Podcast | Mindset
Episode 55| February 1, 2025

How to Flow into Wealth w/ Laura Rotter

The Wall Street Investor Who Became a Yoga Teacher for Your Money

Laura Rotter spent decades as an institutional investor on Wall Street. Successful, respected, and for the last ten years, quietly unhappy.

Mindfulness and yoga taught her to slow down enough to hear a still, small voice.

It told her to leave.

Now she calls herself a yoga teacher for your money.

In this episode of the Happy Healthy Hustle Podcast, financial life planner Laura Rotter shares how she rebuilt her relationship with money, why ease is an inside job, and how true abundance is the balance of your finances, your time, and your energy.

Her superpower is not a spreadsheet. It is listening.

If money brings you more anxiety than freedom, this conversation will help you soften your grip.

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“Ease is an inside job. It is always here, if you open yourself to it.”

– Laura Rotter

Fast Skim & Timestamps

  • 0:00 From Wall Street to Yoga Teacher for Your Money
  • 2:08 The Shame We Attach to Money
  • 3:06 Why Being an Introvert Is Her Superpower
  • 5:57 The Best Coaches Are the Best Listeners
  • 7:52 When Success Steals Your Freedom
  • 11:09 Ease Is an Inside Job
  • 12:39 The Non-Negotiables That Keep Her Grounded
  • 15:03 True Abundance Is Balance, Not Competition

Key Takeaways

  1. Money is emotional before it is mathematical. Many people carry shame or anxiety they have never named.
  2. Your greatest weakness can be your superpower. For Laura, introversion makes her a deep listener.
  3. Success without boundaries can quietly steal the freedom you started for.
  4. Ease is an inside job. No system delivers it if you are not open to it.
  5. Protect your non-negotiables. Laura meditates twenty minutes a day, every day.
  6. True abundance is balance across money, time, and energy, and it grows through collaboration.

Three Petite Practice® Questions

petite practice question one

1. What do I actually feel in my body when I think about money?

petite practice question two

2. Where am I chasing ease through a system instead of from within?

petite practice question three

3. What are my non-negotiables, and am I protecting them?

Transcript Chapters

0:00 From Wall Street to Yoga Teacher for Your Money
[00:00:00] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Welcome back to the Happy Healthy Hustle. Today we hear from Laura Rotter. Laura, why do not you introduce yourself? [00:00:16] Laura Rotter: Thank you for having me. I am Laura Rotter, the owner of a financial life planning firm, True Abundance Advisors. I consider myself a yoga teacher for your money. I am a career changer. I had a long career as an institutional investor on Wall Street, and I started this practice because of mindfulness and yoga. Those slowing-down practices helped me see that in many ways I had chosen to be a victim of my life. I had enjoyed my career, but in the last decade I was not particularly happy. Listening to that still small voice moved me to work with women who carry a lot of anxiety around their money. I help them use their financial resources to create a life they value, rather than using their life to build financial resources.
2:08 The Shame We Attach to Money
[00:02:08] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: I love that. Maybe you are a money yogi. I read an interesting book about women and their relationship to money. It often starts with a limiting belief, even how you feel when you touch money, whether it makes you feel ashamed. There is so much to be said here. So let us start, what is your superpower?
3:06 Why Being an Introvert Is Her Superpower
[00:03:06] Laura Rotter: One of our greatest weaknesses can also be our superpower. I am an introvert. I am much more comfortable one on one than in large groups, and more comfortable giving others a platform than speaking myself. What I have learned is that this makes me a very good listener. I give people space to talk, then ask reflective questions that help them learn about themselves. I have gotten repeated feedback that I am a good interviewer, and I know it is because of that superpower. All of us should lean into ours. I even take courses to build the skill of holding silence a little longer than is comfortable, so there is room for the client to think and answer more. We rush to fill silence, and culturally we are not comfortable with it.
5:57 The Best Coaches Are the Best Listeners
[00:05:57] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: This is so important as a money coach, because feelings and money are such a pain point. Some people think when they have money, they will feel free and their problems will be gone. In reality, plenty of people with a lot of money do not feel free at all. The best coaches are the best listeners, especially around finances, where there is so much misunderstanding. I am a total introvert too. I teach in the classroom, and I am only successful because I have days when I do not leave my house. I schedule that intentionally to reset and replenish. I could not be a good teacher if I were not also a learner.
7:52 When Success Steals Your Freedom
[00:07:52] Laura Rotter: My biggest challenge is the one I am facing now. My business has been successful and attracting new clients, and that has left me feeling off balance. So many solopreneurs start a business for freedom, freedom of that scarce resource, time. And here I am not feeling it. I hired a marketing assistant and a financial planning assistant, and I am putting workflows in place so repeatable tasks are clear. And there is the mindfulness work, which helps me find what to say yes to, what to say no to, and to accept that balance is never finished. [00:09:42] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: I talk with very successful people who chased the corner office, and one friend told me the first thing she did once she got there was google how to be happy. We associate status with satisfaction, and it is just not true. Part of your challenge now is fine-tuning the number of clients you can truly serve.
11:09 Ease Is an Inside Job
[00:11:09] Laura Rotter: I had always placed ease as something external, something to be achieved. I would find the right system and then things would be easy. But in the same way that happiness is an inside job, ease is an inside job, and it is always here if I open myself to it. My mantra for 2025 is, I open to receive ease and synchronicities. [00:11:47] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: My word for 2025 is alignment, aligning my mind and my body, because we so often want two different things. The best work happens when they are aligned.
12:39 The Non-Negotiables That Keep Her Grounded
[00:12:39] Laura Rotter: I think I needed to reach this level of success to get the perspective that it does not create happiness or ease. What does is my relationships, and being intentional about my meditation practice. I meditate twenty minutes every day. I also exercise. These are my non-negotiables. It has to be something extreme for me to give them up. [00:13:44] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: You are anchoring your work routine around your meditation and your workout. That is habit stacking, and it creates success, because the best ideas do not happen at the laptop. They come when you step away, walking the dog or taking a shower.
15:03 True Abundance Is Balance, Not Competition
[00:15:03] Laura Rotter: My podcast is Making Change with Your Money, where I interview successful women about the transitions they have been through. I also run True Abundance Advisors. True abundance to me is the balance of all our scarce resources, our finances, our time, and our energy. [00:15:54] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Abundance is such an important word. I teach innovation, and the most successful innovators believe there is room for everybody. You are never really competing, because your unique skills add value. True abundance is believing in collaboration. Thank you so much for being here, Laura.

Meet My Guest

Laura Rotter

Laura Rotter

Financial Life Planner & Founder of True Abundance Advisors

Laura Rotter is a financial life planner and the founder of True Abundance Advisors. After a long career as an institutional investor on Wall Street, she left to help women build a calmer, more intentional relationship with their money.

She hosts the Making Change with Your Money podcast and describes herself as a yoga teacher for your money. For Laura, true abundance is the balance of your finances, your time, and your energy.

Meet Your Host

Dr. Christiane Schroeter

Dr. Christiane Schroeter

TEDx Speaker & Leadership Strategist

I’m Dr. Christiane Schroeter, TEDx speaker, leadership strategist, and host of the Top 1% ranked Happy Healthy Hustle Podcast. I help leaders think clearly, speak with conviction, and take the next step during change.

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