A conversation with Andrea Leigh Austin, a former CPA with KPMG and co-founder of My Conscious Wellness and Love Evolution with her divine partner, Bill Little.
Andrea Lee Austin is the co-founder of my Conscious Wellness, pioneers in the Canadian consciousness and alternative wellness space. Andrea is a former CPA with KPMG. She specialized in corporate and personal taxation and she's currently completing her degree in metaphysics, including a PhD in conscious business ethics, as she explores the world of sacred finance and bringing love back into business, money and exchange.
From her early experiences growing up in a single-parent household to her successful career in corporate taxation, Andrea's career path was influenced by her love for education and math. However, a year-long sabbatical led her to a chance encounter at a Yoga conference, resulting in a pivotal life change; a transformation driven by the concept of surrendering, allowing life to take its course, and making decisions that align with her true self.
With her co-founder, Will, Andrea uses sound, biofeedback, and group intention to help individuals break free from limiting patterns. Together, they're building a community of individuals who embody a conscious and holistic way of being, redefining what success means in both life and finance.
Financial success, Andrea suggests, is about “controlling one's time and energy.” Her story offers a fresh perspective on how to enjoy life and embrace change.
"So I'd created a box, the house, the dog, the cottage, the six digit salary, the perfect man, you know, the white picket fence and the children. And so the first thing I would say is giving myself permission to let all of that go. To allow my life to be orchestrated rather than trying to control what I thought it should be." - Andrea Lee Austin.
Key takeaways:
— Find something you love and then express that love to others. Andrea found that she loved to take things that people are afraid of or that they’re in fear of and show them and teach them the joy. As she reflects back, Andrea believes this is why she enjoyed teaching people to swim, and why she enjoyed teaching tax more than practicing as an accountant.
— Learn to listen and follow the voice inside you. Andrea chose not to follow the traditional CPA path of partnership or CEO or CFO position. Something inside her knew it wasn’t the right path for her. Instead, after having her first child, she started overseeing administration and operations for KPMG, which is how she spent the last 7 years of her 22 year career with that firm.
— Take time to explore new possibilities. Andrea hit a point in her career when she knew something had to shift. After working out the financial implications with her husband, she arranged a year sabbatical from her job and started experimenting with different roles and different ideas. In her words, “She gave herself permission to start looking at the world differently.” Instead of returning to KPMG, Andrea has been on a path of helping herself and others create a life from love rather than from the typical fear and scarcity consciousness that runs so deeply in our society.
About the guest:
Andrea Lee Austin is a co-founder of my Conscious Wellness, a pioneering entity within the Canadian consciousness and alternative wellness landscape. With a former career as a CPA at KPMG, her professional expertise revolved around corporate and personal taxation.
Andrea's views on success have undergone a significant change. She now perceives success as the act of living life rather than only chasing external accomplishments. Andrea advocates granting oneself the freedom to experience life. She sees the importance of relinquishing control to create an environment where life can flow freely.
Website: https://www.mycw.ca/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrealeighaustin/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrea.ann.austin
Resources: http://www.mycw.ca/our-challenges/
Email: andrealeighaustin@istm.com
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Disclaimer: Please remember that the information shared on this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment or financial advice. It’s for informational purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.
Andrea Leigh Austin
So I'd created a box, the house, the dog, the cottage, the six digit salary, the perfect man, you know, the white picket fence and the children. And so the first thing I would say is giving myself permission to let all of that go. To allow my life to be orchestrated rather than trying to control what I thought it should be.
Narrator
Welcome to making change with your money, a podcast that highlights the stories and strategies of women who experienced a big life transition and overcame challenges as they redefined financial success for themselves. Now here's your host certified financial planner,
Laura Rotter
Laura Rotter
I am so excited to have as my guest today, Andrea Lee Austin.
Andrea is the co founder of My Conscious Wellness, who are pioneers in the Canadian consciousness and alternative wellness space. Andrea is a former CPA with KPMG. She specialized in corporate and personal taxation, and she's currently completing her degree in metaphysics, including a PhD in conscious business ethics, as she explores the world of sacred finance.
and bringing love back into business, money and exchange. So welcome, Andrea, to the making change with your money podcast.
Andrea Leigh Austin
Thanks, Laura. Excited to be here.
Laura Rotter
I'm going to start with the question. I always start with. Which is, what was money like in your family growing up?
Andrea Leigh Austin
Oh, that's a good question. Money was, I'm going to use the first word that came with scarce.
So, even if there was, let's call it abundance, right? Decent home, wonderful. Money seemed to always be a predominant, I'm going to use the word issue, right? Something that was either, it was more about there wasn't enough, or you were always in fear for the next paycheck, or it wasn't talked about at all. So, it's kind of interesting, right, to witness how it wasn't a comfortable topic in the household and certainly wasn't personified as something that was easy in the world.
Laura Rotter
So, what I'm hearing is it wasn't talked about, but even without it being talked about, it was very present.
Andrea Leigh Austin
Extremely present. Yeah, I was, uh, raised in a single parent household. in the 70s and 80s when women supporting their children wasn't, I guess, as common. And my, finally, my mother worked for a number of years in the banks, which makes this discussion even funnier and was a loans officer.
Laura Rotter
Oh, that's fascinating.
Andrea Leigh Austin
So it was interesting because I think, you know, she tried to go through a traditional world trying to make money to provide for her children, but there was always an underlying fear that it could be gone tomorrow. Is what I sense now in hindsight. I don't think I always knew that at the time I was a kid.
Laura Rotter
Right. And you said children. So you have a sister or a brother.
Andrea Leigh Austin
I have one sister. Yep.
Laura Rotter
And did you assume that you would go on to get a professional degree? I mean, your, your mother was doing professional work, but so what was the assumption, if anything around education?
Andrea Leigh Austin
Well, there was no total assumption in my family around education.
Interestingly, that's a great question. I knew out of the gate that I would get a university education. That was an inner knowing that wasn't something personified in my family. I've always enjoyed education, but I didn't know what I was going to do with it. I would say my driver. At the time, hence the discussions in the future around sacred exchange and finance was that I swore that I would never be in the position that my mother was.
So my driver was to get a higher education, um, completed degree and make great money. So that, that could bring me happiness, so I would say that was my driver, not the family. I think I'm probably one of the first, besides my aunt, maybe, who actually had higher education in my family.
Laura Rotter
That's so interesting, and you grew up in Canada?
Andrea Leigh Austin
Mm hmm, yep, City of Toronto. Yep.
Laura Rotter
Were you lucky enough to get a, an amazing Canadian higher education?
Right. I have a friend who's Canadian, who is always ruing the cost of private university in the United States and saying, I should have raised my kids in Canada.
Andrea Leigh Austin
So yes, if you're living at home and you have the privilege of being able to go to university at the same time, at the time in the Eighties, it wasn't that expensive, so nothing working, uh, an entire summer and then maybe working through the year didn't help pay for your education.
So I did, I went to the university of, uh, well, I started at the university of Waterloo, one of the larger, more prestigious for mathematics. And then I decided that wasn't my, uh, I make a joke drug of choice. And then I ended up at the University of Toronto studying commerce and economics, which is how I ended up becoming a CPA.
So, uh, yeah, I wouldn't say a huge amounts of debt. Like, I've seen in some of the larger, more private universities. I will give them that. However, if you choose to go away for university, then of course, that starts to drive things up, but I wouldn't say it's significant.
Laura Rotter
Right. I mean, now, obviously it's not the eighties and still though, clients I work with are, it's 80, 000 a year for room and board for, you know, a lot of private universities in, in the United States. And I think a university of Toronto, for example, is way less than that. Even if you.
Andrea Leigh Austin
Oh, it's way less. I have a 20 year old son right now who's attending the leading business school, one of them in Canada, and his tuition is, God, 27, 000 a year plus living. So it's still significantly less. Um, and so I'm super grateful for that because it wasn't onerous in any way, uh, from that perspective. And thanks for the relativity. I can remind, I can remind my children.
Laura Rotter
Yes. So I take it you always had a facility with numbers. Is that true that you?
Andrea Leigh Austin
Oh my God. I love math out of the gate.
Laura Rotter
Look, I was one of the nerdy kids on the math team in high school. And I did also think I was going to major in math till I realized that it had morphed into philosophy and…
Andrea Leigh Austin
It did, but I got to university and I was I'm not, I'm not ready for.
Laura Rotter
So I totally understand the change in major and also understand the pull to mathematics. I mean, and, and numbers in some ways I thought, well, maybe I grew up as some uncertainty in life. And there was some certainty that numbers promised in some way.
Andrea Leigh Austin
Oh, I'm with you. I, I totally agree 100%. I think that's even how I ended up studying taxation in my latter years is I know people don't necessarily think of that as certainty, but there is some level of certainty within the constructs of that profession. And, uh, again, it's a profession most people don't love and understand.
So I just thought that was even more fun to try and figure it out.
Laura Rotter
It's funny that you attributed certainty to taxation because certainly again, here in the States, the tax laws are always changing, which I think is what makes it sort of interesting and creative. I found tax planning. Is one of the more interesting things I do as a financial advisor, so I've been enjoying learning about that.
So you went to university, you studied economics and did you immediately then do a specialty in taxation or what was your trajectory after school?
Andrea Leigh Austin
So, I instantly got a job after second year university with, um, in those days it was called Pete Marwick Thorne, now to date KPMG. So I started with them when I was 20.
Great job, knew I wanted to be a CA, so there's a certain trajectory you have to follow. But I knew quickly I wasn't going to be an auditor, that was a given.
Laura Rotter
But you have to do auditing, is that correct?
Andrea Leigh Austin
Yes, for two, two and a half years. I don't know, might be 4 years. I'm losing track, but I think it's only a couple of years.
Uh, then you don't have to do it anymore. I'm told, but I knew I wanted to do tax out of the gate. So, once I got the accumulated hours and got the accreditation and passed my, I mean, the equivalent of a bar exam, whatever we call them unified final exams. I knew, I knew I was going to do tax, so that shift happened fairly quickly, which then became another, you know, three, six, seven years of education inside of your, your job to also grow and morph that aspect of your credentials.
So that was an intriguing journey. And what I discovered is I liked teaching it probably more than practicing it. So I started. Teaching, uh, other accountants tax. I started teaching it at the University of Toronto. I kept coming back to those kinds of things to keep me engaged in an educative way, as well as a practical way.
Laura Rotter
So Andrea, as I'm hearing you say that you enjoyed the teaching more than the practice, it's clear that you have skills beyond just a facility with numbers. I would assume there's some facility with people, can you speak to what drew you to the teaching of taxation?
Andrea Leigh Austin
I mean, I think I've always had that genetically. I mean, I even taught swimming my way through university mostly because I loved water, right? So there's a bit of a passion of finding something I love and then expressing that love. To others, so that's how I see the correlation because I really do enjoy human connection. I find the way that we learn super fascinating.
I love to take things that people are afraid of or their fear of and show them and teach them the joy. Of of learning that and I can see that thread now, right through my entire career, right down to teaching adults how to swim even in my 20s, right? Plopping them in a pool and watching them how they responded to water.
Because I loved water. So that's, I would say, the commonality, um, I'm not, um, I'm not somebody who completely likes to live in isolation with numbers, like many accountants do. I definitely didn't choose the standard in my closet career, like many of my fellow accountants, and I'm not knocking it at all. It just didn't nurture.
Me, so I often would choose even unusual roles within the organization, uh, right down to project management and business development and all that kind of stuff that your standard tax accountants shy away from because I have always kind of had that people element or that personal connection element that called me.
Laura Rotter
Which is such a wonderful combination of having both technical acumen in a field and then the heart, the actual relationships and ability to connect. Certainly I've seen that in my own life.
So how long did you actually work as an accountant or with teaching other accountants?
Andrea Leigh Austin
So I was with KPMG 22years.
Laura Rotter
Wow. A little bit of time.
Andrea Leigh Austin
Well, seven years in operations and say the first two years, so whatever the math is, which is Freudianly funny, given about 15 years, I guess, in tax, which kind of makes sense. Uh, so after the birth of my second son, I knew I wanted to shift again to give myself more space and I wasn't ready to leave the organization.
And so then I got to use some of those more interpersonal acumen skills and went inside and started oversighting administration and operations for the last 7 years of my career there, which was super fun, especially because I knew the people I knew the organization and I had this whole other skill set that wanted, um, to be developed and play with.
So I did that, uh, I think after the birth of Caden, so. I think my timeline is correct. I might be a little bit off, but that's the gist.
Laura Rotter
So when you stepped, I mean, I wouldn't think going to administration would be stepping back, but that's what you're implying that it took less hours or was there less travel?
Andrea Leigh Austin
Yeah, I would say less hours, less demands, right? Because I'd made my way up enough in the organization that I felt like I'm either going to have to move into a position where. Partnership or senior partnership would have been sitting on the table and I knew I didn't want to take that direction. And so I get bored, you see, might be the transparency I'm realizing now as I deliver this. And so I wanted to do something different. I wanted to see how the organization ran. I'd never been part of that. And in the CA world, it might be considered a step back. That's why you're picking up on it. Because the traditional trajectory for most. Accountants would be partnership or CEO or CFO positions, and I wasn't choosing that.
There was something inside of me that went, uh uh, don't go there. And so I've, I've also learned to listen and follow that.
Laura Rotter
Another very, very important skill to actually be inside your body and listening to the signals it's giving you. As, as you look back, Andrea, can you think about what it was about that career path that you weren't interested in?
Andrea Leigh Austin
Oh, easily way too much pressure, constant focus on money. Um, and expansion and not…
Laura Rotter
From a rain. I'm sorry, from a rain making point of view. What, what was the focus on, on, on money?
Andrea Leigh Austin
I’m sorry what does rain making mean?
Laura Rotter
Just rain making me bringing in new clients.
Absolutely. Yep. And I understand that part of the organization, but had no desire to do that.
And it didn't feel exciting. It didn't turn me on. Right. It was like, eh. I guess, I guess I could do that. And then I guess that's what we're supposed to do, but it doesn't, doesn't turn me on. And I knew that that sort of the spark had died.
Laura Rotter
Yeah, that's what it sounds like. And you had a lot going on in another, in other areas of your life.
It also sounds like. Certainly raising two boys takes time and psychic energy in addition to physical energy. I'm curious, Andrea, were there other women at your, you know, level at KPMG while you were there?
Andrea Leigh Austin
Oh, yeah, for sure. Ah. I had some great friends, great alliances, some of them, um, more senior, some of them less, it kind of varied, but I would say for the most part, quite a number of women in the accounting field, not all of them partners, I will say still traditionally at that time more male dominated, certainly me.
You know, not for the organization's lack of trying, um, I will give them that, but for me, not enough space to necessarily perform. Let's call it that way in that way and still have the, the life that I wanted.
Laura Rotter
Yeah, I can understand that. And that's why I'm actually surprised that there were other women as you. Yes, not necessarily taking the partner position. So can you share with our listeners how you went from 22 years as a CPA to now co founding a company that has my conscious wellness in the title?
Andrea Leigh Austin
Uh, yeah, I'll try to give you the shortest version possible. I think for most of my life, I've been a bit of a seeker.
In my own way, you know, inside and the organization and outside and I hit a pinnacle point in my career where I knew I needed to shift something and I didn't know what that was. I was doing the, the burnout thing. I actually had an out of body experience in my forties where I hovered above my body on the ceiling in the Turks and Caicos, gorgeous place if you've not been, and I do feel like my soul yelled down at me and said, are you happy?
And this message had been coming in various different forms for a number of years, right from my yoga teacher yelling it at me one day with love, because she was just trying to get through and I realized there was an incompleteness. Uh, within myself, and I didn't know what that looked like, and I didn't know what that felt like, but I knew something needed to shift.
So, after a long whatever, I made a conscious decision to walk away from my career. I. I took a 1 year sabbatical. I was going to do 3 months and I had a girlfriend yell at me with love and said, you need a year. 3 months is not long enough for you to really reflect on what you want. So, I figured it out financially, negotiated with my now ex husband, but husband at the time and said, okay, I'm up.
I'm up for this ride. So, I think. You know, the first thing is it took conscious choice that I want to change, which is funny, given the name of our organization now, but I knew something needed to shift. So I started to navigate experimenting with different roles, different ideas. I gave myself permission to start looking at the world differently.
And so what happened was, um, several years later, uh, my now existing gorgeous divine partner showed up at the, uh, Toronto Yoga Conference on April Fool's Day, 2012. It was like divine connection. We met each other in the first 10 minutes of 200 vendors. What were the probabilities? And there was something that he was sharing that sparked something inside of me that I can now explain.
I could not back then. And I just wanted to explore it. So I, I took some time exploring it. I volunteered to work with my skill sets and him for six months, because I knew I was seeking to do something differently. I just didn't know what it was. And that took, you know, conscious choice again on my part to let go and surrender and allow things to happen around me.
To see what the universe would bring me. And so I made a choice in 2012 to spend time getting to know him and the organization that he was working with at the time, so I could better understand what they were up to in the world. And what they shared made a whole lot more sense to me than anything I'd ever heard before.
And so I used my auditing skills. You can interview him at any point. He said I am exceptional. And I grilled him for hours upon hours upon hours. Like, what are you doing? Why are you doing it? And it all made sense to me, which I thought was interesting because it's not like that make kind of sense. I learned anywhere else.
I just had a knowing. And so that birthed a new direction. I knew that whatever he was sharing had been led to share was in alignment with who I was and my core beliefs and I thought, why not? Why not give this a shot and see where it goes in hindsight. I never imagined where we are today, but I was willing to let go and say, yes, and just allow.
Things to happen, which is the bipolar opposite of what you're taught, you know, as a standard professional, but I've always also had that innate knowing and inner inner nurturing with inside myself. Right? Like, I don't believe my choices in my past career or mistake or not a direction. I should not have gone.
I don't ever feel that. They're just part of a skill set or an orchestration that allows me to come into alignment with myself, uh, here today. And so that's sort of how, you know, on some level in the short story that, that became who and what we're doing today.
Laura Rotter
Thank you. So what I've heard you say very much resonates with my experience of life, which is, right? We're taught that we're supposed to carve out this path for ourselves, and it starts with certain degrees, and then the entry level jobs, and the, the career path that's almost like a staircase, and then we confront life, which is It may be trite, but the only constancy in life is change. And I actually just recently quoted in something I wrote that a woman who had said that she had originally seen life again as a chessboard, but then she realized that it's, it's a painting.
You know, you just let it evolve. And perhaps it takes a little bit of life to be able to look back and recognize that we have evolved in ways we never could have anticipated. I do would love to try to get more insight in some bigger, almost vaguer statements. I love that you said you gave yourself permission to start looking at the world differently.
And Andrea, can you share what that means to you?
Andrea Leigh Austin
Oh, uh, for sure. I think the first thing is to give myself permission to get outside my box. Right? So I'd created a box, the house, the dog, the cottage, the six digit salary, the perfect man, you know, the white picket fence and the children. And so the first thing I would say is giving myself permission to let all of that go.
To allow my life to be orchestrated rather than trying to control what I thought it should be. So it's very different right now approaches right to letting life come to you. So I would say that's the most significant. I think the second element is to explore and understand what life really means to me.
And when I met my partner in 2012, he was the first being that I'd ever met that openly talked about love and specifically unconditional love and how that will impact humanity. And that day, you know, when we had that conversation, it was in a park. I had a sense that what he spoke was truth and I couldn't explain.
And so I would say the last 11 years has been an exploration, a more deep exploration, the concepts of unconditional love, what that means, and then how I, we can actually apply that. In this reality, what I'm beginning to better understand is most of what we've been taught is conditional of it has hook lines, expectations, all these things.
And so we're constantly seeking love, but doing it through condition. And so this exploration, even psychologically for me, made a whole lot more sense than anything else that I had read. And so there's a deeper philosophical part that I gave myself permission to explore. And. explore that in a way that comes more into alignment with my belief systems, my inner knowing, not necessarily projecting that on other people, but finding something that made more sense to me, um, than anything else I had been taught before.
Laura Rotter
Again, these philosophies so resonate with me, and I'm also so aware of how they're intellectually appealing to grasp and harder to actually bring into your life because there is such a deep seated belief that I need to earn love through being financially successful, through being successful as defined by our culture and to actually sit with the fact that you are loved as you are now is not easy to do.
I also heard you say, letting life come to you. And I wrote it down because I heard the corollary, which is letting life live through you. You know, if you see that. As your role not to get that next promotion or buy the bigger house or drive the BMW, but, you know, if you imagine that you are put on this earth to let life experience itself through you, would you drag yourself out of bed to a job you hate every day at 7 a.
m? I mean, no. So I find that. An important concept to keep in mind and, you know, hope I'm passing that on to my children. I'm sure I'm not. Um,
Andrea Leigh Austin
Oh, I get it.
Laura Rotter
So, Andrea, can you share how this is actually something that you and your partner are teaching others?
Andrea Leigh Austin
I would say first we're teaching it by living it.
So very much because of our backgrounds, so he was a computer architect, right? So we both have traditional, let's call it standard templated lives. We both, um, stepped into surrendering and allowing life to flow through us. So I would say by living it, but what also showed up was tools to assist, um, for those that choose.
This to help, um, the subconscious let go. So a lot of what we're running right now are programmed beliefs. Many of them are not true for us. And so what came along this journey for both of us was a number of tools. Hence my conscious wellness. That we experienced, that we experimented with on ourselves, we watched and witnessed the change in ourselves and others as we traveled, mostly Canada, and we shared them with other people who were also seeking.
Some level of change to be able to move I love the way you articulate it to allowing life to be experienced through us rather than running some of the deeply rooted programs that we were taught. And so these, I'm going to call them sound and energy instruments, uh, started to show up. And what we noticed is that we could assist in helping transmute.
Some of the energy in our stories that are not about love that are more based on fear and scarcity and programming. So, it was like, we could create space in ourselves and in our environments for more natural decisions to be made rather than the triggered systemic decisions that most of us make every day.
And so you could almost call it like a heightened, intuitive nature or heightened innate knowing. And there was tools and things that were starting to show up that could help with that for those that wanted it. And so what began was just primarily Bill, and then Bill and I, and then a few others. Began to grow into a community, a group of people who were also in alignment with change and we're leveraging these tools in their own way to watch how they could also do the same.
So, I wouldn't say. We're teaching, but we're not it's funny. You're bringing that up because we have a call this evening because it's more of a group of people that are learning to embody this way of being and. Supporting each other and, you know, having some fun and making fun when we don't and making light of the fact that, oops, fear took over again and, and control, but really learning to allow, let go and surrender, um, the way you talked about.
And then driving change from there, so I would say it's more of a way of being a way of life that many of us weren't taught. And so we're kind of doing it, for example, by example for each other.
Laura Rotter
And how does this intersect or differ from mindfulness practices, which can also sort of create by creating a witnessing character can can distance ourselves from our typical reactive pattern?
Andrea Leigh Austin
I think they're very similar in intention. In fact, I know they are. I think a mindfulness practice encourages us to go into stillness, become an observation of ourselves, which this absolutely entails. I think the additional, I'm going to say benefit some of the work that we've been drawn to do is that it bypasses the conscious mind or the egoic mind to allow the more natural unfolding.
Maybe, in some cases, not all, a little quicker than certain practices can do. And so what we've been witnessing is when you can combine mindfulness practices or other concepts, right, with these sort of advanced, I'm going to call them divine sciences. What we're then able to do is help us embody those practices a little deeper, a little more.
Then for some of us, then we might otherwise not been able to do, I can't say that's true for everyone. Okay, that's why we called it an experiment. But this
is what we're observing.
Andrea Leigh Austin
Thank you. And I'm curious, and you have a question when you talk about, you know, surrendering to allow life to flow through.
It's a word I'm certainly very familiar with. And I'm aware that when I started my surrendering process, if you will. Okay. Thank you. It came from a place of pain, right? It came from a place like this is not where I want to be. I can fight it or I can surrender to it. So, it sounds like that resonates with you. Can you say more about that?
Andrea Leigh Austin
Yeah, no, very much so. I think sometimes we get pushed. Into a corner of pain before we realize that it's time to let go of control and that's not true for everyone by any stretch of the imagination, but I genuinely believe that we were not intended to suffer. And I sometimes contemplate the deeper question is, do we end up in a place of pain and suffering when we're operating from that place of control, thinking that we.
Need to control our environments and I understand why I'll get you my long list of how I've done that. I'm not speaking from a place. I haven't done it, but when we can start to operate from a place. In whatever form that is for people to operate from that place of allowing life to flow through us or love to flow through us or whatever that is, then I've often seen that that's when the pain starts to go away.
Laura Rotter
Yes, I would agree. And, and part of that is, you know, certainly in, in, in Buddhist terms, the 2nd arrow, right? The 1st arrow is life, which, you know, there's. Always pain involved in a full life. And then we exacerbate that pain by resisting it. This shouldn't be, this shouldn't happen to me. It shouldn't be happening.
I should have gotten that job. I, you know, and just opening to that and. You know, it is, this is this, um, is something I've been saying recently, it, you know, this is life and the more we open to it and surrender to it, the more we're able to not abolish pain, but move through. So you've had a very interesting career journey, um, and continue to have Andrea.
And I'm wondering how your definition of, um, success and specifically financial success has shifted over these years.
Andrea Leigh Austin
Yep. So success for me is just living life.
Laura Rotter
Oh, wow.
Andrea Leigh Austin
That's why nobody is more surprised than I, when the concept of a PhD and conscious business ethics showed up, because I was like, is this me trying to succeed again?
Laura Rotter
It's a great question.
Andrea Leigh Austin
I did. I really had to question it, but it's not. It's more about me allowing and enjoying my life. And I enjoy that. I enjoy the exploration, I enjoy the writing, all that kind of stuff.
So that's what success has become to me. And anytime I try to stick my head in and achieve anything, 'cause let's be clear, I've still got that part of me, then it goes sideways and I'm reminded that if I let go what I think success. Should be then naturally success will follow me because it exceeds my current limited thinking capacity to know what success should be.
And if I can say anything in hindsight, that is now a body of truth that I'm living. And so it doesn't mean I don't dream and I don't like, we're going to have a call Friday and think of the wildest possible things we could do, but it's not hingent on success anymore. It's gone back to living experience and dreaming again, which is a very different space to be operating from.
It doesn't mean you don't dream and want to create and all those great things, but there's no true definition of success. I think it goes back to what I think you said it at the beginning is that we've already succeeded. If you can recognize that you're just living and loving and choosing from there.
There's no operating system or agenda that we have to achieve. That's, that's probably the largest mistruth I see on the planet in the moment. So that's the first question. And now I would say for me, um, success in finance is allowing it to flow. So what does that mean? That means really trusting and understanding that.
You know, as I need things that the finance is there and when there's an overabundance of finance that I am to allow it to flow, which is a very different, you know, balance sheet, right? Then, you know, you're taught, but what I've come to realize is we all have a certain amount of let's call it financial need within our lives.
That I always ask people, how much money do you need to feel safe? It doesn't mean that money makes you feel safe. Okay. But there is a certain amount of lifestyle that people want, but is that egoically driven by what you think you need versus what you actually need to make you happy. And not that it makes you happy, but that's the best language I can give.
And that's going to vary for different people. Right. You know, some people are really happy. With, you know, 10, 000 in the bank and living, you know, off the land and moving from location to location. So, there is no, there is no 1 size fits all, but that's not what we're showing traditionally most people right now.
And so, when you talk about relationship with finance, you think it's extremely personal. And I think it's extremely important for people to figure that out for themselves, not fall to the victim, uh, believing it needs to be a certain way with the retirement accounts and the multi million dollar house and, you know, all that stuff that may not be true for many people.
And it's, it's funny because, um. When I did shift and surrender and all those things, I never thought we'd own a house again, in all transparency. And so now I'm sitting in this adorable little home on a river, and this year I never thought I'd own a boat again. And it wasn't because I was striving for it, right?
But these were things that make me happy. And so I didn't put it into a budget, which is funny coming from an accountant. Um, I didn't put it on my success checklist. I just allowed life to flow through me. And so my belief is we can do the same with finance. In fact, I know we can, and this is one of the things that I've learned, um, when I talk about money and financial success is allowing that aspect of our lives to flow through us as well.
Laura Rotter
Thank you for that answer, Andrea. And what, when I heard about. When you talked about your shifted definition of success, you do aspire. Um, and you also don't want to be attached to the outcome. It's one thing to have an aspiration. It's another thing again, to cling. To that aspiration working out and another thing that I'd like to add to your comment that financial success or financial comfort is different from everyone.
It's also different at different parts of our lives and different times of our lives, right? You and I have raised children and, you know, you need more financial resources when you're sending them to school and sending them to camp and. paying for their activities and paying for their clothes and paying for their food.
And I certainly was able to, you know, I'll use the term financial freedom, the freedom I have now to define abundance as much in terms of being in control of my time and my energy in addition to having a business. And I was able to do that once my children were off the payroll. And so what I'm able to do financially is very different now that then my, that my children are independent and that my worldview has shifted, which I think happens to all of us as we age.
So as we get to the end of this conversation, Andrea, is there any service that you and Bill are currently offering to others that you'd want to talk about? And no worries if, if it's not fully developed yet.
Andrea Leigh Austin
Oh, absolutely. We're running, um, The easiest things that people can access is using sound and some very advanced energy systems called biofeedbacks, along with group intention to help people let go of some of the limiting patterns.
In the subconscious mind and so, for example, we're running 1 called the love experiment starting this weekend where a group of people come together with a common intention and a common affirmation. And then we just use the sound and frequency technologies that we've self developed or been gifted or guided with other organizations to create an environment where people can use them. Simply and easily. To help them let go and move into the space more and more of what we're talking about today.
Laura Rotter
And are these available online or do you need to?
Andrea Leigh Austin
Nope, they're online completely. Um, even the call this evening, there's people from different parts of the globe. So they're easy to use and they're extremely accessible, especially because most people have cell phones now, which didn't exist 20 years ago.
And so they're simple, they're easy, and they're on the challenges page of our website, mycw.ca. And so we, we host them once a month or once every couple of months, and then we have connection calls in, in between so people can get to know each other.
Laura Rotter
Sounds wonderful. I will be sure to put the link in the podcast notes.
Our listeners, I would say, by and large, are women around 50 years old or give or take going through a life transition. Would you say that this could be helpful for them? Is there a specific group of people that you target?
Andrea Leigh Austin
Yeah, I would say primarily our audience is women. That's not uncommon. They tend to be the drivers of change, which is amazing.
And I would say the women who are seeking. Clarity, deeper states of change and within themselves and the possibility of even changing some of the trajectory of their future for the next 20 to 25 years, then it might be worth coming to play. And connect, um, because even 1 little shift to the left. Can change the next 20, 25 years of our lives and to me, that's significant.
Because it gives us an opportunity to live deeper and more nurturing lives, in a way that resonates for ourselves rather than what we've been told.
Laura Rotter
So beautifully said. I know both you and I have been through significant changes in our lives and, and we can speak to the fact that the most important change doesn't come from what's outside of us, but from what's inside of us and just shifting our perspective through different technologies.
Thank you, Andrea, for being my guest. This has been really thought provoking.
Andrea Leigh Austin
Thank you. Really, really grateful. Glad we connected.
Laura Rotter
I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Andrea Lee Austin. And I'd like to share some of my takeaways. First of all, find something you love and then express that love to others. Andrea found that she loved to take things that people are afraid of. We're there in fear of and show them and teach them the joy as she reflects back.
Andrea believes this is why she enjoyed teaching people to swim and why she loved teaching tax more than practicing as an account. My second takeaway, learn to listen and follow the voice inside you. Andrea chose not to follow the traditional C P A Path Partnership or C E O or C F O position. Something inside her knew it wasn't the right path for her.
Instead, after having her first child, she started overseeing administration and operations for K P M G, which is how she spent the last seven years. of her 22 year career with that firm. Finally, take time to explore new possibilities. Andrea hit a point in her career when she knew something had to shift.
After working out the financial implications with her husband, She arranged a year's sabbatical from her job and started experimenting with different roles and different ideas. In her words, she gave herself permission to start looking at the world differently. Instead of returning to KPMG, Andrea has been on a path of helping herself and others create a life from love.
Rather than from the typical fear and scarcity consciousness, that runs so deeply in our society. Are you enjoying this podcast? Please don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss next week's episode. And I'd really appreciate a rating and a review if you're enjoying it so other people can find it.
Thank you so much.
Narrator
Thanks for listening to making change with your money certified financial planner, Laura Rotter specializes in helping people just like you organized, clarify, and invest their money in order to support a life of purpose and meaning. Go to www. trueabundanceadvisors. com forward slash workbook for a free resource to help you on your journey.
Disclaimer, please remember that the information shared by this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. It's for information purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.