Guest: Natalie Barnett, Nutrition & Embodiment Coach

Episode Introduction

Some transformations happen quietly; others roar.

In this episode of The Hook, I talk with Natalie Barnett—certified nutrition coach, embodiment coach, and host of a brand-new podcast—about turning people-pleasing into leadership, shifting identity from employee to CEO, and using Human Design to build a business (and marriage) that actually fits your energy.

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Health As Your Business’s Life Force

Sarah: Welcome to “The Hook with Sarah Larsen.” I’m your host, Sarah Larsen, and I’m so excited to introduce my guest today, my dear friend Natalie Barnett. She is a certified nutrition coach and an embodiment coach, and we are going to talk about what that means today. She has a nutrition membership called “Sane and Sustainable Nutrition,” courses, a mastermind, and a brand new podcast. A lot of things. Tell us a little bit more about what you do.

Natalie: I actually started with just straight-up nutrition coaching because I fell in love with it, and I learned that there’s a much better way than what we, as women, have been taught. So, I started out with coaching people one-on-one, which I really, really love, but quickly realized that there’s only one of me, and I want to help people. What happens after you’re done with one-on-one coaching? You need to have a place where you can go because the job’s not done; we have to keep on that journey.

So, I decided to start a membership where they can continue to learn, and we have a community in there. There are trainings by me, and there are guest trainers that I bring in from varying modalities regarding health, lifestyle, and that kind of thing.

A little idea trickled into my brain about entrepreneurs, specifically female entrepreneurs. When they start a business, they have so much going on. Maybe they have a full-time job still, and then they might have a family or volunteering that they do. There are a lot of things, and then they’re adding on top of that a new endeavor, which we both know takes more work than you think it’s going to at first. They tend to kind of neglect their health, but your health is your life force that feeds into your business.

I created a five-week program called “Embodied Entrepreneur” that I launched and went really well. But when it was over, I was like, “Well, this conversation’s not done yet. I want to keep talking; there’s more to go.” So, I turned that into a mastermind called the “Embodied Entrepreneur Mastermind.” Yeah, so creative. We have been doing that for a few months now, and then I started a podcast because I wanted to keep talking about this stuff. Now you can’t shut me up about it. Here I am, sitting here with you talking, and this is amazing. I’m so excited to be here. Thank you for asking me.

Sarah: Of course. I will caveat this by saying I am in the membership. I have taken the “Embodied Entrepreneur” course, and I’m a member of the Mastermind. It has given me an amazing peek into Natalie’s world, and I could not recommend it more. I have gotten so much out of it.

You would think, perhaps as an outsider looking in, “Well, Sarah’s a business coach, why would she need to do this ‘Embodied Entrepreneur’ journey?” The reality is that it’s a lot of mindset, and we all need that. It’s also the camaraderie of all the women that are in the group, the networking opportunities, and the safe space to talk about our challenges as women, as humans, and as entrepreneurs.

I’m really excited about it. I love being part of it, and I’m thrilled that you are launching a podcast, which has been released, the first episodes. Very exciting, and they’re great. I don’t think we want to shut you up. How about that?

Natalie: I’ll keep talking. I’m fine. Well, you can’t even try.

Sarah: I think you have so much to share, so much knowledge, and wisdom.

Natalie: Thank you.

Following Her Spleen

Sarah: You’re welcome. Let’s rewind a little bit. I typically start with: where did you grow up, and what was that growing up like?

Natalie: I grew up in Fairfax County, Virginia, outside of DC. I was born in DC and lived in Northern Virginia for my whole life. I’m the oldest, or eldest—I think it’s eldest—of three kids. I have a younger sister and a younger brother, and my parents both worked. My mom worked as a hotel concierge at very fancy hotels, so we had some pretty cool perks with that. My dad designed swimming pools. I remember him being at his draft board designing these pools, and he would go out and sell pools. We had a pool, so it was really fun.

I really liked being the oldest because “I know best.” But it was really great. I grew up as a gymnast, and I think I started late, at seven and a half, which is late for gymnastics, but I made it to a pretty high level. Then I ended up doing high school gymnastics. It was fun. I played softball for a little bit. We were a close family, and I have fond memories of growing up.

Sarah: That’s awesome. It sounds nice. I didn’t know about the swimming pool design. That’s pretty cool.

Natalie: Yeah, he was very artistic, very creative.

Sarah: What did you do after high school?

Natalie: I went to Virginia Tech. Go Hokies, I have to say that all the time. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I chose psychology. I majored in psychology, minored in Spanish, and I had a great time in college. I did not want to continue on with a psychology major, though. To do anything with that, you really have to get more education. That’s a good job, step number one: you graduated from undergrad, now you need to go and get more education so you can go off and do these things, but I didn’t really want to do that.

So I got a job out of college for an estate planning attorney, and I was her assistant, basically, and helped do the wills and trusts. So I was able to learn a little bit about that, which is really cool, except it just wasn’t, I wasn’t meant to do that. I was so not lit up at all by it. But my boyfriend at the time lived in Williamsburg. This is so not like me, but I was like, “I’m quitting, and I am moving to Williamsburg.”

I did not have a job. I didn’t have a place to live. I lived on the couch where Steve was living. I lived there, and then we decided to move in together, and I found a job over at the Williamsburg Indoor Sports Complex in gymnastics. I was like, “I used to do gymnastics.” I just kind of followed my spleen, like I followed my Human Design, but not even knowing what that was. I just followed what was lighting me up at the time.

I had a long career at the WISC, but I had all three of my kids while I was working there as the gymnastics director. Then I got to a point where I was like never really seeing my kids. I joke that my hours were nine to five plus nights and weekends, which is what it really was a lot of the time.

So I started to get a little bit restless and was looking for something else, and that’s putting it mildly. I was literally staring off into space in my living room being like, “Is this it? Is this it? We’re just supposed to do this over and over again.”

I remember my husband was like, “Yeah, that’s what we’re supposed to do.” That just never sat well with me, so I was just waiting for something, or willing something else to come along. That was my backstory before things started to get more in the flow. As you change and things move forward, it felt good to be doing what I was doing, but there were challenges in that as well.

Sarah: You mentioned, “Oh, I just was so unlike me, but I just up and moved to Williamsburg from Northern Virginia,” and that’s a big step. I know we are going to talk about human design, and you have splenic authority, right? Which means that you get very distinct downloads, or instinctual in what?

Natalie: It feels like an intuition. The only way I can describe it is that I just hear it over here on the left side of my brain: “This is what you need to do.” I’m like, “Okay, I need to do it.” It’s like an intuition, and it’s really fast.

Sarah: Was there any kind of identity shift with that? Did you feel like, “Who am I? Who is this person?” when you did that?

Natalie: I think it was more of, “There’s something greater. There’s something else out there for me that’s not here.” I just knew I was following what lit me up. I just knew I was going to be happier if I left and tried something new. If I stayed, I just knew I wasn’t happy. I think that was really what it was at that point.

I feel like I was much more clear back then and got a little bit muddier when you have kids and responsibilities and all that stuff. But then I was like, “I can do it. What’s holding me back? Let’s just listen to this voice and go.” I think that’s more what it was then.

Sarah: That’s pretty cool. I know the story of how you met Steve. Will you share that?

Natalie: Yes. His sister was my roommate in college. We were supposed to have other people move in to our apartment. We cleaned up the apartment, and those people no-showed, and we were like, “Oh my gosh, this is awful. We need someone to live with us.” His sister, Annemarie, called and said, “Hey, we see that you have an opening. Can we come and look at it?” We were like, “Yeah, why not now? Because it’s clean. It’s not going to be clean forever. You got to clean up all the beer cans and all that.” So she came over, and long story short, she moved in.

I met Steve a little bit because he also went to Virginia Tech. He’s my age, Annemarie’s a couple years younger than me, so we knew each other a little bit. I had already known him, but this one particular day, his car got towed down in Blacksburg, and he was sitting on the couch in our apartment.

I was down across at my graduation party, came upstairs to get something from my apartment, walked in, saw him sitting there, and the voice—I’m going to sound like a crazy person, I promise—said, “You’re going to marry him one day.” I was like, “Oh, okay. Carry on.” So I just moved on. But we started literally that night texting back and forth, the old-school texting where you had to push five three times to get the right thing. It’s so…

Sarah: Just really quick, what’s the age at which someone would not remember that?

Natalie: Great question, because I feel like it was probably in the early thirties, somewhere around there. The old-school texting, it was a pain in the butt, but back then it was like, “This is so great, I don’t have to talk to anybody.”

Sarah: Which is where all those crazy abbreviations for texting came from. For those of you who don’t know…

Natalie: We were trailblazers basically. That’s what we’re trying to say here.

Sarah: Well, back to the story.

Natalie: Yes. So, that’s it. We, and he’s very, very introverted. He’s very quiet, and I’m actually an introvert, too, but I was pursuing, I guess, because this voice told me. It was not just a voice, you guys. It was a feeling. It was a feeling and intuition of knowing that this is the person. Like I just knew it.

So anyway, we were dating for a while, probably six months or so, when I decided to just move down here and figure it out. I’m really… Can you imagine if those first people didn’t come to that apartment and I didn’t meet Annemarie? It’s just crazy how these things had to happen.

Sarah: The ripple effect is so crazy. That’s really cool. So you guys get married. You moved to Williamsburg. Eventually you get married. You’re having kids. You’re working at the WISC, which, by the way, I run into so many people that are like, “Oh, you know Natalie Barnett? I know Natalie Barnett,” because Natalie has coached every kid in gymnastics in this area. It’s just so funny.

Natalie: I think I’ve coached over a thousand kids in my life. And some now, some of them now are getting married, having their own kids, and stuff, so, yeah. Crazy.

When Growth Shakes The House

Sarah: That is crazy. Okay, so you’re working there, and then tell us what happened when you were staring off into space going, “Is this it?”

Natalie: Well, something got dropped in front of me. I was working at a gymnastics meet, and a beautiful lady, blonde lady, very cute, came up to me and was like, “Thank you so much for letting me be a vendor here. I have some products for you to sample.”

I was like, “Oh, thank you so much.” But I was so overwhelmed. I had been working the entire weekend, and I was like, “Thank you.” I went home and I threw them somewhere, probably like in a drawer or whatever, and then moved on with my life.

Six months later, another meet. Same super cute little blonde lady comes up and gives me another bag of samples, and I’m like, “Thank you. I’m going to use these again. I loved them last time,” you know? But I can’t be a jerk, so I did try to use these products. They were Arbonne products, and it was like protein. We have energy fizz sticks. Then there was some skincare, and I was like, “Man, I loved it.” I was like, “Where did I put that other bag? I want to get some more.”

So anyway, I started following her. You always Facebook stalk people before you commit. It’s what we do. And I learned her name is Leanne Quinn. I’m going to give her a huge shout-out here because Leanne Quinn just changed my life. She introduced me to the brand of Arbonne. I remember that experience again, that intuition of, “This is it, this is it.” I felt it so powerfully inside of me, like, “This is the thing that’s going to get me moving in a different direction.”

I told my husband about it, and he was like, “Yeah, no, that’s a pyramid scheme.” That’s what he said. I’m just going to be honest. And I was like, “What’s a pyramid scheme?” I didn’t even know what that was.

So I did some research. I talked to Leanne, and I was like, she’s like, “We get that a lot. This is an industry where we get that a lot, and here’s why it’s not. We sell products. You have to sell products. You only get paid on products.” She goes through all of that, and he’s still like, “I don’t want you to do it.”

This man does not tell me what to do. We don’t have that kind of relationship. I do what I want. And he told me, “I don’t want you to do it.” I remember just bawling, like crying. I was just so upset because I knew deep down that this is the thing. I remember going to bed and crying myself to sleep. I remember opening my eyes and saying, “I’m going to do it anyway.”

So I started my business. I did not have his support at first, but I will say he came so far around because he saw what I was doing. I was building an organization. I was building a client base. I was really growing and changing as a person. I was becoming better, and he started to come around from that. I have been an Arbonne consultant for over six years.

At a certain point, there is something inside of me—and we can talk about this in a little bit—where I’m supposed to have my own business. I’m supposed to have my own thing. There’s a huge, like my life’s work is me standing on my own two feet, me building something from the ground up, me being able to support myself. I have to have that for my purpose, my inner being. I wanted to learn more about nutrition, so I went back to school and learned more about nutrition, and then I opened my own business.

Now I told you at the beginning how it’s completely morphed, but it all started because I listened to that voice, and I didn’t let other people, well-meaning, beautiful, amazing people, tell me that I shouldn’t do it. I followed what I knew to be true. That’s a long story, but that’s the story.

Sarah: No, of course. That’s a story that I wanted to hear. I specifically asked you ahead of time, “Let’s talk about that experience where Steve was not supporting you.” 

Natalie: Steve is a great guy. He totally supports me now. He’s such a gentle soul, and so for him to say, “No, you can’t do that,” is kind of an interesting concept.

Sarah: Now let’s talk about, if you don’t mind digging into another topic that we love, the identity shift that had to happen when you started this new business with Arbonne. Talk about that a little bit.

Natalie: I had to go from, “I’m an employee. I show up. I clock in. I get paid,” that kind of thing, trading my time for a paycheck. I had to change my identity to somebody who is really putting my trust, my eggs, in a different basket, right? And not knowing what’s going to happen. I don’t get paid for showing up and doing presentations. I don’t get paid for getting on social media and saying, “These are the products, and this is what I do and all that.” I get paid when somebody purchases products. So I had to become a CEO. I had to step into that new identity and embody that.

For me, embodiment means taking knowledge from your head and putting it into your body. It’s kind of like, if you’re a parent, you’re like, “I know I’m going to love my kids,” but you don’t know until they’re there. “Oh, now I know.” It’s a different knowing. So I had to really learn to trust myself because there were so many people, a lot of people, making jokes at me or thinking, “Who do you think you are? Explain to me, is this really what you want to do?”

I had to put myself in that mindset of, “I’m not thinking about right now. I’m thinking about long term.” I had to really bring, see who I wanted to be in the future and start pulling her closer to me. I knew every time I got on social media and talked about a product, or every time I got up and stood in front of an audience and talked about the business or whatever I was doing, it was pulling this person closer to me.

I did not have, you don’t have to know everything, but I just had to embody that CEO mindset, and that’s something that we talk about a lot. I had to let go of “I’m a people pleaser by nature,” and it’s still a work in progress, but I can’t believe how much it took for me to do that. I did it, and I became pretty successful at it, too. That was an identity shift right there: “I am no longer just an employee. I am a boss. I’m a CEO, and this is how I need to look. I look for the future. It’s not just about what I’m doing right now, me being uncomfortable.”

Design Differences = More Grace

Sarah: I love the word disruption and talking about disruption, and that is an example of a disruption you chose. Something that really disrupted Steve’s life, really disrupted your own, and required this whole identity shift. I think it’s pretty incredible that you just stuck with your gut on that and moved forward, and you have created something really beautiful. I love so, yeah. All right. So let’s talk about one of our favorite subjects, human design. You mentioned that you have this gut feeling, and your life purpose. Tell me more.

Natalie: Let’s dive into it. Human design, I learned about it from, I guess our mutual mentor, Allison Cullen. We learned human design from her, and not just in a “This is what it is,” but “This is how you apply it to your life and how you can actually apply it to every decision that you need to make.”

My energy type is a Projector, and there are five energy types: there’s a Manifesting Generator, which is what you are, and what Steve is, there’s a Generator, there is a Projector, there is a Manifestor, and a Reflector. Projectors are about 20% of the population, and we are not designed to work eight hours a day, go, go, go. We are designed to work three to four hour sprints, kind of, and then we rest and we refuel.

I have never felt more seen than when I learned that about myself because the nine-to-five plus nights and weekends career was wreaking havoc on my physical body and my mental health as well. So when you don’t operate within that and you don’t listen to your authority, which is how you receive messages from God or the universe or whoever you pray to, because this is not a religion, then if you don’t follow that, that’s when you start to feel unwell.

I learned I’m a Projector, and not only that, but I have splenic authority, which is the oldest authority you can have, the most intuitive. It’s quiet at first. If you have that little thought in your mind, “You should turn left here,” turn left. You’re like, “No, I was going to go this way.” That’s kind of how it’s almost like a spidey sense: “No, no, turn left.” I have to listen to that, but it’s so quiet, and it doesn’t repeat itself. So if I’m not careful, I can miss it, and it’s not bad. Nothing awful is going to happen to you. It’s just that you are more aligned when you listen to your authority.

Steve is a Manifesting Generator, and you guys are fascinating. You’re some of my favorite people in the entire world because you really do have an energy, like a motor, that just keeps going, and he can work. He works so hard. He can work all day, then he gets home and will do the dishes, make dinner, do the laundry, fix the sink, do all the things. Here I am, I’m like, “I got to work for three to four hours, and then I’m going to be on the couch taking a nap or just watching something that’s interesting or reading a book or whatever to refuel, and then I can go again.” It’s very interesting to have those two dynamics.

Sarah: Yes, it is. One of the things that I really would love to hear you talk about or address is how that works in a marriage because it can be very challenging, and I’m sure that you have felt that guilt of, “Well, he’s just going and going,” and even as you know what you are now and why you feel this way, still having those feelings. How do you manage that?

Natalie: The thing that I have come to learn is that we live in a Generator world. If you want to get something done, “Wake up earlier, work harder, do more, hustle, hustle, hustle,” that kind of thing. I actually don’t think that’s good for anybody, but Generators can handle it a little bit more than

Projectors, but we want to try to keep up with everybody. We want to fit in, and when we just physically can’t, it gets to a point where I’m like, “I can’t. I have to go lay down.” I’m not joking; I literally lay down. I’ve always felt like, “I’m lazy. I need more sleep. I’m lazy.” That’s just kind of how I am. But I also know I get a lot done, and I’m very efficient, and I can see the right thing to do. I can see other people very clearly, but I struggle a little bit seeing myself, which is where you come in.

Sarah: We’ve had that conversation, too, where as a coach, the person that you can’t always see what you need to do is yourself, and that’s why it’s important to have someone outside of you to coach. We have exchanged those services.

Natalie: Absolutely. Yes, I need that. You’ll tell me something, and I’ll be like, “Oh, right, okay.” So Steve will get… He’ll do all the things. We’ll wake up on a Saturday, and he’s already done five things where I’m just sipping my coffee, trying to get going. I think where it shows up the most is that “I’m lazy”. There’s also an identity of “he’s the neat one, I’m the messy one,” “I’m the creative one, he’s the logical one.”

So it’s just what you perceive the society and the people around you to value more. That’s kind of what we see is like, “Well, they’re very logical, and they get a lot done, and they work really hard.” Just valuing myself is the biggest thing I had to learn. I have to value myself before I can value anyone else. I have to know, see myself, and recognize that I have a lot of value.

I’ll just use the other day as an example; it’s better with examples.

Sarah: Yeah. Tell us a story.

Natalie: Here’s a story. The other day I was very, very low in energy, and there’s also like I’m a female, so there’s a cyclical nature of our month, too. So I was very, very low, and I was telling him about it. I worked two hours that day, and then I went on the couch, and I was in and out of sleep and watching something for two and a half hours. I told him about my day, and he was like, “Yep, it’s what you do.”

He did not mean it in any kind of way, but I took it to be like, “Oh, that’s what you do because you’re so lazy,” like I added that at the end. He said, “Why did you say it that way?” And he’s like, “No, it’s just what you do.” I’m like, “I know. And what about it?” And he was like, “No, that’s what you need to do.” I was like, “Yes, that’s what I need to do. Thank you.”

I walked out, because it’s just that little shift in language. That’s what you need to do to. And he sees all that I do, and he is the first to praise me. Words of affirmation are my thing, because as a Projector, I need to hear that you see me and recognize me. He is the first to tell me all that all the time, so I absolutely love that, but just a little tweak of energy, of language, will make it be like, from “That’s what you do because you’re lazy” (in my mind) to “That’s what you need to do so that you can function properly.” That made me feel so much better.

Sarah: The fact that he recognizes that now, you have shared a lot of human design information with him, which is great that he’s so… that he’s so open to it, but he’s willing to accept that this is a thing, and he’s seen in you what that difference can make. That’s because you are able to accomplish so much. One of the things with Projectors is that you’re very efficient. So even though you only work for a few hours, you’re very productive for that time. That’s a really great thing to keep in mind.

One of the things that I have found so interesting about Human Design is understanding the differences of other people, and it has made me so much more understanding, or giving, when it comes to giving grace to other people a little better because I recognize now that we’re not all built the same. One of the things with Manifesting Generators is that we like to skip steps. First of all, we like to do a lot of things, and I do a lot of things, but we also like to skip steps. So I get an idea in my head, and I just plow forward. Now, my husband is a Generator, and I have had some challenge with his design because Virginia birth certificates don’t have time of birth, and human design is based on the place and exact time of your birth.

So one day I sat down, and I ran his chart for every half hour on the day he was born, and then I started studying the differences for all those charts. Because I’ve known him, we’ve been together for 10 years, I know him pretty well. I know kind of how he works. We’ve worked together in business, and so I understand some of his things, and I think I’ve been able to sort of narrow it down. He’s not been as interested in learning more about it, but that’s okay. Maybe we’ll get there.

It is interesting how our interactions can be a little bit different now that I understand his design. Even if he’s not paying attention to it or doesn’t care about it at the moment, I’ve been able to be more careful with how I… One of the things getting back to Manifesting Generators, skipping steps, is that we move real fast. I started this business without really telling him, and that wasn’t very fair.

I’ve since realized that’s a big disruption to him, and it is for me, too, that I’m starting something new, but it’s an exciting new for me, and it is an identity change for me, but it’s also a change to the identity that he saw me as. That is something that I’m trying to get better at. I’m working on sharing more with him about what I’m doing ahead of time, because that is something that I’m supposed to do: inform other people.

When Manifesting Generators and Manifestors move really fast through the world, it sends out ripples of energy that can upset other people if they don’t know what’s going on. I’m starting to recognize that a little more, too.

But the skipping steps… we’re fast, and we move forward, and we skip steps, and we do things without reading the instructions, or thinking things through all the way. I do a lot of intuitive learning when I try new technology because if a program has a good user interface, then I love them, because I don’t have to watch all the tutorials to learn how to do everything. I hate it when I have to rewind and go back and read the steps, watch the tutorials, read the instructions.

Natalie: And you get really frustrated.

Sarah: Right. I get really frustrated. That is something that Manifesting Generators and Generators do: when our flow is disrupted, we get extremely frustrated. I can’t tell you how many things I’ve nearly broken because of frustration. I actually broke a cordless home phone years ago when I got really mad about something and just slammed it down. I broke the damn thing.

It definitely comes out, but it’s really… I loved this description that I heard. I think it was from Karen Curry Parker at Quantum Human Design. She explained it this way: it’s more of an explosion of energy and not being mad at someone else for interrupting our flow or anger. It’s less about anger. It is an explosion of energy because we were in a flow, something disrupted it, and it had to go somewhere, and it comes out as frustration or anger.

This is the reason why human design just fascinates me to no end because there are so many things to learn. You can always dig deeper, always learn more, and it helps us become better humans. When we can understand that not everybody is exactly the same as us, it gives us so much more empathy.

Natalie: It does. Not only can you apply it in so many areas of your own life, but you’re more generous with your grace to other people. Because I know how Steve is built to go, and when he decides to fix the sink, which I’m so happy he does, then we’re like, “Oh, I don’t have this part,” and then we have to order the part, and then the part comes. “Oh, this part doesn’t fit. I don’t have a part for that part, so we got to go get another part.”

It doesn’t even phase me anymore. I’m like, “This is his process. He’s going to get it done.” If he gets frustrated, I just let him do the thing, but I trust he’s going to get it done, and he always gets it done. But if we could have read a thing and gone through it, maybe it would have been faster, but it doesn’t matter. He needs to tinker. He needs to figure it out for himself. It’s just how he’s built, so it makes you let him do it. It’s going to be great.

Creativity Isn’t A Type—It’s A Language

Sarah: One of the things that you said earlier I thought was really interesting: how you were the creative one and he’s the logical one. Something that I’m learning is that we all have some creativity because I would have said that I was the logical one, too. All these years, I’m logic, I’m process. I enjoy analyzing things. I have discovered that I have creativity. Tell me, what is creative about Steve? Where does his creativity lie? What’s his talent or gift when it comes to creativity?

Natalie: He’s like, for a man of few words, he’s really good with words. For my 42nd birthday, I woke up, and I had a poem, and it was a kind of silly, but also sweet, poem. He will take his time. He will go on a computer and type out a letter to somebody. He will type out the full thing, and delete, and all that. Then he will transcribe it in his hand and write that, and once you read that letter, it’s like, “I’ve been seen. I’ve been…” So he’s really good with words, and it’s always funny because he’s quiet, so you wouldn’t expect that, but he’s very good with words. I’m sure there’s so many other…

Sarah: I’m sure there’s more, but just recognizing that he has some creativity in there. Hopefully he recognizes that about himself, too. Maybe he doesn’t see it as creativity. I enjoy writing. I’ve been told I’m fairly good at it. I find it much easier to… This is the challenge with social media for me because I find it much easier to write a caption and communicate than I do getting on a video, a reel, or a story or something, and saying, communicating the same thing because I like to think about the words that I’m using. When I’m in the moment, I can’t do that.

Natalie: That makes so much sense. I think it’s maybe it’s a Manifesting Generator thing. Maybe because he has to plan it out, and then it’s spot on.

Sarah: It can get excessive because I can write an email and then tweak it for an hour before I send it, and that’s just too much. But I do like to make sure that I’m communicating because written word doesn’t come with the facial expressions and the intonation of when you’re talking. I like to make sure that when I’m writing something, that I’m communicating using words that will communicate that intonation, hopefully. I feel like I’m pretty good at that.

Natalie: You are, and thank you. I can confirm.

Sarah: So yeah, that is, I didn’t really think about it that way, but that is one of the challenges that I have with social media and the fact that everybody wants video these days.

Natalie: Right, right. Yeah, I can see that for sure.

Sarah: I’m comfortable with this version of video. I mean, we are recording this on video, even though most people will likely listen to it through their headset or in their car, but I’m okay with that version of speaking on the fly, this version of speaking on the fly.

Natalie: Yeah. And because it’s conversational, you know, you’re talking, I can see how you’re talking to a phone or just…

Sarah: I don’t have the response. There’s no response.

Natalie: That’s what it is. The response. Oh my gosh, we just figured it out.

Sarah: We have solved the world. This is another Manifesting Generator and Generator thing: that we are meant to respond. Projectors put out invitations, right?

Natalie: Yes. We have to wait for the invitation, but I look at it as create…

Sarah: Create the invitation so that somebody can respond to it. We respond to that, and you’re right. That is my challenge with the video when I’m just talking to my phone, because I’m not responding to anyone like I am here. That intuitive speech that I have is coming out in our conversation.

Also, I don’t know if this is necessarily a Manifesting Generator thing, or if it’s just me, but I do well talking through something. Just talking through that made me realize, “Oh, right.” I have made a lot of discoveries like that. So it’s always good to find out something new.

Natalie: I know, and on camera, you watched it happen.

Sarah: Yes. Now I wonder, “Okay, what can I do to change that so that I can create those videos that are so seemingly necessary for social media these days?” How can I create those? Maybe I just need to get better at sharing videos of these conversations, like little clips of these conversations, so that I don’t have to create a conversation with myself.

Natalie: Absolutely. I love actually doing that. This is your long-form content. Now you can chop it up into little pieces and make multiple different things, and it draws people over to the long form. You can totally do that. We figured it out.

Sarah: Love it. We make a really good team. We have collaborated on some things because of our complimentary energy. That has been just magical for me.

Natalie: I know, me too. It’s so much fun.

Sarah: It is. You are the person who introduced Human Design to me. You just happened to throw it out in a conversation one day, and my ears just perked up, “What is Human Design?”

I wanted to know immediately what that is. As soon as you said it and how I could… “You need to tell me where I find out more.” I went immediately to get my chart and start learning. I am one of those people who can sometimes seem like the magpie that likes shiny things, or also the squirrel whose attention can be grabbed by all these things. I tend to dive in to learn as much as possible about something, and I skip around and try all different things, but this is one that I’ve dug into more and more over the last nine months, maybe, and I’m just so tantalized by all of the things that I still have to learn.

Natalie: That’s a good word: tantalized. You get to dive deeper into understanding you, and then you get to dive deeper into understanding your relationship with your parents, even, your husband, your kids. You can apply it. It’s never-ending, and it is why we’re here.

I’ve heard it explained like as a puzzle. Each of us is a puzzle piece, and we can’t try to fit into somebody else’s piece. We have to be our own piece. That’s how we’re all going to live and thrive together, by being ourselves and complimenting each other. It’s so important. So yeah, you can keep diving deeper into it. I love that.

Do What Lights You Up

Sarah: One of the things that you mentioned earlier was how you had this purpose that you needed to have your own business and build something for yourself. Tell us more about that.

Natalie: In your Human Design, there is something called your incarnation cross, and there are four different gates. It corresponds to the human genome: 64 gates, 64 genes. This stuff is scientific to me. I love me some “woo,” but I also love science. I’m kind of in the middle there.

This is scientific, too. There are different energy gates. If you look at Chinese medicine, the meridian points, all the energy points, there’s one that is specific to having your own thing, creating your own business, and it’s in a specific energy chakra called the ego center. I have that one lit up. You don’t have that one lit up.

Sarah: I’m so curious what that means. We need to ask Allison that because I don’t have that lit up, nor do I have any of the gates in the ego center lit up.

Natalie: Because I have this specific gate open, I have always felt this, and this is my number one gate that I need to work on. My life’s work is to support myself, to create something from the ground up for me that is made by me. Not just for me, but for everybody, but it has to be my own. I have felt that so deeply since I was a kid. I have always known that no matter what, if I get married, if I get divorced, if whatever happens to me in my financial and relational world, I need to be able to support myself. I’m so fiercely independent in that way.

Then there are three others. The last one is your purpose, and that one ironically is for me to wake people up. It’s called the “Gate of Shock.” I’m supposed to wake people up and shock them out.

That scares me because I don’t want to be a polarizing person, but I do feel strongly that we do need to wake up to our purpose, and that you don’t have to conform to everything that everybody else tells you you need to do. That’s why anything that encourages you to break the rules, or at least understand what rules you’re operating under, and then choose which ones that you want to break… Start small, I always say.

But that’s my purpose, is to wake other people up from out of their fear-based patterns into what really lights them up and awaken that part of them, because honestly, we need you. We need everybody to do that, going back to those puzzle pieces.

A lot of what I talk about, and I think action is the way to do this: aligned action. You have to take the steps. We live in a world where you have to do certain things. You can’t just meditate and manifest things. There are action steps you have to do. That’s how I think, anyway. Different people will say differently. But you won’t take those actions unless you believe you’re the type of person that does those things, and that’s where the embodiment comes in.

That’s what I coach my clients through: who do you want to be? What does that person do? What does that person believe? What does that person not believe? How does that person dress, eat, fuel themselves, move their bodies? How do they create offers for other people? How do they show up in the world? That’s how we’re going to start to behave so that we can bring these things around. When you believe you’re a marathon runner, you will go and train for a marathon. I do not believe I’m a marathon runner, therefore I am not out there running to train. So you really have to embody that knowledge from here to inside your body. That’s my purpose.

Sarah: I love it. I think it’s really interesting. I love when you use fitness as a storytelling device or for comparison to help people understand, because fitness is something that a lot of sports/fitness, something that a lot of people understand, even if they’re not big into those things. We’ve been ingrained with them over the years. You mentioned, “I am not a marathon runner. I do not envision myself as a marathon runner, and therefore I am not training for one.”

Years ago I was married to a guy who was such a workout fiend. This is a man who did an Ironman when he was 40. I said, “More power to you. Get out there and do all that swimming, biking, and running. Have fun.” I was willing to support it, but I didn’t want to be part of it. But I had another friend who said, “Oh, I’m going to do this half marathon. Would you be willing to train with me? Let’s do it together.” Well, she got me into the idea of doing it.

I looked up and came up with a training plan and started following it. I had never really been a runner. I had never really run more than a couple of miles and didn’t love it. I always heard about that euphoria that you get, that long-distance runners get, or people who work out really hard get this euphoric feeling. I always thought that was complete bullshit, and there was no way that that was something for me. But one day I felt it, and it was like the first time that I ran three miles, which was the longest I’d ever run, and suddenly I was like, “Oh, okay. I could do this. Yes, I can be a half marathoner.”

The end of that story doesn’t end quite as…

Natalie: And now I’ve run five marathons.

Sarah: No, I ran one half marathon. Just about a month before, I started having some pains. I remember being passed by a walker on the route that day. I’m running slower than the walker. It took me a long time to finish it, and I got done, and I looked at my husband, who again at that time was the person who did an Ironman, and I said, “Okay, well, I checked off that box, and I’m never, ever doing this again.”

He said, “No, you might.” I’m like, “Nope, I will not.” I’m a woman of my word. I have no interest in running another half marathon. I think I ran, the longest I’ve run since then was like a 10K, and I just have no desire to get back into running of any sort as a form of movement.

Natalie: I get it. But you tried. You tried, and I mean, I’ve tried different things, too, and that’s where you’re going to try things, and they’re not going to work out, but you’re learning from it. I’ve done CrossFit. I’ve done Olympic weightlifting. I have not run a race. I just don’t want to. So many different things I’ve tried, but you took that action, so you have to try on identities sometimes. It’s okay.

Sarah: I tried that one on and said, “Not for me. Not for me.” I love it. I really want to… One of my things is I want to dig more into that life purpose. I kind of sort of know, and I want to dig in a little more. I think where yours was, like, you needed to do something for yourself. I think that mine has to do with sharing a message with the world, which here we are on a podcast that hopefully someday hundreds of thousands of people will listen to. They will. And I’m getting that message out. It grows in baby steps, but here we are today. I’m doing it.

Natalie: I know, and it’s so fun to watch you do this. You’re amazing.

Sarah: It’s so fun to do it, so I’m just enjoying myself, which is the great part. It’s something that really lights me up, and that is a human design terminology, I guess, of doing the things that light you up. Those are the things that make you, that give you joy, and give you energy to keep doing.

Natalie: Exactly. This is work, but it doesn’t feel like work, so I don’t count it towards my three to four hours.

Sarah: Natalie, thank you so much for doing this and for being open to talking about all these things and sharing your stories. It’s really fun.

Natalie: I had so much fun. I feel like this could be a really long podcast if we kept going.

Sarah: I feel like we really could keep talking. I mean, we’ve had these similar conversations so many times.

Natalie: I know. It was so fun. Thank you so much.

Natalie has become a dear friend and business bestie over the past year. We have such a complimentary energy, and it has led to amazing collaboration on so many levels, including a natural ability to coach each other. Her story of going from people-pleasing burnout to starting her own business and network marketing that even her husband couldn’t quite understand was just the start of a transformation into the strong CEO she has become.

We share a thirst for knowledge, and we’re constantly sharing new resources with each other as we progress in our personal growth journeys. I loved this opportunity to talk about Human Design on the podcast, and if you’re intrigued and would like to learn more, you can begin by getting your Human Design chart. I’ve provided a link in the show notes to get your free chart, and you’ll find some other basic information on that. Natalie and I both know that knowing about your human design does not in itself mean you’ll be successful, but when combined with action that aligns with your energy, interesting things begin to happen.

Key Takeaways

• Intuition needs action. Natalie listened to her splenic “yes,” even when support wasn’t immediate, and it rewired her life.
  
• Identity is a practice. Moving from employee to CEO isn’t a title shift; it’s embodied behavior repeated over time.
  
• Design > hustle. Working with your Human Design (Projector sprints, Generator stamina, MG response) creates more impact with less burnout.
  
• Permission to pivot. Health, work, marriage—everything gets easier when we stop performing and start aligning.

About Natalie

Natalie Barnett is a certified nutrition coach, embodiment coach, and founder of Sane & Sustainable Nutrition and the Embodied Entrepreneur Mastermind. She helps women move from people-pleasing and burnout to clarity, self-trust, and consistent action using mindset, nourishment, and Human Design as a practical compass. A former gymnastics director turned coach and podcaster, Natalie blends science, soul, and straight talk to help clients embody the CEO they’re becoming.

Connect with Natalie: Website | Instagram | Podcast

Energetic Reflection

This conversation carries the frequency of self-recognition. When you stop asking for permission and start listening for your inner “yes,” the path rearranges. The point isn’t to hustle harder; it’s to embody the future you now, in small, honest choices. Language, energy, and identity all conspire in your favor when you choose alignment over approval.

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