Stop Letting Busy Win with Heather Stewart

We talk with transformation guide Heather Stewart about walking away from a “successful” CPA career, rebuilding her life through wellness and coaching, and why our past work is often a prerequisite rather than a mistake. Heather shares how a stroke forced her to think bigger, harmonize the parts of life that support us, and stop letting “busy” run the show. 

• leaving a prestigious accounting role that never felt like home 
• the red-light wake-up call and what it revealed about stress 
• rebuilding through yoga, massage therapy and coaching 
• reframing “wasted years” as skills you can reuse 
• the 2021 stroke and the message that her path was “too small” 
• harmonizing key life areas instead of chasing balance 
• using journaling and prompts to stop spirals and create action 
• “take up space” as a practical boundary and leadership choice 

It’s free. You just fill out a form and then the form sends you the link. It’s an hour with me on Zoom.

Transcript

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Meet Heather And Her Work

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Hello there and welcome back to the next episode of Overcome Yourself the Podcast. As you know, my name is Nicole, and I'm so excited to be here today with Heather. By the way, Heather, I love your glasses, beautiful frames. Um, you know, I'm a glasses wearer since I was a little kid, so I always noticed nice frames. Um, so she's wearing some beautiful glasses. But welcome, Heather. Um, please take it away. I know that you recently, like very recently, published a book. I can't wait to hear about it. But take it away and tell us a little bit about who you are and who you help. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yes, it's it's been quite an exciting adventure. So I am a transformation guide. And it's it's evolved over time because I felt like Life Coach was becoming kind of this catchphrase that people were using. And I do way more than that. I I help people figure out where their life isn't working the way they want it, and help them figure out how to swift how to how to change it. And it came about because when I was a little kid, it's like, how long's this show? When I was little, this is what I was gonna do. I I always asked people what they wanted to be when they were little kids. I was gonna be a veterinarian and an artist. And I don't know if you've heard that song, Don't Give Up on Your Daydream by Lily. I don't know how to say her last name. And I listened to it now, I'm like, yeah, because they tell you that the dreams you have when you're a little kid aren't practical. Now, I probably could have made money as a veterinarian, but um, they tell you it's not practical. So I went to university and I became a CPA. It's like, you did what? And I was 15 years into being a CPA, and I just realized, you know what, uh, I don't like this job. I yes for sure I'm good at it. I was a senior director, I had stock options, you know, I balanced billion-dollar budgets, I had people, I had staff,

The CPA Success That Felt Wrong

SPEAKER_00 2:21

I had all the things that were deemed as success. If you looked at the papers, look, she's a success. She's got a career, she's going places, man. But I I didn't like it. Like I didn't love what I did, but I loved talking to people. People would come in, the mail guy would come into my office and sit down and ask me questions. And people didn't know that I was the accounting department, they thought I was HR because of the people who came to see me. So one day I was just sitting there and I thought, this, I I can't do this anymore. And so uh it took me a month or two to figure out what what I was gonna do. And interestingly, I had been taking yoga after work for stress reduction. Can you and I'm sure there's people who can relate to this who are like on the road, I've got to get to my yoga class so that I can de-stress, and they're all stressed out. It's like, what is that going on? One day I was rushing to yoga class. This is around the same time, I was rushing to yoga class, and I live in Toronto, which is you know, got a lot of traffic, and I obviously was not paying attention because I was driving through this intersection that has like double lanes in both directions, and there's a pedestrian in front of me, and I'm going, like, what the hell? What are you doing, lady? I'm gonna run you over. So I'm honking and I look up and my light was red. I was like, Oh my god, oh my god, I almost hit this lady. I'm amazed, nobody else ran into me because I was completely running the red light. I didn't even slow down and I just thought this is ridiculous. I I rushed to yoga. I told my yoga teacher who became my friend later on, I said, this just happened, and she was just like, Oh, really, that's interesting.

unknown 4:13

Right. Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Um, so that percolated uh with along with the I'm not really loving this job, and I decided to quit. Now, some people this kind of blows their mind because it's pretty scary to just dump everything, right? It's like you went to university, you got your CPA, you did all that work, you've been working at it for 15 years, and you're just gonna quit. Like I had a friend who was actually gonna have me committed. He took me out to lunch, he took me out to lunch and he looked me in the eye, he goes, I just needed to see you look you in the eye because I was gonna take you down to the mental hospital and have you. He was completely serious, he was gonna have me committed. It's like because I'm quitting my job, like this is how hard it is for people to take ownership of what they want in their life that the people around them think they've lost their minds. So I quit my job and I actually also at the same time sold my house and got divorced.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Wow, I was doing lots of changes.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

I was like full clean out, nothing's working. And there is a temptation for people to do that, to just chuck it all out. And it sounds very flippant of me to say that. It sounds like I just went, uh, you know, who cares? But it took, I actually was taking it very seriously. Like, this isn't working. The conversation with my husband at that time had been going on for a little bit of time, and he wasn't ready to go on that journey with me. And if you're not growing with me, then you're staying still. And I I can't stay still because we are here to grow and learn, right? We're here to grow and learn. So if you're gonna keep me under wraps and keep me from growing, then I can't I can't spend time with you. So I just went kaboom, I blew it all up and I went to India for three months. So it's like, yeah, you let's go. When I came back, I went back to school for two years. I became a massage therapist. It takes two years of school here to become a massage therapist. I opened my own yoga studio, so I

Red Light Wake-Up And Big Reset

SPEAKER_00 6:26

was like massage, I was doing personal training, I was doing all wellness all the time, helping people, which is really was I was loving it. And I had my own massage practice and I was renting out two new massage therapists, um, my space. And one of them, because uh they would come in like fresh out of school, and I'd kind of say, Okay, do this, do this, do this, do this, because I had the business background. And one of them said to me, Heather, you should be coaching people on this. And my brain went, Oh my god, you're right. So I started business coaching because health and wellness people are amazing, but they really struggle with the business side quite often. And I don't know if you've if you've ever encountered that. Like business people are so good at what they or wellness people can be really good at what they do and they just struggle. So I wanted to save them. There's Heather. I had my anatomy teacher said to me one day when I was in massage school, Heather, you are the lighthouse, not the lifeboat. Stop trying to rescue them all, just show them the way to the shore. I was like, Oh, that's pretty deep. So I started a business, right? So I started business coaching, as well as having my massage practice and my yoga studio and all the alls. And it was going really, really well. And then in 2021, I had a stroke which shocked the crap right out of me because I was like compared to when I was an accountant, I was super healthy, like I had everything in my life was working properly. And I actually didn't believe them at first. Can you imagine? No, I'm sorry, Doctor. I thought I don't think you're right. I think you better check those numbers. So they showed they should they showed me the pictures and I was like, okay, fine. And I was in the hospital, it was a downtown Toronto hospital at Halloween, so you can imagine that it was pretty a pretty interesting place to hang out. And there was no beds because it was still pretty high in COVID time. So I was stuck in the emergency room for three days on a cot. And I luckily I had my own little curtained space because otherwise I probably would have lost my mind. But I was just watching people come and go. I had nothing else to do, right? I couldn't escape into my phone, which people do when something uncomfortable is happening, because it had given me the stroke had given me a vision problem. No one was allowed to visit me. So I was alone for three days in the air, contemplating life and watching all this stuff go on outside of me. And I finally went to the universe, I said, Okay, universe, I uh I believe you, I've had a stroke, but you've got my full attention. Like, what did you want to say? Like I thought I was going in the right direction, and the answer was kind of like, you were, but it's too small. So I realized when I was looking at my own life, like I was physically healthy, I was feeling even though I was in the hospital, I was like, I'm good, I'm doing really well. You know, my financially I'm fine. Um my clients, they're all notified and they're all like sending me notes um saying what can we do to help you. My friends are sending me voice messages because they found out I'm in the hospital and I can't read any emails, you know, and I I just feel like I'm doing really well. I'm like, these are the parts of a of a complete life. Like all of these I always say you can't separate your life into parts, but if you look at these big chunks, it's like they support each other. So even though I was in the hospital, so physically I wasn't a hundred percent because I'd had a stroke, but the rest of the parts of my life were supporting me, and I didn't feel like it was an em like it wasn't a huge emergency. I felt like everything's gonna be fine. Everything's gonna be fine. So that's when I realized, okay, business coaching is too small. I have to help people figure out how to how to harmonize, because I don't use how I don't use balance, I use harmonize these parts these major components of their life so that life is gonna happen to you, but when it happens to you, it it doesn't cause such a huge disruption in your life. You know what I mean?

Building A Wellness Business

SPEAKER_00 10:51

It's like yeah, having a stroke is a pretty big disruption, but I bounced back really fast. There's very few impacts, remaining impacts. Out of that came my podcast that I used to have called Back to Me. It was four seasons, and it was helping people really figure out how to get back to themselves because I was like, okay, I've figured out how to make me work really well so that I can help others. I want to help other people do that. And I interviewed like 200 people on that podcast, it was crazy. I was like on fire, and then um I stopped massage therapy because I did I did find it really physically challenging to keep doing that. Um and I just went in all in on coaching. So now I like my whole focus is taking especially women who are playing like I have a my podcast now, it has evolved. I've got I've moved over to the Inspired Choices Network and now it's called Illuminate Your Worth because I found that the women that I coach I hear it so often, it's like my life is too complicated. I have this person, this person, this person who all depend on me. I'm like, Well, that doesn't help you if something happens to you. You first of all, we need to you've trained them to depend be dependent on you so let we can retrain them and make yourself first without being selfish so that you love your life, you have lots of energy, you can go out into the world full of joy. My word this year is joy. I don't know if you pick a word of the year when you do 20 when the new year starts. I pick a word instead of a instead of a resolution, I pick a word. So I'm I just really jazzed up to help people uh untangle their lives and live with ease, really. So I went from the accountant to the yoga teacher, I still actually teach yoga to the yoga teacher, to the coach, what yoga teacher, massage therapist, coach, etc. etc.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

But in your own way, yes, um, but in your own way, you're bringing that understanding the numbers to the simplifying. Because you can look, you can look at you know, you can look at a statement and you can be like, this expense doesn't need to be coming out, this doesn't need and so it's kind of the same in a different way because now instead of looking at money, you're looking at time, you're looking at energy and resources. Um, and so since you know your numbers, you know how to cut, how to increase, how to do all these things. So that's what I'm so exciting.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Like I I was talking, so I belong to um, I created this group of women we meet every couple of weeks, I guess twice a month, and it's called Woman, the Wu, the Wu Manifesting Network, and we're all in business, there's five of us, and we just kind of

Stroke Shock And A Bigger Mission

SPEAKER_00 14:44

riff off of each other with ideas, and you know, one of them's a psychic, one of them like they're all do different things. And I said, I realized that all of these things along the way in life, like sometimes we give ourselves a hard time about the things we've done. Like I could say, Oh, I wasted all that time as an accountant, but I see it as it's almost like it's a prerequisite. You know, you need prereq courses to to get to a certain point. I'm like, I needed that, I needed all these different pieces to be able to have the richness of what I have now. Where some people will look at it and go, Oh, I can't stop doing that because I I'm like, Yes, you can. You don't stay in your prereq courses for your whole life. You know, you graduate and you move to the next one. But we get so hung up in that we feel like we've invested time and energy into something. So I'm I mean, I invested time and energy to become a CPA. It's like, okay, that was great. I learned stuff. You can't take that learning away from me, but I don't need to do that now. I invested a huge amount of time and energy to become a massage therapist, and that still informs me, but I don't need that now. You know, it's like I can take all of those learnings and they just become. I have a I used to have this client who was an author, and she said, all of the experiences in your life are fertilizer and compost, and they just germinate new seeds and new plants and they grow into something fabulous. I'm like, that's brilliant, you know. I was like, I'm gonna use that. So I like fertilizer or manure, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Even oh my gosh, those nice plants grow. Yeah, that's I mean, that's that's what they need, right? Um, so is this what's in your book? Can you talk to us a little bit about what's going on with your book? Because it came out like well, as of this recording a few days ago, right?

unknown 16:43

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

It came out on January the 29th. And it's you can get hardcover. I'm like, it's a real hardcover. You can get softcover, you can get like the Kindle version. So it's based on my Illuminate Your Worth podcast, actually. And it's called Illuminate Your Worth, which is the name of my podcast, but also says stop pretending you're okay, start living like you mean it. And it just takes it's like 12. Is it 12 chapters or is it 11 chapters? Um, it takes you through kind of like starting at the beginning of where you are, and there's a chapter with a little bit of a story, a little bit of an idea, and then there's some questions to think about at the end. So and the first chapter is stop letting busy win. Because so many, and I love that this is the first chapter because I'll say maybe you should try this. I'm too busy, I'm too busy. So we gotta start with the stop letting busy run your life. And so if we can start with that first, then you can sit and kind of go through the rest of it. Although you could just do it. I have a client who um she she binge read the whole book and then she went back and she said, you could just kind of pick the chapters you need a piece at a time and kind of work through it. And then there's a companion, there's a free, a free download of a journal to help people like it ask the questions for people who like journals, right? Or you can just use your own journal, right? Just pick up something to write in because I find that sitting and thinking doesn't necess doesn't for all of us create any progress. Sitting and thinking just creates this like movement in your brain, movement in your brain, and it can just spiral and spiral and spiral. But somehow getting it out of your head and onto paper helps formulate the thoughts, remove them from the spiraling. And when you go back and read it later, you'll go, Whoa, did I say that? That's what I we had a launch party uh on Zoom, and you can see it on YouTube. It's on my it's on my podcast. And at one point, Christine, my podcast manager, uh, she asked me about the book. I'm like, whoa, I read it, and I'm like, did I say that?

SPEAKER_01 19:06

So that happens to me all the time when I'm reading my own book. I'm like, oh wow, this is good. Like, whose quote is this? I was like, oh, it's not a quote, it's me. This is great. Like look at me.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

This is great advice. Love from the universe, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yes, I know. And I was like, I needed this, I have forgotten I wrote this. Like, I can't believe I wrote this when I need it now. Um the best of us, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:32

The things that we write are for others, but also for us. The things that we talk about are for others and reminders for us. Because I'll listen to myself afterwards and I'll think that was really smart, Heather. I think you should implement that. And then my other self and I have voices in my head, will say, Yes, you should. We've been trying to tell you that.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Well, yeah, but it's it's such a good point. Like you said just a few seconds ago, it's about

New Book And Beating Busy

SPEAKER_01 20:04

taking that energy and turning it into action because you could sit there and stew and spiral, and you could just drive yourself crazy running through scenarios, and then they feel very real because your brain doesn't know the difference. And so, yeah, it's so important. So, even if we're not writing, maybe the words don't come out, but maybe you could use those prompts to maybe draw some art or do some squiggles and see what comes out of that. Um, and so there's so many ways we can use, we can use like journaling in ways, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:37

I know Brene Brown discovered that she needs to actually speak her books to life. So she was, I watched an interview with her. She was saying she wanted to write her next book and she was stuck and she's like, Why can't I write this? Why can't I write this? And her friends told her that's because you're a storyteller. So she invited her girlfriends to go away with her for the weekend. She would tell them the story, they would take notes, then she would take the notes and type it up. But she needed to be able to, so some people need to verbalize it, some people need to write it, some people need to punch punching bags. Like whatever you need, own it and don't feel bad about the way your process works because everybody's different.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Yes, I love having like a good board so that it's easy to write stuff and then erase it, take a picture, and then you rate you gotta take a picture though. You know, because there's gold on there, so you can't forget that part. Um, and then just be able to erase it and start over. So I love a good whiteboard.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Um yeah, that's one of my favorites having a two-sided one on wheels.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Oh, yeah, that'd be cool, right? Or like the ones that they you know, like those ones that they show the the classrooms, you know, like on TV that they have like six of them, and then you roll it up and you're like, oh my god, there's three more.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

The ones that also print out, yeah. Geek fantasy whiteboards.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

No, no, but they've got some cool stuff. Like, I remember being inside the classroom when some dudes walked in and they interrupted our class, and they were like, Everybody just give us five minutes, and they took down the chalkboards and they put up the whiteboards and then they left. And so I remember that transition. And now you see classrooms, you know, and they have like electronic, you know, whiteboards, and you're like, whoa, this is insane. So good. Right? So, like just a good whiteboard.

unknown 22:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

All right, so you mentioned that you had a pretty incredible gift for the audience. So can you tell us a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 22:42

So it's called an alignment activation. I think my website says alignment audit, but it seemed so accountant like. So it's an alignment activation. Really what it is is It's free. It's completely free. Um, you just fill out a form and then the form sends you the link. And it's an hour with me on Zoom. And I take you through those six areas. It actually spells the word become body, emotion, community, occupation, money, and engagement, which is I needed any spiritual, like your soul purpose. And we just talk about like how those are working for you. And it's it's a non-judgmental, just like, let's get the data of where you are right now. No, no good, no bad. Just talk about the data of where you are now. And when I've done it with people, you these patterns start to emerge that people hadn't seen before or hadn't realized. Or I'll ask a question that makes them go,

Journaling Tools And Whiteboards

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Oh. And then when we get to the end, it's just like, okay, here is the pattern, and this is what I see. And it's gold for people to have that kind of clarity. And at the end, I say, Well, first I say whether I think I could help them or not. I mean, some people I just say, You're good, go. Some people need a different kind of help than me. And I've got a whole list of people that I love. Rollodeck. I call it my Rolodex. Do people remember Rolodex? I do. Yeah. So it's like where I where I think they're stuck and what I think they need. And there's no pressure in any direction. It's just feedback for them. And I love doing it. I love spending an hour with people because it gives me enough time to get into the good juicy stuff. And my clients say I should charge for it. I'm like, ah, I don't want to. So it's free.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

That's amazing. That's very generous.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Until further notice, anyway.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

No, well, thank you. Thank you for sharing that with us. And then how can we stay in touch with you beyond that? Um, like on social media.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

So uh my website is heatherstewart.coach, which is the easiest thing to remember. And on the website has the the Facebook, the LinkedIn's, the Instagrams. Like you can just click them all. It's all basically Heather Stewart Coaches or Heather Stewart Coaching, depending on what was already taken on social media. And uh my podcast is on the Inspired Choices Network. Illuminate your worth. And it broadcasts to like 450 platforms. So whatever your favorite platform is, just look for it and you'll find it.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Awesome. Awesome. And so we'd like to end with your final tip. So what is the best tip that you give your clients? And we would like you to share it with us.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

My favorite thing to let people know is it's okay to take up space and to shine your light because the world needs more lights turned on. And if there's people out there who aren't trying to keep you dim, they

Free Alignment Activation And Final Tip

SPEAKER_00 25:59

don't need to be in your life.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

That is wonderful. Such a good reminder. Um, sometimes, yes, I've had to been somewhere and I have to remind myself, you are allowed to take up space just as much as all these other people that are here. You don't gotta move out of the way for them. You are allowed to take up space, and so I think I'm loving it. Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah. I love that so much. Well, thank you so much, Heather, for joining us today. This has been an incredible episode, and we will catch you guys next time on the next episode of Overcome Yourself the Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Thanks, Nicole.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Thank you.