We were lucky to catch up with Stacy Keele recently and have shared our conversation below.
Stacy , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
“You’re so strong” is a sentence I have heard more times than I’d like to admit during my journey of building a business with chronic illness.
Am I strong? Heck YES! Did I have a choice? No, not really!
Resilience is built through trial and error. It is an embodiment of my own Human Design. Every flare of my Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, each excision surgery for my Endometriosis, and every moment I stop on a dime because the Psoriasis outbreak on my foot bent the wrong way – expands my tolerance for pain and my ability to bounce back!
I’ve always been a glass half full kinda lady. Optimism runs through my veins. Even still, I have moments where I crumble, cry, and contemplate giving up what I’ve built for myself. I think THIS is the key. Resilience IS the bouncing back, but you can’t build more resilience if you don’t allow yourself to feel fully and hit rock bottom occasionally.
I naturally have a high threshold for risk taking, failing, and figuring it out, but I truly get my resilience from living with chronic conditions, pain that would incapacitate able-bodied entrepreneurs, and still moving the needle forward in ways that work for ME in the body I exist in NOW!
Which is why it’s my mission to help guide Spoonie-prenuers to reclaim rest, rhythm, + revenue, building body-led businesses THEIR way, and teaching them that resilience is what creates success!
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m Stacy! The Spoonie CEO Advisor, Mystic Mentor, and Human Design Guide!
What’s a spoonie, you may ask!? Well, that’s someone who deals with chronic illness. Christine Miserandino created “Spoon Theory” to help healthy individuals understand the ebbs + flows that the dynamically disabled community deals with daily. Spoons = Energy. Some days I can wake up with 10 spoons, lots of energy, and a pep in my step, while other days I wake up with 3 spoons that may be spent showering + answering a few emails.
Ok, great! Now what is Human Design?! Human Design is a map of your energetic DNA rooted in ancient wisdom AND science. It’s a tool to help us uncover who we are authentically on an energetic level so we can build the lives + businesses we WANT to be living and not the ones we think we “should!”
I use Human Design to help chronically ill entrepreneurs (Spoonie-prenuers) build businesses that work WITH their illnesses instead of against them, reclaiming their rest, rhythm, and REVENUE!
When I first opened the doors to Stacy Keele Coaching back in 2020, freshly diagnosed with my first 2 chronic conditions, I was killing myself trying to keep up with bro-coded, abled-bodied biz strategies that were status quo at the time. Well, this left me flaring, broke, and incredibly defeated. That’s when the light bulb turned on!
When we can build businesses according to our unique energetic signatures, we return to the purpose, peace, + passion that ignited our fire for entrepreneurship in the first place, while ALSO leaving space to care for our bodies!
I’m the first to step on the soapbox and shout from rooftops about how insanely game-changing learning your Human Design is! Before I became an ICF accredited NLP + HD coach, I lived in NYC pursing a performance career. I studied Music Theatre at Wichita State University and quickly moved to the big, bad Apple. I was working more than 3 jobs at a time trying to make rent, busting my butt running from gigs to rehearsals to auditions to work. Well, this go go go hustle in the city that never sleeps was actually in opposition to my Design, and contributed to my Spoonie symptoms!
It’s easy to think I hate my chronic illnesses, and sometimes I really do, but the truth is that they led me exactly to where I need to be most, helping guide other Spoonie-prenuers to take back their health as well as their wealth!
Come join my journey over on Instagram @Stacy_Keele_HumanDesign, join my Spoonie Success Membership or my Rest Rich Mastermind!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
If you want to build a life and biz you love, and not the life that your parents, teachers, or crazy Aunt Carol think you SHOULD love, you need to focus on:
1) Deconditioning! This is a pillar of Human Design that involves taking a good hard look at the choices you’re making, who you’re listening to that may be swaying those choices, and which decisions will lead you to a life that makes you giddy with JOY! YOU are the creator of your life. You and only you get to be the final say… are you living from a place of “FUCK YES” or “Yeah, I guess”???
2) Finding/building a community of like-minded baddies! You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Are they inspiring, ambitious, + emotionally intelligent?! Do they love the same things you love? Do they speak kindly about your dreams + abilities? If not, politely remove yourself and go on a quest for platonic soulmates!
3) Being compassionate with yourself! There will always be voices telling you MORE MORE MORE!!! Be productive by any means necessary, achieve even at the cost of a flare, keep going until you collapse! Please don’t do this. PLEASE do not listen to them!! When you’re building a biz as a chronically ill person, REST is important. Working smarter not harder is the best way forward and you can learn how to do that by learning your energetic DNA! Not everyone is designed to create, produce, and move through the world the same way. Let’s discover YOUR auric superpowers and watch everything change!
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
Feeling overwhelmed can be a constant when you’re a sick entrepreneur. The PTSD of doctor visits, flares, meds, recurring pain… it can be all consuming!! I feel you. Even when you think you have a handle on your symptoms and you’re building momentum in your business… BAM… knocked on your cute butt AGAIN!
Heck, waiting for the other shoe to drop can make remission feel like anything but remission because the anxiety of a flare is always looming! It’s tough. I know. I still deal with these cycles and I coach on this! It’s natural. It’s reality. It’s OK!!
When I’m feeling this way, the #1 thing I do is return to my Human Design chart. I recalibrate. I practice radical honesty – where am I pushing + forcing? Why? I reset with some good, old fashioned rest and nature. I feel the sun on my face and the grass under my feet. I SLOW DOWN.
And I journal on my WHY. Why is my business important to me? Why do I want to help other Spoonie-prenuers? Why am I a fantastic coach? Your WHY is the underlying heartbeat of everything you do. When you can align with your purpose, the overwhelm starts to disintegrate and the FUN returns!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://stan.store/Stacy_Keele
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stacy_keele_humandesign/
Image Credits
Madisen McMurray
Emmy Hangarten
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
