Episode 444:

Hello and welcome to Unshakable with Human Design. I’m your host, Nicole Laino, and as always, I am so excited to be here with you today. And right now, if you’re listening to this, when this episode drops, we are one day away from the Human Design New year. If you didn’t listen to that episode, I dropped that one last Wednesday. I believe that one came out. So go back and listen to that if you didn’t listen to it. I talked about the predictions for this year energetically, and I thought that because this stage of the year that we’re in right now, this part of January, we’re finally starting to feel. What you’re probably feeling already is that you’re feeling a little bit more momentum starting to pick up. 

You’re starting to feel different than you did in the beginning of January, and there’s a lot of energy that is playing a role in that. But you’re starting to feel that you’re going to start to feel like the year actually started, like you’re ready to move. And hopefully what you did was in the beginning of January. I hope that you listened to those episodes were doing at the end of December and the ones that we did in the beginning of January that were kind of guiding you along this path of saying, you know, this is the time for planning. This is the time to get ready. You were getting ready to be ready. Right? That was what the beginning of January was. Now we’re like, ready now. It’s like, okay, game on. So now I want to talk about. 

I thought it’d be cool to follow up with a few, three business predictions that I have for this year of how this year is going to look different than a lot of the years in the past. This is both from an energetic standpoint and also just what we have seen with buyer behavior and just with the way that things are moving in the online industry with service providers and obviously with coaches. Just what we’re seeing in the market, and obviously the economy is a factor, but the market is shifting. So we are seeing changes. But, but, and if you’ve said things like people aren’t buying the way that they used to or maybe kind of like some of the buzz in the online space lately has been around. 

You know, Amy Porterfield, she closed down her coaching business or her program that she’s been running forever. Jenna Kutcher closed down her podcast, which she has been running forever, has a million episodes. And Marie Forleo, who, you know, was one of the first people in the online space to start, you know, putting out courses, she closed B school, I believe, is what she closed down. So some people are saying this, that this is the writing on the wall, that the coaching industry is over, that the online industry isn’t what it was and it will never be again. And maybe you’re panicking. Maybe you are hearing this and you’re like, oh, my God, was I too late? Or I was just starting to figure things out. What do I do now? 

This episode, what I hope to do here is to tell you that there’s no need to panic. Things are changing and evolving, yes, but here’s the thing. They’re always changing and evolving. And a few years ago, there was this big shift from there’s always something in the industry that’s happening that’s causing some people to excel and have the biggest growth they’ve ever had. And some people will fall by the wayside because they can’t do it the way they’ve always done it, and they’re not willing to pivot or truthfully, I think that Amy Porterfield, Jenna Kutcher and Marie Forleo are all doing very well, and they made a whole lot of money and they have no need to fight and, you know, work to create the shift in their business that they’re probably going off to do other things. 

They’re probably focusing on their families, they’re doing what they feel is best for them, and they maybe don’t need to hustle and come up with the next big thing. But if you’re like me, where you’re still in the trenches of this and you’re still building, then I’m going to share with you in this episode what I hope to do. Even though change can be scary. Every great business owner and every great success story they know and they start with usually that challenges hold the greatest opportunities. This is when the greatest growth happens, is when you are ahead of the curve on some of these things, when you don’t panic and you can sit and observe what’s happening and make calculated shifts that feel right. 

Then at the end of this, I’m going to share with you what human design’s role is in shaping all of this and helping you seize the opportunity. This year for yourself. So in this episode, what I’m going to break down specifically for you is the three things that will be most important for business owners to know in 2026. Like, what is it that they really need to be doing? What do we really need to be paying attention to? I’m going to go through three themes. I’m going to talk to you about the important role that human design will play in this new climate. So we’re going to talk about that. And then at the very end, I actually have something that we are doing within my universe, my little world of human design and business. 

We have a new thing that we are doing that I am super excited about. I think that it’s really going to change the way that people are doing business, and I’m going to share that with you at the end and tell you what that’s all about and where it came from and all of that and how you can get involved if it feels aligned for you. Okay, so getting into the episode now, overall, this is going to be a year where real business owners rise and hobbyists fall away. This is going to be the year where the rubber meets the road. This is going to be the year because, again, it’s going to require certain things that some people are not willing to do. That is just the nature of it. 

Some people will be able to navigate the change, and some people will do it actually, quite easily. If you have the right mindset and you have the right point of view on this can actually kind of be kind of fun when you’re doing new things. Especially, like, where are all of my three lines? This is like your world, you know, you’re not interested in what we did last year. You want the next thing. You’re the ones that should be looking at this and saying, oh, I know what wasn’t working. Here’s what we could do next. Here’s where we’re going. Here’s how we innovate. That’s what threes do. You’re resilient by nature. My manifesting generators, you know, we love a good pivot. We get bored when we do the same thing for too long. Manifestors, same thing. 

There’s an argument for every single type, every single profile. Everybody can thrive in this environment. And like I said, I’ll talk to you about the human design specifics of this, of how this really shows up and how human design, I believe, will be an indispensable tool in an environment like this. Because if you listen to my Fire Horse episode where we Talked about the year of the Fire Horse. If you listen to that, you know that this year is going to move fast. 

There’s going to be a lot of energy, there’s going to be a lot of natural momentum, and your ability to be nimble in all of this and your ability to not panic is going to be honestly what separates those people that fall away and the ones that come through this actually feeling really good, making a lot of money, and serving at a very high level. Okay, some of what I’m going to share today is going to be some strategies. Others are going to be more about what you’ll have to embrace in this environment. But we’re really covering it from both angles. So because truthfully, there’s no one strategy that’s going to work for anybody. It’s not going to be, you know, oh, this year is going to be, you gotta master this thing. 

And if you don’t, you know, the strategies change and we have to try them on and we have to see what works for us, and we have to see what feels aligned for us. So the first shift, the first thing that is my prediction for this year that entrepreneurs are going to have to master, they’re going to have to embrace and is testing. This is something that, you know, when I worked with hundreds of people at this point through Business by Design, where I’ve helped entrepreneurs build their businesses according to their human design and helping them find their own alignment and lead themselves through their journey and have a smooth journey, as smooth as you can. In entrepreneurship, it never goes smoothly all the time. You just get really good at navigating the waves. That’s the difference. It’s still choppy. 

But are you the captain that can navigate choppy waters and make it feel smooth? That’s what changes. And having worked with hundreds of people at this point, the biggest thing, one of the biggest problems that I see and one of the things that I notice with a lot of people is that the people who succeed quickest are the ones who are willing to test, are the ones who are willing to try something and not have to have that thing be the thing. And this is where we get into, like, self mastery. So you test something in the spirit of testing it in the spirit of trying something, and you don’t get disappointed when it doesn’t work. Now, granted, we all love when something works. 

Not saying that you shouldn’t be excited when something works or you shouldn’t feel like, oh, man, I really was hoping that one would work out. You just have to have this tester kind of mind. This is where my threes are going to shine. And if you are a three and you’re not testing, this is the thing that’s holding you back the most. If I have a three and they won’t test things, I’m like, this is what we need to work on. I need to get you out there, I need to get you trying things. I need to get you not be so precious with everything. And that is something that I think we will all need to cultivate this year. Like I said, the energy will move fast. 

You have to be willing to try new things this year and you have to be willing to try them for the sake of trying them. Try them on now. I can already hear my non sacral listeners, I can hear you all groaning like, oh no, it’s going to take so much. It’s all in how you do it. I’m not telling you to run yourself into the ground. I’m telling you to test things. Test your message, send an email. Doesn’t take a lot of energy to send an email. Test it on your podcast. I have channels where you can test ideas, do a masterclass. Don’t make it a big deal. Not everything has to be hard. And if you think it has to be hard, then that’s a mindset you need to turn around. 

That’s a belief you have that’s going to keep you from actually doing what is right for you. It’s going to keep you from this first one because you’re going to think that everything takes so much energy, everything is so hard, everything is so difficult, everything is going to be such a big lift for you. And that’s just not the truth. It’s a truth you’re telling yourself. It’s a thing you’re telling yourself and you’re making it your truth. But when you start to work in alignment and you start to test without the expectation. Test without expectation. This is going to be key this year because that’s going to allow you to find what works so much faster. 

And what you won’t do when you test is you won’t put a lot of energy into something that doesn’t perform because you put a little bit of energy into testing it and you really put it out there and you really saw if there was buy in for it before putting it out, before putting all of your eggs in that basket and then you made a decision to keep it or not keep it based on its performance. So you’re only going to build and create and put lots of energy and all of that goodness into things that have legs that can actually get you to the result that you want versus creating and creating. So I would. 

If, when I said testing, if I said trying things, and immediately you went into how much energy that was going to take and, oh, it’s going to be so much work. I would ask you to look at the past experiences that you’re afraid of repeating, that you have a fear of repeating. I would ask you to go back and look at those and see if you really tested anything or were you just in a. Because I did this, I had a coach where what I was coached to do, what I was guided to do, was just create something new every month. You know, I don’t know you. You like that? Yeah, great idea. Go make that. Make the program. Sell the program, Sell it for thousands of dollars. 

And I would go out and I would do these things, and because I have integrity and I won’t sell people junk, I would put so much effort into creating these, what are supposed to be light things, and I made them really heavy because I. If I sold somebody something, I wanted it to be great. I wanted it to be great. I wanted them to walk away feeling like their money was well spent. I wanted them to feel like they stole from me because they got so much value and they thought that it was so much more than what was provided, that they got so much more than what they spent. Right. I wanted that experience for them. 

But, you know, if you’ve had that experience, I want you to recognize that’s a way that you went about it that wasn’t necessarily correct, that if you test, you’ll actually save yourself from feeling that way, from creating something like that, from over creating and overexerting yourself in that respect. Okay, so that’s one. We don’t want you creating a million things. We want you testing. We want you out there. We want you taking action. This isn’t going to be a year where you’re sitting on the sidelines and things just work. You’re going to kind of have to see what’s working in the market. Why? Because things are changing. When things are changing, nobody can read the weather perfectly. Right now, we’re all figuring it out. There are clues and there are things that we are following. 

And what I’m sharing with you from these predictions, these are based on a year of us testing inside my business that we have been testing new strategies and doing different things. We, we added them to what were already doing to still create stability in our business. So I didn’t, you know, blow everything up and change everything. But. And we’re still adding things and we’re still testing. But I’m bringing you what we tested and what we have seen as far as our results and what you can expect based on that. The second prediction that I have for things that entrepreneurs are going to have to master, adoption, embrace, is low ticket offers. So what we have seen and we have been testing low ticket offers for the last, well, really for two years. 

Last year we really started to get our rhythm with it, with creating them, with selling them, with kind of, you know, testing what ideas would float with our audience. So we’ve done masterclasses, we’ve done mini masterminds, we have done small courses. So. So we’ve tested lots of different things. And what we’ve realized is that, you know, people right now, obviously people have been burned. You’ve probably been burned, I’ve been burned. You’ve invested in things that did not pan out. You have invested in things that you didn’t show up for, probably. I know I have. Where you feel like you wasted your money. You either feel like you didn’t get the ROI from the person who promised you something or you feel like you didn’t perform. So you didn’t get the ROI for yourself either. 

So if you have either one of those experiences, one, I feel you. I have been there. But so has most of the world at this point. Most of the market feels this way. So they are buying differently now because that experience, because they’ve been burned or they feel like they’ve let themselves down, they are wary of investing big ticket right out of the gate. It’s taking them longer. And they’re having to interface with your brand and your business in different ways in order to feel safe taking a jump like that and making a move like that. So low ticket offers ways for them to. And this is for you too, because I’m a believer, obviously. This show is something that I believe builds trust between me and my audience. 

People listen and they binge the episodes and they get to know me, they get to hear how I think and. And if you’re looking for somebody to coach you on the business of human design, I feel like this show gives you a lot in the behind the scenes of like how I work. Right. But I can’t do everything here. And there are certain things that I do behind closed doors. You know, you want to protect some of your intellectual property because this is a business and we give A lot of free value and that is wonderful. But this is like a, this not the main meal, right? And we don’t want people to feel that way, but we want to give them a way of making an investment with us. 

We want to give them a way to see a little bit about what’s behind the curtain. How do you teach? How do you coach? How does this work for me? I know that there’s a big question mark for a lot of people about how human design actually will work within their business. So we’ve given people these little bite sized ways of showing up with us and going on a journey with us. And we’ve found that gets people to convert, you know, more reliably but then also faster. The faster we can get them to spend a small amount, the faster we can probably get them to upgrade to something else if they’re right and if I’m right for them. 

But we give them that opportunity to have an experience with me that is deeper than just listening to me on a podcast and can I teach you something? Is basically what I’m asking them. Are you interested in learning? Cool. Are you interested investing in yourself with any dollar amount? Excellent. Here, here’s an opportunity for you. We have found that most people that end up in our high ticket programs have bought something low ticket from us. Even if it’s right before they buy into the bigger ticket thing. They buy something small to just see like, do I really like this woman? Does she really have the goods? Let me see. Let me spend $99 and see if this thing is good. Because if the $99 thing is crap, then I bet the high ticket thing is probably crap too. 

And what’s beautiful about this is you don’t have to go pouring your heart and soul into. You don’t have to, you know, give away all of your trade secrets in a low ticket program. What you’re doing is you’re giving them a chance to see how you teach and how you work and something that is there for you. If you are a done for you service provider, maybe it’s audits or something that you’re doing where you’re giving them a chance to have an experience with you and see how you work. Right. You’re giving them a way to test you and test themselves. I’ve done that. I got a new studio here, right. I, I set all of this up. 

I was like, well, if I can’t make videos on my own with my iPhone, then I’m probably not going to do it with the Bigger camera. So I made a few videos with the iPhone, but I wasn’t really feeling very committed to it. And then I decided to jump up. I was like, okay, I like this. This is definitely the way for me to go. But I know how to make myself really do it and really go after it. I’m going to spend some money because I’m the type of person that, you know, once I. As long as I know it’s the right thing, then it’s like, if I spend enough money, then I won’t back away. So by having a small course on how to film these videos with my iPhone, I did. It was a pain in the neck. 

It took a long time. I hated having them on my phone. And I was like, okay, I get this. I’m going to do it now. I’m going to spend the money because I won’t let myself down. If I drop thousands of dollars on a camera and a studio and all of this stuff, you bet your ass. I’m going to be filming videos, filming them all over the place. So that was an example of like taking a small step, doing the work, being like, okay, yeah, yeah, I get this. I need the bigger thing now. That’s going to be the type of environment that I think is where people are going to flourish. We saw this last year with our lower ticket stuff. 

And once we saw that the majority of people who joined something high ticket had bought something low ticket, it showed us that low ticket is a strategy that people are really gravitating toward right now. They want to try something first. Now, the third thing, the third prediction that I have for what’s going to be important in 2026 for business owners and that they’re going to have to embrace is having a standout brand, you know, really having some consistent channels where people can binge your content, places where your thought leadership is out there. There’s a lot of noise out there. There is a lot of competition. So you’re going to have to show a body of work. And again, a body of work. Sometimes people think that’s going to be a lot of work. No, it’s just consistent work. Right? 

2026 is going to be a year of mastery. It’s going to be a year of really putting yourself out there and showing yourself grow and getting better at the things like putting your message out there. Unfortunately, the way that business works is, you know, particularly we work at home now, most of us. Ain’t nobody going to be knocking on your door, being like, hey, is anyone here can coach me. Does anybody here do graphic design? Nobody’s going to do that. We have to show people who we are. So having a brand and standing for something and having a mission and really feeling like the Persona that you put out online is authentic to you, I think is going to be incredibly important. People can sniff out a phony. 

And I don’t know if you’re noticing this, but with AI right now, everybody is starting to really sound the same. Copy is getting better in the sense that people are being, you know, snappier with the structure of their posts and things like that. But it’s almost like that’s. Once something becomes the norm, then we stop really seeing it, Then it all blends in and everything becomes the same. What is going to stand out is you being you. You putting out a body of work that’s allowing people to really get to know you and in your way. Now, remember, I’m not a four line, so I’m not telling you my story all the time. I’m not, like, getting cozy with you in my jammies and, you know, sharing my food and stuff online. I’m sharing my heresy. I’m a five. I’m sharing my message. 

I am sharing it here. I’m showing you what I do and who I am. And we’re doubling down on this even more in 2026. This is a big focus for us, is getting out there in an even bigger way. But for those of you who are maybe not being super consistent with your brand, and this does not mean showing up every single day on Instagram, it just means having something that builds over time. It will serve you over time as well the more you do. So something like a podcast, a YouTube channel, where if you’re putting out a video a week or a podcast a week, and at the end of the year, there’s 52 episodes. That means when somebody next year interfaces with your brand, or not even next year, but we’ll use the year because I’m giving you the 52 weeks. 

So say you do a year’s worth of podcasts and then you meet somebody and they’re interested in your work, or they see you at something, or they come across your Instagram content and they start to have some interaction with your brand. Then they go and they go back to your podcast and they listen to a bunch of episodes. They. They have 50 episodes to listen to. People can go deep quickly, and if it’s a reflection of who you are, they will buy quickly, I guarantee you. And then if you have a Low ticket offer where there’s something simple, a simple step that they can take with you straight from the podcast. Then that’s when you can start to really create a sales machine that doesn’t have you working all the time, that old episodes from a year ago can be selling for you today. 

That’s the power of this. So this year you’re not going to be able to build a brand around like I know I’m meant to lead people. You’re going to have to really demonstrate an expertise of whatever it is that you do now. Expertise does not have to look like mine. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend that it does. Your expertise is going to be whatever it is that is your magic. Your magic might be building community. So the thing that you might be putting out in your brand might be around showing yourself at these events, making these connections, what they’ve done for your business, showing people how to do it, or creating experiences or places where they can do that, or communities of your own. It could be anything. 

But it’s going to be about showing why you are the person, not just who you are, but why you for the thing that they want. So real brand building, I think is going to be important now because in the past we have been, you know, we’ve accepted leadership from people and I don’t think that is going to be happening anymore. But I think also the great news is there is such an open playing field for a new type of leadership. So if you felt like you haven’t really, you know, been able to shine in that aspect of your business or in of your brand that because maybe you didn’t fit in or your style was different, I say bravo, go for it. Let your freak flag fly. The more different and unique you are, the more your brand will stand out. 

But you have to show people again, they’re not going to knock at your door. And consistency is what you define it to be. And you’re either in the habit of doing things or you’re in the habit of not doing things. Consistency comes from getting into the habit of making things feel easier than they are, not harder than they are. So you get your mind out of the way. Now. Where human design I see fitting into all of this is, like I said, resilience is going to be essential because things are going to change. This is going to be, I think it’s going to be a ride. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun this year in this energetic sense of what business will look like. 

I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I think it’s going to be very interesting and I think it’s going to be. It sure shit won’t be boring. But again, building a brand and looking like everybody else is not going to work. So authenticity is kind of the hallmark of human design. We just did the recalibrate workshop for the G Center, which was amazing. People really loved it. Where we dove into the individual identity codes of the G Center and how you can work with them to find your sense of identity and the authenticity that is truly yours. That the frequency of your authenticity that you are meant to put out in the world. What does that feel like? What is the most authentic you? Who is that? That was kind of what we dove into. 

To sign up for the G Center: Identity Upgrade Workshop DM Nicole “GCenter” on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/nicolelainoofficial or go to Nicolelaino.com/gcenter 

Human design is a system that helps build self mastery and self trust. It gets you out of your mind. And this year is going to be, you know, there’s going to be no room for overthinking too much in 2026. I don’t believe that overthinking and really agonizing over the choices that we make is going to be tolerated this year. This doesn’t mean that you’re going to have to move fast and be quote unquote decisive. I’m an emotional authority. I take my time, I sit with things. How, however, I do recognize that sometimes I can really agonize over a decision and that’s usually when I’m in my head. It’s not when I’m paying attention to my design. 

So a system like human design, what it does is it allows you to really move with the energy at the time to move in alignment and remove resistance in your life and in your business and the way that you do things. And, and that’s where I think human design is really going to stand out here. You know, again, knowing your lead generation strategy based on your profile, just understanding what people are drawn to you for and understanding, you know, and going beyond the intellectualizing of human design. So I think about like people projectors will often ask me, you know, like, can I email people? Because you know, I haven’t been invited. Of course you can email people if you have their address, they gave it to you. So they invited you to do that. 

They have not yet invited you to guide them on their journey of life or health or wealth or whatever it is that you teach or whatever it is that you want them to hire you for, that’s another invitation. But if they follow you on Instagram, if they gave you their email address, if you can ask Them things you can put yourself out there, you put out your wisdom. So we have to go past that intellectualizing again. Every time you get stuck thinking about a human design thing, I want you to remember that you’re thinking and that’s not the point. 

So do you see how understanding and starting to move through life with this level of trust with human design guiding you to correct action and showing you where you are in your mind with which is not where we make great decisions or showing you just where misalignment is so that you can find the alignment that is truly yours. That’s where this is going to be, I think, blowing the doors off for people who are using it this year. So we’re actually doing something really cool within my world and for everybody who has ever looked at my programs. Or maybe you’ve bought something like a low ticket offer before and you’ve been like, oh, I wish there was a way to kind of interact with Nicole and work with her and her team in a more continuing fashion. 

You know, I don’t know if I’m ready for the high ticket programs that Nicole runs like BBD and the aligned brand builder level of bbd. You know, those two tiers, I know they’re more of a commitment. So what we’ve done is, you know, like I was saying, testing is going to be important. Lower ticket offers are going to be important. Having a standout brand, everything that we’re doing, it’s consistency that we’re talking about. We’re talking about building something that works and you have to be willing to put yourself out there. That’s the start. And usually that’s the thing that I have the hardest time getting people to do is getting them to put themselves out there and create some consistency in their brand and in their business. So what we’ve done is we’ve put together something called the Human Design Authority Lab. 

So this is about you stepping into your authority. This is about you claiming your confidence. Confidence from a true place. Not from a boastful place, but true worthiness of like I’m awesome for being who I am and then also coming at it from, you know, from accountability and from action. Being able to take action from an aligned place. That’s what we’re creating here. So what we’ve done, we do monthly masterclasses on a different element of human design or business. We have co working sessions with my team where they’re going to run coworking sessions to get everybody together and get you working towards something so that you can create at least that level of consistency that give you that accountability to show up for those calls a community to share your experience with and to collaborate with and use as a. 

Because I sam all the time I’m not a community person in the sense that I don’t have any four lines in my entire design. But guess what? I still have community. I still talk to people, I still collaborate with people. And that is important in everybody’s business is to recognize where do you have more leverage than just social media. So it isn’t just going to be about social media, but it is going to be about visibility, putting yourself out there and just being in relationship to your design. So you’re creating from a place of alignment and not from a place of obligation or from a place of force. We want flow, not force. So we’re going to show you how to maximize your design and put it out in the world. That is what this is going to be about. 

We have a pre sale rate going on right now until January 27th. We have that. We’re going to kick the group off February 1st. So if you want to get in on the pre sale before we officially open the group, you can do that at a very special introductory rate. If you want that, all you have to do is DM me the Word Lab on Instagram. I’m @nicolainoofficial. We’ll send you the link to the page and more details will be coming out about this. But if you want to get in at that very special pricing, it will never be this low again. And we’re only doing it until the 27th or the first 20 people who sign up. 

We have a NEW HD membership community!! It is all about creating alignment, action, and consistency in your business with Human Design. To join The HD Authority Lab at the special pre-sale rate click the link here: http://nicolelaino.com/lab  or DM Nicole “Lab” on Instagram for info.

So once the 20 spots are gone, the price is going to go up to the regular founding member rate, which will be for a shorter period of time as well. All right, if you want to get in on that, just DM me the word Lab on Instagram @nicolelainoofficial or go to nicolelaino.com/lab and you can get the info right there and sign up and join us and be part of our first masterclass that you will get with it. I hope you join us. I hope you’re interested and you want to be on this journey with us for your alignment and accountability and putting yourself out there so that you can be visible, you can be found and you can start to create the brand that is standing out beyond all others. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you. 

And remember, in order to have an unshakable business, you must first become an unshakable human. So thanks for letting us help you become unshakable with Human Design. We’ll see you next time.