In today’s episode I have a conversation on Human Design with Erin Claire Jones. We discuss what human design is and the 5 types of Design. This conversation is so informative! Let’s dive in!

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Mom life. We’re surrounded by the message that it’s the tired life. The no-time-for-myself life. The hard life. We’re supposed to get through it. Survive. Cling on by the last little thread. And at the same time, Carpe Diem—enjoy every moment because it’s going to go by so fast. The typical mom culture that sends us all kinds of mixed, typically negative messages. We shouldn’t take care of ourselves; it’s selfish. The more ragged you run yourself, the bigger your badge of honor. But also, ditch your mom bod and work out. Don’t yell. Make more money. Show up. Be better, but not at the expense of time with your kids. I am putting a hard stop to all of this. While being a mom, running a business, and whatever else you might have going on is hard, it is a lot and there’s lots of giving of yourself, the idea that motherhood means living a joyless, nonstop-hustle-with-zero-balance kind of life, where you give and give and give and never take, needs to stop. 

I’m on a mission to help you stop counting down the minutes till bedtime (at least most days). Stop the mom guilt and shame game. Stop cleaning up after your kids’ childhood and start being present for it. I want to help you thrive in work, home and life. I believe in John 10:10 that we are called to living an abundant life and I know moms are not excluded from that promise. Join me in conversations about simplicity, some business and life hacks, spirituality and lots of other good stuff that leads to a life of less for the sake of enjoying more in your motherhood. I’m Allie Casazza and this is The Purpose Show.

ALLIE: Welcome to The Purpose Show and thank you so much for being here with us.

ERIN: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so happy to be here.

ALLIE: We want to just dive in. Human Design—I don’t feel like I come across a lot of people that even know what it is, but when I do, sometimes there is some pushback. 

I don’t know how much you know about the Enneagram, but I feel like Human Design gets coupled in with personality tests or something and it’s really not. I remember when the Enneagram was really picking up steam, it was kind of tied to Christianity. A lot of people in the Christian circle really loved the Enneagram and it kind of was attached to that, so much so that I would meet people and they thought that it was a Christian thing, and it’s not.

I feel like with Human Design, a lot of people think that it is tied to a spiritual belief system that maybe isn’t theirs and that makes them uncomfortable. Although, it’s really not a personality test of any kind. It’s like your makeup, it’s your design. It’s very different. Can you speak to that?

ERIN: Absolutely. I’m so glad you brought that up now. 

I think of Human Design as a tool. It is based on our time, date, and place of birth. It does give us this kind of energetic blueprint of how we’re wired to thrive. 

It’s not predictive. It just helps us know what our operating manual is. I think that Human Design is a tool that really gives us a language and a framework to think about how we operate best. 

I always remind my clients, and I work with a lot of skeptics, to take what feels useful, supportive, and resonant and throw the rest away. This is not a belief system. It’s never anything that I’m trying to convince people of. 

I think that if you’re skeptical and hesitant, I would just listen and if it feels useful, amazing. If it doesn’t, throw it away. The question I often ask people is not, Is this true? but Is it useful? I think when we come at it through the lens of usefulness, we often tend to find that it’s incredibly useful. 

Often, I find the most skeptical people tend to actually resonate with it the most because it is so practical and so specific that they’re like, I don’t know if you’ve been reading my diary. I don’t know how you know this information, but it’s making me feel so relieved and seen, so tell me everything.

Just take it or leave it. This is a fun tool, and I would see it as nothing more than that.

ALLIE: That’s kinda how I came into it. I was like, I don’t know about this. It seems kind of weird. I don’t really know. But I’m curious and I thought, Well, let me just look up my type and what this means about me. 

And then I researched what those things meant. It’s very convincing when you see it for the first time. I was like, What is happening?

It resonated so deeply with me, more than anything I’ve ever done, more than anything I’ve ever figured out about myself. I just felt like it was so useful for myself and for my husband, Brian, and our kids. It’s just been so useful. 

So, take the meat and throw out the bones. Take what you can from this conversation. I love that. 

Okay, let’s go over what Human Design is and then the types. 

ERIN: Human Design is a system based on our time, date, and place of birth. It basically reveals how we’re each uniquely wired to thrive, and specifically around how we each are wired to make decisions, work, build businesses, work within teams, collaborate, parent, own our own things. 

But more than anything else, it’s not about changing who we are but giving ourselves permission to be who we uniquely are. I think so often we have spent a lot of our lives trying to be everything that we’re not and Human Design just returns us to who we are and reminds us that we’re all meant to do things very differently. 

I think part of the magic of Human Design is that it’s incredibly practical and grounded. Even though it comes from the stars and birth information, the information it offers is stuff that we can bring into our day-to-day. I think that it allows us not to just learn about ourselves, but also learn how we can actually transform our lives using the information.

ALLIE: I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who is a Christian and we were talking about the stars. And if anyone is feeling like, Oh my gosh, what? What did she just say? What is that coming from? 

She was sharing her perspective with me of if God created everything, then of course there’s intentionality in the stars, of course there’s intentionality in every single thing that has been created. 

I just want to put that out there because I was having that conversation with someone and she said, I used to just feel so resistant. I was resisting so much that brought me closer to God, gave me more clarity and deep into my faith because it wasn’t standard in this religion. 

I just want to throw that out there for anyone listening. Is this going to bring you closer? Is it going to help you? Like Erin was saying, Is it useful to you? I’m just throwing that out there because everyone’s coming from different walks of life.

ERIN: I love that so much. It is just a reminder that we all have our own thing to do here and Human Design just brings us closer to that by reminding us to trust ourselves and be ourselves. 

In Human Design, there are five different types. There’s so much underneath that, but that’s really the first distinction of how we’re each designed to best use our energy. I’m sure we can put a link in the show notes, but you can look up your type at erinclairejones.com/lookup. 

We’ve got projectors, generators, manifesting generators, manifestors and reflectors. 

I’m going to start with the manifesting generators and generators. These are really the people that are here to be our doers. The ones that have the energy and the life force to build, create, and make things happen. 

An ideal day for them might look like one where they wake up energized and excited. They use up their energy in ways that feel super satisfying throughout the day, whether it’s what they’re working on or who they’re spending time with. Then they drop into bed exhausted and fulfilled and wake up energized again. 

One of their biggest lessons is prioritizing their own joy and their own excitement. And knowing the more lit up they are by what they’re doing, the more magnetic they become and the more energy they have. So, not seeing it as selfish, but actually as the thing that allows them to have the most positive impact in the world.

Manifesting generators, specifically, are quite multi-passionate. They often like having their energy in a lot of things at once, moving quickly in between different things. They can wear a bunch of different hats. Their job is not to try to stick to a linear path or do just one thing, but really embrace their multi-passionate and multifaceted kind of fascinating nature.

Generators are more on the pure creative mastery, really diving deep into something. They may want to move in between different things as well. I would never tell them not to do it. I would just really check in and make sure they have the energy for all of that at once. 

The final piece that I would share about both those types is that their strategy in Human Design is about magnetism and letting things come to them. They actually aren’t designed to chase after anything, but waiting for things to come and spark a gut response before they go after it. 

Before I move on to projectors, is that all clear?

ALLIE: I’m literally exhausted just imagining that sitting here, just imagining that day. We all have days like that I feel like, but to live like that all the time is, whew!

What are you, Erin?

ERIN: I am a projector like you. 

ALLIE: Oh, okay.

ERIN: You guys will start to see as we talk about the other types that not every type has this capacity to do, do, do, do. 

It doesn’t mean that those types don’t need a rest, but what brings them the most satisfaction is feeling like they fully spent their energy throughout the day in ways that were really satisfying. 

Let’s talk projectors. I know we will go into your design in a little bit, but I would really love to hear your feelings after I share this. 

Projectors are really here to be leaders, guides, advisers, teachers. They are not here to do all the doing.

As projectors, our energy naturally ebbs and flows. We might have a burst where we can make a lot happen very quickly and then need to kind of regress and take time alone. They are not here to be consistent doers. 

Projectors are so innately sensitive to other people, which is what makes them such natural coaches, therapists, guides. Many podcasters that I talked to are often so gifted at asking people the right questions. 

Often projectors love systems like the Enneagram, Human Design, and anything that really helps them better understand people and how they work. Much of the gift of a projector is knowing that your gift is not in how hard you work or how much you do, but really in your perspective and how you see. 

The last piece that I would share is that your strategy as a projector is to wait to be recognized and invited in. It’s not this super passive thing, but it’s more around the fact that because you have such a beautiful way of seeing things and such a powerful perspective, it’s so important to be intimate with and work with people that deeply see you, recognize you, and invite you in. 

It’s really reflecting on where you feel the most invited in and investing more energy there. And knowing that people cannot find you unless they see you, so really exploring ways to make yourself more visible so the right people can invite you in.

ALLIE: I actually haven’t had someone say it quite like that. And that is exactly me. 

This year I’ve had a lot of really big shifts in how I’m running my business. One of the shifts that I made, that I was really scared to make, was showing up less on the big public platforms in my business and showing up more behind the scenes when people sign up for something, when they pay to be a part of something. 

I’ve noticed that I thrive so much more in that setting because everybody wants me to speak. Everybody wants to hear what I have to say. They’re there. They’re all in. 

They signed up for the challenge. They bought the program, whatever it is. It goes so much better. I see the results are so much better than when I’m just on Instagram sharing information. 

It kind of feels like I’m speaking to a wall and only some people are like, That was great. Thank you so much! versus 10,000 over here that really wanted it. I feel like that reaffirms for me that intuitive nudge I felt to make that shift, even though I was scared it would hurt my growth. 

It hasn’t. It’s made it better and deeper. And I feel like that’s why, because it’s like they gave me the invitation to speak to them.

ERIN: Absolutely. They’re opting in and ready for it and that’s going to fuel you and give you so much more energy. 

There’s another piece of your Design, which we can talk about later, which is beyond being a projector, but your Design is also all around community. Instead of marketing out and putting yourself out into the broad world, so many of your opportunities are meant to come from your existing communities. 

So I have to imagine that when you invest in the community of people that have invested in you, they will likely be your best advocates, your best marketing. One of your biggest lessons is really investing in, really nourishing your relationships and community and seeing that as your most powerful well of opportunity and growth.

ALLIE: Wow! That makes so much sense.

ERIN: Let’s talk about manifestors and reflectors, the last two types. 

Manifestors are really here to be the initiators. These are people that are so natural at innovating and bringing new ideas to life. Not necessarily doing all the doing themselves, but often being the first and really bringing a new way of doing something into the world. 

Their energy will likely operate in creative bursts where they can also make a lot happen very quickly and then probably need to rest, so it’s so important to really begin to honor that. Manifestors tend to really need a lot of freedom, autonomy, and control. 

They’re really not here to be told what to do, be managed, or guided in any way. They are here to do things on their own terms and in their own way to really explore how to create more freedom in your life. 

Their strategy is about initiating—making the first move, trusting themselves to be the first, and just making sure that they’re keeping the people around them in the loop of their decisions. If they go off initiating and don’t let anyone know, people can be a little bit resistant, so just kind of giving people a heads up, not to ask for permission or even explain themselves, but just to let them know before they do it.

ALLIE: Okay, that makes sense. I have a manifestor in our family. 

ERIN: We don’t have to focus on this now, but it is so much when you’re raising a manifestor– giving them freedom, letting them be the leader and step up wherever you can, and building a really strong channel of communication with them.

ALLIE: Can I ask you a question before we go to the reflector? This is actually a conversation that my husband and I have been having, and we haven’t known what to do. I’m just being super honest. I think this will help other people that are making these decisions and learning about this. 

Pretty much throughout our whole family’s existence we’ve homeschooled our kids. This year we sent them to school for a lot of reasons. Something had to give. I’m noticing that my manifester, he’s 9, is struggling with the rules, the structure, the early rising, not really being in control of his day. 

My daughter does school at home on her own. She’s 12 and she just kind of does her own thing. I’ve been going back and forth. Should we let him do that? Is that something that would work? 

My other two boys are thriving at school. They are on top of it. They love it. They’re very energetic and need a lot of people. 

I guess what I’m asking is in parenting with these types, going down this road, is it something where it’s like you need to learn to be in the world or is it not crazy to custom parent, custom school, and custom make these decisions for each type that your child is? Does that make sense?

ERIN: Yes. And it’s such a good question. 

Honestly, this to me is the magic of Human Design. It’s reminding us that we are all meant to do things differently but we’re often trying to be so similar and it can be really challenging.

ALLIE: And it can feel crazy, too, as a parent. Oh, well, he’s a manifestor, so we just have him doing this. It’s just a lot.

ERIN: This is my feeling. I think that the most potent application of Human Design is parenting. Because I think that when I talk to parents or when I talk to clients often they feel that their Design and their most authentic selves was expressed so purely when they were young. 

Then as they grew older, they got conditioned out of it because they took on all these other ideas of who they thought they should be. I talk to them and I remind them of that and they’re like, Oh my God, yes! I felt that. I knew that. I’ve got to trust that again. 

Then they kind of step back into it. But when you really are giving kids permission to be who they are from day one, it’s the most empowering thing that you can do. I might be a minority here but I don’t think it’s weird at all to customize the way that you parent and school, because I think that we all learn and take direction differently. 

I think tests or being manifested with questions all the time is probably going to be so annoying to him. It’s just kind of a balance of knowing manifesters are so powerful, but they’re also 8-9% of the population, so often our education system has not been built around them. 

Long story short, I don’t think it’s crazy at all. I also don’t think that school is impossible for manifestors. It’s so dependent on the teachers and what’s going on, but I do think that they need freedom to be in their own flow and their energies that are not going to operate consistently throughout the day. 

If they’re in spaces where they feel like they can be a leader and they’re respected and valued, that’s probably going to feel so much more sustainable than if they’re just expected to fit in.

ALLIE: And my other boys, I think our generators or manifesting generators.

ERIN: They’ve got that “doing” energy.  

ALLIE: They are energized when they get home. Then Hudson is exhausted and it just doesn’t seem like he’s doing great. I’ve been struggling with that, so thank you.

ERIN: It’s such a great question. I’m so glad you asked that. I think for your other two, as long as they’re lit up and excited about what they’re doing—amazing. 

Another small example, if you had a manifesting generator and a generator? Is that what you said?

ALLIE: I always forget. I think they’re both generators. If not, then one of them is a manifesting generator. 

ERIN: Someday we’ll find out and I’ll tell you for sure. I don’t want to tell you the wrong thing, but again, as long as they’re lit up and satisfied. They’re really here to use up their energy. If they go to bed and they haven’t fully spent their energy, it’s going to be hard for them to sleep. Keeping them busy and excited is really good. 

The last type is a Reflector. This is 1% of the population and quite rare. There are some similarities in your Design, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you resonated with this one. You’re still a projector, but there are some pieces that you might resonate with. 

Reflectors are really here to be our collective mirrors. These are people that are deeply sensitive to their physical space. They are always taking in and mirroring the environment that they’re in.

You really get a good sense of how a team is doing or community or company just by how the reflector is showing up. It is so important for a reflector to be such a ruthless curator of the people and places they’re spending time with and in because they’re taking in and magnifying that energy.

The magic of reflectors is in their fluidity, meaning that they might have periods where they feel like a generator, like a manifesting generator, like a projector, like a manifestor and their job is never to figure out the one thing that they are, show up in just one way, but honor whatever feels authentic to them that day. 

In the context of business, we call reflectors ‘evaluators’ just because they really can see and sense things that so many people can’t. It’s really best for them to be in environments where their perspective feels so treasured and so invited in. 

The final piece that I would share is that as important as it is for them to be in spaces that feel really good—cities, offices, and homes—it is equally important for them to pull away and be in their own energy as a way to disconnect from everything that’s not there and reconnect to what is.

ALLIE: This is so helpful. 

When I read about reflectors, I thought, Am I doing my test wrong? This is so much, especially the taking on other people’s emotions, taking on the energy of my space. My home is such a huge, huge influence in my life. We’re renovating the house we’re living in right now and I’ve been really, really struggling. Miserable. It’s really affecting me that it’s chaotic.

ERIN: There are different aspects of our Design that are areas where we are the most sensitive and you have some of those similar areas. 

(1) you’re a hyper empath, (2) you’re incredibly sensitive to your physical space. Your wellbeing is so informed by the quality of your space. If the home feels good, the city feels good, the school feels good, you take that all in, but if it’s not, it can be very challenging. 

You being in the right space is the best thing you can do to align yourself with the right flow.

ALLIE: Wow. Okay. That helps so much to know I’m not crazy. I’m not too much. I’m not too sensitive. 

ERIN: Yes, and in ways that are inexplicable at times. You’re also very sensitive to the vibe. It’s just like, I don’t know why this doesn’t feel right, but it doesn’t. Or, I don’t know why this restaurant, table, or hotel doesn’t feel right, but it doesn’t.

I always encourage the partners of these people to encourage them to be really high maintenance about their space, because it’s so impactful when their space doesn’t feel good for them.

ALLIE: Wow. Oh my gosh. This is so helpful. 

ERIN: So if you look up your Design, you’ll see a thing called Inner Authority. There’s going to be all kinds of weird words as there are with Human Design. I’ll go through them really briefly, but just kind of a reminder that we all make decisions differently. 

For example, you and I are both projectors, but we actually make decisions in pretty opposite ways. I’m an emotional decision maker. If you look yours up and it says emotional solar plexus, or just emotional, it means that you’re not Designed to be spontaneous in your decision making. You’re meant to sleep on things, feel into things, give yourself a day or two or three before you say yes to something. 

I know that when I first discovered this, I’ve been so spontaneous my entire life and so regretful, but now it has become such a practice for me to give myself 24 hours before I say yes, because how I feel about a decision changes and the right decisions for me are the ones that I not only love in the moment, but the ones that I love over time. That’s one option. 

Another option is sacral. It’s only possible for generators and manifesting generators to be sacral authorities. They’re Designed to make decisions based on their gut feeling in the moment. It’s a very visceral, kind of expansive feeling. 

They feel it in their body as kind of a contraction. It’s really useful to give these people options. Do you want to do this or this? Go here or here? Because it helps them immediately drop into their gut feeling of, This feels right; this doesn’t. I don’t know why, but I know that I will find out later. So, really kind of encouraging these people to tune into and honor their gut response. 

This is why it’s so powerful to parent differently and school differently because the way that you communicate will be different based on what their type is, what their authority is, all those pieces. 

You are a splenic authority, and it basically means that you are Designed to be very fast in your decision-making. Your decision-making is so rooted in your intuition. It’s a very kind of quiet whisper, intuitive feeling, or resonance that you have. Your work is to get quiet enough to hear it, and then be courageous enough to act on it. Any practices that help you quiet down and hear it,  the better.

The last piece that I’d share and then I’d love to hear your thoughts is because you are such an empath, and everyone will be if they have this authority, is that you can also sometimes really get consumed by other people’s feelings. You might be around somebody who’s super excited and you might be like, Yes! Let’s do it! 

But then you might walk away and you’re like, I don’t actually want to do that. I was just amplifying their excitement. So really just practices that help you connect to your intuition so you can really trust and guide that because again you’re fast and really giving yourself that permission rather than feeling like you need to sleep on it and mull over it. You are meant to be fast. How does that feel?

ALLIE: Yeah, absolutely. It’s not that I need space and time to make the decision, it’s that I need space away from everybody else to get quiet and know. 

I was just talking to my husband last night. I laid out my exact steps of what I’m going to do over the next several months. And I was like, I just know that I don’t want to live in this house. I want to live on this mountain and these specific woods, but I don’t want to live in this house. 

And he was literally like, We just got here! And I said, I know. But I just know. I can’t. This is not our house. I’m glad we bought it. It’s a great investment, but it’s not our house. I need to move very soon.

I just know. I don’t even have logic. I just know. I do this all the time, but sometimes other people’s doubt or shock about how fast it is makes me doubt myself for a second. I will just throw that out and just run with it because I always know. 

I’m always right. In the end, I’m always right. That was the right thing. Even if it was just in an hour, we just did it and it was right.

ERIN: 100%! All those pieces are speaking to the fact that you actually are so aligned with your Design right now. You’re like, I’m so sensitive to my space and this space doesn’t feel right. I know that I can’t be here. I just know it’s not right. I don’t have to think of all the reasons why not. I intuitively can feel it’s not correct.

This is such a reminder why it’s so useful to not only understand your own Design, but your partners’, your kids’, your colleagues’, your team’s, because you start to really respect their way of doing things and really trust it. 

Okay. I won’t go deeply into the rest but just to give people a taste. Some people are ego. It basically means making decisions based on what their heart is pulling them towards, what they feel motivated to make happen, what they desire to make happen, what they have the willpower to do.

Some people are self-projected, which is all about talking things out and seeing how things feel when they say them out loud. 

Some people are called mental projectors. That means that they’re meant to talk things out, but specifically in spaces that feel good and often a few different spaces. 

And finally reflectors are actually designed to give themselves a full 28 to 30 days before they make a big decision as a way to kind of sample all the options before they jump in. I know it’s not always feasible to give themselves that time, so my biggest reminder for them is to just move at a pace that works for them and that they’re making decisions from a place of clarity, calm, knowing, and not pressure urgency.

ALLIE: I love that this all gives everyone permission to figure out their type, see what resonates, see what’s true for them. And then realize, This makes sense for me. This is why my whole life I’ve felt like this. They can release the self-judgment and the self-criticism about the way they do things and just do it. Just live that way. 

ERIN: And know that it’s good for everyone. I think when we start to honor how different we are, I think it actually brings us all so much closer together. It makes us so much more functional as families, as teams, as partnerships. Part of the magic of the system is learning that how different we are only creates more compassion and empathy between us.

ALLIE: I think decision-making is a stressor for everyone, so hearing that there are different ways you can make decisions, that it depends on who you are, that in itself is permission. 

ERIN: I think that most of us are trying to use our minds to make decisions and put in pro/con lists, and trying to rationalize our way in or out of things. Our minds are so powerful that we can often convince ourselves in or out of anything. Our decision making in Human Design reveals how to connect to a deeper inner knowing within us that really is very trustworthy and reliable in terms of guiding us in the right direction.

ALLIE: I’ve been starting to learn about how to do everything as a projector. The thing I’ve been leaning into really heavily right now is the way that I eat. I’ve always been a grazer, a snacker. I don’t do well with full meals. 

My digestive system is extremely sensitive. It’s as sensitive as I am. And so I’ve been playing with that and just feeling so much better, releasing excess weight that’s been hanging onto my body and really feeling good. It’s crazy.

Even the way you eat, the way that you sleep, I’ve even read about who you’re sleeping next to and your partner and everything. This can help you guys in so many ways if you just get a better understanding of yourself. It’s really beautiful.

ERIN: What I love about sharing Human Design is that I feel like I’m actually never telling anyone anything new. It feels like it’s just like a remembrance. I feel like I’m sitting with people who say, Oh yeah, I’ve been avoiding that my whole life, but I know it’s me. I think more than anything else, it just reminds us of that. And because it’s a stranger telling you, it just gives you even more permission to step into it.

ALLIE: Since everyone listening here knows me on some level, is there anything else about my type that you think would be helpful to dive into for people to get how this works?

ERIN: Absolutely. 

There is a really cool aspect of our Design called our profile and that really speaks to how we’re designed to best manifest our purpose. I referenced this a little bit for you earlier, but there are two pieces for you. 

You’re what we call a 4/6. It means that community is essential. Your opportunities, like I mentioned, are meant to come through your community, but also that you are very much meant to be naturally influential in your community and really impact the people that you know. 

But if you spend too much time with people, you can get totally fatigued. So it’s finding that balance, creating that warmth in your life, but also pulling away and witnessing it all and seeing it.

Another piece is that you’re really here to be a role model and a teacher. This is a 6 and it means that you really are here to rise above it all and offer a powerful objective, optimistic perspective on where things are going. 

Often for these people, the first 30 years of her life is meant to be a time of a lot of trial and error, experimenting, bumping into things. 30 to 50 is a time to kind of really invest in what works, to really embody your wisdom in a deeper and deeper way. 

You’re actually meant to hit your prime when you turn 50. And it doesn’t mean that there’s not anything to wait for. It just means that things are going to keep getting better and better and better, where you start to inspire authenticity and others by just being so fully embodied and authentic yourself.

ALLIE: Prime when I’m 50? That’s amazing. Yes, please.

ERIN: I had the same thing in my Design. I discovered Human Design when I was like 25. I was like, wait, I want my prime now!  But it’s like, no, no, no, there’s going to be so much magic in between now and then, and it will just keep getting better. I’ve been working with a lot of people in this third phase and it’s been so beautiful to witness the way they carry themselves. 

Let me tell you about one of your natural strengths. This is what we call a channel in Human Design. One of your strengths is called the strengths of sales and marketing, which is such a weird name, but it basically means that you’ve got such an intuitive ability to really message in a way that people can really hear and adapt your messaging to lots of different audiences. It’s like a natural genius around people, matching them to the right things. 

You also carry such incredible efficiency in your Design where you can often do more in a couple hours than most people can in a whole day. This only reminds you of that projector vibe for you, where it’s like really honoring those bursts of energy and not kind of requiring that you consistently do all day long.

ALLIE: I think it was last year that I shifted my work schedule. I was also going through a massive spiritual awakening and healing journey with trauma and the past. I feel like when you do that, you kind of get really tuned in and turned on to what is going on with you. You break the cycle of ignoring it and suppressing it. At least that was my experience. 

I told my team, I don’t know what’s going on, but I am just struggling to work. I’m struggling to get things done. I feel like I’m on all day. I’m on Voxer answering questions. I’m on Instagram teaching. I’m just kind of everywhere all the time. 

I was having adrenal fatigue issues. I was having digestive issues, skin issues. My whole body broke out into this really crazy rash that I never figured out. It was just terrible. 

I shifted my work schedule from 10:30 to 2:00 and limited the amount of hours. Then beyond that, I made a rule that I can’t do more than three things when I’m talking to another person on the same day. No more back-to-back-to-back to back-to-back interviews. No more of any of that. 

I just quieted everything. Some days I’ll have one thing and then I catch up on my to-do list and I’m done. It’s literally changed my whole life. I have never been healthier. I’ve never felt better.

But I sometimes feel embarrassed that I can’t. And my team is full of what I’m imagining are generators because they just, go, go, go, go. And so I’ve struggled with embarrassment or feeling like I’m not a good leader because I’m not doing as much, I can’t do as much, or like it’s a weakness. 

It is true when I’m energized I will literally get so much done. I’ll get a week’s worth of work done in a couple hours if I am feeling it. And if I’m not feeling it, I will drag my feet. I will procrastinate. It’ll never actually happen because my intuition is trying to tell me this isn’t something that we really want to do, but I’m not listening.

ERIN: Exactly. And as I think you’ve probably discovered, when you start to honor those natural ebbs and flows and make things more spacious, ease-filled, and restful, you will become so much more potent and effective in your energy and in your work. I think there can be a lot of guilt around it, but rest in this case or space and not doing all the doing is only going to make you better at what you do.

ALLIE: Can I ask you about what does it mean to be a 1/4 projector, because that’s what my husband is?

ERIN: It’s really cool that he has a 4 like you do because you’re 4/6. It means that he also has that need for community. I would actually say that establishing a real foundation of friendship in your relationship is going to be so important.

ALLIE: One of our themes in our marriage is being friends. It’s important for us to stay friends, do things that friends do together and not just like, Okay, we’re raising kids together, we’re running a business together, we’re roommates, you know? 

ERIN: Yes, yes. Having that foundation of friendship, I think, is going to be so nourishing for both of you. 

The 1 in his profile is around the fact that he’s really here to be an investigator. He’s really here to dive into things and really understand things on a very deep level. Creating time in his life to just investigate, learn, and indulge his curiosity. 

He really thrives when he feels like he’s gone really deep and he knows what he’s talking about. He’s like, I’ve gone deep. My foundation is strong. I feel really empowered to share everything that I’ve learned.  So, kind of really carving out that time for himself.

ALLIE: Wow. So interesting. Thank you.

ERIN: One other piece I would just share is that we all have big lessons to learn in our Design, in areas that we’re really sensitive to. A lot of your Design is open, meaning that you have a lot of sensitivity. A few pieces we’ve already talked about. 

One is that you’re such an empath. You’re very sensitive to other people’s feelings, whether it’s your husband, whether it’s your kids, whether it’s a friend, what’s going on collectively in the world. One of your biggest lessons is knowing that not everything you feel is your own and really giving yourself that space to kind of recharge and reset when you need. 

And knowing that sometimes there can be a tendency to perhaps sidestep things or not confront things or sugarcoat things, because you feel so much and you don’t want to spark something in someone else. So much of your work is saying the hard things, speaking your truth, and knowing that you will almost always feel better on the other side of the conversation.

ALLIE: Ugh, I hate that!

ERIN: I know! It’s just a big lesson. It’s not going to be a thing that’s easy. These areas of our Design are basically, we’re here to learn. And for you, it’s about cultivating strong emotional boundaries and learning to speak your truth. This is probably going to be a lifelong lesson.

What’s nice about Human Design is knowing the language for it so when it comes up, it’s easier to move through it because we just see it so clearly. One other piece I would share is that you are somebody who has a very fluid and flexible sense of identity. You might find that how you want to express yourself shifts as you grow older and even different friends and groups and spaces pull out different parts of you. 

And so, your job is never to kind of figure out your one purpose, your one way of expressing yourself, but to honor whatever feels authentic to you that day and knowing that your identity is vast. It’s all you and your job is going to be just staying tuned into what feels most present.

ALLIE: Yeah. Okay. Oh my gosh. So much permission. Thank you so much for sharing.

ERIN: Of course. It’s endless. I could go on forever.

ALLIE: It is. It’s endless. 

I think we need to do a follow-up episode with Human Design in the terms of parenting. I’m just diving into that with my kids’ types, their numbers, and it’s so helpful. Even just to know, without even really understanding them fully, that this makes sense. 

I was telling my husband the other day, it’s almost like a healthy…guilt seems like a strong word, but it’s almost like a healthy guilt. Like, I didn’t know. I thought they were just being resistant and difficult. But to understand that this is a part of them and I can use this information to help me raise them up to be more aligned with who they’re supposed to be and not give them so much baggage to work through is such a relief.

ERIN: It’s such a gift to give. We tend to make people wrong for being different. I work with so many parents whose kids’ Designs are radically different from theirs. When they understand that, it’s just like, Oh my gosh, I’ve just been trying to make them mini-me’s. Now I have so many tools that support them even though we’re different. And actually, yeah, you’re right, they’re amazing in that way, because I no longer have an expectation that they are supposed to be something else.

ALLIE: Yeah. We’re going to have to do an episode on parenting with Human Design. 

Where can we learn more from you? I know you gave us where to take the test and we’ll put that in the show notes for sure. Is there something specific that you want people to go and learn from you? I think you mentioned you had a discount code for the listeners. Share about what you do.

ERIN: Yeah, of course. I share a lot on Instagram.

If you’re curious to dig into your Design or your partners’ or your kids’, I offer something called The Blueprint, which is basically a 55+ page written guide to your Design. It’s meant to basically be a book to offer this information in the most practical and empowering way, so you literally have your own operating manual to you. 

Do your kids, your partner, your team, whoever you like. That code is ALLIE.

I also offer individual sessions, partnership sessions, family sessions, team sessions. All that other stuff is on my website@erinclairejones.com.

ALLIE: Thank you for piecing that together for them! 

I’m always so grateful when I have a guest on that really cares and is offering art beyond just the episode. You giving your time, hearing, sharing this for free on the podcast, but then to go another step above and beyond, that’s how I show up for my audience, so I’m really grateful when guests do the same.

ERIN: My pleasure. So fun.

ALLIE: Thank you so much. I just can’t wait for everyone to hear this episode. 

Guys, take a screenshot, share this on Instagram. Tag Erin and me. Let’s get this conversation more prominent. 

I think that Human Design is such a beautiful tool for people in general, but my gosh, for us moms, I mean, it’s huge. It’s huge. 

Let’s open up the door to this conversation and make sure you share how this helped you if you looked up your Design and you really feel like it resonated, or you had a big realization about yourself. It is so important and so beautiful to know yourself deeply. So share that with us, send us a DM. We love you guys, sending you so much love and support.

Thanks so much for hanging out with me! In case you didn’t know, there’s actually an exclusive community that’s been created solely for the purpose of continuing discussions around The Purpose Show episodes. It’s designed to get you to actually take action and make the positive changes that we talk about here. I want you to go and be a part of it. To do that, go to alliecasazza.com/facebookgroup. 

Thank you so much for tuning in! If you’d like to learn more about me, how I can help you, how you can implement all these things and more into your life to make it simpler, better, and more abundant, head to alliecasazza.com. There are free downloads, online courses, programs, and other resources to help you create the life you really want. 

I am always rooting for you, friend! See you next time! I’m Allie Casazza and this is The Purpose Show.

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