Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
And I'm realizing like you have shown me as a weaver, weaving is fun for me.
(00:05):
It's not something I have to like take a class in.
It's just how it is and it's fun and it's valuable and right and so I don't know.
The idea of fun with social impact is something I'm playing with in 2024.
Because boys, the world really heavy and it's just like I want to get under the covers and call it a day.
(00:28):
Otherwise.
Welcome to the Earth Mates Podcast.
Together we explore how to find your path from climate anxiety to community action
by asking who are you?
Because just like any relationship that matters.
(00:50):
So get ready to be raw and real but also playful and silly with me.
Chief relationship officer Amber Peoples as we discover what's possible through the lens of the five Earth archetypes.
Curiosity and subscription buttons highly encouraged.
(01:12):
But we've been in an inculcated into this idea that there's a certain way of doing leadership.
You're not outgoing and you're not charismatic and you're not you're not you're not not.
Then you're not a leader and I just don't believe that's true.
And I an amber of like it's as if you developing the system.
(01:35):
I'm curious like for you.
If that's the same thing you're thinking it's like it's totally not true.
For sure. Yeah. That's.
I mean, how this how this even developed for me was.
I had my own kind of existential moment in 2016.
You talked about yours after watching the inconvenient truth and I had mine in 2016.
(01:58):
And for me one of the ways that I get answers when I'm asking really big questions is I will literally hear voices sometimes.
And I heard two sentences.
I heard the earth is your home.
Art so your skill set.
And for five minutes I was awestruck.
And then I went, what do I do with that?
(02:21):
And and I followed it.
I followed the journey because another thing that shows me I'm on the right path is synchronicities start to unfold.
And as I was asking questions and going on coffee dates and doing research.
You know, opportunity is an interesting things begin to connect and crystallize as is the term that you used.
And one of those one of the things that was really important for me.
(02:45):
And the journey was to first bring together arts and ecology.
I wanted to know, okay, these feel so different.
Like what how does that connection point look?
How do how can we put the preposition with between the two arts with ecology?
How does that look?
And I began to develop that and develop that.
And then I realized, oh,
(03:07):
there are and it was actually there was there were several aha moments, but the one that really kind of formalized the archetype.
Was taking a class with actually a physicist named free tof capra.
And he was talking about the whole course was around systems theory.
And, but and it was designed for community members, artists, mental health professionals,
(03:32):
fair housing authority people, whoever anybody out in community to kind of get the scientific understanding of systems theory in a way that we could digest.
And one of the sessions.
He broke down these five different ways of understanding how we belong.
And it was that moment that I was like that, that's it.
(03:54):
That's that's this full spectrum of how you know, arts are my skills said that doesn't mean it's yours.
It doesn't mean it's this person.
So, but what are these other things?
And so for me that was that moment.
And what I really love about kind of that that last extended answer that you gave was you started by saying you know, Amber, you tell me more.
(04:17):
But this is how I think this fits me.
And by the end you were like own in it.
You were like, yeah, actually.
I really see it.
I'm like, I don't have to do anything.
This is awesome.
You know, because you had you found the journey on your own.
And with you know, some of those what I call superpowers of the weaver types is that weaver types tend to have this really high tolerance for ambiguity and complexity.
(04:40):
And that's you know, been definitely shown throughout your story.
And you know, all we did was go chronological.
You know, there was nothing fancy about this this trajectory of this interview so far is just been chronological.
But there were these moments where for you they had been, you know, ambiguous and complex and he commented a couple times.
Oh, I'm starting to see the thread here. This is interesting.
(05:04):
And then also there's this ability to have and you talked about this with brand storytelling to have this goal to have this strategy to have this dream.
But the open minded as to how do you get there.
And that feel it really feels like a process that you take these leaders through to find their story.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And when they find their story, they find their leadership.
(05:30):
It's like we actually own the fact that we were born leaders to begin with.
So I love there's not been a single person that I've not met.
And I'm talking about even strangers on subways you for whatever reason would tell me their life story when it was 11.
(05:52):
You know, so for flashbacking here and tying it together that I realized like in every I love what you said the earth, you know, you said the earth is my home.
And I also believe there's a galaxy in every human being.
(06:13):
You know.
And we've only seen this much teeny infinitesimal point of our amazing selves.
And so finding those moments of awe.
What you just said, Amber struck me because.
(06:34):
That moment of all I felt it when you said it.
And then just watch how in.
And then you're getting yourself in it.
This whole door of opportunity opens up right.
And this and it's.
It's almost like we live in a world now where everything happens so fast.
(07:01):
We're expected to have an instant answer yesterday.
What like what I kept hearing as we were talking like now as we've been talking has been like following the awe.
Like what happens when we just dare to take a moment.
Well, we're not scrambling to do 5,000 things.
(07:23):
And maybe that moment of all will be there that's going to be that guiding life for us of where.
What we're really fascinated by what you really want to do or you know that that moment.
And I feel like in the block, you know, when I said I came home from a community, I remember.
I like that it was kind of like that because it was on like a Wednesday night like on a work night.
(07:46):
I was getting home at 11.
And I was like, I should just go to bed. The world is over.
But I was like, I can't go to bed like that.
You know, I'm tired.
I kind of get up in the morning. I'm not a morning person.
But I needed to have some space.
I don't think I realized what I was doing was trying to find some.
(08:09):
Moment of hope.
We're on.
Instead of just submitting, you know, to the bed or whatever, just collapsing and just like calling it.
That that.
Comes in. And then when I come in, there's actually something.
It's amazing that you it's like, even if you have no idea if you're going to do it in the beginning, right?
(08:34):
So I don't know. Maybe the weaver.
You get to, but it's like at what you said about the weaver is the way I see it.
I'd be so curious about other weavers too.
Is the meeting kind of it kind of trap.
It's like.
It's like metaverse jumping a little bit.
So if you don't know the answer for me, I'm like, huh?
I wonder where that came from.
It's like suddenly, I'll be in.
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You know, 11 year old me.
And then I'll be like, you know, 32 year old me.
And it's like the flat, it's like movies that flash backwards and forwards.
I love that.
I think it almost even encouraged me to weave more to sign meeting in places.
If I can't get it in a straight line today, I don't need to bang my head against the wall.
(09:22):
And then I'll probably, that's why I always think in constellations.
Like I, even though I can't like astronomy is very frustrating for me because I have a hard time seeing.
Unless he do a connect the dots.
It's very hard for me to see that it stars are super cool.
But I challenge myself to go, you know, there is a picture in here.
That I'm missing.
And if I let myself play.
(09:47):
Or maybe ask for help to have somebody help me play so I can see what I need to see.
You know, then yeah, that could be something really new, really cool in here.
And I think like you, one of the things that I really responded to when you first shared with me what your mission was.
Is that I have this mission of wanting to.
(10:09):
Help people really own, embody, and embody their unique perspective and leadership in the world.
And to be able to contribute that.
Some place because you and I know it's an all hands on deck kind of situation.
(10:31):
And I think that this leadership, what if it could be fun and not a slog?
Because I think a lot of reasons why.
Do gooders.
I've been in it.
I've gone through burnout.
Have been through.
Not doing enough.
It's not, you know.
And it's.
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It's exhausting to think you have to save the world, which is why I think for me storytelling becomes fun because.
And it's like, how can we be leaders?
Where it's actually joyful.
And satisfying and sign an energizing back to us even if it's hard.
(11:15):
And I feel like that comes into connecting with.
What lights us up.
And our leadership is is like kind of.
those things together if we could give ourselves permission to do that. That's where the human
design part is come in for me because I've had years of feeling guilty, feeling eating myself up,
(11:37):
that I'm not successful enough, when I was trying to dive into these problems, it's like,
I'll burn out and then just give up. Then I beat myself up for giving up and I don't do that
anymore because I've changed that story and access to different parts of me where it could be fun.
(11:59):
And I'm realizing, like, you have shown me as a weaver, weaving is fun for me. It's not something I
have to take the class in. It's just how it is and it's fun and it's valuable and, right? And so,
I don't know, the idea of fun with social impact is something I'm playing with it's worth it before.
(12:21):
Because, boy, it's a world really heavy and it's just like, I want to get under the cover,
call it a day otherwise.
Phew, right? Yeah. Yeah. And what I love about your story too is this path towards fun and towards
weaving and just towards those two years that you talked about where you were trying to
(12:46):
go through this process for yourself and the challenges of how do I tell my story when it feels like
a half hour long is it actually points to one of the shadow sides of the weaver because everybody has
our strengths and our weaknesses and that's, you know, it's a piece to identify and I think what's
(13:07):
really beautiful about your story is that by identifying this particular shadow, it's the way that
you're now helping people and this particular shadow, I think that happens with the weaver type is
this amazing ability to weave can feel so self evident to weaver types that it's like, you don't do that.
(13:28):
What? What? You don't, you know, this doesn't automatically happen to you. Like what? Or, you know,
you go, there's, there's this ability to go off into this weaving direction and there's people
back here going, you left me behind over here. Yeah. Yeah. And so I love that part of, part of your journey
has really been to find a fun way to deal with that challenge and help others with it.
(13:53):
Yeah, this is so glad you said that because it's really illuminating for me why I love
like coaching and guiding people through the owner message program because they are essentially
learning some techniques of weaving themselves and then I'm like kind of, you know, the weaver that
(14:15):
will help them bring their narratives together and how to make it both, how to make it fun and also
meet people where they're at. So I think one of the things I've learned by teaching has come from
having really good writing teachers before me who are incredibly patient and recognizing that
(14:39):
there was some areas of craft that I had to learn that did not come easily easily to me.
And that, you know, they would find different ways to help me access it. So similarly,
one of the things that I've learned, I'm in right now the sixth cohort is going through owner message
(15:01):
and I've learned that there's so many different lenses and ways to kind of
enter into your own movie in the making, you know, and so some people are big picture people and they
think in big broad themes and they have a hard time remembering the different moments of their story
or how could something so like that's like total minutia actually lead to something powerful, right?
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And then there are other people who are super detailary like they remember all these moments
but they're like, I have no idea how this, what, how this is rising into a big idea I have for the world.
And one of the things that I appreciate is that I've had coaches that have, you know, taught me
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through different modalities exactly how different our brains are, exactly how different we are in
terms of what we're seeing and that we're not seeing the same object the same way and that's a cool thing.
So once I was able to sit in the value of my own story and not feel insecure anymore because I
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think as a weaver I felt like a little bit like an oddball and so that it was almost the opposite
thing for me. It wasn't so much I was like, how can, well yes that's true. I would say how can you
see the connections but it was also me questioning if I'm the only one who sees it this way I must be
wrong was the way I used to go about things before because everybody else seemed to be moving in a
(16:34):
different direction people, you know, whatever. So I think owning this fact that there is in the right
context in place and problem solving that this fun aspect of weaving actually helps people crystallize
things because they know because they're coming in already going I know I'm more than just my job
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title and I know that I'm more than just the degree I got or this last award I might have won and
then you feel crappy again because you're only as good as your last thing and they want to
bring together all these different parts of them. Now it's just a weaving class so it's so much,
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so it's fun for me it's fun like I don't actually feel like maybe it yeah you I don't know maybe
that is working with my shot well I'm helping people work with their shadow sides of seeing the value
in here and it's just fun to go well why don't we turn this story sideways and what happens if you
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took this story about you when you were 11 and just and just kind of put it next to the story of
you at 28 and you're like oh my gosh like I didn't realize I was doing the exact same thing in these
no other different concepts right so that's fun like for me it's fun when people get those
light old moments of going oh I'm not this imposter who doesn't have it together it's just I just
(18:03):
don't have the fabric or the narrative that's showing me how it all fits together
because I'm not a one note you know I'm this human being that was like a 4 million one
miracle of even being here taking that first breath like it's an amalgamation of like so many things
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and it just feels overwhelming or one can feel underestimated or undervalued until
we put those blocks together and have them click together and then it's like you can't wait
to do the work that you're meant to do right yeah so I feel like with work whether it's like
(18:55):
with the environment any of the major major things that need support it can it just can be we can
so quickly feel self-defeated right and that's where I feel like having our clicked in
story gives us a bedrock to stand on a springboard to jump off of a place to come back to if we do
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decide we're gonna embrace chaos in the unknowns like okay I don't like that but I'm like go ahead
try this thing and it doesn't work you have someplace to come back to the Echers you
yeah that's that's kind of I think what's helped me over the years be able to to
be more brave in terms of my heart for social change that feels like it's been run over many times
(19:51):
in my life of feeling defeated many times but like if it's part of my spirit I just can't I can't
give up on it but then I'd be like oh I'm no good at it that's what I used to tell myself it's like
I really told myself it's like you can't make a difference because you're sensitive or to this or
to that had to switch into but what am I what am I exactly and that that's really the heart of
(20:16):
of these archetypes is we have this other you know this big thing like you talked about leaving
in communion truth with a sense of de-fetism and I think a lot of people feel that it's just like
what can I do and it's kind of a de-fetist question and so the place that I start is who are you?
you are on this planet for a reason you belong here let's let's make sure that that gift is being
(20:43):
used to support and connect with our home which is the earth and that leads us to our last two
questions that I love to ask everybody because believe it or not we are at the near the end of the hour
it went by so fast I love talking with you so much Stephanie I always feel like it's such a vibrant
(21:04):
place where we're just awe we've talked about the word awe and I've actually did a whole entire
solo episode on the science of awe it is such a fascinating topic and I always feel that when you
and I are talking and so I am going to wrap this bow at the end here with our final two questions
(21:25):
which is a word that we've I don't know if we've actually said it out loud yet but we've definitely
talked about its concepts which is relationship and that in so many of these aspects once we
once we figure out who we are it becomes this question of well now how do I engage in relationship
(21:46):
and particularly a reciprocal relationship with other types with other forms of living beings and
that could be plants that could be the elements that could be animals which brings us back to this
this element of us being a part of nature and earth being our home and so I'm curious with all
(22:08):
these different ways that we've talked about relationships but not actually called it that up until
this point I'm curious what you think the kind of either maybe the role of reciprocal relationships
within this or perhaps a definition of it but I'm curious what that brings up for you as I point this
word out. I've been thinking a lot about this lately and I would say it's in moments of awe for me
(22:35):
reciprocal relationship right now means mutually life giving relationships so as somebody who had been
we're going to talk about trees actually because I'm seeing this all in trees they're
for the longest time I operated as like the giving tree in that book by Shell Silverstein where I would
(22:58):
just you need a branch here you need some seeds here you need the trunk here and then there's nothing
left and I would go through this cycle a hint of that of burnout and despair and retreating from people
and that costs its own heartache right and so it's been interesting for me like this journey of
(23:20):
what would life giving be and so there's a book someone told me about the secret life of trees
or the hidden life of trees and there's a documentary I watch the documentary and it's fascinating
that trees are they build their own communities their roots are below if somebody if one
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I say somebody I'm treating them like people if a tree has lost its nutrients the others will start
to feed it this way there are some trees where if there is a predator around like the warn and then
they'll start sending off odors I am fascinated in particular with the Sequoia tree which I just
(24:01):
wrote a post on LinkedIn about this this is how I really feel that this brand storytelling
leadership comes together the Sequoia tree is naturally fire resistant so it's one of the few fire
proved trees and it even benefits from fire like it's found a way to be that it's on fire and just
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like other trees their roots they have their own roots but they're intertwined with others right and
so for me I think the important thing is I've asked myself the question whenever there's an opportunity
to partner with somebody or work with the client is this life giving to me and I ask them
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would this be life giving to you and if we both say yes that's worth investing some energy into
right as long as your values align and you want to go in the same direction in that one aspect right
so I've really almost reset all of my relationships in the last two years and so when we were
(25:13):
in impact accelerator together that was actually the beginning of me starting to like manage
this forest of relationships where it's like I'm going to pour into people who also we have this
mutuality there's an ecosystem going on right because that's how we're all going to
(25:34):
create more together and do things together um so to me the mutual life giving is really important
um in terms of when I think of reciprocity now whatever life giving means to you whatever it means
to me it doesn't have to mean the same thing but it means that our life force is turned on and we
(25:55):
were both in it you know so that's what that means and for me I feel like in terms of the work
I'm doing now heading into this year with own your message is that I really want to nurture a
grove of Sequoias it's like so every thought leader to own their Sequoia-ness to be able to have those
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strong roots in who you are like you said and what your message is so you can be fire resistant
because most of us don't want to go out in this public space because it is so freaking scary and
let's just face it it's a hot mess out there and then but then I realize it's not enough to just
(26:44):
stand on your own story you do need your roots intertwining with other people you you need that courage
to be able to step out if you're going to say something that is against the step you know like
let you know if you're going to nudge people and fire people up and um be a trailblazer
(27:06):
uh that's lonely and loneliness can just it can extinguish our energy too so though I think
to your point those two things have been going hand in hand I've only been learning it
in the last few months as I've been you know as uh these amazing leaders have been coming through
and then they build their story and they come back and they said you know I felt really bolstered
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but then I'm out there for so long by myself it's like they need a community too and so
we're all reinforcing this is where it was like I'm starting to create this um community for the
alumni and for clients and for you know other people to help each other remember who we are
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and help each other to reinforce ourselves if we're feeling isolated or lonely and the thing
that we're doing that's where we're all the way out there to be like no go I got you this is really
a keep going if somebody you know you don't want to bear with the criticism if you're going to put
something out there and it might be controversy that let's have the other sequoias and the other
(28:12):
other people say like hey everybody I'm going to put this thing out I might be met with a lot of
opposition you know and I don't want it to take me down and that people would like hey I'm
going to volunteer to check check your comments and I'm only going to send you the comments that
are positive or we're going to jump in you know whatever it is but this is something new that I'm
playing with to help us be able to sustain our life force around what's really important and
(28:40):
vulnerable and scary but also purposeful yeah there's some amazing points there around that
that question around mutually life giving and and I love that you know even if both of you say yes
(29:02):
it can mean different things to to each of the individuals in that situation and I think that's
really beautiful because that shows how this this interwoven root network can still can really
can own the fact of what it brings and what it shares and and and how it how it does that and also
(29:24):
how it receives when it needs to and I think this this vision for for creating continued support
through that journey because you know once once the leaders are empowered with this story you know
that's that's that's the next level but I'm sure the goal the hope for all of you is that now with
that strength they're able to elevate the message and go farther and faster and so but yeah that
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that support system is such an incredible part of that an important part of that journey that I
think that's that's super smart and super important and ties in really well to us thinking about
you know about our home here on the earth is is how are we you know because as humans we've we've
certainly taken a lot and how do we how do we replenish that how do we give some of our roots back
(30:13):
to nourish the things that we've we've taken and I think the Sequoia tree is a beautiful beautiful
example of that and so as we wrap with that there's always a question that I love to ask here at the end
because overall you know I'm deciding where the bumpers on this conversation goes for the most
part yeah but I always like to then open up the gates and go what is it that I missed what would
(30:39):
you have liked to have talked about what would you wish I would have asked about oh okay there was
something that came at the end when we were talking about relationship and this mutual life giving
relationship which I have a feeling people are hungry for I know I have been I know during
(30:59):
the pandemic we didn't have a lot of that and maybe it helped most of us realize how badly we need it
to feel whole and to be able to to feel like we're fulfilling our purpose and so this is where for
me like I'll kind of tie this up the best I can but in studying human design
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and this idea that similarly that we are also energy and we have this life force and we all have
a different blueprint of what our energy our energy and our life force in our body and what it's
able to do and magnetize is different in each person and it's that way on purpose because then
(31:46):
we actually operate like magnets to each other and we can help accelerate people moving forward
or pitch in in other places and so I've become really fascinated with the idea of understanding our
internal energy system and how it relates and we can actually mutually charge each other
(32:09):
up in ways that help us to build sustainable leadership or well you try to have movements
like anybody who does have a heart for leaving a legacy it's like we know making a movement is hard
ha ha hard and you're not going to feel like you have that energy all the time and you're not sure
(32:31):
you're making the right decisions all the time because things do get complex and even for weavers
like as a weaver I will say I do love complexity and boy I can get stuck in the cobwebs of complexity
and not sure I'm making my own aligned decisions and so human design has as I got certified in it
(32:52):
has helped me to understand the operating manual of how my own energetic blueprint works,
how it interacts with other people so that we can actually create more with less effort which I
think for movement makers is super important because this is bold bold ass work sorry and
(33:14):
you know and be able to re-energize ourselves or help energize other people
and then the other piece of it is it shows us where in each of our bodies
where that knowing that place of aligned decision making really lives so for some of us
(33:38):
it's follow your gut is brain advice for some of us follow your heart is great advice and so on
and so I think it's really affirming to understand the operating manual of ourselves
so that we can again click in more often to our energy our creativity click into how our voice
(34:01):
is naturally magnetic instead of trying to force ourselves to present a certain way it's like
we can have a big fat permission slip to just say oh I've been trying to master these things but
why not all night just cultivate the things I'm good at right like the superpowers you talked about
and it even can change the chemistry or improve the chemistry and the energy dynamics of who we
(34:25):
collaborate with when we talk about relationships and I'd even seem I've experimented with
even as I've been teaming up with people I just pay attention to how am I feeling energetically
like in this conversation you know are we activating each other's creativity are we is this person
you know and then later I'll ask permission would you be interested in me taking a look at human
(34:50):
design and then we look side by side and we actually see the spots where we manifest like we're
actually connecting dots for each other because none of us were meant to do it alone so that's the
last thing I wanted to share was I feel like that's another tool that reminds me we all have something
different contribute and nobody has the whole answer and we can give each other grace and permission
(35:18):
to like live in alignment and flow of who each of us are that we are going to have more joy in
energy and our purpose and then we're going to have more mutually life giving relationships too
powerful yeah thanks and and I love that that kind of brought us back to the chronological place where
(35:42):
it's you know the the the work that you're doing that's that it seems like the human design is where
you're really leaning into and where you're finding the fun and the information and so I love that
you you bringing that up as the as the piece of that was still missing was the piece that really is
you know really present for you and kind of in the foreseeable future for you so I'm delighted you
(36:02):
brought us back to that that place and just so so grateful to have you here today and and have you
in my life and thank you to everybody who tuned in to listen to this I hope that it felt as
awe inspiring as it did and in this moment in this body as I experience it so thank you so much
(36:24):
Stephanie oh thanks so much for having the amber and I'm so glad that we're in community with each
other too hey earthmate how did that episode resonate did it stretch you inspire you or perhaps
urqu you I'm here for it so please reach out besides the socials we have a community to practice with
(36:47):
on our website eartharchetypes.com where more earth archetypes can guide your path and become
dear friends a great place to start is the quiz to discover your type oh and on your way I'd love
for you to hit the subscribe button see you again soon
(37:07):
so you know what the best way to do this is to be a good friend to us and to be a good friend to you and to be a good friend to you.