Bernie Borges [00:00:00]:
Vicki Dixon, welcome to the Midlife Fulfill podcast, a maximum episode.
Vickie Dickson [00:00:06]:
Thank you. I’m so happy to be here.
Bernie Borges [00:00:08]:
I am happy to have you. I’m looking forward to having an invigorating, enlightening conversation with you, Vicki. We were talking in the green room before recording that, there’s a lot I wanna learn about what you do. But let me give my listener a little bit of background on you, and I’ll ask you or invite you to embellish you a little bit, because I know that you are a lifelong entrepreneur. You’ve had many businesses. You say your first business was making Barbie clothes out of Kleenex when you were 5 years old. Boy, that’s a story for another day.
Vickie Dickson [00:00:41]:
Yeah.
Bernie Borges [00:00:42]:
And you’ve been successful at just about every business, including your, brick and mortar business. And you say that your biggest wake up in life was when your father was diagnosed with dementia at age 52. My both my parents had it, but they were in their nineties. So, different season for them, but I certainly had that experience, but not at age 52. I’m sure that was very traumatic. You’ve experienced your own burnout, and then you went back to school at age 41, and you became a certified holistic nutritionist. Love that. And, and then you say that about 8 years into your journey, human design entered your field.
Bernie Borges [00:01:24]:
And you have been you’ve harnessed human design into your practice. So I invited you here to this episode, Vicki, to really discuss exactly that concept, human design, and how you actually employ, if you will, human design in the people that you work with and and the coaching that you do for them. So if we could, Vicky, let’s begin with just the basic simple explanation of what is human design?
Vickie Dickson [00:01:52]:
Okay. So the basic, most simple explanation is that it is a blueprint. It’s a snapshot of 2 moments in time. One, the moment of your birth and one about 3 months before your birth. And it’s where the planets were aligned at those times. But what it tells you is how your energy is meant to be, how your energy flows best in the world, how you’ll work best in relationships and fitness. It’s your greatest strengths, greatest talents. And also it shows us a little bit where you’re going to get kicked around by life.
Vickie Dickson [00:02:20]:
So, you know, the places that you’re conditioned to believe that you’re something that you’re not, or to believe that you’re not enough or too much or all those messages that we can get as we go through life.
Bernie Borges [00:02:29]:
Okay. So it is using is it fair to say that it’s using science or maybe you can clarify that? Because you mentioned that, you know, the planets, when I was born, the 3 months before I was born, how the planets were aligned, etcetera.
Vickie Dickson [00:02:44]:
Yes. So it is, it’s a mix of a few things. It’s if the chakra system and astrology and the I Ching and the Jewish Kabbalah had a baby, it would be human design. So it brings in science and woo and marries them together in a way that just is unreal.
Bernie Borges [00:03:00]:
Okay. So then how do you use human design to coach? Because you you coach entrepreneurs. Right?
Vickie Dickson [00:03:07]:
I do more consulting than coaching. A lot of consulting for businesses.
Bernie Borges [00:03:20]:
So then how does human design come into play in consulting for a business then?
Vickie Dickson [00:03:26]:
Okay. So I’ll tell you about a client that I was working with today without telling you about the client that I was working with today. So she, one of the big drivers in her own design is that she’s here to be really powerful and really assertive. And the gate, this is Human Design language, but the energy that 70% of who she is goes through is provoking energy. So, when I look at a Human Design chart, I see a newborn baby and I see, oh my gosh, all of these gifts that you brought here, all of this that you came here to be. I work mostly with women and their partners when they kind of shove them into the room with me to say, hey, he needs this too. But you can imagine this little girl who was raised to be powerful and provocative and assertive. And the messaging that she got is that she’s too intimidating.
Vickie Dickson [00:04:15]:
She’s too much. She’s too masculine, too much in her masculine energy. Every coach she’s ever worked with has told her she’s too much in her masculine energy. And that’s just little pieces of her design that I’m pulling out here. But when I, when I look at the whole map of her design, I’m saying, well health, how could you be anything else? That doesn’t mean you’re not feminine because you’re powerful. Doesn’t mean you’re not feminine because you’re assertive, because you know what you want, and you have willpower and drive and all of these things. But we tend to and I’ve never been a guy, so I don’t know what the conditioning is of men. I know what I see, but I don’t know what it feels like.
Vickie Dickson [00:04:47]:
But I know that as girls, we certainly get that messaging a lot of you’re too much, you know, quiet down, quiet down, quiet down. You’re too much. You’re too big. All of these things. So that it was just a powerful it’s powerful when you can be in a room with someone and really be seen. So a lot of times women will come in and they’ll say, oh my gosh, like nobody knows that about me. Like I feel so seen. And we can pick out different places where the conditioning is really heavy.
Vickie Dickson [00:05:15]:
You know, there’s certain places in the chart where it’s like one of her heaviest conditioners was around control. So, you know, anyway, it’s just it’s a lot of it’s a lot of little things that make a lot of sense when you get in a room with someone.
Bernie Borges [00:05:28]:
Okay. Alright. So that’s a lot. So, let’s let’s let’s make this about me.
Vickie Dickson [00:05:35]:
Right? Okay.
Bernie Borges [00:05:35]:
Let’s make this all about me. Okay. I’m being a little facetious. But what where I’m going with this is you invited me to do my own chart, my human design chart. So I filled in the information, and I think you said you can access it while we’re on StreamYard together. Because when I look at the at the chart, it’s very detailed, but I’m not qualified, if you will, to understand what it means. So maybe you can unpack it for me.
Vickie Dickson [00:06:03]:
Sure. I love that you how long do I have here? Like, 5 minutes?
Bernie Borges [00:06:09]:
No. We we’ve got 20 minutes or so, give or take.
Vickie Dickson [00:06:12]:
I don’t want to, to do the whole the whole thing on your design if you want to talk about other things. But I love that you use the languaging that you that I invited you to run your chart because you might have noticed on the bottom of your chart. So you’re a projector in human design, you’re a projector. There are 5 types in human design and projectors make up about 20% of the planet. And your strategy for moving through life, what’s going to feel the best to bring your energy alive is when you are invited in. So rather than like pushing your way through things, when someone gives you an invitation in, it is like, oh, okay, your energy kind of comes alive for that. Projectors are here to be the guides. So 20% of the population and you really guide the energy of the others.
Vickie Dickson [00:06:56]:
And I see how you’re doing that in your business so beautifully, in your podcast so beautifully. You know, you’re guiding us to all of these resources and all of these great guests and people who can help us to live better lives at midlife. Still can’t believe I’m saying I’m at midlife, but here we are. So that’s the projector piece. One of so one of the things about projectors is that you tend to need more rest than others. And this is something that is hugely conditioned in our society because we we tend to treat people like they are lazy if they need more rest. And, you know, it’s like a work, work, work, work, work culture. And none of us are designed to work all the time.
Vickie Dickson [00:07:35]:
We’re all designed for cycles of rest, but projectors actually tend to need a little bit more rest than others. And they can feel sometimes like that’s something that’s wrong with them when it’s not. It’s because energetically you hold the potential of the planet. You see so much potential for people. And when we’re not reaching our potential, it’s like it hurts your heart
Bernie Borges [00:07:57]:
that we’re not
Vickie Dickson [00:07:57]:
reaching our potential. In your particular design, there’s a certain amount of verbal processing that needs to happen in order to become clear on decisions.
Bernie Borges [00:08:04]:
What does that mean?
Vickie Dickson [00:08:05]:
So you need to talk things out. Lots of times you won’t know what the answer is for you until you hear yourself say it. And it’s not that you need to be in a space where you, need someone to give you feedback or you need someone to give you advice. You just need to be able to get the words out so that you understand what it is that you think. You have in your design as health, one of my very favorite channels and people, I have Human Design envy over this all the time, but you have this channel and I don’t like the wording for it. It’s called, Genius to Freak, but it’s 43. It’s, it’s a channel that has a really different way of looking at life, a really different way of looking at any situation and you see it differently than other people, but sometimes it can be hard to get people to understand what you mean. You you learn in a really different way.
Vickie Dickson [00:08:54]:
I don’t know if that came through for you at school. I think school was different when we were there. But, I’m wondering if you ever had any I’m gonna come back so I can look at you and not your chart. I’m wondering if you had different times in your academic life where it was hard for you to get into words what you meant or where when you were younger younger child where you couldn’t really explain how you knew that that was the answer, but you just knew that that was the answer. Like, Like, you just have a different way of giving insights.
Bernie Borges [00:09:20]:
Well, there’s a a concept that I learned in in my adult years. I don’t remember how long ago it was. It wasn’t 5 years ago, and it probably wasn’t 30 years ago. So somewhere in between. The concept is and this is fairly well known, conscious competent. That concept when I heard that concept, Vicki, it was eye opening for me. It was like like this humongous light bulb, meaning that there there were times in my life where I was an unconscious competent, meaning that I couldn’t explain why I did something a certain way. When I learned what a conscious competent is, then it really kind of cemented for me that I wanna always be a conscious competent.
Bernie Borges [00:09:59]:
I wanna always be able to explain why I do what I do the way I do. And the same thing for others. You know, like, if if I I’ve been a manager in many roles in in my career. I wanna be able to coach my people on things that they’re doing. And I’m very been very careful about that to not come across overbearing, overpowering, or maybe cavalier or any of that. But the point I’m getting at to to you to the point that you you made is, I wouldn’t say that I struggled in my youth in school, but there certainly were certain subjects like writing, reading, all things around communication came more naturally to me than the sciences and advanced math. Simple math, no problem. But advanced math and the sciences, I had to work at it.
Bernie Borges [00:10:47]:
I had to work at it. I don’t know if that has any bearing on what you’re describing here.
Vickie Dickson [00:10:52]:
Yeah. Well, and I think even even some of the things you do with your podcast, like you you turn things into a new light for us. You bring us new new ways of looking at midlife. Like, that’s kind of the mission that you’re on is for us to all look at midlife differently. Right?
Bernie Borges [00:11:07]:
Mhmm.
Vickie Dickson [00:11:07]:
So it’s just having this little bit of a different insight into the way that people do things, maybe into the way that you do things. And I love the way you talked about, when you were managing people and when you were coaching and you, you know, you’re trying to make it in a way that doesn’t come off too come on too strong to them. That sort of thing. It’s like, that’s that’s a perfect projector. That’s a projector who’s on purpose, who really understands, hey, I have this knack that I can guide the energy of people. How can I do that in the best way?
Bernie Borges [00:11:35]:
Okay. Well, that’s a great segue, Vicki, to discussing the concept of human design within the context of the 5 pillars. Right? And as you know, because I think I’ve shared before with you that the 5 pillars that I speak about are health, fitness, career, relationships, and legacy. So I think, if I’m understanding correctly, that we can apply our understanding of human design into each of those pillars. Am I right?
Vickie Dickson [00:12:07]:
Or Yes, absolutely. So there are, different pieces of the body. Okay. So in my holistic health background, to me, holistic is the whole person. And in my holistic health background, it was often about looking at our emotional health because it affects our physical health. If you’re not feeling supported, your back might be sore, those types of things. So human design does that too. There are different gates and I know this is Human Design language, but there are different pieces of Human Design that coincide with physical health as well and Human Design because it tells us how our energy is meant to work.
Vickie Dickson [00:12:41]:
It will tell us how, how we exercise best. There’s, you know, your digestion is laid out in your Human Design. There’s lots of your different health things listed in your Human Design and your fitness. How are you best meant to exercise? You can find that in your Human Design as well. My very favorite piece is, the legacy piece. Absolutely the legacy piece, because I feel like at midlife, there’s a lot of stuff that goes on at Midlife. And, you know, we used to call it a midlife crisis and there’s, there’s all there’s planetary returns. There’s stuff going on in the cosmos for us at Midlife.
Vickie Dickson [00:13:13]:
And it can make us feel like we’re going crazy and, you know, maybe our kids are leaving home. We’re facing an empty nest. Our our partnerships are maybe changing a little bit. And there’s this search for purpose. It’s like, if not now, then when? I’ve put this off. I’ve taken care of everything I was supposed to take care of. What am I gonna do next with my life? And human design gives us a map of our purpose. It gives us and please understand that to me, purpose is not what you do.
Vickie Dickson [00:13:36]:
It’s who you be. It’s how you move through the world. So you’re living your purpose with your family. You’re living your purpose in your job. You’re living your purpose in everything that you do, hopefully. And Human Design gives us some some clues into that. Relationships, 100% with relationships. You know, if you’re a different type than your spouse or my, my husband and I are the same type And Human Design gave us so much understanding.
Vickie Dickson [00:14:01]:
He’s an empath and I’m someone who’s defined. This is Human Design speak, defined emotionally. So we’re completely different emotional systems that run us. And it always felt like he was making a big deal of things that I didn’t feel very strongly about and vice versa. And it’s just because our human designs are different, even though we’re the same type, we have all these different, different ways that we behave. So you can just bring human design into everything that you’re doing.
Bernie Borges [00:14:28]:
Okay. So this next question, it just popped into my head, is gonna sound silly. Mhmm. But I’ll ask it, Vicky. And that is, is it a blessing or a curse to understand your human design?
Vickie Dickson [00:14:46]:
Yeah. I think it’s I really think it’s a it’s a blessing, and I think it’s a curse if other people don’t understand your design sometimes. Like there’s sometimes my husband will say to me, I think he thinks it’s a curse that I understand his design because he’ll say to me, oh, are you going to human design me now? You know, whenever I’m and it’s like, yeah, so I’m always human designing you. But it’s it’s really a gift in relationships, in your business, in, like, with your relationship with your kids. For me, one of the biggest gifts has been understanding my grandkids’ designs. Because knowing that we can you know, I think every generation does a little bit better and we try to do a little bit better. But understanding their human design, I can give them a pass on the things that I’m like, oh, that’s just how they’re designed to be. You know? Whereas, you know, with my own kids, I wish I had it.
Vickie Dickson [00:15:33]:
I wish I knew that my son, the way his emotions worked when he was little, because it was a constant battle for, you know, trying to get him to, like, toe the line and not be too emotional and not be, you know, flying off the handle and all these things, but there’s something in his design that needs that emotional release. So, like, it’s just guiding the energy, helping to guide the energy with our families.
Bernie Borges [00:15:56]:
So here’s the thought, Vicky. Mhmm. I have long believed that I am I’m gonna use some really, some lingo here that’s not at all, scientific or, you know, human design lingo. I’ve long believed that I’m wired to understand people. Mhmm. That that given enough time in building a relationship with people, whether it’s at work, family, friends, doesn’t matter the setting, as long as I have some time to really get to know someone. This doesn’t happen in a day or 2, usually over a span of time. I’ve always felt like I can come to understand kinda how they’re wired to understand what makes them tick, what gets them upset, what makes them feel happy, fulfilled, etcetera, etcetera.
Bernie Borges [00:16:41]:
So is that me
Vickie Dickson [00:16:50]:
that that’s a good question, actually. So that’s a few things. So when I look at your design, when I look at anyone’s design, I don’t ever just just look at one piece of the chart. I I feel like there’s there’s a tendency to label just like there is in every other aspect of life where we can just label and be like, well, that’s how it is because I’m a projector, because I’m a manifesting generator. But when I think when we look at the nuances of the design, we see so much more. So when I look at your chart, I see that you are an empath. You absolutely feel into what people are feeling. You understand what people are feeling in a way that others cannot.
Vickie Dickson [00:17:26]:
And that’s really powerful. One piece of your design is that, bonding with the right people and understanding the bonds that you have with people is really important to you. You have laser focused intuition. You’re here to be wise about intuition. And so that again would help you to feel into what other people are, are feeling or, or how they are showing up in life. Now I didn’t check the themes in your design. I didn’t check all of them because you know, I just got this a few minutes ago, but one of the things that keeps you grounded is being connected to inner truth, always getting to the inner truth. And with this energy in your design, there’s a certain sense of wonder about you where you can just really wonder about things.
Vickie Dickson [00:18:10]:
And I mean that in a sense of looking out at the world in wonder and really wanting to have the inner truth, really wanting to get to the inner truth. Another thing is that you’re a visionary leader and you’re someone who provides a karmic mirror for people. So maybe there’s been times in your life where that’s been a little bit uncomfortable because you see things that other people don’t see. You see what we don’t see for ourselves sometimes, certainly the people you’re here to serve. And you’re going to research, you’re going to get to the bottom of things, but it’s always in service of the people that you’re here to to help the people that you’re here to guide. And you have leadership in your design. You have a full channel of leadership in your design as a theme in your design. So, I mean, there’s, there’s lots of places in your design.
Vickie Dickson [00:18:56]:
It’s never just one thing. It’s always how it layers on itself. But, yeah, absolutely. I could see how you would be able to really, really know people.
Bernie Borges [00:19:04]:
Okay. How does it impact you given how much you know about human design? You shared the story, just or you made the comment, rather, that your husband says, you know, are you human designing me?
Vickie Dickson [00:19:15]:
Yeah. Do
Bernie Borges [00:19:16]:
you do you sort of deal with that every day? Like every human encounter that you have?
Vickie Dickson [00:19:21]:
A lot of them, a lot of them. I was at a week long Mastermind last July and you know, I did we’re 13 people in a room together for 14 hours a day. And so it became very much like I was thinking of like actually, Weekend at Bernie’s is the movie that I was thinking of because I’m like, oh, my gosh. Like, I can totally look around this room and see who’s this and who’s that and who’s the other thing. So it’s fun and it can be almost, you know, if I’m in a group of people, they’re it’s almost like a party trick that they want you to pull out, but I think it’s so much bigger than that. And for myself, I think the greatest gift for me so I have a lot of intensity in my design. I have fire in my design and as a manifesting generator, so just the highlight reel. Manifesting generators tend to multitask, and we do a lot of things at once, and we are high energy.
Vickie Dickson [00:20:09]:
And, I mean, you can see that in my career. Right? I’m like a typical Manny Jen. But our conditioning is stick to one thing. And how many times do we get told that in business? You have to just stick to one thing. Just stick to one thing and stop being all over the place. And then again, as growing up as a little girl, like, intensity was not popular in the era that I grew up in. And I was always being conditioned to soften, to be nicer, to be softer, to be gentler. And it’s it’s like when I bring my intensity out, if I’m giving a webinar or something, I’m like, oh, I’m sorry.
Vickie Dickson [00:20:38]:
I’m being too bossy here. And they’ll be like, no. We love you when you’re bossy. Show us the intensity. So it’s it’s yeah. I just love that about knowing my human design.
Bernie Borges [00:20:49]:
Yeah. Yeah. You know, I wanna come back to something you said earlier, about about my design. You said that, that I, I see a vision, like I’m a visionary.
Vickie Dickson [00:20:59]:
Yeah.
Bernie Borges [00:21:00]:
That is very true. And I what I have done for a long time is I have tried to communicate context in order to communicate vision. Right? Because I’ve discovered that if I just communicate the vision, that it can fall flat, that it can just not be understood. But if I try to explain it as context, well, here’s why we’re doing this. Here’s the bigger picture. Here’s how this piece fits to that piece, and that piece fits to this piece, and just provide that context without really just stating, here’s the vision. Then it seems to work better. And I don’t know.
Bernie Borges [00:21:37]:
I mean, how does that fit into my human design?
Vickie Dickson [00:21:41]:
Yeah. Well, just and I’m not looking at it right this minute, but I’m smiling because, the energy that 70% of who you are goes through is the energy of someone who can understand the details, but not get lost in the details. So you’re someone who can see the forest and the trees, and you know every detail of those trees, but you’re not gonna get lost in them because you always have your eye on the big vision. And that’s a big piece of who you are. So you would absolutely bring that to people, be able to explain it to people, be able to, bring them into your vision with you. And I think also the leadership, the leadership is so key in your design. You have a lot of energy of leadership there. And then you have, I wonder if it’s ever happened to you, or if it does happen to you where people just come to you and tell you all their secrets, like you could be the guy at a party and somebody’s going to come to you and just tell you their whole life story and you’ll be left thinking, oh, well, that was random.
Vickie Dickson [00:22:35]:
Does that ever happen to you?
Bernie Borges [00:22:37]:
Yeah, it has. Yeah. Yeah.
Vickie Dickson [00:22:38]:
Yeah. Yeah. You have that energy about you. So I I think that all of those things come together to make you this and the projector thing too. I mean, you’re here to guide. Right? So you’re guiding people to a vision without being like this esoteric pie in the sky kind of vision that they have to buy into.
Bernie Borges [00:22:56]:
Well, as you said earlier, I mean, that’s what I’m attempting to do with my entire midlife fulfilled initiative. And notice I use the word initiative and not podcast. I mean, yes, we’re on the podcast right now, the Midlife Fulfilled podcast. But I’m thinking, to your point about vision, I’m thinking bigger than that. I’m I’m thinking a a media entity, which is podcast, blog. I’m working on a research report that should be published fairly soon, sometime in in first half, hopefully, first half of twenty twenty four. Long term, I wanna put on events. So that’s part of my vision.
Bernie Borges [00:23:32]:
So, yeah, I want more people to understand. Okay. I want people to understand what it means to be fulfilled because I’ve discovered a lot of people conflate happiness with fulfillment. And I’m over here thinking, no. No. No. And I’m trying to, like, shout from the rooftops. No.
Bernie Borges [00:23:48]:
Fulfillment is different. It’s immutable. It’s not the same as happiness. Fascinating that you’re hitting on things about me. And this is unrehearsed. I even told you before the recording that I wanted to have this conversation authentically for the first time during the recording, And I’m really fascinated by all the things that you’re telling me about my design just by reading the chart. Mhmm.
Vickie Dickson [00:24:18]:
It’s powerful stuff.
Bernie Borges [00:24:20]:
Fascinating. Fascinating. Well, closing thought, before I invite you to tell my listener where they can connect with you, learn more about this whole fascinating topic, closing thought on what you and I have discussed here, my chart, what whatever what ever closing thought you wanna share.
Vickie Dickson [00:24:39]:
Well, I can’t wait to see the rest of your vision. Now that I know a little bit about your design, I’m excited to see the rest of your vision. I remember when I was in holistic nutrition school, we had to do a whole number one thing that women were feeling that said held them back in life was unfulfilled at the time the number one thing that women were feeling that said held them back in life was unfulfilled expectations. And I think that’s tragic. And I think that at midlife, fitness, I think it’s Brene Brown that has that, that, I don’t know if it’s a quote or if it’s a story that she says, but you know, it’s like at midlife, something shakes you by the shoulders and says, like, I’m not messing around anymore. It’s now or never. And I feel like that’s it’s like we come alive at midlife. People are so worried that midlife is going to be a time where they dry up and and nobody considers them.
Vickie Dickson [00:25:26]:
And I’ve had so many people even come into my world and they’ll look at a bunch of, you know, on social media or whatever, a bunch of Human Design readers, and they choose me because I am older. So I think that there’s so many gifts that we bring in midlife and beyond, and it’s time for us to start stepping up and standing in that power. And I like, I love how you do that with the podcast and the people that you bring on And the media company.
Bernie Borges [00:25:50]:
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. The multichannel media company that is emerging slowly, little little by little.
Vickie Dickson [00:25:58]:
Mhmm.
Bernie Borges [00:25:59]:
Well, thank you for that, those words of encouragement, and thank you for the insights that you shared, in this conversation. This conversation flew by. Please tell my listener so I can look at link it up in the show notes how they how they can connect with you and just learn more about your your amazing, fascinating world.
Vickie Dickson [00:26:17]:
Sure. I have a podcast. It’s Unjaded Human Design for Intentional Entrepreneurs. And we talk about building the life, the business and the relationships that you were made for. So we look at Human Design through the lens of those three things. And then you can go to my website, vicki dixon.com, and run your chart. It’s free. It’s actually free free.
Vickie Dickson [00:26:36]:
You don’t have to put your email in if you don’t want to. But if you wanna learn about human design, your human design, then you pop your email in and you can get your chart.
Bernie Borges [00:26:44]:
Fantastic. Well, that’s what I did. And, I’m fascinated by it. So, Vicky, thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Midlife Fulfill podcast, a maximum episode. You’ve you’ve really provided just amazing insights, and I can’t wait to learn more about it. So thank you so much.
Vickie Dickson [00:27:02]:
Thank you for having me. It was fun.
