Linda Spencer - October's WonderWoman - Month of Finance

Posted by Avanti Women Sep 25, 2017

Linda Spencer is a CPA, CA, Canadian Tax Specialist and Money Mindfulness Coach. Her mission is to eliminate stress and anxiety people experience around money and taxes, by empowering them with the tools, knowledge, strategies and mindsets that will put them in the driver's seat of their business success and financial wellness, so they can have more peace, joy and abundance in their life.

She marries over 20 years of left-brained practical accounting, tax & business process improvement strategies with her right-brained creativity as a lifetime artist and intuitive coaching skills that allow her to connect you to the big picture vision and develop the key strategies that are right for your business.

1. What do you love most about the work that you do?

I love that I get to be creative and teach through my business, and help people to have less stress and more joy in their lives.

2. What‰Ûªs your Story?  

I grew up living a simple life by simple means with my parents and 3 siblings on the family beef farm.  Farming is very much a lifestyle - we didn‰Ûªt have much, and what we did have came mostly from the farm or as second hand from someone else. 

I was a straight A student who loved to learn, loved to read, loved to create (arts & crafts, writing and poetry), loved horses and being with nature.  Although I was super creative, I was also really good in math, and dreamt of being a teacher.  I also loved doing research, particularly in law and social behaviour.  And from the first time I was exposed to a tax return, I fell in love.  This led me down the path of becoming a Chartered Accountant and a specialist in taxation, making a 6-figure income by the time I was 32. 

But my life was not without struggles - taking care of my siblings from the age of 11 when my mom got sick; alienating her as a teenager; dealing with my husband's jealousy, insecurity, and physical and mental illnesses; losing a baby; losing myself; playing super-mom/wife/career woman until I got sick and ended up in the hospital with chest pains (which prompted a career change); being threatened physically, emotionally, financially and spiritually (prompting a divorce) and left feeling very alienated and alone. 

I worked really HARD to achieve what I did ‰ÛÒ 6-figure income, great career, nice house, married, 2 wonderful kids.  But I wasn‰Ûªt happy ‰ÛÒ not at my job, not in my marriage, not with myself.  By Divine intervention and guidance, I woke up, realized that I was important, and started to take steps to be more aligned with my true self and my purpose.  It just happened that in doing so, tensions and jealousy mounted in my marriage, until the adversity became too much to bear and I asked for a divorce.  At the same time, I embarked on a spiritual journey or self-awareness and self-love that opened my eyes to so much love, abundance and beauty that exists in this world.  And I declared my FREEDOM - to be free from stress and chaos, to choose love and harmony, to fall in love again, and to follow my heart.  And on July 4, 2014, Independence Day, I put myself out of a job and started my own business a few months later ‰ÛÒ all this inside of 24 months. I now get to live my passion, creating and teaching, helping others to overcome their fears and stresses with money and their business. 

3. What did you learn early in your career/experience that has made the biggest difference?

Early in my career, I learned the value of project planning and using timelines to get things done on time.  In public accounting, we‰Ûªre always pressed with deadlines and juggling multiple clients.  I still use those skills to this day in my own business to manage my multiple projects and clients. 

I‰Ûªd say a second thing of equal value has been the importance of forming great relationships ‰ÛÒ with clients, team members, suppliers and other professionals. I would not have progressed to the level I did in corporate, or be able to grow my business without forming great relationships. Today‰Ûªs economy is built on connections.

4. How important have mentors been in your career?

Mentors (and coaches) have been extremely important in my career AND my life.  I believe I‰Ûªve had mentors ever since high school helping me grow into the individual and business owner I am today.  Through school, they were my teachers and professors who kept encouraging me along the way to aim higher.  In public accounting, I had 2 or 3 partners who were mentors and helped shape my career in tax.  After I left public accounting for corporate, I looked to other tax professionals and senior leaders within the company as my mentors.  Since starting my own business, I only have one consistent mentor, but tend to look to many different professionals for different areas of expertise to help me grow as a person and business owner.   And that‰Ûªs what mentors do ‰ÛÒ they help you grow.

5. How do you know that your service/product is actually working? 

Because people tell me they‰Ûªre working ‰ÛÒ they share their transformations and deep gratitude for what I‰Ûªve passed on to them.  Every offer I create comes from tapping into consciousness to create the solutions that people are asking for.  Get testimonials and feedback from your clients ‰ÛÒ they‰Ûªll tell you what‰Ûªs working and what‰Ûªs not. 

6. If you could give advice to your 20 year old self, what would you say?

Whoosh ‰ÛÒ if only eh?!  Looking back 25 years, I would tell her to stand confidently in her truth and not let anyone derail her into doing something she knew in her gut wasn‰Ûªt right.  For years, I lived someone else‰Ûªs life and not my own.  It was only around the age of 35 that I started waking up to my truth.  Had I stayed true to myself from the beginning, it would have saved a lot of heart-ache and financial loss.  But these are the experiences we go through…that make us the person we are today.  When you lose your way, the Universe will always find a way to get you back on your path ‰ÛÒ it might just take a while, that‰Ûªs all.  Just trust your gut and stop taking life so seriously.

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November is the month of Entrepreneurship - If you know an entrepreneur that should be recognized, Nominate her as November's WonderWoman! Send your submission by emailing info@avantiwomen.com.


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