September 16, 2025 • 24 mins
🎧 Episode 181: Rewilding Your Life and Leadership with Aubrey Morgan Yee (Part 1)Â
In Part 1 of this conversation, futurist, systems thinker, and storyteller Aubrey Morgan Yee shares her journey from reluctant entrepreneur to rewilding advocate and narrative-shaping leader.
Aubrey opens up about the breakdowns that became breakthroughs, what she discovered when she stopped numbing, and how ancestral wisdom and rewilding practices can transform the way we live and lead. Her insights invite us to slow down, reconnect, and remember what we’ve forgotten in a world that desperately needs more grounded leadership.
We explore:
- The pivotal “gut punch” moment that shifted her path forever
- Why breakdowns often hold the seeds of our biggest breakthroughs
- How numbing keeps us from both deep pain and deep joy
- What rewilding looks like in nature, relationships, and leadership
- The Hawaiian wisdom of pono and aloha as frameworks for self-awareness and alignment
- The role of story and ritual in transforming culture and leadership
🔑 Key takeaways:
- You can’t feel the big joy without facing the hard emotions
- Leadership starts with recalibrating yourself before guiding others
- Story isn’t just entertainment—it’s the blueprint for culture and change
- The future of leadership is deeply human, grounded, and interconnected
đź’ˇ Quotes to remember:
“Breakdowns are often the birthplace of breakthroughs.”
 “If you can’t feel the hard stuff, you also can’t feel the big joy.”
 “Leadership is an inside job—alignment has to start within.”
 “We are always storying the world into being.”
đź“š Resources mentioned:
✨ Learn more about Aubrey’s work:
 www.ourbelovedfutures.com
📲 Connect with Aubrey:
LinkedIn – Aubrey Morgan Yee
Instagram – @aubrey.morgan.yee
 Beloved Futures Podcast
A rising tide raises all ships, and I invite you along on this journey to Evoke Greatness!
Check out my website: www.evokegreatness.com
Follow me on:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonnie-linebarger-899b9a52/
https://www.instagram.com/evoke.greatness/
https://www.tiktok.com/@evoke.greatness
http://www.youtube.com/@evokegreatness
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're actually just humans trying to make it in this
kind of weird world that we'vecreated that has some incredibly
beautiful parts and some reallykind of messed up parts, and
we're all, in our own way,experiencing joy and
experiencing suffering, and justit allowed us to see ourselves
in our wholeness and that kindof rewilding of us as humans,
not just workers orprofessionals or leaders.
(00:21):
It was like we're human beingstrying to make a beautiful life
for ourselves and the people welove.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Welcome to Evoke Greatness, the podcast for bold
leaders and big dreamers whorefuse to settle.
I'm your host, sunny.
I started in scrubs over 20years ago doing the gritty,
unseen work and climbed my wayto CEO.
Every rung of that laddertaught me something worth
passing on Lessons in leadership, resilience and what it really
(00:54):
takes to rise.
You'll hear raw conversations,unfiltered truths and the kind
of wisdom that ignites somethingdeeper in you your courage,
your conviction, your calling.
This show will help you thinkbigger, lead better and show up
bolder in every part of yourlife.
This is your place to grow.
Let's rise together.
(01:15):
In part one of our conversation, you're going to hear Aubrey's
powerful journey of walking awayfrom a successful business,
discovering futures, work andembracing rewilding as a way of
(01:37):
life and leadership.
She shares the pivotalbreakdown moments that became
breakthroughs, how she stoppednumbing and started feeling both
the hard stuff and the big joy,and why ancestral wisdom and
ritual hold keys to leading moreauthentically in today's world.
Okay, let's hop into it.
Welcome back to another episodeof About Greatness.
(01:58):
Every so often, you come acrosssomeone who doesn't just talk
about the future.
Rather, they invite you toreimagine it with them.
Aubrey Morgan Yee is one ofthose rare voices.
She's a futurist systemsthinker and storyteller who
helps leaders reconnect thewisdom of the earth and their
ancestors to shape a world thatfeels more human, more grounded
and more alive.
Her work through BelovedFutures weaves together,
(02:21):
rewilding indigenous knowledge,story and ritual, not as relics
of the past but as living,breathing practices that can
transform how we lead, how weconnect and how we create.
In this conversation, we'regoing to trace the journey that
led Aubrey to her unique calling, explore how leaders can slow
down to hear the wisdomavailable to them and discover
why the future we most want tobuild might actually begin by
(02:43):
remembering what we've forgotten.
And yes, we'll also get a sneakpeek into her upcoming book,
which promises to be a fieldguide for transformation at both
the personal and cultural level.
So let's dive on in, aubreywelcome.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Oh my gosh, sunny, thank you.
It's such a gift to hearyourself introduced, myself
introduced, because I'vestruggled for a while now to
kind of explain what I do, andwhat you just shared was so
beautiful.
I'm like, oh yeah, that's whatI do.
So thank you, that was reallylovely.
Yeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I love being able to put that into words to be able
to have an introduction tosomeone.
That's typically when people go.
Oh, I want to hear more aboutthat.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yes, totally.
Thank you so much, it wasreally lovely.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Absolutely Well, before we get into the work you
do now, I always love to justkind of take people back a
little bit.
I'm curious about whatexperiences and moments of
clarity, or even breakdownssometimes it comes through a
breakdown brought you to yourcurrent version of yourself the
Aubrey who blends ancestralwisdom with visionary futures.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, that's a really potentquestion.
There's a couple of sort of, Iguess, waypoints that I'll
mention and a breakdown, sothat's good.
Yeah, you know, I started offas an entrepreneur, sort of like
a reluctant entrepreneur.
I think like my whole life I'vebeen a lover of earth, like you
know.
Just I remember one of my firstbooks, favorite books in like
second grade, was 50 things youcan do to save the earth in like
(04:07):
the eighties, right.
So always sort of had this eyetowards like how can I make the
earth better?
I love the earth, I love nature, and then went on this kind of
sidetrack intoentrepreneurialism and, just
because I love to travel, andstarted a business importing out
of Indonesia and all this stuff.
And looking back on it now Irealized that that was an
incredible lesson inunderstanding how capital works
(04:28):
around the globe, like stufflike importing, exporting, you
know, international trade, allthis stuff from the inside out.
But I was in that business forabout 11 years and then I had
this like really kind of likerough awakening moment in
Indonesia we would always visitthe factories that we were
working with.
I had read Paul Hawkins' bookabout how to grow a business
(04:49):
because he, you know he's likecame from that same perspective
of loving the earth.
And so I was like, okay, thisis an entrepreneur I can align
with.
And so I tried to alwaysapproach from that perspective,
like working with really goodpeople and being, you know,
having an eye towards being aslike, environmentally conscious
as possible.
And I was in a factory one dayand I saw this massive,
beautiful tree on the choppingblock and it was just like this
(05:11):
gut punch and I was like, oh myGod, like of course, that's what
I'm doing, you know.
And on some level I couldjustify like, oh, I'm bringing
in antiques and I'm doing theseother things.
But there was like aconsumption aspect to the work
that I realized, wow, I'mparticipating in that.
So it wasn't that exact momentthat I shifted, but it started
this like really deep seedwithin of sort of a mild
(05:33):
discontent that I realized, okay, I'm learning from this
experience.
I learned so much aboutstarting a business, about being
an entrepreneur, aboutcreativity, about, you know,
having gumption, like tryingstuff that was hard, taking
risks, all the things learningfrom the ground up.
I was an English major, likehadn't studied business, but
that started me thinking likewhat is it I'm really here to do
, what is I'm really here toshare?
(05:55):
And so I decided, if maybe itwas about two years later, I had
this like another moment.
We had this big, beautifulshowroom.
We'd built this big business,all things.
It was successful, it wasworking.
And I just swiveled in my chairand I looked at my husband and
I said we need to sell it all.
And he's like what he's like,what he's like you're totally
crazy, what are you talkingabout?
I'm like I don't know, butsomething else is coming and I
(06:17):
need to go back to school.
And God bless him.
He was like okay, I don't knowwhat that means, but I'll
support you.
And so we kind of started theprocess, which took time, you
know.
We had partners, we had ashowroom, we had a lease, we had
all the like 3D world thingsthat we had to untangle.
But we did.
We sold the business.
I ended up getting pregnant withmy first child and I went back
to school and again, I didn'tknow exactly what I was going to
(06:39):
study, but I knew that therewas something that was calling
me back to learning and toexpanding my capacity to be of
service to the world.
So I just started takingclasses and I was taking
different classes that called tomy sense of joy and excitement.
And I found this class calledPolitics of the Future and I
looked at the reading list andPaul Hawken was on there amongst
a bunch of other authors that Iloved and I wanted to read, and
(07:02):
I was like, wow, this soundsreally interesting.
Like what is this thing,politics of the Future, that
sounds so intriguing.
So I went to join that classand even before the class
started, I got this one pagerfrom my mentor, who is this
incredible futurist named JimDator.
He's kind of like forefather offuture studies.
I was so lucky to study underhim, so lucky he was in Hawaii,
(07:22):
I mean, of all places where Igrew up, didn't have to leave my
home island and it was calledTo Be a Futurist.
And it was just this verysimple one pager that had like
20 lines of like the things itwould take to be a good futurist
.
Things like being able tonotice patterns, things like
being, you know, reallyinterested in lots of topics,
not necessarily an expert injust one.
(07:43):
Things like being creative andthinking out of the box.
All these things about what itwould take to be a good futurist
, and it was like reading mylike life purpose job
description, so I thought okayhere we are and I started down
that pathway.
Yeah, exactly, it was just likethis full yes in my body.
I remember exactly where I wason a train in Alaska reading
this one pager.
And I started down that pathwayand I didn't think I'd go for a
(08:06):
doctorate, I thought I'd juststart taking classes and
studying.
But I fell so in love with thediscipline and with the ability
to take what I was learning inacademia which can so many times
be like an ivory tower but outinto community.
And so immediately with mymentor, jim, we were going into
government offices, intocommunities, taking out futures
work to the people and sayinglike okay, this is to empower
(08:29):
you, to remember that you're aco-creator of the futures, that
you don't just have to like,digest and take what's being fed
to us, that we can actuallyremember that we co-create each
day.
You know that's like a verykind of spiritual perspective,
but it's also really grounded inthis academic research.
So it just fit me really welland that kind of helped me to
start on this pathway.
(08:50):
And then I think, you know, thenext kind of breakdown or
breakthrough came during thepandemic, when I realized I
wanted to, you know, quit myrelationship with alcohol.
So I became alcohol free and Ijust stopped numbing in general,
like it was a sort of likesense of realizing that I had
been numbing myself from thepain of the world because it was
so overwhelming moment of thatlike global breakdown.
(09:17):
I realized I can't be ofservice unless I'm fully
grounded in my highest self andable to look at the pain and the
suffering of the moment thatwe're in.
So it was like the combinationof that with this looking
towards the futures, grounded in, you know, connections to
indigenous ways of being and mylove for earth that have led to
this moment and everythingthat's happening now in this
chapter.
So there's lots in there,that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I'm curious off of your last comment around the
like identification of numbingthe pains of the world, because
there are many and each person'sis probably unique to their
lens and their lived experience.
What have been the biggest liketakeaways for you or kind of
aha moments since abstainingfrom alcohol that you, that
(10:00):
you've kind of maybe leaned intosome of those emotions?
Speaker 1 (10:03):
yeah, I think that's a really good question.
You think about the parts of itbecause you know there's so
many different ways that we numb.
Yes, for me it was alcohol andsocial media, I think, were the
two main ones.
There's like food there's, youknow, avoiding emotions.
There's I.
There's like food there's, youknow, avoiding emotions.
There's, I mean, there'sexercise can be a numbing, you
know anything, anything that wedo to try to avoid the hard
feelings, and I realized Ihadn't really been raised in a
(10:25):
family that knew how to facehard feelings and I think that's
kind of a social, it's a commonsocial issue in our culture and
in Western culture that we kindof avoid you know the difficult
emotions, and so what I'velearned in facing them is that
actually, once you get throughthose, it's like if you can't
feel the really hard stuff, youalso don't feel the really big
(10:46):
joy, right Like it's like theygo hand in hand, you know.
So it's sort of you're livingin this like kind of in-between
zone where you're not reallyfeeling either.
But if you can feel the reallyhard stuff and let it just move
through you rather than getstuck, that's where breathwork
has actually been incredible forme.
I found breathwork around thatsame time in 2020.
And it was this profoundtechnology where I remember my
(11:07):
first breathwork class.
We finished and I looked aroundand I was like we just breathed
, right, we didn't do anythingelse, right, that's all we did
was just breathe.
It was holotropic breathing andit just like activated so much
in my system and then, as Ilearned more about the science
of it, I understood like, oh,all these old emotions we're
storing in our bodies thatactually are chemical reactions
(11:27):
that get stored in our tissuesare being released through the
breathwork, and so it's become ahuge healing modality for me.
But, yeah, so I started tolayer on those different
practices that gave me thefortitude and the resilience to
face the dolphins here on theNorth Shore.
Just getting in the ocean, beingin nature, you know, like
(11:59):
feeling really just alive, likethe level of life force that's
able to course through my beingis so much more enhanced by
letting go of the numbing andfacing.
You know it's like it's justsort of like a facing truth.
You know we can't really get toanywhere new until we face
where we actually are.
So that I mean, I think that'ssomething I encourage all of us
(12:21):
to start to look at, becausewe've reached a point where you
know it's hard to look at whatis happening in the world
sometimes, but we have toacknowledge and face it with
clear eyes.
And that's really a lot of whatmy book is about is the courage
together to grieve where we'reat so that we can go to
something else, to move throughthat to the next thing.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, you talk about rewilding, and that's not just
about nature, Although it makessense when you live where you
live.
Right, you are so connected tonature.
As you talk about swimming withdolphins, I mean, these are
things that people like, wow,you could swim with dolphins.
But you're clearly veryconnected and grounded by nature
.
It's not just about nature,right, it's also about people.
(12:59):
How do you find rewilding inthe context of leadership?
Why do you feel like it's sonecessary in today's like
disconnected, hyper digitalworld?
You talked about the couple ofthings that you used as numbing.
Social media is such a big one.
We're so hyper Totally.
How do you feel like thatactually weaves itself into
(13:20):
leadership?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
The connection piece like how to reconnect and rewild
.
Yeah, I mean, I think rewildingis such a great metaphor
because it can be you can thinkabout it like from the physical
level rewilding your gut, likemaking sure your microbiome is
healthy and functioning, becausethat affects how you think.
Rewilding in your relationships, I think, is really showing up
authentically.
The things I thought was like areally beautiful, unexpected
(13:48):
sort of side effect of everyonesuddenly being stuck in their
homes and being on Zoom all thetime was that I watched, you
know, because I was stillworking in leadership at that
time.
So we were running all of ourretreats and gatherings and all
the things that we had plannedfor that year.
We just moved them all to Zoomand I was seeing how people were
showing up I mean sometimesliterally from the inside of
their closet, like in theircloset, clothes around them,
like cats walking across thekeyboard, and it was like we got
(14:10):
to see that we're all human,like.
We're all human.
We have kids.
We didn't sleep well last night.
We're feeling sad aboutsomething, our room is messy,
like we didn't have to armor up,so typically, you know, we
would get our clothes on for theday, put on our makeup, drive
in our car to get to somebuilding, to go up the elevator.
The whole way along that we'rearmoring up, we're putting on
(14:32):
our masks, we're shieldingourselves.
So we were kind of just likeripped open raw.
And it was only for a shorttime, because as soon as we
started going back to the realworld, the armor started coming
back on.
But people had experienced thatand I think it changed a lot of
us to see like we're actuallyjust humans trying to make it.
You know, in this kind of weirdworld that we've created that
(14:56):
has some incredibly beautifulparts and some really kind of
messed up parts and we're allyou know, in our own way
experiencing joy andexperiencing suffering, and just
.
It allowed us to see ourselvesin our wholeness and that kind
of rewilding of us as humans,not just workers or
professionals or leaders.
It was like we're human beingstrying to make a beautiful life
for ourselves and the people welove, and so how do we see
(15:18):
ourselves in that way and havethat compassion and empathy and
interconnectedness and I think,yeah.
So that was one one thing thatfor me, was a positive of the
pandemic I was like reallygrateful for yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
It's funny how, you know, typically we've become
such a virtual world afterwards.
It kind of oh, and I thinkthere's pros and cons to that
right.
I think there's something tobeing deeply and personally
connected with someone you knowin person.
Yes, however, there was and youused the wording but it's like
it humanized our interactionsand allowed for when kids are
(15:50):
running in the background andusually we're like, hmm, how do
I, how do I cover all that?
No, like exactly Guess what,like it's life human, like we're
all living this experiencetogether, and so I think there
was like a sense of like gracethat came with that.
That was wholly heartening.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yeah, and you know, and systems change in leadership
, which is, I think, the kind ofleadership we really need right
now.
It's so important to be able tosee the wholeness of us.
You know that we have likemultiple facets to our lives,
that you know our work is justone facet of a whole human.
So in terms of rewilding andleadership, it's helpful too,
because we get to see like whatis it, what is the world we're
(16:30):
after, not just like the bottomline of this particular company
or organization or nonprofit,but like what's the holistic
picture that we're looking forin the world we're trying to
create together?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
you know?
Yeah, absolutely.
You talk about the power ofindigenous knowledge and shaping
how we lead.
What's one piece of ancestralwisdom that completely reframed
your understanding of leadership?
Speaker 1 (17:01):
the you know reemergence of a lot of Native
Hawaiian philosophy andleadership happening here since,
you know, 1993 was kind of the100th year of the overthrow and
there's been just this likeblossoming of incredible work
happening.
So I'll speak to aloha, becauseit's such a widely understood
or widely known word that Ithink is very like little
(17:21):
understood in its depth.
So ha is basically the breathof life, so it's the way that
Hawaiians would greet each other, was nose to nose, sharing ha
and aloha.
You know it's come to be thiskind of like passing phrase that
means everything, but itactually meant a state of being
that you would show up in fullalignment.
There's another Hawaiian termcalled pono, and some people
(17:43):
have heard of ho'oponopono aslike a forgiveness, sort of
reconciliation practice.
That's also kind ofmisunderstood because it's about
right alignment within.
So it's this idea that you havethree selves your higher self,
your amakua, your sort of likecenter self, your uhane, and
then your subconscious self,your unihipili, and those three
(18:03):
selves need to be in rightalignment with each other to be
able to show up in pono in theright way.
And you can only be in aloha,which is the state of being that
you're always aiming for ifyou're in that right alignment
so it's this idea that we'reconstantly recalibrating
ourselves and sort of checkingin like, am I in right alignment
with those three parts ofmyself?
Can I show up in this situationfrom that grounded place and
(18:27):
can I share aloha?
And if not, what do I need todo to right myself before I can
come back and be in relationshipwith this other person?
So you're not looking outsideof yourself for somebody else to
provide you stability, safetyor you know the ability to lead.
It's actually coming fromwithin and it gives you like
that calibration technology tothink about how you can write
(18:48):
yourself and show up in a moregrounded place.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, it makes me think of self-awareness, right,
of how are we showing up Like?
What is our way of being?
Not just, yeah, showing up likeexteriorly, but truly?
How are we showing up, how isour presence showing up?
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Yeah, it's self accountability, right.
So it's it's not lookingoutside for either the blame or
the cure.
It's like no, it's all withinme, it's an inside job.
So I've got to work on myselfand then I can show up.
You know my one of my friends,chris Block, who's an amazing
systems change thinker.
He said you know, the qualityof the intervention is directly
related to the quality of theintervener.
(19:25):
So it's you as the facilitator,as the coach, as the guide, as
the teacher, you know, whateverit is the leader, how are you
showing up will directly affectthe quality of the intervention
that you're trying to hold orlaunch or whatever it is, yeah,
what a beautiful thing to sharejust in what you've gained out
of it.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
But also, I think that brings awareness too, like
that word is way deeper than wemaybe passingly use it, that it
serves as a hello or a goodbyewhen there's so much deeper
meaning to it.
I love that Describe story andritual as some of the most
powerful tools fortransformation.
Is there anything that standsout to you?
(20:06):
The way using story allowedsomeone to shift, or even a
whole community to shift howthey saw themselves?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I actually work right now inwhat we call narrative-led
systems change.
So it's almost like taking thatidea of story as a powerful
anchor of culture into systemschange work and thinking about
narrative.
As you know again, story butalso like the way that we create
the world.
So we create the world throughstory, we create the world
(20:37):
through narratives, through theway we tell ourselves that.
You know, for example, you havea bookshelf behind you.
There's a narrative aroundbooks and learning and keeping
books in your house and allthese things that create a
desire to have a bookshelf.
You know, it's like it's a verydeep sort of understanding that
we're always storying the worldinto being.
And then when we think about itin terms of systems change, so
(20:58):
we work with we have afellowship called the Rhizome
and we work with mostlyfrontline social impact
activists that are in, you know,social justice, climate action,
environmental justice, economicreform type of thing, but on
the front, sort of bleedingedges of those fields, to think
about rewriting the stories thatare holding the dominant
culture in place.
(21:18):
That's creating harm, right?
So it's everything from likeland back movement.
So, for example, we worked witha bunch of land defenders and
came to the new narrative wasland back to right relations.
So very simple, kind of catchyphrase, but tells a new story
that it's not just about likeland going back from peoples who
have been erased or whose landhas been taken, but that there
(21:41):
has to be an aspect of rightrelation with the land that you
know writes into that story thatthe land itself is animate and
that we have a relationalitywith the land.
And so that becomes the newstory is what does it look like
to build systems, politics, waysof being that take land back to
right relations?
So that's just one example, butthere's lots of different ways
(22:03):
to think about narrative andstory and story as kind of
cultural creation piece In thefutures work I do.
We do this exercise called theiceberg.
We also do it in thenarrative-led systems change.
But it's helping you to go fromwhat you see in the world like
sort of the surface layer ofthings, diving deeper into the
systems, the worldview, and thenat the very bottom is always
(22:25):
the myth and the metaphor.
So it's like what is thatdeeply held myth about the world
that tells us why we're seeingwhat we see in our daily
experience and for me, likewe're in this really incredible
time, as systems kind of crumbleor break down or don't work so
well, we get to rewrite thosemyths.
We get to think about okay,well, that myth worked for a
(22:45):
time, it's not working anymore.
What's the new myth, what's thenew metaphor that we want to
hold collectively that willbubble back up and create a
whole new world and a way ofbeing so.
I think that's, you know.
For me, that's really excitingabout the moment of breakdown.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yeah, absolutely Okay .
This is where we hit the pausebutton.
Make sure to check back nextweek for part two, where Aubrey
goes even deeper into the roleof narrative-led systems, change
how stories shape culture,policy and possibility.
We talk about rewriting themyths that hold us back, the
courage to grieve as a pathwayto transformation, and why
(23:22):
leaders must reclaim theirhumanity to create futures worth
living in.
If Part 1 cracked open yourthinking, part 2 is going to
challenge you to reimaginewhat's possible for yourself,
your leadership and the worldwe're building together.
If today's episode challengedyou, moved you or lit a fire in
(23:43):
your soul, don't keep it toyourself.
Share it with somebody who'sready to rise.
Could I ask you to take 30seconds to leave a review?
It's the best way to say thankyou 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 atime.
(24:05):
Until next time, stay bold,stay grounded and make moves
that make mediocre uncomfortable.
We're actually just humans trying to make it in this
kind of weird world that we'vecreated that has some incredibly
beautiful parts and some reallykind of messed up parts, and
we're all, in our own way,experiencing joy and
experiencing suffering, and justit allowed us to see ourselves
in our wholeness and that kindof rewilding of us as humans,
not just workers orprofessionals or leaders.
(00:21):
It was like we're human beingstrying to make a beautiful life
for ourselves and the people welove.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Welcome to Evoke Greatness, the podcast for bold
leaders and big dreamers whorefuse to settle.
I'm your host, sunny.
I started in scrubs over 20years ago doing the gritty,
unseen work and climbed my wayto CEO.
Every rung of that laddertaught me something worth
passing on Lessons in leadership, resilience and what it really
(00:54):
takes to rise.
You'll hear raw conversations,unfiltered truths and the kind
of wisdom that ignites somethingdeeper in you your courage,
your conviction, your calling.
This show will help you thinkbigger, lead better and show up
bolder in every part of yourlife.
This is your place to grow.
Let's rise together.
(01:15):
In part one of our conversation, you're going to hear Aubrey's
powerful journey of walking awayfrom a successful business,
discovering futures, work andembracing rewilding as a way of
(01:37):
life and leadership.
She shares the pivotalbreakdown moments that became
breakthroughs, how she stoppednumbing and started feeling both
the hard stuff and the big joy,and why ancestral wisdom and
ritual hold keys to leading moreauthentically in today's world.
Okay, let's hop into it.
Welcome back to another episodeof About Greatness.
(01:58):
Every so often, you come acrosssomeone who doesn't just talk
about the future.
Rather, they invite you toreimagine it with them.
Aubrey Morgan Yee is one ofthose rare voices.
She's a futurist systemsthinker and storyteller who
helps leaders reconnect thewisdom of the earth and their
ancestors to shape a world thatfeels more human, more grounded
and more alive.
Her work through BelovedFutures weaves together,
(02:21):
rewilding indigenous knowledge,story and ritual, not as relics
of the past but as living,breathing practices that can
transform how we lead, how weconnect and how we create.
In this conversation, we'regoing to trace the journey that
led Aubrey to her unique calling, explore how leaders can slow
down to hear the wisdomavailable to them and discover
why the future we most want tobuild might actually begin by
(02:43):
remembering what we've forgotten.
And yes, we'll also get a sneakpeek into her upcoming book,
which promises to be a fieldguide for transformation at both
the personal and cultural level.
So let's dive on in, aubreywelcome.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Oh my gosh, sunny, thank you.
It's such a gift to hearyourself introduced, myself
introduced, because I'vestruggled for a while now to
kind of explain what I do, andwhat you just shared was so
beautiful.
I'm like, oh yeah, that's whatI do.
So thank you, that was reallylovely.
Yeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I love being able to put that into words to be able
to have an introduction tosomeone.
That's typically when people go.
Oh, I want to hear more aboutthat.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yes, totally.
Thank you so much, it wasreally lovely.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Absolutely Well, before we get into the work you
do now, I always love to justkind of take people back a
little bit.
I'm curious about whatexperiences and moments of
clarity, or even breakdownssometimes it comes through a
breakdown brought you to yourcurrent version of yourself the
Aubrey who blends ancestralwisdom with visionary futures.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, that's a really potentquestion.
There's a couple of sort of, Iguess, waypoints that I'll
mention and a breakdown, sothat's good.
Yeah, you know, I started offas an entrepreneur, sort of like
a reluctant entrepreneur.
I think like my whole life I'vebeen a lover of earth, like you
know.
Just I remember one of my firstbooks, favorite books in like
second grade, was 50 things youcan do to save the earth in like
(04:07):
the eighties, right.
So always sort of had this eyetowards like how can I make the
earth better?
I love the earth, I love nature, and then went on this kind of
sidetrack intoentrepreneurialism and, just
because I love to travel, andstarted a business importing out
of Indonesia and all this stuff.
And looking back on it now Irealized that that was an
incredible lesson inunderstanding how capital works
(04:28):
around the globe, like stufflike importing, exporting, you
know, international trade, allthis stuff from the inside out.
But I was in that business forabout 11 years and then I had
this like really kind of likerough awakening moment in
Indonesia we would always visitthe factories that we were
working with.
I had read Paul Hawkins' bookabout how to grow a business
(04:49):
because he, you know he's likecame from that same perspective
of loving the earth.
And so I was like, okay, thisis an entrepreneur I can align
with.
And so I tried to alwaysapproach from that perspective,
like working with really goodpeople and being, you know,
having an eye towards being aslike, environmentally conscious
as possible.
And I was in a factory one dayand I saw this massive,
beautiful tree on the choppingblock and it was just like this
(05:11):
gut punch and I was like, oh myGod, like of course, that's what
I'm doing, you know.
And on some level I couldjustify like, oh, I'm bringing
in antiques and I'm doing theseother things.
But there was like aconsumption aspect to the work
that I realized, wow, I'mparticipating in that.
So it wasn't that exact momentthat I shifted, but it started
this like really deep seedwithin of sort of a mild
(05:33):
discontent that I realized, okay, I'm learning from this
experience.
I learned so much aboutstarting a business, about being
an entrepreneur, aboutcreativity, about, you know,
having gumption, like tryingstuff that was hard, taking
risks, all the things learningfrom the ground up.
I was an English major, likehadn't studied business, but
that started me thinking likewhat is it I'm really here to do
, what is I'm really here toshare?
(05:55):
And so I decided, if maybe itwas about two years later, I had
this like another moment.
We had this big, beautifulshowroom.
We'd built this big business,all things.
It was successful, it wasworking.
And I just swiveled in my chairand I looked at my husband and
I said we need to sell it all.
And he's like what he's like,what he's like you're totally
crazy, what are you talkingabout?
I'm like I don't know, butsomething else is coming and I
(06:17):
need to go back to school.
And God bless him.
He was like okay, I don't knowwhat that means, but I'll
support you.
And so we kind of started theprocess, which took time, you
know.
We had partners, we had ashowroom, we had a lease, we had
all the like 3D world thingsthat we had to untangle.
But we did.
We sold the business.
I ended up getting pregnant withmy first child and I went back
to school and again, I didn'tknow exactly what I was going to
(06:39):
study, but I knew that therewas something that was calling
me back to learning and toexpanding my capacity to be of
service to the world.
So I just started takingclasses and I was taking
different classes that called tomy sense of joy and excitement.
And I found this class calledPolitics of the Future and I
looked at the reading list andPaul Hawken was on there amongst
a bunch of other authors that Iloved and I wanted to read, and
(07:02):
I was like, wow, this soundsreally interesting.
Like what is this thing,politics of the Future, that
sounds so intriguing.
So I went to join that classand even before the class
started, I got this one pagerfrom my mentor, who is this
incredible futurist named JimDator.
He's kind of like forefather offuture studies.
I was so lucky to study underhim, so lucky he was in Hawaii,
(07:22):
I mean, of all places where Igrew up, didn't have to leave my
home island and it was calledTo Be a Futurist.
And it was just this verysimple one pager that had like
20 lines of like the things itwould take to be a good futurist
.
Things like being able tonotice patterns, things like
being, you know, reallyinterested in lots of topics,
not necessarily an expert injust one.
(07:43):
Things like being creative andthinking out of the box.
All these things about what itwould take to be a good futurist
, and it was like reading mylike life purpose job
description, so I thought okayhere we are and I started down
that pathway.
Yeah, exactly, it was just likethis full yes in my body.
I remember exactly where I wason a train in Alaska reading
this one pager.
And I started down that pathwayand I didn't think I'd go for a
(08:06):
doctorate, I thought I'd juststart taking classes and
studying.
But I fell so in love with thediscipline and with the ability
to take what I was learning inacademia which can so many times
be like an ivory tower but outinto community.
And so immediately with mymentor, jim, we were going into
government offices, intocommunities, taking out futures
work to the people and sayinglike okay, this is to empower
(08:29):
you, to remember that you're aco-creator of the futures, that
you don't just have to like,digest and take what's being fed
to us, that we can actuallyremember that we co-create each
day.
You know that's like a verykind of spiritual perspective,
but it's also really grounded inthis academic research.
So it just fit me really welland that kind of helped me to
start on this pathway.
(08:50):
And then I think, you know, thenext kind of breakdown or
breakthrough came during thepandemic, when I realized I
wanted to, you know, quit myrelationship with alcohol.
So I became alcohol free and Ijust stopped numbing in general,
like it was a sort of likesense of realizing that I had
been numbing myself from thepain of the world because it was
so overwhelming moment of thatlike global breakdown.
(09:17):
I realized I can't be ofservice unless I'm fully
grounded in my highest self andable to look at the pain and the
suffering of the moment thatwe're in.
So it was like the combinationof that with this looking
towards the futures, grounded in, you know, connections to
indigenous ways of being and mylove for earth that have led to
this moment and everythingthat's happening now in this
chapter.
So there's lots in there,that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I'm curious off of your last comment around the
like identification of numbingthe pains of the world, because
there are many and each person'sis probably unique to their
lens and their lived experience.
What have been the biggest liketakeaways for you or kind of
aha moments since abstainingfrom alcohol that you, that
(10:00):
you've kind of maybe leaned intosome of those emotions?
Speaker 1 (10:03):
yeah, I think that's a really good question.
You think about the parts of itbecause you know there's so
many different ways that we numb.
Yes, for me it was alcohol andsocial media, I think, were the
two main ones.
There's like food there's, youknow, avoiding emotions.
There's I.
There's like food there's, youknow, avoiding emotions.
There's, I mean, there'sexercise can be a numbing, you
know anything, anything that wedo to try to avoid the hard
feelings, and I realized Ihadn't really been raised in a
(10:25):
family that knew how to facehard feelings and I think that's
kind of a social, it's a commonsocial issue in our culture and
in Western culture that we kindof avoid you know the difficult
emotions, and so what I'velearned in facing them is that
actually, once you get throughthose, it's like if you can't
feel the really hard stuff, youalso don't feel the really big
(10:46):
joy, right Like it's like theygo hand in hand, you know.
So it's sort of you're livingin this like kind of in-between
zone where you're not reallyfeeling either.
But if you can feel the reallyhard stuff and let it just move
through you rather than getstuck, that's where breathwork
has actually been incredible forme.
I found breathwork around thatsame time in 2020.
And it was this profoundtechnology where I remember my
(11:07):
first breathwork class.
We finished and I looked aroundand I was like we just breathed
, right, we didn't do anythingelse, right, that's all we did
was just breathe.
It was holotropic breathing andit just like activated so much
in my system and then, as Ilearned more about the science
of it, I understood like, oh,all these old emotions we're
storing in our bodies thatactually are chemical reactions
(11:27):
that get stored in our tissuesare being released through the
breathwork, and so it's become ahuge healing modality for me.
But, yeah, so I started tolayer on those different
practices that gave me thefortitude and the resilience to
face the dolphins here on theNorth Shore.
Just getting in the ocean, beingin nature, you know, like
(11:59):
feeling really just alive, likethe level of life force that's
able to course through my beingis so much more enhanced by
letting go of the numbing andfacing.
You know it's like it's justsort of like a facing truth.
You know we can't really get toanywhere new until we face
where we actually are.
So that I mean, I think that'ssomething I encourage all of us
(12:21):
to start to look at, becausewe've reached a point where you
know it's hard to look at whatis happening in the world
sometimes, but we have toacknowledge and face it with
clear eyes.
And that's really a lot of whatmy book is about is the courage
together to grieve where we'reat so that we can go to
something else, to move throughthat to the next thing.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, you talk about rewilding, and that's not just
about nature, Although it makessense when you live where you
live.
Right, you are so connected tonature.
As you talk about swimming withdolphins, I mean, these are
things that people like, wow,you could swim with dolphins.
But you're clearly veryconnected and grounded by nature
.
It's not just about nature,right, it's also about people.
(12:59):
How do you find rewilding inthe context of leadership?
Why do you feel like it's sonecessary in today's like
disconnected, hyper digitalworld?
You talked about the couple ofthings that you used as numbing.
Social media is such a big one.
We're so hyper Totally.
How do you feel like thatactually weaves itself into
(13:20):
leadership?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
The connection piece like how to reconnect and rewild
.
Yeah, I mean, I think rewildingis such a great metaphor
because it can be you can thinkabout it like from the physical
level rewilding your gut, likemaking sure your microbiome is
healthy and functioning, becausethat affects how you think.
Rewilding in your relationships, I think, is really showing up
authentically.
The things I thought was like areally beautiful, unexpected
(13:48):
sort of side effect of everyonesuddenly being stuck in their
homes and being on Zoom all thetime was that I watched, you
know, because I was stillworking in leadership at that
time.
So we were running all of ourretreats and gatherings and all
the things that we had plannedfor that year.
We just moved them all to Zoomand I was seeing how people were
showing up I mean sometimesliterally from the inside of
their closet, like in theircloset, clothes around them,
like cats walking across thekeyboard, and it was like we got
(14:10):
to see that we're all human,like.
We're all human.
We have kids.
We didn't sleep well last night.
We're feeling sad aboutsomething, our room is messy,
like we didn't have to armor up,so typically, you know, we
would get our clothes on for theday, put on our makeup, drive
in our car to get to somebuilding, to go up the elevator.
The whole way along that we'rearmoring up, we're putting on
(14:32):
our masks, we're shieldingourselves.
So we were kind of just likeripped open raw.
And it was only for a shorttime, because as soon as we
started going back to the realworld, the armor started coming
back on.
But people had experienced thatand I think it changed a lot of
us to see like we're actuallyjust humans trying to make it.
You know, in this kind of weirdworld that we've created that
(14:56):
has some incredibly beautifulparts and some really kind of
messed up parts and we're allyou know, in our own way
experiencing joy andexperiencing suffering, and just
.
It allowed us to see ourselvesin our wholeness and that kind
of rewilding of us as humans,not just workers or
professionals or leaders.
It was like we're human beingstrying to make a beautiful life
for ourselves and the people welove, and so how do we see
(15:18):
ourselves in that way and havethat compassion and empathy and
interconnectedness and I think,yeah.
So that was one one thing thatfor me, was a positive of the
pandemic I was like reallygrateful for yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
It's funny how, you know, typically we've become
such a virtual world afterwards.
It kind of oh, and I thinkthere's pros and cons to that
right.
I think there's something tobeing deeply and personally
connected with someone you knowin person.
Yes, however, there was and youused the wording but it's like
it humanized our interactionsand allowed for when kids are
(15:50):
running in the background andusually we're like, hmm, how do
I, how do I cover all that?
No, like exactly Guess what,like it's life human, like we're
all living this experiencetogether, and so I think there
was like a sense of like gracethat came with that.
That was wholly heartening.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yeah, and you know, and systems change in leadership
, which is, I think, the kind ofleadership we really need right
now.
It's so important to be able tosee the wholeness of us.
You know that we have likemultiple facets to our lives,
that you know our work is justone facet of a whole human.
So in terms of rewilding andleadership, it's helpful too,
because we get to see like whatis it, what is the world we're
(16:30):
after, not just like the bottomline of this particular company
or organization or nonprofit,but like what's the holistic
picture that we're looking forin the world we're trying to
create together?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
you know?
Yeah, absolutely.
You talk about the power ofindigenous knowledge and shaping
how we lead.
What's one piece of ancestralwisdom that completely reframed
your understanding of leadership?
Speaker 1 (17:01):
the you know reemergence of a lot of Native
Hawaiian philosophy andleadership happening here since,
you know, 1993 was kind of the100th year of the overthrow and
there's been just this likeblossoming of incredible work
happening.
So I'll speak to aloha, becauseit's such a widely understood
or widely known word that Ithink is very like little
(17:21):
understood in its depth.
So ha is basically the breathof life, so it's the way that
Hawaiians would greet each other, was nose to nose, sharing ha
and aloha.
You know it's come to be thiskind of like passing phrase that
means everything, but itactually meant a state of being
that you would show up in fullalignment.
There's another Hawaiian termcalled pono, and some people
(17:43):
have heard of ho'oponopono aslike a forgiveness, sort of
reconciliation practice.
That's also kind ofmisunderstood because it's about
right alignment within.
So it's this idea that you havethree selves your higher self,
your amakua, your sort of likecenter self, your uhane, and
then your subconscious self,your unihipili, and those three
(18:03):
selves need to be in rightalignment with each other to be
able to show up in pono in theright way.
And you can only be in aloha,which is the state of being that
you're always aiming for ifyou're in that right alignment
so it's this idea that we'reconstantly recalibrating
ourselves and sort of checkingin like, am I in right alignment
with those three parts ofmyself?
Can I show up in this situationfrom that grounded place and
(18:27):
can I share aloha?
And if not, what do I need todo to right myself before I can
come back and be in relationshipwith this other person?
So you're not looking outsideof yourself for somebody else to
provide you stability, safetyor you know the ability to lead.
It's actually coming fromwithin and it gives you like
that calibration technology tothink about how you can write
(18:48):
yourself and show up in a moregrounded place.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, it makes me think of self-awareness, right,
of how are we showing up Like?
What is our way of being?
Not just, yeah, showing up likeexteriorly, but truly?
How are we showing up, how isour presence showing up?
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Yeah, it's self accountability, right.
So it's it's not lookingoutside for either the blame or
the cure.
It's like no, it's all withinme, it's an inside job.
So I've got to work on myselfand then I can show up.
You know my one of my friends,chris Block, who's an amazing
systems change thinker.
He said you know, the qualityof the intervention is directly
related to the quality of theintervener.
(19:25):
So it's you as the facilitator,as the coach, as the guide, as
the teacher, you know, whateverit is the leader, how are you
showing up will directly affectthe quality of the intervention
that you're trying to hold orlaunch or whatever it is, yeah,
what a beautiful thing to sharejust in what you've gained out
of it.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
But also, I think that brings awareness too, like
that word is way deeper than wemaybe passingly use it, that it
serves as a hello or a goodbyewhen there's so much deeper
meaning to it.
I love that Describe story andritual as some of the most
powerful tools fortransformation.
Is there anything that standsout to you?
(20:06):
The way using story allowedsomeone to shift, or even a
whole community to shift howthey saw themselves?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I actually work right now inwhat we call narrative-led
systems change.
So it's almost like taking thatidea of story as a powerful
anchor of culture into systemschange work and thinking about
narrative.
As you know again, story butalso like the way that we create
the world.
So we create the world throughstory, we create the world
(20:37):
through narratives, through theway we tell ourselves that.
You know, for example, you havea bookshelf behind you.
There's a narrative aroundbooks and learning and keeping
books in your house and allthese things that create a
desire to have a bookshelf.
You know, it's like it's a verydeep sort of understanding that
we're always storying the worldinto being.
And then when we think about itin terms of systems change, so
(20:58):
we work with we have afellowship called the Rhizome
and we work with mostlyfrontline social impact
activists that are in, you know,social justice, climate action,
environmental justice, economicreform type of thing, but on
the front, sort of bleedingedges of those fields, to think
about rewriting the stories thatare holding the dominant
culture in place.
(21:18):
That's creating harm, right?
So it's everything from likeland back movement.
So, for example, we worked witha bunch of land defenders and
came to the new narrative wasland back to right relations.
So very simple, kind of catchyphrase, but tells a new story
that it's not just about likeland going back from peoples who
have been erased or whose landhas been taken, but that there
(21:41):
has to be an aspect of rightrelation with the land that you
know writes into that story thatthe land itself is animate and
that we have a relationalitywith the land.
And so that becomes the newstory is what does it look like
to build systems, politics, waysof being that take land back to
right relations?
So that's just one example, butthere's lots of different ways
(22:03):
to think about narrative andstory and story as kind of
cultural creation piece In thefutures work I do.
We do this exercise called theiceberg.
We also do it in thenarrative-led systems change.
But it's helping you to go fromwhat you see in the world like
sort of the surface layer ofthings, diving deeper into the
systems, the worldview, and thenat the very bottom is always
(22:25):
the myth and the metaphor.
So it's like what is thatdeeply held myth about the world
that tells us why we're seeingwhat we see in our daily
experience and for me, likewe're in this really incredible
time, as systems kind of crumbleor break down or don't work so
well, we get to rewrite thosemyths.
We get to think about okay,well, that myth worked for a
(22:45):
time, it's not working anymore.
What's the new myth, what's thenew metaphor that we want to
hold collectively that willbubble back up and create a
whole new world and a way ofbeing so.
I think that's, you know.
For me, that's really excitingabout the moment of breakdown.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yeah, absolutely Okay .
This is where we hit the pausebutton.
Make sure to check back nextweek for part two, where Aubrey
goes even deeper into the roleof narrative-led systems, change
how stories shape culture,policy and possibility.
We talk about rewriting themyths that hold us back, the
courage to grieve as a pathwayto transformation, and why
(23:22):
leaders must reclaim theirhumanity to create futures worth
living in.
If Part 1 cracked open yourthinking, part 2 is going to
challenge you to reimaginewhat's possible for yourself,
your leadership and the worldwe're building together.
If today's episode challengedyou, moved you or lit a fire in
(23:43):
your soul, don't keep it toyourself.
Share it with somebody who'sready to rise.
Could I ask you to take 30seconds to leave a review?
It's the best way to say thankyou 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 atime.
(24:05):
Until next time, stay bold,stay grounded and make moves
that make mediocre uncomfortable.
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