I discovered I was a Projector in Human Design roundabout when my entire world was crumbling.
I had barely recovered from moving to a new country, fumbling my way through 2020, trying to navigate running a business while “homeschooling,” and generally trying not to lose my sh*t on a daily basis.
All while trying to figure out who the hell I was besides being a…
wife,
mother,
business owner.
My obsession with trying to understand myself, the world, and the things around me has existed for as long as I can remember.
I’ve constantly felt like an outsider, trying to figure out why I just couldn’t seem to “do life like everyone else.”
My parents always had these funny little anecdotes or stories they would tell people – about how different I was.
One story that always stood out to me was how, in my first year at school, our teachers told us to line up and practise for a race during our first sports day.
And I asked the teacher what the point was.
They thought it was because I was just a little lazy, not the sporty type, and had no desire to run (which is probably true), but really, I never wanted to do anything unless I could genuinely see the purpose of it all.
Over the years, I have tried to figure myself out using the Enneagram, Myers–Briggs, and, of course, Astrology.
I resonated with these archetypes, but other than highlighting my quirks and the things that made me different, I always felt like I needed to change myself somehow.
🍄 Be less lazy; why are you always so drained?
🍄 Be more social, and try to connect with people more.
🍄 Be louder, you’re always so shy
🍄 Try to fit in more; why are you always so misunderstood
That is why finding out I was a Projector made me feel understood for the first time in my life.
Something could explain what it feels like to be inside my own body and what I have experienced my entire life.
So, I dove headfirst into everything related to human design and have been experimenting with living my design ever since.
If Human Design is a completely new concept to you and sounds a little woo-woo to you, I totally understand.
Honestly, I found it mind-blowing at first, so if you are even slightly curious about understanding yourself and how your specific energy works, I highly encourage you to dive a little deeper.
I think it’s one of the best things we can learn about ourselves as business owners because it gives you guidelines for designing your business to work for you and not against you!
To help you figure out how to share your gifts with the world and the best way to use your energy so you don’t constantly feel drained and exhausted by your business.
The best way to start finding out your design is to visit Jenna Zoe’s My Human Design.
You can get your free chart and learn more about your energy type, strategy, authority, and the special gifts you have to share with the world.
The more I dive deeper into my human design experiment, the more I realise that most generic business advice has never worked for me (and probably doesn’t do much for anyone).
It’s not because these people are bad or give bad advice; it’s just that a lot of the time, it just doesn’t work for everyone.
How could it?
So, after taking these courses, we end up feeling like something is wrong with us because we can’t seem to figure it out.
Or we force ourselves to make it work – but it feels wrong, and like we are constantly fighting our inner knowing from within.
We need to take what we learn and adapt it to our business and our human design, instead of just trying to copy & paste.
Understanding my human design made me feel less like something was wrong with me and more excited to figure things out on my own terms.
To design my business around my needs, instead of trying to shape it around what others are doing and what looks like success from the outside.
This is why I stopped focusing on DFY services like Dubsado and started to look closer and see why people were feeling so exhausted, drained, and uninspired by their businesses in the first place.
It is, after all, in my nature as a Projector to observe and read between the lines.
That’s why I am currently pursuing a certification in Astrology and Human Design. I feel that this is one of the key elements explaining why business is so hard for some of us. Well, it certainly felt like that in my experience.
For the past four years, I have been re-shaping my business around my human design. I am learning more about myself, deconditioning, and feeling more at home in my business (and myself) every day.
Here are a few simple ways my human design has helped me in my business:
🍄 I GAVE MYSELF PERMISSION TO DO LESS
Finding out that my energy is very inconsistent as a projector was so validating, giving me permission to re-shape how I run my business.
In general, I have always felt exhausted by the people around me that seem to have an endless supply of energy – like my mum, who continuously faffs about, always looking for something to fill her time, and never just plonks her ass on the damn sofa.
I get exhausted just watching!
I thought that was because I was lazy, but really, it was just because I have been surrounded by Generators and Mani-Gens my entire life. I love that for you (especially if you are busy with something you are passionate about), but I just can’t keep up!
This perceived “laziness” is what helps me create systems, find shortcuts, and use my energy more efficiently.
Now, instead of seeing this as a character flaw, I give myself permission to be lazier in my business and life and to look for ways to simplify things and do less in my business.
🍄 I RECOGNISED WHAT I WAS GOOD AT
This is what I love about Human Design—there are so many ways to recognise the things that seem to come easily to you!
Like my defined Ajna, it helps me stay grounded in mental chaos. I can easily create order and structure when clients come to me with messy/chaotic systems and processes.
Or the fact that I have gate 47, which helps me spot patterns, connect the dots in my clients’ businesses and give them fresh perspectives that help them not feel stuck.
Or how my third line profile makes me an experimenter in my business, and unafraid of failure, which means I have probably gone first and tried something and will be able to share that wisdom with you (learn from my failures not from my success), and how I encourage my clients to take a few risks, or try something for the lesson, not the outcome.
Knowing my strengths has helped me write better sales pages, design my services to genuinely support my clients, and learn how to express my unique brand of magic.
🍄 I DESIGNED MY OFFERS AROUND MY ENERGY
This has taken some time because I really had to do a lot of deconditioning to learn that my value comes from guiding, not doing!
After closing my previous business and learning there was no way to make that business model work, I threw myself into VA work and big systems setups. While I did great work, I was exhausted and did not work in alignment with my design.
I also noticed that people valued my knack for spotting gaps in their businesses more than the actual work. So, I have been slowly pivoting away from all the doing and focusing more on helping people re-shape their business foundations from the ground up, working over a longer period of time and going deeper than just systems.
Now, I have one quarterly support day, and the rest of the time, I am guiding my clients to tune into their inner wisdom, using tools like Human Design, The Moon Phases, or Seasonal energies to guide their business decisions and quarterly activities. I help them integrate self-care rituals and periods of rest to help them stay grounded and energised!
The service I provide is even better and works with my energy. It’s a win-win!
🍄 MOST OF THE BUSINESS ADVICE ONLINE WAS TOTALLY WRONG FOR ME
I have learned to tune most of it out. These days, I value more 1:1 tailored support than generic courses and one-size-fits-all approaches. This is particularly true, and I have learned it the hard way.
Especially when it comes to marketing. I invested in so many courses and social media managers only to realise that the general strategies just don’t work for me as a projector, and I need to wait for the invitation.
I am slowly figuring this out as I go, but I know for a fact that the standard marketing methods just don’t work for me. This is why I am enjoying Substack—it allows me to be visible and share my process, thoughts, and insights (without any expectation), and if someone wants to dive deeper and look at my 1:1 work, they can!
🍄 I STARTED TO TRUST MYSELF MORE
From speaking to clients and my own experience, most of the time, we know exactly what we need to do or want to do in our business. Things get muddled because of all the external “should do” and well-meaning advice that’s shared with us on a daily basis.
But learning about my own splenic authority has helped me listen to those illogical downloads that seem to drop into my body at the most random times. I follow the threads, experiment with doing things the way I want, and encourage my clients to do the same.
I want to let go of all the conditioning that keeps pulling me out of alignment and notice how much better things feel in my business when I lean into my human design.
Sometimes, I fight it, forget, or try to force things in my business. But the more I learn, the more I realise how energising it is to work with yourself instead of against yourself.
This is why I have been drawn to study more about human design and use this to guide my clients, making the work we do together even more potent.
And why I encourage you to dive deeper if you are even the slightest bit curious.
If you do, please let me know what energy type you are and how you think this knowledge could help you reshape your business.
Want to use your human design to transform your approach to your business?
P.S. If we don’t know each other, I’m Stacey. An (anti) productivity guide & business manager, helping deeply feeling photographers & solopreneurs reshape their businesses so you can go from feeling stuck and drained to knowing how to manage your business and energy in a way that supports you! If you want to learn more about my 1:1 work, click here.
P.P.S. Thanks so much for reading – If you enjoyed this post, feel free to share it with a friend who will love it too!
P.P.P.S If you enjoyed this post and would like more thoughts delivered straight to your inbox, you can sign up for my email newsletter, Rituals and Remedies. I love to share my personal practice and rituals for running my business in alignment with the wheel of the year and the natural rhythms of life.
