Episode 86: Human Design and Your Marketing with Brand Strategist Stephanie Zhong

Molly: Okay, every time I have a guest, I'm like, okay, let's keep this episode to like 30 to 45 minutes, but I just can't do it because I get to interview some of the most super interesting and smart and intelligent and kind humans. And I just can't ever keep it short. So I'm going to keep this intro short because the episode is long.

My guest today, Stephanie Zong, she, we're talking all about human design. So Stephanie does more than just human design, but she definitely incorporates it into, she's a brand strategist, a storytelling coach, a human design expert. Um, She's just got such cool experience and she just has such interesting perspectives.

I got to meet her in real life a little over a year ago. And so before you listen to this episode, you can just Google human design. Like it's not a quiz because it's not like something you have to, it's human design. Calculate, I don't know, calculator, but you need to know the exact time of your birth in addition to the day you were born because one time I transposed one of the numbers on my time of birth and it gave me a different type.

So um, Yeah, do your human design before and you just need to know where you were born the date and the exact time. And um, it'll be interesting to hear how this plays out in your business and in your marketing. So here we go.

Hey, welcome to holistic marketing simplified. This podcast boils down to the fact that we wholeheartedly believe that more humans need to know about holistic health solutions and you didn't go to school to learn how to be a. Full time content creator and show up on Instagram and do all of this marketing stuff all day every day.

So let's come hang it out while we chat all things easy in your marketing. And my goal is that you shift your mindset around your marketing from a quote should to a, I get to more dream patients and clients. And Yes, please.

Dr. Kimmie: My name is Dr. Kimmy and I'm a pediatric and prenatal chiropractor in Virginia and I listen to Holistic Marketing Simplified.

Molly: So Stephanie, we've already been chitchatting for 15 minutes. I should have recorded it all, but welcome to the show. I'm so happy to have you. I'm so excited to be with you, Molly. So Stephanie and I got to hang out in real life. We were in a, um, we'll call it a mastermind together. Yeah, it was last year. It seems like ages ago.

It was last year. It was last

Stephanie: April.

Molly: Did you know

Stephanie: Dawn came to my retreat that I had? Yes. I saw, I saw the pictures and then I had total envy because I was out of town and wanted to join you all. And it just looked. Oh, well,

Molly: I've already booked next year's. I'll have to send you the link. Cause maybe you could come do a reading at the retreat.

That could be our activity. So yeah, so Stephanie and I, like I said, we, we got to hang out in real life at, um, Through virtually in a mastermind, but then in real life in Tampa for this retreat. And she's just a lovely human and just, you're kind of like the human sunshine in so many ways. You really are you.

Okay. I'm just going to tell you what my, this might be interesting to you, my, if I were describing you to somebody and what you do, I would say you now use human design to really help people inform their marketing and like branding business, like how they approach their business. Would you say that's pretty accurate?

Stephanie: Yeah. I would. So I'm just like, the human design and your own story to build your marketing strategy from the inside out, from who you are and letting that drive and catalyze your people. Yes.

Molly: So I told Stephanie before we hit record, I was like, I think why this fits in so well with my podcast? I mean, the word holistic is in the name is that.

I, and you had said, well, we're going to throw best practices out the window out the window because it's your own best practice. Right. But for me, I'm like, I'll still teach you some best practices as in like, Hey, this is how you like, typically these are the types of things. You know, that work in your marketing, you know, and you need more storytelling or we need to have a messaging that makes people raise their hand and be like, Oh my gosh, she gets me.

So yeah, so I, I teach best practices in that way, but I don't teach best practices ever. And it can frustrate a lot of my audience because I think they just want me to tell them what to do. And I'm like, I feel so inauthentic doing that because it doesn't work that way. Like people want me to say. Okay. If I post a carousel on Monday and then a real on Tuesday and then a this, I'm like, ah, man, I would be like a multimillionaire if, if it was that formulaic, right.

And like I said, I can give you like a, a blueprint to follow if your personality likes that. That's fine. But it's, I'm not saying it's going to guarantee X or Y result because. And that's another thing too that I struggle with is when people get on discovery calls with me sometimes. And it's no offense to the men, but it's usually the men.

They're like, what's going to be my ROI? Like if they, I'm like, okay, how big is your town? Are you a good, are you good at your job? Like I know that sounds terrible, but like, right. I don't know if you're actually good. It's like the same thing on what you're saying, a chiropractor, for example, like, are you a good adjuster?

Like are people coming back? Are people telling their friends about you? Are people wanting to share you? What have you put out before? Like, there's just too many variables. And I would be so lying to you. If I was like, well, we can guarantee X amount of new patients in X days. And so I really owned that message over the last, I would say year, year and a half.

And I really feel like it has filtered out the clients and students. Yeah. who want that and has brought me the right people. So yeah, that's why when you were like, Hey, let's look, let's, you know, look at this lens through your own, not just human design, but like you just said your own story and like what works for you.

It's like, God, it's going to make things so much easier. Right. Because you had, you threw out your back. Right. And what did that teach you back

Stephanie: when you were, well, so I'll jump into that story in a second, but what you said was so juicy that I have to like, You know, kind of, oh, yeah, it's the word riff on it.

Okay. I love it. So I just love that you like hearing that owning, like when we talk about authenticity and what that means for me, it means you understand what strategies, you know, quote proven strategies are out there. And then it's like, you know what the quote, it's like in design, you know, I watched a lot of project runway.

You need to know the rules of what good design is, and then you can intentionally break the rules or adopt the ones that work for you. And so that's what I really heard when you were speaking and that. For me, it's the same thing. So I will teach, like, what are the techniques of storytelling? What does science show you is captivating?

And then we look at you internally, like, what actually are your inner strengths? And you want to align what your inner strengths are as a marketer, as a storyteller, and you want to have everything play on the same team. By choosing the strategies that work with you naturally, right? And then say no to the things that your body and yourself and whatever doesn't work.

And that's what I mean when I say coming up with your own best practices. So just like you, like neither one of us is saying you have to take a blank piece of paper and come up with your strategies on what are my own best practices on my own. It's no, but what it's going to be is like knowing what's possible and what's out there.

You get to do that mind body check that's going to get you like what clicks for you and what's going to click for your audience and then that Becomes magical. And then that becomes a much better ROI and a better, my new thing is ROE. Like what's going to be the return on energy for your, because we all know, even if you're good at marketing and you have to do all, you know, sustainable business, isn't just the money, but it's going to be the energy.

So I just wanted to just kind of just piggyback off of what you were saying so that people get empowered to learn from experts like you and me. And then the expertise from within the authority inside, which is where the human design part comes in is you start to know where your true knowing is. And now you can make real decisions from the whole menu of all the things you can choose from,

Molly: right?

Yeah, I love that because. How many people are making the desired salary, driving the dream car, whatever, and they're still just exhausted and unfulfilled. Like it's, yeah, it's, it's, there's a missing piece there. Right.

Stephanie: And they started out starting this business because they loved it. And then halfway through, I mean, that was part of my story and how I found human design which is tied to the backstory.

Molly: Yeah. So do we want to

Stephanie: Go there. Yes. Let me, uh,

Molly: hold on. Let me ask one question first. Would you say this is, I'm a big example person. So I don't know if this would be an example of me. I know that if you were, uh, uh, a business coach coming in and you were just looking at my stuff and you had, you really didn't know me that well or whatever, You might would say, well, why aren't you marketing more on Facebook?

Because you've got all of these people on Facebook who could come to, and I, to my response is now because I don't want to, I hate this. It makes me very unhappy. I do not enjoy being on Facebook. I don't like opening the app. I don't like, yeah, I just, I don't enjoy it. I haven't

Stephanie: made a decision that was intuitive and strategic because you found another channel.

That really works for you. That lights you up. And so high return on energy there. Well, I guess

Molly: my question, yeah. It's like, is that an example of what you're saying?

Stephanie: It is. I mean, we just, before this call, everybody, we pulled up Molly's. human design. Yeah, I've got it. I'm looking at it right here. And you're a shining example of using, um, your energy type to make choices about what channels you promote on.

And so you are a generator and generators, anyone out there who is a generator, Your secret fuel to being magnetic is joy. So when you are channeling joy energy into where you're marketing, you are adding extra magnetism to your message. And for generators, when you are engaging in activities shoulds, . I know, Molly, you have posted and talked about shoulds.

Yeah, it actually, it's in the

Molly: intro

Stephanie: of

Molly: the podcast. It's

Stephanie: in the That's right. It is

Molly: in the intro of the podcast and have it, I hope you transform your marketing. Yeah. From a, I should to an I get to,

Stephanie: I get to, I want to. And so that's so key that success comes in, um, with less effort. When you're choosing this would be exactly what I would be saying to folks who are generators is that of all the different platforms that you can be on, which ones do you feel lit up about?

Because what happens with generators, which is so fascinating is then you're lit up to open Instagram, right? And when you are marketing from a place of joy on a quantum physics level, You are actually activating surplus energy into the universe for other people. So people will actually feel more energized from your content on Instagram.

And then similarly, I think it just works with human nature. Anywhere there's resistance, don't enjoy Facebook, whatnot. It's when we start sending dread energy into our messaging, it's, it's actually going to be felt. You know, on a subconscious level to our people. Like we are so media savvy. Now we can sniff out inauthenticity.

Right. So if it's feeling forced, we know when people are marketing from a forced, I just got to do it. I just got to hype myself up. Here we go. And it won't, you know, if you know, we were just talking about the bro marketers, but you won't really get. Results back that you're happy with. And I have looking back on my own, um, career before human design and helping people with marketing.

It's like, you'll see it on paper that we're. you feel joy and where you're investing your time and your energy and your heart and your love and your passion, it's going to grow more there than a place that you feel like you're obligated to be at.

Molly: Yeah. Right? Yeah, and you know this I didn't even mean to bring this up, but it I've been listening to a lot of like manifestation stuff lately and I'm actually getting ready to go into a flash sale at the time this airs the sale would have been over because it was for like it'll be for Labor Day, but and I was like, okay thinking about my visual visualization and I was like, okay, I, my slack dings when I get a sale and I always say more please universe literally every time I get a sale and I make that person and I'm like, thank you.

But then I'm like, okay, is that what I want or do I want more of, cause we also send personalized emails to anyone who has not opened the course within two weeks of purchasing. Mm hmm. And so I'm like, I don't want just sales for the sake of sales. Right. I'm, we had to hop on this call so I didn't get a chance to like rethink what I want that visualization to be, but I want it to be more of like, Not just the ding of the sale, but the result.

I love getting the DMS from, or the messages in Slack or email, like, Hey, this is like actually working and we've got a new patient. You know, like that's the stuff that I'm like, Ooh, that's like, that gives me like goosebumps. Yes. Me too.

Stephanie: And actually that totally speaks to what I learned from this back injury that I had around.

This is a deeper level of alignment when it comes to when we talk about brand or our business or our stories. So when I first stepped away from corporate and then started my business and knew I wanted to specialize in storytelling, I had picked up, um, a retainer client that was like Represented like 70 percent of what my projected earnings were.

And I was with them for three years and they were people I loved. And at the time there was a mission behind it. I was fired up about, and then in year three, they, the CEO hired a COO who was his older brother. And the brother started majorly shifting the boat of their business towards that place of icky marketing.

That did not represent my values. And when I was leading this brand retreat in person with them and the entire team was miserable, okay. Including the CEO. But they had family dynamics going on. He couldn't, he couldn't, it was his business. So we did a three day retreat. Yeah. And it was very intentionally designed.

And the first two days people were so lit up to do this work. And we were, I was like, I think we're going to get there. Like, I think that. He's going to come along for the ride and people. And on day three, he leans over the table and he says, Stephanie, you are an expert in everything you're saying makes so much sense, but you have a client here who wants to go to a, in a different direction and you need to listen to that.

And it was like all my self, I could, I remember feeling like my stomach dropped. I'm hopping on a plane in New York flying back and I'm so depressed on the way back. And then a month or two later, I got this debilitating back pain where I couldn't lie down. I couldn't drive. The only thing I could do was stand without pain.

And I, uh, did all the things to try and remove it. Um, I even got acupuncture when I had a fear of needles. I now love acupuncture, but it didn't work. I'm going this afternoon. At that time. That's so funny. And none of it worked. And my therapist finally said to me, why don't you go home and ask your pain what it's trying to tell you?

And I literally was talking to the air. Yeah. So I was like, I don't know how to do that. And it took about a week, but this voice inside said, you don't want to work with this client anymore. And 80 percent of the pain went away like that. And then two weeks later we set up a meeting and I said, you know, I think it's time for us to transition out because I knew who I really wanted to work with.

And I wanted to work with women entrepreneurs and people who were really head and heart in the right place. And. That taught me how your brand and what you stand for and what you do and what you say can affect your health in either direction. And it was my, I was walking away from just. Good money, but the minute I cleared out kind of like what you were saying about the dings on slack Now all of a sudden I started meeting the people that I really wanted to serve But it was not until I was willing to do that And when I am giving human design readings to what I say to generators and manifesting generators by the way is there is What's really energetically correct is to imagine the Zen Buddhists have the saying of if you come to the universe with a full rice bowl, there's no place for the universe to give you the great stuff.

So we're like settling for all the good stuff that's in there. So you have to be willing to make room for, you know, letting go of some of the things that are shoulds or some of the things that are good. But if you were really honest, I really want this, but there has to be space. You know, so yeah, so that's when I went double down, even though I was terrified around the money and like what you said now it's like my clients and my students, it's so fully aligned, there's not a, there's not a sales call that isn't somebody who's a fit.

anymore, you know, and that saves energy. It saves time, saving time, saves money, you know, and like you said, something about your soul is fed and it's like a healthy business and you're healthy because all of it is just in alignment. Right.

Molly: Yeah, I must have needed to hear that message about making room because it's the second time I've heard it today.

Wow. Yeah, I was listening to, do you know Denise Duffield Thomas? I love her. No, I don't. Oh my gosh, you'd love her. She's Australian. She's, she wrote, um, Chillpreneur, which is now called Chill and Prosper and then Get Rich, Lucky Bitch. And yeah. Um, so you do know. Okay. No, I don't. But that sounds juicy. Oh, yeah.

Okay. Well, you are, you are like shaking my head. You're not excited.

Stephanie: Yeah.

Molly: But yeah, she, I was listening to one of her episodes on manifesting and she was her part of her story is how her and her husband manifested this like couples travel trip around the world. And she's like, I, not that I would ever be someone who could go this extreme.

And she was saying, you don't have to go this extreme, but like, she's like, I had already found someone to rent our apartment. When we won, I had already found someone to take care of our pets. I had already put in a notice at my job, like she had made space for winning. She's like, I'm winning this trip.

And like, my calendar is free and we're going on this trip. Um, and so she, she's like, obviously that's an extreme example, but it's like, if you say you want. X but then there's no room like even if you're thinking like literally on your calendar. It is well you have to make

Stephanie: space that's where you start you know is by making room in the calendar for those people to come in

Molly: yeah yeah decluttering a little bit so yeah I love that and then And the other question is, so this might not, I always, I knew our conversation would take so many zigs and zags, but my friend Emily taught me this thing, cause I have a bad habit of interrupting people and I don't mean to, it's just, I get excited and I'm ADHD.

And so I just like, so she taught me this trick. You can't see this if you're listening to it, but I have my fingers crossed. Like, you know, she's like, do that to remind yourself you had something to say. Fingers crossed, reminding myself. I think when I first, this is like a long winded question, when I first took this jump from corporate burnout to really learning about, you know, a soul, like what, what do I really want?

Wow. I actually get to do things that I want to do. Um, I think I almost took it to an extreme where it was like, well, if I don't feel like showing up today, I'm not going to, or if I don't feel like this feels hard. So, you know, and I'm not excited about doing it, so I'm not going to do it. And it's like, well, that's not it either.

Right. Cause there's going to be days like you still have a business to run and there's things to do and you can't just be like, well, I don't, I don't feel in the right energy today. So how do you kind of discern that? I don't know. It's almost two questions in one. It's like one is like, yes, you still have a business and you still need to show up and do certain things.

You just can't wait till you're, you're feeling like it. And then also, how do you know when it's, So let's say Facebook, my Facebook example, how do you know when it's like, okay, yeah, this just isn't for me because it's not energetically what I want to do versus like, Oh, this is hard because it's an obstacle that I need to learn to push through.

Does that make sense?

Stephanie: It totally makes sense. And it's part of, I think one of the most important tools that we need to learn as business owners to make good decisions. Repeatedly to really grow a business that is in alignment to us. And so I think one of the things I would, I would say, right, if we actually, that's a perfect example is there is feelings and then there's energy.

And so they're related, but they're not exactly the same. And sometimes the feelings and especially fear, there's different kinds of fear there's right. And so the question would be. Why do I not want to go on Facebook? Is it because of it's just feels icky. I just don't enjoy it. I could do it. It's draining.

So it's really about the energy part. If I were to do that, would it actually drain my energy or be life giving to me? You know, yes or no. So, and because in your case, Molly, I looked at your chart and, you know, we said everybody has their own part of their body. That's their inner chief marketing officer.

Yours is your gut. Okay. So your gut, if your gut is feeling heavy is feeling, you know, whatever. You just have to, it's about experimenting and trying and trusting it. And so that's one thing is, does it feel like it's draining? If it feels like it's draining, even if you don't know your human design, then it might not be the right energy alignment.

If it feels like there's something actually juicy, like motivating, right? So I want you to imagine now Oprah's calling you.

Oprah wants you to do one Facebook interview, one live on Facebook. Okay. What happens to your energy there? Is it different? And if it's, does it feel life giving, but terrifying, right? Then the difference is your feelings are wanting to say no, but your energy actually wants to do it. And so in that case, it's more about, is that a fear I need to get over?

And what I, what I do with my students in my own, your message program and with my clients is when we're making these kind of high stakes marketing decisions. That where are we going to bring our presence and our energy? Then we kind of also look at fears, which also there's some Intel around fears in your human in people's individual human design charts.

And you will actually see if there are fears that karmically you came into the world with that actually was the lesson you chose to overcome. And if the fear is in that area, like, let's say fear of being enough. then one might consider that if you are like kind of your body's kind of getting excited, but it's really afraid, then that might be a place where you lean in to grow and to overcome things.

Does that make sense?

Molly: It does. And I honestly, I think my issue is with Facebook is I haven't spent much time there. So I have not trained my algorithm to show me things that I enjoy. And it mostly just makes me be like, Oh Lord, is this where humanity is going? Are these people like these things that are shared?

And I actually think

Stephanie: you are, you know, You're practicing the principles really well. There are places that I don't really enjoy being in either, or I don't have much of a feeling for, right? A connection to, so we want to go where the connection is and like use and harness our energy in a way. that cultivates relationships.

I mean, people are essentially everywhere. So as long as you're choosing a channel that does light you up, you do want to create community there. You feel active, activated, and then it feels life giving to you. Then, um, when you're applying the strategies that work for you, the content that is aligned to who your brand is.

it's going to grow. Now, it's not going to be this insta growth thing, and I know you and I both have points of view on that, right?

Molly: Yeah. But

Stephanie: it is going to be Growing a steady, sustainable business. And it's like the snowball effect. It's going to continue in your community is going to juice you up. So then you have more energy to be able to, to do that.

And so what I'll say about the fear thing is usually we do a gut check or a body check around. Um, are you feeling joyful terror? Or are you feeling just, I'm not at all excited, um, about it. Those two, if you're feeling joyful fear as a coach, I genuine, I generally, I can't think of an exception. I will encourage you to move in that direction and find things from your story or who you are in your brand that'll excite you in that direction.

That'll get you to take those baby steps in that direction and then prove it to yourself that like, Ooh, Right after the fact, like that was, that, that was great. Like I got, you know, and then you're growing and expanding and yourself and your brand and me.

Molly: Yeah, that makes sense. I want to, we have about 20 minutes left and I want to get into this piece because about combining your brand storytelling with human design to build these authentic brand narratives you talk about and how.

Like all of you listening, holistic health professionals can use the tools to create this brand story that feels authentic and resonates deeply with your ideal clients or patients. So that's kind of where I want to go, but I feel like it would be pertinent if you think you can do it and do it as service quickly enough.

If you don't, and you're just like, no, just go check out this resource or whatever. That's okay too. But we talked about, so I'm a generator. Is there a way you could go like, okay, really quickly, like typically Like generators would do marketing this way. Typically projectors would do it this way. Is that a thing?

Stephanie: No, we can do like a high level strategy of what, what tip would be helpful for you once you find out your, your energy type. Okay. And what's universal to these types. Okay. So 70 percent of the world, the vast majority are going to be generators or manifesting generators. So we will start there first. So, um, you'll see on your chart, the strategy, your strategy for manifesting and calling in is called waiting to respond.

And that sounds really passive, but that's not true. So what that means is that instead of going out and seeking opportunities, what you want to do is when an opportunity is right in front of you, or an idea is right in front of you, check your gut first. And is your gut lit up about it? Yes or no? Your gut.

works in yes, no questions, or this or that questions. So yeah, and that so it's waiting for your gut to respond. Yippee. Yes. Like I'm into this. I want this. So it's like asking, do I want this podcast interview? Yes or no. Do I want to place ads on Facebook? Yes or no. And just look at what, do you get a little fire in your belly about that?

That's the sig that's the signal. Okay. So anything that's kind of like, I'm not feeling anything is a no for now. Okay. No for now. You pause on that. Yeah. If you're like, I don't know, I don't feel anything. I can justify it in my head, but it's a no for now. Okay. And then if you're feeling like constricted, you're feeling heavy.

It's a flat out hard, hard pass, like hard no. Okay. So that's how you can decide on marketing decisions. Then once you get the ding, ding, ding going on, right, it gets considered on your plate of things, right? So, um, that's what I would say is just ask that. And then, um, the, the things that you want to, what you want to do is shift the plate to doing marketing activities or telling stories and content.

It could be the same thing. Do I want to share this story? Do like what price Am I happy with offering it at 97? Yes or no? Am I happy to offer it at 197? Yes or no? So just start using your yes, no, do I want this? And then if you are a manifestor, 7 percent of the population, their strategy is to initiate.

So, we're taught to initiate and take action and be proactive, but the ones that it actually works best for are manifestors. So if they get a spark, they get excited. Their strategy is to inform people, start talking about it, even before it's fully fleshed out, which is very contrary to way manifestors think and the way we are.

We want to wait until things are perfectly polished and produced and put together. For manifestors, it's like in their content, you know, they can start saying, I have this idea that I've been thinking about around offering X, Y, and Z, right? And they just start talking about every part of their process.

which is the opposite of what they want to do. But the more they talk about it, they said, you know, I'm thinking about creating this, you know, program, or I'm thinking about offering this new service because I'm really excited about X. And even if they say, I don't, you know, I'm looking for X, I'm still looking for experts that will help me with Y, people will come out of the woodwork.

And say, Hey, and that's the, that's the strategy for manifestors is. And by the time they launched the thing, they already have it sold out because they've been talking about it all the way along, you know, so that's really for a great strategy for manifestors. And just to talk about any, anything, anything they're remotely interested in and sharing it out.

It's it, and they, you know, it really works and to communicate. The third one is for projectors and projectors, their strategy is waiting for the invitation. This is, this is mine. It was a little bit disheartening at first for me to hear it, but then actually when I look back on my career, I'm like, Oh my God, this is what I've been doing.

So with projectors, you have this aura that's very, we call it penetrating because you really see deeply into people. And so if people want to be seen, It's so magnetic for them. They're like, why God, you see me? I need to work with you. Right. If they're not about that, they will find, they will actually like push against it.

And so for projectors, the waiting for invitation, what that means is you're waiting for, like, in this case of this podcast interview, Molly said, Hey, D like, let's have you on the podcast. If I were to do hard pitching, I wouldn't get as great of a return on my pitches by just flat out. But when somebody else says, Hey, this is a, I think this is a conference that you should speak at or podcast you should be at.

I can make an introduction for you. Now I'm being invited into that conversation. You know, the, the other thing for projectors, that's very powerful is like, you don't need permission to build your business or share your expertise. So when you're just, we call it building a lighthouse. So you build the lighthouse of your content and you let people come to you and the boats start coming over.

They discover you. So be findable. And then once they're there, they've invited you. If they're a follower. They are, they've invited you now you can share and announce things and things like that. So, um, and as a reflector, they actually shape shift. So they are lunar beings instead of solar beings. And so their energy, they actually kind of embody these different energy types over 30 days.

And it's just. They're only 1 percent of the population. Y'all are true unicorns. If you're a reflector listening to this and what that means is it's good to have a, um, a map and then to start to notice your cycles. And then your cycles are, you know, and then therefore like they announce on day eight of every month or right.

They go into a cocoon and they create content on the 11th and 12th is when they get all that creative juice and build their lighthouse on those two days. So they really just shift around. I usually use a dating example to describe this in action. And I don't know if we have enough time for it, but, um, I wanted to just circle back.

Let me just do it quickly. Is that okay? Of course. Yeah. So I, yeah. So I want you to imagine it's like girls trip. Okay. And these five gals with five different energy types are, they're in a club someplace, okay. And each one of them sees someone that they're attracted to, all right? The manifestor is the initiator.

So they have to inform. So they, they, she turns around and says, Hey, everybody, you see that person over there? I'm really into them. I'm going to walk over and talk to them. So I want you to know if I'm there, don't bother me. This is the inform part. And if you need to go home beforehand, feel free. So they share that.

And then she walks over and strikes a conversation with this person because her friends might be worried about her and they might interrupt the flow and stuff. This is why manifestors need to talk. If you are a generator waiting to respond. Okay, you have to wait until your gut's like, Ooh, Ooh, that person's really interesting.

You know, the manifesting generator, I forgot to add this before has a little manifester in them. So if they get the ping from the gut, they can walk over and initiate. Okay. And just say, Hey, how are you? I'm so and so. If they are a generator, they do a bend and snap from Legally Blonde. And she even says, you know, in my experience, like 70%, it works with 70 percent of people.

And I'm thinking that's so human design. So then you walk over and you drop your drink or you accidentally whatever, and then. And go, Oh, hi, you know, you're standing, you stand in line behind them in the bathroom, whatever. And they go, is this the line for the bathroom? And you go, yeah. And then you strike the conversation.

I'm laughing because that is so me. Okay. You see, you've been totally living out your human design. Projectors. How does waiting for the invitation work? The manifestor knows. It's the, I don't know if you ever saw How I Met Your Mother, but I'm convinced that Ted was a projector, so it's a have you met Ted?

That's the strategy for projectors. You get a friend who's like, hey, I think you should meet my friend. See her over there? And then when that person sees it, oh, they're cute. Now they're now you're being seen now you're being recognized now they come over. Okay, the other way if you don't have that buddy to be doing have you met Ted is it's open mic night.

You love karaoke, you're building your lighthouse, you're on stage, you're singing your your signature song, and your person is watching you and going, Oh my god, what a pretty lighthouse like I'm really drawn and they come up to you and said, Hey, I really love that song. That's what a projector does. See how different that is?

Yeah. I love it. Yeah. And then the reflector, like I said, it's the day of the week. It's the day of the week. It's like she's coming in and she knows today I've got my manifestor energy. I'm going to walk up or it's a bend and snap day. Like who am I today? You know, I'm doing Bennett snap. I'm doing lighthouse.

What am I doing?

Molly: Oh my gosh, that's great. I've never, yeah, that makes so much sense. I love that. Okay. So now that we've kind of like, painted that picture of all the different types, then you talk about brand storytelling. Okay, let's talk more about that.

Stephanie: When it comes to the way I like to do branding that I think is roots you to rise, it is about understanding fundamentally unconscious words.

Who you are, what you offer, understanding your aura and how to have everything work really authentically the way you're talking, what you're saying, who you're talking. And so on the storytelling front, right? It is all about, I take people through, um, what I call mining the hidden gems of your story. So we go through six dimensions of your life, which I call the circle.

It's my circle method. And we start doing prompts to help you find things you either forgot about, didn't think was important, or were very meaningful, but you don't know how to talk about them. And we bring that up and we turn, we basically bubble up the ones to the surface that are the stories that would connect deeply with your dream clients.

And we weave that into a narrative, right? That's the traditional way I've been doing. Well, it's not traditional, but it's the way of weaving together life experience, work experience that reveals your, your ethos. It reveals your values. It reveals your personality and the way you love to work with people, whether you're paid for or not, like how it feels to work with you on things.

Then the human design piece is like the story of your nature. Your essence and what you came into the world already like packed with and you weave both of these together. So these are really powerful stories to be things that you are giving in every situation without even trying. Like that's the human design side, right?

That's that organic y zone of genius piece. And you combine that with the story of all the things you've been doing, the things you've been overcoming and the wisdom you learned from that, right? Like all of that is the whole story of you. And we use those two together to build a story that first gives you goosebumps and you feel it in your bones.

Because you know, that's the whole of you and like a lot of the things that have been off the table that aren't in your bio that aren't on your resume or your CV or your about page and they all get to come in because those are the things that people connect to for you, like they see your unique authority and your perspective that was shaped by the different, um, experiences that you've had in your life.

That you've been integrating and incorporating. So it's an integrated story that combines that like authority, human being piece. And then your human design is revealing to you in like a lot of unconscious things you might have known about, but didn't realize it was contributing. When Molly is, you know, the way Molly teaches marketing, which is different from the way Stephanie teaches marketing and the magic that is in there.

And when we're all. Living out and so really my goal is to help people get so clear and conscious and connected to the full brilliance of our stories and being able to shine that out in a meaningful way that is drawing the dream people in. They're feeling like your brand essence, your ethos, your experience.

of how, what it's like to work with you and your expertise. There is nobody else in the world who has those four things that are yours. Yeah, so that's, that's, then you can start to Make visual elements that represent that, you know, but it's really about embodying it ourselves, right? So how do you start to mine that from people who are boring?

I haven't done, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So, and that's a very common thing. It's like, I don't have any interesting stories. Reality TV has kind of distorted us now to this point that we think we're so plain vanilla, but the truth is, it's like the story. So what, What I do is like, the way to start is to make a list of the turning points in your life.

the leaps of faith you've taken, the obstacles that you overcame that changed you as a person, the passion you have for your work. What was the earliest time you felt that in your life? Like, what was that story about? Were you eight years old? Were you 18? What happened? And just by starting there, it's amazing how the, the small but pivotal moments of our lives are so relatable at the details.

bring it to life that make it easy for people to remember, but you don't need to share the same details for people to resonate. So when I was doing my brand mining, it never occurred to me and I never talked about how I was a brownie and a Girl Scout that was just, I was like all in there. I actually invented a badge.

I was like so excited. But then when it came to selling Girl Scout cookies, I was terrified to sell Girl Scout cookies. And that was just a shame thing. But I actually started talking about it on sales calls and I could hear like things clicking differently. And suddenly like people want, people wanted to work with me because they're like scared to sell their own Girl Scout cookies.

You know what I mean? So it doesn't have to be. And because they said, you know, you seem really confident now, but the little Girl Scout in me, it's like, That helps people to go, Oh, she does get me. Oh, she was on this journey too. And how I used to hide in coat closets when I was a kid, because I was so shy.

I loved people, but I was really shy. And I, at 13, I learned how to overcome it. And then, so it's like sharing those, those stories about, it's not just sharing stories about being human, but the things that shape you and asking yourself, Would this story be medicine for someone or would it be a motivator for someone who's stuck?

So that's how we distill. So it's like you get them all out on, you know, you take them all out and you see all the diamonds on the table. Then it's like, which ones do you share is about sharing the ones that are medicine or motivator for your specific audience.

Molly: Yeah, I'm like, just us talking here. I'm like, I need to, I'm like, where's my notebook?

I've got so many story ideas that I need to write down. I'm like, don't write it on my birth certificate that I had my husband find for me before this call to look at my human design again, to make sure it was right. Um, I probably shouldn't write on that. So I'm like, I'm like looking for something to write on feverishly, but so, okay, we've covered a lot today.

What. Or how can we work with you? How do we get more of Stephanie's brilliance?

Stephanie: Yeah. So if, if this is speaking to you and you can do one of two things. So if you're really interested in learning about the story of your nature, right? If that's eluded you. Then you can, everything starts at my website, stephanie zong.com, and Zong is spelled Z like in zesty, HONG.

You can S zesty Stephanie? Yeah. You can book a human design reading with me there, and we will explore and literally put into words the story of your essential nature and some of the gifts. that you already came into the world with that you can double down on in your own brand. If you are feeling called to mine the stories, then I have a free class called brand your brilliance.

It's a mini course, and you can sign up for it right from my website. And it's a two hour course with a worksheet and it's free. And you will actually get that six dimensional. Circle framework that I talked about. So for Gemini's, you can sign up for both, but pick the adventure that feels. really like is calling to you.

Oh, so I did talk about the readings, but the third one, I guess, is if you're interested in how to make those marketing decisions we talked about. Yeah. So I have a course called marketing magic by design, and it will actually break down for you. Like if you want to get a little bit more detailed around how to, um, make the right choices in terms of the platforms you're on.

What your, your personal energy is contributing to your content with your personality profile, then you can, I'll actually give you a coupon too, for 50 off on the marketing magic workshop.

Molly: Yeah.

Stephanie: And if you pre enroll in it, then you will be able to join me live for a Q and a laser coaching session where you can ask me specific questions about your design.

Molly: Yeah. I love that. Yeah. We'll make sure that's all in the show notes.

Stephanie: Typical Gemini. Those were three things. Choose your own adventure.

Molly: No, I love it. It's look, it's been so hard. I was like, I've had the same holistic marketing hub program since 2020 and I have to like be really careful with shiny object syndrome because I'm always like, Ooh, should I do this?

Should I do that? And I'm like, no, you have a really good program that like, solidly works and gets people results. And so, yeah, I'm just not trying to take it apart and do different things right now. I'm just like,

Stephanie: it's

Molly: really

Stephanie: hard to stick with one thing. It's hard. Oh, I know. And you know, your gut. Just saying, actually, I mean, I don't know if you want to record this separately now, but you know that I want to get into three things about human design now that I've seen your chart.

Molly: No, go for it. I say, yeah, if someone wants to tune out, they can, but yeah, go for it. Really? Okay. All right. If you have time.

Stephanie: You should. Okay. So I'm going to pull it up. And I know y'all can't see it on the podcast, so I'm going to walk us through, but if you wanted to share your screen with me, Molly, we can look at it together.

And this is like a whole, there's a whole universe of assets in here. It can go so deep, but I want to share three things that would also be not only valuable to Molly, but also hopefully valuable to you all to see what I mean. When you say you can really leverage your strengths. So Molly and looking at your chart.

Right away, I saw that, um, when you're on your chart, everybody, you'll see numbers from one to 64 and each of these are called gates and they give you a flavor of a gift you came into the world with. And when you're in high vibe, that gives really great. And of course it has a shadow side too. So I just want to say, it's just no accident that Molly is a marketer because she and I both have gate 26.

which actually is the gate of the marketer. Okay. And what that means is it's, it's called the marketer. So gate 26 is here. It's in your heart center.

Molly: Okay.

Stephanie: And

Molly: where are you saying? Yeah.

Stephanie: So I'm putting a little arrow here. Okay. You see this tiny triangle, which is called your ego or your will or your heart center.

And what this is for any of you who have gate 26, can you see where my arrow is? No, cause I'm sharing my screen. So. Oh, I was going to share. If you have me share yours, I can point around. Yeah. Okay, let's do that. Okay, got it. Our arrows were floating around each other, but you didn't know that. Okay, now you can go.

Our cursors are playing tag. Okay, so if you're looking at your own chart, everybody. Oh, now I see. In the center of your chart, there is a gate, and if you have gate 26 colored in, That means what you have to give for is to be able to communicate and meet people where they are and to say things in a way that land with who you're meeting with, which is the natural language of the gate of the marketer.

So you have that.

Molly: Good. Yeah. That's what I spend all my whole, my whole day doing is teaching other people to speak the language over there. Yes.

Stephanie: Yes. And then the other thing you have, which is fascinating is you have, so when you see these lines, they're called channels. It's like a subway map basically, where two different numbers connect together.

And when you have that, you have what's called a channel. And the channel means you've got um, energy to self sustain on your own to do a couple things, like whatever the two gates are connected to. You have 515, which is the channel of rhythm. And that is having an intuitive sense. of knowing what direction to go in.

Sometimes it also can be people who are dancers, people who have movement. It's like movement is kind of easy. So knowing what directions to move in when you're connected intuitively to your gut. Okay. So you have that as well too. You also have gate 50, which I call the Oprah gate. Oh, I'll take it. She has it too.

And this Oprah gate. Is about intuitively knowing what a collective needs in terms of people and values and resources to elevate that community that collect the collective. Okay. Yeah. And so you have that, that resonates a

Molly: lot. Does that resonate? Yeah. I work with, Yeah. Go ahead. I was just going to say, I work with so many, um, pediatric chiropractors and it's such a misunderstood profession.

And I'm like, I feel like I am really trying to just, it's like a big boat to turn, but I feel, I feel up to the challenge,

Stephanie: you know, I'm like, yes. So here's the funny thing, what you just said about that. This gate lives in the splenic center, which is the energy center of survival and where our fears live.

So, you know, when I talked about joyful terror earlier, yes, your, this is part of your karmic journey here is to know that, hey, I was gifted this by the universe. to know how to be able to serve people in this way, to be able to serve the collective on these bigger things, you know, in terms of with people and resources and things, and the low vibe will be a fear of taking on that responsibility.

But that's the karmic fear that you're here to not only break through, but from the lessons of you doing that and stepping into that bigness. You will serve other people. How does that resonate for you? Yeah, it

Molly: does. Because it is, there are some, yeah, fearful. There's fear from a couple of different places is, I always feel like I never know when to shut up.

Like with my friends who think I'm semi crazy, you know, I'm like, when do I say like, Okay. They're not ready to hear this information yet, Molly.

Stephanie: Well, that is coming from a different place, but what I want, I really want you to sink in as part of your brand essence that you are here, that you can see and can provide vision around what a greater collective needs to rise.

Molly: Oh, that gave me goosebumps. Yes.

Stephanie: That that is part of your brand essence, Molly. I love it. The speaking part is a different strategy. Okay. It's way up here. Okay. Uh huh. And, and it, it, I can see why it's both can, if like the gift is also creating confusion, you know, and so I'll just jump into here and then, You know, you can tell me when to stop, but yeah, no, it's, it's great.

So your throat, your throat chakra, which is up here, this is the manifestation box, right? It's the place where our, how to use our voice in the most naturally effective ways. And so we have all been conditioned and trained by society to almost out of the way we naturally do it. And so part of this deconditioning journey and learning what your own throat, how it works, like in a human design reading is very, very powerful or mindfulness.

Like, I just want to say that human design is already in you. So when you have felt a click in yourself, you are living your design. So this is just articulating it for you. So for you, Molly, your throat center is called it's opened or undefined as is mine. And so it means it's not colored in. And what that means is the gift of having an open center.

Is that your voice is incredibly versatile and adaptable. And it's like, it was really the divine gift is being able to sense what other people need to say, which is, I think the other part of marketing is helping people know, here's the messaging that you're, you're trying to get out and that you can see easily.

It's like empathy. You can sense what other people want to say, but can't quite say it and how to help them say it. It's like being a voice for the voiceless. It is. Advocating for other people's needs when they don't have access to their own voice, whatever that looks like. Okay, so it's really being able to take on different voices as well too, right?

Which is part of marketing when you're doing custom client work. It's being able to embody other people's voices, being able to help them get their message out. So that's what the gift of an open throat is. The, the, Challenge of the open throat is it's a little harder to talk about oneself in a consistent way,

Molly: right?

Stephanie: And so, and I don't know if you notice this, this is true for me, but if, if any of you have an open throat, what happens is your energy goes up and down your access, depending on the context you're in, who you're meeting with and who you're talking to. you may notice that your voice is more powerful in some situations and in other situations you feel like you're a pretzel just kind of blabbering, you know, right?

Molly: Yeah.

Stephanie: And that, which is my experience too, is understanding that conditions, because we are so sensitive and can pick up on other people's things, that also means we're sensitive to changing conditions and context, which will literally alter our voice. And one of the Mantras I like to give people to practice with open voice is that sometimes with that openness, we feel this compulsion to have to speak before we're ready to be like, to be seen, to be recognized, et cetera.

It's like, I need to insert my voice right now. That is the low frequency of having an open voice. And so a good practice is to wait To ask yourself, is my, do I want to speak right now because I want to be heard? Or do I want to speak because I want to be in service? To the collective or do I actually not want to speak at all but I feel like I just want to flirt out just people know I'm here, you know, I mean, so that is giving ourselves a huge permission to slip to say I don't have to be talking all the time, even though we feel like we're supposed to be.

Molly: Yeah, I love that. This is great. I, like I said, I need to do, I need to book like a official reading with you because it's so interesting. So maybe that can kind of give people a look into some of the stuff that they would. Yeah. Well, thank you again, Stephanie, so much for being on. Um, like I said, we'll make sure to get everything linked for you and.

Your website and all that. But yeah, you've definitely given me a lot to think about today.

Stephanie: I knew you would. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And it's a real pleasure. I, um, I'm so glad that you had me on. I feel like the marketing that you're doing and in the community, like we're so in sync about really. Raising and elevating what marketing really can be to really create a lot more impact from who we are.

And that's what excited me to be on today.

Molly: Well, thank you. I'm glad you. See that. That makes me feel good. All right. Thanks, Stephanie. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Holistic Marketing Simplified and Hey, you know how every podcaster at the very end of their episode asks you to rate and review their podcast?

Well, that's because it's super important. These podcasts take a lot of time and heart and effort to produce, to bring you free information. So in order for me to be able to continue doing that, we need more people to find out about the show. So if you could, please just take like two minutes out of your very busy day to leave me a rating and share this on your Instagram stories and tag at Molly A.

Cahill, that's C A H I L L. I would greatly, greatly appreciate your support. I know your time is valuable and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.