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“I think we all begin in the same place. We came in awake.”
– Allyn Reid

Welcome back to ONKEN RADIO (previously NION Radio), the podcast where we explore the body, mind, and soul of the creative entrepreneur. It’s my goal to help you take your creativity, business, and life to the next level. I’m so glad you’re joining me on this journey.

Before we jump into our episode today, I want to start off with a question for you.

As a creative, have you ever been pressured by the need to produce a masterpiece that is relatable, shareable and, of course, profitable?  I mean that’s the goal, right? We all want to create art that is beautiful, thought-provoking, relatable, and profitable. However, this isn’t always easy.

 The creative industry often leaves us empty and worn out, right? We’re accustomed to getting disappointed when others don’t receive our work, and we’re constantly working on new things to create. So the question becomes, when we get absolutely exhausted, how do we get back on track? How do we reignite our passions and reawaken the true creatives within us? 

If you’ve been asking yourself that recently, I’ve got good news for you. Today’s show is all about “waking up” — creating self-awareness and coming back to your true creative self. 

I am delighted to have Allyn Reid in today’s episode. Allyn is a wonderful human being who believes in the limitless power and creativity of our alter egos and how life-changing soul sovereignty is! I’m sure you’ll learn some helpful insights from her today, so let’s begin!

 Who Is Allyn Reid? 

Allyn Reid is a soul behaviorist, entrepreneur, and leadership facilitator who founded WooManity — a platform that provides soul support for leaders, entrepreneurs, and creators in activating their relationships with their souls to make an impact in their work, family and lives. Allyn is also the Producer and Co-Founder of the Secret Knock Conference, which Forbes’ dubbed as the “Can’t-Miss Conference for Entrepreneurs.” 

Not only is Allyn super accomplished in the business world, but she was the first Filipina to summit Kilimanjaro, and she’s the resident Sherpa at Sherpa Press — a publishing company that helps new authors get discovered. 

 Above all these, Allyn is a Creative Alchemist who specializes in helping people amplify their businesses from the inside out.  When you’re aligned with who you are, and you’re living in your passion doing what you love, you will succeed — today, Allyn Reid is here to teach us how to do just that. 

 Waking Up, Sleeping Again, and Waking Up Others

 “We all begin in the same place. We came in awake.”
– Allyn Reid

I began the interview by having Allyn explain how she became the amplifier and motivator that she is now. Allyn explained that like the rest of us, she began her journey by waking up to this world and falling back asleep. Like everyone else, she had her fair share of being held captive by the world’s expectations and giving in to the pressure to survive.

As a ten-year-old, young immigrant from the Philippines, Allyn knew well that she had to fight hard to succeed, but that idea didn’t sit very well with her. The hustle mentality proved to be exhausting. Despite making it to a top university, she became suicidal and felt cut off from herself.  She no longer knew who she really was.

At this point in her life, Allyn found herself asking powerful questions. Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to be doing with my life? While this period of her life was extremely hard and upsetting, these questions are what jump-started her career as an amplifier.

 From a young age, Allyn was a natural encourager. When she was in private highschool (that required uniforms), she started observing behaviors and learning her classmates’ stories. She discovered different personalities, hobbies, talents, and alter egos that were way different from the ones seen inside the classrooms. This diversity was exciting to her — and she knew that it was something worth celebrating. She started the very first diversity talent show in her school, a small preview of the Secret Knock Conference to come in the future. 

“I saw that there were so many aspects of an individual that get left out when you only see them in one way, and to build community around these aspects of ourselves … should be celebrated and not be scrubbed down as an adult.”
– Allyn Reid

 Here’s what I learned from hearing Allyn’s story. As creatives, we need to wake up from the person the world tells us to be. There are constant voices around us — telling us to do this, be this, or behave in a certain way — and when we ignore who we truly are, we’ll just end up miserable. However, when we listen to our inner self and express that freely, we’ll not only be happier but we’ll also wake others up to be truly themselves. We cannot liberate and celebrate other people with us being tied up ourselves. 

Are you freely expressing who you are? Or do you feel burdened by the weight of society’s expectations? We unlock our Creative Alchemy when we understand who we truly are, so I encourage you to take some time today and ask yourself if you’re being who you truly are.

What Is an Alter Ego and How Do We Embrace It? 

 Here’s the thing, though: We never truly accept ourselves without embracing and celebrating our alter egos.

But first, what is an alter ego?

Allyn described an alter ego as the “non-PC” part of ourselves. It’s the ego that is usually censored and forgotten in order to abide by the world’s expectations or our own self-doubts. 

My friend and successful coach, Todd Herman, actually wrote this book about alter egos where he describes how to use alter egos to create opportunities, art, and better relationships.  Beyonce herself uses an alter ego named Sascha Fierce to help her overcome her stage fright and perform in front of large crowds. 

In my own words, alter ego is the hidden part of you that you try hard to hide or don’t feel like you’re worthy enough to embody. 

But if we take a minute to understand our alter egos, we’ll realize that these possess traits that make us human. For example, embracing their sexuality makes some women feel real and powerful. And likewise, crying or expressing emotion can make some  more comfortable.

 When embraced and celebrated, these sample alter egos can actually make us feel more of ourselves and give us control over our life. Sounds empowering, right?

While discovering your alter ego seems exciting, the process is not that fast and easy. For Allyn, it was a long, sad journey in college. When we investigate our alter ego, we have to break ourselves from reality and what is comfortable — which is  not easy. 

So how can we embrace our alter ego?

According to Allyn, the first step to ask the right questions and to be the answer. the answer.

In our lives, we’re constantly asking questions. How can I become a millionaire? How can I lose weight? How can I be attractive and liked? How do I make profitable art? The questions go on and on, and we don’t always find easy quick answers. As a result, we all get stressed by the questions we ask and don’t do anything to truly answer them. The solution to this issue is to become the answer yourself. As Allyn wanted to put it:

“Most of this stress of the journey is waiting for this answer or that we got to have the answer when the whole point of it is actually to just be sitting in the question [and] finding your comfort zone in the question … because we’re not going to get the answers. We have to be the answers.”

I agree — we need to take comfort in asking and not always receiving the answer. When we don’t know the answer, the solution is to simply be the answer ourselves, and through this process, we learn more about who we truly are.  These answers may first come in small experiences we may take for granted, but no matter how small they may be, pause and learn from these small revelations. You do not have to go from answer one to ten in a linear motion. You can start from answer ten, back to answer 3, or in whatever sequence you are comfortable in.

For creatives like ourselves, answers may be as small and vague as a line from a poem, an inspiration for our next painting, or simply loved ones who inspire us to never stop creating. These moments may seem small, but they are profound — when patched together, we begin to understand who we truly are. 

Here’s my major takeaway from this: Retrain your brain to ask the correct questions. Rephrase questions in a way so that you have control to act upon it and not simply wait for the answer to appear. Once we take control of the questions we have for ourselves, then we get to know ourselves better.

 So, who is your alter ego? Is it Sascha Fierce, Mozart, Van Gogh, or Barack Obama? Who knows? Only you. But whoever or whatever your alter ego is, get to know them and embrace them fully.  

Soul Sovereignty

As creative entrepreneurs, we have to focus on both our art (or whatever work we’re producing) and how we can structure our business to be impactful and profitable.  However,  when trying to ensure the business’s success, many of us lose touch with our true self and passions. We get obsessed with the specifics — the numbers, the marketing strategies, and the nitty-gritty details of websites and sales.

It’s definitely important that we spend time refining our business processes; however, what’s the point if we lose sight of our creativity in the process? 

Without soul sovereignty, pressure and other stimuli make us extremely reactive instead of responsive.  

But first, what is soul sovereignty? Here’s how Allyn described it: 

“The soul sovereignty puts you in charge, and you’re no longer at the effect of the stimulus. … And the responsibility of being in charge is also being willing to dance with life because life is unpredictable. It will hand you some things. The more it realizes you’re capable. It’ll be like, ‘Okay, you handle this.’”
– Allyn Reid

As Allyn explained it, soul sovereignty is gaining control of your mind and body in order to respond to situations wisely instead of reacting to them. By engaging soul sovereignty, you gain control of your overall self. 

An example that Allyn gave is a pilot examining a plane’s controls. Your mind, heart, and body can be gauges with different functions, but gauges are not the only things that make the airplane fly. We need to make sure that everything works from the gauges to the windows to the gas to the pedal — all the parts of the plane. To do that correctly, one must sit down, use the entire set of gauges in the dashboard and the rest of the plane in order to fly the plane well. 

“You are the pilot. This is your plane. Here are all your gauges. Let’s have an orientation for gauges, shall we?”
– Allyn Reid

We achieve soul sovereignty by checking in with every part of ourselves — the mind, the body, and the heart.  At first, you may not know where all the gauges are — you’re going to have to take some time to reflect and understand yourself — but as you sit down in your own plane and truly learn how it works, the destination becomes clearer. 

Sometimes though, the destination may change — life is unpredictable. Things happen that we could have never seen coming. Soul sovereignty can help you here too — instead of freaking out, take a moment to breathe and recenter yourself. You have the power to overcome anything if you engage the issue from a growth mindset. 

 Be a Creative Alchemist with Allyn Reid 

Thank you so much for joining me today, guys! I know that I for one learned so much from Allyn.  While she may not be an artist in the traditional sense, she is the perfect example of a Creative Alchemist. 

Alchemy is defined as the process of taking something ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary, sometimes in a way that cannot be explained.

With that being said, I define Creative Alchemy as using the process of creativity to create a lens through which to perform alchemy. These principles not only apply to artists and creatives in their own creative processes, but to anyone who wants to create an extraordinary life in color for themselves. I’ve found that 80% of creating is alchemizing the thoughts, emotions, and other inner blocks that keep you from putting the pen to the paper. When we can’t be our true selves, we are immediately blocked from this process. However, with the help of individuals such as Allyn Reid, we can begin to unlock our alter egos and express our individuality in our art, our businesses, and our relationships. 

If you loved this episode, make sure to connect with Allyn through WooManity. She has a lot of great videos on her site which explain complex subjects to help you on your journey of self-discovery.  If you enjoyed this interview, let us know on Instagram! Tag Allyn, @thewomanbeing, and me, @nick_onken, on Instagram with a screenshot of the episode and your greatest takeaways! And if you’ve got time, leave me a review on Apple Podcasts. I’d love to hear your feedback.

I’ll catch you guys next time — now, go live the creative lives you were meant for.

Nick Onken

“The things that people struggle with internally is their alter egos. We all have several, and they turn into alter egos because we don’t want to look at them, whatever the x factor is that’s in there.”
– Allyn Reid

 

You can Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts. And please leave me a Rating and Review!

 

Some things we learn in this podcast:

• How Allyn got interested in her passion of helping people get better in touch with their true selves [4:23]
• The ways that Allyn has been a “community amplifier” and architect for various groups [9:14]
• What our alter egos are and where they come from [14:19]
• The turning point for Allyn to “wake up” to her true self [17:09]
• Why asking questions is one of the most powerful tools you can use to keep momentum in your life [22:36]
• Why we need to process and understand all our experiences, good and bad, to move forward [26:39]
• What soul sovereignty is, and how it amplifies your business and your life [33:31]
• What Allyn does to “defrag” her mental hard drive [37:05]
• How to start your journey into awareness [41:29]
• The power of breath, and how Allyn’s clients have found their superpowers in learning to harness it [44:13]

Links Mentioned:

• Get Nick’s new ebook, 4 Formulas to Create an Unforgettable Visual Brand, for FREE
• innerwise
• The Arm-length test by innerwise
• Check out Allyn’s article on Imagos

Connect with Allyn Reid on Woomanity | Instagram | Entrepreneur Magazine