THE STORY OF
AWAKENED ACADEMY
By Michael & Arielle,
founders of Awakened Academy
May you discover your dharma, share your gifts,
and create all the abundance that life has to offer.
How Awakened Academy Was Born
Back in 2012, after years of magical synchronicities, studying courses, taking action, holding our vision, overcoming doubts and fears, and showing up to serve – we’d finally made it. Arielle and I were running a successful online, personal development company from the stunningly beautiful island of Kauai, Hawaii.
It was our dream come true, complete with a spacious home and breathtaking views of pristine beaches and mountains. We had every freedom to enjoy the life we loved, travel where we liked, and do what we wanted on our own terms.
It had taken an epic journey to reach this place of security and peace, and we felt the deepest gratitude in our hearts. We spent our mornings enjoying meditation, yoga, and sacred time in nature, then would come home to serve thousands of souls all over the world though coaching, books, courses, and live online events. We lived knowing that we were making a positive difference in this world, and creating incredible abundance for all, even while we were asleep.
Through this journey, we realized one very crucial thing:
The more we help others get what they want, the more we will get everything that we want.
We took this to heart, often asking our students and clients specifically, “What do you want? How can we help you more?” We listened carefully, and created courses, coaching, books, and content to cater to their greatest desires.
The Magic Questions
Toward the end of the year, something strange began to happen…
At first, a small drop… then a light shower, which became a downpour… and finally, a flood. Our students were asking the same questions:
“How can I live a spiritual life and do meaningful work and make an abundant living?”
“How can I learn coaching? How can I create courses? How can I become an author?”
“How did you make it happen and how can I do it too?”
Up to that point, we had only focused on serving others through personal development, spiritual awakening, relationships, lifestyle, and manifesting. We had not thought to share about how to run a sacred business, do coaching, create courses, or write books.
But the questions kept coming…
How can I do what fulfills me deeply and receive abundance?
How can I bring my fullest presence and share my beautiful light with others?
How can I live a sacred life of deep meaning and financial freedom?
Many of our students were caring, empathic souls – natural healers. Many of them experienced an inherent desire to serve those who came to them for help… but how to make it a sustainable way of living?
Some students expressed distaste, even detestation for their jobs, and how painful it was to work this way day after day after day… they needed to do something different. Something meaningful. Something spiritual. Something aligned with their soul.
Many tried courses and programs for business or coaching, but nothing really worked. They offered platitudes and banalities, lacking in depth, complexity, nuance, compassion, warmth, love, and most importantly… authentic, deeply-felt, spiritual inspiration.
Students shared their most powerful intentions to:
❖ Live in alignment with their soul’s purpose, using their gifts to serve others
❖ Be free of financial hardship, and live freely & abundantly
❖ Travel and live in magnificent, soul-nourishing places
❖ Help change lives, and be a light for others to find their own authenticity
❖ Feel a deep, ever-growing sense of peace and trust in their intuition
❖ Have time & energy to spend being with whom they love, and doing what they love
The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others. – Gandhi
The Golden Door
Receiving request after request from so many souls, we knew it was a sign from the Universe. A sign from the Divine.
We easily could have added it to the long list of possible ideas for the future… but we felt something, and made the radical choice to pause, step back, and listen… It was the call to our next journey.
Stopping all but essential work, we took 40 days to meditate on opening our hearts and minds to whatever was of the highest good for all. We asked…
Can we do this? Are we qualified? Why us?
Days and weeks passed in transformative meditation – watching the massive waves as they crashed on the shore of the beach, immersing in the sacred, cleansing waterfalls of the mountains, and feeling the sun as it set over the vast ocean every evening. We felt infinitely blessed, and drawn to give back and serve more.
I recalled certain experiences prior to awakening – addiction, depression, most people believing I’d never make anything of myself… except for one… one person who showed up for me with love, compassion, and understanding, while opening my eyes to sacred ideas that have transformed my life… forever. This awakening led me to the shores of Kauai with only a backpack, a heart full of dreams to create a magical new life for myself, and $800 to my name. Then I considered, “If more people helped others to awaken, what a beautiful world this would be.”
Arielle studied marketing, and realized her strong disinclination toward traditional, “inadequacy-based” marketing. She finds profound meaning through sharing and blessing others in her own heartfelt way – touching lives by inspiring souls to live their highest purpose. Even while writing this story, a beautiful soul responded to one of Arielle’s “marketing” messages:
“Your messages truly are a blessing, the timing and topics are spiritually profound. I feel many synergies of resonance with them, so thank you so much for this, it shall not be forgotten.”
When we began on this journey to find meaningful work and abundance, there were vast amounts of confusing and conflicting information – we hadn’t the faintest clue where to begin. We faced incredible challenges and powerful fears along the way… but we were determined to overcome.
We had created our websites, courses, and books from scratch, learning all kinds of tedious, technical knowledge, and investing the limited money we had in courses, intending to learn and grow our business further. We learned a great many things from “gurus…” that didn’t work for us. So, we set out to find a new, spiritual way of doing business that felt good in our hearts… and it actually worked.
We faced so much doubt in the beginning, but the joy, love, & fulfillment we felt kept us going strong… helping people deeply and noticing our own spiritual, emotional, and financial success positively correlating with our students’ greatest spiritual, emotional, and financial success.
The more we felt into it, the more we realized how grateful we would have been to have someone there to guide and support us when we were starting out – to tell us what really mattered, and what did not. To give love and help make the journey as graceful as possible.
We scoured the internet for such a “someone” – A heart-centered, spiritual business model that actually worked just did not seem to exist. So we asked ourselves, honestly:
Are we ready? Is this really what we’re meant to do? Are we the ones to share this?
The Night of the Divine Light
On the 21st of December – Arielle’s birthday and the Winter Solstice – we invited a special group of souls to our home, for a sacred hour of meditation and sound healing.
Toward the end of the meditation, something magical happened…
Suddenly, the entire room filled with a vibrant, golden light, and a Presence of sacred energy settled over us. This Light, like a waterfall of grace and abundance, filled our hearts. We sat, tingling, feeling as though eternal gold was resting in our hands – an energy of divine wealth, support, and blessings flowed from beyond and down upon us.
The infinite light shone brighter and brighter, and through its divine peace and light, Arielle and I, both, received the same message:
Empower women [souls] as spiritual leaders.
Teach the teachers.
The golden light settled into our souls – we knew what we had to do.
And Awakened Academy was born….
A New Adventure
The next day, we awoke with clarity and purpose. The golden light changed everything. All questions vanished. We knew what we needed to do, and we got to work.
We set out to create the world’s first comprehensive academy for spiritual people, by spiritual people, to become spiritual life coaches, create courses, write books, and serve from the heart.
We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but Divine Support was with us, Divine Grace was upon us, and we trusted that all would come together in Divine timing.
Creating The First Spiritual Life Coaching Training On The Planet
We began our journey by asking a simple question:
How can we give spiritual people everything they need to truly live a spiritual life, create financial freedom, and make a difference in the world?
Since this type of program had never been done before, we had to re-think everything from the ground-up.
We noted key insights we’d gained from years of experience in meditation, spiritual life coaching, group coaching, creating courses, newsletters, emails, writing books, doing live sessions, creating websites, doing retreats, teaching yoga… anything we thought would be useful.
Then we separated the key secrets – the handful of high frequency, powerful tools that truly mattered most – and discarded all the “fluff.”
At one point, we even cleared out all the furniture from our living room, put our ideas on notecards, and organized them on the wood floors. We wanted to be absolutely sure that our program consisted of all the things that truly mattered, and only those things.
We combed through over $150K worth of courses and trainings that we’d studied over the years, gleaning any additional insights our students would need to be successful. We noted the significant investment of time and money that it typically takes to learn everything. We sought to help our students save precious time and money, by getting everything they need, all in one place.
The Ultimate Test
Finally, after months of deep work, meditation, love, and sacred creation, the core outline of the program was finally ready to share.
Awakened Academy was ready to be launched.
We felt great about it – many souls expressed their desire for this content, so we put it together… but now was the ultimate test… did they really want it?
Was the world ready for this?
There was only one way to find out.
That night, we shared the inspiration we felt to support our students in their sacred calling, and lovingly invited them to Awakened Academy. If they wanted to be part of this, the door was open… they only had to walk through it.
As we settled down for the night following an exciting day, we surrendered everything to the Highest Good for all.
“We’ve done all we can – now it’s up to the Divine and the Universe to show us that we’re on the right track… If it is meant to happen, it will…”
….
We woke to a flood of interest from so many beautiful souls eager to join Awakened Academy, a number of them sharing, “This is exactly what I’ve been praying for!” One beautiful soul expressed, “This was the answer to a deep intention in my heart for many years.”
Well, ask and you shall receive!
Opening the Doors
We began work with the first group right away, and their transformation was immediately apparent.
One of the first students, Elvira, shared, “Hello my dear friends, I’m more than appreciative… I’m thankful for this gift from the bottom of my heart. It is opening my eyes to so many things that I was not aware of, and awakening my consciousness. I am absorbing, each day, more and more information. Thank you very, very much. Lots of love.”
Finally, they’d found something deeply based in spiritual growth that they could deeply & meaningfully resonate with and learn from. Everything was coming together.
But it was growing fast, and we needed support…
Luckily, When You Have a Pure Desire, the Universe Cooperates
As the magic of Awakened Academy set in, changing lives, so too did our new team come together like magic.
One morning, as we were sending out the intention for Divine support, one of our students reached out to express her deepest gratitude for the course, and offered her support however she was able… for free.
We felt so humbled and moved, and of course, offered her a paid job. One by one, the team grew.
…
Most of our time being devoted to supporting our students, we never found time to advertise. Though, to our amazement, we continued to connect with new, interested souls through some incredible means! Some shared with us that they awoke in the middle of the night with the message “spiritual life coaching” running through their mind. They got out of bed, searched the Internet, found us, and joined the next day!
This repeated continuously, as if a magnet was pulling all the Awakened Leaders together. Miracles and wonders were abounding, and they continue to this day.
We knew it was all in Divine Alignment.
Growing and Evolving
Awakened Academy continues to evolve, grow, and improve each year, month, day, hour… we continuously listen to what our students most want and need, adding more wisdom and support to help students experience the greatest success. More personal support, accountability, group practicing coaching, among other avenues for support.
We added powerful new coaching methods to help our students confidently serve in almost any situation. We added extra support from best-selling authors, who shared their secrets and methods for success with our inspired writers.
Students of Awakened Academy were discovering how to fully align with their values, and create their work from a sacred space by discovering their unique Dharma – their Soul purpose – and how to focus and hone it within spiritual life coaching, in the way that is most meaningful for them.
We shared about trusting in life, being vulnerable and authentic, coming into their heart, telling their stories, and going to new depths in their work. We explored the new “normal” of the pandemic, and how to move with & through it in a healthy, transformative way.
We’ve never wanted to be “gurus,” we only seek to open our hearts and share honestly about the real inner and outer challenges that arise when we delve into this sacred work. As we share honestly from our hearts, students have come to better understand their own processes, and find a wonderful sense of peace on their journeys, knowing that they are safe & loved in being their authentic selves.
Awakened Academy Today
Our Vision Now is to collectively reach 100,000,000 souls – just over 1% of the population – by working together with our students.
As the Academy grows and grows, students and graduates of the Academy are helping millions of souls all over the world to Awaken and come into their highest calling.
The more we support you in living your highest purpose, the more we attain this goal, together. The more we help you, the more you can help others, and a profound ripple effect occurs, creating a wave of spiritual transformation.

Why We Care
You have important work to do.
We believe that when soul-centered individuals show up to serve, the world becomes more loving, abundant, and empowered.
As we come together, with a deep desire to serve and grow, we create massive positive impact in our world.
We embarked on this mission almost a decade ago to bring this essential knowledge, wisdom, and love to the next generation of spiritual coaches and leaders. Like you, we started out with just a vision to do something meaningful, live a spiritual life, and experience abundance.
Through this long journey, we’ve seen firsthand how many magical synchronicities and blessings come your way when you’re aligned with your heart and highest Soul path.
We’re living through a time of profound transformation – it’s affecting everyone. A new golden era is dawning, and it begins with a shift in consciousness. It begins with us, personally Awakening, and as we Awaken and shine brighter, others Awaken… one candle lights another.
You are here for a reason.
We honor you and what has brought you here.
Now is your time.
Thank you for being part of this sacred family.
Here’s who Awakened Academy has helped
We love the students of Awakened Academy, and it brings us so much joy to learn of their successes.
Rita was stuck in a corporate job that she despised… now she is writing her book, finding her soul mate, loving and changing her relationship with her body, starting her spiritual life coaching business, and living in her dream home with lots of land.
Alyne didn’t love her job, and was insecure in her body image… now she is working for herself as a spiritual life coach, feeling amazing in her body, creating courses and meditations that have over 400k listens. She is experiencing financial abundance, and the freedom to do with her time as she desires! All while feeling a sense of peace that she thought only monks could experience!
Christy worked with the body, to help clients heal in a physical way. She began applying the things she learned in AA, and her clients began healing exponentially. She asked powerful questions, helping them heal and access their subconscious. She has become a conduit for her clients. Instead of “doing the work,” she facilitates their healing on a soul level by helping them connect with their intuition. She, too, continues to heal her body and soul through doing this work.
Dina was in a number of spiritual groups, but none felt right. They lacked wholeness, rounding, and loving energy. She prayed to find a spiritual family… and found AA, and the perfect blend of Divine answers with everyday human issues that we all face. Now, she can help heal the pain and difficulties that we experience, with real, whole answers.
Sonal has been on a deep, spiritual journey for the last 20 years, and found AA without consciously seeking it. This was the last step on her path to “self-actualization.” She found help to get on a “fast track” to progress on her journey.
Cait was stuck, but knew there had to be more to life than the “tradition.” She faced a lot of resistance when called to move toward her dreams, but once she joined AA, her life changed dramatically. She left a toxic relationship, vastly improved the health of her body and lost 100lbs, eliminated her credit card debt, built up her savings account, and freed herself from depression. Now, she has already began her own business, she is clear on her Dharma, and she has a powerful, overarching sense of fulfillment and expansion in her life.
Asyry found her tribe through AA… it was a soft place to land, and the content has blown her away. She’s found magic and synchronicity throughout – the course material being exactly what she needs at exactly the right time. She has been given a perspective that transforms the individual and collective consciousness of the planet.

Your Call to Adventure
We hope you’ve truly enjoyed the magical story of Awakened Academy! It’s been an incredible journey, and we are so honored to support countless souls, as you deeply transform your lives and live your highest Soul purpose.
If you feel called to show up and serve, and would love to live a spiritual life and make an income to support the sacred lifestyle you love, then schedule your free Awakened Clarity Call with one of our Awakened Coaches.
This call is all about you, your vision, your needs, and how Awakened Academy may be able to support you in manifesting what’s in your heart.
Wishing you all love and success, now and always.
Thank you for being part of this profound journey of Awakening.
You are a blessing to our world.
Love,
Michael & Arielle