Best of Hero & Human Design Coach Zach Carlsen

We’re diving into the most impactful moments from Chandler’s conversations with Human Design Coach Zach Carlson. From decoding energy types to understanding decision-making and life purpose, Zach breaks down the human design system in a grounded, approachable, and deeply personal way. You’ll hear insights on how conditioning shapes our self-perception, why your nervous system plays a key role in how you operate, and how understanding your unique energetic blueprint can help you live with more clarity, confidence, and compassion for yourself and those around you. 

What You Will Learn

• [00:07:06] What human design actually is — and how the system blends science, energy, and personal experience.
• [00:08:01] Why human design is meant to be experimented with, not just studied.
• [00:09:38] How to start using human design to guide a purpose-driven career pivot.
• [00:11:00] How life experiences contribute to conditioning and self-doubt.
• [00:13:32] Why imposter syndrome is universal — and how human design can help you move through it.
• [00:15:00] The three key elements to focus on when you’re new to human design.
• [00:17:00] How knowing your energy type, strategy, and authority can simplify decision-making.
• [00:18:30] Why understanding your child’s chart can support better parenting.
• [00:22:30] A practical approach to helping kids navigate boredom using yes/no binary questions.
• [00:27:06] How embodying your authority leads to a more aligned sense of purpose.

Want to Hear More from Hero Zach? Check Out These Episodes!

• Human Design and the Blueprint of You
• Nuturing Intuition: Using Human Design to Empower Parents and Children
• Combating Imposter Syndrome and Career Uncertainty with Human Design
• How Human Design Types Coincide with Decision-Making

Let’s Connect!
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Zach Carlsen

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Chandler Stroud

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Mixing and editing provided by Next Day Podcast.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Chandler Stroud: Hey guys, it's Chandler and welcome to the Healing Heroes.

I'm Chandler Stroud, an executive wife and busy mom of two who after years of living with anxiety health struggles and an unshakeable feeling like I should be happier, made a profound discovery that changed everything. Join me on a journey where unexpected paths lead to healing and more happiness. On this show, we will explore [00:00:30] unconventional ways to unlock more joy in your own life.

With the help of my very own healers and trusted advisors, the healing heroes.

Hey everyone. Welcome back to the show. Thank you for tuning in today. I'm your host, Chandler, and today we're still in the process of rolling out our Healing Heroes highlight series. So for the next several weeks, we will be [00:01:00] releasing one episode a week that features one of our distinguished heroes so that you can get.

A curated look at our various interviews and episodes together without having to go back and listen to every single episode, though, as I always do, I encourage you to go back and listen because there's so much good stuff in each conversation. But for today, I just want you to get to know Zach better and share some of the highlights of my favorite moments.

From [00:01:30] 2024 into 2025. And so that's what we're gonna do. And so today we're gonna overview a lot of the different conversations that I have had with Hero. Zach Carlson on human design. If you've never heard of human design, it is essentially a practice that takes a number of other systems to create a personality blueprint.

It combines elements of astrology, the chakra system, the Kabbalah, and even quantum [00:02:00] physics to tell you more about you. It's entirely based on your birth date. Time and place, and it really gives you insight into how your energy naturally works, how you make decisions best, and how you interact with the world around you.

It's a cool way of looking at yourself and your behaviors. And from a third party perspective to understand what really [00:02:30] lights you up? In what circumstances do you thrive in what other circumstances might you feel challenged and how to navigate those moments so that. You just get a better and deeper understanding of yourself.

Human design has been a really fun part of my healing journey. I met with hero Zach because I had already done tarot reading and astrology, and it even does incorporate pieces of astrology into the human design [00:03:00] system. But I just loved the science behind human design. It feels so much less mystical when you really dive in with Zach and take a look at your human design chart.

So I've really enjoyed getting to know Zach because I have historically been so into astrology and tarot reading and all of these things that help me better understand. Me, the science of me, and that's exactly what human design does, but in a very scientific way [00:03:30] that you just can't ignore so much so that my very rational, logical husband even met with Zach and loved their time together.

And for me it's been so helpful, understanding my husband's. Blueprint and human design framework because it allows me to approach him from a more compassionate and understanding place, knowing what he needs and how he rests, and how he resets and recharges because it's different from me, and that can be [00:04:00] really helpful to know when you're in a relationship with somebody.

And you just wanna extend that kind of love and support to your partner. And so it's been invaluable for me and my relationships, and it's been really helpful in better understanding myself and even my kids as one of our episodes suggested since we dove into how. My kids and I are very much alike and how we're different.

So highly recommend you check that one out if you are [00:04:30] interested in understanding how to use this system, not just for yourself, but for your loved ones. And so with that, I am thrilled to introduce to you our hero. And human design expert, Zach Carlson.

[00:04:47] Zach Carlsen: Human Design is a system for exploring ourselves and exploring ourselves both in real life and then in our relationship that we have with ourself internally, the stuff that no one else can see, but that we [00:05:00] experience. Constantly. And so human design is a system made up of other systems to explore this, and there's five primary systems that interact with each other.

Inside the umbrella of human design. We've got astrology. We've got the Hindu Brahman chakra system, we've got the Kabbalah, we've got quantum physics, and then we have the Chinese etching. And those are like the big five. But underpinning all of that, and the only reason that this system actually [00:05:30] is relevant, meaningful, valuable to people is that it incorporates our own personal experience.

The things that we have learned, the wisdom that we have gathered, and the memories that we hold for. Ourselves in the past, but also the vision that we hold for ourselves in the future. And so it's really like a blueprint or a guide for navigating the stuff that's really difficult to get at in another way.

It's not a mental system exclusively, it's a system that [00:06:00] requires us to experiment with it, play with it. And so it's an experiential system. 

[00:06:05] Chandler Stroud: I love thinking about it in an experiential way. Because I do think that speaks to the breadth of what it brings to the table and the impact it can have on those who get a reading from you.

Just curious, why would someone reach out to you for a human design reading? 

[00:06:20] Zach Carlsen: I work with a lot of people who wanna know the why of things, right? It's not enough for them to just. Notice something they wanna know. Why is that there? [00:06:30] So a pattern of self-sabotage, let's say, or people pleasing or perfectionism, right?

We might notice that it's there, but we really wanna go deeper into the why, because we know intuitively, instinctively, deep inside that if we know the why, where did this come from? What experiences did I have that. Created this response from me, then I can do something with it. And so it's really about making what is unconscious conscious so that we have a say we're not [00:07:00] on autopilot, or we don't feel like we're just being rag alled around by the universe.

Right? It puts us back into the driver's seat in a way that is both. Humble, right? We're not kings of the world, but we are the driver, the, the conduit of energy for our lives. The mind plays a role in certain people's chart, but nobody I. In the human design system, this is designed to make their [00:07:30] decisions from their mind.

And so if you're brand new to this, you might be asking, well, where do we make our decisions from? And my unique design is that I make my decisions from my sacrum, from my gut. Some of my good friends, they make their decisions from their spleen. 

[00:07:47] Chandler Stroud: I think mine was my spleen. You said that in our reading, and I was.

I mean, pretty shocked. I was like, I don't, I've never thought about my spleen, never once in my life. And you're telling me my spleen has been guiding me [00:08:00] this whole time? 

[00:08:01] Zach Carlsen: Yes, and, and trying to guide, because one of the things that we learn when we dive into this is how significantly we bypass this amazing little brain inside of our body and we try to apply mental, intellectual energy to.

The process that's like making pros and cons, lists and overthinking and being up in our heads all the time. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way of dropping in where the answer is [00:08:30] just there it emerges. We can hear it, we can feel it. It isn't this thought process where we're weighing options, it's just.

A truth. And that's again why working with the system, it's not theoretical. We're actually required to go out and experiment with it and explore it and to see for ourselves. And I'm not a super far out person. I like to think and research far out topics, but when it comes to how I live my life, I'm super practical, like [00:09:00] very rational, very organized.

If. People are familiar with astrology. I'm very Virgo in that sense. And so I came to the system with a ton of skepticism, a ton of questions, and I've gathered so many data points along the way, and I've created points of comparison where like, here's how I would've made this decision in the past and here's how I made it now.

And I can just see the difference

[00:09:27] Chandler Stroud: what. Advice would you [00:09:30] give someone who wants to pivot to a more purpose-driven career, but is uncertain where to start using their human design chart? 

[00:09:38] Zach Carlsen: Hmm. I would start with the intention and what's motivating that desire in the first place. If I spend enough time on Instagram. Suddenly, I wanna be a professional skydiver.

I wanna be a professional skateboarder. I want to save all [00:10:00] of the animals of the world whose habitats are being destroyed. Too many same, by the way, same. Too many chefs in the kitchen. And so really, I might be a broken record, but really getting the basics of the chart down. Figuring out what are these big, broad strokes in terms of how energy circulates through your system.

But then also I think just a casual life review is. [00:10:30] Helpful, especially at the beginning of our journeys of answering the question like, what are the reasons? Who are some of the key players in my life that offered me my strengths and encouragement and recognition? Some people got more of that than others.

Others less. And then the other side of that, what are the events in my life that shaped me and told me it wasn't safe to be who I am? Not [00:11:00] to blame those people or those experiences, but to contextualize them so that it's not this situation where we're like, I'm flawed. There's something wrong with me. We are who we are for reasons.

I truly believe that I've seen that to be true in my own life. And then coaching hundreds of people. It seems to be true for everybody. Nobody is born hating themselves, right? Mm-hmm. No baby ever no [00:11:30] came out hating themselves, and so we developed something as tragic as that through life experiences.

And so getting clear about just some of the, the timeline and history, and then we can start plugging. The conditioning and the programming that doesn't work for us into the chart. Right? If I was a projector, I'm talking a lot about projectors today, and I felt the pressure to always be on and to be initiating and [00:12:00] to be leading the way, it wouldn't help me in any of this realm because it's more of just trying to be something that we're not.

Human design doesn't say, this is who you are. But it says, here's some wiring that's there. Look at all the different possibilities. Have you explored these or are you still in this very narrow, culturally defined version of what success is? Right, and success and intelligence. [00:12:30] Those are social constructs.

We have a, a narrow view of what intelligence is. We have a narrow view of what. Successes. For example, we honor certain professions over others. I know that at least one of your listeners is a stay at home mom. And how do we, yes. How do we hold that as a culture? How do we honor or not honor that? I think we're moving a little more towards honoring it.

Mm-hmm. But really [00:13:00] we define success. We define intelligence. We define growth in ways that are totally human generated. The squirrels outside don't care what I do with my time and energy. They're completely passive to that, but. I can think of a few people who I want to be sure that they see me succeed, right?

And that they think certain things about me. And I obviously can't control that anymore than I can control the squirrels. But [00:13:30] really landing in this place where it's like we, I. We got to where we are for reasons and we can get to where we want to go for other reasons. And human design can be a tool in that journey.

One that I've seen and see almost daily. If you experience imposter syndrome, you're. With the rest of us. I've been at this work for over a decade and [00:14:00] I still meet with that part of myself. But how I meet with that part of myself is what's changed. I don't let it drive the bus. And the reason why I don't let it drive the bus is because I know my chart and I know my own experience.

And I also have a lot of reference points where these coaches who I admire, they're like, yeah, dude, like I experienced that as well. So I think. In service of just helping us get out of our own way a little bit. I needed to acknowledge that. [00:14:30] My experience in this space is that it's a, a natural thing. It's a natural energy that we meet with, and so then how do we meet with that?

The first step, I think, is to learn just the basics of what. Your chart design is, we all have a type, like I mentioned, you're either a reflector, a projector, a manifester, a generator, or a manifesting generator. You can look this up online for free. [00:15:00] Don't pay to have a chart generated for you. There's lots of websites where you can get it for free and they will all have the same result if you put it in website A or B or C.

Though they should all generate the same chart, it's not something that changes. Next, I would say after learning your energy type, which will kind of guide you in broad strokes of maybe how to rethink or reevaluate physical energy perspectives, the places that your mind might naturally go. [00:15:30] Is to explore what your strategy is and each type, each of the five types have a specific strategy.

Some people are here to really initiate and lead the way. Other people are here to kind of lean back and respond a little bit, be bit more intentional about what we're saying yes to. Other people are here simply to offer a mirror to reflect back the state of the collective, the [00:16:00] health of the community.

And so we have a type that's the big, broad strokes. It's like your sun sign and astrology. If you're a Leo or an Aries. And then we move down into strategy, which kind of gives us a frame. River Banks really for our energy to flow through in terms of how we approach life. And then the third piece is your authority.

And the authority is that little awareness center, which [00:16:30] is like a chakra in the body where we are best equipped to make decisions from. Some people need to really. Be aware of their emotional state and their emotional wave, and we all have emotions, but some people, that's their authority. Other people, it's more of a gut check.

It's a simple yes or no. It's more of a primitive uhha or Uhuh. That can be developed and listened to. I [00:17:00] never used to trust my gut. I used to question it, and if my gut was right, it was like I got lucky, and if my gut was wrong it was like I must not have listened properly, I missed something. And this system helped me completely get outta my head.

On that. And that really is what I hear more often than not, is it doesn't provide the solution where it's like, here's what to do. It provides clarity so that we can hear our own solution. [00:17:30] And so those three things, type, strategy and authority, those are the big three to focus on in the beginning. If you're new to the system and.

I think it's about 90% of the work is just really, really getting good with those parts of our design.

[00:17:50] Chandler Stroud: One general question parents might be asking themselves right now is, what is the benefit of knowing your child's chart in human design? How can it help [00:18:00] parents? Yeah. Raise their children more effectively? 

[00:18:03] Zach Carlsen: Love that question. And again, human design is a practical tool. It's got a lot of information in it, but really the reason why it has value is that we can actually use it in our lives, in our relationships and the decisions that we make.

And number one, for me, the reason why parents and children should be engaged in conversations and explorations of [00:18:30] design as. There's that quote where it says, everyone is smart in different ways, but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its entire life thinking that it's stupid.

And to me, human design helps us know if we're raising a fish or a monkey, or a raccoon or a cow or a horse, right? We don't have the same expectations of a fish as we do of a horse. And [00:19:00] so there's a, a tendency and human design offers an incredible lens to view cultural conditioning family programs through.

The tendency is to kind of unconsciously try to create mini mes. And I know all the parents in my life have met with that energy of where did this kid come from? Why are they this way? Why won't they listen to me? Why don't they have the same interests as me? There's like this alien [00:19:30] quality that trips up sometimes, rarely, sometimes, often.

And human design offers a lens where we can say. Okay, this is a fish, and so I'm not gonna hold a fish to the standard of a horse, or this is a horse and I'm not gonna hold my kid to the standard of a fish. And what that looks like is that there's these five core types in human design, just like there's the different zodiac signs, [00:20:00] Taurus, Capricorn, Aries.

In human design we have. Generators and generators are here to build and to transform and to move their energy out of their body. We have. Manifesters, they're here to lead. They're here to blaze a trail. They're here to initiate start new things. We have projectors. They're here to guide. They're here to [00:20:30] listen.

They're here to see with their x-ray vision into systems and find where things are functioning and malfunctioning. And they're here to transform systems. We have reflectors. They're really here to mirror back the state and the health of individuals and the collective. And then we have number five, which is a hybrid type.

It's a manifesting generator and manifesting generators have a blend of generator. Let's do it. Energy. And [00:21:00] manifester, let's lead energy.

How do your kiddos handle boredom? How do they handle too many options? What happens when they get overstimulated? Just kind of as a, a bulk question, how would you reflect on having kids that are wired to be go, go, go, and then when boredom sets in. 

[00:21:23] Chandler Stroud: You know, it's interesting. I struggle with boredom, and they do too.

They hate being bored. They hate [00:21:30] feeling like there's nothing for them to do. I thought that was just kind of the nature of children is that they feel like they wanna be entertained, and we as parents, especially these days, take that role on, I think more than we need to. I remember as a kid, when I was bored, my parents said.

You know, like go outside because boredom is what created the creativity and the make-believe play. And those moments of discomfort we talk about where you really [00:22:00] have to like go inward and be like, what do I, what do I wanna do right now? No one is telling me what I need to be doing. What do I wanna do?

Yes. And I've always parented my kids in a way that I try to build some boredom into the day when I can, because I think it's good for kids to be bored because it teaches them more about themselves. And I fundamentally don't believe it's the job of a parent to entertain their kids. Yeah. 

[00:22:23] Zach Carlsen: Yeah. Beautiful.

And using human design, you could build a strategy within them for how to [00:22:30] navigate or negotiate with that boredom being instead of the kids twiddling their thumbs and saying, what do I wanna do? Breaking it into yes. No questions into that. Binary. Do you want to go outside like. That's a yes no question.

No. Okay. So you wanna be inside. Do you want to do something creative? Yes. Do you want to do something visually creative like painting? No. Do you want to do something that engages another sense like [00:23:00] sound? Yes. Play the piano. Like instead of it being, 'cause boredom is overwhelming for kids. Not because there's nothing to do, but sometimes 'cause there's too many things to do.

Yeah. And so one of the ways of parenting a generator, a manifesting generators to help them chunk their world down into a yes no binary into these little categories of activity or of stimulation. 

[00:23:24] Chandler Stroud: That's really helpful. 'cause what typically happens is I offer a litany of things they could go [00:23:30] do, you know, use the toys in your room to build blocks, go outside and run out, you know, ride your bike or do something in the playroom, you know, whatever it might be.

But I, I rattle off five or six things that they could be doing with their time. Yes. But I think what you're saying is really helpful. It's not giving them option overload. It's actually. Helping guide them to a place where they are choosing the activity, but getting there a little bit faster because I am helping their [00:24:00] thought process along the way.

Yes, 

[00:24:02] Zach Carlsen: yes. And it's building a life skill.

[00:24:08] Chandler Stroud: How do you think human design uniquely guides individuals in making Alliant decisions? What sort of decision making is human design most helpful for in your opinion? 

[00:24:18] Zach Carlsen: So. The easy answer is all decisions. Mm-hmm. The practical answer is medium to large decisions. What I have found is that I can [00:24:30] use the wisdom of my human design in any decision, but really where I've found the rubber meets the road, where I'm actually able to see, wow, there's a difference between.

The old way of doing things and the new way of doing things is in an emotional decision, an interpersonal decision or a big decision like, do I leave my job? Do I leave this relationship? Do I take this job? Do I enter into this relationship? I. The [00:25:00] anxiety that I felt in the past around big decisions like that, and then the fear of regret, the whole aftermath of making a big decision and then wondering did I make the right decision?

All of that. Was brought down from a 10 to, I'd say a one or a two, simply by using some of the big, easy, tangible, moving parts of human design. And if this sounds too good to be true, I would challenge that by saying, try it. Because human design is a system that's meant to [00:25:30] be experimented with. It's not meant to live between our ears theoretically.

[00:25:34] Chandler Stroud: I love that. I think I've even always thought about human design as aiding in big decisions before you make them. But I love that you touched on the potential discomfort, anxiety, or maybe even second guessing that happens after you've made one of those decisions and that human design can alleviate a lot of that discomfort.

I. Which I think is so cool. I hadn't thought about it that way before. 

[00:25:58] Zach Carlsen: Yeah. And that [00:26:00] dynamic of thinking that it is working with one layer of reality or life when really it's touching several, I find that to be very consistent, almost predictable when using a tool like human design or even astrology, right?

There's, there's kind of the. Doorway in. And then there's all the other doors that connect on the other side of that first doorway. And again, for people who like mystery, they like the metaphysical. [00:26:30] Human design offers an actual structure. I think of it like river banks. We've got the water, which is the energy of life, and then we've got river banks that are directing that water in a, a structured way.

[00:26:46] Chandler Stroud: Zach, I'm curious, how does tuning into our authority influence the way we align with or sometimes even find our life purpose and. I wanna be clear, when I say purpose, I'm referring to something you [00:27:00] embody verse chase like a profession or calling, if that's a helpful distinction for you and listeners.

[00:27:06] Zach Carlsen: Hmm. I love that fine point that you put on it there because I think the pursuit of purpose, the chasing the, the striving for it, what I've witnessed as a coach over the last 10 years is that works against us more than it works for us. Mm-hmm. And reason for that is, I think a purpose is something that we live into as [00:27:30] opposed to something we discover and then.

Live in Toot. I see purpose in general as being a direction. A compass point, something we move towards as opposed to something we cultivate and create in a lab somewhere and then go out and show the world like I'm living my purpose and that philosophy, which is the one that has worked best for I. Me and the people who have gotten to support as a coach, it dovetails really nicely with [00:28:00] human design because human design is not a theory, it's an experiment.

It's a PR set of practices or principles that we adopt into our lives that then we go out and explore and gather data one little chunk at a time. One decision. At a time. And so when it comes to our purpose, I don't think that we can look at a human design chart and say, oh, this person would make a great salesman.

This person would make a wonderful bus [00:28:30] driver. But instead, we can say, okay, whatever this person wants to do, their energetic design, their physical, psychological, spiritual, mental energy is going to interact best if you. Unleash that in the world in these specific ways. And so breaking it down instead of the what is my purpose, we can look at it as to how can I get clear on my purpose?

And again, human [00:29:00] design, if we are a fish and we have been. Trying to be a giraffe, right? And it's going, it's gonna be frustrating. We, we wouldn't even have time, energy, or space in our lives to think about purpose because we'd just be trying to keep up. And so when it comes to purpose, I have found it most.

Practical to think of it as a direction, a vision that we move towards instead of one specific thing. And then within that, not [00:29:30] asking what is it, but how can I get more clear on that? How can I get the next breadcrumb? Where can I find the next lily pad to jump to? And a cheesy thing that I've kind of lived by these cheesy bruss maxim.

We love them here. We love them. Keep 'em coming. Zach. Is that confidence and competence are not prerequisites for starting, right? We gather confidence by doing, not by thinking, because we have real life [00:30:00] experiences to bounce our projections off of, and then competence, right? I think we've all been frustrated that we're not good at something the first time we try it.

Well, we get. More confident and more competent the more that we try. And human design is a it offers a theoretical framework that invites us into actual, tangible experiences through experimenting with these things and buzzword [00:30:30] nervous system. A lot of folks in our space talk about the nervous system and.

The nervous system doesn't speak English. Right. That's why if we're nervous about something, we can almost never talk ourselves out of it. We actually have to have an experience that rewrites that nervous system information. I. Right. We are worried about being embarrassed in public speaking because maybe that actually happened at one point.

We're carrying around the felt experience of that embarrassment in our [00:31:00] system, and we can't talk ourselves out of it until we actually have a different experience. And so again, taking it out theory, taking out of like a mental processing and bringing it into the world. That's really what I've found is the quickest route to discovering, embodying, like you said, our purpose.