The Traveling Therapist Podcast · Kym Tolson

196. Honoring Your Energy and Building Success Through Human Design with Mel McSherry

·38 min·2 clips

Most people ignore their energy state and chase the expert's advice—I check in with myself first.

Kim opens by setting a warm, candid tone and inviting Mel into a conversation about clients, shame, and the pressure to tell the whole truth. Mel traces the path that led her from a head coach role into a broader practice built around human design and other spiritual and non-traditional tools. She says she came out of the spiritual closet in 2022 on LinkedIn and found that the openness created more room for the work she actually wanted to do. The discussion keeps circling back to reinvention as a normal part of building a career. Kim makes that point explicit by naming the value of trying again when something stops fitting. Mel frames human design as an operations manual that can bring people back to themselves when they start to overextend. The idea is not that people stop being human or never feel overwhelmed. It is that they have a guide for noticing how they work best. Kim connects that to her own experience of learning human design from a therapist and immediately feeling seen by it. She describes the moment as recognition rather than novelty. The conversation gives space to the language of generators, energetic tools, and inner calling without turning cold or technical. It keeps translating those ideas into everyday terms about work, fit, and capacity. Mel’s story shows what can happen when someone listens to the unease that says a successful path is not necessarily the right one. Kim highlights the contrast between staying inside a prescribed role and building something more honest. There is a repeated emphasis on the freedom to evolve instead of locking yourself into one identity forever. The episode treats success as something that should be designed around the person, not imposed on top of them. It also treats overwhelm as a practical signal, not a moral failing. The pace stays brisk and conversational, with Kim nudging the discussion toward the work and life consequences of self-knowledge. By the end, the episode makes the case that understanding your own energy can improve both your practice and your willingness to keep going.

As heard by us

A human design conversation that treats self-knowledge as a practical way to spot overextension and make work more sustainable.

Mel McSherry treats human design less like a mystical system and more like a working frame for energy, overwhelm, and self-knowledge. The conversation moves through entrepreneurial setbacks, reinvention, and a more public turn toward human design and other spiritual tools.

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Why you'd press play

You want a gentler way to build success without burning yourself out.

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