I just launched a new podcast. It took me a while to decide on the name because I wanted the name to reflect the eclectic range of topics that I intend to cover. I didn’t want to niche myself. I’m a multi-passionate person with a multilayered, forever evolving business (the official name is a polymath but I find that term too dry), and therefore the podcast needs to reflect this.
I’m a sharer. I always have been. It’s in my name after all, Sophie is the French version of the Greek name Sophia means wisdom, and Messager means messenger in French. If you know me you know I can talk the hind leg off a donkey. I share because I want to help make the world a better place. I started blogging in 2015 and I’ve written about 200 posts, with an acceleration at a rate of a post every week or every other week since 2021. I published my first book, Why Postnatal Recovery Matters in 2020. The book has now been translated into 2 other languages, and soon will be available in a third. I’m writing my second book about how drumming can support the birth journey and life transitions.
For every person or family who reads my writing and feels heard, supported and helped by it, I feel I’m achieving my soul purpose.
Over the last couple of years I’ve discovered that consuming knowledge via audio works better for me than reading, because I can listen whilst doing other tasks such as driving, or cooking. It has changed long boring drives into transformative moments. I’ve got a Bluetooth speaker in my kitchen and it has transformed prepping meals from something tedious into something I’m looking forward to. I’ve listened to countless books and podcasts episodes, and it’s a great way to feed my ADHD hyper focus when it drives me to explore new topics in extreme depth.
So it makes sense that I chose to share my stuff via audio too. I didn’t do it sooner because I didn’t know how and I thought it would be really complicated. Mastering new tech is my nemesis, and I often procrastinate for ages when an element of this is involved. I am very grateful for authentic business coach George Kao, because last week I started his new course called Interview Mastery, and it gave me the impetus to start the podcast.
Once I started, I realised (this has been true pretty much every time I’ve procrastinated over tech stuff) that the process was actually a lot easier and faster than I had expected. I like to compare processes to giving birth, with conception, gestation, birth and the postpartum (read my post about this here). I had a long conception and gestation, then the birth had some stop starts (mastering adding music to the beginning and end of the episodes took a lot of trials and errors, it felt like a stop start labour!), but in the end it was a fairly speedy, smooth and joyful birth. I’m now basking in the afterglow of high oxytocin and dopamine.
My signature approach, what I feel I am really gifted at, beyond sharing stuff, is bridging the scientific and the spiritual. I feel humanity is at a crossroad and unless we re-learn to become connected to each other, our inner wisdom, and the planet, we are headed for extinction.
In this podcast I am going to share conversations with pioneers in women’s health and personal development to reclaim lost knowledge and restore inner wisdom. I want to help bridge insights from ancient traditions and modern research, question stale cultural narratives and midwife a new paradigm around birth, life transitions, and women’s autonomy. Expect stories and studies that empower women to reconnect with their inner voice and live their truths, to fully trust ourselves and shape our collective future.
With this in mind, what better first guest could I have asked for than Jane Hardwicke Collings. Jane is a grandmother, former homebirth midwife for 30 years, a teacher, writer and menstrual educator and the founder of the school of Shamanic WomanCraft. Join us as we discuss how drumming can support the birth journey. Highlights of this episode include how making a drum can provide the medicine a woman needs during pregnancy birth and life; Jane’s own birth story and how drumming helped her experience an ecstatic birth; how drumming can help us communicate with our babies during pregnancy, and can effectively reduce pain during birth, and how it can help us connect with our great great grandchildren to know what do to now change the world to become a better place.
My podcast is called The Wisdom Messenger, a literal translation of my name. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcast and YouTube.
I would love to hear what you think of the first episode, and also please get in touch if you fit the description of my ideal guest and would like me to interview you.