The Power Of Quiet Connections

Almost 27 years ago I landed my first job out of college at the Texas Capitol. I stayed human with the people I met. About twelve years ago I needed a job badly and one of those old relationships became eleven or twelve years of employment. My current job came the same way. I did not even apply for it. Someone who knew me and my work asked me to come on board.

Every significant opportunity in my career has come through someone I already knew. That is not luck. That is my Human Design 2/4 profile at work.

In this episode we go deep on the Hermit and the Opportunist, the two sides of my profile that should not be able to coexist and somehow do. We talk about the gifts you cannot see in yourself, why big networking events drain you, how sports became my secret relationship strategy, and what it actually means to build a career quietly through people who already know you.

Pull your free chart at Tracy Hill's site: abeautifulfix.com/pages/hdchart

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"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth."

Transcript

Relationships Built My Career

Jama Pantel 0:00

Almost 27 years ago, I landed my first job out of college working in politics at the Texas Capitol. I was young, I was learning a lot, and I met a lot of new people. A lot of those people I stayed connected with over the years. Not in a strategic way, not because I had a plan, just because that is how I moved through the world. I stay human with people. About twelve years ago, I needed a new job. Bad. I reached out to my network and one of those relationships from almost twenty six years ago became eleven or twelve years of employment. My current job came the same way. I did not apply for it. Someone who knew me and my work asked me to come on board. It came to me through relationships. Every significant opportunity in my career and life has come through someone I already know. That is not luck. That is my design. Hey y'all, it's your podcast Bestie Jama again.

Meet The 2/4 Profile

Jama Pantel 1:02

Last week we talked about what human design is and why finding it changed the story I was telling myself about doing multiple things at once. Today we are going deeper on one specific piece of my chart, my profile. I have a two four profile, which means I am half hermit and half opportunist. The tension between those two things explains so much of how I have moved through the world that I could not wait to record this one and share with you guys. We touched a little bit on the hermit piece last week, but I want to go deeper today because there's more to it than just needing solitude. Although that's my favorite

The Hermit Line And Hidden Gifts

Jama Pantel 1:45

part. The two line is called the Hermit because people with that profile have natural gifts they genuinely cannot see in themselves. The gifts come so easily that they do not register as special. They just feel like being normal. Someone asked me not too long ago if I was one of those girls where everything just comes easily and naturally. And I kind of shrugged it off. However, my emotional support human was standing right there next to me and he immediately said yes, even if she does not see it in herself. And that is exactly the thing. The people around you can see your gifts clearly. You genuinely cannot. Not because you're being falsely modest, because the gifts are so native to you that they do not feel like gifts at all. Running is the perfect example because running's always the perfect example. But before perimenopause, before forty, running just worked for me. I never understood what the big deal was pounding out six, seven minute miles while running a business, while working a demanding career, while training for marathons, while launching a podcast, you know, doing all the things. People tell me they could never do what I do. To me, that's just a Tuesday. That is the two line, y'all. Your gifts are so native to you that you literally cannot see them from the outside. Last year I heard comments twice, which was a little unexpected. Both times were at funerals. My cousin told me at my uncle's funeral that she does not understand how I show up online the way I do. And then also, a classmate said almost the exact same thing to me at her mom's funeral. She follows me online, they both do, and cannot figure out how I do what I do. Two different people, two different occasions, the same observation. And both times I honestly did not know what to say. It didn't make me uncomfortable or anything like that. Honestly, it made me proud because showing up as an introvert is not the easy choice. It would be so much easier to just stick to yourself and get by. But I know that if I do not do something, I would not have anything that I have. So I continue to show up anyways, in my own little ways, like this podcast. Here's something

Showing Up Online As An Introvert

Jama Pantel 4:08

else that I have noticed too. The people who comment, share, and engage on social media are almost never the people you know in real life. Those two people never engage with me on social media. It is all the strangers on the internet that do. And that used to bother me a little bit. But now I just understand it as part of what it is. Because some of those strangers become real people in my actual world. Shocking, I run a lot of races, right? I talk about running a lot. So back when I was on the Brooks Run Happy Team and had a way bigger following, yes, I deleted a lot of my following after my time as a run influencer. Um, we as a team ran the Houston Marathon together. And at the expo, I had several people come up to me who followed me online and acted like they already knew me in real life. And then I remember a group of us on the team standing around at the start, we were all starting together in the same corral, and a girl walked up and said, Hey, it's the Brooks Run Happy team. She knew who we were before we even met. That is what showing up consistently online does over time. You do build real connection with people you have not met, and if you're lucky, they do become part of your world. And I will call most of them acquaintances, some have turned into honest to goodness friends. But they are all real connections. People who are genuinely in my world now who started as strangers on the internet, that is also the two line working in a very modern way.

The Opportunist Line And Real Networks

Jama Pantel 5:42

Now let's talk about the four line for a little bit. The four line is called the opportunist because people with this profile create their biggest opportunities through existing relationships, not cold outreach, not networking events, not sliding into strangers' DMs, through people they already know and have known for a long time. My photography business works the same way. People hire me because they know me, like me, and trust me. SEO or search engine optimization brings new people in through Google, and that matters too. However, the clients who come back, who refer their friends, who book their daughters for senior portraits because they have watched me work for years, those all come through relationships. My time at the Texas Capitol is the purest version of this. A relationship I maintained simply by staying human with someone over all the years. When I needed it most, they were there. Cold networking has never really worked for me. The big network events where everyone is handing out business cards and work in the room or chatting everybody up with small talk. That environment drains me and rarely produces anything real. Not because I'm not good with people, because my design is not built for that kind of connection. My network grows slowly through genuine, sustained contact over time. Definitely not through hustle, but by staying human with all the people I meet. Let me give you an example of this. I was at a networking event and I was sitting at a table by myself, a story of my life. A lobbyist came over and asked if his interns could sit with me. He told them to watch me and pay attention because they could learn a lot about how I do things and how I did this. And honestly, I didn't think much of it, and I didn't think I was really doing anything special. I was just sitting there. People came over and we talked. That was it. At the end of it, one of the girls came up to me and said something that caught me completely off guard. She told me how easy I made all of this networking stuff look. And I had no idea what she meant because I was not doing anything intentional. I was just sitting there. That is the two line showing up inside the four line story. The gifts are invisible to you, everyone else can see them very clearly. Now, here is the interesting

Sports As The Perfect Social Container

Jama Pantel 8:12

part. I've said this before, I need solitude to function. And my entire career has been built on relationships. Those two things should not be able to coexist. Yet they do, and here we are. I am so convinced that the reason is sports. I have always built and maintained my deepest connections through running, through the Senate softball team that I joined twenty-seven years ago, through the Brooks running community or other local run clubs or run events, through every athletic community I have ever been a part of. Here's the thing, sports gives you something to do together, and then a defined end time. Same thing with my photography crew and my photography groups. There's always a defined in time. You connect deeply for a finite period, and then you go home. No small talk, no force mingling, no standing around a room trying to think of something to say. Just shared effort and real conversations with the people you genuinely gravitate towards. Then you get to go home and recharge. Even in larger group settings, I tend to find the people I am the most comfortable with and stick closer to them. I break every big event down into smaller pockets of real connection. Small talk does not interest me. Real conversations is what builds something lasting. And that is where I put my energy. And honestly, that's why I've stepped back from social media and started this podcast. I did not design this system consciously, my design designed it for me. And looking back now, it makes complete sense.

How To Read Your Own Chart

Jama Pantel 9:52

So what might this all mean for you? If you have always found big networking events exhausting, but somehow always end up with opportunities through people you already know, you just might be a four line. If people keep pointing out gifts in you that you genuinely cannot understand what the fuss is about, you just might be a two line. If you need solitude to recharge, but your best connections are deep and lasting, you might be both like me. So pull your own chart and find out. Again, I'm gonna link to Tracy Hill's link in my show notes to pull it for free. Again, she knows a lot more about this than I do. So next week we're going into sacral authority and what it means to trust your gut when your brain will not shut up. And this one is personal, y'all. I have spent years overriding mine, and my body had some things to say about it. But that's all I've got for now. And until next week, bye for now, y'all.