‘Conscious Leadership’ With Wisdom Teacher Sophie McLean
Andrew Hryniewicz
The Destiny Awakening Interviews is a podcast with Andrew Wayfinder and his guests.
Every week (sometimes more) we have a short focused interview with an expert, author, speaker designed to bring you powerful insights, inspiration and ways to break free, live life by your vision and values, and make a difference in our changing and challenging world.
Listen to the podcast at: https://www.andrewwayfinder.com/blog/da15-sophie-mclean
Andrew Hryniewicz
So, hello everyone and a very warm welcome to another edition of the Destiny Awakening Interviews. I’m Andrew Wayfinder Hryniewicz. And I’m joined today by Sophie McLean, a wisdom teacher, author and transformational leader.
A very warm welcome to you Sophie, and where are you hanging out today?
Sophie McLean
I’m in New York.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, and what’s the weather like there?
Sophie McLean
Well, we had a lot of snow, and then it got quite cold. But the sun is out, and it is much more pleasant right now. But I like the snow in New York.
It’s beautiful.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, well fortunately we’re over… We didn’t have any snow here in London, and it’s starting to get warm and get spring flowers.
Sophie McLean
That’s because, spring is coming. Right?
Andrew Hryniewicz
Yeah. So let’s move on to your work and your book. Sophie McLean is the founder of sophiemclean.com, author of “the Elegance of Simplicity” and creator of the “Access to Awareness Program”.
Born in Algeria, educated in Morocco and France, Sophie has been a helicopter pilot, teacher, designer, relief worker, war refugee, CEO, and U.N. Representative on the Commission on the Status of Woman’s Hunger Project.
She’s been shot at, shipwrecked and widowed. And she has lived on a farm, a boat, a penthouse, and in an Ashram.
And her passion and mission is to contribute to the creation of a new culture for humankind, to help us shift from being “Homo Sapiens to Homo Spiritus”.
Thank you, Sophie, for your time today. And the title we will be talking about today is “Conscious Leadership”. And Sophie is going to unpack that by answering six questions.
Sophie, your time starts now. Who is your ideal client or your ideal reader? And what is the transformation that your work helps them achieve?
Sophie McLean
My ideal client or reader is someone that worked to the point in their life, where they know that leadership is not looking outward.
But it is someone that has enough experience, and has dealt enough with the material life to know that it is by looking inward, that they will elevate themselves.
And looking inward is not “self-centeredness” or “egocentric-ness”. It is dealing with the ego, with an intention to deconstruct the ego. So you can remember who you really are.
They are people that have reached a stage in their life where, with the material aspect of life, there is always a problem… There are always circumstances…
It’s not like they have a perfect life. They don’t, but they can cope with a material life.
And then there is this yearning…
“What am I?
“Who am I? “
“What is this all about?”
“How come I’ve done quite well in my life, but I’m not satisfied?”
“What else am I missing?
“What? Who am I really?”
So I designed courses, to open people up.
To connect to their authentic power through the deconstruction of the automatic ego. And the creation of a conscious ego. Because you always need an ego to operate in the material world, right?
It’s not like you have to be egoless… except if you’re a monk in an ashram.
So I have a fast, pragmatic, efficient technique of… Or not a technique but a course…
An inquiry where that leaves you free from the automatic way of being. And puts you fully at the source of your life, as the originator connected to who you really are.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, so question number two in that journey: What’s the biggest challenge they face?
Sophie McLean
Well, the biggest challenge I find with my students is the surrendering and letting go. You see that we’re talking about conscious leadership, right?
The traditional leadership is all about motivation and drive… Sometimes manipulation… Producing results, deal seeking, power outside of themselves to accomplish their success.
So the biggest challenge is to let go of what can produce some results. But is not fulfilling and ultimately limited.
People ask me, “What does it mean to let go?”
But that is a question itself that will have you stuck in the automatic way of being, right?
Because letting go… if you take a pen and let it go, it falls. That’s what it takes.
But letting go is the biggest challenge for people because, as human beings, we want certainty.
We prefer what we know, what we’re used to, even if there is some suffering, than taking the risk to jump off the cliff.
Even when I tell my students, “You will fly, I promise.” The jumping off the cliff is a little bit intimidating.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Reminds me of that joke, “Lord, make me humble, but please don’t humiliate me.”
So question number three: What’s your number one insight you would, you could share with people to help them in this conscious leadership quest right now?
Sophie McLean
Well, my biggest revelation about conscious leadership was to actually experience what the leader was, right?
What I discovered is that a leader is actually someone that embodies the dreams and aspiration of others.
Therefore, you not only need a vision, but that vision must be connected or synchronized with what people want and yearn for. Right?
You need to be tuned to the aspirations of others.
So another way to say it, is that “A leader is the symbolic soul of a group consciousness”. It’s literally a spiritual bond.
So, don’t stay away from spirituality. Spirituality has nothing to do with religion.
It is not in the etheric, it’s not this weird cultish kind of things. No…
Spirituality is what will give you access to your authentic power, guidance, insight, and inspiration.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Right. I agree with you. Yeah, there’s a… I so often say “Spirituality is not for wimps.”
Sophie McLean
No. Once you get on the path of spirituality, you’ll have bigger problems than you had before. You know, before your problem was the color of your hair…
When you engage in the road of consciousness, the problem will be… “How do I create a new culture for humankind?”
Andrew Hryniewicz
Yeah, and the way I describe it with my students and clients is that when you connect with spirit and with essence, it’s like lassoing a whale. It’s gonna take you places.
Sophie McLean
It will, but there is no going back. Because this road of consciousness… first you experience being so surrendered to what wants to happen.
This union with life, with the universe, is so delightful and gives you so much faith and trust that, once you experience it, even if the whale is sometimes pulling you where you don’t want to go… it’s irresistible.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Yeah. So, question number four: What concept book program or talk has had the greatest impact in your experience for you?
Sophie McLean
I think there’s two authors that I have studied and read who made an enormous difference in my life.
The first one is David Hawkins. He wrote about “The Level of Consciousness”.
And for me, he was able to capture in a very understandable and gracious, graceful way the path to consciousness. Because you know, everybody has their own paths, right?
But he had a logic that talked to me because I’m quite pragmatic. And then the other one is Alan Watts.
His sense of humor is like a rebellious overgrown teenager or something like that. But with such a depth and profound…
And his humor… humor is a sign for me that you have let go of the significance of the ego and the suffering, right. And I thought it was, it is a delight.
I always go back to those two.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, we’ll make a list, mention them in the show notes, and where people can track those down.
So, question five: What free resource would you like to share with the audience that will help them?
Sophie McLean
Well, I am so excited Andrew. I designed this course, it just rolled out two weeks ago, right?
I have this free course. It’s totally free. There is no time, no hidden agenda. And it is well designed. You register, you get 21 email recording lessons. You can spend 15 minutes a day, 30 minutes a day, it’s up to you.
But it is “Access to Awareness” because awareness is what allows you to elevate your consciousness.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay. And that’s bit.ly/callofthesoul. Okay, great. And then the last question, question number six…
What should I have asked you that I didn’t?
Sophie McLean
What do you mean by the “Call of the Soul” as it is the free course that you’re giving to the world?
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, so what do you mean by the “Call of the Soul?
Sophie McLean
All right, I’ll share a quick story.
I was 12 years old. I was brought up in Casablanca, Morocco. I was in the garden. I was watching my parents and my sister and brother getting ready for dinner.
And I was in stillness, and silence… I was just watching… And suddenly I had an epiphany, right.
Literally the gift that started my quest. And I got two insights.
The first one is that, I was brought up in a cocoon that was safe and secure. And that was not how the world was… there was poverty, suffering, violence.
There was also joy, and spirituality and all those things. So I suddenly realized at 12 that I was in a cocoon.
And the second insight, as I was given this view of the entire world, was that everything was an illusion.
And that’s what people called reality, but it was not…
So I got excited. I ran to my parents and I said “Actually it is not real. We’re not in a real world.”
Of course, I got my nickname, the crazy one. So with love, my parents were loving, so I love it.
So I never forgot, that was a “Call of my Soul”, it was literally my soul saying…
“Wake up! Wake up!”.
So I never turned back. I looked since that age beyond my five senses.
To reach that place, where there is this unity with the divine. Where there is a total perfection against the background of love, which is the best way I can describe it.
And I can’t keep it for myself. So all those years — and I’ve been at it for 32 years — I’ve worked and worked and worked. And led seminars and did all sorts of things.
But I’ve said okay I have everything, I wrote a book, I can do some video, show people the way to take them by the hand and they can have the first experience of an “Elevation of Consciousness”.
So I’m giving away my experience of my Call of my Soul so people can hear the call of their soul.
Andrew Hryniewicz
That’s beautiful.
And I can completely affirm everything you said: that we are part of something so much larger than we’re normally aware of…
And that so much larger is incredibly concerned, and supportive, and loving, and just wants to help.
Sophie McLean
You know, once you let go of your protection and your surviving, life is so much nicer to you. And so much more generous, and gives you beyond your wildest dreams.
The only thing that is in the way is our ego, our resistance.
So it is such a peaceful, beautiful life that once you get it, you cannot stop until you give it away to everybody.
Andrew Hryniewicz
No. That’s, I think, a perfect place to end. So thank you Sophie so much for your time.
Sophie McLean
You’re so welcome, Andrew, thank you for having me.
Narrator
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