Welcome to THE TRUE NORTH COLLECTIVE℠ PODCAST: SEASON 3! With co-hosts Rachel Bellotti (she/her) and Jenell Riesner (she/her), this is a gathering of un-sugar-coated conversations celebrating the untold stories of everyday people fearlessly finding and living their true north. 

In our own search to discover and live from our TRUE NORTH, we continue to meet many interesting, courageous people from all walks of life, doing all sorts of amazing things to live life in their own unique way. Stories from all over the world. Stories with heart. Stories with grit. Stories with plot twists. Stories going untold - until now. This season, we celebrate these untold stories of everyday people who are fearlessly living their true north and inspiring each of us to do the same.

Today, we talk to Meaghan Richardson (she/her) + Alex Sigler (she/her), fellow weirdos and enneagram nerds from Dallas, about all things enneagram! This episode opens up an approachable dialogue with two humans who have an innate passion for using personality tests, especially enneagram, to better understand themselves. We discuss what the heck enneagram is, mislabeling, using it as a bridge to relate to yourself + others, growth patterns, and being in choice around personality tests so that you can own the parts of you that are hard to see. Plus, some real talk about crying, emo music, and the fact that sometimes figuring out who you are is NOT easy - but you don’t have to do it alone.

*note: this episode includes explicit language appropriate for those ages 16+

**note: this episode was recorded in late March 2020 so some COVID context may seem out of place to now.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

• Billy Eilish - when the party is over
• Enneagram quiz - enneagraminstitute.com
• Meyers Briggs
• IG account: @Enneagramandcoffee
• IG account: @ninetypesco
• IG account: @okenneagram
• IG account: @ginagomez.co
• IG account: @justmyenneatype
• The road back to you BOOK
• Strengthsfinder
• Highly Sensitive Person
• Human Design
• Meaghan’s cry baby playlist on spotify
• Music from: https://www.jukedeck.com/

3 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Truly starting to understand yourself IS a way to build bridges to relate to others. In whatever way you choose to do that - whether reflection, meditation, personality tests, astrology, coaching, movement, therapy (the possibilities are endless) - just begin. Start digging in and getting curious about who you are and what makes you tick and what makes you shine. The more you get comfortable understanding your insides, the easier it becomes to get comfortable understanding others. It seems counterintuitive, but we can only connect outside of ourselves in ways that we are able to connect within ourselves. 
2. Be in choice. Use discernment. Don’t just take life’s algorithms at face value, question it, check-in with yourself, get curious, come in through another angle until you feel like you have really landed on what you feel is yours.  Give yourself permission to speak for yourself and wwn the parts of you vs being told what you are and what that means about you. And sometimes it is really helpful to start (or check-in) with a pre-created set of buckets, like the nine enneagram types, to gain some additional data to consider and spring off from. No matter where you are, always invite yourself to ask yourself what feels true to you and to trust that above all else.
3. It’s helpful to establish a common language with others in your life and the world. Sometimes we think we are saying the same things or we just don’t know how to describe what we are going through and to have words and language to describe it for ourselves and others can support in connection and understanding as well as being able to get curious and dig deeper versus just assumptions and misunderstandings. Where in your life are you experiencing tension with someone or lack of connection and could it be because there is a common language gap? Could you introduce a new set of words, like enneagram, that supports closing the language gap? 

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

• [1:30] Trial + tribulations of lash extensions in quarantine
• [6:00] Having a bad day vs a bad moment
• [11:10] AD: Join THE COLLECTIVE - our live community meetup to connect + unpack aspects of authenticity via zoom - 1st Thurs of every month! Join our mailing list to sign-up or visit our Instagram
• [12:15] Introducing Meaghan + Alex!
• [15:50] Enneagram helped me understand parts of me that I didn’t love, as well as understand other people + how I relate to them
• [21:40] Using enneagram to help build bridges w/people
• [26:00] Growth patterns
• [27:00] Enneagram basics
• [29:00] You can score differently at different times, but you are always only one type based on your core fear + core desire at the end of the day 
• [35:00] We all have fears, but what is your motivating fear?
• [39:00] Misidentification
• [44:00] Type compatibility
• [50:00] Trauma + enneagram
• [55:00] Using enneagram as a common language
• [1:13:30] How do you live your TRUE NORTH?
• [1:14:30] Contact Meaghan via IG @mamameaghan or Alex via IG @alexsiglerr
• [1:17:00] Who loves emo music?