We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sophie French a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sophie, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
After moving to Australia in 2015, I realised that there was a different way of living life to that which I’d been taught! The lifestyle was entirely different and I loved the sense of freedom I experienced. I was freelancing at the time for someone who taught me about neuro-linguistic programming – the art and science of reprogramming our brains and subconscious minds to align with the outcomes we want – I was absolutely fascinated and decided to follow the call to train in the modality once I arrived back to the UK! It completely transformed my life and way of seeing the world – realising that I had a chance at undoing all the years of self-hatred and negative self-talk felt like an incredible gift I’d been given, and from then it felt like my mission and purpose to share that with others – to support others, especially women, to understand their subconscious minds and the way they operate, so that they can move forward and pursue the things they most deeply want to do!
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I work predominantly with women who have lost their zest for life, through a period of burnout, disconnection from self, an identity shift like becoming a mother or after a break-up or divorce. I help women tap into the true visions of their hearts, the things they really want and the ways they truly want to live their lives, as well as their soul work and what they truly want to be doing in the world, and I support them, through working with the subconscious work and aligned strategy, to create that and make it happen. I would describe myself as an activator who helps people tap into their dreams AND bring them to life. I’m also a writer and singer and I use my art to tell stories to speak to these women, who have the artist in them too and their gifts ready to express to the world – and I love to be an example that they get to bring all of themselves to the table and to their work in the world. They don’t have to be ‘one thing’ as we have often been taught but rather can utilise their multi-talented and passionate nature to bring all of themselves online so as to feel more fulfilled, creatively expressed and more fully authentic in their lives, work and relationships. I’ve just released a poetry booked called HER: poems on living wildly, freely, creatively and romantically for as long as she shall live! And I’m soon to be opening an online space of the same name where I share classes and coaching for women who want to create life and business on her terms – which means in accordance to her monthly cycles, her seasons, her unique energy type and ways of living and working.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The first quality would have to be my ability to say yes and then figure it out! I’ve been really courageous in knowing I can do something and just wanting the opportunity to showcase that to myself more than anything – so the right opportunities that have presented themselves, I’ve felt brave and courageous enough and trusted my knowing that I could make that happen, even if I was scared or hadn’t done it before. It has always served me really well to trust myself and that I can figure things out and do a great job!
Studying neuro-linguistic programming deeply at a practitioner and master practitioner level has served me greatly as it has taught me the skills to understand the subconscious mind and to realise that things on the outside are a reflection of what’s happening within! This means that I’ve always taken the view that the power is in my hands – and that has been a very empowering and resourceful belief system and set of skills to tap into.
A top skill would have to be my adaptibility – as a Pisces in astrology I am naturally adaptable – though I often used to see that as a negative thing because it would feel like my sense of self was shaky, but actually in business I’ve come to see it more as a gift because over the years, what with huge moves, pandemics and rapidly changing technology in business, adaptability and being able to shift to suit certain environments has been of great advantage as a life and business skill.
For anyone early in their journey I would share advice from my wise friend which is ‘don’t take advice from anyone who hasn’t been where you’re going!’ If you have a vision or a big idea, that’s for you! And so, be in close proximity to / hire mentors and people who have had the kind of experiences / success that you want and it will show you what’s possible and guide you in the right direction. There will always be tons of people who don’t believe what you want is possible – there will probably be plenty of evidence of it too – which is wh you have to stay so close and hold really dearly the people and evidence you have that it is – and follow that with everything you’ve got!!
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
Two of the most significant books in my journey have been – Life in Half A Second by Matthew Michaelawicz which was so profound for me. He asks 100 people what they would do with their lives if they only had a year to live, and discovers so many people would go and do the things they’ve always wanted to – but they had to wait to be dying in order to do it. I feel that in so much of my work I help people tap into what it is they want to do and to do it now – to bring it into their currently reality and to stop holding it out somewhere in the future, but rather to what it is today. To align their life with the visions they’ve always had – because life is now. And it’s passing anyway. So it might as well be spent bringing those ‘one day’ dreams in now – or even picking up those hobbies / ways of being that people have always wanted to do or try.
The second book would have to be Danielle LaPorte’s – The Desire Map which was another incredible read very on in my journey and it talks about feeling the way you want to feel right now – again, rather than waiting! It teaches that so often the desires we have for things like the car / the relationship / the career are all based on how we think those things will make us feel, and so the idea is to reverse engineer this, to understand how we want to feel first, and let that be the guidance in all our endeavours – this means that we’ll feel the way we want to feel NOW without having to wait AND when we ultimately get the ‘thing’ we want, it’ll be an epic bonus!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sophiefrench.co
- Instagram: @sophiefrench.co
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/sophiefrenchcoaching
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-french-24792a34/
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