Episode 452:

Hello and welcome to Unshakeable with Human Design. I’m your host, Nicole Laino. And it’s just you and me today. We’re going to talk about something that I hear a lot of people say a lot. I don’t hear it as much in this way as I used to, but I hear it underneath everything that people are saying still. So the thing that they’re saying is that they want to be get paid to be them. I want to get paid to be me. And doesn’t that sound nice? I want to get paid to be me. I want to just be paid to be myself. And if you’ve ever thought those words, think, said those words, or felt that, then this episode is exactly made just for you. We’re going to break down the two essential pieces of this and the phases that this goes through. 

Some common misconceptions that come with this. Usually see where people have that intention to get paid to be who they are. And sometimes the getting paid in the who you are part collide and it doesn’t work out how we want it to. So I’m going to break down what this really looks like and how you can make this little formula work for yourself if this is something that you want to make happen in your own life, if you want to get paid to be you. Okay, so first let’s define what this means in the first place. Okay, so what does it mean to get paid to be you? I feel like I get paid to be me, essentially. And here’s how I define that or how I land on that. 

I know maybe some people would say, no, no, no, you don’t get paid to be you. You know, you do a lot of work, you do all of this stuff. I get that. I feel like it’s almost one of those arguments, kind of like when people say passive income. And then some people, well, there’s no such thing as passive income, which, yes, there is. But normally what we’re talking about when we say passive income is something like or, you know, some sort of ready made product that people buy and people be like, no, but you have to market that product. It’s not passive. You know, you still have activity that you’re doing with it. I kind of see this as the same thing. I see myself as getting paid to be me. 

And the reason that I feel that way is because, well, one, I make my own rules, kind of do what I want. I run this business completely, like, with total autonomy. I don’t do anything that I truly don’t want to do. I’m not going to say that every day. There isn’t, like, a task or something that I’m, like, not super jazzed about, But I don’t take on things like, where I’m just like, I have to do this thing, except, like, you know, my taxes and stuff like that. Of course there’s that stuff. Like, in this business, what I do, what I get paid for, if there’s a masterclass or something that I teach or a program that I don’t like, I don’t do it. It’s a lot of freedom. 

And the other factor that I kind of keyed in here, too, was I am who I am. The more me I become, the more money I make. And that feels really good because I love personal development, and I love learning about me, and I love digging into all of myself and my stuff, and I love seeing how I unlock these little doorways within myself. That feels super fun for me, and that directly affects how much money I make, because the more true and authentic I am, the easier it is for me to make money. Okay. And then the last piece is, I see my business as an expression of my purpose, my dharma in life. I see what I do as something that is part of my divine path. 

So it’s very easy for me to wake up in the morning and do my job. To me, that’s what qualifies this as, like, I get paid to be me. That, to me, is what makes me qualified to say that I do that. That is how I would define it. You might define it differently. And I want to be clear about something. I’m not an influencer, okay? And I don’t want to be one. Most people I work with, they don’t want to be an influencer either. Sure. The idea of getting paid to just, like, be on social media and, like, go places and stuff like that might sound appealing, maybe like a travel influencer, where you’re going to different places and you’re reviewing stuff, but still, you’re not being paid to be you. You’re being paid to do something online. 

And that, to me, would be like, oh, well, if you enjoy that and you feel like that feels aligned for you, then that might be a great way for you to do it. I don’t see that as a traditional influencer where it’s just like, I’m just here living my life and people pay me for that or I somehow get paid for that. Most people that I work with are not satisfied with something like that. They really want to feel connected to what they do. They’re interested in finding their purpose, and they want to make a living doing that, not doing other things. And I completely relate to that. I have a lot of things I could do. I could go back to corporate. I could. There’s so many things that I could do. 

But once I got a taste of finding out who I was and seeing that I could monetize my gifts in some way, I was like, oh, no, I’m going to figure that out. I’m going to make that happen. I’m going to figure it out kind of if it kills me. And it wasn’t so much that I thought it had to be hard, but it. You know, there’s a big learning curve in figuring out how to do all the things that go along with, you know, selling your gifts. You gotta learn to market yourself right? So not an influencer. So I define it as, you know, really feeling like your business is an extension of your purpose, of your dharma in this life, which makes it very easy to go to work. It makes it very easy to show up because it feels right. 

And I think some people get a little bit confused about what that’s gonna be, right? About what that’s really gonna feel like that it’s gonna be all rainbows and unicorns all the time. And that’s not the truth. It means that you feel called to it. So even when it’s hard, it’s not as hard as something else would be. It feels right even when it’s hard. Right? So now I wanna go into. So now we’ve defined what it is, but now I wanna kind of break down these two pieces of getting paid to be who you are. Because this is where people get stuck. This is where people can really go off on the wrong path with this kind of thing and end up not getting paid and not being who they are, right? 

So the first piece of getting paid to be who you are, that first element is being the most authentic expression of you. You have to be authentically you if you’re going to get paid to be you. Because keeping up a charade is going to really feel like an act and. And feel difficult and feel heavy after a while. And we see people burn out on That I know that I remember when I first got started, long time ago now. When I first got started, there was a whole other crop of, like, influencers and coaches and people who were coming up. And I remember them burning out on it. And a lot of it was the image. 

A lot of it was this, like, facade that they had put up that they couldn’t bear to deal with anymore, and they couldn’t bring themselves to do it anymore. That’s why you really do need to be an authentic expression of you. You have to be you if you want to get paid to be you and have this actually work, right? And this year, 2026, the year of the fire horse, this is really going to create a pull toward authenticity that the likes of which I don’t think that we’ve seen before. I think that, you know, the industry and the online space has evolved so much, and now this energetic force that. That we have is going to be pulling us toward. It’s going to be pulling off all the mask. All the veils are going to come down. 

You’re not going to be able to keep them up the way that you used to if you were doing that before. So this is part of the first part. So you have to ask yourself, what is your dharma? What is your purpose? What is on your heart to share, to create, to deliver? What do you want your world, your work world to. To revolve around so that it doesn’t feel like work, so that it feels like joy and discovery and creation when you show up? So this is the you part. That’s the first piece. Get paid to be you gotta be you, right? Kind of goes without saying. And this is where human design comes in. 

And I think it’s an indispensable part of this part of the journey is it brings you not just to your authenticity of, like, being able to tell somebody what your purpose is, but it’s. But it’s actually getting you to step into who you are deeply and uniquely as your natural self, not the self that you think would be accepted by everybody else. And when you start walking that path, when you start accepting yourself and when you start, you know, letting go of all of the masks and veils and labels that you felt like you needed to wear to be acceptable or to please people. When you start letting go of that, I can’t even explain to you how much easier life gets and how much deeper you ground in yourself. And that’s where expansion is, because you’re not thinking anymore. You’re just living. 

You’re just being and everything starts to become natural. So when your work is aligned with who you are and you’re following your human design and you’re doing what is true in your human design, you. You’re just bringing out the gifts that people want. You’re just bringing out the gifts more and more, making them more natural to you, more expressed, more in a high expression and a high frequency, that they’re doing the work for you, and those are natural things for you. So the more natural, the more you dig into, like your natural state and you’re just being it. If you’re getting paid to be that thing, well, that’s wonderful, right? That’s gonna make life a whole lot easier and feel a whole lot more fun, right? Okay, so that’s the first part. That’s the you part. Second part is the paid part. 

This is where people get really stuck. So it’s wonderful to have gifts. It is wonderful to be a full expression of who you are. But you do need to be able to tell people what you can do for them if you want them to pay you. If the pay path for you is people paying you for your services, for your knowledge, for who you are, for what you do, you have to be able to tell them not just who you are, but how you can help them. There are a lot of people out there being influencers, but they’re really trying to get paid like coaches and service providers, and that’s why they’re not getting paid and it’s why they are not making money. It’s awesome and fun, I’m sure, to be popular. 

And there’s a lot of people who are good at being popular online. I have a friend who is very popular online. They have a really, like, sizable audience. It’s not a massive 200,000 people audience, but it’s a really good size audience. If you had it, you’d probably be pretty pleased with it. They get good engagement on their posts and stuff like that. But when they drop an offer, they recently did, so they recently dropped an offer. And crickets so got the audience, got the engagement, doing this whole warmup, getting people excited about something coming. And then crickets, nothing happened. And immediately they start going into like some sort of story about, you know, like, people aren’t buying or maybe I need to lower the price. 

And just going through kind of what we do with things, we try to rationalize, we try to figure it out in our mind why it’s not working. And we think because the assumption is we did everything right, like I Showed up and people were engaging. But now it’s not working. Now, to me, being who I am, five one, and you know, this is my wheelhouse. I know it’s human design, and I am known for human design. But really what I help people with when I’m trying to make them money is I’m helping them with their messaging. And that’s the thing that was missing because I said to them, I was like, let me see the sales page. Can I see it? 

And I looked at it, and I’m like, this is cool, but I have no idea what I would get out of this if I were to participate, if I were to buy, I don’t know what this would do for me. And you’re not asking for $30. You’re asking for thousands of dollars. And if I’m going to part with that kind of cash, especially now, people are far more discerning now than they ever have been. And that’s a good thing. That’s not a bad thing. There’s a lot of room for people with integrity and skill to show up and really get ahead in the race. And not that this is a race, but really get ahead and really start to see momentum. Because a lot of people, the amateurs are going to fall away. The sketchy people are going to be found out. 

It’s not going to stick anymore. So if you are somebody with integrity and with something that is truly valuable to people, then fear not. You just have to learn how to message it that way. That is the step most people are not going through. And you might say, I’m creating content. I’m putting things out there. That is tactics. This friend did the exact same thing. They put out content. They had all of this stuff going. They were getting engagement. Everything looked great. But they opened the doors to that offer, and nothing happened, because it’s enough when you have something in there and there’s words like expand and strategize and stuff like that. And I’m like, they have no idea what that means. I don’t know who else is going to be a part of this. I don’t know. 

Like, it doesn’t talk at all about if I’m in a place like, who this is correct for, who is this offer for? I had another client this week where they were putting up content, and they’re like, I’m not getting signups for my masterclass. And I looked at the content, and I’m like, I don’t know who this is for. I don’t think it’s clear. I Think you have to dial this in more. And then I looked at her Instagram today and she has, you know, lots of engagement on the follow up posts she did after we adjusted some things and she was very clear and it was so much better. And I’m so happy for her and proud of her that I looked at them. I’m like, this is good enough to be cool. Like I look at this and I go, cool. 

Yeah, that sounds cool. I am not at all going to invest in this cuz I have no idea what I’m investing in. And gone are the days where people invest because something just, you know, they think it’ll be awesome. They did that already and they found out that it did not deliver on the promises that were made. So they’re not doing that anymore. And again, good thing people learned lessons like how to be discerning about what they buy. And that’s a really good thing for our abundance as a human species. For people to learn things like that, it’s elevating us as a people, right? So you need to understand that there’s messaging underneath everything. Messaging is how I write every podcast episode. Messaging is how I have a $30,000 a month business. 

Messaging is how when I put up a post, whether it’s about Bad Bunny or it’s about content that sells, everything has an underlying message to it. If you go back, I posted an Instagram post about Bad Bunny and the super bowl halftime show and I did his human design chart. But what I did was I tied it to my core messaging pieces and my core messaging pieces are what my offers are built off of. So when I was promoting that and when that got thousands of views like it didn’t go viral, but it got, it did really well. And you know, a thousand, over a thousand people are liking it and we had hundreds of people sharing it. So it’s getting all of this reach and they are opting in to my opt in, which is amazing. 

And the reason for that is that I didn’t just make it about his human design chart. I made it about the elements of his human design chart that supported the core elements of my message, which then fed to my lead magnet that I CTA’d at the end of that post. So it doesn’t mean that you have to write salesy posts. It doesn’t mean that you can write things that are true to the first part, which is your authenticity of who you are, of what you do, but you tie it in with your core messaging elements. And if this is something, if you Want to get paid to be you, then these are necessary steps that you have to take and you’re in luck because those are the things that I provide. See what I did there? 

I’m actually teaching an intensive on the second piece. Mostly we’re still going to be, you know, working with authenticity, but I’m really going to dial in how and we’re going to create the workshop. Tell you what it’s called first. The workshop is called Words that Sell. Words that Sell. This is the content that gets you seen and that converts. That is what we are focusing on. This is a hands on workshop. We are not doing. This isn’t something where you’re just going to listen to me talk. You are going to come and we are going to build your Words that Sell playbook. We are going to build your messaging document that you can then give to AI to help you make banging content that actually will drive sales and build demand for your offers. 

Or you can use it yourself so that you can use it as a guideline. So you are creating content that has purpose, not just gets likes and gets comments. That’s wonderful. Engagement is great. But we also need, if you want to move people from you’re so cool to here’s my money, then you need to develop this skill. And that’s exactly what we’re doing in this workshop. It is an in depth workshop where you’re going to be working together. You will walk away with done work. This is not a masterclass of like me teaching you something. I’m going to be teaching and implementing with you all at the same time. So this is highly valuable if you would like to come. First of all, if you are in aligned brand builder or business by design. I need to say this. 

You already get this with your membership, with your clients of mine and you get this if you are in the human design lab. This is more for our higher level business clients. But you can come to this. You can pay into it. If you want to come, you can still come. You just, you don’t get it with your membership. And if you are not part of any of my client ecosystem then you can still come to this as well. This is open to the public. There’s just a payment to get into it. But like I said, it is an implementation based workshop. So you will not just be learning, you will be doing so all you have to do to get into it is DM me the word. “Words”. That is the word you’re typing in to Instagram. DM me that word on Instagram. 

To join Nicole for the Words That Sell Workshop Intensive, please DM her “WORDS” on IG at@nicolelainoofficial or click the link here: nicolelaino.com/words PLEASE NOTE: If you are a client in Nicole’s Aligned Brand Builder or Business By Design programs, you do not need to purchase this workshop. It is part of your membership. This workshop is not included with the Human Design Authority Lab, but you are free to purchase the workshop a la carte.

I’m nicolelainoofficial. Or go to nicolelaino.com words and you can register right there on the website. Thank you so much for being here. I hope to see you in the intensive. It’s going to be amazing. 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.