Evoke Greatness Podcast
Do you have an insatiable hunger for growth and knowledge?
Are you interested in hearing the stories of how successful people have navigated their journey towards greatness…all while stumbling through valuable lessons along the way?
My name is Sonnie and I am the host of Evoke Greatness, the weekly podcast driven by my curious nature and fascination with the champion mindset. I am a HUGE book nerd and a wee bit of a "control enthusiast" with an obsession for motivational coffee cups.
On this podcast, we share the ups and the downs, the highs and lows and all the lessons learned in between. It's my most sincere hope you hear something in one or maybe many of these episodes that resonates with you and reminds you that you’re not in this alone.
I believe that a rising tide raises all ships and I invite you along in this journey to Evoke Greatness!
Evoke Greatness Podcast
Rewilding Your Life and Leadership with Aubrey Morgan Yee ( Part 2 )
🎧 Episode 182: Rewilding Your Life and Leadership with Aubrey Morgan Yee (Part 2)
In Part 2 of this conversation, futurist, systems thinker, and storyteller Aubrey Morgan Yee goes deeper into the wisdom and practices that help us lead with clarity and integrity in a world that often demands speed and urgency.
Aubrey shares why slowing down can actually accelerate transformation, how the “goo” of metamorphosis mirrors our own growth, and why rewilding and clearing our lives of mental pollution are essential for living with joy and purpose. She also gives us a glimpse into her upcoming book Our Beloved Futures, which calls us to remember our role as powerful co-creators of what’s next.
We explore:
- Why slowing down is the key to deeper clarity and better leadership
- The butterfly and the goo—what transformation really requires of us
- Practical ways to rewild your daily life when you feel stuck or disconnected
- How clearing “mental pollution” creates integrity, joy, and freedom
- Aubrey’s coaching programs—Chrysalis and Interbeing—designed for people in transition
- The non-negotiable morning rituals that keep her grounded and creative
- What swimming with wild dolphins taught her about presence and wonder
- The single piece of wisdom she would leave with the world
🔑 Key takeaways:
- Urgency requires us to slow down—not speed up
- Transformation often looks messy before it looks beautiful
- Clearing mental and emotional clutter opens space for new possibilities
- Leadership rooted in integrity and presence ripples outward
đź’ˇ Quotes to remember:
“Times are urgent… we must slow down.”
“The goo is the only way through.”
“Integrity brings joy—when you’re clear, you’re free.”
“We are co-creators of our beloved futures.”
đź“š Resources mentioned:
✨ Learn more about Aubrey’s work:
📲 Connect with Aubrey:
Instagram – @aubrey.morgan.yee
Podcast – Beloved Futures
A rising tide raises all ships, and I invite you along on this journey to Evoke Greatness!
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I think food is a huge one, and I'm just going to start there because I really believe that, like the biochemical makeup of our bodies starts to shift the way things happen and just starting to eat closer to the earth, so cleaner, whole foods, as close to your house as you can get them from ideally a farmer nearby if possible, or, you know, farmer's market or whatever Like that's a really simple thing you can do and if you actually stick to that for a little while, you're going to see profound changes in your mood and actually your ability to think.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Evoke Greatness, the podcast for bold leaders and big dreamers who refuse to settle. I'm your host, sunny. I started in scrubs over 20 years ago doing the gritty, unseen work and climbed my way to CEO. Every rung of that ladder taught me something worth passing on Lessons in leadership, resilience and what it really takes to rise. You'll hear raw conversations, unfiltered truths and the kind of wisdom that ignites something deeper in you your courage, your conviction, your calling. This show will help you think bigger, lead better and show up bolder in every part of your life. This is your place to grow. Let's rise together In part two of Rewilding your Life and Leadership, with my guest, aubrey Morgan Yee, she shows why slowing down is actually the secret to clarity and better leadership, the surprising wisdom hidden in the goo of transformation and simple ways to rewild your life when you feel stuck.
Speaker 2:This is a conversation about slowing down, remembering what matters and stepping into a future as co-creators of the world you want to live in. Okay, let's hop into it. The world often rewards speed and efficiency over what you were talking about depth and reflection speed and efficiency over what you were talking about depth and reflection.
Speaker 2:How do you help leaders slow down enough to actually hear and actually absorb the wisdom that is available to them.
Speaker 1:That's a really important one. I'm saying it all the time. There's a really great thinker, bayo Komolafe. He says times are urgent, we must slow down, and that's one of my favorite quotes because it's like in that moment of urgency you can see it when you're in a like we just had a recent tsunami scare here in Hawaii and feeling of urgency and I totally did not follow my own teachings. I was like I kind of panicked. I was in the middle of getting my hair cut. I had to run down the street to get my kids, my daughter's, freaking out. We packed up the car, got up to the safe spot kind of rushed, got up there and I'm things. You trip over yourself, you bump other people on the way.
Speaker 1:And that metaphor can be applied to anything in leadership. You know, when we're really dealing with these intractable big especially big systems, change efforts, something like homelessness or trying to rethink how we do the economy or whatever it might be a political thing. It's like it's such a tightly woven knot already that if we just try to jump in and just like fling ourselves at whatever, we're going to waste energy, we're going to waste resources, we're going to exhaust others and probably create some harm. So it's super important to slow down and take the time to understand. You know there's an Einstein quote. I won't get it right, but he said something like if I had an hour, I'd use 59 minutes thinking about the problem, in a minute doing something about it. Might not even be him that said that, but you know that quote it's a good one Because it's that idea of understanding what you're dealing with first. So really taking the time to ask the right questions, to be curious to you know. Another thing I really encourage is to just know that you don't know and like that's okay, like it's actually really strong leadership to say that I don't know and I'm going to try to find out you know, and to be okay with not having the answers.
Speaker 1:We've been taught that we're supposed to know and if we don't know, something's wrong or we're not doing a good job. But actually, with you know, especially building towards new things that we've never done before, we can't know the answer. If we know the answer, we're just going to do the same thing over again. So we have to really slow down, get super curious, listen deeply to what actually is happening. A lot of people in systems work too, will jump to conclusion, just wanting to try step out. But it's like did you actually look at what the system looks like, as it is not how you wish it to be? Again that clear-eyed kind of view of reality. It's like you know it might hurt to look at it because it's really messed up, but this is what's really going on. And until we know that, we can't think about where we can intervene and what we can do.
Speaker 1:So I mean some just like simple practices on a daily basis is stuff like slowing down in the morning, having a morning practice where you ground yourself, and it can be something as simple as stretching for a few minutes, writing for a few minutes. Dream of consciousness. Writing is always really great. A short breath work practice can be really great. Even just like slowly watching your coffee percolate can be great. You know, if you need to start somewhere small, just start with what's easy Watch the steam come up from your coffee or tea for a moment, but taking that time to just slow down the pace. Another thing I'll do a lot in meetings or gatherings, online or in person, is, especially if we're sharing a lot of information, to take a moment, close our eyes, take three deep breaths, just slow down, let the body catch up with the brain, let everything kind of settle for a moment, reground yourself, become present and then go back into it.
Speaker 2:So it's amazing how, when we slow ourselves down, I mean it's it sounds a little bit corny and there's I know there's a quote about it, but it's like the more we slow down, the more we can speed up, because I think we get so caught up in. You think about response, responsivity versus reactivity. Right, and reactivity is very emotion led and responsivity is very logic led, and the difference in outcomes or the process can be drastically different. So when we're slowing down and getting just more in tune with ourselves, it's amazing how we can lead from that more centered, authentic place.
Speaker 1:Absolutely yeah, and there's also a way in which you know when you slow down and like you're saying, slow down to go fast, you can actually slow down and then get into a flow state which can feel fast, but it's you've slowed down enough to find the rhythm to get into that flow. So it's not like the erraticness of the panicked rush, there's like a slowing down to then get into the flow state to then move with a pace that feels maybe a little faster but actually has like a fluidity to it and a smoothness that allows new things to emerge and ideas to come Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely yeah. Let's talk about your book. You've got a book coming out in October, oh yeah, who is it for? What do you hope are the biggest?
Speaker 1:it's called Our Beloved Futures. So it's sort of you know. And the title came at the end, which is funny because that's been my brand for a couple of years now. But I was like, oh, that's what the book wants to be called too. You know, I've been a poet my whole life. So it started out as a desire to amalgamate poetry that I've written over the years. But then through that amalgamation came this other thing that is now the book, that is in its way of writing, is very kind of mythopoetic is the best way I can describe it. So it's a journey into that idea of clear-eyed look at where we are as a species on the planet and then allowing the grief of that to take us into remembering that we're powerful co-creators of the future. So it's the hoped for experience of the reader is to remember that we are earth, we are nature, we come literally from the earth, and the earth is this incredible technology, and so is our bodies are this incredible technology? And when we can lean back into that and remember that. You know, we can see everything that's happening, but we don't have to be collapsed by it, because we are co-creators of our life. When we find that pono space within and that realignment we get to become part of the synergistic sort of synarchical upward spiral in our experience. And that's the vision of the book and that's where it takes people on this journey.
Speaker 1:I use the metaphor of the butterfly and sort of the caterpillar being the ultimate consumer. You know, eats, eats, eats, just gets fat, fat, fat, and then eventually goes into this chrysalis where it literally melts into goo, becomes completely formless, loses all sense of its form and identity, and in that moment the imaginal cells are what they're called. There's these like little cells that have always been in the caterpillar that are then awakened and realize like I don't know why I was here all this time, but I have some purpose, and they start to come together and that's what forms the butterfly. So if we look at that metaphor of metamorphosis of this, you know very profound change from the ultimate consumer to a flying pollinator that then creates life, and the really painful experience of melting into goo, to become formless, to be reformed. I think that's the moment that we're in and that's kind of the journey the book takes people through, to the other end of knowing that we're creating our beloved futures together.
Speaker 2:I love that. I've got someone who has recently come in my life. Her name is Mary Kay Durant and she too is such a lover of nature. But she has introduced that idea to me recently of the goo. Like there's this beautiful translation of it, but the goo is actually so life-giving and it had me completely look at it so differently, and so I love how you framed that, because that really is, that's the process, right? That's the process of life. Because that really is, that's the process. Right, that's the process of life. Should you want to live it as fully as is given available to you, there is some thing you have to go through. There's the, there's goo. You know, whatever the goo is specific to you, there's a goo that we can get caught up in, and then that, too, can actually bring new life to us.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah, it's kind of the only way. It's what we go through, you know. And so just embracing that part of the process instead of being afraid of it or numbing out trying to avoid it, yeah, when we embrace that, then we actually push through to the next thing, which is something we could never have imagined. You know, the caterpillar could not have imagined it was going to someday be a butterfly. It's such a profound transformation.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think it's so interesting, there are people who feel like they're stuck in that caterpillar phase. They don't feel like they're this next thing, they don't feel like metamorphosis is coming in their future. And so, for those people who they feel stuck or they feel disconnected, what is a simple way that they could begin to rewild their own life?
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's lots of different ways. I've spoken about breath. I think food is a huge one, and I'm just going to start there because I really believe that, like the biochemical makeup of our bodies starts to shift the way things happen, and just starting to eat closer to the earth way things happen and just starting to eat closer to the earth, so cleaner, whole foods, as close to your house as you can get them from, ideally a farmer nearby if possible, or you know, farmer's market or whatever, like that's a really simple thing you can do and if you actually stick to that for a little while, you're going to see profound changes in your mood and actually your ability to think. So I think that's one. I also think the stream of consciousness writing whenever I've been really stuck or feeling really like, yeah, just depressed or off, or like just the patterns of, you know, negative thoughts are just running and I just can't stop the tape Couple pages of stream of consciousness writing in the morning.
Speaker 1:The artist's way you know it's sort of her famous thing is the morning pages, but they're profoundly helpful and you just write. Even if you can't think of what to write, you write I can't think of what to write, over and over again on the page, but you'd be surprised what comes through, especially over time, and you don't even need to read them. You can throw them out if you want to, can keep them if you want to. It's just the act of getting. It's like emptying the trash every morning. You're just emptying the trash of your mind. You're emptying that stuff that doesn't need to stick so it can be composted and you can have a clear head to actually receive the information that wants to come to you about what to do next. And then you'll start to see new information come in, new instructions and all of that starts to shift.
Speaker 2:When you envision the future that we're co-creating, what does it look like to actually apply the wisdom of the earth, the wisdom of our ancestors, to pull all of that into it?
Speaker 1:Gosh, there's so many ways to go with that. I like to focus on the individual level just because I feel like that's where we have agency and, for people who are listening, it's like something they can do. So, just starting to pay attention to the life you've built, like, what are the silly things? Like, open the cabinet underneath your sink, like, what products do you have down there? You know, are you buying things and filling your home, filling your body, filling your space with products that actually are not going to harm the earth? Because there's so many options out there now, even inexpensive ones, that you can go online and find these fancy things. But it's starting to get in touch with, like, where have I given away my power to living in a world that is actually toxifying my body and my thinking and my way of being, you know? So there's like I really do believe.
Speaker 1:You know, for a long time, I think part of my frozenness was this sense of, like the weight of the world on my shoulders. How can I change all these massive systems? And I think so many of us feel that way. We feel just stuck. It's like it's all happening to us and there's no way I can make a difference. But you can start really small and you can start in your own life and there's so many resources now with like YouTube and you know different communities online that are thinking about these things but to start to notice where in your life there's toxicity. That could be in relationships, that could be in what you're using in your home, that can be in what you're putting into your body, that can be in your thoughts, and start to clean and clear and detox. You know I've shared different practices for doing that too, with like the breath work and things like that.
Speaker 1:But I really do think that when we start and I was telling you about Interbeing and Chrysalis, which are two offerings that I'm coming out with that are about helping people to do that, like to see where we have toxicity in our life and to start to clear it I mean, something that I worked on years ago that I'm so grateful for is clearing gossip. That's a toxicity that we've sort of been trained into in our lives like to just sort of speak about people in certain ways. That creates toxic thinking. And I started to say to myself, well, what if I only said things that I know I could say to that person? So sure I might still have a conversation about a friend that I'm struggling with, but I'm going to talk to this other trusted person in a way that's respectful to that person I'm struggling with, so that anything I say about them I could say to their face.
Speaker 1:And that simple shift has actually created such clarity in my being that I can feel an integrity with myself. So I think there's lots of ways we can start to just slowly shift and move. And they say if you take a huge ship and you shift it one degree to the left or right, you're going to go to a completely new continent. So it feels small today, but in a couple of years you'll be in someplace totally new.
Speaker 2:Yeah, someone recently that I had on the podcast, at least in the last few months, talked a lot about mental pollution and it like it's with me. So when you said that the gossip and the clearing of that toxicity, that really came to mind. Because I think we often we can go outside and we can see the pollution in the air and the smog and we can think about it in that way. But when we bring it to ourselves, when we think about our own mental pollution, that could be a number of things. Right, that could be our automatic negative thoughts that we, you know that like to chip away at us. It could be gossip, it could be things that we're engaging in, but when we are actively trying to clear ourselves of that pollution and be really intentional about it, I think that can have a massive shift on people's lives. Certainly they're meant to, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the joy you know, and again, like it's just when you start to really realize that you're living in integrity. Then you can feel this like sense of pride and joy in your own being. I think we I know myself for many years lived in shame about just little choices, big choices, things that you're like, wow, I wish I hadn't done that. And so starting to forgive for that and move into a place where you can really feel an integrity and clear, not polluted in your thinking and the way of being. It. Just it brings so much more joy into your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And capacity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, it just. It brings so much more joy into your life. Yeah, and capacity yeah, oh, absolutely. Do you want to talk a little bit more about your coaching programs when they're when they're coming, how can sure?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so, chrysalis. We were speaking of the goo. It came from that, like realizing so many people are in the goo right now. You know, I have a friend who's going through a divorce, another friend who's shifting jobs, you know, and people I was coaching in one-on-one coaching that's. Everyone was coming because they were in this moment of stuckness, you know, fear, didn't know how to make the leap across the chasm.
Speaker 1:So it really is that. It's that journey of going, instead of across the chasm, down into it and through. So it's an eight week coaching container where we'll do, you know, on one week, talking about a topic like grief, forgiveness, we dive into sort of surrender and trust. So taking ourselves from facing what's happening to trusting life again and understanding that life is co-creating with us, to then co-creating what's the next step as I move through this phase of the goo and the journey of change, and then pairing that with breathwork, so actually going through, you know, the somatic experience of understanding where you are and then releasing that out through the tissues. So that's, chrysalis, and it's for people who are seeking to be in a supportive, safe space with others who are going through that process of metamorphosis. And that'll start in the beginning of October. So it's the first time I'm launching that and it's going to be an ongoing eight-week container for folks who are interested.
Speaker 1:With my friend Pipa, who's based in Portugal, who's an incredible breathwork teacher, nutritionist, just incredible healer of all sorts, and we've been talking for years about this idea of how do we become really relevant change makers to this time and this idea of detoxifying the whole body, mind, spirit, complex, right.
Speaker 1:So it's everything from nutrition and understanding how to eat better and to heal your body through food and water and different ways of being with food and water, and all the different nutrition aspects and supplements and all that stuff and even some genetic testing that's available to folks if they want to go that deep. And then also the you know, the practices like body work and somatics that help you to clear your somatic being, and then sort of the, the other parts of the transformation, which is finding the right ways of thinking, being in integrity with your life, finding your life's purpose and being in that the same supportive container with incredible guest speakers and an in-person retreat in Portugal as part of the whole seven-month journey. So that's a deeper dive. That's where folks are really committed to like I want to change my life and I want to come out the other end as a change maker, ready to lead, and that'll be launching in the spring of next year.
Speaker 2:Wow, what a powerful experience.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, yeah, I'm super excited It'll be. You know, for us it's a 10-year prayer, so we're like okay, at least 10 cohorts, yeah, starting with the first in the spring. Wow, yeah.
Speaker 1:And you talked about just some of your daily habits. I'm really curious what does your? What are those non-negotiable portions of your routine on a day-to doing morning practice? So I'll wake up about an hour before the rest of the family because I have two kids that are a little older now but they still need me 11 and 13. So I try to get up an hour before they will so I can have quiet time. I just love the quiet and that peacefulness of the morning. So I'll do some sort of movement. I actually recently got this thing called a vibrator plate. I don't know if you ever heard of it. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:They're like a hundred bucks on Amazon and it's like it vibrates but it's incredible for the lymph drainage and actually just like waking up your your energy. So I'll do that for a few minutes. And then I have a beamer mat, which is also like a PMF mat, but you don't necessarily need that, but I love it because it also like works with clearing your blood and all kinds of things. But I'll sit on that and I'll meditate and do sort of contemplative whether it's meditation or some sort of a mantra or prayer thing thing like that for about 20 minutes or so and those two together are pretty non-negotiable. From there, if I have time, I'll go and I'll sit and I'll write.
Speaker 1:So I'll pick up a book it depends on what I'm reading at the time but some sort of a contemplative, either spiritual book, or I'm really into the Gene Keys, so I'll pick up my Gene Keys book and get into that and open up to a page and read about my profile. I don't know if you know that technology, but yeah, so do that kind of reading and writing and contemplation for about another 30 minutes, so altogether about an hour. If I have more time, I'll just keep writing and reading because I love that and then, if I can, I'll get out and go for a swim, so you know, if there's enough time. All in all it's about two hours, but I can like range it from like minimum 20 minutes, which is like the non-negotiable, and then the rest, depending on how much time I have.
Speaker 2:And I'm curious, in swimming with the dolphins, more just because I'm like so fat, I just that, I'm enamored by the mere thought. Do you like I mean actively like what does that look like?
Speaker 1:when you're swimming. Oh my God, it's amazing, so it's so life-giving. So we live in it, on the North Shore of Oahu and about 15 minutes bike ride from our house or like a sixminute drive. It's a place called Waimea Bay. It's this beautiful bay. In the winter it's got massive surf, so it's like it's the home of the biggest surf contest in maybe in the world. It's the biggest paddle and surf contest in the world, called the Eddie I Cow Invitational.
Speaker 1:So wintertime huge waves, summertime flat as a lake. So it becomes this kind of bay where all the fish come in and there's like big bait balls of fish. It's probably about 40 feet deep, super calm, and the dolphins love to come in there and they actually rest and just relax. So they come in with their babies in like a big pod of sometimes up to a hundred dolphins. And if you time it right, it varies throughout the summer but you can kind of get a sense of when they're coming and so I'll block that off of my calendar like it's a meeting.
Speaker 1:So I'm like, okay, from these two hours in the morning I'm meeting with the dolphins and I'll go to the bay and I'll just swim out into the middle of the bay, even if I'm by myself. It's clear, really clear most days. You can see to the bottom about 40, 50 feet, so I feel really safe. But you have to be, you know, a good swimmer, decent swimmer, and comfortable in open ocean, and then they'll come in and just like swim beneath you, swim around you. I've had them come within like six inches of my face and we're just looking eye to eye and I'm crying in my mask and I'm holding my heart and I'm just like, thank you. Universe Like this is so incredible. So it's, yeah, it's an incredibly life-giving experience and whenever people come to visit, I try to take them if we can, and a lot of you know, a lot of times we'll go out and there'll be tourists out there and they're just, you know, so filled with joy at the experience because it's it's really quite, quite magical.
Speaker 2:It's amazing how, how nature just gives those gifts to us and how easily, if you're tied up in something else, that you can miss it, and yet when you're open to taking it in.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and that's why I put it on my calendar, because if I don't, then suddenly I'm like wait, I haven't gone this week, and it's like no, no, no, this is something I'm committing to myself because it fills my cup so much. I guess that's another thing to share is, you know, find the things that fill your cup and do them. You know, make them a priority. Make yourself a priority, because if you're full and you feel alive, you're going to do so much more for everyone in your life, the people you love, the people you work with and work for. I mean, it's just, it's a plus for everybody. So take that time, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whatever it is. Well, as we wrap up, there's always a question I love to ask, and that is, of all the things that you have learned and experienced and absorbed in your lifetime and you have, and it were, your last day on earth and you have the opportunity to impart one piece of advice or one sense of guidance with the world what would it be, one sense of guidance?
Speaker 1:with the world. What would it be, my God, that just brought me to tears. I was thinking this morning about my uncle, who passed away in November. He was my spiritual father, and so I got to experience some of his last days on earth and they changed me profoundly, and what I would say is I pray to be as he was. What he showed me that was so profound was his ability to be at peace with what is, and so that even in the process of dying and knowing he was dying, he was in hospice at his house.
Speaker 1:I asked him one morning I said you know, are you afraid? Do you feel any fear? And he said, paused, and he was like, not really, I've never died before, so I'm kind of curious what it's going to be like. And I started cracking up. I was like, oh my God, like that, that's it. Like he wasn't fighting the situation, he wasn't lamenting the situation, he was being at peace with what is. And so if we can do that and really show up in our lives and see the miracle that it is to just be alive, I think that's going to.
Speaker 2:You know, that's it for me being at peace with what is yeah Well, I put everything in the show notes but would love for you to share. Where can people find more information out about the book website? Where can they find and follow more about you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so my website is ourbelovedfuturescom and then my Instagram is aubreymorganye, and those are kind of the two places where most everything is yeah.
Speaker 2:Cool, everything is yeah Well. Thank you so much for taking the time and just sharing, sharing your, your experience and your way of giving back both to yourself and and to the world around you. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Sunny, I appreciate you.
Speaker 2:If today's episode challenged you, moved you or lit a fire in your soul, don't keep it to yourself. Episode challenged you, moved you or lit a fire in your soul, don't keep it to yourself. Share it with somebody who's ready to rise. Could I ask you to take 30 seconds to leave a review? It's the best way to say thank you and help this show reach more bold leaders like you, because this isn't just a podcast, it's a movement. We're not here to play small, we're here to lead loud, one bold and unapologetic step at a time. Until next time, stay bold, stay grounded and make moves that make mediocre uncomfortable.
