Ditch the 10K Month Hype: Create Freedom with Human Design Instead With Guest - Kerstin Grünling

In this episode of Stop Waffling, Start Selling, we open the door to Human Design, not as something abstract or overly spiritual, but as a practical way to understand how you work, sell, and build a business that fits you.

I’m joined by Kerstin Grünling, Human Design mentor, Splenic Projector, and award-winning personal brand photographer. Kerstin has a rare ability to see people with clarity, not just who they are now, but who they are becoming, and translate that into how their business needs to operate.

Kerstin shares her journey from corporate life in Germany to building a creative business in Scotland, and why, even with success, something still felt off until she discovered Human Design.

Together, we break things down in a way that makes sense.

We talk about the five Human Design energy types, Manifestors, Generators, Manifesting Generators, Projectors and Reflectors, and what they mean in real life.

We explore:

• Why some strategies feel energising while others leave you exhausted
 • How your energy type influences how you sell, market, and structure offers
 • The difference between procrastination and misalignment
 • Why I thrive as a Generator in conversation but struggle with initiation
 • What happens when you go from corporate structure to running everything yourself

Kerstin also shares how she integrates Human Design into her work and why she is creating spaces for Projectors who feel overwhelmed by “do more” advice.

Her work helps women see blind spots, understand patterns, and make clearer decisions. When that clarity lands, things shift quickly.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing everything “right” but it doesn’t feel right, this will show you it might not be you, but the way you’ve been told to do business.

Connect with Kerstin:
Human Design chart: https://kerstinbrandphotography.com/human-design/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerstin-gruenling/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kerstin.gruenling

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kerstin.fuelledbyhumandesign/

Sandra ten Hoope is a Sales & Story Strategist and corporate attorney, known for bringing clarity to complex situations in both boardrooms and business.

Drawing from her own experiences, she now empowers professional women to rewrite their personal narratives. In Do Not Try HIM at Home, Sandra reveals the duality of her life, closing multi-million-pound deals while living in fear at home.

This podcast is for entrepreneurs who want to stop circling, trust their voice, and build a business that sells through clarity, not pressure.

Alongside the podcast, Sandra offers the Stop Waffling & Start Selling Membership, helping entrepreneurs move through:

Clarity → Connection → Conversion

Members receive bonus episodes, tools, and guidance to turn insight into action.Sandra also offers Revenue Clarity Sessions, focused one-hour conversations to identify what’s impacting your revenue and what to do next.

If you enjoy the conversations shared here, you’ll find extended discussions and additional insights inside the membership  HERE

Transcript

Welcome to Stop waffling. Start selling the weekly podcast in which we dive deep into the world of persuasive storytelling, effective sales techniques and practical strategies to help you grow your business on the third of March, full moon day. And this will come up in conversation. We have the wonderful Kirsten grundling, I'm now situated in Blackpool. And where are you now? Kirsten, because you sort of navigate between countries. Tell us all about that.
I am in Glasgow at the moment, and the sun is shining because march started two days ago, which is kind of really the change in Scotland, where we go out of the full February depression and decide that actually, maybe life is worth living a bit longer, because in February you get into this, oh, my God, it will never get any better. God, what am I doing here? And I will be depressed rest of my life. I learned that early in Scotland, in my I think second year, where I was about to be exactly like that. And then, and then my friend was saying, No, next week is March, everything will be good. And I said, No, it will be never good anymore. And then the next week, first of March, sun was shining, and I was thinking, Oh, my God, my life is back. And yeah, and I'm German originally, and I do have a part time home in Berlin, which is not where I'm from, but it's much cooler than where I'm from Berlin, which is,
which is obviously such a creator's help, and it has such An amazing energy to it. It's, it's, it has a it has beautiful buildings. There's a lot of culture, but it didn't get stuck in the past. It's always moved on. It's always been like the starting point of so many cultural changes that then, you know, made their way through Europe. So it's an amazing place to be, especially for yourself being because that will touch upon that. What do you do?
I do many things.
Um, so I give, I give, I give the audience a little bit of round up, because my that might be interesting for people who are wanting to change their life in in maybe a dramatic way. I have been stuck as a manager in corporate for many years, which was not really the dream of what I wanted to do. It was kind of the that's what you should do. Go to uni, get a degree, get a job, have a career, climb up the ladder and feed your pension and retire and hope there's enough money left for your life, or enough life for your money. And my dream was always to be more creative. I was always brought up in a photography loving family. My father was an amateur photographer. His father was and here we are going through really Baxter played camera photography and stuff and and at some point in the early 2000s I traveled to Scotland, and I came back transformed, and I thought, I need to change my life. And I made a master plan. I'm not a planner. I'm more kind of a do. I do the things very imperfectly, but my plan was to go to to Scotland and to live a different life. And it did happen in two 2006 I moved to Edinburgh. I quit my job, my corporate job, and decided I'm doing something else. There are no incidents. I ended up in college. I studied photography, what I always wanted to study. I ended up with a degree in 2011 proper photography degree. These were the most amazing years of my life, because I could finally learn what I always wanted to learn. And yeah, what happened? 2011 I got my degree, and then suddenly I said, Okay, what do I know now? How do I made money. I had no clue. I had really no clue, how to run a business, how to start a business. With a business management degree, I would like to mention that, of course, a business management incorporate is very different to trying to manage your own business. I got headhunted at that. Point back into corporate with an offer that I could not refuse. So I thought, Okay, I'll do that for two years and get some money back and get a plan and become a photographer. These two years were kind of strangely extended, because I was back in the hamster wheel. It was seven years, and finally, I quit for the last time in 2019 and yeah, just after my 50th birthday. I would like to mention that as well, because I think that is important for people, because a lot of people think when they're 50 or something like that, it's over. So I quit. I quit again, and and I stayed quit. I just want to say that right now and try to start my photography business. And I was really in this place. I have no clue how to do that I and I was still in this employee mindset and this work needs to be hard. Life needs to be hard only when you do hard work you deserve money at the end of the month and things like that. So what happened I was I did build a brand photography business with a few with a few detours, because at the beginning, I thought, I need to do all the things that I don't like to make some money. And then I realized, wait a moment, this is my business. I can actually do what I want. But it was not the easiest journey. Let me say that, yeah, it's not all unicorns and rainbows on this it's you have to learn a lot when you are suddenly trying to start and run a business because you are on your own, you suddenly need to learn marketing. You need to learn selling. You need to learn all these things that are not quite in your desire frame. You know, I wanted to take photos and create amazing images, but Right, if no one knows me, that's not going to happen. I did a lot of training in lockdown because 2020 we suddenly all got lots of time, and I launched my brand photography business, really, when the lockdown was open, I was I was hitting the ground running, which was brilliant. So as in, my brand photography business was growing, that it was amazing. And, and then I thought, Yeah, but I'm still stressed. I'm still not having this kind of alignment, ease and flow thing and and I jumped into a lot of personal development, and a lot was very rigid I learned, but it wasn't that much fun either. And I didn't really get the alignment. I had this kind of three words, alignment, ease and flow, that were floating over me. And I had my doubts if that's actually really true, if that's really happening, if that's really a thing, you know, maybe it's just kind of a myth. And in 2020, whatever, too, I fell into a system, which is called Human Design, which is a system where we are that helps us to understand who we are, how we're functioning. It is a lot about energy and how we are built and designed energetically. It is a combination of beautiful ancient wisdom plus modern science and science. It goes into the quantum it goes into the quantum physics. It goes into the genetics. It's kind of an all over thing which, and this is where I started to learn how I'm actually functioning, and how I was always trying to pretend and be something else than what I am, because I have a different energy type than 80% of humanity. And I don't know how deep you want me to go into human design, but I could give a really, really quick run about the energy types, then people may have an idea what I'm talking about.
That would be lovely. Because, you know, when we first met a couple of years ago, we were in a mastermind together, and told us about human design, and I was so not open to it.
Oh no, you weren't.
I
was very blunt about it, and like, you know, if that works for you guys, and I was so not open to the concept. And when you go more into the different energy types over the last few years, and especially since this year began, I made a Well, I wouldn't say conscious, but maybe more a heart soul felt choice to be open. So people started to notice I speak a lot more about astrology, and I shall also be speaking more about my energy type that you learned me to. Understand and in all honesty, with the general things that are known now and that you showed me about my design, the way I'm now setting up my business, making that mix with my life in general. If I sort of surrender to the design, if I trust that it works for me, I can only say people it does work. And we had a little pre conversation. Well, we have a lot of conversations anyway, but we had a little pre conversation just now about the concept of podcasting and how that fits your particular design question. So I think that's a great look to start from something very practical. Would you love to be in a podcast, and why? And then take us through, like in general, the design types, because I think a lot of people have heard about it. For some people, it's just, I think it's made very complicated. I think sometimes it's being taught very richly, which is why I sort of went off it. So take us through it. So you're not being on a podcast because, and then take us through the other types that will be very useful.
I like being on a podcast because as a projector, and I'll explain you all about that. I'm here to be invited, and that is the invitation is the first thing that needs to happen for people to are ready to receive me, to see me, to recognize me as who I am. And being invited in a podcast is kind of like, oh my God, all my dreams are coming true in this moment, which doesn't mean that other people are not absolutely chuffed by being invited in podcast.
Well, for me, we'll touch upon that I'm a generator and sort of my basic setting is to respond, which is why I love hosting a podcast and doing interviews and respond to people, as opposed to what works very well for others. You know, do a life where I'm just broadcasting, or a workshop where I'm just the sole person presenting, aided by slides, that does not work for me. I work best in a interview situation with one or more people, and I respond. So that's very practical. Why this works for both of us, but I think that a lot of people are now thinking, Hmm, how many times are there, and how do I find out?
Right? Okay, so human design, the human design system is, is a beautiful synthesis of ancient wisdom and modern science, but I'll mention just a couple of them, all three, possibly, Western Astrology is a big part of human design. The Hindu chakra system is a big part of human design. The Chinese teaching is a big part of human design, and the Kabbalah is also put in for a good mix. And then we go into genetics and science. And I'm not going that way. Human Design gives us a map of who we are energetically, and we are looking at, when we look at the collective humanity at once, we have five different energy types, and every energy type has a different role to play in the collective. And we are not taught that we are all treated like the same. So we are all kind of we. You need to do this, this, this, this, this, this. And then in human design, we have manifest as, that's 10% of us. They're here to initiate. They're here to bring something in flow, yeah, something that has not been here before. So they're here to bring the stone rolling, basically, yeah, they are. They have a very strong voice that is heard. Yeah, they can, but that is their only job, you know, to bring something new to the collective. They are not here to do all the work that is needed to actually bring it into existence. That is what exhausts them. That is what they don't have energy for the second group. And I put the second and the third together. These are the generators and the manifesting generators. These are the builders. This is 70% of us are builders and creators. They're dancing with life force energy. They have access to sacral energy and sacral power. They are here to build and do, but not everything they are. They are the workhorses, but not in a way that comes from history. There have been a lot treated as workhorses and taking. Advantage of but generators are their best when they are really lit up and do what they love doing, you know, then they have energy available. Then their sacral center is basically producing energy. They are like the Duracell bunny. They can work 20 hours in a row, and after that, I think what that didn't feel like 20 hours. I thought, um, was just 20 minutes. You know, this is, this is when the generators and manifesting generators are at their best. And what you were saying the signature of or there the strategy of generators and manifesting generators is to do, is to respond, to respond to something that comes from the outside to them. They're not here to initiate that's what the manifestors are doing. Yeah? So, but we are told that we need to do everything. We need to initiate them. We need to build the thing. Then we need to guide ourselves, and then we need to reflect back if we've done well, yeah, so the generators, there are two types. There are the generators and the manifesting generators. The difference between them is the speed. So the manifesting generators are really, really fast, moving, multi passionate. They are the only people who can really multitask, and they thrive on it. You know, they can do that. And they're here to spend time to find shortcuts for things. That's why they are designed like this. Generators are here for mastery. Yeah, they go all in and one thing, and then they do and they become absolutely incredible in that. And when you when you look at the difference, I love to the way I've learned it, and I love it is the generators on the steamboat. They have set direction, and then they go, you know, changing direction takes kind of a bit. And the manifesting generators, they are on the jet ski, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, they might miss important steps because they are already there, and then I need to paddle back, but that goes pretty quick, but that's also why they find shortcuts and different ways for the fourth group, and that's where I belong to. Are the projectors, there's about 20% of us. Projectors are here to guide. They had to guide energy. They're not here to do all the things. They're not here to initiate. They are here to be invited so that they can share their advice, because projectors, they see everything from a different perspective. They have a bit of a bird's eye view. They see where things are going wrong, and they see that quite clearly and quite into their face, which can be challenging, because when you don't know that you need to be invited to share your knowledge or your wisdom, then you might be giving lots of unsolicited advice that was my life, because the first thing I always thought was going wrong, and instead of, and then I was, I mean, I was stepping on so many feet when I was so unaligned, because I was seeing all these things immediately, you know, I was going my, my ex partner, he he was, he still is. It's a musician. He was doing these recitals. He is so brilliant. And I heard the one wrong note, you know, and, and I would say that was brilliant. Okay, that was one tone off. But why? Oh, so, so that's the projectors, and for projectors, it's really important that they learn to wait to be invited. And invited means really that someone has wants their advice. You know that that someone comes, Kirsten, what do you think about that? I would love to hear that, you know? And then we are kind of, oh my god, someone wants to hear what I have to say. You know? That is kind of what's lighting us up really big time. And hence, podcasts are just amazing. So yeah, projectors need to be invited and recognized, and that is a huge shift when you understand that as a projector, and then you stop giving unsolicited advice and and everyone is pissed off with you, and you think
and protect
us. Also like to go under in in generator environments. So when we are not recognized, we are not seen, we are kind of like nothing. We are just a little shadow that is sitting there. And we just think, Oh, my God, nobody sees us. Awesome. Yeah, is, and then the last one is 1% of us only, and that reflectors, reflectors are here to reflect back to the world how we are doing. And the they are very sensitive to environment. They are very sensitive to energy. They because everything flows through them. And they're really here to wait for a loon to get clarity on something. They need to wait 28 days. They are Luna beings that go with a lunar cycle. And when you want to put that all together, my favorite example is the movie. So the producer, that's the manifesto, you know, he comes with this idea for the film, and then it's picked up, responded to by the generators and manifesting generators. And they are everything, you know, they are the actors, they are the film crew. They are the stage designers. They are the location finders. They are there. They do all these amazing things. You know, the projector that sits, sits in the chair, you know, that's the that's the director that's just saying to do this there that way. Oh, no, no, no, we do this that way. That is better. And the reflector is the guy who goes into the cinema and writes the movie critic, yeah,
yeah,
yeah. So that's the fast rundown, and humans, yeah,
I love it. And it's you've, you've explained it so much more practically than I usually see it to me, it was either way too complicated or, like I said, I had a weird experience with a coach, mentor, friend who is a projector, but really didn't acknowledge the value that the other types bring, and just sort of glorified herself in that design and that even sending emails like, do not bother opening this if you are not a projector. What? Yeah, it went, it went very weird, and I responded to her, and this was years ago when I worked with her long time, and we was friends and everything, and I just responded. I said, I'm human. I'm not design. And to me, all humans matter. The same day, she unfriends me, throws me out of a group, starts talking about me in that group, not mentioning a name, but everybody could sense it was me. She went in total hyperdrive, and this must have been four or five years ago before we met in that mastermind but it put me off. And I just thought, you know, I started to feel that as a generator, like you said, I think that over the centuries, the generators have been used in not to say abuse as just a workhorse, but now you explain what we as generators bring to the table, and what suits us best, that sits way better with me then, then that experience. And I think even if people are just neutral to the concept, it's very hard for them to see what does that mean to me, or even in my business, what does that mean to me? Because when you reincorporate, the larger corporations have people of all energy types. So you have the you have the manifester. And I can think of someone like Richard Branson who realizes what type he is, who has the idea, who brings it to life, and then is smart enough to step away the moment it has to be really built and maintained, when an other entity type comes in, because you see in a larger corporation that the founder steps aside for a CEO who builds it to another level. And then, if there is a reorganization to be made, makes place. We yet another person, and I never, obviously, at that time, thought of it in realm of energy types. But I think if you were to run charts of the likes of that, you would find what kind of type they are. But then we move into the online space, like you did. You're this one person, one woman, one man show. So you both have the idea, and you are taught to build it in a certain way, taught by someone, whether it fits you in any whether it fits your time, whether it fits your energy, whether it fits your personality, doesn't matter. And keep on doing that. And I think that's why a lot of people, when they venture out into entrepreneurship, either line or online, at some point, feel stuck, because you're the one person having to navigate a journey that ideally would be dealt with by several energy types.
You are so right, and I want to yes in corporate if, and there are companies that are looking into human design now, because human design becomes more known, because it really makes sense. To have the people in the position that works for their energy, because then they are doing their best. They will be they get so much benefits out of that when the generators and manifesting generators doing what they love, what lights them up? Oh my goodness, lit up generator is the most amazing people you to be with in because their their aura is so warm, and it's like a like a warm hug when they are lit up and it's sparkly, and there's so much joy and so much energy around them, you know, whereas when they are, when they are doing what's not aligned for them, and they are. They are just kind of a shadow of themselves. They are in frustration, and the work that they're doing feels like 10 hours, although it was only 10 minutes. You know, it's really the other way around.
As a generator, I can so confirmed, because, like you said, once I'm doing something that I really love, time flies,
yeah,
but if I have an inkling that, oh, it just doesn't work for me, I just can't just and, like you said, frustration then comes up, and for the longest time I could feel the frustration, but really didn't sort of reflect it back to myself, thinking that it had to do with being a certain energy type, because how could I procrastinate on certain things so long, whilst other things I run with? And I just,
yeah, exactly
do yourself bunny and go, go, go. And I thought, how, how? How does that work? Because the one thing lit me up, the other thing didn't. So the one thing was sort of, I think, a response in a real that I liked, so that I could go, go, go. Someone had idea, and I'm like, Yeah, okay, we're going to do this and run with it, whilst if I didn't feel that, or I was made to believe that I had to come up with the idea myself. I'm not saying I can't come up with ideas. I'm just saying that then it's not the same speed, it's not the same journey, it's not the same feeling. Oh, and I think we should go back to to the basis, because a lot of people may have heard about human design. For some people, it might be totally new. Is it like, obviously, like astrology, it's date place and time of birth that, yeah,
you you want to, you want to know your date place and time of birth, like astrology. So this is the basic it is calculated on the planetary alignment the moment of your birth. And it's really interesting. You know, we are that when you look at all the Ancient Wisdom Teachings, Mystery Schools, they're actually all saying the same thing. You know, they were looking at the stars. They're looking at this. They're looking at energy and and bringing it all together as it's a bit of a genius of human design. And Human Design has not been it's only timed right? Let's make a sentence from this. It came to the world in in the 1980s and it was delivered due to a human being, let's call it. It was delivered, not in the nicest way, yeah. And so he channeled the whole system. He was a manifester. His job was bringing that to the world, you know, and not, not any other type could have done that. But he he basically got it delivered, and he got it kind of burned into his. He had all the knowledge that he could share. It was burnt into him. He was not learning line by line or anything like that. Ra, ra Uru, who he is not alive anymore, but he brought this system to the world. And I thought, oh my god, if that would have been the biggest nightmare for me, but he has a manifesto. He can do that, you know? And, yeah, you need to know your date, time, place of birth, and then you can get your chart, which is called the body graph. You can do that on my on my chaos and my brand photography website, because I have integrated the human design into my brand photography, but I also have started coaching and mentoring because I just thought, Oh, my God, this has changed my life. I want to change other lives, not only with the photography, which is also want to add that in interesting as a projector, there is a high percentage of projectors in the photographer world because of the way we see things, you know, because how we look at things. What we discover, what we bring out, and other people, which I found really interesting. I didn't expect that. I suddenly, I am in a brand photographer group, and I did a masterclass, a human design masterclass, and I invited them all in. And then I thought, projector, projector. So many projectors. This is not that many percent. Yeah, we are now looking at 50% it's really interesting. So by on my website, there's a software where you can get a free chart and few little bit about that. So if you want, we can, I can give you the link to put it.
Yes, we will put it in the show notes, because I think that by the combination of your wonderful energy, but your practical explanation on the different types, and also that we've woven in how it played a part in your business, or even, you know, on hosting a podcast or being in a podcast, it's made it more tangible for a lot of folks who were thinking meowed about it some time. It's yeah, maybe you know this, this very foggy, spiritual thing. How does it work for me? Well, basically, you will understand that you work with it maybe longer than you thought, without realizing, like I did, not knowing why I ended up in certain situations or why certain things that I thought of. I liked the thought, but I couldn't bring it to fruition, because I'd rather respond. And now that I'm sort of tuning into that more, it is really working for me and what I would love to do, because this is a general part of our podcast, I think we've given a wonderful overview of what human design could sort of do for you in your business, but also as a person, because it all stems from who are we, what brings us joy, what makes us light up, and, you know, find a way to really make all that work for you. But I would love to do for those who are members of my sub stack, Stop waffling, start selling. We're going to bring Kirsten to a bonus episode there where we touch upon human design a little deeper and maybe even into my design, because it's not that everybody born on a certain date has the same design, because there are certain profiles and other particularities, and it's given me so much insight in myself, and I would love to share it with you in the bonus meanwhile, Kirsten, where can people find you? We'll put it in the show notes as well. But
yeah, people can find me in, in on in the internet, all over now, I'm on Facebook. You find me with my name. I'm on LinkedIn as well. Dabbling with Instagram, not that good, but you will find me there as well, and what I'm currently so I work at, like to mention that, before we go, I work with, with all designs in my in my mentoring part of the business, and it's all about freedom. You know, it's all I am the wildly free mentor, because I believe there is a lot, and what is the right word that's a lot in the in the online world, where it's all about 100k months, 10k months, whatever, 100 million weeks. I don't know it's all kind of about the money, but I want to go deeper with my with my people, because what is it behind? Is that really your, your true desire, and mostly it always boils down to actually, I want just freedom. We believe that we need to have all these things to get the freedom. But you can. You can create your freedom right now, even without being a six, seven, whatever figure, business owner and and just at the moment, I'm creating something for projectors only because I think that they need, they need different, different guidance. You know, they're the guides, and they need different guidance. You know, with projectors, they kind of drown in generator led containers. And I'm dreaming of creating something for projectors, and I'm in the creation process at the moment, in my way, very easy going.
Oh, this is beautiful. So projectors out there, or if through the tool that we will put in the show notes at Gerson website, you'll find out you are one. This is really a circle that I think. Think you'd want to be part of. But also for us out there, generators like myself, the manifesting generators, the manifesting reflectors, if you now already landed on your design at some point. Want to know, but what does it really mean for me in my life and my business, not the big books and the big whatever my profile, my energy. What can you do for me? Go to Kirsten. I have this inkling, responsive inkling, that it won't be the first. It is the first, but certainly not the last time that we see Kirsten in the podcast. So consider yourself invited again, and we'll work with that. It's been a joy. You.
Bob,
thank you so much for listening to this episode. Stop waffling, start selling. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope it helped you on your business journey. And if you liked this episode or the podcast in general, do share the link and for further information on stop offering, start selling have a look in the show notes. See you again next week.