Emily Merrell  00:00

Hey, my name is Emily Merrell. I’m a taco loving people connector. And I’m obsessed with playing the name game, and all things networking. I’m the founder of secondary society, a female focused networking community, as well as a business coach for female business owners passionate about bringing their business to the next level with the help of events, community and connections. I crave deep conversations, and I’m continuously curious to see what makes people tick. And I’m invested in uncovering their stories with some life lessons along the way. This podcast is aimed to inspire and educate as you tackle your busy day. So join the conversation and tune in for the second degree podcast. I’m your host, Emily Merrell. And today I am so excited to have my friend Amanda Foley. She is a pure strategist and messaging consultant. And she is our guest. Amanda, welcome to the show.

 

Amanda Foley  00:57

Thank you for having me, Emily,

 

Emily Merrell  00:59

I have to just I had to hit hit record very quickly, because you are just such an incredible person. We were having this conversation, y’all she is not only just an expert in PR strategy, but she really has an understanding of human design and Gene keys. And Amanda and I met in a gene keys course or study group study group felt like it like it was my version of Bible study, basically. Yes, we do. Like I’ve never done Bible study, but

 

Amanda Foley  01:31

this is what I would want it to be right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Like we

 

Emily Merrell  01:35

were talking about, like, what are, what our shadow was? And what are? What was it called?

 

Amanda Foley  01:42

City in the city? Yeah,

 

Emily Merrell  01:44

you have to in the city. And all of this stuff is sounds nonsensical to some of you. And don’t worry, we will be diving into it further. But Amanda, I want to just know, how did you go from being this PR person to getting more into, I want to say more into the Woo of human design and Gene keys. You

 

Amanda Foley  02:03

know, looking back, I always feel like I probably had some kind of calling for something deeper that, you know, I think a lot of us do, probably all of us do, if we let ourselves hear that call. But I mean, in in a 25 year nutshell, I’ll say that I started my career in pharmaceutical public relations. So I worked for three of the world’s biggest global companies, I moved up the ladder very quickly, I had a lot of success. And it you know, on paper looks really great. But it just didn’t really fulfill me, I loved the PR part, I love the people and the interaction with the people and getting to be out there. But the work itself just wasn’t really energizing me, let’s say. So in 2006, you know, after about like, eight or so years working in corporate, I had an Indian even looking at my human design to like my, just as a quick aside, I’m a line six. And most line sixes have three phases of life. And the second one begins around the age of 30. And the year I turned 30, very tragically, I lost a close friend and a car accident. So very suddenly, and I had been at a really unhappy point in my career. And my husband looked at me and he said, you know, like, What the hell are you doing? What are you doing this for? You know, it’s, I think we just get this idea of success in our mind. And this is the track I should be on what else could I possibly do? You know, I found the best the best thing that I could find, and I can make money and do all these things. And so, you know, interestingly, I had met a woman when I was at the prior company who ran a network agency, it was virtual, she had been virtual, like in 1999, before anybody ever worked virtually before zoom before, you know, half the shit that we have today. And she always had said to me, you know, if you ever want to come work on a consulting side, I’d love to have you. And in my mind, I’m like, oh, no, that’s, you know, like a step down. And, you know, we have again, like these ideas that are nonsensical that our minds are telling us and at that point, I was like, you know, why don’t I give this a try. And so she’d become a good friend of mine. I loved the people in her agency, I went and worked for them. So 17 years, then from that point onward, I’ll age myself. I spent working in consulting, and I loved it, it was a, it was a great experience, I had a lot more freedom and being even financially more lucrative, surprisingly, to me. And you know, though, but about like maybe 10 or 12 years in, I took on this huge account and started to have those feelings again, it was this wonderful account to work on. But it was just, you know, it was like taken right back to this ruling my life type of feeling in my work. And, you know, as I started to sort of have this pool and I started to learn about things like human design and become a little more spiritually exploring exploratory in my own life. It was so crazy because the client was acquired. And so the account essentially went away almost overnight, you know, in essence, because they were bought by the company that only worked with certain firms, and whatnot. And so I had to make this decision and it was like, take a new assignment or take a break and I had this huge dark night of the soul, you know, Mind Mind gut battle for me, and I took about nine months off from work and I’m really blessed. Like I feel blessed to have been able to do that, but I just went deep. And I just started doing things like this The jinkies study group that you and I did together, I joined a lot of different containers I explored, I dove into human design and the gene keys and just met all these amazing people. And so I’m almost done, I promise. But in the midst of all of this, I kind of started to see, you know, first I’m like, oh, PRs gone like I don’t, you know, I no longer want to work in healthcare, and I hate the media, I’m done with this, you know, like, I want no parts of any of this anymore, you know, and was in the middle of like, COVID, when things were so just crazy on all of those fronts in so many different ways. And I just thought, well, I have to figure out something else am I going to be a coach, everybody’s a coach, this is what I need, you know, and then I’m like, I don’t want to do that I don’t want to go back, you know, get a certification. And you know, all these things. And I started to realize there was a huge interest in PR from a lot of people, you know, they’re the marketing funnels, and all the things that are fantastic, but are hard to sustain for a lot of people to build and grow their businesses. And I realized there was an opportunity to help so many solo entrepreneurs out there, get out there with PR and realize that they were worthy and capable. But then at the same time, like, I also then started to see this opportunity to make it really personal. I mean, what’s more personal than our communications, and I started to explore how I put the two things together. And so in a very long nutshell, I apologize. That’s how I brought those those two pieces together to help people uncover their authentic message and then also understand energetically how they’re meant to get it out there into the world. 

 

Emily Merrell  06:24

I love stories like this, in which someone like yourself was able to marry different parts of themselves into like, the thing that they were meant to be where you you had the skill of PR you had this, this inkling that you still kind of wanted to do it, but you weren’t sure how to do it. But then you were able to take this interest that you were passionate about, and see a way that they could be complementary to each other. And I always think of, I think 30 is a perfect time when people start going into this deep exploration of who am I what do I want your point the success like, oh my gosh, I thought money and Louie Vuitton bags for right were maca. And now you’re like,

 

Amanda Foley  07:05

what is used to buy those just to make myself feel better. I have a whole collection of Louie’s that just were literally to soothe myself. 

 

Emily Merrell  07:13

Yeah it’s definitely like a tactic, the shopping tactic and the spending money on yourself the worth. I was actually thinking about Taylor Swift today. We it’s we’re recording this in July, Taylor Swift is coming in Denver tomorrow. And I was thinking about her and thinking about this, like incredible success she’s had in her life of she’s performing 40 songs in one night, and millions of people are excited to see her. And I was curious, I was thinking about like her psyche. Like, do you feel like you’ve made it to the top top top of your game? Where does she find joy? And in speculating, and I’m sure you could probably do her human design and give me some more answers on that. But yeah, you just think that like the things that we are conditioned as kids of what success and worth and the American Dream are different when you reach a point. And so I love how I feel like everyone has not everyone is there. It’s not this isn’t a blanket statement. But there’s like that person or that friend that that is like your, your gateway drug introduced there. But it’s to spirituality. So who was that person that introduced you to human design? Do you remember?

 

Amanda Foley  08:29

Well, you know, I actually have a good friend, who’s a life coach who had told me about human design. So she was probably the first person that shared it with me, I’d see back in 2019. And then, you know, it’s one of those things, sometimes I think you hear, and either you immediately dive in or it kind of goes away and then creeps back in if you know, we all have different ways in right, whether it’s the person or the modality. And you know, I’m never saying human design is for everybody. But for a lot of people, once they actually take that leap a little deeper, it starts to really kind of, you know, weasel its way in and you think, oh my goodness, like, this is how I’m supposed to be I don’t need to judge myself for all these things that I thought were wrong with me. And so as I started to kind of dive in, I found I’m ever done, what he’s podcast. And interestingly enough, she’s actually now my PR client I did she’s the only person I actually do PR for mostly I teach people or coach, you know, with messaging strategy. You know, for people that do it themselves and have the, you know, the framework to do that. But I just dove into her podcast, which is so informative, and it makes it really easy and breaks it down. And I very quickly became, you know, just, like driven to learn as much as I could about it. And then Jess, who you know who I mean, she’s now a partner. We’ve worked together on courses now and she and I have become so super close. I mean, we talk about this stuff. All we do is boxer back and forth. Like, oh my gosh, it’s so I mean having people I think that’s also community is really important, I think in spirituality to your point, which is that the more we can connect with other people around it, it’s it makes it a little bit easier to sort of sort through things and not get stuck in our own little All bubbled because I think it can be overwhelming sometimes for people,

 

Emily Merrell  10:03

well into that same point, how do you navigate talking about this? Or talking about human design or gene keys or spirituality to the community that you’re around? That is doesn’t want to touch it with a 10 foot pole? Like, do you? Have you ever had something like that happened to you? Or your? I don’t like to say your husband who thinks you’re an insane person when you keep bringing up like, Oh, you’re such a generator in that? Yeah. Well,

 

Amanda Foley  10:27

you know, it’s funny, because I would say he actually, he became spiritual, maybe isn’t, I mean, he is spiritual, but we don’t meaning like he meditated, and things like that before I ever did. But I always would look at and I would kind of like, it’s actually terrible. So it was me, I would look at and be like, Oh, you’re taking a nap again, you know, with work from home and I’d walk downstairs, you’d be like, you know, on his chair in his office, like, Oh, you’re taking a nap. He’s like, I’m meditating. And I was like, you know, and I would tease him and I look back now. And I thought, like, Oh, my God, like, what a jerk you were using, you know, teasing him about it, and then look where I ended up. But so he’s very open minded, let’s say, I mean, he’s definitely not into human design of the jinkies the way I am, but he’s a reflector, which is the rarest time to which is really interesting to discover. And he liked, I think he likes that it makes him feel special. And my dad is actually a reflector, too, which is so strange. Because if you would have said to me, like, Did you marry your father, I would love them both. But I actually really did marry my father. And it was like finding one another one portion of the 1% of the population out there to partner with in life. But you know, he’s very open to it. But what I will say is this, you know, I have this channel in my human design, and I actually consider it a communications channel. It’s called the channel of structuring and it connects your mind and your throat. And it helps you take ideas, and that may be complicated and make them make sense for people. And we can essentially might be a good entree into telling people a little bit more about human design. Thinking, yeah, because so what what I have found is that it’s so part of that is being able to have the skill of making complex things a little more simplified for people so they can grasp them. But a big part of it is also waiting for the right timing and the right, you know, knowing when you can share that information so that people they call it the freak to genius channel. So I Lexy has this too. And I don’t know if you do or not because I didn’t pick your chart. But you know, it’s one of those things where it’s like, I could share it with someone and they could be like, Yeah, you’re freaking crazy. Or they might be like, Oh, my gosh, this is so fascinating. Tell me more. And so the, the more I’ve come to my own definition of human design, and how I share it with people, I actually have found people that I wouldn’t have expected to be receptive to be very receptive to the way that I share it with them. So that was really important for me, because if you Google human design, I mean, and there’s nothing wrong with this. But you know, they’ll say it was downloaded by Rob goober who and it, you know, seven day, you know, event in Ibiza 1987, or whatever, however, they describe and people are like, Oh, my gosh, this sounds like a cult or something. You know, I it’s really not what it is at all, I think and again, like it needed to happen that way. I think lots of things are downloaded, in my opinion that you know, are genius. You know, things that are brought out into the world for good. But you know, people can also mistake them and take them in in the wrong way. If they don’t get the the the right definition, but a definition that they can they can grasp and understand. So

 

Emily Merrell  13:13

in layman’s terms for someone who’s listening to this, and it might be brand spanking new to human design, how would you describe what it is?

 

Amanda Foley  13:20

So the way I describe it, is it actually it is called The Science of differentiation. So that’s if you think it might even be the subtitle of the main book, that rocker who wrote. And really what it shows us is how we’re each designed to interact with the world around us. So it’s, you know, how our energy works, how we exchange energy with other people, how we can fulfill our highest potential and achieve your earlier point, our definition of success and fulfillment, because it doesn’t look the same for everybody. And it shows us how to do that with less resistance and struggle, because normally we’re conditioned, and we’re working with our conditioning, which is not the way our actual energy is naturally meant to flow. And so we find that things are a lot harder than they have to be. And the more I practice this, you know, we call it the experiment. You know, the more I find things happens with such ease in a way that I would have really struggled with before. But it really, in essence gives us permission to be our truest selves and who we are, instead of who we think we should be who other people want us to be. And it shows us, you know, where we’re living authentically. And like I said, for me, it showed me that all these things that I spent my whole life judging about myself, are literally my gifts and talents and what makes me feel happy and aligned. And so, uh, you know, I would also sometimes I’ll tell people, it’s sort of like a behavioral or personality tests like Enneagram or Myers Briggs. The difference is that because it’s based on our birth, date, time and location, you know, it doesn’t have the conditioning that comes with answering questions. So when we’re answering questions from the mind, our mood can affect that how we feel on a given day can affect that what we think we want the results to be can affect that. But the way human design works sort of similar to a astrology and astrology is part of the system. But, you know, at the time of our birth were imprinted by these very tiny particles of matter that are called neutrinos. And it’s based on where the, the position of the planets and the collective energy and they they actually imprint, the 64 Gates within our chart, which are also aligned with the Chinese I Ching, the Book of Wisdom. However, there’s actually scientific studies, you could Google this on the NIH website. And Carl Jung did a lot of this with his shadow work, but they aligned the 64 gates of the Chinese I Ching, also called the keys and the jinkies with the 64 codons of our DNA, and that’s actually why we call it the jinkies. So there’s scientific facilities that study neutrinos, there’s one in Japan. And so you know, all of this, again, can sound very woowoo. But there is a lot of science behind it. I think it’s just sometimes, you know, Emma Dunwoody, talks about this all the time, it’s starting to realize that the metaphysical and the science actually are in many cases saying similar things. And when we can accept that I think it just really gives us permission to say like, this is I am this person, I’m, you know, the spirit in this meets the soul in this meatsuit for a reason, and I’m going to live life I came to live, and not the one that I’m being told I need to live. So to me, that’s a beautiful experiment is to actually try living as ourselves.

 

Emily Merrell  16:16

And so I’ve been doing a lot of work with, with colleges, my university in particular, and I feel like this should be like a required course your freshman year to to have a better understanding of who we are, what, what motivates us. Because to your point, like we’re not all cut from the exact same cloth, my journey might be slower or different or more easeful, or more challenging than then next person. And I think it’s such an important conversation to have. I feel like when I you explained it so beautifully in one of the when I tried to explain it to people, one of the objections or one of the challenges is, how are there just as a finite number of different personalities, basically, per person? Can you break down how there’s not only the projector or the reflector and the generator, but also like the more specific components that make?

 

Amanda Foley  17:11

Oh, yeah, and that’s a great question. Because I think that’s what it is, it’s like you get a type like you would in Myers Briggs, or, you know, you get a number and in Enneagram, or whatever it might be, I’m not as familiar with, with that. I’ve obviously taken Myers Briggs in business many times. And I always got different results and never felt like they were made, which is really funny. But, but yeah, so type is actually something that was added later, to make it easier to teach people and kind of say, like, Oh, this is your type. But really, you have to look at the chart holistically. And that’s why a lot of people get very excited when they first learn human design. It’s it goes so deep. And I think I feel like I could study this my whole life and never understand all of the nuances. But you start to be able to identify patterns within the chart, because you’re way more than just your type. Your type is just your energetic strategy, it gives you your energy type gives you a strategy, that kind of tells you so like you’re a projector. So you know, on people, there’s not a lot of negativity that comes with it, where people will say, you know, I’m a projector, I can’t do anything until someone invites me to do something, which is not true at all. It’s really about making yourself visible for the invitation. And also sort of like I was saying, with effort to genius channel, because that’s a projected channel. It’s knowing when the time is right to share your guidance. So you can see things as a very wise projector. I love projectors, I have so many in my in my life like I not that I should pick a favorite. But I think like many of my favorite people are projectors. But then yeah, and I think like you just have to be you have to be able to recognize when someone’s going to be ready to hear what you have to share with them. Because otherwise it can be kind of repellent. And they’ll be like, Oh, I don’t want to you know, who you know, don’t tell me this or you don’t actually it can make give them a physical energetic feeling of being repelled by that information if the timing is not right. But we have, we have our profile, which sort of tells us the theme of our lives, like who we’re here to be or what we’re here to do and how we do it. There are there’s so many things with the chart, we have your your authority, which tells you how you make decisions. So it’s so much more than type. And I think, you know, people can see it that way. And I think the issue too even just working with us with the media, beyond podcast, you know that they everyone does the article, which are human design type. And nobody wants to go any deeper on it. I shouldn’t say nobody but you know, many reporters are like, oh, yeah, we covered that. And in my mind, I’m like, You didn’t cover it because it’s almost giving people a false impression that you just are want it like you’re saying one of these five personality types. And it’s really not. It’s not your personality at all your type. It’s truly your energy, how your energy works.

 

Emily Merrell  19:43

1,000% and I feel like I appreciate that so much. And I want you to write an article or go deeper so we can go even that much deeper. And I appreciate that context to you. So next time someone says, oh, but you’re this or you’re that and I will No actually pull that earlier before we recorded we were talking about your generator right, Amanda? Yeah, and I’m a projector, and one of my greatest loves in life. And my therapist and I talk about it all the time. And I so appreciate her because she integrates a human, I told her about human design our first session, and she like, took it upon herself to do some research, and she’ll really reference it and love that.

 

Amanda Foley  20:24

That’s amazing. And any helps her I think it can help like, right, it gives, it’s almost giving you like that window into where you need to go. And

 

Emily Merrell  20:33

1,000% And I’ll share with her I’ll say, you know, like, I’m really frustrated with this person. And I asked them a bunch of questions. They didn’t ask me anything back or, you know, my husband, I all I want is like deep conversation. And she’s like, You have to recognize that that’s the way that you feel love. And that’s how you connect with people. But that’s not the case for everyone. So before we hit record me, and we were going over some of the questions we’re talking about, and at the end, I always asked fast questions. And she’s like, Oh, as a generator, it’s really hard for me, my brain just can go, go blank, I’m not quite sure where to start or where to go or how to wrap it up. Where are me? I like Oh, asked me a deep question and analysis, your

 

Amanda Foley  21:18

love language literally as a projector. It’s so true. And it doesn’t meet me generators actually do like questions, but especially because we have that sacral which is our authority, which is our gut and some people still have the emotional authority, which which sort of overrules that. But all generators and manifesting generators, which is 70% of the population have a sacral response. And so it’s very much a yes, no, that’s not from our mind, our body answers, it’s so fast, but our bodies will answer before our minds do. And so sometimes open ended questions can be really tough at the same time, you’re like, my mind will sometimes go completely blank. Where if you sort of gave me like choices or sad, and then I could from there respond, and I would then probably come up with an answer, but when it’s this, and I find this with my projector son, where I have asked him, like, almost like fire questions that him but they won’t be deep questions. They’re more like, give me a quick answer. And he gets very frustrated with me. I don’t know if you feel that too. But I’m like, why are you getting so upset? He’s like, stop asking me questions like that. And I think it’s like, but if I said to him, you know, what do you think about? I don’t even know what like, you know, really deep question. He would really sit there and ponder it. Like he’s the kind of kid that at dinner will ask, you know, if you had to choose one thing to eat for the rest of your life, and you could never have anything out, you know, like, this is our dinner conversation. I don’t know. It sounds like you know, give me two choices.

 

Emily Merrell  22:41

Oh my gosh, my husband hates anything, like adores it and hates it about me so much. Because I also my brain gets the most clarity right before I go to bed and I’ll be like, are you where you think you wanted to be at this age? He’s like, a hug you I also now spiraling being like, am I where I should be at this age? Like, what is my relationship like with my father? And all just that so he’s like, can we make a pact that you don’t ask me like, deep existential questions before I go to bed? Because it’s not fair. I’m like

 

Amanda Foley  23:17

What is he a generator type? Yeah,

 

Emily Merrell  23:19

I think he’s a he’s a January generator or a manifesting generator?

 

Amanda Foley  23:22

Yeah, you probably like kind of turn him back on like with the with the rest but like, you know, then you probably start his brain probably starts going because he’s like, oh, I need to respond to this. Now he’s respond

 

Emily Merrell  23:32

and think about it. And he’s like, up and tweaked out sacral starts firing up again and terrible, but I was laughing when you were talking about how your son gets upset when you ask yes, no questions. And what are the response to how a generator is response from your body? My son is a manifesting generator and he is almost two and teach us learn to the word no. Oh my god, Amanda up but he knows what he wants and doesn’t want a big do you want to go to bed? Oh, do you want watermelon? Okay, watermelon. And then do you want this?

 

Amanda Foley  24:07

Yeah, and a lot of kids that have that are generator types also use the guttural sounds there’ll be a lot of like and a lot of people are trained out of that. So parents will say that’s rude say yes or no. But just so you know, it’s actually really healthy for him to use those sounds if he does because what that allows him to do is let his gut override his brain because if he has to take that extra step I’m no neurologist, but if you have to take the extra step to sort of form the word his mind has a time to interfere with the noise comes out of him and are like our head not we’re big head nod errs any kind of generator. You see like those back channels coming out? Mm hmm. It’s hard not to do it because it at but that’s actually our sacral speaking and that’s 70% of the population. So most likely, you know, I

 

Emily Merrell  24:55

love I love hearing these things. And now I’m going to torture my whole family. Within

 

Amanda Foley  25:00

the kitchen, I feel like kids should know their design going to school. I mean, I’ve raised my son so differently being a projector than I would probably have otherwise, I would have pushed him to do things. I mean, he has kids, we have a lot of kids in our neighborhood, they ring the doorbell for him all the time. But he will never go ring the doorbell where I would have been like, go go, you know, go ring the doorbell. But I see now that it’s his naturally as energy does not want to do that. But people still know he’s there. And he still gets the invitations, he just is not really always meet doesn’t mean he can’t with people he already has established relationships with but he’s also never going to be the one to go force his way into a group. And I’m really glad of that now, because I think he’ll be much better received when he just makes himself visible shares, you know when the time is right. And then people recognize him for his wisdom, His gifts, whatever it is that he has to share

 

Emily Merrell  25:47

and comes to him. I love that. Yeah, my son was probably like seven minutes old when I was Googling his chart. Try it I was the astrology chart in front of me I was Gene keys and like, oh, this poor child is going to be raised. That poor child would ascribe Child

 

Amanda Foley  26:04

Yeah, like, it’s a gift. What’s his profile? Do you know?

 

Emily Merrell  26:08

For his human design, he’s a manifesting generator with an inner authority, emotional solar plexus profile, three, five,

 

Amanda Foley  26:17

he’s a three, five. Yeah, that’s actually really interesting profile too. And so my son’s a four, six, but when you even when you have the six until you’re 30, give or take, you sort of operate as a three. And a three is a lot of trial and error. And I see that in my son too. Like, they almost have to learn things for themselves. And I know that that was how I was for most of my early life, too. So it’s almost good to let him make, make impulsive mistakes and air quotes, right, because there really is no such thing. But that’s how he learns. And so it’s really good to let it as hard as it is to allow them to go and explore and have those experiences for themselves versus us trying to intervene. Oh,

 

Emily Merrell  26:53

I’m like you fall off that chair. And that is on you. That is a learning experience for you moving forward and all truth? Well, so I mean, that I, we know now about your PR background, we know about human design, how do you recommend people married both of them for each other, with for each other with each other? Yeah, so

 

Amanda Foley  27:13

what I do is I work with people to build communication strategies. And so PR is my expertise. But obviously, I look at this from a much broader level, as I’m saying to you, before we hit record, communications, affect everybody. And I think, you know, especially when we think about being solo entrepreneurs, and there’s so many out there, like more everyday people are being called to, you know, get out there and do new things and leave these, you know, corporate careers and go out on their own. And so talking about ourselves can be really hard. And that’s sort of what I started to find, as I was just exploring, generally speaking. And what human design and then the jinkies can actually do is help people figure out how to personalize their communications in a way that feels good. So they’re not imitating or seeing what they think they need to say, to sell their services or their product is really less than be authentic. There’s a bunch of places that I look in the chart, so what I do is I usually will work with people one on one to build a custom strategy for them. If you go deeper into messaging, we start to go into the sequences of the jinkies. That’s something that requires a little bit of self work to which is kind of fun, like a soup for people that are really into that, it’s to me, it’s like this really fun blend of getting to know yourself better, and then figuring out how to use it practically, which is a line five, you probably can appreciate as well. But really we look at you know, we’ll look at something like type. So for example, you know, manifest errs are the ones that are gonna hear the start the trends, or share their bold ideas or messages, but a lot of times they’re afraid to do that. They don’t want to stir the pot, but I can say to them, this is what you are meant to do, you’re literally here to launch people into something new and initiate them. And then you know, then people like the generators will kind of come in from there respond and take action. So, you know, and being a generator sometimes can feel a little limiting, because people are like, Well, I have to sit and wait for somebody to tell me but it’s not that at all we are inspired by I mean, I listened to podcast and that’s where so many things come from for me that if it’s not like I’m taking that idea, but it will just spark a process in my brain that then leads me down, you know, a path of breadcrumbs and then it just takes me places and that’s sort of how I navigate my day is about like I know now I just follow my energy and what feels good and excites me. And there’s people like you that are here to be wise and to guide people and then reflectors which are very rare, but they’re here to reflect back to people what they see that needs to be you know, there could be better in the world or even reflect people back to themselves in some cases where you know, there’s so many people that are not self aware and we being one of them for many years of my life. The more self aware we become, you know, the better everything just because like it’s like life slows down and you go into this like bubble of like, Oh, now I see everything you realize you’re not the voice in your head. You’re observing the voice in your head that like to me it was mine mind blowing to start to truly become aware and present And then we also look at our profile lines. And so, you know, that’s sort of like the persona that we present. So like, again, talking very generally speaking, if someone’s saying, Well, how do I, you know, I want to post more on social, but I don’t have to do that, or what that supposed to sound like, that’s going to feel good to me, we can start to look at that. And I can say, you know, okay, your loved one, you’d love to learn and dive deep, and you’re supposed to be a subject matter expert. But what happens a lot of times with live ones is that they feel like they’re afraid or they don’t know enough, or I’m not an expert, everybody knows this. But that’s not the case, because they’ve gone so deep. And they build this foundation of knowledge that then they share, and other people sort of feel safe to take action. From that point. We talked about the line threes, like your sons that are here to actually share what they learned from the things that didn’t go the way that they expected them to. Because that is the experience that they’re meant to bring out there. There’s like, I’m a four, six, I’m literally here to like, make people feel good, and be supportive and serve them. And, you know, build my network and share my resources with people. And that’s something that truly does make me feel so good. I mean, there’s that’s why I love what you do. Because it’s, there’s nothing that feels better to me than, like I left the event yesterday, just feeling so energized after connecting with you and the other women. And it’s just you know, it’s so there’s all these things like that we can look at within our chart. And that’s just within two elements that can tell us exactly how we’re meant to show up in our communications. And then we can go so much deeper, I kind of see the human design is like the energetics and the how and the jinkies then give us the storyline, which we can use to then craft messaging that can show us so many things, they can show us why we do the work we do the motivation behind it, how we help people, the type of people we’re meant to help and what they value, what our brand should look like, what drives our work, I mean, we can, you can go so deep, just within the prosperity and the activation sequences to really understand you know, the mission behind your work your vision for what you want to bring to the world. All you know, your core talents, all of those things are all right there. And it to me, it’s really fascinating to look at it from the PR perspective and the communications perspective.

 

Emily Merrell  32:09

I think it’s such a genius marriage to to have, to your point about I think it was you said the Leiden one or they said that they need to continue learning. They’re not academic enough, or they’re not. They love

 

Amanda Foley  32:21

to learn, but they always feel like it’s not enough. Oh,

 

Emily Merrell  32:24

I thought that I think that’s such a great thing to have in my back pocket just to know about because I feel like I’ve met so many people that are like, Oh, I have my PhD but I think I need a certification or, Oh, I think I need this or that and you’re like just go just just do it, you

 

Amanda Foley  32:40

have to take that imperfect action. I am not a one. But I have a lot of ones in my chart. And so that was really revelatory for me to to be like, you know, like, even though I’m you know, again, because you could learn I learned something new, weekly, at least I’m able to expand you know, the the depth of the work that I do within this system and communications. But I can’t wait until I know every single thing to get out there. And so I know that I know enough. And I’ve seen the results of truly helping people with this too. But it is very easy to get stuck in that that feeling that you just are not, you know you’re not there yet.

 

Emily Merrell  33:14

You’re not there yet. And you’ll never be there.

 

33:16

You’ll be there.

 

Emily Merrell  33:17

I’m curious, would you you’ve seen my chart, you have my chart? If you were to use me as an example. And I love actionable as examples. For someone like me who’s a projector, whose typical strategy is to wait for the invitation. When you think about PR and marketing for for me knowing my chart, what suggestions would you have? Yeah,

 

Amanda Foley  33:42

so I mean as a projector, you know, a lot of people think, Oh, I can’t do PR because I’m a projector. But what I say is it’s really about nuancing your language. So and I kind of feel like everybody should sort of do this anyway. But a lot of times people think, Oh, I have to be confident and forceful. But I always say for projectors, it’s really just nice to go and say, you know, oh, hey, I love your show. I you know, read this article. If you’re open to it, I mean, it’s literally just like those few words. If you’re open to it, I’d love to share my perspective on X, Y, or Z. So just creating space for an invitation versus asking for one. So very simple nuances like that for a projector. Also just being seen and being visible being out there. I think for you as a projector, having a networking group is beautiful, because you don’t necessarily have to put yourself into a cold network room you’re creating, you’re literally creating the space for invitations within your own business. And that to me is a really beautiful expression of your energy. And I’m just peeking here to to see if like there’s anything else so you do have emotional authority, which means you have to sort of ride that wave to clarity before you make sure you make any big decisions for sure. But I was looking at your jinkies to see if anything cool jumps out at me here. Just a nice Just send it over to me. Well, you know, it’s interesting to me do you struggle with patience?

 

Emily Merrell  35:03

Oh my god. Yes, well, yes. And I’ll say, I have this vision of myself where I give everyone like the small, the same exact size of patients. And there’s people that stay within my patients boundaries. And then there’s people that like, barge through it, I usually those are the energy vampires, that then I have to like, steal someone else’s patients. And then I have two bubbles of patients, and then they barge through that, and I am. I’m not my best self. Once that happens.

 

Amanda Foley  35:31

Yeah, that’s your evolution, which is sometimes it’s the biggest challenge that you face throughout the course of your life. But it also gives you it gives you like, drive in your work, too. So like, you have to have to, like learn that and apply that in your work in some way. So a lot of these jinkies you look at the shadow and the gifts, and obviously, it’s like impatience and patience is the gift and then becomes the city of timelessness. Because you really don’t don’t care and at the time doesn’t matter anymore, right? It’s literally you just can be, which we all aspire to that I think on some level, I have the five in my chart, too. But it’s interesting to me, because I think I’m sure with all the things that you juggle and all the people that you’re constantly, you know, having come into your field on a daily basis, literally, you have to learn to both manage your time, but also when you’re with whoever you’re with, be patient and give them your full attention. Because, you know, it’s important when you when you do the type of work that you do for sure.

 

Emily Merrell  36:27

And I also think there’s an aspects of patients or at least for me, and and to your point about timelessness. When I lived in New York City, I felt like I had a ticking time bomb inside of my body that like I needed to achieve everything by this time, or, or else. And then I left New York and it kind of dissipated. I was like, Oh, right. I I have all the time in the world. Because

 

Amanda Foley  36:50

you also are very open, you only have four defined centers, which is not a lot and you have like all your upper center. So you probably weren’t absorbing. I mean, I was living in New York as both a projector and a very open energetically open being. I can tap being tough in a lot of ways. A lot. Maybe. But it could maybe you probably felt that pulsing. I mean, you know, you’re in a city like that I felt pulses. And you probably felt that every single day. You know. And you probably are pretty good with pressure for the most part in general because you have a defined route. But it so probably wasn’t even the pressure that you were feeling. It was just that energy which was making you feel as if you couldn’t take it all in because it wasn’t yours wasn’t

 

Emily Merrell  37:31

mine. It’s funny that you say that. My husband makes fun of me all the time because I’ll talk about the energy of a city because I feel like I feel it so vibrantly. And when I moved from New York City to San Francisco, I was exhausted, like I truly couldn’t motivate myself to do anything, because I couldn’t feel any energy to get excited or motivated. And I had to really learn how to like plug into my own motivational. I don’t even know what the word is for it but I had to learn how to self motivate more York I could be that psychopath that was out till three in the morning and then do a 6am workout class and then

 

Amanda Foley  38:08

everybody else’s sacral energy that’s what it was. But you’re meant to be I mean projectors do more in less time so you literally are not meant to work straight eight hour day. It’s not really how you’re built and it doesn’t mean that you’re laying a lot of times projectors get called lazy as children because they don’t have the energy but your energy is just more condensed into blocks where you can get under if you’ve experienced that or if you allow yourself to because a lot of people are just conditioned to go and then he really projectors can burn out or easily oh

 

Emily Merrell  38:37

yeah I’ve definitely experienced many rollercoaster ride of burnout and you know what happens typically is my voice disappears. Where I truly lose my voice doesn’t hurt but I will be voiceless and like area where I can’t scream for anything. Yeah. And it usually tells me to like sit down shut up and reset my battery and I think that’s the biggest Miss misinterpretation about me that like you love leading people oh my god, you must love being with people but I also love hunkering down and being a

 

Amanda Foley  39:08

well you have a two on your profile so that makes total sense to you like people are gonna come to you and call you out for your gifts. But you also need that time to be alone too. They’ve been they call it the hermit I call it the natural because I think like net thinking about it as a naturally gifted person is a much more positive frame for it. But it also does mean you need time to be alone to hone those gaps and so like again I also look for patterns in the chart and so I see a lot of compound at places where for you, you need that I mean both being very open being a projector having that line too. So for you that alone time I would say is probably even more or even downtime. You’re doing what you love or what you enjoy doing is really important.

 

Emily Merrell  39:44

Oh my gosh, man that I feel like this is such a gift. Thank you first off and for our listeners. You all if you are like who am I? I want to understand myself a little bit more. Get yourselves understanding human design be that through through and through your own Google searches, but just even having this conversation, it’s so validating minutes. Also, it feels like I’ve taken away so much about who I am. And yeah, and

 

Amanda Foley  40:12

accepting it right and like and you have like your vocation, which is also your core wound, I’ll throw one more in for you is the shadow of construction, but moves through the gift of acceptance of self acceptance, acceptance of others for the city of universal love. And so for you like that could be your core wounds, self acceptance, but it’s also what you’re helping other people to do by encouraging them to get on stages come in front of your, you know, your groups and present and do all those things. So that’s your core talent and your vocation, but it’s maybe something you had to build for yourself. So, to me, human design makes us feel very seen. It lets us accept ourselves for who we truly are. And I don’t think there’s any better gift that we can give ourselves or the people that we interact with on a day to day basis. So

 

Emily Merrell  40:53

and I have to point out too, even if you’re in a corporate job, I think it’s such a gift to understand how your team works by your, your boss, how your subordinate thinks it’s just, I wish I had had more access to it when I was in corporate. So yeah. With that being said, how can people find out more about working with you, Amanda? Yeah,

 

Amanda Foley  41:13

so people can go to my website, which is curate your soul.com or they can find me on instagram@curate.your.soul.com. Just Bob and I are going to be launching another messaging course pretty soon. I’m finishing one up solo now. But I think we’re going to launch another one. Probably around the time when this comes out. And so if people are interested in you know, doing a little bit of a group experience, there’ll be opportunity for that. But I do one on one strategy and you know, I’d love to just connect with everybody is aligned for the more people I meet the happier I am.

 

Emily Merrell  41:44

I love it. I love it. So reach out to me and I no matter what. So Amanda, now is the scary time for the success. Oh, here we go. Are you ready? I’m reading. Okay, my first question for you is tell us an unknown fun fact about Amanda. Okay,

 

Amanda Foley  41:59

so my fun fact is that I have the fastest Glen of Imaal terrier in the United States, actually the fourth fastest small dog in the country. And she’s held her title since 2019. From AKC

 

Emily Merrell  42:12

that’s amazing. And so random, that

 

Amanda Foley  42:15

you can follow her on Instagram if you want to. She doesn’t post much anymore, but she’s legit the gland if anybody wants to check my dog out.

 

Emily Merrell  42:21

Oh, I say I have an image of you. Like, even that person that runs around at the dog show.

 

Amanda Foley  42:26

Oh, so not. And that’s the funniest part when we actually went to nationals in 2020, because we’re like, okay, we can’t do anything. So let’s drive to Florida and let her run in Orlando. And we were not the dog show people at all. And it’s literally just 100 yard dash that they run the dogs love it. They chase a lot. I mean, she freaks out it’s her favorite thing to do. Like I won’t let her do it this summer because it’s too hot. But no, I mean, let me tell you, I saw some of those people with a lot of polyester suits and golf carts with dogs driving around and I I love like blowing out the dog’s hair. Oh, totally. Yeah, no, that’s not us at all.

 

Emily Merrell  42:57

Okay, whole persona. Who would be a dream person to be connected with or have a

 

Amanda Foley  43:03

conversation with? Yeah, I mean, I, I love to connect with people just in general. But if I had to pick one right now that has truly changed my life, especially over the last year, it would be for sure to read. And you were gonna say, founder of the gene cave. Yeah, you read me, but it’s so true. And I think it’s been more transformational than anything else and more inspirational to me and expansive and all the things.

 

Emily Merrell  43:21

He was here. He was in. He was in Boulder on Mother’s Day. And I was like, Ooh, do I forgot I said, No, I didn’t I did Mother’s Day instead. But I didn’t realize that he was British. Right? That was a

 

Amanda Foley  43:35

you have to listen to the audio. I’m going to send you some email. Okay, send me

 

Emily Merrell  43:38

see her helpfulness is coming through. I love it. Okay, What show are you currently watching? Or have you recently watched that you can’t stop talking about

 

Amanda Foley  43:46

so it’s really funny because I’m always like, I don’t watch a lot of television but then I could probably list you like 10 shows but no, Alessandra just came back which really excites me. I’m a big Outlander fan. And then the other one that I watched like recently just if someone recommended and it was like a really quick but like very touching watch with somebody somewhere on HBO, it was like sad and funny at the same time. Oh, yes. Okay, I’ve seen it but I haven’t seen Yeah, that was a good one. Yeah, that was shrinking. I love shrinking too. That was another really kind of like again kind of like a sad but fun I don’t like things that are super sad but if they like can make me laugh at the same time. Oh my god the sad things like will destroy me for a week and I can’t Yeah, like I can never watch what’s the one that everybody watches for the guy died in a crock pot fire or whatever.

 

Emily Merrell  44:32

Oh my god, this is us. Yes. i Every week I would watch it and my husband’s like this is crying with Emily Merrell. Terrible heaving crying, but it felt really good. It was very cathartic. But yeah, I like avoided that episode for a very long time. I just couldn’t stop to watch it. What book are you reading? Or do you recommend reading?

 

Amanda Foley  44:56

So my most recent book I read mostly fiction because I do a lot of reading just for fun. Like work in general but but this one is a is a nonfiction which I highly recommend anybody. And it’s called the surrender experiment by Michael singer or Mickey singer he goes by to amazing book for anybody it’s true story it’s his story but it’s it’s just so fascinating and it really just as a good lesson for life of how will we lean into what comes our way, the miraculous things that can truly happen in our lives. So I think it’s a great message. Yeah, it was one of those ones, three people in one week told me about it. I was like, I think I’m supposed to respond, and I listened to it, but he reads it himself if you’d like Audible, but so I couldn’t stop listening to it. He also wrote the Untethered Soul, which I think more people are familiar with. I haven’t read that one. But somehow that one just kept crossing my path. And so I dove in and I loved it. You surrendered? I love it.

 

Emily Merrell  45:50

I will add it to my list. What is your favorite or most used emoji?

 

Amanda Foley  45:55

It’s definitely like the laughing the LOL emoji because I never want people to take me too seriously. Like,

 

Emily Merrell  46:02

and I’ll say something serious if I did it. I love it. And then my final question for you today is Who gave you permission or inspired you to do the thing you wanted to do with your life?

 

Amanda Foley  46:12

Oh, definitely be my husband George the reflector because he, you know, I looked back at him. Like he literally gave me permission to make two ginormous career changes. And we’ve been married for 20 years we’ve been together for I don’t know, probably like 25. And did to just trust me to leave a really, really well paying job. Like pretty much on a dime, and feel something new, which is always worked out better. So like, in my defense, it ended up being good, but he really was has been so supportive of me, and he never questioned me and he just trusted me to do it. And so yeah, I mean, he really I couldn’t have done it without his support and permission for sure.

 

Emily Merrell  46:53

Here’s to George out there. Here’s to George. I love it. Well, Amanda, thank you so much for such a robust explanation and deep dive into human design into PR and thinking about that differently. Getting excited. I’m excited about it to tackle my own human design and see how it marries into showing up. And I appreciate you being on today’s episode.

 

Amanda Foley  47:17

Thank you for having me. It’s been so much fun, so

 

Emily Merrell  47:20

much fun and listeners if you like today’s episode, please make sure to follow us on Spotify, Apple or wherever you listen to your podcasts and we will see you the next time have a wonderful day.