Light Up With Adera - Featuring Jeannette Austin (Glimmer Album)

What lights you up?

It's a question I love asking because the answers are always so different and always so inspiring.

In my latest Light Up with Adera conversation, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Jeannette Austin, mental wellness expert, speaker, and co-author of Co-Leadership.

We talked about her experience navigating COVID, the importance of understanding your natural design, and why authenticity isn't just good for us personally—it's essential for creating healthier workplaces and stronger relationships.

One of my favourite parts of our conversation was learning about "glimmers" those small moments of joy, hope, and connection that remind us life is full of possibility, even during challenging times.

It's a beautiful reminder that sometimes the smallest moments can make the biggest difference.

I'd love to know...

What was one glimmer in your day today?

#LightUpWithAdera #Leadership #MentalWellness #Authenticity #PersonalGrowth #Wellbeing #Connection #CoLeadership

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You are right here right now watching Light Up TV or listening to the podcast. Thanks so much for being here because today I've got Jeanette Austin, who is a keynote speaker, trainer, and a coach in natural design, which I hope we'll dive into because it's very cool. And you're just super cool. I mean, look at these nails. Look at this hair. Look at just owning who we are. Yeah. Blue is the thing. Have you always been this way where you kind of are a little on the like spunky side?

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Absolutely. I'm an only child. And so I always blazed my own trail. And so yeah, it's part of who I am. Blue's been my favorite color my whole life.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

And uh why don't we have that in your branding? I are we'll have to. We're gonna talk on that. We've got purple in there and we've got some teal. I that darker blue. Oh, you do have that darker blue. But is this like your this technically cobalt blue?

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Cool. Yeah, I love that change. It's a blend of blue and purple.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Okay. All right. There we go. Okay. So besides brand colors, um, how and when did you know that you wanted to be a keynote speaker and a trainer? Because you have quite a history in government and doing other things. What what how did the spur? You had a aha moment. What what happened?

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Um, so I I started out um in recreation administration. So because I loved um events, I loved uh sports, activities, I love planning things. And so that kind of was my natural progression. But uh leadership of the heart and soul of what I've done since I was probably born, basically, one of those natural foreign leaders, as they say. But um, my work in government took me to realize that women in particular often end up in roles that um are diminished or put down, and that really bothered me. And so I began to find ways to help support women. And so I would organize events, and of course, then I'm doing the teaching, the training in those events. And so suddenly it was like, hey, what if I could do this full time and this be my job? And we'd be like heaven, that would be my sweet spot. So it kind of evolved over me helping other women succeed in male-dominated businesses and industries, and here I am. And you've done a few of those retreats for sure. Yes, absolutely. So I've run um three women in leadership retreats and uh in Canmar, which is a beautiful setting to do them in. It is, and they've been uh very successful, lots of fun. It's that rest and relaxation as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

So oh, every time I leave a retreat or anything that has this amazing container, you just cannot not grow, basically. You you yeah, everyone needs to do it.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

There needs to be a line item for in the budget, especially for solopreneurs, right? Yes, because um, as you're aware as well, it is very taxing to be alone so much and pour all yourself into that business and have an opportunity to connect with other women and get ideas for how to make things better is a great opportunity. Definitely. So talk to me about the glimmers. Okay, so um my whole life took a turn during COVID. Um, didn't they all?

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

All right. Oh gosh. So um my world uh shifted significantly. Um my husband works away from home, and what you know, it was a one-way ticket when he left home in uh March of 20. Wow, right at the beginning. And so the first six weeks I had no human contact at all. My son is a very much a rule follower, it said no mission. To get to it's so I couldn't see my grandkids, my husband was alone, and so from a hugger to no human touch, yeah, deep, deep, deep started to head towards depression. Um, I gained a ton of weight, you know, I could go on and on, and my perimenopause high. And um, so I hit rock bottom and uh I really didn't want to be here anymore. And so I started to research Eastern, Western men, um, and I was sorting hundreds of thousands of photos, which because I used to be a photographer, so I have that many. And I I noticed in sunrise and sunset photos this little streak of light.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

I've been looking for this streak, I haven't been able to spot it yet.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Is it only to some eyes or well you'll notice it for sure in your camera or your phone, yeah, because it'll it's just the way the lens of a camera bends light, and so uh and it happens in those moments as the sun is going across the horizon, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:40

So I went or how we're going across. I know everyone talks about the sun moving, and I'm like, listen, that's not a fact, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

And so I just went, oh, that's a glimmer, that's cool. And and my brain went, Oh, you should focus on the glimmers. And so I started to focus on those things that made me do that, that deep breath that makes you relax, and it helps the body relax, right? And so I started a photo album on my phone uh called Glimmers. And so every time I take one of those pictures that makes me go, that's cool, I save it to my Glimmers album. So I have everything in there from rainbows to my grandkids to of course sunrise and sunset. I use the hashtag sometimes I break for sunrise and sunset. And if you were to ask my husband, he'll tell you it's true. It's like stop because I gotta get that picture. So that's where glimmers came from. And then I became popular on social media too. I won't say I invented it, but but I could be the OG. I could be, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Awesome. Yeah, so that's where glimmers came from. That's so beautiful. Okay, so now we're out in the world speaking, training, and coaching with natural design. Talk to me a little bit about um, in just in brief, of like what natural design is and how you're working with it.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Sure. So um natural design was designed, created by someone who is an engineer, and their brains work way different than ours. Um, but she isn't your typical engineer. So this is an algorithm she has created. She has tested it for well over 25 years, and you know it's proven time and time again. So it's a tool, it's a lens to look at your yourself through. And so um I was introduced to it um because uh again, during COVID, a uh lady from community futures, they provide funding for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs, um, introduced me to uh another individual who had participated in the program. So we had met and um she's the partner of the creator of natural design. So we connected, they told me about it, they ran my numbers, put me through it, and did a training session. And then I've been through three or four since then. But literally the very first day we met, I said, Are you certifying people? Right. And I'm like, So good. We're you know, we're thinking about it. I said, I want to be there when you do. And so uh I am in the first group that will be certified. Um it'll be within the next few weeks, I'll be completely done. So I am very excited because it for me it was some of those qualities that the world uh puts a label on. As even as natural born leaders, I got called bossy a lot when in fact it's just leadership, it's not bossy, right? And so learning the the positives and then even some of our natural attributes have shadow sides. So of course understanding what those are and how to mitigate that uh is really important. And so uh learning to uh you know get on the place where you can operate within your natural design, catching yourself when you start to go the wrong way. And I think uh one of the most beneficial pieces was knowing my husband's and then learning how to work together through that. Um my husband and I are very opposite on certain things. Uh, he likes uh order and I like chaos. And so, how do those two people live in the same world and not fight constantly, right? And so it's really been a good tool for us to learn and understand each other too.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

So good. Any kind of tool that helps you understand yourself at a deeper level and how you are in humanities world here that we're all in um is helpful, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

And whether that's your partner or your business partner, yes, people you work with, really good tools to have.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Um, you call yourself a mental wellness expert. So when you go and train and speak, is that primarily what you're talking about?

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Yes, um, because of my experience during COVID, yeah, um, one of the things I really noticed, and again, because I had worked so much in male-dominated industries, public works, um, the HVAC business. Oh, yes, what I find is that men was I wrong with government or no, the other two years in government. Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay. So um men in particular don't like to talk about mental wellness, and so it needs to be a safe conversation to have. And so we need to start to see those changes in the workplace where anyone is comfortable having that conversation. And I think a lot of that starts from our willingness to share our own story and then to provide some tools for how to move forward. And so that's what I like to do is provide actionable tools that people can put into place literally that moment. And Glimmers is one of them, right? Creating that photo album, uh, literally the last time I spoke on this uh was at a Chamber of Commerce meeting, and I got a text from the lady the next day saying what a difference it made in my day. And I've already shared it with my friends on how to make a change. Easy, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

We need reasons to feel good, honestly. Yeah, there's enough out there in the world that makes us not feel good. And I know you're thinking, okay, I just couldn't see my grandkids and my husband was gone or whatever. Like it's not like, you know, the worst, but it is in our own little world, our own little way. It is a total disruption of like what we are accustomed to, nurtured into all of those things. And so, yeah, how do you you need ways to cope, you need ways to uh see things in a way that aren't it gonna take you down that spiral because it doesn't have to be that way. We can adapt and change and and grow. I wasn't trying to minimize your story, I just it was you in no way, because trust me, that was part of even the problem, right? The guilt you have of the shame, it was like, come on, come on, Jeanette. This was not that bad.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Yeah, did it affect me, but it did. And it was things piling up as well. Yes, you know, every time I tell this story and I talk about Christmas of 2020 and it will happen right now, I get emotional because standing outside the front window of my son's house and having to wave to my grandkids, it just broke my heart, right? Because I'm so used to being able to be personal and have that personal touch to have a window and that much space between us wrong my heart. Yeah. And uh so it it is devastating when you're already struggling with a lot of other things. And I think a lot of people can relate to that time because that was exactly truly fucked up. My story was not unique in any way, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:37

But we all can feel that.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Yeah, and I mean uh even the last year of my life, the contract work I've been doing has been really stressful, but the tools I learned, I would have never gotten through this year if I didn't have those tools.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

So on my last show, I used to ask everyone, like, what are you passionate about? And this show, it's now about what lights you up. And what I mean by that, it's different than passion because it's it's sort of the thing that I don't know. Like today, the big thing for me was booking that stand-up uh class. Like it just lit me up to to uh book that for myself and do that, but I'm not passionate about it, I don't think. It's more of like this feeling in me that gets me giddy, that um excites me. So, what what is that for you?

SPEAKER_00 12:22

One of them. Honesty, it is when I get an email or a text or a phone call from saying, Hey, what you said made a difference in my life. You know, what you taught me has like changed my life. Yeah, um the um one of my first clients in natural design um at that chamber of commerce meeting said, you know, what she taught me was revolutionary for my life and has made the world a difference. So I mean, that lights me up, right? Knowing that people have made that change in their life for the better is yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

That sizzle, that's like that's like yummy, then the state, it's the whole thing. It's like the full package, yeah. Very cool. Very much so. Well, keep on transforming lives, revolutionizing lives. For sure. I'll do that. And I'll keep wearing blue. Good stuff. So funny, I was gonna do my nails today and I was gonna do them blue, but I was like, I'm it's not gonna match anything at what would have matched this, but anyway, I was gonna wear a dress, remember? Yeah, anyways, but now I see what the blue was about for me. I was still I was somehow channeling you. I was okay. I will put all of Jeanette's details below. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Thanks for having me. That was fun.