Express Your True Nature: Building a Business That Honors Your Authentic Design

INTRO: [00:00:00] After generating over a million dollars in sales and selling one of her businesses with a single email, your host Katherine Thompson, takes an unconventional approach to marketing and sales. So if you are ready to tap into a more powerful way to be seen, heard, and a sought after entrepreneur in your industry without having to spend endless hours marketing your business and chasing clients, you are in the right place.

Be The Sought After Entrepreneur podcast is here to help you ditch the cookie cutter one size fits all approach to marketing, and use your unique energy to effortlessly attract the most aligned clients. When you do this, you can spend less time marketing your business and more time doing your soul work and enjoying the richness of your life.

Welcome to Be the Sought After Entrepreneur podcast, and here's your host, Katherine Thompson.

Kathryn Thompson: Hey, hey, super stoked that you're tuning in this week's episode, and I cannot wait to dive in [00:01:00] today's topic because I wanna share with you some really cool insights and perspectives that I've been receiving from clients of mine that have booked the Aligned Business Evolution Sessions with me. Now, if you listen to the podcast religiously, you follow me over on social media.

You might be wondering what the heck are these sessions that she's talking about, and I will share with you what they are and what they entail. Um, but I haven't shared them publicly here. This is the first time I'm really talking about them and on my social media. And the reason for that is because I've opened up just a few slots in my calendar to work very bespokely with people in a one-to-one, uh, opportunity.

And every time I send an email, which has been only three times actually. They've sold out. And so I don't, didn't have the capacity to open it broader than that, which is a great problem to have. And it's also given me even that much more insight into the ways in which I really, truly wanna work with people.

And I will share [00:02:00] more about what I mean by that, you know, on another podcast and whatnot. But again, if you've been in my world for a while now and been listening to the podcast. You probably already know that things have been kind of shifting with the business and how I really wanna serve and in what capacities I really want to serve people.

And these sessions are just sort of a gateway or a doorway into that. And the reason for that is because. I use human design, astrology, gene keys, my intuition, my years of business experience, and really use that behind the scenes in my programs like spellbound and my one-to-one experiences with people.

But I never really sort of brought that to the forefront in a more accessible way for people. And after working with clients now for years and years and years, I'm a firm believer that. The strategies and tactics are great and we need those in our business. But if we are constantly seeking that in the other, somebody to [00:03:00] tell us what strategy to use, somebody to tell us what platforms to be on, somebody to tell us what we should put on our website, someone to tell us what our offers should be, and we're starting from that point, we will naturally build a business.

At some point, we will reach that doesn't feel aligned. That maybe doesn't even work, right? That we're, we're, we're seeing a lot of problems, whether it's clients coming in, whether it's offers not selling, you name it, and I'm a firm believer that. For us to really understand who we are, to be able to market what we do and how we do it, we have to start by going inwards to begin with.

We have to really see and understand who we are at the core of who we are, and more importantly, we have to understand where along the way. We've been conditioned out of our natural way of being in the world, and that is what these sessions are truly about, using human design, [00:04:00] astrology, jean keys and the people that have been booking them have varied, right?

There's been people that have been wildly successful, but have reached a point in their business where. Their offers don't feel like them or the way in which they structure the business, the model isn't them. And I shared in my email a couple weeks ago my own story about that and how as a manifesting generator with a defined will, I mean there's more.

To this and the, the energy that I bring into the world that I really do need starts and stops. I'm very cyclical in my nature. I think lots of us are, but I'm very cyclical and I need those starts and stops in my business. Well, what have I done with spellbound? I built a completely evergreen funnel, which.

It has served me. I'm very grateful for it. But the problem with that is, is that it's ongoing enrollment, meaning people can come in at whatever point that they want to come in with it, which is great. Like I've always said, I don't want [00:05:00] to use the manipulative tactics to pressure people into buying however.

I need to start and stop. I'm very cyclical, and so my business has to work around my natural cycles and my natural rhythms, which is one point of interest for me right now that I'm looking and diving into so that I can evolve the business to better suit my natural way of being. Now, I do want to preface that this journey of reflection and.

Introspection is a journey. It's not something that you learn in a day or you learn in six weeks, or you learn in 18 weeks. It's something that you quite literally are on an ongoing journey about. You're continually learning parts of who you are, and as you grow and evolve, things will naturally shift and that's okay.

So. That's just one insight into my journey. What I realized is that I [00:06:00] am really designed as a human being to have start, start, and end dates, and I've quite literally set my business model up in a way that is not that, right? So I. Why these aligned business evolution sessions are so powerful, not only for me to sort of look at my own self, but looking at my clients.

I am literally gobsmacked when they come to me and they tell me the very things that they feel resistance around, and then I look at their chart and I am like. Yeah, because that's literally counterintuitive to how you operate based on your astrology, gene keys and human design. And I wanna share one perspective with you.

I'm gonna share more with you, but I wanna share one that I find very interesting, and maybe you can relate to this in your own business. So if you're a creative or naturally feel creative, this will likely resonate with you. So I had a client come to me and she was like, you know, I'm really struggling with the content and like how to create content.

Like none of it feels. Really [00:07:00] exciting to me. You know, the minute I have to think about writing, like, here are the five steps to blah, blah, blah, or how to overcome blah, blah, blah. She's like, my system quite literally just shuts down. She's like, I, I just lack the inspiration. And most business coaches and marketers would say, just have to push through it.

Like get AI to write it for you and post it. You know, like. There's this like force of forcing ourselves against our own natural rhythm, and also that is what the world is showing us we need to do in order to be successful. The five steps to blah, blah, blah, or the how to overcome blah, blah, blah, you know, can be optimized for SEO and can rank high in terms of search and will be bite-size, attention grabbing hooks for people, yada, yada, yada.

We've all heard it. But then how does somebody who isn't wired that way fit into the model? They don't. Right. They either try [00:08:00] to fit themselves in and then they hate it, right? And the, the energy, the essence behind what they're putting out there doesn't ever really quite feel like them. And again, it doesn't really create the resonance with the right people to come into their world because they're not being the fullest expression of who they are.

What's so wild about this is, is that. Quite literally the way she communicates, the way she shines bright in the world is all based tons of energy based in her fifth house in astrology, which is the, the house of creativity. It's also the house of children and family and all the things, but it is, it's all around creative expression.

And then she also had Leo in her north node, which is, which is. Self-expression, creative, bold expression. It was so wild to witness. And so no wonder the way the business models have been taught and the way content [00:09:00] creation's taught and the way to optimize content is taught, literally goes against her natural way of expressing.

Which is more poetic, could be more visual, could be more artistic in form. Right? Which again, ties into that north note of Leo, which is all around creative self-expression and that being her destiny really not designed to. Fit into what we call the thought leadership identity, right? Everybody wants to be the thought leader or try to be the thought leader so you can stand out.

I'm not saying she's not designed to be a thought leader and to change the way we do things, but I think it's the way we look at thought leadership, which is really sharing expert, guru advice, and the way for her to really shine through is to actually be the living expression. It's not to try to create [00:10:00] content that creates credibility and authority.

Her expression is the embodiment. So that's just one really wild insight that I garnered from that particular client. Now, if you are somebody who is deeply intuitive, connected spiritually, and you're also very clinical, you're gonna resonate with this story because I am that as well in a lot of ways.

But also I had a client come to me as well with sort of the same dilemma or tension that she was feeling within her. Way of being. And she is a trained nutritionist, right? So she went to school, she's got the degree, she's got the certifications, you name it. And anybody in the medical field, if you're a therapist, um, I wouldn't necessarily call that maybe medical, but therapists, doctors, nutritionists.

Health practitioners, people that have come from [00:11:00] a scientific background, um, career coaches could fit into this, right? Where there's like that very analytical and logical way of finding a job and getting promoted and asking for a raise and all the things, and finding that career path that quote unquote, will make you the money that you deserve or desire.

And there is a professional track for that very sort of logical. Well, she came to me and she said, I'm also quite spiritual and very, you know, emotionally intelligent, and I can, I'm very compassionate and I don't just want to hang my hat on the fact that I'm a clinician and I don't just want to talk about, I.

This from a science perspective, right? Which again, comes down to expression and again, comes down to credibility and authority. Like how do I create authority and credibility and also have people trust me and buy into the message? Oftentimes we're taught we need some type of like scientific backing or [00:12:00] proof, right?

Five steps to X, Y, Z, how to overcome X, Y, Z, right? It's very logical. It's very tangible and it bypasses for a lot of us, the spiritual, the intuitive side that often can't be quote unquote taught is just a, it's a deep knowing and she's like, I, I just feel like I wanna speak from my own perspective rather than.

Something separate to me, right? Something that I read in a textbook or learned from my 20 years of being a clinician. And I quite, again, literally laughed with joy because she's a cancer son and in the ninth house, so she's really here to teach. From a perspective, from her own perspective, the way in which she's here to communicate, quite literally was from her own personal stories.

It's written in her human design, her mercury, which is the way in which we express, was literally, that's what it said. It literally said, telling your own personal stories, and that is what she [00:13:00] was feeling. But when we're looking at the model and the way we look through the world. And we're seeing it only done a certain way, and we want the success.

We wanna create success, we wanna create impact. We wanna get it right, right? Those good students, the high achiever, we wanna get it right. We don't wanna fail. We wanna try to avoid the failure. And so it's like, well, they must know better. We're seeking that solution in the other rather than turning it inward first.

And this is what I mean by. Looking inward and really getting a sense of who you are. And oftentimes we need a mirror. Oftentimes we need someone to mirror that back to us because the thing that that I wanna share with you in all of the sessions I've done is most of the women have. Either, you know, cried, got emotional, was like, wow, I finally feel seen.

Like they knew at the core of who they were, what, who they are. But then they're [00:14:00] trying to compare who they are with an outside version of somebody else's success model and way of being, and they're like, but I don't quite fit that. I don't, I don't quite fit what they're telling me Success is, I don't quite fit the way in which we build authority and credibility and influence.

I don't quite fit the way offers are done. Right. And the problem is, is that they already knew that. They already knew that, and yet they often, and I've done this too, gone against our own natural rhythm, only to find out that we can create success going against it, but it's gonna feel a lot harder and it's gonna feel less fulfilling and less joyful because it isn't our natural expression.

Again, coming back to the mirror element, oftentimes we need someone to hold and witness us in that. And that is what a good coach, and that is what coaching, in my opinion, [00:15:00] really is all about. I can teach tactics and strategies and all the things, right? Again, I've talked about this many times. I don't know a single marketer.

Who is doing anything that's revolutionary. If you read books from the sixties and the seventies about marketing, the tactics and strategies are all kind of the same. They're just a different vehicle and way of doing it, meaning technology has changed. So rather than people buying maybe billboards and radio ads, people are on social media, right?

The mediums have changed, and so the way in which we communicate might look different, might sound different because. Of the platform, the vehicle, which I'll often say is just the vehicle for you to communicate. And that has changed. But the way in which marketing and sales is often taught, in my opinion, having over 20 years of experience, there's nothing really revolutionary about it, in [00:16:00] my opinion, that's come out.

And so again, I come back to who we are and how do we fit, and sometimes we don't fit the mold. Sometimes we can take parts of the mold and this particular client, like I said, was like, I, I just wanna tell my own personal stories, but the underlying thing there was, is that gonna be credible? Is that gonna be, you know, are people gonna take me seriously because it's not scientific, right?

They're my own stories, my own pathway. So. That's one. Now I wanna share with you my own revelations that I continue to learn about myself now that I've gone even further down into to astrology, and that is in the way in which I communicate and how I show up. And also my split sort of down the middle, right?

I've got my son in Libra in the 12th house. Pluto is conjunct that, and I also have Saturn in the 12th house. I am a [00:17:00] Scorpio rising. I've got my Mercury in the first house in Scorpio and Uranus in the first house in Scorpio, conjunct Mercury. I'm quite literally designed to not live at the surface. I am literally designed to go deep with people and also.

The 12th house being quite spiritual, all around the unseen realm, the subconscious. I can spot patterns in people very quickly. Subconscious patterns that they might not even realize and see within themselves very quickly, just by sitting in a room with them and listening to them talk. I can pick up on those sorts of things.

These are the things that a lot of my one-to-one clients get to experience. What I have realized is, is that the surface level, the marketing tactics and the strategies are less interesting to me than sitting one-to-one with [00:18:00] somebody or in a small group with somebody and really going deep with them on who they are, how their, what their makeup is, what maybe they're not seeing that's in the way, but also.

To be exposed, the hidden truth of what maybe they're not saying. Like I can see very quickly somebody who comes with me with a business idea, they come to me with a business and offers that they're selling, and I can sense very quickly. I'm like, but this isn't quite it. Right? Or there's something here you're not telling me.

I can see it very quickly and yet. A lot of my own marketing on the upfront is, is all the very tangible stuff. How to attract clients, right? How to turn the invisible into something visible or how to sell the invisible. I'm there, right? There's, I'm, I'm dancing in the arena, but where my work is shifting and where I really want to shift is to go deeper, but [00:19:00] that's the.

The dichotomy that I experienced because not only am I very deep and sort of have that spiritual, unconscious unseen realm that I, that I'm in, very intuitive. I also have a lot of planets in Virgo, which is very practical and detour oriented and analytical, right? So I often will say I'm like a 50 50 split.

I'm the analytical and strategic, but I'm also very spiritual and intuitive. And there's a blend here. And the beauty is, is that we can be both. We don't have to choose one or the other. We don't have to be the an analytical 'cause that's what business says. We need to be successful or I just need to be in the intuitive realm.

No, we get to be both. We get to blend both. And that's what I was saying to my one client who was like, I want to tell personal stories, but I also have lots of scientific backing, right. That I wanna bring into my work. Which again, for her, she had Leo [00:20:00] in the 10th house of career as well, and that's where her Midheaven was, which was again amazing to see.

Right. Leo was very bold. It's very, um, out there like. Putting the message out, you're here to be seen. And that's the other thing that I wanna say that's, it's kind of can feel like you're being jostled because cancer also is the hermit, the crab, right? The, the pulling inward. And that's where I say we've gotta find our natural rhythm.

It's not one or the other. And that's where in business, again, we fall down the trap of you gotta be consistent. And then I've got my sun cancers or my two lines in human design going. But I'm a hermit or I'm, I'm, I wanna retreat, right? Libra in the 12th house, I'm the exact same way. I need isolation. I need to just go and be, you know, by myself for a while.

And yet we're told we have to show up all the time. We have to be consistent. We've gotta be on whether that is in an evergreen model, the way that I set my business up, or [00:21:00] posting on social media all the time, and not having a system where maybe you can repurpose content or whatever it might be, that there really is no sort of downtime.

And that to me feels like never being able to take my foot off the gas. Because the, I always have to have the foot on the gas in order to continue to create the results that I desire, and that is the inner tension I think many of us feel. The power of these aligned business evolution sessions is I. The fact that one people finally get witnessed and seen, which I think is the first step to really honoring who we truly are and believing that we can be all of the things right, and that we get to take all of the energies and all of the archetypes and the essence of who we are and blend them, right?

Because it's not just one thing. It's not just I'm a manifesting generator and so I operate this way, or I'm a four six, or I have a son and Libra in the 12th. Like it's a story. And I [00:22:00] think that's the important thing that we need to consider is that we are so much more one than all of these archetypes, but we're so much more than just one thing.

That the makeup of who we are is, is a tapestry. It's a story, and we all come with different life stories. Therefore, how could we, like, how could we just then try to plug and play into a model? If the person that created the model wasn't us, wasn't wired the same way we were. Then we're just trying to force something, in my opinion, that doesn't, doesn't work.

And so those are just some perspectives and insights, and I think they're really cool to sort of share. 'cause that might trigger something within you that's like, huh, I've always felt I wanted to do X, Y, and Z. Or I always felt like I wanted to express this way, or I never really felt aligned with being on Facebook and Instagram and I really wanted to just do this.

Right? [00:23:00] These inner pulls or tugs or inspirations or ideas. To me is that's the gateway, the portal, to then get even that much more curious, which is where I wanna sort of leave this episode. Because I think when we start to discover things about who we are and what we desire, then the natural tendency is to go.

But how? Because we don't see it modeled or we don't see it quite modeled the way that we want to. And so then we start to doubt whether it's possible. And we also get hung up on the how, but how do I actually do that? And that is the invitation in my opinion. I had an old mentor that used to say, fuck the how for now?

Like quite literally fuck the how for now? Because trying to figure out every single step on the path on a path that hasn't been created, and this is even more important for a manifesting generator, by the way, who are here to forge our own path. We are not here to follow [00:24:00] anybody else's path. Manifestors are the same.

Right. We're here to forge our own path, which means the path hasn't been created, which means nobody outside of you can tell you what that path is, and if you're seeking the path from somebody else. Then I'm inviting you to turn the gaze backwards to yourself. 'cause nobody's gonna give you that path.

Well, people will give you the path. People will sell you on any path because they're selling you on their path, right? But what ends up happening is, is that you invest in that path and it doesn't work for you. Or you invest in that path and it does work for you because you're a high achiever, hard worker, and you're gonna make anything work.

But you get to a point in your business where you're like, this, I doesn't quite work for me, or you outgrow it. And that's also totally cool. You evolve the season of your life changes, right? Something comes into your life where the way in which you offer something a certain way is no longer the way you can offer it now.

[00:25:00] And that again is okay. So I wanna leave you with that. If, if you've got the insight and you've got the. You know. I feel the pull to do this, but it's counterintuitive to anything that's really out there. Then I invite you to follow that thread and I also invite you to find a mirror, somebody that can mirror it back to you, not somebody who's gonna tell you, well, no, that's not gonna work.

You've gotta do it this way. Right? Somebody who's gonna mirror this back to you, and that's the beautiful thing about these sessions. If you are interested, DM me over at Creative Loan. We can talk about it. Like I said. They get snapped up in my email very, very quickly. I haven't opened them publicly, but if you're listening to this and you're like, man, I'd be interested, I also offered them at a ridiculously low fricking price.

But I'm telling you that when you discover more of who you are. Then you're able to market yourself even that much more better because you know who you [00:26:00] are. You're able to create offerings and messaging because you know who you are. If you don't know who you are, and you don't know what you bring to the table, or you're just trying to express yourself in a way that sells something right.

Then it's gonna fall flat anyways because there's feeling and resonance that comes behind the thing that you're selling. And you need to understand who you are at the core of who you are so that you can have also the conviction in what you're selling and how you can help people. But more importantly, you build something that is actually sustainable.

And that's the world that I'm in, right? Which is more of the long game. And I, I will. Leave it at this, and I will share more about how my business is changing and what that's gonna look like. But I really am done with quick fixes, surface level promises, and these guarantees, these guarantees that I, in X amount of time, I can help you get X amount of clients.

And the reason [00:27:00] I'm done with it is because there's no guarantee in life. There just isn't. Right. And. If what you're doing is something that you deeply, deeply love and you're passionate about it, then this, then the clients that you're getting and the money that you're making is really just the byproduct of that.

And that's the thing I often will see, right, is that we so much want the money that we've disconnected ourselves from the purpose. Because we haven't done that inner work or introspection because we're just trying to create freedom for ourselves rather than how is this gonna improve the collective and how am I being of service to the collective?

So I'm gonna leave you with that. I hope you have a Fab Day, and if you'd like to chat, just reach over to me at Creatively owned on Instagram. Cheers. 

INTRO: Thanks for listening. We'll see you right back [00:28:00] here next time. You can also find us on social media at creatively owned and online@creativelyowned.com.

Until next time, keep showing up as your authentic self.