Enterprising even then, Elaine put together a pre-YouTube video application with “India.Arie replaying in the background. I was so extra. That video is a hot mess.” She then spent more time Googling — over 12 hours, she says — and came upon an Essence cover story interview with Alicia Keys, written by Harriet Cole, then the magazine’s Fashion Director, “who I’d never heard of,” she points out. “Something in that moment, after three months of praying desperately for some sign ...I almost audibly hear and feel, reach out to her! Email her! I was raised in the church. I was raised to be a faith driven person, but it isn't until you have a real experience with God that you know that you know God is real. This was my first experience with God.”