Back in my corporate era, I’d have to psych myself up for days before attending a networking event. A room full of people I don’t know, forced mingling and having to do this after a full work day… exhausting.
For many creative souls & entrepreneurs, traditional forms of networking and connection-building feel forced, awkward and anxiety provoking. Yet, cultivating genuine connections is essential for living a whole-hearted life, and meeting and connecting with those you’re meant to share your gifts with.
Looking back to these corporate networking days, knowing now that I’m a Human Design Projector, it makes a whole lot of sense that this form of networking exhausted me. Our human design offers a personalized approach to cultivating connections based on how we energetically function and our unique aura and vibe we emanate into the world.
In this post, I’ll guide you through cultivating authentic connections based on your human design type.
What Makes An Authentic Connection For You?
Take a moment to consider what makes for an “authentic connection” in your eyes. What do you look for when connecting with someone as a friend?
For example, I really like to feel seen and heard, and like someone is truly listening to what I’m saying. So when meeting someone new, their eye contact or mirroring back to me what I’m saying with clarifying questions to get to know me deeper are green lights to an authentic connection being formed for me. Conversely, if the other person was looking around the room while I was talking, or didn’t ask me any questions, I wouldn’t feel seen and heard and wouldn’t really want to pursue that connection or share my wisdom any deeper. This is also a two-way street. When I’m meeting someone new, do I feel deeply engaged with what they’re saying? Do I want to lean in deeper? Can I give them my full attention?
Transactional Networking Vs. Authentic Connection Building
There’s also a big difference between transactional networking and authentic connection building. You can typically see right through it when someone is trying to connect with you from a transactional space. A great example of this in action is on Instagram – private messages are a great way to get to know someone and build connections based on what you see and relate to on their stories. But you can smell it right away when someone is doing that simply to pitch their services right to you the second they can steer the conversation that way.
Don’t get me wrong: It’s beautiful to share your services and offers with those you think can genuinely benefit from them. What’s different here is how we approach the relationship and our own connection to sharing from a place of service.
To cultivate long term relationships is to approach with a genuine desire to connect and serve rather than to hard sell.
What Does Human Design Have To Do With It?
Human Design (HD) is a spiritual tool that looks at a variety of spiritual traditions and modalities, including the positioning of the planets when you were born to create a map of your body and how energy flows within it (aka your ‘BodyGraph’)
HD is not like an enneagram or personality test that tries to sort or categorize you into a tidy box – EVERY soul is unique, and HD reflects that.
Your design epitomizes how you energetically function, how you’re designed to make decisions, how you’ll learn best, how you will most effectively have your message heard, how you’re designed to interact with others, the greater themes you’re going to face in life, and the greater role you’re designed to embody in the collective.
Completely new to Human Design or not sure of your type? Start here!
Your Human Design Approach to Connection
Based on your human design type, you have a particular aura you are emenating into the world when you meet other people. That’s why every single human design type has a corresponding strategy that tells you how to move about the world (including, how to connect with other people)
The Human Design Types + Strategies:
- Manifestor = To Inform
- Generator + Manifesting Generator = To Respond
- Projector = To Wait for the Invitation
- Reflectors = To Wait for a Lunar Cycle
How Your HD Type Impacts Connection Building
Manifestor:
You don’t need anyone or anything to act as you are the only type designed to initiate. You’re the one who can boldly walk into the room and start the conversation. Generators and MGs are great teammates for you in business as you can ‘pass the baton’ of your big idea off to them to get the ball rolling and do the actual work. You may also greatly benefit from a Projector’s gift of sight to tweak any areas along the way that could be done more efficiently.
Your Strategy as a visionary is to INFORM anyone who will be impacted of your actions before taking that action. This is not to ask for anyone’s permission, but to clear the channel of communication, and also make a clear pathway for those who can connect with and support you. For example, in a networking type of sense, if you were in a mastermind or group setting, you could set a clear intention of what you’re currently building or working on, as a way to see, for example what Generators and MGs around you would like to respond to you, or if there are Projectors and Reflctors that you’d like to invite to support you/
Generators & Manifesting-Generators:
You have an absolutely magentic, enveloping aura that people will naturally gravitate to in a networking or relationship-building situation. You’re not designed to initiate, but to respond to what is around you. This can be anything from what you see, hear, taste, touch, sense and feel around you. Anything that makes you feel lit up inside.
Your Strategy is to RESPOND. This means when it comes to building a relationship, tap into your sacral’s yes/no response to know when, who, or what to respond to.
Projectors:
For you, soul-aligned connections and relationships will be found from individuals who make you feel clearly recognized for what you have to offer, and clearly invited to share that with them. Just because you’re invited, does not mean you must share – you have precious energy and it’s important for you to set boundaries to protect who you share it with.
Your Strategy is to WAIT FOR THE INVITATION. In a relationship building or networking scenario, you’re not designed to necessarily feel the need to start the conversation, “give advice” or turn your deep gifts of sight and clarity-provoking questions on those who have not asked for it. When sharing your wisdom with others, await feeling invited to share your perspective, and to feel recognized for who you really are. Otherwise, you may feel rejected, rebuked or ignored which is a waste of your precious energy.
Reflectors:
Each reflector is quite different from one another, so your individual approach to connection-building will be very nuanced to you! Though you’re designed to wait for a lunar cycle for big decisions, in a networking situation, you could simply tap into your preference in the moment for who you wish to talk to.
Your Strategy is to WAIT FOR A LUNAR CYCLE. You should not feel forced to make large decisions such as who to enter into partnerships or relationships quickly. You will need to give yourself about a month to really feel into big decisions to know how you feel in a given situation.
What Does Your Human Design Tell You About You?
Your Human Design can tell you so much about yourself including:
- how you energetically function
- how you’re designed to make decisions
- how you’ll learn best
- how you will most effectively have your message heard
- how you’re designed to interact with others
- the greater themes you’re going to face in life
- and the greater role you’re designed to embody in the collective.
If you’re ready to discover more about the magic of YOUR human design, download this free guide.
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