want to leave us with? And how can we find you and buy your latest book?
So um I have a lot of things to add more, but I will just um first of all, you can find the book on Amazon. You can you can go to Amazon and you can search from 99 mistakes I made as a mom and what I wish I knew. But actually, I would prefer if um you DM me on my Instagram, also at the 99 Mom Mistakes, and write me there personally about your mistakes, or at uh Relocate to Happiness. Also, it’s my uh it’s my coaching website. Um and uh wow, what could I say? I was just listening to you, and it’s just um amazing. I I wish I would, you know, take I will definitely listen to the episode again and take notes and um go deeper into this. I think that the conversation just you know went by in a second. I I feel that we just were just meeting and uh it was lovely uh being here with you. Uh yeah, what would I say? Just um trust your intuition and um listen how you said to that voice inside of yourself. Don’t tell anybody to tell you no, not to not not to be courageous, not to be who you are, and uh love yourself. It’s the perfect way for us to end.
But as the listeners have released our reveal purpose now, how I usually end my podcast interviews is to to quote Matthew 5.14, to be the light. Be the light, like Luca and I have been the light. Shed those fear-based belief systems, they’re just holding you back. If you feel unfulfilled, if you don’t feel happy, find help, turn inward, follow the intuition, like Luca said. That is solid advice. You know, God gives us a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. We have confidence within us all. We’re already equipped that way, we already carry that authority within us. Remind yourselves all right, we he abides in us just like as much as we abide in him. That means that the knowledge of him is within us all. That’s a lot of great information. Your purpose, your divine calling and identity resides in you, it doesn’t reside anywhere outside of you. I know most of us understand that to be a truth because that’s what we’ve heard ever since we were little kids. But Luke and I are here to tell you that’s not the way this goes. We have lived it. We have experienced the hard road to this divine calling. Now, she’s in her 40s, I’m already 51, I’m turning 52 this year. Do you really want more time to pass by before you step into that power that you already have inside of you? Think about that for a moment and realize you already have what it takes. You already have that within you to step into this calling, to step into this purpose, to release your doubt today so that your purpose is revealed within you. Have a wonderful and loving rest of your day. Bye now.
So that’s it for today’s episode of Release Doubt, Reveal Purpose. Head on over to iTunes or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week who posts a review on iTunes will win a chance the grand prize drawing to win a$25,000 private VIP day with Sylvia Worsham herself. Be sure to head on over to sylviaworsham.com and pick up a free copy of Sylvia’s gift and join us on the next episode.