39 ⎸ Accounting + Human Design with Laura Torma

In this interview episode this week, I am interviewing one of my very first students of the bookkeeping business accelerator, but we do kind of talk about the beginning of us meeting. However, what I did bring this special guest on today to talk about is

1. burnout
2. boundaries
3. using your intuition
4. how to incorporate your human design into how you exist in your business and in life.

Our guest, Laura Torma, previously known as Laura Watson, the number's nomad, is an intuitive life and business strategist.

She used to be a CPA who worked with countless clients and accountants, and she has taken her experience and melded it with spiritual systems, such as human design to help all people come into the gift of who they are.

I am so excited to have you listening to this conversation with Laura, and I hope that you take away something, if not, lots of things from this episode.

Connect with Laura:

Lauratorma_

https://lauratorma.podia.com/hd-reading-via-zoom

Thanks for listening. For more information about the Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast or interest in our programs or mentoring visit our resources below:

Visit our website: ambitiousbookkeeper.com

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• Podcast Editing: Ian Gilliam: iangilliam.com

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Serena: In this interview episode this week, I am interviewing one of my very first students of the bookkeeping business accelerator, but we're not really talking about that in this episode, we do kind of talk about the beginning of us meeting. 

[00:00:15] However, what I did bring this special guest on today to talk about is a little bit, woo woo. So bear with me, but I really encourage you to listen to the episode. Anyway, we talk about burnout and boundaries and using your intuition and how to incorporate your human design into how you exist in your business and in life. And. As per almost usual, I get a little bit vulnerable, but our guest today, her name is Laura Torma, previously known as Laura Watson, The Number's Nomad and Laura is an intuitive life and business strategist.

[00:01:03] She used to be a CPA who worked with countless business clients and accountants, and she has taken her experience and melded it with spiritual systems, such as human design to help all people come into the gift of who they are. I am so excited to have you listening to this conversation with Laura, and I hope that you take away something, if not, lots of things from this episode.

[00:01:29] So without further ado, here's this week's episode of the Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast.

[00:01:35] 

[00:02:04] Serena: All right, Laura. Thank you so much for coming onto the ambitious bookkeeper podcast. I'm super excited to have you on here because of lots of reasons. One of the reasons is for anyone who doesn't know you are one of my very first mentee students, We'll probably get into this story, but obviously there's been lots of pivots since then, and it's been really awesome to watch you, just follow your heart in everything that you're doing. So if you want to introduce yourself to the podcast guests go for it. 

[00:02:39] Laura: Sure. Thank you for having me. This is, I think this is my second time being on the podcast, but we've had many a discussion and they're all in a different iteration of a version of me in my life in this entrepreneurial journey, so I'm excited to be here, but right now, I am a life and business strategist. I like to say. And I use my experience being a CPA. actually, this is the first year I don't have my license anymore. I did not renew my license. So bomb dropped. Yeah. 

[00:03:09] Serena: So that one's always a tricky one to just consider. I did. Yeah, 

[00:03:15] Laura: Letting go of that identity, but I use that and then I use tools like human design. I love esoteric systems and intuition and all of the things. And I know you're, you're down with that stuff too. So combining that with strategy and business is kind of where I shine and really helping people feel more successful and satisfied in their life and business. 

[00:03:37] Serena: Awesome. Thank you. And you introduced yourself. I totally forgot that I've had you on the podcast, but I think I had repurposed some other interview that we did. So that's why it feels like this is the first, this technically is the first time I'm specifically interviewing you for the podcast, but we will link that other episode in the show notes. It's one of the first episodes that I aired. 

[00:04:01] So let's talk about. I knew this was going to be exciting. Like this, it could go any direction, but I do want to ask you, cause right now you're, you're kind of helping everyone. And there was a point in your, in your career at last, actually just take us back to when you first found me.

[00:04:18] Laura: Gosh, I had just gotten back from. 

[00:04:22] And amazing trip in Tanzania, my husband and I eloped there, and this was literally the next week, two weeks, everything, the world shut down when I got back. And, um, within those two weeks, I was like very depressed with my current situation. I was going straight into busy season.

[00:04:42] I had an audit coming up. I was a director of finance, completely overwhelmed. And in the darkest place. I've ever been in my life. And so I was hopped on Instagram and I was like trying to find bookkeeper, someone. I just didn't believe that I could do it. Right. I didn't believe I could jump ship from corporate making six figures and have a bookkeeping business.

[00:05:05] And all I could find online was just other bookkeepers that have been bookkeepers forever. I couldn't find someone that was like a CPA that had a little bit more like specialized knowledge, I guess, and felt really resonant with. And I found your page and I remember just like going and shoving my phone and my husband's face and be like, look, I found her, I found her it's like this whole thing.

[00:05:33] And then we just started. Messaging. And that was right when you were going to start your program or like you were going to start at a few months later. So the timing, I mean, everything conspired for us to be together. And it really was like this huge snowball into where I am now. And obviously life has changed dramatically for me. 

[00:05:56] But, that is kind of the beginnings of our story. And then I was really, I was really into starting my firm. And I was excited and everything. And you helped me through a lot of the starting right. That I could do it. 

[00:06:14] And then all of a sudden, all the COVID stuff hit with the stimulus packages and, the PPP. And we're all trying to figure that out. And that's kind of where I really started helping in my community and started gaining. Some traction. And as I was doing that, I kept finding myself, talking to other accountants, cause I started an Instagram page and just all of these kinds of gradual things started happening and I started having people go, well, how did you learn all this like guidance kind of stuff.

[00:06:45] Right. And I was like, I don't know. I just, I like talking about the industry. I enjoy like. Poking holes in it a little bit and saying like, what are we doing different? And I know you do that too, which is, I think why it was super resonant for me to have you as a mentor. Right. So it wasn't just the semantics of how do you start a bookkeeping business. It was also like, how do you do it differently? How do you differentiate? How do you feel like you don't have to conform to the rest of this group? Right. Which is the journey I've been on. 

[00:07:19] So that's where kind of the coaching seed was planted. And then I gradually started pulling myself out of it little by little and gaining more and more followers in the accounting space. And I still have a ton of clients. And a lot of people that come to me are still from the finance space because I can speak the language really well. I know what's going on. I'm very resonant with those people and. It's been great. It's been really fun to watch the progression of me. If I could just have a bird's eye view of being like, wow. 

[00:07:53] Serena: It's crazy. When you look back at like, it's really only been two years, but you've been through like multiple cycles of business, almost like crazy. 

[00:08:04] Laura: Yeah. I had like my, you know, your dark nights of the soul in your business. Right where we come to them. We're like, is this what I want to be doing? Is this correct for me?

[00:08:14] I really work with a lot of people that are in those places, right. Where it's like, they're at a fork in the road and they're trying to decide if their energy wants to go here or there. Is this correct for me. And so that's where the human design piece comes in really helpful as well.

[00:08:33] Serena: That's really interesting. Cause I do some one-on-one mentoring occasionally. And we can talk about that in a minute, but one of my clients, she was. in that spot of like I don't know, which direction I should go. Do I want to go into this niche and serve this type of client? Just because I know how and like grow a firm? Or am I happy with five clients that pay me really well. And they're all in different industries. And I'm like, just because I niched down doesn't mean you have to. You have to decide what's right for you and how simple or complex you want your business. Right. I think that's a really common struggle. Yeah. I second guess myself all the time too. 

[00:09:21] Laura: Well, we all do. Right. And so it's the separation between what my body wants, or you could say intuition or whatever you resonate with and then your mind. We're in such an industry where our minds are so powerful. A lot of us have really powerful minds in general, being able to process information at a very high level and-- 

[00:09:40] Serena: Very analytical. 

[00:09:42] Laura: Analytical, logical, like all those things that all has to do with the mind. And yet we're met with these challenges that really need to also have intuition at play. We're missing the other part. Right. And so we ended up being so unsatisfied with our lives and we come to a crossroads and we become crippled by it all. And then we look for outer people to tell us what to do. So being a guide in this time is in a mentor is really crucial because the ones that are telling you exactly like how you have to do it, and they're strict about it.

[00:10:17] That kind of stuff is going to fall away because our intuitions are becoming much more powerful and you have to use them. And so seeking out people that are not going to tell you which way you have to do it in order to succeed and you digging your own path, as scary as that is, is the way forward. 

[00:10:35] Serena: Yes. And when you can find someone that will still hold space for you in the way that you want to do it and help. confirm decisions that you're making on your own. That's really helpful. Like that's what a mentor does. Like that's a true mentor, right? Not someone that's going to just say here's the blueprint, execute it step-by-step. And I know that's what everybody wants. Or they think that's what they want. Yeah. 

[00:11:01] Laura: And I've been now I, to backtrack when I decided I was going to do coaching and I was going to market to women in finance, it was all about work-life balance with there's still something that I do. I don't use that term anymore, but I was actually told by a coach that I had to use that term because it's the only one that people were going to resonate with. And I had to give them a step-by-step path into balance. And I was like, this just doesn't make any sense. Like, it's so different for everyone.

[00:11:31] It was me not knowing and getting sucked into the whole shiny object syndrome of like, I'm going to make all this money to create this program. That's going to help all of these accountants have more work-life balance. And then you look at it, you step back and you're like, this is such a unique process for everyone. That was a big aha moment for me. 

[00:11:52] Serena: Is that when you found human design and then you were like, well, now I make sense why it's different for every, 

[00:11:59] Laura: No, there was a time in between. It just, it wasn't working. Like it was hard to sell. It didn't feel good. And there's so many things I could go into about why that whole process was like completely incorrect for my energy and who I am as a person and who I know myself to be a knew myself to be, but I was being influenced by so many other people. And the majority of us are not here to initiate in life. We're not here to go out and like find the clients. 

[00:12:28] Probably your best clients, and of course bookkeeping. Are the ones that you're responding to. They're coming to you and you're responding to them. And it's a very flowy thing, rather than you trying to like pull them into your business and initiate everything, unless you have, those kinds of energy types in your business that are helping you sell, but it's gonna feel completely foreign to you to do that. 

[00:12:50] Serena: Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. And that's just like, I'm mind blown right now. Cause I'm like, I mean, I kind of market, but yeah, most of my clients come to me and they're like, I want to work with you. And I'm like, okay, let's see if it's a good fit.

[00:13:03] Laura: Yeah. And most of us are like that most of us are here to not initiate, in life. And the scary part is for most people, is that waiting period of-- 

[00:13:13] Serena: Yeah, because you don't have control over the outcome and if you have not done the internal work to surrender. That control, then it's going to be super scary. And if you have scarcity mindset and all this stuff that we're indoctrinated with in our industry, it's just a recipe for, probably burnout, 

[00:13:34] Laura: Huge burnout, huge burnout. And I think if we want to go down the burnout route is like, you know, in human design we have signature emotions for our types. And so I'm a projector and one of the what's called a "not self". So like kind of a shadow side, I guess, is bitterness. And I had so much bitterness for the accounting industry and a lot of people like you're a generator, yours is frustrated. And so. And so it's just, it's such a good indicator to even just know that right. Of being like, if I'm feeling bitter about something, I know something needs to change. 

[00:14:16] And the burnout was actually, it's now more of my own radical responsibility of knowing it's on me to know what my energy needs. It's not on anyone else. The system is what it is, and the only way that it changes is by you looking inside first. And that took me a while because I really hung my hat on feeling a bit better about how things went. And there's still so many things I don't agree with in the industry in ways that I think they, as a whole take advantage of people and, energy and changing. You are a huge part of that change. Alyssa is a huge part of that change, you know, and people being able to do work on their terms and find the clients and know that perhaps it is the five clients that I just feel solid in. And I don't need to grow into this big thing. Maybe that's not correct for me, you know? And it's more of a self. 

[00:15:14] Serena: Yes, the self-acceptance. So. I'm going to be super vulnerable here for a second, like publicly on the podcast. The biggest thing that I'm working on this year was not like getting in shape or anything like that. Like setting a resolution. My number one goal is not even business-related it's to learn, to love myself more. So like I'm already seeing the results of it. I just show up as a better human being to everyone around me because I'm working on myself. 

[00:15:46] Laura: I'm sitting here staring at you on zoom and your face looks different. Like I really look at people now in their eyes and can see changes, I guess. And. You just look like glowing and healthy. And so that really is shining through to me. 

[00:16:04] Serena: Oh, thank you. So, I kind of accidentally made that my goal, but last year, I went to BKX in Las Vegas, which is a bookkeeping conference. And in our tote bag of swag that you get, there was a book called love yourself. Like your life depends on it. And I brought it home and I was just like, oh, what's this thing like stuck on, on a shelf. And then in December I was like, huh, I'm going to read something different. This is not a business book. And that's normally what I read and I want to read a physical book because I do lots of audio and e-books on my Kindle. And so I was like, well, this thing is sitting here. So I'll just pick it up and see what it has to say. And it just like pulled me right in. And I was like, this is what I needed. The universe was just waiting for me to pick up this book. Right. But anyway, we're a little off track 

[00:16:58] Laura: No. But I think that's good because it's all, it's all part of it. Like there's so many women I talk to in the finance and accounting industry that truly don't love themselves. That really, they come to me because I think something's wrong with them. They think something's wrong with the way that they approach life or what they naturally do, or that they don't have the energy or they have kids at home, but they love working, you know, like everyone's different.

[00:17:25] And it's really just this journey of loving yourself and self-acceptance, and if you can't get there you're going to be met with these obstacles of life is always going to show you that you need to go back to yourself and love yourself to have the success and satisfaction that you want to have in your life. 

[00:17:43] Serena: Yeah, so true. Also the book is not the only thing that's helping with that therapy is a good thing.

[00:17:53] There is no shame in that, but especially if you've had like any point of trauma in your life, like if you had prior trauma, a coach is not going to be the best answer. Like you need multiple angles, and one of those is therapy. I just feel like I always need to say that because you can't just fix yourself by going to a life coach, if you have trouble.

[00:18:17] Laura: One of, my clients actually posted a Instagram live today about trauma, and she was talking about how she is always placated the memory trauma she has from burnout, from working busy seasons. And she has her own business now, but she'll still wake up in the middle of the night or in the morning. And I feel this like pit in her stomach and she started talking about it today because we talked a little bit about it and she has other practitioners that she works with and stuff. 

[00:18:47] But she was placating herself and saying like, oh, I need to dismiss that because it's not relevant. And I was like, no, it is relevant. All of that stuff gets embedded in us. All of the really long nights and the things that we missed in the kids' recitals and whatever, like all of that stuff can feel like trauma to our body too. And you have to be respectful of that. 

[00:19:09] And I think the most powerful thing about her message when she was talking about it was just knowing that none of us are alone in this. You're not crazy. We all, we all have our own stuff that we're dealing with. And this is a very unique time in the world, too, where there's a lot going on and you really have to take care of yourself. 

[00:19:31] Serena: Yeah, collectively, there's just trauma happening right now that are good. That is going to forever affect humans.

[00:19:42] So, yeah. So this, this episode in case you haven't noticed yet is a little bit woo. And I told Laura that we were going to just let it go there because I feel like this stuff needs to be said. It's not common in our industry for people to be, I guess that's the more feminine energy, right? Our industry as a whole is very, like we were talking about earlier, very analytical and logical and that's all masculine energy. So do you want to talk about the feminine and the masculine energies?

[00:20:16] Laura: Sure. So we all hold that duality within us, a masculine energy and the feminine energy. And I typically do have kind of a core masculine energy. A lot of us that come into this industry do. It's like the time blocking it's the It's the structured stuff. Money is not necessarily black and white. Analytical money is not necessarily a masculine energy in itself. It's actually feminine, which is interesting. But the way that we manage it is very masculine. Right. And we become so imbalanced in that, especially as women too not having that feminine side, which is much more flowy, much more intuition based, which is what we've kind of been talking about. 

[00:21:02] And I've had this oscillation in the last year or two, where I was gaining back that feminine side. And I can finally feel that balance happening a little bit more inside of me. I needed to take a break. I needed to have more of the feminine come in, where I really stepped back from business and working every day and all that stuff. And just let myself become aware of what was going on in my body, which is a much more feminine type of awareness we'll say. 

[00:21:33] And so learning how to balance those and notice that. am I craving some flow in my life? Like, am I putting a choke, hold on my schedule every day and my family and everything that's going on and trying to control everything in a structure because that's, I feel that's the only way that makes sense to me. And can you insert some more space in your life. And I think that's what we all need right now is a little bit more space. 

[00:22:00] And I think COVID too has really helped with that. Especially in the beginning, it kind of like threw us all into space and then we kind of reverted back and everyone's trying to find their homeostasis. And that's what I want from my life is I want to feel homeostasis. I want to always be looking to. Find the thing that day, that I need to just feel a little more space and balance. Doesn't mean that I'm always going to feel that way, but I'm always going to strive for that. I'm always gonna strive for a little bit more peace, right?

[00:22:33] Serena: Yeah. I like the idea of striving for peace rather than happiness, because a lot of us can get caught up in. once this happens, I will feel happier once this is the way that I want it I'll be happier, but it's okay to not always be happy and that's another, like self-acceptance thing. Like some of us are just not super duper cheery and that's okay. As long as there's peace. 

[00:23:04] Laura: And knowing what those things are that help you do that every day, it can be so small. You know, it doesn't have to be this big thing. And, and the one of the mentors I did have for a little while, did I think this was the biggest thing I took from her was that all of our life changes are in the 1%. They're not in these huge changes where you're like quitting your job and doing these massive overhauls or dropping the business. 

[00:23:32] The real changes that you feel internally in your bones are the 1% changes that you make every day when you decide when that client, emails you and is like, oh, can we switch to an hour later? And you really need to go pick up your kids? And then you try to rearrange your day, right. For this one client, because they're never respecting your time. Let's say. And you just saying, no, I can't, I need to really honor my boundaries on this.

[00:24:02] Just a small change because once you do it once, cause it is scary sometimes, especially when you're starting out to tell someone, no, I think we're more seasoned in it a little bit, but that's something I'm sure that people come to you all the time when they're first starting out is they give so much, right. Because it's like where it's the scarcity thing again, like where where's the next one going to come from? What if they-- 

[00:24:23] Serena: it's the scarcity and it's the. Especially, because most people that find me are probably still working a nine to five in corporate and I specifically not target, but like I specifically attract people who have accounting background that want to get out of that.

[00:24:43] But they're so. It's so ingrained in them and it's almost like, well, this, this was my story is like my worth as a human was tied to how much I accomplished at work and the accolades I got at work for taking on projects and moving up the ladder. And that only happens in corporate when you don't have boundaries, let's be honest.

[00:25:11] So it was like second nature to just say yes to things just because like my worth was tied to it. And. I see that a lot with people and I'm coaching other people on it too. Like your worth is not tied to how much you accomplish in a day. And I'm still coaching myself on that one too. 

[00:25:31] Laura: Every day. It's really hard. And there's aspects of, that's why I love human design because I can see that and we can say the worth and in human design, I can like pinpoint the exact area. Right or how that gets expressed in you and where that is. And that I feel is very powerful for people that are really analytical and logical, because they 

[00:25:53] want an answer.

[00:25:56] Like I can deal with having esoteric kind of answers and not knowing sometimes. And I'm really here to be a bridge between the two worlds, but most of the people I work with, they're very logical. They want the answer. And so that's what I love about it is like. 

[00:26:12] So we have our ego and our willpower center in our bodies and we are, we're always trying to prove something from that area. Right. So depending on how that shows up in you, it's going to look different. And every time I say that people are like, oh yeah, I do that. I really do that. You know, I don't, I was trying to prove something right. For what? For what? 

[00:26:36] Serena: So, yeah. And then when you stop and think about. Well, why am I even, why does this even matter? Why am I trying to prove it? You just realize how ridiculous, but it's just starting to be aware of those things. So, yeah, I heard something recently and I can't remember where, but it was super helpful, around boundaries and it was when someone asks you, if you can do something for them, help them with something, participate in something, you know, whatever it is. Before you answer them, like just don't answer them and give yourself time. Like, don't allow yourself to answer them right away, because in the moment you might feel inclined because of your ingrained response of always saying yes to things you will be inclined to immediately say yes. And then later regret it because then you realize I didn't really actually have the bandwidth, the time, this isn't something I even want to do. It's not in alignment with my goals, but when you don't allow yourself that time and space to think about your answer and look at your calendar and that person can wait for an answer when you don't give yourself that time, then you're not going to respect the boundaries that you want to set. Right? 

[00:27:48] Laura: Yeah. And I think for the majority of humans, part of human design, the, one of the biggest things is, is decision-making. So how do you make decisions on what's correct for you in the way to make decisions? And more than half the population need to wait to make decisions. And so that advice is perfect.

[00:28:07] And a lot of times too, we're not tapping into our intuition and that space, that moment that you're allowing yourself to wait to respond to something. That is where that can kick in. How are you going to hear that? There's very few people that can hear that over the noise of the conditioning of saying yes all the time. That's a learned practice and that is a deconditioning that needs to happen in all of us. 

[00:28:33] Serena: Yeah. Even though, like, if you really, really paid attention, you usually immediately know the answer to it. You can feel it in your body if you've ever felt your body, but a lot of people haven't and they don't know what that feeling feels like, but usually in hindsight, That's when you're like, oh yeah, I did feel something. 

[00:28:56] Laura: Yeah. Most of us do. Yeah. And I think you're, I don't have your chart filled up, but I think you do have the type that you can respond in the moment and your body will give you like a physical response.

[00:29:07] I will never have. Like I, my type is, it takes me so long to make a decision. It takes a lot of people, a really long time to make a decision. And it's the fear of losing that opportunity, Or like what people are going to do. And I think as the tides turn, my hope is that more people understand just how differentiated we are and how people have their own process and to stop putting your stuff. On other people, right. That's the crux of it. 

[00:29:41] Serena: Is that, like physical knowing, is that the sacral? 

[00:29:45] Laura: Yeah. 

[00:29:45] Serena: You're yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's on my chart. 

[00:29:49] Laura: I was like, I don't think you're emotional. cause people that are emotionally defined, they need to, they need to sleep on it. Like the classic answer for someone that has emotional authority is what it's called, need to sleep on their decision. It's like, that sounds good. But let me, let me get back to you or just let me get back to you. Like you don't have to answer. Why, why do we all have such pressure to answer people right away? I don't know. I don't get it. 

[00:30:17] Serena: I think it, it all boils down to wanting to be liked and a lot of us are just worried about what other people think of you. And so it's like, well, I don't want them to think negatively about me, so I'm going to respond right away. So, yeah. 

[00:30:32] What's an example so that we can give our listener for instance, if you have to sleep on a decision. So like when it comes to, Figuring out if you want to work with that client. You're in a discovery call, you've been told by maybe a sales coach or something that you need to actually give them a number and a proposal and an invite to work together on that call, close them on that call. But if you're an emotional decision-maker you actually need to sleep on it before you send that proposal. Right? 

[00:31:02] Laura: Yes, exactly. And that, that's why I don't love any strict, like coaching advice in general, but that is, that is the key. I'm like not feeling the pressure of having to have a decision right then and there, like you're going to lose them, likely that client also needs time. They just met you. Having an accountant is a very like intimate relationship in a way, because you're essentially opening up your kimono to a lot of things. And if they haven't ever worked with an accountant before, especially they're feeling fear too, they want to feel comfortable with you. And so they also need time. 

[00:31:39] And so to feel the pressure, to throw out numbers, On the first meeting when it doesn't feel correct for you. And especially if, you know, if you get into humanist design, if you look up your chart, you can Google it. It's very easy, but you know that about yourself. Then you can give yourself the permission slip to say, I'm not going to do that.

[00:31:59] I don't need to give them a number on this call. I need to figure out if they're correct for me. And I need some time with this and that's perfectly okay. 

[00:32:08] Serena: Yes. Thank you for saying that. I mean, I coach people on that too, but there's just so much out there with different sales tactics and that's exactly what they are. They're just tactics. I teach a process. That's really just. Figure out what works for you. Here's some guidelines of things that have helped me, but I am the person that if I do feel called to invite a client to work with me, I will on the call. If I don't feel called to do that, then there's an underlying red flag that my body's like trying to figure out. Or just like, I really need to figure out the pricing. And so I still do both, like, I still price things on the call. And then there's other times where I wait and I send a proposal. And I close them all, not all of them, but both instances. I close clients. So I don't think pricing on the call is going to make or break your close rate. 

[00:33:05] Laura: No, it actually, I would say in the long run we'll improve it 100%. Like I'm very confident in saying that like anything you do that is more in line with your body and what's correct, and you're not letting your mind and the minds of others interfere with that and you can start trusting yourself in what's correct for you in the long run, you are going to have more money, more success, more time, more satisfaction because that's what's correct for you. It's as simple as that and we make it so complicated and we don't have to.

[00:33:37] Serena: There's so much we can just go on so long for days on this topic. I'm going to have to have another interview with you. 

[00:33:46] Laura: We could have a Q & A. 

[00:33:48] Serena: Yeah, that would be awesome too. We should definitely, Do a, an Instagram live or something after this airs so that people can ask questions about it so where do we want to go from here? I think this was amazing. Do you have any other points that you definitely. people in our industry need to know this. If you could give one piece of advice to besides the, just like listen to your body. One piece of advice to someone who is considering opening their own bookkeeping business, or, quitting their corporate job, what would you say?

[00:34:28] Laura: My number one advice for anyone that messages me about anything related to, what jobs should they take is always like, do you understand where energy is? Like, what's, what's the motivator behind this? Like, how do you feel right now? I can't get past not saying that. 

[00:34:47] And then I would say to allow yourself to explore lots of options. Like the, the amount of money I spent getting out of corporate, which I don't regret, but I think you can say the same thing of like trying to find the silver bullet thing that was going to send me to, I don't know where, it was a lot, it was a lot.

[00:35:11] And so I think it's, it's more that take a deep breath. Like once you have that realization that you want to escape, you want to leave corporate. Your mind is going to come in and it's going to tell you that you better figure out right now. You better have all the plans and everything laid out.

[00:35:32] And, I would challenge that because we don't listen to our mind. Right. And that's the number one advice I give is like, your mind is not your friend. It's not, it's made for other people. It helps other people, but it's not for you to make decisions from. And so you gotta take a deep breath, do some soul searching and find people like you that are not going to put their methods and the only thing that worked for them on you. 

[00:35:58] Serena: Yes. They're not going to put you in their box. That's essentially what-- 

[00:36:02] Laura: You're trying to leave you're trying to leave the box. Don't go back into one. 

[00:36:05] Serena: Yeah. And I think that is such an important message. Thank you for sharing that because it's true. You have to be okay with trying different things out and testing things out, especially if you're thinking of going into business, because that's all, this is. It's trial and error time and time again.

[00:36:26] But seriously like with marketing, you have to test things out to see if it works with pricing. If to test things out, to see what works and what you're coming back to at the end of the day, with every little test, you try is: does this feel right for me, because that's the bottom line, it has to feel right for you. I know we tried to avoid the listening to your body feeling thing, but here we are. 

[00:36:51] Laura: That doesn't work for me. Sorry guys. 

[00:36:52] Serena: Yeah, it doesn't work for me either. I'm like, I'm a very intuitive, I guess, would say when it comes to that stuff. 

[00:36:59] Laura: It's successful for you. Right? So, and it's working and, and we're constantly evolving and that didn't happen from our minds.

[00:37:09] Serena: That's true. Okay. Well, where can people connect with you and find out more about Human Design if they want to start learning about that?

[00:37:21] Laura: So I'm super active on Instagram. I talk about a plethora things on there, so just get ready for that. Somewhat entertaining for people somewhat, not for others. As far as I talk about a lot of like, Events too.

[00:37:36] And like how that relates to how we're all designed and differentiated. As well as, you know, things in the industry too, it's like all over the board. So Instagram handle is at Laura Terma T O R M A underscore. And then, if you want to get into human design, I have links there. but you can look up your.

[00:37:59] Just by typing in human design on Google. And you just need your birthday, your birth time and where you were born. Kind of like if you were going to look up your astrology and you can at least find your type and you can kind of, read some keynotes about it. But I also offer readings. So readings are a super powerful way and we had one, was it last year? Like last spring. 

[00:38:23] Serena: Was it that long ago? 

[00:38:25] Laura: It was a long time ago. And I'm like, man, I've learned a lot since then. 

[00:38:28] Serena: I should probably schedule a new one with you then for sure. 

[00:38:31] Laura: Yeah. It's like always expanding. So, that is something that I'm offering and I'm, I'm currently pregnant, so I will be out on maternity leave in a couple of months. So I might have a little bit of a hiatus depending on when you're going to listen to this, but I'll be back full force and probably with a lot of parenting stuff around human design too. 

[00:38:53] Serena: I can't wait, super excited. So I will link all of those places in the show notes is, did you mention your website in case people aren't on Instagram?

[00:39:05] Laura: You can look it up. My name, if you, cause you used to refer to me as the numbers nomad, which used to be when I was in accounting. What my business name was. So you could go to the numbersnomad.com. I still have. Moved everything over because everyone uses links now. So it's like, what's the difference?

[00:39:25] Serena: You could just redirect it or whatever. I don't know. 

[00:39:29] Laura: That's what I need to do. It'll come. 

[00:39:31] Serena: Okay. I have one last question. Are you still helping any bookkeeping clients or have you completely shut that part down? 

[00:39:38] Laura: My last meeting was in December. With a client. So I am completely-- 

[00:39:47] Serena: Completely free of the industry. Just kidding. 

[00:39:50] Laura: I mean I help even-- Side note, cause my husband owns a business, a construction business, and my background's in construction. Very like second nature for me, figured out for our marriage, it was better for me to not do his books. So. We even hired that out. So I will, I'll assist them in getting whatever documentation and I can speak the language really well. And I'm probably a dream client or terrifying. I'm not sure depending on where you're at. 

[00:40:17] Serena: One or the other.

[00:40:19] Laura: Well, only from an egoic standpoint of like she knows a lot about finance world. Right. I still, I don't, I don't babysit at all. Like they're great. And they do an amazing job for us and I'm so thankful for them. So I'm really like out of it now. 

[00:40:36] Serena: That's awesome. 

[00:40:37] Laura: I'm out of it.

[00:40:38] Serena: Great. Well, thank you again for coming back on the podcast. This time actually dedicated podcast interview and we definitely. We'll have to do an Instagram live or something. So if you're listening to this, stay tuned for that. Follow us on Instagram, tag us when you listen to the episode and let us know what your biggest takeaway is.

[00:41:02] Thank you so much Laura., it was so nice to link up again and chat. 

[00:41:07] Laura: It was so fun. Yeah I love this. 

[00:41:08] Serena: All right. 

[00:41:08] Laura: Thank you. Thanks guys. 

[00:41:10] Serena: Bye.

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