Ep 149: Building Alignment in Your Business with Anna Nichols
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Hi, I'm Joanne Bull and I am obsessed with all things podcasting and creating an unapologetically big revenue business with it. From podcast guesting to podcast hosting and everything in between, we're going to dive into it all and show you step by step how to build a big business.

by Awesome Steps, how using a podcast can and will grow your business. So grab a glass of wine and pop your headphones on because girlfriend happy hour has begun here on The B Word. Welcome, welcome, welcome to The B Word podcast. I am, oh my God, I'm like, this one's been on my calendar for a couple of weeks now and I've like circled it in red because I think you are one of the coolest people ever. And I am excited to dive in with our audience about what you do.

Oh, thank you, Joanne. I'm so grateful to be here and to be hanging out with you today. Absolutely. Well, go ahead and introduce yourself to everyone. Give them a little background on you, and then we're going to get into some of the juicy stuff.

All right. Well, hello, everyone. My name is Anna Nichols. I am a human design mentor and business strategist, and I help you become a client magnet using your human design. And this actually came from a place where I have a master's degree in business. I've spent a lot of time in business, but I kept trying to find the right strategy and implementing strategy after strategy. And it wasn't until I found

the strategy that was right for me and my design that my business really took off. And after that, I started implementing it with clients and just talking about it obsessively because I love it so much. And here we are today. All right. So I have recently gotten on the human design bandwagon. And I say bandwagon lightly. It's not that I'm not taking it seriously. But I will tell you for the longest time, I thought, well, how can the day you were born and the year you were born...

Like, I don't know how I factored into that in my belief systems and everything else. However, the more I've gotten to know I'm a manifesting gen and the more I've gotten to know every time I look at like why I do the things I do, I'm like, oh my God, that fits so into the manifesting generator. So, you know, tell me how you got like really into it and started. And where do we, where do we go from here?

So honestly, I have spent my whole life trying to be the best daughter, the best student, the best employee. And there was a moment when I was an entrepreneur. I was like, who am I? And I have taken every personality test under the sun. I love them all. So fun to take them. And it was intriguing to me too, right? Human design, it's not a bunch of questions you answer. It is actually you entering the date, time, and location of your birth.

And I really see it as a self-awareness tool because it talks about things like your natural levels of energy, what you're meant to do in making decisions, how you're supposed to make your decisions, your life purpose, the best environment for you. And really once I've started learning about it and every single person I've ever talked to about it, I'm not learning things I didn't already know about myself.

But I'm relearning or rediscovering things that already were true about me that for one reason or another, I pushed aside because I needed to be something different in my employed life or as a mom. I needed to put my kids first or felt that I needed to do these things for other people.

And by learning my human design, what I've actually realized is there's this whole person that I'm meant to be. And my favorite thing to say about human design is when we all lean into our authentic design, whether you believe that through human design or any other, like truly being your authentic self, the whole collective rises. And when we each play our unique part, we're all going to get to the finish line a lot faster.

All right. So tell me what are the various types of human design? I know that there are several. Yes. So there's five types of people in human design, and it goes so much deeper in all the different categories and environments and decision-making, but the types, which I like to refer to almost as energy types, which are manifestors, manifesting generators, generators, projectors, and reflectors.

And I have a little story of how I like to explain all of these play together. Yeah. So imagine that our goal is to get to the top of the mountain. Our manifestors are going to be the people that are going to say, this is the spot. This is the perfect spot at the top of the mountain. Our projectors are going to tell us, I see this as the best path to getting to the mountain top of the mountain.

Our generators are going to fill all of us with the energy to actually put one foot in front of the other to get to the path that we're trying to go on. Our manifesting generators, they're the ones that are going to help us pivot when, let's say there's a boulder in the middle of the path or a tree has fallen down. Our manifesting generators are going to help us pivot and then give us this infusion of energy in order to get over that and keep moving on the path.

And then our reflectors, when we get to the top of the path, are going to look back, share their wisdom of what they see we did right or how we could have done it better so that all of us collectively have that wisdom to do what we do better in the future.

Okay. So I being the manifesting generator, you were the one that helped me realize that maybe it's not ADD or ADHD in my world. It is simply that I would see the vision, start the vision, pivot the vision. And I, I often felt chaotic in my business, right? Like

I don't ever finish one thing completely. I hand it off to my team and then I'm on to the next thing. And I think that drives some of my team members crazy because I will call them in the morning and be like, so at three o'clock this morning, I thought up X, Y, Z, we should do this. And I think it's going to be done by the end of the day. Right.

And I really did think it was just because I was this chaotic hot mess, hot mess express. Well, no, it's because I'm a manifesting generator and I never do that. And a common descriptor of a manifesting generator is to be multi-passionate.

But that means you have to be following what lights you up, those ideas that come to you at three o'clock in the morning. Those are going to be the ones that are going to amount to something because they came to you out of that place of excitement. Whereas if you were going to try to do a bunch of things because a manifesting generator can, but you aren't actually lit up and excited about that.

they're not going to come to fruition the way that you desire. And the people, your audience, your clients are not going to receive it in the same way. And one of the things I love telling manifesting generators, like once you stand in your full power is you need to have the statement of like, I do lots of things and I'm okay about it. I maybe have a business here. I have a product line here. I've blog and do all of these different things. And if you weren't doing that,

you wouldn't be aligned and living in design. So trying to do the same thing over and over would bore you. And even though people receiving that wouldn't be getting your full energy and that full magic that you're bringing into the world. And let me give you another example of this because I'm a generator. And one of the classic things that generators deal with in their lives is that we're the doers. We're the builders. We can, in theory, get everything done.

And there's truth to that. However, if we're doing things that we do not align with that don't

feel passionate and don't have that inspired energy behind, it's going to take longer to do. Yeah, I'm going to be able to do it, but I'm going to be burnt out really quickly. And the way that it gets put out is going to be lackluster at best. But when I follow the things that light me up and that I really am passionate about, I show up better. It's easier to accomplish and everybody is going to benefit from it.

And this there's a version of this for each type projectors out all the time I hear projectors, tell me that in their lifetime they grew up thinking that they were lazy, people would tell them over and over that they're lazy. And actually a projector and manifestors are very similar to this.

They can accomplish a lot in a very short period of time and they don't need time as the measure of accomplishment. Whereas a generator can consistently work, but it's not accomplishing maybe as much as quickly. A projector is going to have this like infusion of inspired energy, get that thing done. Same as a manifester. And then they're going to need to rest, but we have, so they're your nappers.

Yes. My daughter is one of these. Are we sure I'm not a projector because I really do enjoy a good nap. You know, I think all of us could use a good nap every once in a while. Um, and how we all rest is different. Um, but it's really interesting when you see all of the different types working together, um,

to inspire us to really move ourselves forward. And one of the things that I say all the time about myself and business is I know I am not here for everyone and for every project. And we say that because, you know, maybe we've been taught that from a logical perspective and from a human design perspective,

I know I'm here to help accomplish a certain piece of the puzzle. And then I build a network of people around me to support my clients, to support myself in accomplishing the goals that I or we have. But letting go of that feeling that I had to do it all or know it all or everything like that has been so liberating and has allowed me to move so much more quickly through my life, my business, all the things.

All right. So when you start to own your power and understand which human design you are in the business world as an entrepreneur, how do you surround yourself with the right people on your team? You know, I've always been told like you bring in the people that have the skill sets that are opposite of yours and

And I'll be very vulnerable. I've hired a lot of the wrong people. And I now look back at it. And I really do believe it's because the manifesting Jen in me was just too much for them. Like I just drove them too crazy. They could not keep up. They did not want to keep up. And then we end up having to let them go. And I feel like I'm always on this hamster wheel. So how do you surround yourself in the right environment to build that good culture?

So from a human design perspective, this is where knowing your chart, understanding your design, as well as I would, I honestly use it in the interview process now, because on

On a chart, if you've ever seen one, there are shapes that are either colored in or not colored in. And that means that they're defined or undefined at a very simplistic level. And what that actually means is if the shape is colored in, those are gifts you are here to give. So certain shapes, certain parts of your design, like I have a sacral center that's defined. I'm here to infuse energy in people. I know that.

But I also have an undefined head center. So like I can come up with some ideas, but it takes me a lot of energy. Those people who have a defined head, they are actually going to be able to very quickly come up with new ideas. They're going to have a lot of that inspiration and vision. And I'm going to be able to make that vision come to life. And so for those of us that have various centers defined, those are gifts we're here to give.

But the centers that we have as undefined or not colored in, those are gifts we are here to receive. And that was actually really powerful and hard to accept at first because I've always been a giver and it's hard to receive. I think any mom entrepreneur out there or entrepreneur in general might have a hard time accepting that.

But when we lean into that as, wow, this actually gives this other person the opportunity to stand in their power, to stand in what they do really well, and that together we're going to work together to achieve a common goal or both get to where we're trying to go. That's really beautiful. And from a hiring perspective,

You may have hired people that might have a skill set that you might need in your business, but if they don't have certain centers defined, they may be inconsistent in sharing that skill set. Or for you as a manifesting generator, you might need certain people that are projectors in certain parts of your business, whereas having generators, like if you need someone who's a doer, but you also need them to have a certain skill set.

Aligning all of those things is going to be really powerful and comparing it against who you are. That's going to prevent head-butting. It's going to allow you to actually both work in your optimal energy. And like I said, get to the finish line much faster.

Okay. So does everyone like, does all manifesting gens or projectors, do we all have the same colors and uncolored or is that where it just gets deeper and deeper into who you are as a person? That's right. Everyone has different defined or colored in centers. And so two projectors are not going to be alike. Right.

I think about my daughter who is a projector and I have several clients who are projectors. And it's really fascinating for me to compare because there's so much nuance to how your chart is formed. And it's based on what I call modern and old wisdom. So old wisdom, modern wisdom, because there's quantum physics in that. There's some astrology and Kabbalah into that. And the beautiful thing about it is

a projector who's, we call them the seers. You might have a projector who is very visionary of how to like what the big vision looks like, but you also might have a projector that's really good at seeing how the operations and the nuance and the details look like. Okay. That is defined by which centers they actually have colored in, which gifts they're here to give. Okay.

I love... This is so fascinating. And I've also recently dived into the Enneagram with Tracy O'Malley. So for me, I grew up in the business world really only knowing the DISC profile. That is the big one for real estate agents when I was in that industry.

And clearly I'm a high D. I don't have a whole lot of I in me. Like it follows so far behind. It's not even on the chart. I just bulldoze my way through. But I felt like that wasn't in depth enough. And then when I started learning about this human design and combining it with the Enneagram and I started putting the two together, I mean, worlds, light bulbs went off. Everything opened up for me. I was like, oh, this explains so much about how I interact with my family.

my children, the dog. I mean, like everything. Can dogs have a human design? I guess not, but

in theory, right? Date, time, location of birth. I have even heard, and this is sort of like a controversial topic in human design for business. There are some people who actually pull human design for the date, time, and location of the business's birth. But because I tend to work with service providers, creators, healers, teachers, people who are the business, I have this belief that if you're the business,

you are the one that is, whose human design we need to look through because I think our businesses evolve, right? Like even though one day I decided this was going to be my business, I've pivoted my business. I have grown through my business.

But at the core, I am the same person just learning how to maybe be myself more authentically, but also gaining skills, knowledge, understanding of the business world, who I want to serve, how I want to serve them. And it's a really interesting topic of conversation. And so I've looked at both sides with people, which, I mean, we can go into depth about that. But personally, I believe that

You as the business owner, you're the one that's going to influence the decisions, how you build that business, what that looks like. And let's lean into that to help you shine because your business is going to shine through that. Yeah. I mean, if you think about it, like I've got the B word podcast and then I've got podcast her, and it's not like I started them both at the same time. So if you went on the business's birth, like which one do we go with the

the podcast birth, did it birth, you know, podcast her, or I mean like,

Yeah. That's why I said it's such an interesting topic. And, you know, I worked for 10 years in higher education, so I love having a good conversation, like going in depth on these things. But what I write is the same. The core of this is that you, you're the one who birthed these ideas and they were fueled from things that inspired you, you know, needs you felt you saw in the market, things you wanted to bring to serve people and, and,

That evolution in human design, I've heard it talked about as like our human design experiment, because for most of our lives, just like my story, we've been trying to be someone that other people, society has told us to be. And I loved being a good daughter and a good student and a good employee. But at the core of who I was, there were veins of that throughout my life.

But to see the whole picture in this way, to understand that, yeah, I can do a lot because I'm a generator, but...

Why I feel burnt out doing certain projects versus other projects. Like that is really powerful. And then how I use that to grow my business, the coaches that I hire, the clients that I attract, all of these different pieces are in relation to who I am. And my business keeps evolving because of who I am and why.

I think that's why I feel this like strong connection to helping people discover their own human design and apply it to their business because I work with the people who are

those solo entrepreneurs that maybe at first, but then evolve and grow into something bigger. And what's so fun about it is you're using a lot of the same skills, but at a much higher level, right? Me knowing how to use, how to make decisions with my body and my sacred authority allows me to just do that much more quickly than when I started this a couple of years ago.

Interesting. All right. So how do you specifically work with your clients? I know you mentioned you've got coaching and, you know, I think you do some one-on-one work, but if someone were to come to you to, to work with you, what should they expect?

So everything I do, we start with a deep dive intensive into your human design. So I do a human design for business reading. And you could take human design for many different aspects, but I specifically help you look at your human design as it relates to your business reading.

And then that reading either starts a one-on-one intensive. I've got a couple of different options for that, or I am actually working on launching the next round of my group business blueprint program. So that's going to be really powerful right now. I've got a mastermind group that we're working together and we're taking that like those tangible skills and knowledge that I have from a master's degree in business from decade of working with businesses and taking

overlaying the human design aspects of it and really curating, creating a unique business for that individual. So let me give you an example. I've got a projector client that I've been working with for a long time. And she, when we started working together, was working her business like probably full-time, three quarters of the time, and still had a part-time job.

And as a projector, she was burnt out all the time and maybe only making a couple thousand a month in her business. She was scared to leave her job because she thought if she left her job and she was working less, she would not actually be able to make the income she desired in her business.

Well, we worked through, first of all, the mindset around like what it means actually to be working in your business and then created different things in her business, different service offerings that align with a projector that don't take as much of her energy. And she has crossed over $5,000 in her business after dropping her job.

and working fewer hours, having more space for self-care, not feeling like she has to always be doing. And so she's working less, making more income in her business, and now can see how she can scale even further without the fear that she's always going to have to do, do, do. But now we strategically and intentionally are picking the next thing that we're going to do in her business and how we're going to build it.

And I think that's like a really great example. I think that's fascinating. You know, I always tell business owners that you've got to do what you're aligned with. Because if you put something in the business that you don't love, you're not going to show up

Like you need to show up to make it work, right? You know, if you don't ever take a digital course or you never finish them, don't create one for your business. Like what the heck are you doing? I started podcast her as a paid membership in the Facebook group and I never showed up for it. Why? Because I don't show up for other memberships. So who in the heck was I to start this thing? It wasn't aligned correctly. And so now it's free and anyone can join in.

on Facebook. I love that. Instead, now I've got products and offerings that are more like light me up, make me happy. But it took me understanding that pieces of the human design to also give me permission to let go of this stuff that wasn't lighting me up because I thought that that's what I should do. And to embrace the stuff that like did light me up. And I mean, yes, I drove my team crazy in the process, but that's okay.

Well, and from a podcasting perspective, you know, that's something that is so unique to each individual. And as I was thinking through each of the types and how you could have the perfect podcast or feel really aligned, because I've talked to a lot of people like I should have a podcast because I should. And I think there's a lot of value to having podcasts. And I will definitely be talking to you about starting my own podcast. However, there is...

Very important things to look at. So like as a manifesting generator, what I would recommend to you would be different than what I would recommend to a projector on how long your podcasts are, the topics and the themes, how deep you go on the different topics that you're talking about, what a solo episode would look like versus what a guest episode would look like.

Because of your unique design, your unique energy and all of those things. And it's so powerful when you have that information because you don't feel lost anymore. You're doing it for the right reason. I think I probably listened to podcasts more than anything else that I know. I don't watch a lot of TV. I listen to some audio books, but I love listening to podcasts and why I listen to certain people's podcasts. There's a layer of that, obviously, on the topic that they're talking about.

But when you find someone who is really aligned with their energy and whether they know it or not, like this is an interesting thing, right? You might have a really great podcast and want to take it to that next level. And knowing that as a manifesting generator, you should be going wide, not deep is you're like, of course I love this. Yes. But maybe you heard from someone. Give me permission to talk about anything that comes to mind. Just please. Yeah.

And a projector is supposed to go really deep and stay really narrow. But when you're learning about whether it's podcasting or client attraction or what your design, your offers should be designed like,

There's all of the shoulds or that this is the best ways and they all work like spoiler alert, my friends, all the strategies work and doing the strategies and implementing things that are aligned with you. You're going to have a lot more fun. So you're going to show up better. It's going to happen more easily. So you're going to be able to do more of that thing. And the people that like,

are meant for you. I talk a lot about client attraction. We're not here to convince people that you're meant to serve them. We're here to do the thing that we're here to do and the right people are going to be attracted to us. So I listened to your podcast because I do love the wide range of information that I get.

And if I was wanting some depth, I might go to someone else's because they would show up differently in sharing that. Or you might bring in a guest expert that has some depth. But if you were trying to become an expert on every single topic that you talk about,

My guess is that you'd be like, oh my God, I'm so tired of this and not show up in the way that you want to. And that's when I would start doing laundry instead of recording episodes, which I have found with me as my go-to, you know, if I'm at home and I can't, I just, I know I need to sit down and record and I,

Just can't wrap my head around it. I find myself in the laundry room folding towels and that, and I now know I'm like, oh, maybe whatever I was going to talk about today or what I was going to do today, it's just not, it's not the right energy. Like it's not what I need to be doing right now.

Absolutely. You have got it. Awesome. All right. So tell everyone how, because again, I'm a manifesting generator. So I keep these episodes short, sweet, and to the point we don't go too in depth, but I am also thinking we should probably bring you into the network as a consultant for podcasters because understanding how they should be setting up their podcast is really, really critical to keeping their energy flowing because otherwise our consistency gets off track.

I would love that. Oh, yeah. Okay. So we're going to stay on after we jump off of this and we're going to have some conversations. And guys, this is what podcasting is all about. It's forming those relationships and then taking them offline and collaborating further. How does everyone listening here today get in touch with you and enter into your world? Because I guarantee there's a good percentage. They're like, I need to know what I am and how I use it.

So I hang out mostly on Instagram online and I have a link actually for a free human design chart in my bio that you can absolutely get access to. It will tell you a lot of the...

who you are. And then the next step in working with me is figuring out how do you apply that to your business? I do also host a twice a month human design happy hour link is also in my IG bio. And that is a super fun place to just connect with other people who are interested in human design. And if you want to have a little fun in business and getting to know new people. Okay. And we'll obviously make sure in the show notes that we put your Instagram handle so that everyone can reach out to you.

When you do, I won't say if, because I know it's a when, when you do and you book a call with her, tag me in your, in a story and let me know what is your design? Like, how are you going to use it in your business? Because I'm very intrigued at this point in my life on human design. And I want to hear what you are too. All right, Anna. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us here today. As always, ladies go build that dream, dream business of yours, and then run it with a microphone.

You just finished another episode of the B-Word Podcast. Cheers to you. If I were with you, I would literally pop a big old bottle of Prosecco and pour you a glass. Since I'm not, why don't you do the next best thing and share this episode with one of your besties? Because we all know you've got that one girlfriend that needs to hear it. Thanks, friends.

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