Hello and welcome to the Aligned Achiever Podcast. I’m your host, Siobhan Barnes.

Siobhan, hello and welcome to the aligned achiever podcast. I’m your host, Siobhan Barnes, and I’m going to be talking to you today about the unconventional career tool that I absolutely cannot stop using.

The reason why I want to share this with you is I believe that we’ve all been taught that there’s like one path to success, and the narrative within society and culture is that the higher you climb up the corporate ladder, the more successful you are, the more money you earn, the more safe you are, the more options you have.

That path certainly works for some people, but I think increasingly, many of us are questioning if that is the right path for us, because we have competing priorities. We have different seasons in our lives.

I’ve always been on a quest in my coaching journey to figure out how I can best support my clients, define what that success looks like for them. And I am a big player of different tools, and I’ve gone down the rabbit hole with different modalities. And today I want to talk about one particular one that I’ve been using and experimenting with since about 2021 now, so about four years, but haven’t openly talked about. 

It’s going to be a bit of a vulnerable podcast episode, because this is I’m going to share very honestly something that I have struggled with in my own business, and it’s come to a crunch point where I have to be really honest about who I am and what tools I use and how I support my clients.

So before I get into all of that, what we’ll cover today is what the unconventional tool is, my journey to finding it, why I think it’s helpful, how it’s helpful and what to be mindful of when you are using tools or resources to figure out your career next step and your pivot points. And if you would like an opportunity to have a taste of this unconventional tool with me.

So what am I talking about? Why am I talking about this?
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So the unconventional tool that I wanted to talk about today is one that has, gosh, been circulating in my awareness for, I guess, more than five years, but really in 2021 so four years ago now, at the time of recording, I really started to take it more seriously and to look into it and play with it myself. 

Just by by way of background, for those of you who don’t know me, I’ve been coaching for 10 years, more than 10 years, actually, since 2014 and that really came about when my second child was coming into the world. I was pregnant, and I remember discovering coaching, and I was in a coaching school, heavily pregnant, doing the seven day intensive. And lit up when I say I was pregnant. I was probably about seven months pregnant. You know, when you’re really heavily showing you need to go to the toilet every 90 minutes to release your bladder. And I just remember thinking, Gosh, this is amazing. It’s so wonderful to support someone, see someone, and be able to help them, you know, take action and move forward.

I thought, oh my gosh, I found my path. I am so excited. And that was really the start of my journey. And since then, I have gone on to play with so many different tools, because the brief for me has always been very consistent. I know that I want to support women to figure out a way to really be the independent woman that they are, so to actualize those gifts and talents that they have in a career path that feels really good, where they feel like they’re making an impact, earning great money.

So they’re independent, but that allows them the freedom and flexibility to make choices that allow them to live a full life too. So whether, you know, if they’re a parent, if they want to be there for their kids sports day or assembly, or to take time off when their kids are off. Or, you know, for my clients who don’t have kids, you know, they want to have the ability to buy an investment property or, you know, take a course in something they’re passionate about, you know, really supporting women to live a full life and create this aligned achievement, which is the name of this podcast.

With that mission, I’ve been really curious as to how to support women to do that, because we are all so different.

And I think the thing that really frustrates me about the coaching industry is that it can sometimes prescribe a certain narrative where it’s all about the action.

Okay, what are you going to do? What are you going to what are you going to figure out, how you’re going to move forward?

And of course, we want to move forward. That is absolutely it. But you know, the same line of questioning doesn’t always work with different clients. We all respond to different types of questions, different ways of approaching things, you know, really differently.

And I think there’s such a nuance in getting support that’s really important. And this is even more important in the age of AI. You know, you can get really great advice. And. Support through AI, you know, and it can be almost like a therapist, in some cases, a counselor, a coach, but there are biases in that, right?

It doesn’t necessarily know how to work with you. And I believe there’s nuance. And sometimes, you know, working with a coach can help you see what you can’t see. And so in my work, what’s happened is that I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of different modalities.

Yes, there’s coaching, but then there’s equally the mindset and there’s subconscious work, which actually just talking and asking questions is not going to get to which is why I trained in rapid transformational therapy, which is a type of hypnotherapy. Then there’s a piece around.

Okay, you might have the mindset bit, and you might have some really great questions to get strategy, but your body might have an actual visceral response to taking a certain action. So think about it, maybe you know that you need to deliver presentations or deliver town halls right at your organization, and you know that’s the right thing to do.

And you know in theory and in your mind that okay, I need to do this, but your body might be freaking out. Your palms may be sweaty before you do that, and your body might be going into a fight, flight, you know, response where it’s like, oh my gosh, activated, and it’s like this huge surge of energy every time you have to do it. And so that’s what led me to look at the world of somatics and embodiment and how to work with the body and relieve some of these blocks and tension within the body so that it can be an easier, more smooth process.

All of all of that intention is to come back to the most aligned energy for how you want to do things, which leads me to today.

So the tool I’m teasing you here because I haven’t shared what the tool is, the tool that I use have been using is called Human Design. Now, human design is unconventional tool, I will say, and it’s one that I was hesitant to use because it’s so different to, you know, Strengths Finder and all the usual things that you might, you might learn about and read about and MBTI and COBE assessments, all these different assessments which are peer reviewed and evidence based.

Now this tool human design. It’s actually a comprehensive system of self awareness that synthesizes astrology, the I Ching, the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the chakra system, quantum mechanics, genetics and biochemistry. And basically, it provides a unique energetic blueprint or body graph based on your exact birth data. And it reveals your authentic self, like how you’re designed to show up.

And it reveals, you know, your innate talents, your point of view. So as I read that like, you know, it’s based on astrology. It’s based on time of your birth, which at first I was super hesitant about. But what I’ve come to know in this journey is that sometimes it’s really about, well, what’s the impact of it?

Does it actually help?

And so I’ll be honest, I’ve gone down the astrology route, and I’ve looked into that. I’ve I’ve gone down the energetics route and use Reiki as well in my client sessions. I have, you know, dabbled with the Akashic records.

I have played with a lot of different tools, and human design is one that I’ve been really refining and playing with over the last four years. Because firstly, I wanted to see and experiment like, is this really helpful, and does this really work? And on myself?

Absolutely, I can say that it does.

And my journey to finding it was that it was during the pandemic, and I was going, I guess, having more of that existential crisis and that spiritual moment where I was like, okay, so you know, what is it like? What is really important here? And got lost in the swirl of homeschooling, trying to run a business.

I was working at a coaching school at the time as a master coach, facilitator, trainer, Community Manager, and it was just all so much.

And you know, human design really helped me kind of cut through the noise, come back to how I am designed to operate, what my innate gifts and talents are, and it really helped me understand myself better. So, you know, I realized that, you know, my conscious son is gate 16, which is all about learning and mastery, which, interestingly enough, the couple of years before, when I was setting my intentions for the year and my guiding words for the year, I wrote down mastering.

I was like, You know what? I’m just going to focus on learning. Going to focus on learning and studying and being the best at my craft and so again, validating moment for me. So human design. I use it as a tool, because I think it can be really helpful when you’ve been conditioned to be a certain way, to know, okay, what is your natural design, and to see, like, how far off are you?

And again, taking it with a pinch of salt, seeing what resonates, seeing what doesn’t, and working with the parts of the chart that really work for you. So I think it’s helpful because it can support you with understanding, like, how you naturally make decisions. So for example, I know I’m an emotional authority.

I take a little bit of time to make decisions. I’m not a splenic authority. I don’t just make decisions right away. I need like, if I’m making a big decision, I need a little bit of time to sit on it. It helps me understand my unique way of navigating success. So what actually makes me feel successful, and that’s for me, being recognized for my gifts and my talents. It also supports you with how to prevent burnout and and and bitterness. And you know, it really helps to understand how you’re wired, and it can apply to career decisions, pivot decisions.

It can help you with your leadership style, to understand team dynamics, like how you work well with others, how you’re best supported to work like in what kind of environment are you going to be stimulated and get your best ideas and feel energized to focus how to put in place personal boundaries that work for you? And energy management.

There is so much in it now I’m not going to like share the exact specifics of it with you, and you’re probably going to be curious and want to like Google human design, but one of the ways, one of the things that I want you to know is that tools are just a tool, right?

They’re not a rule book. And you know what I love about human design, and with that comes the gene keys as well, which is another way of playing, playing with that work, is that you get to experiment, and you get to make it work with you. And you know, when I first came to that system, it was very overwhelming. There was a lot of information, and there are some misconceptions. 

And I think one of the things that can be hard when you learn a tool is that you want to understand everything, and you want to apply it, and you can absorb information for information sake. But what I’m a big proponent of is of you know, how does this apply? How can I make this work? So, if you know astrology, I think is a common one, right? A lot of us know, okay, I am a, for example, I’m a Gemini. I’m a that’s my my sun sign. But people don’t realize there are other elements of your chart, right?

Like so a Gemini is typically full of ideas. They’re flitty, they’re floating, they’re in and out. They’re curious. And, you know, can be sociable, and that is me to a point, but I’m actually quite introverted. I don’t identify with just being a Gemini.

I’m also a Virgo rising, which means that I can be quite organized and structured in my approach.

I’m also a Capricorn moon. So I’m very grounded, and, you know, very emotional relationships are really important to me. So there are elements within a system and bits. And again, I’m just sharing some very basic things that can if create a fuller picture.

And I think for me, like I have some hesitance, and it’s, you know, in sharing human design in this podcast, because, number one, there, I’ll be fully transparent. There’s a part of me that’s like, oh my gosh, I can’t back this up by science, like, how legitimate is this?

But number two, I know that it has really helped and supported me, and I’m playing with this with my clients.

I’m working on this with my business partner and team, and it’s been, there’s just been such a reassurance of, oh, okay, that’s how I work. So instead of making myself wrong, I’m going to see how I can, you know, lean into this and how I can work with this energy, and how I can work with my type.

So it’s such a beautiful way of being able to give yourself permission to work with your innate energy, type, your innate strengths, how you do things, and to also actually have the grace and compassion and understanding for how other people do it. And through that lens, and with that understanding, being able to say, hey, look, this is what I need you know.

This is how we’re best going to be able to communicate, and this is how we’re best going to be able to work together with my clients.

It’s really helping me to be able to say, to mix up my coaching style, because I know that certain types prefer to respond to yes, no questions, whereas, you know, traditional coaching is like, don’t do that.

Don’t ask closed questions, like, you know, ask open ended questions. But some types need that kind of gut response to a question to get their answer. So it’s been a really game changing tool. I’ve been using it to help with myself and my clients, and it’s something that I’m bringing more and more into my work, which brings me to an invitation. So the invitation is, if you’re curious about human design and you want to know how you can work with your innate energy, your innate way of doing things, to realign your career for a greater sense of energy, purpose and clarity and direction.

Then I’m running an experiment.

So I’m a three/five profile, so I’m meant to experiment with things, and I’m just feeling really excited to offer these intensive alignment by design sessions.

I’m only going to do this for a really short period of time, so if you’re listening to this live, come on over to the show notes, and you’ll be able to click on a link and find out more about this.

This offering, which is only it’s time sensitive, it’s not for a super long period of time, but. So essentially, what it is is it’s an opportunity for you to be able to give me your information, so your birth information, and in that session, I will support you with a specific reading to be able to support you to understand how you are uniquely designed, but really, more importantly, lensing it through a current challenge that you’re facing.

So maybe in your career, you’re wondering, how can I get to that next level leadership, like, you know you want to go for that next role. Or maybe you’re actually questioning everything, and you’re like, do I want to stay in this industry? Is this the right path for me? Or maybe you know that you want to pivot out of there, and you want to pivot into something else, but you’re not sure what that you’re not sure what that is. We can use that session to help you align and get clear on what you’re working with and what your best next steps are.

It’s going to be a intensive session where you and I will have that time to work together and get that clarity. So it’s not just me throwing a bunch of information at you. For information sake, you will get a report at the end, so you can take your time to read everything if you want to digest it afterwards.

But the session itself will be really transformational human design, where I’ll be supporting you with what you can use from your chart to explain why you’re feeling, how you’re feeling, and, more importantly, how you can move through it so it will align with you know, you you’ll get a personalized, bespoke strategy that works for you.

My intention is for you to be able to use this to get clear on what your next steps are. And look, we’re in September, right? You’re going to be able to use this to really close out q4 really, really well, and go into 2026 knowing what you what you’re meant to do. And for me, I found that these sessions, I’ve done them with various different practitioners, with slightly different angles and slightly different approaches, and they’ve just helped give me the clarity and conviction on what to lean into. Because when you are so entrenched in your world, right?

I remember being in corporate and being so entrenched in that way of being you can sometimes kind of lose sight of what else is possible for you. And I think that’s the real beauty of where I sit. And the great privilege of where I sit is that I remember that feeling of unplugging from corporate and suddenly, you know, being like, Well, gosh, there’s no community here, like, who am I without this?

But equally, I’ve been able to support many women who’ve made so many different choice points for themselves. You know, there’s some that are going for high levels of leadership, really making an impact at high levels in their organization, to women who have, you know, become freelancers and created opportunities that we couldn’t even see at the start of our coaching sessions, right? Like it’s because they followed, you know, their intuition, their guidance, and started to listen to their inner knowing, and created these opportunities for themselves, to women who started businesses, to women who’ve, you know, completely retrained in different areas.

And so I share that with you, because there are many different possibilities available to you, and when you’re entrenched in a certain world, you might not see that for yourself, but the piece that I really think is important is that you know, we know that the future of work is changing, and that ladder that was the traditional like success. I’ve seen this happen.

It’s like, well, that was supposed to be my next move, but the world of work is changing, and that role is no longer there. So if I’m not going for that, then then what am I going for? And you can feel really unclear.

So this career alignment by design session will really support you with anchoring into who you are, because there are three pillars to how I work.

Number one, you need that personal mastery and energetics to know who you are, how you work. So you’re you’re really working yourself right. You’re working with your innate strengths, and you’re not being someone that you’re not right. We want you in the driving seat, like the real you making decisions.

So you’re leveraging those strengths, working in your zone of genius, leading in your unique way, being in your energy, and then magnetizing opportunities to you from that, right? So that’s the first pillar.

Then you can apply, okay, well, what’s the right career strategy to that? Right?

And then there’s the actual, you know, innovative execution, like, how do you take action, how to use AI tools to be able to do that quicker and faster, and, you know, in a more aligned way.

So you know, going back to that framework, like, where this piece comes in, the human design with, like, career alignment by design is really around that personal mastery and energetics. And so if you’re curious, if you’re like, Oh, I really would like to do that, then make sure you come on over to the show notes over at Siobhan barnes.com/38

You’ll get all the details on how you can book in for your personalized session.

Again, just to recap, you’ll get a intake form. You’ll give me your details. Uh, lending it through a challenge. I’ll go away and get prepared for our session. We’ll have a 90 minute call together where we’ll be able to work. I’ll be able to support you through understanding yourself and how that works as it relates to your challenge. And then afterwards, you’re going to get this beautiful report where you have all the information that you need. You don’t need to take notes during the session, because you will be supported, and you’ll have that to refer back to time and time again.

And look, it’s something that you can also plug into any AI tool that you’re working with. So you know, if you want to take that further and play with it, you can, because, you know, I mentioned at the very beginning, you know, AI can be very helpful, but you know, when you’re asking it for advice and it doesn’t know who you are, that’s not helpful. So if you if you want to play with this, to use and plug into some of your own prompts, etc, this is something you can use for that as well. So I’m going to leave that here. Thank you so much for tuning in.

As I mentioned, this is a little bit of a vulnerable episode for me, but I really believe in transparency and letting you know what the tools are that are out there that can support you. And this is one unconventional tool that I took me a while. It’s been playing with it for four years, and I’m only just starting to talk about it now, but lean in if that feels like something that’s intriguing you and also you know deeper than this, let this be a permission slip for you to play with, experiment with anything that you feel you’re guided to and you don’t necessarily know why, and to trust that, I think again, bringing this back to how I’ve seen this play out with clients, is that, as a coach, always, at the beginning of my you know, journey, I was always really worried with, how am I going to deliver a result to my client, like, I cannot guarantee that their boss is going to advocate for them to get that promotion, or, you know, that that right opportunity is going to land for them as a freelancer. But what I have seen unfold is that when this personal mastery and energetics piece, when you’re dial into who you are and you just show up as your amazing, unique, authentic self, and people can really feel you, that’s where the energetics piece comes in. And you magnetize opportunities towards you. Of course, you take action. I’m not saying you just sit on your manifestation pillow or your Pinterest board creating a vision board, right? Like, yes, there’s a part of that, but then there’s other pieces, right, which is where the career strategy and the innovative action and execution comes in. But this is the starting point.

And so when you are able to really embody this, the opportunities out there are infinite, and I could not perceive being where I am today, like sitting at my corporate desk thinking, who am I? Why am I here? There’s got to be a reason for me being here. Other than this.

The path has unfolded because I’ve trusted the unconventional. I’ve followed my curiosity, and it’s got me in spaces and places and with people that I didn’t even know were out there, and trusting that has honestly been the biggest gift and one of the most, I guess, things, that I’m proud of. So thank you for tuning in.

Thank you for letting me share this vulnerably with you. If this episode has resonated with you, please, you know, leave me a comment. Hit me up on Instagram or LinkedIn or this newsletter. If you’re subscribed, I’d love to hear how this resonates for you, and if you would like to take it further, I would absolutely love to support you with a career alignment by design session.

Thank you so much for tuning in today, and please remember before you go that you are here for a reason beyond merely hustling, grinding and merely surviving, you matter.