Carol:
Hey rebels. Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Listen, do you ever wonder where your innate strengths or gifts come from? You know that zone of genius that I often talk about? Well, today I am talking with Taylor V. She is an offer strategist and human design expert, and she uses her talents to help people to leverage their authenticity, to create value for others, which is so powerful and I can't wait for her to share more about that.
Carol:
And today we are going to talk about something that I've been recently introduced to that was powerful and I loved it. And I thought, I definitely want to bring this to you guys to learn a little bit more about, and that is human design and specifically how it can be used to enable self advocacy and be supportive in helping you navigate midlife and actually in helping you make really align career decisions for what it is that you want to do or that next phase of your career, if you're thinking about pivoting, transitioning, or advancing, even to what you're doing so that you do that with true clarity and understanding so that you're making decisions.
Carol:
And you're equipping yourself with tools that allow you to always make the best decisions for yourself and for your life. So with that, I want to welcome you, Taylor, to the podcast.
Taylor:
Thank you for having me. I'm excited. This is great.
Carol:
Yes. I'm so excited that you're here. And like I mentioned before, I was sitting in actually one of Taylor's workshops as she was doing around human design and I just got so much insight and so much information. She truly is a master at this work, but before we get into that, Taylor, I would love to hear your own story, your own transition from where you were into becoming this offer strategist and human design expert.
Taylor:
Yeah. So one of my philosophies is that we're always kind of only ever doing one thing. Everyone only has really one offer. And then we spend our lifetime finding millions of ways to package that. And so really for me, the evolution has been going throughout life and just kind of showing up and going all in on an experience and it being successful.
Taylor:
That looked like representing the state of Georgia in a national pageant. It looked like being a flight attendant for Delta randomly. I've done medical billing, I've had kind of these kind of hodgepodge resume if you will, of experiences that have been insightful and been invigorating. And I saw pieces of myself in ways that I could monetize them in each one. I saw a way that I could be famous if you will, or influential in each one of them.
Taylor:
But for me, what, what ended up happening is in my mid twenties, I got married and then we got pregnant very quickly thereafter. And so I had this little girl who we named Honor, and we're looking at her in her and she's gorgeous. And my husband's unhappy with his job.
Taylor:
And I'm like, if I don't do something we're going to live a normal life. And that of everything else was the thing that I just couldn't live with. I knew I didn't want a life that anyone else could have predicted or considered normal. And so we were the textbook family. Great job, stay at home, mom, cute little baby. But at the end of it, I was just profoundly disappointed with the idea that I had never pressed the envelope, that I had never tried anything for long enough to really see if it was going to become something.
Taylor:
And so we actually ended up moving to the Dominican Republic and becoming missionaries because as your listeners will find out, I'm a manifestor. It doesn't take much for me to just kind of hit a spark and try something. So we did that and I thought this is going to be it.
Taylor:
I grew up in church, serving was my thing. I was like, "This is how we're going to be different. We're going to be the family who lives abroad." And we got there and we found out that everyone is normal and that they don't need us to save them. And that actually people are civilized everywhere. And that our little savior complex that we thought that we were just going to have this sense of fulfillment, we needed to bring that sense of fulfillment.
Taylor:
We weren't going to find it in the challenges or obstacles of other people's lives. And so when we ultimately decided to come back home from that because I was pregnant with baby number two now, I sat at home again. We were back to the same spot. This time I had two babies, but the disappointment was the same and it challenged me.
Taylor:
It challenged me to look inward. It challenged me to say, "You've been wanting to write a book since you were 16. Why haven't you done that? You're sitting at home now. You've been wanting to do this. Why haven't you done that? Why are you continuing to look for experiences or adventures instead of cultivating this little whisper of a desire inside of you?" And so I started a blog and it was not a great idea, but I tried it and then I discovered life coaching.
Taylor:
And by this time I had baby number three and I was listening to someone articulate things that I believed deeply and had developed those beliefs inside of church culture, but this time it was being presented outside of church culture. And so for me, that changed everything.
Taylor:
Once I figured out that there were truths that I knew that I was grappling with that I had a passion to share that other people had a value for that they were willing to pay money to hear someone kind of volley that level of thinking or that depth of understanding back and forth and that they were excited to pay a lot of money to do that, it was on.
Taylor:
I was like, "Oh, we just have to tell the truth? Oh, I got that in space. I just never thought it was valuable. I just never thought that my understanding or my perspective was game changing for somebody else's trajectory."
Taylor:
And so how did we get here? I dove head first like I do into getting certified as a life coach. And I got in there and I saw a bunch of my colleagues were professional people who had done a career swap and they decided they wanted to help people. And the one thing that was a common thread that made me different than them is it's like it never clicked for them that their voice mattered.
Taylor:
They were so bent on holding this kind of neutral space for their clients that when it came time to teach a concept or to challenge the client or to stress, to create some challenge for the client to really grow and change and transform, there was a discomfort. And I realized that discomfort was a discomfort they had with themselves.
Taylor:
It was a discomfort when you haven't done that internal work, when you haven't found yourself worth exploring, it's really hard to push other people to do that same self exploration. And so, because I had done that because I was coming into this from a place of look, I tried just having fun. I have something to say, it kind of just spiraled into brand strategy certifications and now I'm an offer strategist because I don't need you to frame your business. I need you to frame your value.
Taylor:
I need you to package your authenticity in a way that changes the world. Because that's why you're here. So human design is a beautiful tool to catalyze that conversation. But the end result is do you know how to tell people what you do in a way that makes them want to fund whatever your mission is? And if you don't, then that's the core problem. The core problem is that you haven't seen your value in a way that has changed you. And as a result, it's not changing other people. So that's where we're at.
Carol:
I love that, and I think that is so true. You said so many important things, which was you talked about cultivating the whisper that was already inside of you. You've been hearing something that's been telling you something internally and deciding to explore that.
Carol:
And also really that finding the value in your natural skills. Knowing that the things that naturally came to you were actually valuable. And I think in antithesis of the external, either validation or the external degrees and all the other kind of stuff that as a society, we say that's what's valuable. Line all that up in front of me and therefore you're valuable as opposed to if I never got a degree, if I never went to school, if I never got my fifth masters.
Taylor:
Yeah.
Carol:
I still have something to say, I still have something valuable to lay out and put forth. And I know with my clients, that is such a challenge when I try to pull them away from, it's not your degrees that make you valuable. And even you talk about offers in terms of interviewing or offering what you have to bring to the table.
Carol:
It's so much more that you bring that all that other stuff just kind of augments it. It's not because of it. You didn't discover it in school. You kind of brought it with you at the school. So I'm curious, how did you through that journey, was it in human design that that kind of clicked for you? Or was this something in that process that you were going through of that self discovery where that came?
Taylor:
Yeah. So I think I realized that I had something valuable or let's not even say valuable. I had something differentiated when I started learning next to my colleagues. I didn't finish college. So I came into this with that kind of baseline of, I don't have a way to quantify what I know for you. I'm sorry. And that's always been kind of like the chip I've brought into learning experience.
Taylor:
I don't have a way to prove I'm smart. You're just going to have to trust me for a minute. And so I did. I got in there and I realized there was something different about me. Then I learned brand strategy. And that showed me differentiation. But what brand strategy or even coaching doesn't do, is it doesn't have a way to capture your baseline.
Taylor:
It shows you what is valuable in the marketplace out there. It shows you how other people get done things outside of you. But I needed a tool that could explain why do I feel so different? I know I have different experiences, we're all different people, but how do I account for the fact that when I speak heads turn, and I'm not trying to turn heads.
Taylor:
There's a level of effortlessness in the way that my voice lands with people that I know I could teach some of that, but some of that's got to be energetic. Even to the point where it turns some people off. Why are they offended? I didn't even mean it like that. And so human design came around at a time where it was kind of sweeping through the coaching network that I was in.
Taylor:
And everyone was like, "It's changing everything. I'm finally getting my social media out. Content got easier. Coaching, wow, I'm a different coach now that I know I'm this kind of a type." And so really it was my frustration with my lack of productivity. It was my, I finally believed I had something, but it wasn't actually getting out. It wasn't turning into revenue.
Taylor:
And that's what drove me to kind of say, "Well, maybe this'll explain something." And then I find out, yeah, 10% of the population, it makes sense you feel a little different.
Carol:
Right.
Taylor:
It makes sense. And so that really has been the place that I've explored it from is it doesn't determine anything about me. It confirms my experience. I require my study of human design to validate my story, not to prescribe an experience to me, not to determine anything, but I deserve to be validated.
Taylor:
I deserve to be confirmed. I deserve to feel confident. And it's also my responsibility to create the experiences where that happens. And so human design is my exercise in that work.
Carol:
Ugh. I love that. I love that. That it doesn't determine who you are. It just really explains or bring awareness to what's already there. [inaudible 00:12:36]
Taylor:
[inaudible 00:12:36] language.
Carol:
That's fabulous. And that even what you said earlier about making your voice matter and how so many people, it's funny, I think sometimes the more educated and the more we seep into the external ... I talk about this a lot that women at midlife, we've climbed that ladder.
Carol:
And we're so entrenched in it only to realize that somewhere nearing the top, we're peering over realizing I don't want to be there. Is that where this is going? I don't think so, but the problem is we've spent so many years entrenched in that way of thinking and that way of knowing that I think over time, what does happen is you do lose your voice, that your voice doesn't matter.
Carol:
That you've either code switched or you've maneuvered yourself in such a way to fit the status quo or to fit whatever ladder you were climbing on that you lose this sense that your voice matters and that you start looking for other people to tell you what's valuable and important as opposed to you really leaning in and finding that in yourself.
Carol:
So I think what you shared is just so, so powerful and so amazing and I just love how you shared that. So tell us a little bit more about what is human design?
Taylor:
Okay. So human design is a synthesis of Eastern and Western philosophies or ideologies. Really it's a system or a science that is attempting to kind of summarize or give a blueprint or map of what it might be like to be you. Now I have to say like any system that's effective, there's a culture around it.
Taylor:
So when people hear me, I intentionally insert things like it might describe you, but some would say it's incredibly accurate. And that's the angle that they take. No offense there. But for me, sovereignty is important to me. It's important to me that you take responsibility for your authenticity.
Taylor:
And I really think you might like studying the science of human design to articulate that for you. So it does its best job to say, this is what it's like to be you. This is what it might be like when you interact with other people. This is not just the conversations that you have, but the energetic exchange.
Taylor:
We all walk into a room and we all call it like, oh, this has a vibe. Or you're a vibe/ you're impactful, you're moving. Well, is that you? Is it me experiencing you? Does everyone experience you the same way? I think human design does a really great job of kind of categorizing how much you're bringing to that experience versus how much someone else might be bringing and why you might be feeling it in such a profound way.
Taylor:
And that's really the point. The point is that you would study it and your unique design, everyone in human design has a individual differentiated design and you'd study yours. And then you'd experiment with, okay, if this is how I'm made, if this is my natural state when I'm not even trying, these are the gifts, strengths, talents, and abilities I have.
Taylor:
And when I'm not even trying, this is likely how I'm going to negatively take something. These are the areas where I'm just probably going to doubt myself just because I'm human. Not even because I tried that hard. If that's my set point or my starting point, I wonder what it would be like to make subtle adjustments in my life to optimize that experience, to create a more supportive experience, to find the environment or to self advocate for myself in my career, in my day to day workplace, how could I self advocate in a way that supports my design versus waiting for to arrive on a supportive experience? So that's kind of the work about is it advocates for self responsibility.
Carol:
Yeah. And it sounds like it puts you in control.
Taylor:
Yes.
Carol:
Of your life. It puts you in the driver's seat of what makes sense for you and the decisions that you want to make that are best for you.
Taylor:
Absolutely.
Carol:
And so it's a complex field and understanding. And so I know you are synthesizing it down to [inaudible 00:16:40] nuggets, but I know part of it, you talked about before being a manifestor. So if you were to go into human design or to get someone to actually help you with that, what will it yield? What is a manifestor and a generating manifestor which I am.
Taylor:
Yes.
Carol:
[00:17:02]
Taylor:
Not shocking.
Carol:
Yes. Yes.
Taylor:
For me. It's probably going to be shocking maybe for you, but not for me. Okay. So one of the things I like to do when someone may not be super familiar is just the idea that for human design, it takes everyone's map. And then it kind of summarizes them into five categories if you will.
Taylor:
And the categories really don't speak to any one person's personality, but more so here's generally speaking how energy moves in this type of a map. This is how energy moves in that type of map. And it's kind of overly reduced them down to five.
Taylor:
And so when I say I'm a manifestor what it's speaking to is, this being or this physical form's energy moves in this kind of a way. And generally speaking, people who hang out with her or interact with her in her presence, find her catalytic, impactful, initiating, they feel high energy.
Taylor:
And it's important for her to communicate what her intent is because she's what they call a closed aura or you can't really see in all the time. And you might like her one day and the next day you might get the sense that something's different about her.
Taylor:
And it's not that she's different. It's that her aura, the ambience around her is sometimes great and sometimes it's repelling and that's correct for her. Her purpose, the way her energy is kind of set up is designed to get things started. And we just summarize that kind of narrative as a manifestor because we're here to manifest from the unseen to the seen.
Taylor:
So there's uses for all of those details, but on an experiential level, if you were let's say working in corporate or in a professional career, you might have a lot of intentions to be getting things done and find that people aren't super receptive to your work.
Taylor:
Even though you may have a knowing that it would be helpful, for them, it almost like while they can acknowledge that it was useful, it comes with but you shouldn't have, or something should have been different about it. They probably just don't know what to do with you. That's just the reality. It's just like how safe can any one person feel when they're in a room with somebody they don't know what to do with, they don't know what you'll do next?
Taylor:
And so for manifestors the every type or category has a strategy. For manifestors it's to inform, just give people a heads up. Not because you need them to know to get anything done, but because it creates safety and reciprocity and they start informing you. And now we all feel empowered because we're all working with the same information.
Taylor:
And so that is a very entry level way if your audience were to pull their chart to apply that information. When you see your type, I'm a manifestor, there's four others to say, "Oh, okay, well, my strategy, if you were, let's say a generator or a manifesting generator, is to inform or respond."
Taylor:
And that's because the way the energy moves in that chart is super receptive. It takes a lot of things in. People show up and they have instructions, or they have things they need you to know and things they want to have happen. And so your strategy isn't to say yes to everything.
Taylor:
It's to consult how does that feel for you? Is that something you want to engage in? Is that something that lights you up to contribute to? Because if not, the answer's no, and they're called a generator because they generate an energy. They generate a response to what comes at them.
Taylor:
So when you say a manifesting generator, the only differentiator is is that a manifesting generator has some energy in the throw area. You probably have a consistent way that you articulate what you want to get done, that you probably speak with a level of authority that maybe a, what they would call pure generator or a generator without that manifesting caveat may not have a consistent way that they self advocate or communicate their thinking and desires.
Taylor:
But as a manifesting generator, you would have a very fixed, consistent access to here's what I want to do. This is what lights me up. And all of a sudden it's done. And that's why there's a strategy, like inform and respond. Yep. Say yes, but please let people know you about to blow them out the water. That would be great. That would be helpful.
Carol:
I love that. I can relate to that. Definitely. I know when we went through this together, I definitely felt a lot of ahas with things that you were sharing. Now, what about the other types? What are some of the other types called?
Taylor:
Yeah. So there's-
Carol:
And I'm sorry to call types because I know that's not exactly.
Taylor:
They actually are. They actually are. They're called types. And the other one is a projector and a reflector. So reflectors essentially just have no definition. And definition is a word we use in human design to describe they just don't have a fixed way that they show up. They represent less than 1% of the population.
Taylor:
Their purpose, if you will, or their function might even be a better way to say that amongst the five is to reflect back what we all have accomplished as a group. And they tend to be the truth tellers. Every reflector I know, I have a son and I have a friend who has a daughter who's a reflector, all of them are kind of that hard truth teller. They just tell you like it is. And it just kind of comes in hot and it comes in faster than you would think.
Taylor:
But it's almost like they've been simmering on it. It's like, have you been wanting to tell me it that way? Quite so ... Have you heard of tact? And the reality is they have heard of it. And they actually didn't need a lot of time necessarily. They've been sitting and sampling is what we would call their aura, but they've been sampling your energy for as long as you've been around.
Taylor:
And your question just gave them an opportunity to reflect back their experience. And so that's a reflector. That's their function. And then the last one is projectors and they represent about 20% of the population. I don't think I give a statistic for generators, but they're about 70%. And it's almost an even split between manifesting generators and generators.
Taylor:
But projectors are about 20%. Most of the coaches that you see that are really solid coaches, not just have put up a shingle and can really make a business happen, but the ones who really feel like ... You ever see someone who you're like, that's just masterful coaching. They just have this ability to hold space. That's your projector.
Taylor:
Your projector has what they call a very penetrating aura. They have the ability to kind of zone in on one person and really make them feel seen, make them feel heard. Their function is to guide, but really they're taking kind of the vision or the initiation of the manifestor and they are looking at what the generators are creating and building.
Taylor:
And they're kind of guiding above it. They're not worker bees. They're the people who are like, "I don't think that's what we really want here. I don't think that's what we're really trying to create here. Yep. I know we have that definition of success, but I don't think it feels successful." So projectors, before learning their type sometimes can be hard to work with.
Taylor:
Not because they mean any harm, but because they're penetrating. It's almost like they slice through with their opinion and their perspective and their strategy is wait to be invited because the level and precision of their insight and their guidance can almost feel offensive. It can feel undermining or condescending at times.
Taylor:
Not because of intent, but because most of us don't walk around thinking that somebody's watching us, studying us, that invested in what we do on an intimate, just for our success kind of level. So when somebody gives you that depth of feedback, it can feel like, well, why are you saying it like that? Well, why are you thinking about it? Why would you think that was my intent?
Taylor:
Our guards go up because we weren't planning to be so seen. So for projectors, it helps to just wait for the invitation, wait for someone to recognize your skillset and then say to you, "Hey, what do you think about what I'm doing? What do you think about how I'm showing up or the results that I'm creating?"
Taylor:
And every projector I know is like, everything in them just rises to the occasion and they start spewing and it's so profound. It's so moving, it's so precise, but the receptiveness comes from it was my idea. It wasn't thrust upon me. So all of, all of the types have that kind of dance that works in entrepreneurship and it shows up in your family and it shows up at your job. It shows up everywhere.
Carol:
Yeah. Yeah. So I'm curious how would you looking at each of the five types?
Taylor:
Yeah.
Carol:
What if, someone who's like midlife and one of these different types, and they're thinking about making a shift or a change and they're just at that place where they're embarking on it, they're hearing that whisper that you talked about, they're ready to kind of make a move if you will, what would you say, and I know this is very general, painting a very general picture, but what are some of the fears or challenges or things to look for that may trip them up or keep them from being able to make that transition?
Carol:
And maybe for others, it wouldn't be that challenging. But if a projector was in that spot, like what were some of the things they would need to think about? If a manifestor was in that spot, a reflector was in that spot, what are some of the fears or challenges or kind of mindset roadblocks that they would probably need to look out for if they're thinking about making a transition?
Taylor:
Yeah. So within human design, there are part of what creates the chart is this astrological component. That's one of the philosophies or ideologies inside of it. And so because of that, there are things called Saturn returns or Uranus returns or Chiron returns. And they all have different representations, but they impact everyone.
Taylor:
Everyone will have a moment where Saturn returns to the point where it was when you were born, which is how we developed your chart. But when those things happen, when you have a significant planetary return, it brings up the same questions or similar questions in everyone. So when we say things like midlife crisis, ironically in human design, I want to say that's the Saturn return. And that Saturn return is the time of questioning.
Taylor:
Saturn [inaudible 00:27:56] yeah. Saturn is the planet that's associated with just, how can I say this? You have a way that you are designed to function. And when you operate outside of your authenticity and outside of your value, Saturn is the energy or the planet, and it goes deeper than this, but Saturn represents kind of the judge, the one that kind of the consequence part of it.
Taylor:
So when we bring up midlife crisis or midlife changes or just having this kind of awareness that there's more out there for me or there's a whisper that I may have been ignoring, what that says to me is it's time to be honest with yourself. It's time to tell yourself the truth. These are not new things. And that is a fear that I think sometimes fear gets to stick around because we don't tell the truth.
Taylor:
We get to say, "This is brand new and I've never done this before. And I just can't believe. And what will people think?" Well, that would work if that was true, but the truth is this is what you've always been doing. And we've all seen you do it on the side. And you've led us all to believe that you wanted to be some professional, but the rest of us always had a clue that at some point you were probably going to do something like this.
Taylor:
And so if you, I think that would be my first thing is before we get into types, know that tell the truth about what's really going on. Even if you can't do that with your family and friends, can you find your coach? Can you do that within the Career Rebel Academy? Can you be in it and honest? Because if you can sit in the room with it, then we can talk about how we want to exercise that outside of this container of this safe space.
Carol:
That's just powerful. I just need you to pause for ... I want you to continue, but that needs to sink in because the couple things that you said, I love what you said about that in a lot of ways, when Saturn is coming back, it really is about checking you authenticity.
Carol:
The questioning that's coming up is because you've not been living in probably truth and authenticity to yourself. You've been following some other pre-described plans, some other idea of what you should be doing. And now it's like, hello, you know you didn't want to do this and it's not a shock. And I love what you said, "Don't lie. We all knew you" [inaudible 00:30:14]
Taylor:
We all knew.
Carol:
Wanted to be an artist. We all do you to do-
Taylor:
You are the only one who believed nobody was going to pay for it. Meanwhile, there's Picasso. Meanwhile, there's Michelangelo, but you swear your art is the one piece of art no one will pay for.
Carol:
Right. Right.
Taylor:
We're good. I think the rest of us could stomach it. It might just be you and-
Carol:
I love that. I love it. And so love that the way I'm translating it for me is like it's this call for authenticity.
Taylor:
Yes.
Carol:
It's like this call to finally step into the truth of who you are and what you're meant to be and do in the world. And you're getting called on it and now it's time to either listen. You can ignore it and still sit into what you're sitting in or you can actually get real, be honest and let's start the process. Love it. Okay. Just had to put a pin in that because that was so awesome.
Taylor:
It's so good. And I love this for your audience in particular because I think that just as a society, one of the things that we're doing is making a lot of changes. You talked about this on a recent podcast about how millennials stay at their jobs for a shorter period of time than some of the previous generations, but that does not erode a need for generational insight and wisdom, seasoned wisdom, seasoned truth.
Taylor:
You can't duplicate that even if we are okay with career switching or work switching. And so it's important to me in particular that my work impacts generations before me because I believe my daughter needs to hear from people who are older, wiser, more seasoned and more simmered than me.
Taylor:
So it's important to me that we don't tell ourselves this narrative that this is brand new and you're just getting started. Absolutely not. I don't subscribe. You've been seasoning this, you've been simmering this, and now you're ready to serve it and we all need to sit down.
Carol:
Yes.
Taylor:
We all need to sit down and that's uncomfortable.
Carol:
Yeah.
Taylor:
And there's space for that. It's space for that, but it's not new. It's not new and you're not an imposter because you've only been doing this your whole life.
Carol:
Yeah and I think that just goes back to like I said, it's just like you get, particularly for women in my age range who are mid, late fifties, sixties, even maybe late forties, early fifties is that you've been so conditioned around this practicality of what you can do and what's available to you.
Carol:
And it's so limiting. The narrative is so limiting. And I think the fear gets manifested like, "Oh my God, this is so new and different." But I think it's just this movement against this narrative that we grew up with and heard so long. And so the idea is like what does it mean if I now step away from that and do this? I know I want to do it. I know really secretly I could do it, but what will other people say? What will happen to my community? And of course the financial stuff that comes in. Will I go broke and die? Because I think that's-
Taylor:
And instantaneously.
Carol:
Instantaneously.
Taylor:
[inaudible 00:33:28] You going to lose everything.
Carol:
Right. I'm going to go from ... And it's funny too. I have to mention. When I decided to leave my corporate job and start my business, my daughter, she was much younger. She probably was in maybe in middle school at the time. And her first question to me was, "Are we going to be poor?" [inaudible 00:33:50]
Taylor:
I have standards now.
Carol:
Exactly. [inaudible 00:33:54] what is happening to me? But it's so interesting to meet that even at her age, she's so conditioned to believe that a job equals either wealth or stability or security, which is such bullshit and we've seen that with the pandemic and on and on and on.
Carol:
But we're still conditioned to think that way. And so I love just this conversation. And so I do think that fear comes in, but this thing at midlife, this really crazy, but real narrative that holds us captive to just let that go and to be free, to just start embracing and valuing and uplifting who we are is such a powerful shift.
Taylor:
Yeah. It is. It is new. I think one of the pieces that is new is this idea that it could be okay for you to be disruptive. That's new, but you are not new. It's new for there to be a window of opportunity for you to just do something because you like it and make money from it. That might be new or it might new that-
Carol:
There's space for you.
Taylor:
That's totally historically, it is new. But let's not self-identify with the fear as though it's us that we should be afraid of. No, we just don't have a long history of people being accepted for exactly who they are. There's just not a long track record of that.
Carol:
Yes. Yes.
Taylor:
So you don't have a lot of currency in that department, but in terms of you just being authentic and epic, yeah. You've been doing it.
Carol:
Great distinction. Great distinction.
Taylor:
Yeah. Okay. So, but you did ask me about the types and some of the uniqueness that they may be experiencing. So with manifestors, one of the core challenges is we experience ourselves as impactful, but we don't always necessarily know where that impact comes from and there can often be wounds about am I too impactful? Am I hurting people? Am I an imposition?
Taylor:
So when I think about a manifestor going through this change where they have something to say, most likely they've already tried saying something and had a negative experience with it and have decided not to say things. They have kind of, we call them throat wounds.
Taylor:
They stifle a lot of what they know that they want to do or know that they want to offer. And then also amongst the types, there's a difference between how energy works in terms of keeping up, being able to do a normal workday.
Taylor:
So often manifests are burnt out. They're tired because they lack one of the more significant parts of a chart that generates energy. So oftentimes their shift looks like slowing down and speaking up. And that mix is incredibly vulnerable because now you're a sitting duck that's very loud. It's counterintuitive.
Taylor:
They used to outrace it. I know quite a few manifestors who are outspoken, but they keep moving. They like, "Listen, I'm on the run. I told that boss off and then I got another job." And they're proud of the fact that they land these kind of truth bombs or, or catalytic moments if you will. And they're also proud that they didn't stick around to see what happens. So for them, what do you do when you're looking at your horizon?
Taylor:
You're like, "I can't keep running. How am I going to show up authentically if I can't keep going? The trajectory, the opportunities. This needs to be something I want to stick with." But sticking with it when you've been afraid of your impact can be challenging to negotiate.
Taylor:
I would say for projectors in that transition time where you're kind of being caught up at some point, you've been recognized for your different skill sets or your different expertise because that's the nature of the projector energy. They kind of master a system or they master a process and now they have a level of expertise at it.
Taylor:
What I notice when I talk to projectors who are in midlife, one of the things that they talk about is redefining success. Is it okay that success for me is not this money metric? It's no longer this career goal. Every type has a signature that lets them know that they're in alignment.
Taylor:
And for projectors, that signature moment or experience is success. But when people read that, they impose cultural definitions of success or societal definitions of success, and that's not what it is. It is an experience of I am successful as I am doing what I do knowing and guiding the way I guide.
Taylor:
And it's up to each individual projector to kind of create their own expression of success. And if you haven't done that for years, you've allowed society or your family or your relationships to define success for you. It can feel unfamiliar. It can feel unfamiliar to feel like I know this is what I want. This feels like a win for me. And yet it doesn't seem like it will be a win for anyone else. How do I show them that I can do this in a way that benefits other people?
Taylor:
Because that's ultimately what a projector's here to do. They're here to guide. The last thing they want is to be considered unuseful or unhelpful. And so if you've been using your expertise that way and really seeing people, and now you want to do something and you can't see a clear path for how everybody's going to win, it could be challenging to feel like it's worth it, to feel like it will be a success if you just do it.
Taylor:
And then generators, and I'll put generators and manifesting generators together in this case, because aurically speaking, they are both responsive energies. That just means energy wise, their primary way of making decisions and processing energy is kind of open and they're always responding to what's coming at them. And so when I think about generator type in midlife, I'm thinking about what was the impetus for your change and what narratives do you have around that impetus?
Taylor:
Was it a good enough reason for you to change your career path or to change your life? What moral associations? Was you not liking your boss? Is that a justifiable reason to just switch everything? What needed to be the thing that was worthy enough to justify you just doing what you want to do because you want to do it?
Taylor:
And if you've lived being responsive and particularly if you've lived during times where we had very clear cut definitions for what success was and how everybody likes everybody, and now you want to do something that seems to kind of be on the fringe of that, or even completely different from that, your impetus might be something like, "I was walking outside and it just hit me." Well, try posting that on Twitter. That's not a respectable reason.
Taylor:
I just got this download. And so I'm going to just shut down my whole practice and I don't know how I'm going to make ... that's kind of like eat, pray, love stuff. That's not real life you worked hard for this kind of moment. So when I think about a generator and that, likely they have had moments like that where they knew they should have said no, but they said yes anyways.
Taylor:
And so now they're being offered something again. And now the packaging may not be as respectable as the last package. It may not be offered to them in a way that seems like a worthy thing to say yes to, but the request is often the same. Will you be you?
Carol:
Wow. Wow.
Taylor:
And then the last one is reflectors. And when I think about a reflector in midlife, I think that if you have lived your life without a kind of fixed way of being, and you're kind of sampling and just kind of trying on other people's energy, so to speak, because as a reflector, like I said, you have a lot of what we would call openness in your chart.
Taylor:
I would imagine by the time you got to midlife, you have gone around in circles about the thing that you want to do. And you will have to now live with why you want to do it. Because as a reflector, the strategy is to wait 28 days I believe it is to make a decision or a lunar cycle to really come to clarity about something.
Taylor:
And so if you've gotten to midlife now and you're ready to make a decision, most likely the thing that you're deciding is not different, but what is different about it is just is this a good enough reason? And do I like the way I'm going to execute this? Is this going to impact? How will other people, what will they think I think about them if I'm doing this?
Taylor:
We call reflectors the judges. They can make you feel like man, they're siding with me, but they also can make you feel like they think I'm wrong. They think I'm doing it wrong. They think I'm fundamentally messing it up in some significant way. And so if that's not what you want to create, it could be hard for you to make a strong shift.
Taylor:
When I think about an example of that, practically, I think about how would a reflector explain to her mother if she were a second generation in the same industry, like second generation physician, how might a reflector daughter explain to her mother that I never wanted to be a physician?
Taylor:
I was doing it because I thought I needed to or I thought ... It's time for me to do this now. The fear might be well, what will she think that I think about her? And what is the relational impact if I make a strong shift? So that's kind of a high level assessment of how that change might affect you. And some of the concerns that may come up.
Carol:
That was so awesome. So insightful because you see that transitions are challenging mentally for people because anytime you go from something that's familiar to something that feels unfamiliar, even though it actually is familiar, honestly, like you say, if you really tell the truth about it, but it feels like you're making the leap into a new realm and way of being that it could really challenge your way of thinking and how you want to be perceived.
Carol:
And how you think people are going to perceive you and on and on and on and on and on. So I love this conversation about looking just deeply in terms of what could take place, what could happen, how you may be thinking, what would be some important questions to ask yourself as you're going through this process.
Carol:
So beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. So I do have just one question for you because this honestly we could go on and on for hours with this.
Taylor:
Yes.
Carol:
Because it's so good. So one of the things I always ask people is what does the idea of being a career rebel mean to you? And maybe this is from either a manifestor perspective or a human design perspective, or just generally your thoughts, what does it mean for you to be a career rebel? Because I think you've been one.
Taylor:
Okay. Well, good to know. So then go with my definition. My definition is I think being a career rebel means having the audacity to create an entrepreneurial mindset no matter where you are. It means to decide that your value or that what you bring your authenticity has value. And sometimes you offer that to a company.
Taylor:
Sometimes you offer that to your children. Sometimes you offer that to wherever you find yourself, but in this context in particular, sometimes you offer it in the current profession that you have or whatever, but really it's having a sense of ownership, a grittiness about this is worth something.
Taylor:
And we will either agree on what it's worth here or I'll be going to make sure it's planted in places that have a value for it. And sometimes that's the same career, same position, sometimes it's not. And I think that's what it means.
Carol:
I love that. I love it. I love it. So listen, Taylor, what's next for you or where can people find you? We're definitely going to have all the links in the show notes so people can locate you, but is there anything that people can really utilize that would be helpful for them in this process that you would love to refer them to?
Taylor:
Sure. So I have created a free course called Human Design in Under an Hour. I found that I really craved a resource that was really short and sweet and to the point and less about the granular and more about give me a high level understanding of what's happening in a chart or in the system.
Taylor:
And so if you want to take that free course, like I said, it's under an hour and it comes with guides and everything to break it all down for you, you can go to humandesignplay.com and join the wait list. And then we'll send it out as soon as it's live. But that is my passion project because I think this is such a great tool and I love using it to help people craft offers. And so that's what we do.
Carol:
I love it. I love it. Well, Taylor, thank you so much for joining me today. This has been so enlightening and such a beautiful and powerful conversation. Thank you.
Taylor:
Thank you for having me. See you soon.
Carol:
Absolutely. All right, rebels. Well, that's it for this week. Thank you so much for joining us and stay tuned for some other amazing conversations that we'll have to keep you informed, to enlighten you, to keep you curious and open to what can come when you're in the middle of a midlife career rebel and a midlife career change and in the interim, however, have an amazingly rebellious week and I'll see you soon.
