Susan Steiner, Author and Human Design Coach

  Welcome back friends to our podcast, unlocking your world of creativity. And just in the last few episodes, we've stamped our creative passports in places like London, Oslo, Dallas, LA, Detroit, and Lisbon, Portugal. And we're traveling today to Zurich, Switzerland to talk to my guest, Susan Steiner. Susan, welcome to

the show.

Thank you, Mark. Glad to be here.

Susan is an author among many things. Like many of us creatives, she has a lot of diverse roles, including a human design aficionado, an executive coach, a grandmother, a murder mystery novelist. We're going to talk a little bit about murder mysteries today. But Susan, how do all these things blend for you into, your whole creative self

boy, that's a big one. I think , some of the theme for me , has to do with individuality, finally ever since I learned I was a projector, which is in human design, a little bit of a different kind of energy type and I realized that really fit and suddenly I understood things I've really been interested with my clients and with myself in being true to my individuality.

And, it's that way, like earlier I had a lot of individuality, but I thought, ooh, what's wrong with me? And now it's oh, that's okay. That sounds good. So with my characters and with my clients , that's what I encourage is.

Be yourself.

. And yet when you say you had trouble with that, did individuality come across as, I don't know what self centered or quirky, individual meaning not like the rest.

Yeah, quirky yeah, and I felt different, I felt like I couldn't really I don't know, trust myself to just be exactly like I am.

I should be more sociable or I should be more ambitious or something, so those kind of things, it helped me to see. We were talking about human designer, it helped me to see what's underneath all that. And it's made me, I've always been so interested in other people.

And it's had me have been a way of dealing with other people and myself.

I definitely want to get into your creative process, but I can't help but, relate as creative people and all our listeners in this kind of, and you mentioned these, this phrase should be, I should be something different, or I should be at someplace else than I am right now.

Creative people face this challenge,

don't we? True. And a lot of my clients, even in Corporate America in the pharma industry where I do a lot of my work. They're also facing that yeah the Expectations on them to be something they're not to be to speak up in meetings I get that sometimes from their bosses exactly should speak up more in the meetings, and I look at Yeah I think now maybe she shouldn't speak up in meetings.

Maybe she should talk to people ahead of time, one to one. And then in the meeting, she's already carried the day. Maybe that's more appropriate for her. But I think we all get a little trapped in that sense of we should be some way that we're not.

I was talking with someone the other day.

It's oh, they want me to come up with all these new ideas But my strength is executing the ideas. I'm the producer, you know I know how to get it all done and don't we need those people too? I go that's the people we've been looking for Anybody can come up with ideas

You say, as a creative. Yeah.

Exactly. Sounds so easy, doesn't it? Yeah. No problem. Susan, as we talk about how you navigate your creativity through this human design can I call it a process? Can I call it a model? But what do we call human design? Maybe you can give us a little baseline.

Let's see. I call it a technology when I talk to my clients or an assessment.

Yeah. They like assessments, people like to be assessed but really human design is a way of finding out what your mechanics are underneath how you think you should be or how you operate day to day sometimes. What mechanically is going on underneath there that started when you were born, it will end when you die, but it never changes during your lifetime.

And I just lost my train of thought. I got excited about that. When you're born to when you die, I got a little excited there . But okay. So it's a technology though. And I can't explain it, but I've always liked things I can't explain.

Those are my favorite things, but human design proves itself in the moment. And I'm a BG5 consultant. This is a, the business arm of human design, if you will. And so we go into businesses and talk about human design in very simple terms and about business skills and this kind of thing. And it proves itself in the moment.

So I'm not too worried about describing where it came from. There are people who can tell you that and they're good at that. But for me it is so practical, it's so helpful for people to get a sense of who they are. At the bottom line, and how they can be more like that.

And I think about these kinds of assessments, and I do like that word.

Whether it's DISC, Myers Briggs. Yep. Which de Bono of six thinking hats are you? Even astrology, can be an assessment sometimes. But Does it really help people determine their strengths and weaknesses if I could put it that way? Or does it tend to give people a label or an excuse?

I can't help it. I'm a Leo, that kind of thing. What, where does assessment help people in your coaching practice?

I think it would be hard to make a case that human design pigeonholes a person, mainly because the pigeonhole would be so unique, and it's hard to be pigeonholed in your uniqueness. Yeah, so I, it's not saying I'm a Luther Myers Briggs, I'm an EMTJ, or whatever. That's fine, that's all good, and that's helpful for people, but it does kind Put you in a class with a lot of people.

And I think human design is more detail oriented. It's more really about. Your mechanics, you as an individual, there's nobody else like you, and I don't know any other assessment that gets down to that level of individuality. Now, of course, that's a huge area of study, and I have, I'm not an analyst in human design, I'm a BG5 consultant.

So I've been studying human design for 14 years and applying it with my clients for 14 years. And myself, of course but I'm not an analyst, so I can't tell you every detail, but we can get the bigger things in order, where you can see then for yourself, how it works for you, what works best.

And this is what I do with my characters in the book as well. Yeah

I guess we're getting to that. I absolutely wanted to shift to that. And this is a good time . So taking human design out of maybe the coaching context and moving it now into your writing process, your , your character development and storytelling in your books.

How do you apply these human design characteristics into your characters?

They each have a human design chart, and they have, and four of my characters , I based on the human design charts of my four grandchildren. Now my grandchildren are ages eight through 13 at this point, but my characters are all in their twenties.

This idea to write about specific characters came from me being, realizing that I won't know them maybe when they're that age. And I really wish I could. And I decided to write about them as when they're grown up. and all their quirky ways. And it's mostly, it's based on their designs and also based on what their mothers tell me, my daughters, who are my partners in this.

One of my daughters manages my marketing and the other one is my creative director.

Yeah. So that, so they see the characters at work.

As children, when we're truest to our design, when we're actually really ourselves, before we put on all of the shoulds and whatnot, when we grow up and what people expect of us and our conditioning, so they've seen the kids at their most real.

And they, both of my daughters are familiar with human design, so it helps.

They see the application. I think about storytelling, they always say, you want your characters to be approachable, likable, and authentic and all these kind of things to get the real world connection with the reader or, and film, the viewer.

How does human design help with this personal connection in the character development?

I think it keeps them true to life. For example, I don't want my main character his name is August Burns, and he's a manifestor, and manifestors behave in a particular way. They also have their own journeys, of course, and then they have all the other distinctions about their design, but I'm I have to stay true to my characters.

I have a coach in human design who helps me do that. So we talk about my characters as if they're real people, because for me they are. And I think it has a depth to the characters that maybe in some stories aren't there. I don't know, but they certainly get realistic.

I have something to base them on. I guess that's an interesting thing because for example. With my clients. So I'll go back to my clients for a moment. I don't tell my clients what to do. We look at their design. We talk about how they operate or how their energy flows. And then we talk about work and we get back to, the day to day and what's happening, but I don't tell them what to do, but I remind them about their mechanics.

And cause I don't know what they should do. And I feel the same way about my characters. I put them in situations and they have to find their way out based on what their gifts are. And they do it themselves, oftentimes while I'm writing dialogue. They talk their way out of it, or they bring the next thing up.

So I don't tell them what to do. I don't tell my clients what to do. I don't like to tell people what to do. And I definitely don't like to be told what to do. Yeah so human design helps me to stay true to what is really happening with those characters. And this isn't just the four that are my grandchildren, but also all the characters have their designs.

You can get them on my website. I have all the designs there for people to see if they want to as they read the book, if they're interested in human design. Otherwise, I mentioned human design in the book now and then, but it's not about human design. It's about a guy, a loner, a manifester. Who rides a motorcycle and he gets into trouble.

I love this and he has to find his way out.

Yeah, and the way you're describing the process of the story just, it's happening through the dialogue. I've heard from other authors, maybe singer songwriters too, that it's just coming out their fingers. The story is developing. You didn't have a beginning, middle, and end in mind when you started.

It begins to emerge. Is that how it is for you?

That was definitely true with my first book, with Murder by Manuscript. That one grew as I was writing it. And I was, it was when I was really exploring the process first. It was my first novel. And it all came together and all of that, but it took me a couple years to write it.

So in that one, for sure, the characters, they really got into bad situations. One gets, gets accused of murder and gets arrested. And for me, I'm thinking, wait, how's he going to get out of that? Gosh, and I worry, I'm like during the day going, what? What can you do? So that book definitely was like that.

The second book, I planned more and yet things, it's funny because you, it's like you can't tell about life either. It comes one moment at a time. And for me, writing a book is the same experience. It comes one moment at a time. And I think I might know what's going to happen. I have a sense of it.

But oftentimes it shifts and like right now, I'm writing the third book and in there things are happening sooner than I meant for them to happen. I'm going, wait a minute whoa, everybody slow down. We're going a little too fast. I thought that would be later. I know that's supposed to be later, but here we are.

And, oh, and so that's what's happening. So I have to learn to live with that and make that into, okay now what do we do? Yes. So for, it's, it is a blast to write these books this way. It's a lot of fun. And if it isn't fun, I wouldn't do it. Sure. If it doesn't excite me and make me wonder what's next, then how could it do that for the reader?

That's how I feel about it.

And we like to have a global context to our podcast. And I think the same is true in your stories. The settings, the locations, the, spinning the globe, Zurich, London, Charlotte, San Antonio, I read. These are settings. How do they fit in? How do the locations fit into the story?

Oh the first one, of course, is Based where I am right now, the first book and in fact, I'm a character in the first book, but I'm already dead. I know, I'm the grandmother who died, but she wrote a story, and suddenly the characters are living that story, and they find out. So it has to start in Zurich, because that's where I am and so that, and then it went to London, where I've done a lot of work.

I've worked in London and Cambridge quite a bit, so I have a sense of those places, and they're so wonderful. And then the next book in North Carolina was an accident. I don't know North Carolina very well. It's a lovely state, but I don't know it myself. I had to learn a lot about North Carolina.

Go figure. And then this last one in Texas, I've spent a lot of my life in Texas. And it's nice to be back home again, back to Texas, riding about Texans and horses and the cowboy capital of the world and all kinds of strange things in Texas that I totally

love. Love that. And obviously, we're talking about the murder mystery genre, and you're walking us through the plotting and the character development.

How does the idea that these are real life characters, play into your process? Or real life profiles.

Yeah, you might say normal people. Normal enough. Everyone's a little bit odd. But they're normal enough and then they have strange things happening to them. The main character has darkness following him.

He's rather dramatic in the first book. By the second book he's figured out it's actually, that's how it is. He just, For some reason, darkness follows him, and he has to deal with that. And, but he's a normal person, living, I think, a rather exceptional life because He was raised as a manifester. He was raised as himself.

Instead of being told he has to be some other way or punished for being we're not going into human design right now, but being a certain type he's allowed to be himself. And so he, but he doesn't, it doesn't mean his life is perfect and he can do, he's always completely confident.

He's just a real person. And he gets upset and he acts out and he's sometimes a creep, you know a little bit And people call him on it, but it's like real people. I some of the Characters i've read about i've read so many murder mysteries thousands and thousands because I love that genre And I love all the characters, but some of them are not they're more like Almost like hardboard cutouts.

They're perfect. They jack reacher, he's, he like, he's so perfect , he just always knows everything and dah. My characters are a lot more fallible and human than that. And I wrote it that way on purpose because it entertains me. And I think if I were in those situations. What would I do?

I'm a writer. I sit here and write or I'm on the phone with my clients, but what would I do? What a what? A

what a great prompt. What would I do ?

What would I do? Yes. Yeah.

Further into the process, , you and I were introduced by another author and a former guest of mine, Megan Preston Meyer.

She's got her own murder mystery series in the works, but you guys are in a writing group together. How does that kind of help and support, with fellow authors contribute to your process?

Our writing group is a funny one. It's called shut up and write.

I have heard this name. It's a fantastic call to action. I

can totally put it in. Yeah, it's the best. Yeah. At the first you say, hello, I'm this. I'm writing today. I'm going to try to get done through chapter 13. Everybody says their own thing.

And then we stop. And everybody writes for 50 minutes, and then we come back and go, yep, I did it, and occasionally we compare some notes, but for me, that's a nice way to sit and know that other people are focusing at the same time, and that I've said what I'm going to do, and then I do it. So that's contributed a lot and just knowing Megan personally and visiting with her in Tsuk.

It's nice to have another, a fellow writer to talk about things with Yeah.

What an interesting setting. We have this image of, lone authors, they're out there with their typewriter in a cabin or in the basement clicking away at the keyboard. But there is something nice about being surrounded with other people who are, on purpose at that moment for those 50 minutes.

Yep. Occasionally it is. I like writing by myself. I'm one of those people. I like it. I like it when it's quiet and I go back and read out loud what I've written so I can hear it myself and things like that. But it's nice to have it. I was in another shut up and write group. That was also very that was lovely and I follow those people now You know and they follow my books and it's also nice to see other people progressing through their sort of profession as an author that's a being an author It doesn't sound like being a coach or being a venture capitalist or a consultant.

It's not that kind of so it's so individualized, but it's nice to compare notes with other people. And I read Megan's book, love it, can't wait to read her next one. She's so clever.

Yes, it's a nice twist. I love the coffee shop, company references. Yes, the

setting. She is very.

Very clever. Yeah.

Yes. Susan, do you have one of your books handy? I should have asked you this at the outset. If you have one handy, I would love to have you read a couple of pages for us to give us a flavor of your style and and the series.

Okay. So this is from my first book called Murder by Manuscript. And it's toward the first of the book. And it is when The hero, August Burns, meets the cowgirl of his dreams and , he's attending a conference that she's speaking at in Zurich because he saw a picture of her in the brochure with a cowboy hat on.

And so he is broken in there and he's sitting in her presentation as she gets started. No problem, Rita said with a smile. Let's get started. Shall we? How are y'all doing today? There was no response. Some of the people glanced at each other with puzzlement, as if they were trying to decide if they were supposed to answer.

Rita, self consciously, flicked back her long hair. She's from Texas. The silence dragged on a few seconds more, and just as she started to say something else, a man's voice from the back of the room called out I'm doing great. How are you? Rita looked toward the voice, her eyes narrowed. She thought, what the hell?

But she said sweetly, Okay, thank you. You're mighty welcome, he answered. Now she could tell he was making fun of her. Two can play at that game. Since you were getting us started, why don't you stand up and introduce yourself? A tall, lanky young man, wearing a gray cable knit sweater over a white dress shirt, rose from the last row of chairs.

His thick, dark hair was long on top and cut very short on the sides. He didn't seem phased by being asked to introduce himself. Howdy, ma'am, he said. I'm August Burns. His voice didn't sound as deep now, but he was still clowning around. Clearly not a Texan, Rita thought. But definitely American. It doesn't look like a scientist.

Maybe he's in marketing. People turned around to look at him. Rita grabbed the podium, took a deep breath, and said, August, may I ask you a question? Of course, he said, smiling. He was either heckling her or flirting with her. She wasn't sure which. But whatever the case, she didn't like it. A few people laughed nervously and turned back around to look at Rita, wondering what she'd do next.

Rita stealed herself. She dealt with rowdy cowboys and wild horses. She could handle this show off. Are you a horseman? She asked. Do you know anything about horses? People turned back to look at him. No ma'am, he replied. Then the audience turned back to Rita as if this were a tennis match. She said.

In that case, I'm curious why you're here. He kept smiling. To tell you the truth, I saw your picture on the internet and I knew I couldn't miss this. He looked at the people who were turned toward her. She looks great, right? A few of them nodded their heads and laughed.

Yeah, very good. We've been listening to Susan Steiner read from her first book in the August Burns series.

So those are inauspicious meetings that leads to quite a romance as time goes on.

And Susan, I really like the way The dialogue, moved the story forward and the sort of interludes gave us very descriptive details. And that's where the likability, I think we were talking about that earlier.

It was approachable. It's we've all been in those situations, those social settings, or those meetings, where we're meeting these people. So it was very relatable. Thank you. Yes, indeed. And yet not so mysterious. And the murder hasn't come up yet.

Nope. Murder hasn't come up yet. Murder comes up soon.

Yes. Yeah. I always, when I read murder mysteries, if somebody doesn't die in the first like 20 pages, I wonder what am I doing here? Exactly.

This is not the rom com book I thought I picked up. Wait, isn't there a murder here somewhere? Where's the

murder? I

love that. So your series is continuing.

You mentioned you're writing book three now. What can the readers anticipate?

More fun with August. We have a new diabolical villain in the third book operating out of Austin, Texas. And I think that's going to be fun for August. See, it's interesting because Writing these, you always have to find the right villain for the right time.

So this villain is really very clever, and he's actually, in terms of human design, a projector, which of course, that's also what I am, and writing about a projector bad guy is very interesting, because we are We can be quite bitter and diabolical. And there's a new villain and more Texas a lot of Texas going on now because August is back in the, in Texas with Rita.

Yeah,

well, can't wait to see how that develops and when that comes out coming full circle then on how the characters are developed through the human design profiles. Are you learning more about the real people behind these profiles behind these characters? Because you mentioned that, you wanted to get closer to your grandchildren as people and projecting into the future.

Are you getting the fulfillment from that process?

So much oh, yes, it is. It is a joy. I, it's a, it's hard to imagine, you're the grandmother and you're writing a book about your grandchildren, only they're adults. And the grandchildren, of course, all know this, so I don't even know what it would be like without it, because, of course, this is my only experience, but it is so rich, because they also contribute toward their characters, and it has made it, it's brought us all closer.

In addition that my, also that my daughters help me with these books. So it's become a family enterprise and the friends of mine who show up in the book, who, whose designs I borrow and I talk to them about it and they, in a way they helped me develop the character. So it's brought me closer to many people.

And that has been really fun.

So good. Folks, you can find more about Susan and her work at SusanSteinerBooks. com. And then I was thinking about your coaching practice. Is that at the same website or do we go somewhere else

for that? That's at S. B. SteinerCoaching. com. Yeah, very

good. We'll check out both.

Susan, what a pleasure talking with you. And let's see, I was reminded my profile name is. Manifesting generator, so that's quite a combination, but what's under the hood of that my, my 72 page report awaits me.

Oh, that'll be a fun read. Yes. Yes. Somebody who goes manifesting generators are so prolific.

And just looking at when I looked at what you've done, what you've been up to boy. That is quite, quite a lot of energy that you expend and quite a lot of things that you do. I think often more than one thing at a time would be my guess. Yeah, that's a good guess. Yeah.

I'm trying not to multitask now.

It's just me and you right now, Susan, but

yes, lots of plates spinning, yes. I'm impressed. It's funny.

I can only imagine where a manifesting generator might fit in a murder mystery. So we'll see if any of those characters

develop.

So fun talking with you. I really enjoyed it, Susan. Thanks so much. Thank you, Mark.

Yes. And listeners, come back again. We're going to continue these around the world journeys, just as the characters in Susan's book go from Zurich to London to Charlotte. We travel around the country and around the world as well. So we'll be stamping our creative passports and all sorts of fun places and future episodes.

So join us again next time. And until then, we'll keep unlocking your world of creativity.​