Yvonne Heimann [00:00:01]:
Have you ever felt the pressure to play it safe, buy a home, stick to the sensible career and follow that normal path society expects? Well, today on Boss Your Business, we're going to turn that whole idea on it's head and talk about what it really takes to build a life led by passsion instead of just playing by the rules. Today I'm sitting down with the amazing Aurora Winter, an award-winning author, business coach and total powerhouse, who walked away from a high stress corporate life to build a career around her love for writing and helping others get their stories out to the world. Aurora's journey is incredible, she went from dealing with insane rent heights to embracing the freedom of downsizing and living kind of like a digital nomad. All by building same page publishing to help other people publish their dream books.
Yvonne Heimann [00:01:00]:
In this episode, we are going deep. We'll talk about everything from financial strain of high rents or mortgage costs. To societal judgement of choosing a different path, to the sheer guts it takes to step outside your comfort zone to chase what really matters. Aurora will share her journey from corporate to creative, her ventures into film and the powerful work she's done through the grief coach academy. Listening to this story, you'll get practical takeaways, new insights on alligning your work with what lights you up and a serious dose of inspiration to create a life that's true to you. So grab a cup of coffee, get cosy and let's dive into this episode of Boss Your Business where we are talking about building a life you can't wait to wake up to.
Yvonne Heimann [00:01:55]:
And with that, I want to welcome Aurora today. I am so happy you are here. And as we already been talking behind the scenes, there is quite a couple commonalities that we have found between us. So this is going to be a really an interesting episode this time around. Now, my audience already know one of my most favorite questions is how did you get here? Because when I look at your bio and the things you have done, TV and all the things happening, did little Aurora have any idea, any idea of the path she's gonna go?
Aurora Winter [00:02:40]:
If I could tell you how I got here, yeah, it is a circuitous route, but it's interesting to see how the circles overlap and come around sometimes in completely non linear ways. So little Aurora, when she was nine years old, she had her life changed by an author. I actually remember the moment that I reached up in the little school library because I had to go my tippy toes to get the last book in the Narnia series. The first book is the lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The last book is the Last Battle. And as my fingers touched the spine, I felt a chill of anticipation. Goody, goody, I get to read the book. But I also felt a wave of anticipatory grief because it was the last book in the Narnia series.
Aurora Winter [00:03:30]:
And in that moment I realized that writers are wizards. With just ink on paper, we can transport somebody through a portal. And in that moment, little nine year old Aurora decided she would do whatever she could to become a great writer like C.S. lewis. And just recently, big Aurora has written a fantasy series like C.S. lewis. The first book, Magic Mr. In the Multiverse won the Reader's Choice Award, Best book for teens.
Aurora Winter [00:03:59]:
The second book just came out on Kickstarter, the Secret Multiverse Academy. And the third book, Multiverse Mayhem is coming out on Kickstarter soon. So all grown up, Aurora actually did fulfill that dream, but in a totally non linear fashion. When I went to university, my father and I wanted to study English. He's like to something sensible, there's no money in that.
Yvonne Heimann [00:04:23]:
Oh God, how many of us have have been told this?
Aurora Winter [00:04:29]:
I know, I know, right? And yet if our heart wants to do something, we need to listen to it. I actually got, I got in business. I was very successful in business, but I got Epstein Barr, which at the time was called yuppie flu. But I think it was just soul sickness because I was doing what I should do to make money instead of listening to my soul. Anyway, now I'm happy. And we had quite a few episodes in between.
Yvonne Heimann [00:04:58]:
And. And I think I'm like, I. I love this piece because so many of us have been told, oh, you shouldn't be doing this. There is no money in it. And I am excited for the youth nowadays. I'm like, I never thought I would say that. I'm like, when, When I was younger, I'm like, 42. You're a freaking grandma.
Yvonne Heimann [00:05:20]:
I'm like, I'm not a grandma. Leave me alone. All joke, all age joking aside, I look at the younger generation right now that has been shown that we can make an income with our passion, that we can make an income with what lights us up. And I'm freaking excited about that because for them, Because I'm like, yeah, we did a lot of things because we were supposed to do them, to shoot them. However, we're also part of the ones that showed everybody else, guess what? You pretty much can make an income and a living with all kinds of stuff.
Aurora Winter [00:06:03]:
All kinds of stuff. When I got my MBA in 2015, I took a year out and I got my MBA in Italy, which was way cool.
Yvonne Heimann [00:06:10]:
Oh, now that. Okay, now we're talking.
Aurora Winter [00:06:16]:
But I asked three questions. I asked myself these three questions, and these are three questions people can use right away to decide what to do next. So the first question is, what am I really good at? The second filter question, which is a must, is, what do I love to do? And then the third question is, who is it worth the most to? So after I got my mba, I had several businesses, and I wanted to pivot to something new. People were asking me for help with their business, with their marketing, with their messaging. I'm like, I should probably get an mba, got my mba. And then I had so many options, you know, so many things that bright, shiny objects that look like, I work for Netflix. I could work for Apple.
Aurora Winter [00:06:56]:
You know, what do I really want to do? And I had launched Tax Shoulders in the past, but I hated doing all the number crunching. I love people. I love creativity. Business is very creative. I love problem solving. Anyway, so what am I really good at? I'm good at communication. I love problem solving. I have the creative brain for writing, but also for business, and I love to do it.
Aurora Winter [00:07:20]:
So it passed the first two filters. But then we also, if it's your business and not your hobby, you want to also go, well, that skill set that I'm passionate about and that I'm good at, who is that worth the most to? And so I initially moved to Silicon Valley and I helped people who had Raised zero money for their companies, raise seven or eight figures. I had nobody who raised less than seven figures. And so that was the first filter for who is that worth the most to. But even those people wanted me to help them write their book. So actually it was doing an event in February 2020 in Semigel de Allende in Mexico, which is a beautiful hero heritage, UNESCO city. So pretty. The people are so friendly.
Aurora Winter [00:08:08]:
It's so artistic, so colorful. I think you really love it with your artistic flair that you have and your passion for swirly things. Anyway, so February 2020, I'm like, I love events, I'm gonna have more events. And then Covid. So then I pivoted once again and I realized that I didn't have to be in Silicon Valley and that I could help people with their books anywhere. And so I did the 8020 rule on my business. I'm like, you know what? The most lucrative part of this, that's the most fun for me also is helping people one on one to create the book of their dreams and then, you know, launch it. So many people don't launch their book.
Aurora Winter [00:08:48]:
They've got a great book. The average person spends three and a half years writing their first book and the average and a week launching. And that's like, well, I think we can do better than that. So one of my clients, I may have his book here. This is his second book that's coming out. Jake Fox is coming out in December. His first book was Confessions of an Accidental Lawyer. It's got over 3,000 reviews on Amazon.
Aurora Winter [00:09:12]:
We've sold I think about 50,000 copies now. And he's a first time author, he's a full time litigator. He doesn't have a list, he doesn't have like social media or anything, but with a little love and attention you can launch. And he loved it so much. Now we're writing nine legal thrillers. So what? But you know, 20 year old Aurora or 18 year old Aurora, whose economist's father said, you can't be a writer, there's no money in that. And I followed for decades the corporate path, the entrepreneurial path, and there was joy in that. But he was wrong.
Aurora Winter [00:09:50]:
I'm making more money now and I'm happier and I'm making a bigger difference. That's the other thing. I'm making a bigger difference because it's the right business for me. So you know, I did karma math and I asked God, how can I make the biggest difference with who I am? My expertise my passion. And this is my answer.
Yvonne Heimann [00:10:12]:
I got two questions for you.
Yvonne Heimann [00:10:16]:
Number one, I am a deeply passionate person, so I always had my own thing going on. When coaches tell me, you are not supposed to turn a passion into a business, I would love to hear your take on this.
Aurora Winter [00:10:37]:
That's the most ridiculous thing. Why live a life without passion? I think passion is God or the universe or your soul pulling you in the right direction. So I disagree with that. But.
Yvonne Heimann [00:10:57]:
And I think where my thinking has been, I'm somebody. It's like I'm a data nerd. It's like I try to make sense of everything sometimes to a fault. And I think where the understanding is, where they might not have the right understanding is that deep seated passion that we have for what we do. It's a piece of us. It is not a, oh, I like to do bracelets. And tomorrow it's gone again. It's not a squirrel brain passion.
Yvonne Heimann [00:11:30]:
It's literally, it's in us. It just is. And I think there might be that disconnect of coaches teaching. Don't turn a passion into a business. You're going to regret it. I'm like, and I could have just been in a 9 to 5.
Aurora Winter [00:11:45]:
Well, that's the other thing with business. I think I would say don't turn your business into a trap. I think that's far better advice, or at least it's better advice for me than don't turn your passion into a business.
Yvonne Heimann [00:12:00]:
How would you turn your business into your passion into a trap? Your business into a trap?
Aurora Winter [00:12:04]:
It's very easy to turn your business into a trap because I've done it before. So how you do. How you do that is you overly focus on the money or on external milestones and you don't focus enough on what juices you, what feeds your soul, what is meaningful, what's aligned with your vision and purpose, and you don't align with your own personal karma math. And so you can. You can give yourself the worst job ever in your own business by not honoring your gifts, your talents, your passion and not delegating enough. Can you relate? You are. You are nodding. I want to hear Yvonne.
Yvonne Heimann [00:12:52]:
It's. It's that external piece. It's that external piece that really resonated. And I'm like, anybody on. On the podcast or my YouTube channel has probably heard that story where I was like, I was so caught up in my external validation and warning, the answers that I went everywhere else to give me the answers to come back around and be like you motherfuckers none of you ask the right questions. I actually have the answer, but I got so caught up in questioning everything that I went to you for answers because you are the experts you should be knowing. And all they did is teaching me their ways and never asking if that's actually the right way.
Aurora Winter [00:13:42]:
I was just in Greece last week. Actually, I was in Athens, which was very interesting with the US election just about to happen at that point. And I love the Socratic method. So that was birthed in Athens, which is that it's more important to ask the right questions. The other person has their own answers. But it is very helpful for somebody who cares to ask the right questions and then listen. The listening part is essential, right?
Yvonne Heimann [00:14:14]:
And I think that's where I've seen I'm somewhat. I soak up information, right? I always like to have a community. I always like to have a mentor. I always like to have a coach. It's like I know what I don't know. And I think one of the biggest lessons that I learned in 2024 is to check on the people that I work with or that I look at to see if they are asking the right question. Having learned that lesson now, because often enough I've seen and that needs to be said in a relationship like that, you need to put the power back into your client, right? No matter if that is working with them, if that is a coaching, whatever it is, your client needs to be accountable. So me being told I need to ask the right questions, I completely agree.
Yvonne Heimann [00:15:06]:
But sometimes I don't know what the right question is. And I think that's where that the.
Aurora Winter [00:15:15]:
Coach can be helpful. What I'm saying is a really great coach should ask you questions instead of tell you what to do. And I have another example. So another good way to turn your business into a trap, which I did for one year, is follow somebody else's recipe for what works for them. So I took this mastermind coaching process and I met a bunch of cool people and learned some interesting things. But the way they had of doing sales and Facebook ads and taking calls was not me. And I was on the phone talking to people like for eight hours a day because their system was very much about lead flow. And I'm like, I'm exhausted.
Aurora Winter [00:16:00]:
I'm not a salesperson. I don't enjoy talking to unqualified prospects all day long. And then the other thing I noticed about this somewhat patriarchal follow the way I do it group was they were all about, okay, are you making seven figures yet? What's your gross. They were all competing and nobody was talking about their net. I'm like, the growth doesn't matter.
Yvonne Heimann [00:16:21]:
Yeah. I don't care. That's. That's one of the things where it's like, revenue doesn't matter. If you made a million and you spend two to get there, you got a problem.
Aurora Winter [00:16:32]:
And if you used up your health and your soul to get there, you have a bigger problem. Right?
Yvonne Heimann [00:16:40]:
Yeah.
Aurora Winter [00:16:42]:
Yeah. So anybody who is listening to this, who is seeking more juice, they can ask themselves questions, or they could work with a quote, a coach. But I would look for somebody who asks you good questions and then really cares about the answer. Because even if it worked for them, even if it worked for nine of their other 10 clients, doesn't mean it's a fit for you.
Yvonne Heimann [00:17:02]:
That's. That's one. That's one of my preachers where it's like, it all works. We've all seen it. If it's Facebook ads, if it's organic, if it's. They all. All of those systems work.
Yvonne Heimann [00:17:15]:
Doesn't mean they gonna work for you. You need to understand yourself. You need to realize your own pattern. What do you want? What energizes you? What doesn't energize you? And then you find your answers.
Aurora Winter [00:17:26]:
So, for example, just a quick example that may. That relates to this. So I used to do all of those, like webinars, Facebook ads, this and that. A lot of. A lot of prospects.
Yvonne Heimann [00:17:38]:
Standard sales funnel.
Aurora Winter [00:17:40]:
Exactly. I've had several businesses grown from zero to seven figures. But now, when tuning into what do I really love to do and what works for me, I only do two things. Basically podcast, because I love talking. I love meeting new people. I'm just loving meeting you, Yvonne. You're so cool and energetic and delightful. And I have my books.
Aurora Winter [00:18:00]:
This book Turn Words into Wealth on Amazon. And people either listen to me on a podcast and then get my book, read my book, and I'm like, oh, she sounds pretty cool. Maybe I'll book a call with her. They book a call with me, and then they work with me. Usually they don't book a call and then not work with me because they've already listened to me on a podcast and read my book. Or like, one or the other.
Yvonne Heimann [00:18:22]:
You already know me. Exactly. And I love. I love how you were able to turn your passion into profit. Now that's where I have another question for you. Similar to me, you had this. You should be doing something right. It's not that we hated it, but it just wasn't also really right that shift, making that step off.
Yvonne Heimann [00:18:48]:
Screw you. I'm doing the thing I want to do. I'm doing what fuels me, adjusting a little bit in the process. Was there some mindset work involved where it's like the little, the little devil is standing here, but you were supposed to.
Aurora Winter [00:19:06]:
Well, definitely a lot of mindset work. I've done decades of that. I would say that I didn't. I would love to be more honest and say I think my path has been turning problems into profit as opposed to passion into profit. So my, I've. I've launched multiple businesses and every time I would be confronted with problems and then I would solve those problems and then I would go, oh, other people probably have these problems, maybe I could solve it for them too. And then I get bored and then I start another business and solve other problems. But I think if we can think, I think a business is solving problems at a profit.
Aurora Winter [00:19:50]:
So if you figure out how to solve problems that other people have and if you like to solve those problems, then you might want to consider doing that as a business. So to be completely honest, it's more like I solved problems and then offered other people, hey, I could help you. I can help you publish your book. I could help you get an award winning book. I can help you get a best selling book. I can help you get on podcasts and radio and tv. I can help you pitch to raise capital. Because I'd done all those things, I raised with a business partner $5 million to start a film company that made eight films.
Aurora Winter [00:20:20]:
So at first I had to do it right and go like, ah, this is scary. And then screw up. And then finally after month, two months or years, figure out, oh, here is the best system this works. This is the least expensive and fastest approach to solve these problems. And then in terms of passion into profit. I had to do a lot of mindset work to give myself permission. I was nine when I wanted to write the fantasy books. Now I have written screenplays that are fiction.
Aurora Winter [00:20:52]:
In fact, I'm an award winning screenwriter. You can see a movie called, it's called Eli's Lesson. It's got Jack Palance in it. So fun fantasy, kid story. But to give myself permission to write magic mystery in the multiverse, I had to do a lot of self talk. And here was the self talk. It went one, you've wanted to do this since you were nine. If not now, when? And that's not okay, right? To have a childhood dream.
Aurora Winter [00:21:20]:
I told for my, for me, it's not okay to not honor that. And then I. I had to talk myself into, what if. What if I allow myself to do this as my art project? What if I don't ask it to make money? What if I'm willing to invest in the best cover designer and the interior layout and the proofreader, and I'm willing to invest my time just to honor my soul? It doesn't need to make money. I am making money in these other areas. I don't need to necessarily put that burden on this project. So I did the 80/20 rule. But it's not always filtering for money.
Aurora Winter [00:22:00]:
You can filter for joy or meaning or purpose or that. It's on your bucket list. So this was on my bucket list. We'll see if it makes money or not. But it's already, you know, winner, Reader's Choice Award. It won a bunch of other awards and has thousands of readers, which is.
Yvonne Heimann [00:22:17]:
I call that a win.
Aurora Winter [00:22:18]:
Pretty tick ass and hundreds of reviews. So I think it's doing all right.
Yvonne Heimann [00:22:25]:
I would call that a freaking win. Yeah.
Aurora Winter [00:22:29]:
And my mindset is still. Any money that comes from that is a bonus. And actually, when I did the Kickstarter, once we got to a certain level, I'm like, everybody who gets another physical book, I will give a book away. Because my passion for this project, I'm not doing this to make money. I'm doing this because I think that's the karma math thing. I think if I could encourage even one youth to love reading as much as I did, that could change their life. It changed my life because first I read fiction, which gave me a love of words, a love of language, a love of communication. It broadened my imagination.
Aurora Winter [00:23:05]:
But then later in life, when I had problems, I started looking to nonfiction books.
To have the answer. And, you know, you will connect with this. So C.S. lewis changed my life when I was nine. And I read the Narnia series when my husband died. When I was 31, CS Lewis changed my life again with his book A Grief Observed, which is his diary of healing after his wife died, which became the feature film Shadowlands with Deborah Winger and Anthony Hopkins. And that really helped me because it was about the mad midnight moments. It was about somebody's real experience because I read, you know, 10 steps to recover from Grief.
Yvonne Heimann [00:23:50]:
Oh, God. Or the Stages of Grief. I'm like, I appreciate everybody that's wanting to support somebody, but I'm like, grief is not steps. Grief is not linear. It's just gonna happen how it's gonna happen.
Aurora Winter [00:24:06]:
For you, it's messy and it's big.
Yvonne Heimann [00:24:09]:
And sometimes it's 10 years ago and sometimes it's a month ago. And it doesn't matter how much time has passed.
Aurora Winter [00:24:15]:
It's not linear and it's not even a circle. It's more like a slinky. And anyway, so that he changed my life twice. Just reaffirming that writers are wizards and that books are like seeds that can germinate years or decades after the author died and can make a difference. So that really fueled my passion to read and to help others publish books that make a difference. And my first published book is called From Heartbreak to Happiness. It's an intimate diary of healing. I actually published my own diary of healing, which I don't really promote because want people to read your diary?
Aurora Winter [00:24:56]:
No, but I wanted to help other people through grief. And then as I started to figure out how to get myself through grief because I had a four year old son, so I had a compelling reason to figure it out. Because he needed me.
Aurora Winter [00:25:09]:
And then later I started coaching people through grief, not because I necessarily wanted to, but it's like they were like, okay, we've got your book. We want more. I'm like, what, the book's not enough? No, the book wasn't enough. And I coached people and two, two young widows the same week said the same thing to me, almost word for word. They said, I love my therapist. One had been seeing a therapist for six months. One had been seeing a therapist for two years. They said, I love my therapist, but you help me more in that one session than they have helped me all the time that we've been working together.
Aurora Winter [00:25:46]:
Would you help me learn how to do that, to help others? Like you had just helped me, two people in the same week. So I'm like, okay, I guess that's, it's a problem that I can help solve. So I launched a company called the Grief Coach Academy and for many years taught coaches and therapists and others how to help people through grief with the system and the process. Now wonderful lady Audrey White is running the Grief Coach Academy and making that difference because I've gone on to my next challenge. But you, I think that's an example of turning a problem into a profit or turning a problem into a contribution after I had solved the problem for myself first.
Aurora Winter [00:26:30]:
But I was passionate. Well, I remain passionate.
Yvonne Heimann [00:26:36]:
And I think that's, that's, that's, that's the combination of where we are thinking the same thing using different words, where it's like, yeah, you are solving a problem with your passion. Turning it into a profit.
Aurora Winter [00:26:50]:
Yeah. And turning it into a contribution and. Yeah. And I don't know what, what you want to share about your experience, but I'm certainly not grateful that my husband died. That was horrible.
Yvonne Heimann [00:27:03]:
I'm grateful for the lessons it has taught me.
Aurora Winter [00:27:06]:
I'm grateful for the person it forced me to become.
Yvonne Heimann [00:27:10]:
Oh God, yes, yes. And I'm like, there is heck, there might, might just be still a TEDx session in there. Part of me has always wondered, how can I take those lessons and convey them actually that one lesson and convey it without somebody else having to feel the pain that comes along with it. Tomorrow is not a given. And us humans have the tendency to forget about it.
And it seems like most people only learn that and get that realization and really remember that tomorrow is not a given when they experienced it.
Aurora Winter [00:28:00]:
Yeah. And you and I in some ways were lucky because we were young when we got to know that without any doubt that tomorrow was not guaranteed. And that changed me. I'll speak for myself. It changed me dramatically. And I'm not perfect, but I think I do a much better job of caring about the things that really matter to me instead of living a hollow life all about, know, paying the rent or the mortgage or.
Yvonne Heimann [00:28:33]:
It puts things really in perspective.
Aurora Winter [00:28:38]:
Yeah. Exactly. How do you think you changed from your husband's death?
Yvonne Heimann [00:28:40]:
My business is what it is today because of it. That's where my passion came from. Wanting to support women, wanting to help women turn their passion into a profit. I had to put my business on hold. I spent two years taking care of him, not having an income. Had I always planned on residual income and all the things? Yes. But I wasn't there yet. And then all of, all of the doctor's appointment, everything.
Yvonne Heimann [00:29:12]:
It was a full time job caring for him. Fortunately, we had angels in our life. We didn't pay rent for two years. I don't know where we would have been without our landlord. Love the guy to pieces. We got support from our community and everything. So we had a lot of angels in our life. And I didn't have a business after he passed away.
Yvonne Heimann [00:29:34]:
I didn't have a house, I didn't have an income. There was no life insurance, no nothing. And I'm like, I don't want anybody to have to make a decision between their loved ones and putting food on the table.
That's how my business started. And especially now I want to get power into female hands. And let's be honest power nowadays is our strength and the money in our bank account because having wealth in female hands means we can safely make decisions based on what we want, not what. We should
Aurora Winter [00:30:23]:
And what we absolutely have no choice about. Which is where you get when you've got fumes in your bank account.
Also, I think I see in you, perhaps you were this way before, but I see in you a very solid person in terms of like a groundedness, like a beautiful oak tree that I think other people don't necessarily have who haven't gone through something difficult.
Yvonne Heimann [00:30:49]:
It is interesting, the words you just chosen.
Podcast episodes are always bought by the universe in certain ways. First of all, it's funny you mentioned the oak because his last name was Oaks.
Aurora Winter [00:31:08]:
Oh, all right.
Yvonne Heimann [00:31:10]:
And the. My first name, Yvonne, stems from the French and stands for birch. The trees that always go with the wind and that are really hard to break.
Aurora Winter [00:31:27]:
That is interesting that those were the words that came to me. Do you know the poet Khalil Gibran?
Yvonne Heimann [00:31:36]:
Does not ring a bell.
Aurora Winter [00:31:39]:
Does not ring a bell. I'll have to find it and send it to you. Or I could look it up. Or if I was Joe Rogan, I would have Jamie look that up. He's got some beautiful poetry about marriage and about being like two trees, you know, stand close together but still give each other, you know, the room for the sunlight. I'll find it and send it to you. It's beautiful. Khalil Giranor.
You can look it up on marriage.
Yvonne Heimann [00:32:00]:
I'm going to look that up. But yeah, for you to it. I don't know how many past episodes you have listened to. It's been interesting over the last probably 15, 20 episodes. The universe is sending me guests based on what's happening. It is so funny. If that's in business, if that's in personal life, if that's in general. It is always really interesting how the episodes shape based on what's actually happening in my life right now.
So I'm like, okay, here we go again. Thank you, universe.
Aurora Winter [00:32:40]:
I heard you. So what else is happening in your life that I might be able to ask the right question about?
Yvonne Heimann [00:32:45]:
That's a good one. There's. There's a lot going on right now where just haven't gotten. Gotten a wake up call again where it's like, okay, I've been talking long enough about this. Increasing my financial stability, as well as being location independent has been moved to number one on my to do list.
Aurora Winter [00:33:12]:
Yeah, well, certainly San Diego is not the least expensive place you could choose to live.
Yvonne Heimann [00:33:16]:
Oh, no. But it's. And that conversation definitely has happened. I'm like 2,500 bucks for a one bedroom apartment. But again, the five years that I have spent here in San Diego has done their job. I consider San Diego one of my most favorite cities. Still, other people spend their money on flying here and spending a week vacation in San Diego. I spend it on my rent.
So there is. There is no regret. But yeah, I agree, things have changed. I'm like, right now, as. As of literally two days ago, I've been talking with friends all over the world, having a social network online that I have. I have people in Brazil and in Canada and Bali and in Europe where I'm like, maybe I'm gonna do the whole digital nomad thing. And suddenly everything just shifted. How I'm looking at things again where I'm like, yeah, I have a nice place here, but do I really need all of this?
Aurora Winter [00:34:15]:
See, I divide my time now between Los Angeles and near Vancouver, bc, Canada. But after I got my mba, I was like a digital nomad for about a year. And I realized I don't really need that much stuff. And I also realized, you know, you can rent a fully furnished Airbnb for a month for about what you're paying for rent.
Aurora Winter [00:34:40]:
Anywhere in the world. So I'm like, well, I'm not a tree. I don't need to be planted arbitrarily somewhere. I don't need to make a bigger commitment to my landlord than to anybody else in my life.
Aurora Winter [00:34:55]:
So. And we just. My son and I just spent eight days in Santorini, Greece. People are so friendly. They don't speak English. The weather is as nice as Los Angeles. And he said, you know, this place is in my soul now. It's second home.
Aurora Winter [00:35:12]:
He's already thinking about maybe moving there. And I'm like, you could go. You could go for a month, you could go for a year. Life is like such a delectable smorgasbord, and yet we so often just limit ourselves to whatever dish we happen, whatever plate happens to be in front of us when we sit down at the table. But we could live so many different places. I've lived in Indonesia, I've lived in France, I've lived in, in Italy, and I've visited many countries, but I've hardly. I've hardly scraped the surface of it. But I do want to also confess something that might be helpful to you or the listeners whenever I feel like you should confess it's.
Yvonne Heimann [00:35:49]:
Like, yeah, there's something here. Say it. Say it.
Aurora Winter [00:35:53]:
So after I got my MBA and I was helping people raise capital for like seven or eight figures and I lived in Silicon Valley, I was living in Mountain View, which is Palo Alto adjacent, and I got a stunningly beautiful one bedroom apartment for $4,200 a month.
And when they raised their rent to $4,400 a month, I'm like, I'm one person. This is ridiculous. So fast forward a bit. When I decided, hey, I'm going to give myself permission to do my art project, I decided I would also drastically reduce my rent. So now I Pay less than $1,000 a month rent usually. And that gives me enough money that if I want to travel to LA or to Athens or to Greece, I can afford, you know, to stay in a hotel for $200 a night or $100 a night or whatever, rent an Airbnb, because over the course of the year it doesn't add up to that much. So for me, the difference between spending over $4,000 a month rent and a thousand ish was huge. But I had to really confront my ego because I'm like, you should own a house.
Aurora Winter [00:37:09]:
Other people own houses. You should. Da da da da da. Like, my heart wants to write the C.S. lewis fantasy series. And to do that without stress, I felt it was better to have much lower overhead head. And I have a very pretty place and it's thanks to my brother. He, he has a carriage house that he rents out to me for a ridiculously low amount.
And it's gorgeous and it's pretty, but. And I have a lot of money in savings now, which is great and.
Yvonne Heimann [00:37:38]:
Values change and we go with it now. Thank you, thank you, thank you for joining me today. As always, I love my freaking podcast. You never know what's going to happen and what I get to hear. How can people connect with you? Where can they find you?
Aurora Winter [00:37:58]:
Well, if they'd like to find out more, the easiest thing to do is get turn words into wealth on Amazon or wherever books are sold. You can also go to www.turnwordsintowealth.com and you will get a thought leader starter library and you'll also get five free videos explaining how to attract capital clients and media coverage. At the end of that, if you still want to talk to me, you can talk to me, but please read the book or listen to the videos or listen to this podcast first. And then they could also check out same page publishing and I can see all the people that have helped write, publish and promote their books. I'm really proud of my clients books. They're really awesome. So. And what else can I do to make your life more wonderful in this moment? Yvonne?
Yvonne Heimann [00:38:45]:
Oh, you. You already have. And as you all know, you're gonna have all the links in the description. It's all there, easy for you to click at. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming on. And thank you so much for being such an inspiration.
Aurora Winter [00:39:04]:
Thank you for having me. Yvonne.