Ulla Suokko is a transformational mentor, author, speaker, and artist with a fascinating global journey. She holds a doctoral degree from The Juilliard School and has traveled the world as a performer and inspirer — sharing her message of authentic alignment, intuitive guidance, and personal transformation.
Her TEDx talk, Do You See the Signs of the Universe?, has reached over 3.3 million views, and she is the author of a book on signs and how to elevate your vision and transform the story of your life.
Through her WiseWoman Energetics one-on-one mentorship, her writings and meditations, and her international Zoom wisdom circles, Ulla invites you into a sacred space where luxury meets wisdom — and every step is a creative dance with the Universe. She guides and empowers her clients to awaken their inner knowing, align with the energy and essence of their dreams, and lead with presence, purpose, and love.
https://wisewomanenergetics.com/
https://wisewomanenergetics.com/book/ Signs of the Universe by Ulla Suokko
https://youtu.be/c_X_sPNUDes?feature=shared Do You See the Signs of the Universe? | Ulla Suokko | TEDxBigSky
TRANSCRIPT
Ulla Suokko - Signs of the Universe
​[00:00:00]
Megan Chaskey: Welcome to the Spirit of Leadership Podcast. Listen in as we talk with emerging as well as seasoned leaders, change makers and visionaries. And hear their stories, how they have overcome challenges, how they cultivate inspired vision as stewards and mentors shining their light to uplift and empower others,
reconnecting us through a sense of belonging to the natural world and to the interweaving circles of just and vital communities.
[00:01:00] Hello, Ulla. I am so happy to have you here today in this conversation. I know that it's going to be very inspiring, heartwarming also. So welcome.
Ulla Suokko: Thank you so much. I am so happy to have this conversation with you as well and extend it to all those who are listening to us.
Megan Chaskey: So I'd like to introduce. Ulla Suokko, and she's a transformational mentor and author and speaker and artist.
She wears a lot of hats, which is a beautiful side of her sacred personality, and she has a fascinating global journey, which I hope we can touch on a bit during this conversation. And she holds a doctoral degree from Julliard. So there's this wonderful aspect of her musical being that she brings to [00:02:00] all of her teachings, and she's traveled the whole world as a performer and as a person who inspires.
And her message is about authentic alignment and intuitive guidance and personal transformation. For example, she has a TEDx talk, Do You See the Signs of the Universe? And we'll put a link to that in the show notes because I highly recommend watching that. And she's the author of the book, Signs of the Universe, A Practical Guide to Shift Your Story.
One of the phrases that I want to bring out here in your introduction is how you said you inspire the people you work with to awaken inner knowing and align with the energy and essence of dreams and lead with presence, purpose, and love, [00:03:00] and that phrase, leading with presence and purpose and love inspired me to reach out to you and invite you to be on this podcast interview.
I'm so grateful that you're here. Tell us where you're speaking from.
Ulla Suokko: I am currently in Finland, in the northern part of our beautiful planet, and we are still in these beautiful full moon energies as well, bathing in the energies that just keep being very strong for us and supporting us to exactly invoke the essence and energy of our dreams and embody it. And I feel that there's a certain urgency for all of us to embrace the spirit of leadership [00:04:00] in our own unique way and find that leadership of love that I call it within us so that we can truly be part of the shift and transformation on a personal level, but also on a global level altogether.
Megan Chaskey: It's just so beautiful that you're bringing it to this moment too, where we are as humanity and being part of this shift that is happening. I am really appreciating your voice in expressing that. When I was coming up with the idea of the essence of this podcast series, being a poet, I received the phrase spirit of leadership.
So it's led me on an exploration of what that means and [00:05:00] why it's come to me, and also sensing into what are the conversations that need to happen. Intimate conversations, but also that we can share with people to inspire them. When I was reading your book, you talked about leading with love, a verb. Spirit of leadership, yes, is a state and it's a presence. When you said lead with love, it brought up a whole new thing for me, so I would love to hear you speak on that.
Ulla Suokko: I feel that we are on a beautiful and powerful threshold where the old way of leadership, somewhere out there that we follow is now to turn within and really understand that we all have amazing power [00:06:00] to generate change, and it's not necessarily the kind of change in the old way of thinking where we go to the barricades and change things out there again. But when we do learn to use the miraculous power that is within each and every one of us we can generate these incredible shifts that absolutely makes a difference because when more and more of us are really awakening different parts of the amazing layers of the universe that we are investing our own energy into the bank where the change that we want to see is happening instead of opposing something out there, we find the yes within ourselves and we find the power of true leadership [00:07:00] of love and the spirit of leadership that needs to be on the individual level. We are not anymore just a herd. We can find that kind of leadership and be inspired by it because it's always present, but instead of fighting something that we don't like, I really want to invite all of us to follow what we want to empower because as the saying goes, where your attention goes, energy flows.
So we are powerful beyond our current understanding, and little by little we can awaken that power in a very organic and authentic and safe way. I think that I, many of us also that are spiritual change makers, we've had to [00:08:00] deal with even the word power because it has been maybe something that we haven't wanted because we were burned at stake.
So now it's time to actually understand that true power is really love and true power is blossoming and true power is creative and supportive. And the other stuff that we've talked about as power has not really been power. It has been something else that has been disguised behind the definition of power, and that's one thing that I really invite all of us to do is to examine the words that we use so that we can feel the energy of the words like spells. And the more we awaken and [00:09:00] more powerful we become, the faster those spells also bear fruit. And so let's take that beautiful responsibility of defining the words anew and allowing us to even change their energy in the world.
Many words that have been misused, love included, love, power, money, so that we can absolutely redefine them and reembody them within this spirit of leadership, and I would say spiritual leadership or holistic leadership, where it's not against something, but it's all inclusive. Not exclusive, but inclusive.
So [00:10:00] really to pay with the idea and play with what does this mean to me and how can I look at it in an empowering way? What is the story that I tell about anything really in my life? And is the story supporting me or is it weakening me? Is it making me feel light and confident and happy? Or is it making me heavy or limited?
And we have that power. We really, truly are ready to use that power and step into a new era of leadership and new era of taking responsibility of the change.
Megan Chaskey: Yes.
Ulla Suokko: And transformation in this world.
Megan Chaskey: Yes. So beautifully said. I love how you weave [00:11:00] together the inner experience with how we perceive what is happening around us, and the sense of, yes, it's our individual inner experience, but it's how do we connect with that unified sense of empowerment that is happening in the broader field, people's awareness. Do you see that happening?
Ulla Suokko: Absolutely, and I choose to see that happening because the other stuff is also happening, but I choose to put my focus, my attention to all the powerful stuff and good stuff and stuff that I want to support in this world, and that "we" thing happens also when we authentically align with the truth of who we are.
Because [00:12:00] ultimately each one of us is the universe, and at the same time, there's no separation at that level. So to harness the individual power is really harnessing the universal love when we do it in an authentic and aligned way. And of course our mind is like, what? It's okay. I always say, let's have our mind do some Sudoku or something.
We honor you. You are brilliant, you're great. But right now I want to travel the universe. Right now I'm going to spiral into the galaxies and sorry you can't follow here. So let's get back to you as a later moment.
Megan Chaskey: Can you tell a story of when you followed that thread yourself? Because you have some very inspiring stories that you've told in your book and in your TEDx talk, [00:13:00] and I feel that it's the way you express those moments when you were at that threshold and you needed to find your way.
To be given that sense from the universe. I love the intimacy of your stories because you bring us into that moment of not knowing. Tell us a story, a specific story. Yes. What comes to mind or what comes to heart
Ulla Suokko: Really, because I've been writing about this, I have so many stories, but I think the one that is also in my  TEDx talk when I was a student at Julliard and I felt really insecure about my future. It is even now a good story because it's very universal in that sense that we can have those moments at any given time on [00:14:00] our path, and it was one of those moments when I felt that nothing's working and I was really afraid that I don't know how to bring forth my gifts and talents because the doors somehow seemed very closed for me to go ahead in my career.
So I just decided to speak to the universe and I said, Hello, hello, anybody there? We need to talk because I'm really afraid and I'm frustrated and I don't know what to do. And I think the best thing would be to give me a sign, a clear sign, so that I would know if I'm even on the right path because I am really willing to persevere if I know that this is the path that I should, I continue on. That's also something that I talk about now. There's no right or wrong path. There's just [00:15:00] your path. Yeah, you are always on the right path. Right? Wrong is our, that kind of juxtaposition that is about separation. But now I already know that that's surrender to the path that we are on and the answers are given to us.
But in that moment, I was feeling that I was not on the right path.
Megan Chaskey: It was also because by being at Julliard and being a professional flute player and what the world puts out there as the path for the professional. The professional musician.
Ulla Suokko: Yes. A performer. Yes. And a lot of pressure in that bubble to perform.
Always top level. And if I can just deviate from that story a little bit. I think that for me, maybe the most powerful thing that I learned at Julliard or powerful [00:16:00] container within Julliard was that I got a scholarship for community outreach work, and I got to play in hospitals and mental wards. And homeless shelters.
And ultimately I became the liaison between Julliard and Hospice, and I played at people's bedsides for the families and the person who was dying. And I think that was perfect. High Five Universe, perfect training for me because I really could see so tangibly the healing power of music and ultimately whether I performed well under pressure in an important concert was really secondary to those moments of playing and talking to those people, and I also [00:17:00] found a gift there that was mine to work in this world. I have since accompanied many people in those fragile moments in different capacities, also as a healer and the kind of mentor and transformation coach that I am.
So that too was already a hint that at that time I really failed to see it clearly because then I found myself in that position like, oh, nothing is working and my career is not moving on. Whereas it was moving on exactly as it was supposed to move on. But I didn't see that because I was expecting those, I was looking for signs for the more traditional concert artist path that was more of the Julliard path.
And, don't get me wrong, I [00:18:00] really loved the education that I got from Juilliard. Absolutely was amazing. The first school where I was challenged because I always wanted to learn so much, but I felt that school was too easy. So at Juilliard I was challenged, I felt in the right way. So anyway, I was there on a very hot summer Sunday, desperate. And I was asking for a sign from the universe, and I was demanding for a sign. Really? I was like, yeah, give me a sign and give me a sign that I can understand none of those cryptic messages that I have no idea what they mean. And then after that, I went for a walk already a little bit relieved because I had talked out loud to the universe.
I felt that something had to change, but I didn't know how and I didn't know what to do, and I felt really sad and then scared. And then I was walking, [00:19:00] uh, on Broadway and crossing Broadway at 81st Street. I. And there was a book out upside down and I thought, oh my goodness, somebody must have dropped their book.
Because I'm very respectful of books. I love books. And then I thought, I can at least look what the book is. And I turned the book around and its title is The Singing Flute. I'm really shaken at that moment and I was thinking, could this be my sign? It's really quite obvious, but I was still doubting. But I open up the book and the first sentence is, this is a story of a little finish girl.
And here is a Finnish girl, a flute student at Julliard asking for a sign, and there's a book that I always say that they were supposed to drop it on my head, [00:20:00] but they missed because I was hesitating, crossing. And I love that tangibility of that sign also, because I think that was the biggest sign so far at that point, and as you can see, I've given a TEDx talk about the science of the universe. I've written a book about it. I keep teaching about it. This is an important story in my curriculum of life, and I would really invite all the listeners to start really gathering these stories because we all have them.
We all have signs. Some are smaller, some are bigger. And another thing that I want to say that, okay, you got the sign and what? It's not yet, it doesn't come with all the answers. It's just the sign, like a kick on the butt that okay, [00:21:00] yes, we say yes now go figure it out. Now go. Go be it. Go embody it, go find out, allow it to unfold and pay attention to the signs because they are everywhere all the time.
We are guiding you. But please pay attention. And that was basically what also happened to me in that moment is, okay, boom. Okie dokie. Let me pay attention. I'll be a good girl. I'll listen now and I'm not trying to force the signs to be what I want them to be, but I'm going to start paying attention what really is given to me.
And then I realized that I was not meant to be anything traditional. I was meant to really carve my own path so that I can serve the best with all that I am. Because even as a musician, I always wanted to [00:22:00] inspire people and the training almost, almost at various points of my life, almost killed it. Wow. The demands of the high level performance started eating up the soul of, the joy of music. Wow. Uh, but I persevered through those moments and the first of those happened when in my teens already. And I can see why those happened too, because being now the guide and mentor and teacher, I had to also have those moments so that I can understand when people have those setbacks and when they almost give up.
Because I also almost gave up so many times. And to [00:23:00] learn how not to give up on yourself, how not to give up on that spirit within you, not to give up on, on your soul, and not to exchange the essence of your dreams with something that the world tells you are supposed to value. And I think that all in all, everything is always perfect, but let's pay attention so that we can, instead of becoming a victim of those moments, we can turn it around and see that we can be leaders in that moment and we can make choices that really, truly are empowered and we can teach that to ourselves. We might need to unlearn some of the patterns that we've thought are ours, [00:24:00] but none of the conditioning is really true to our blueprint and the conditioning comes from what we learn from the world. And what I'm doing in my work is to really invite people to the truth of who they are and finding that pure center of love and creativity. Power that is within each one of us.
And for me, signs of the universe become, they are not the end of it. When we ask for a sign, we better ask also for a manual after we get the sign or an outline, what then, or ask ourselves that. Because remember, you are the universe. So you're not really asking it from outside of you. The universe speaks your language.
The universe [00:25:00] speaks the language of your imagination and your intuition. It speaks in your poetry because it responds to your vibration. And the more you elevate your vibration, which means feel lighter, feel better. The more the universe can play with you on those frequencies. That's why gratitude is so powerful, because gratitude really prepares you to receive more of that frequency that you are grateful for.
Megan Chaskey: It's lovely. I'm feeling while I'm listening to you, the playfulness also, that it's not a prescription. So you're training in music. That you enjoyed that challenge of going to school to master playing music, [00:26:00] and yet you are the instrument. Your flute is the instrument, but you are the instrument. So it's always in the moment, always paying attention.
You were enjoying this challenge because it was asking you to come into that role of learning to master something. It's interesting then in that process, you came to the point where it was a track and it was prescribed, and then it was, okay, how do I get back to playing with the universe and feeling that is playing through me?
And you had that experience of playing at the bedside and with people in hospice. When they were at a transition point, whether they were the caregivers or the people who were going through that transition and [00:27:00] talking about playing, I love hearing how your experience as a musician is informing how you listen, receive, and respond, and play with the energies.
Ulla Suokko: Yes, and thank you for seeing that because I really think that the training to listen and mind you, not all musicians listen either. I invite all of you musicians out there. You really also pay attention because we need to listen with all of our being and like you said, no matter what instrument we play, we are the instrument.
It's just an extension of who we are. And I always say, you are the flute. We are all flutes through which the universe plays. And I use the word universe because it's a beautiful word that doesn't carry too much [00:28:00] baggage that we can all play with without having to define it infinitely. But that is very true and I feel that mastering any craft, whether it is learning to play an instrument, or writing or acting or computer science or programming, whatever it is, when you really master it, its teachings can be brought to any other system.
Your path with that other system is easier because you've already mastered yourself through mastering something. Whatever the craft is for any individual, I am the kind of person that I need to keep learning new stuff to keep nurturing that curiosity. That's why I'm always learning something and love being in that [00:29:00] learning state and challenging myself throughout my life.
I've heard people, well-meaning people say you should focus on something because you are spreading yourself thin. It used to bother me until I came to a point where I realized that no, that's who I am. I need all of those things to be excellent in any one of them. I would get bored and flat if I just concentrated on one thing.
I. So I've had to have many things because they all come together. They dance with me in the wholeness of who I am. That's what I also want to say to whoever is listening, that if you feel that you are drawn to many directions, explore them all and allow yourself space to explore them without feeling that you should [00:30:00] be doing something else or you should not be doing.
No, find out for yourself. I also honor fully and completely those who are absolutely mastering one thing in their life, and that's what their path is. It's not less or more, it's just who they are in truth. And all paths lead to Rome.
Megan Chaskey: It's a beautiful message and I'm so glad that you brought that forth because there is always that questioning when you're listening to someone and you are following what they're saying, but inside you're going, okay, what am I taking from this that's going to help me where I am now?
I think we're always listening for that. I do anyway. And that sense of playing with it and it being a dance, it's interesting to look [00:31:00] back over your life too, right? And see the places where you thought you were doing something completely different than you are now. When I look back at my education, all the different things that I did and I didn't pursue them in a professional way, but now I see how they all come together. Yeah. And to me that's the beauty of looking at your own life and seeing the story, the archetypal story, like you said, the blueprint being authentic to the blueprint. Yeah. And you can see that there was no point where you went wrong and you took a wrong turn and had to diverge.
When you can look back at it and see the nuances.
Ulla Suokko: Yeah, and I want to continue for those who are listening, who might [00:32:00] feel in any way or form that they wasted their time doing something in their life and now they would be ready for something. There's no such thing as wasting your time. Everything is part of your unique path and your unique expression and your unique university of life so that you become you so that you are you now. And I really want to encourage everyone to honor their past, whatever there has been and some really hard things and some scary things can be included in that. But now is now, and you don't have to be a victim of your past in any way, you can shift that story so that you can take your power back from your past.
I think that [00:33:00] it is really important to work through any regret or victimhood so that you can be empowered in the now and make choices in the now from that spirit of leadership, of love, that you can change your story today and move towards what you do want rather than keep looking back what you don't want or what you wish wasn't there.
Make up a new past for yourself if you need to, because it this point, it's just a story. It can be ingrained in your cells and that might need some help to clear that from all the levels, but it is chewable and you can be free to create from the infinite Now moment.
Megan Chaskey: Beautiful. Beautiful. Thank you so [00:34:00] much.
I feel very inspired and I know everyone listening will be inspired. Can you tell us some of the ways that we can engage more with your work so that we can follow on from this wonderful conversation.
Ulla Suokko: You can find me on my website, wisewomanenergetics.com, and you can also find me on Instagram under my name Ulla and Facebook as well.
And if you do feel inspired to explore your journey more deeply and would love to have support with that, I do have a complimentary discovery call that you can book from my website and no strings attached. Only love. You can book that call and we can have a conversation and see how I could support you in awakening to that brilliance of your becoming and embodying [00:35:00] your highest vision and the essence of your dreams.
Megan Chaskey: Beautiful. It's a beautiful website and I'll put the links in the show notes so you can find her there. I want to express so much appreciation for that little Finnish girl inside you that has gone through all the things that you've gone through and what you're bringing to the world and you bring to yourself.
I am enjoying this also because I feel you're speaking about the poetics of life. The same way you're talking about the healing power of music. The poetics is the nuances of how everything speaks with the everything else. So thank you so much.
Ulla Suokko: Thank you, and the [00:36:00] poetics of life is also in that energy and essence of the words that we use.
That's why One last thing that I invite people to do is to make a list of your power words. And start using those words in your conversation and in your envisioning your dream life and really keep adding to that list and keep tasting the words and keep redefining the words, and keep using them as magical spells.
Keep using them as miraculous tools to co-create with the universe so that you can work with your frequency. Very specifically with your own power words.
Megan Chaskey: Yes. That's wonderful. And comes back to the way I received the name of this podcast, the Spirit [00:37:00] of Leadership. Those words have a life force, and then it attracts the joy and the feeling of inspiration.
Yes. And the courage to reach out to you and the beautiful experience of you having responded with a beautiful yes. So I'm very grateful
Ulla Suokko: And that yes, and that joy and that lightness and playfulness elevates our vibration, and that speaks to the universe that responds to us in that vibration. So we keep generating goodness by just joining forces and bringing that joy forth.
And all of you listeners, you've been given the torch now, so let's go and in infect the world with joy.
Megan Chaskey: Thank you so much Ulla
Ulla Suokko: you [00:38:00] too. Thank you.
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