Sophie Wood

I believe that every person, yes - even you, has the innate power to rewrite their story and embrace their unique journey with confidence and authenticity. My Goal is to help people break free from self-doubt, discover their true purpose, and give themself permission to create the life they desire. 

I do this through…

• Asking Better Questions.
• Really Listening.
• Being vulnerable.
• Being present.
• Making others feel known.
• And reminding my people that at the end of the day we are all human.

My story begins at the age of four. For as long as I can remember, I was going to be a Division 1 Volleyball player. I grew up as an only child to two parents who both played collegiate volleyball. While it was always vocalized that I was unconditionally loved, it didn't always feel that way. I made the connection that the better I performed, the more attention and validation I received from friends and family. I began to expect perfection from myself and holding myself to unrealistic standards at a ridiculously young age. When I hit 6th grade my number one goal was to get a full ride scholarship to college, which I did. The only problem was, once I got my scholarship, I thought the hard work was behind me, little did I know that it was just the beginning. 

As I went through college, and quite honestly my whole life, my entire identity was wrapped up into who I was as an athlete and student. It felt like performance was the easiest way to receive love and attention from others. I worked hard to receive numerous Dean's Honor list awards, Conference awards, and many other accolades. None of these led to me feeling any form of sustainable happiness, I was miserable. Its important to note that I wasn't even playing, I was riding the bench. But finally, after 3 years, 3 seasons, 35 pounds of weight gained and then lost, hundreds of workouts, hours and hours of practice, countless cry sessions, and a pandemic (cherry on top), I had finally become a captain and starter. 

It's my senior year, I was riding the bus with my team to our first preseason game. I decided to pull out a book that I had been reading over summer. The chapter that I was on had this cool activity that said "write down all the labels that you use to introduce/describe yourself to others." I was really curious, so I did the activity right then and there (I still have pictures of this book entry and my journal entry). I began to write down...

D1 athlete

Volleyball Players at UCI

daughter

captain

friend

leader

NCAA Athlete

setter

 Over half of the labels I wrote down were in affiliated to my identity as an athlete. In this moment, I realized that in 3 months when my senior season was over, I would no longer be able to use that as an active label/identity in my life. I knew I wanted to sit on this more, but we were approaching the gym so I needed to put my stuff away. 

 The game starts, we win the first set against. This game was the best game of my entire career so far and led to me to believe that this season was going to be incredible. I was leading the team across the board in stats and felt like I had finally stepped into the next level of my game.The second set comes along and we are still killing it. I am on the outside going up to hit a ball, 2 big blockers up and they leave a small hole in between them. I see it and know I can hit the spot to get the kill. The ball comes in a little wider, I reach up to make sure I make contact. The ball soars right in between the 2 blockers, and hits the ground right in front of the defender.That wasn't the only thing that hit the ground... When I came down, I landed in a weird positon and my knee buckled inward. I lost all strength and had no choice but to let my whole body hit the ground. The game stopped and my trainer came on to help me off the court. 

In a moments notice, I went from playing volleyball at the highest level to, relearning how to walk. Little did I know, the 3 months that I thought I had to address who Sophie was without volleyball, turned into more like 3 hours. 

Your life can change at any moment, even when you think you have it all planned out. Turns out, I had completely torn my ACL  and meniscus. I had to have surgery and perform over a years worth of physical therapy to get back to a C version of what I used to be. Transition is hard!  

Following my surgery my senior year, I spoke at the University of California, Irvine commencement as a keynote speaker on this exact theme. The importance of knowing and loving what makes you unique. I now take the lessons I learned from this time to talk on the following themes:

• Authenticity - loving every bit of who you are 
• How to overcome and evaluate burnout
• Identity- how to redefine yourself 
• You story is your power - using your story to fuel your dreams 
• Permission to- how to become the ultimate authority over your own life. 

And many more...

I would love to connect with your audience and help take them on their own journey of self discovery to empower them to uncover and become their most authentic self.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story! I look forward to hearing yours!