The Modern LeadHer Way

[092] Covering Your Family Bubble with Emma Astley

• Emma Clayton • Season 4 • Episode 92

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Trigger Warning; Baby Loss

In this episode, guest Emma Astley shares her journey from traditional insurance professional to founder of Cover My Bubble, a company born from personal tragedy that's changing how families approach protection. After experiencing the devastating loss of her daughter Lillie Beth and subsequent financial hardship, Emma built a business focused on educating people about critical insurance options many don't know exist.

• From corporate burnout in traditional insurance to creating a company that does insurance differently
• Personal experience losing premature baby Lillie after a month fighting in NICU and falling into debt without proper insurance coverage
• How Cover My Bubble has helped pay out over £1.5 million in claims to families in crisis
• Breaking down insurance myths and making protection accessible through education not sales tactics
• Working with insurers to improve products, claims processes, and add valuable benefits like mental health support
• Using social media to make insurance approachable and even fun rather than boring or pushy
• Human design insights showing Emma's purpose is education and awareness in her field of passion

Find Emma and Cover My Bubble on Instagram where she shares fun, educational content about insurance protection in an approachable, non-salesy way and why not reach out to talk about your bubbles protection needs: www.covermybubble.co.uk / @covermybubble on all other platforms including LinkedIn.


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Book your Game Plan here: https://www.emmaclaytonxo.com/courses/game-plan

Emma Clayton:

This is the Modern Leader Way, the podcast for corporate career women who want to feel good on their way to the top. I'm Emma Clayton and I'll be sharing with you tangible advice to help you stop sacrificing your soul in the name of success and experience more balance, confidence and fulfilment both in and out of work. Hello and welcome back to the Modern Leader Way podcast, where I am joined today by the wonderful Emma Astley of Cover my Bubble. Welcome, emma.

Emma Clayton:

Hi thank you for having me. You're very welcome. So Emma and I have only just kind of met. We've been chatting online and I first came across Emma. We were obviously connected on LinkedIn and I first came across I think it was your seven year anniversary in business and you were in your garden and you were sort of talking like wow, like it's been seven years and like this is why I did it and like and you had an emotional moment.

Emma Clayton:

I had an emotional moment with you and I was like wow, this is someone that I would really love to have on the podcast to talk about your journey from working in insurance in corporate and dealing with some really tough heartache and some real tough times and trigger warning we are going to talk about baby loss on this episode um, but certainly like how that has like turned into this big drive and mission for you to make a difference and an impact in other families lives. So I am super excited to have you on and, with that, why don't you give us a bit of an introduction into who you are and what it is you do with cover my bubble?

Emma Astley:

oh gosh, I feel like you've just done it all for me. So thank you for that. Um gosh, yeah, I'm flipping it. So, yeah, over seven years now when we started the company um, I've been in insurance eight years previous to that and, like you say, it was all about the sales and the targets and getting everything on the board and just no real empathy or thought for clients. It was just about sell, sell, sell, and I just, you know, grew to hate that side of it even more. So I made it, made the decision. A lot of my business development managers all said just do it, emma, just do it. And I'm so glad I got the balls to do it. And we're here now, seven years later. It's me, my husband and I've got another team, so there's eight of us in total now. Um, we moved offices last July as well, so we've got these amazing new offices and I'm just really really proud on where we are today and how many clients that we've helped and we're doing insurance different, so I'm bloody proud of that.

Emma Clayton:

Yeah, yeah. And so you say bloody, it's fine, you can. You can use cuss words.

Emma Astley:

I can do whatever I want. I can in podcast, yeah.

Emma Clayton:

Yeah, I struggle to hold back sometimes. I love. I love a swear word for effect as well. You know, feel free.

Emma Clayton:

Sometimes, I love that because, like you said, you kind of have to have the balls to like, make that leap, but tell us like. So I think you're quite unique already in that you kind of found a passion for actually insurance and what it does do in terms of like it does prop people up when they most need it and is kind of like essential when you need it, and it's not something we find essential necessarily, is it? So you're kind of unique in that you had this passion for insurance and wanted to go and do something with that.

Emma Astley:

talk to us about that, where that came from yeah, it's, it's a whole like a whole journey in itself really. I think it obviously. You mentioned about the trigger warning and you know we were pregnant with a little girl. We had a little boy as well. He was about four years old and all fine.

Emma Astley:

The pregnancy was, everything was fine, there was no issues or concerns, but then all of a sudden, lily came early, at 24 and a half weeks, obviously rushed into hospital, then rushed to another hospital, and Lily did, you know, unfortunately she was born early but she was doing really, really well in hospital. Um, you know, she was a little fighter and we ended up getting moved to Manchester hospital afterwards because she needed an operation on her bowels after they had burst a little bit. So we got moved to rush then to Manchester and we obviously were told that she's less than 10% chance of of surviving. So me and my husband, chris, just waited in the, you know, the waiting area and and we just just hoped that she were going to be all right and she was. She passed that first lot of surgery. She proper kicked ass and we thought, oh my gosh, this is it. We've got that hope. Now she's actually gonna. She's gonna make it. She's gonna be a tough little fighter for us, and so obviously one thing led to another and she ended up um. A week later, after us trying to give her some breast milk, it burst further down the bowel so she had to go again to surgery and we honestly did believe that we, you know this is too much for such a little baby, but she survived the surgery again. So it was like, oh, what is going on? Like how can such a little thing, you know, go through so much at such an early stage? Um, oh, so, um.

Emma Astley:

That then led on over the next couple of weeks of her um. She then had edema and some of the problems as she ended up with meningitis in and around the brain. So we just there were just no, no chance then and we had to say goodbye and turn off our machines and just say goodbye. So obviously this was really tough for us going through that as a family. But then we had the loss of income as well and that meant my wage of, like, say, £1,200 at the time had gone. But we had no insurances. We didn't know about insurance back then.

Emma Astley:

We were still thought we were young and and that way we just really struggled financially and we struggled like a lot and we got into so much debt and hubby working all hours to try, and you know, bring that extra money in for us to keep us going paying our rent. At the time I was obviously struggling with my mental health and obviously my husband was struggling as well, but he just kept us all going, kept us all getting through that and looking after my younger son the best I could as well, but I just didn't want to get off the settee. So all the added stress of losing Lily but then, and just what we'd been through, you know one month of being in NICU is enough to send anybody a bit loopy sometimes. It's such a tough place to be when you're trying to. You know, just want your baby to survive, basically. But then we had all the added stress of the financial stuff as well and you know that that led us into debt for going on 10 years. It was a long journey that we went on.

Emma Astley:

So that's my passion is to let people know about insurance bump cover, income protection that covers your wages.

Emma Astley:

You know, children's critical illness cover that's my passion, that's what I want to get out there. You know who knew that you could actually cover for pregnancy complications and you know children being poorly as well, and that's the things that can hit you financially and make a massive impact. So if you have them insurances, they're obviously going to help you through such a really crappy time and I wish we had something just to help us and that's why I do what I do for Lily, like that's why we're all so colourful and she's our little rainbow covering other you know bubbles with the right affordable insurances and I get to include her. This is my therapy. This is this is what helps me knowing that I can speak about Lily, I can talk about Lily, I can include Lily and I can keep saying her name and keep saying her name oh, I love that and I'm like I am so sorry for your loss and I know it was a while back now, did you say it's 2006?

Emma Astley:

yeah, that's when she was born.

Emma Clayton:

Yeah, yeah how amazing that you've been able to like keep her name alive and her spirit alive, in terms of exactly what you're doing so. It's such a beautiful story, even though it's like so hard to hear and obviously for you to tell, and I can see that in the way that you do do business because you show up. I think. Did you say you employ like your best friends are?

Emma Clayton:

in the office with you and, like you have a lot of fun online with like your reels and stuff like that. So you actually you're not what we would expect from an insurance no, no, a bit different and I'm happy to be different.

Emma Astley:

You know insurance has such a bad rep and um, it just shouldn't be like that. Insurance can be fun, it can be knowledgeable. It has to be educational, not salesy, like I cannot stand some of the posts I see. It's just so icky. People don't want that. Now. They don't want to say see all these adverts, and it just bores the life out of me. It's just gonna say it's boring right, yeah?

Emma Astley:

we're not. We're not salesy at all here. Sorry, my nose is running. I'm so sorry, um. So yeah, we do. We do do things differently and that's what I'm proud of. We're helping a lot of people because of how we are in this industry and, yeah, I'm proud of that.

Emma Clayton:

I imagine you are such a like a safe pair of hands for these families that are actually go like having to claim on their insurance because they are going through something similar, because you can empathize with them right because you've been there before, like it must be such a we don't see this kind of service anywhere because you've lived it and you get to support other people through it. I guess you get a lot of um, or what do you get from being able to be there for those families? Can you give us, like a couple?

Emma Astley:

of stories maybe of clients that you've been able to help, oh, my gosh like we've obviously covered a lot of bubbles now and we've had well, we've helped pay out over 1.5 million pounds worth in claims and that has been bump cover, that has been um children's critical illness cover, it's been life insurance, it's been income protection. We've had a lot of claims. This can be an 18 month old that's suffered with them a brain tumour. So imagine hearing that call that it's such a young baby has been diagnosed with a brain tumour. It's bad enough anybody isn't it. But you hear of a child being diagnosed but also being that hand to hold through that journey as we get the consultants, letters and everything else, and then to ring a family and say you know 20 000 pounds on its way and you hear that sigh of relief thinking, oh bloody hell, yes, I can take time off, I don't need to worry about the bills. Um, I had my first baby lost one um. He was born at 21 um and a half weeks and he passed away after 23 minutes of being born and that was really tough. Um, it was very similar situations. Um, we do have a client testimonial. Actually, I heard his mum Callie came on and did like a little testimonial. You, actually His mum Callie came on and did a little testimonial podcast with me and spoke about her journey because she also wanted to raise awareness about what happened to her. She'd also lost a son previous to that with Down syndrome. But that money what she received from that claim on the bump cover meant she could take additional time off work and she actually took 12 months off work to spend with her daughter. She built her a memorable um garden space for both the boys, um.

Emma Astley:

And then you hear other things of you know a 31 year old police officer. She came home from work after a night shift and took her children to nursery, came home and her husband came home he was a head teacher afterwards and he found her asleep in bed and she passed away. And you just think, hearing such stories, you just think, oh my God, I have to sort this out for that family. I have to get that done. A recent claim we've had a lady in her 40s had her cardiac arrest at home. Her young son did CPR on her and saved her life and she's just received a payout from a critical illness policy. You know she's doing amazing now, as is the little girl, and you know the family. They're all making memories now, but this money's really helped them.

Emma Astley:

But it can be tough as an advisor. I'm sure there's there's many out there who deal with claims and horrendous. They're all awful because but you want to help. You know some advisors they're freaking useless and they don't help with claims at all or don't get me ranting on that side of it, but you know I love being that person. I'm the only person in this business who will deal with the claims.

Emma Astley:

Um, you know, trying to push that through as quickly as possible. And you know some insurers have been pain in the ass and took, you know, way too many months to sort out these insurance claims and that's not acceptable. Um, but again I'm, I'm reaching out online to try and get support, push that through, try my best to get that escalated so that we can get that payment made for that family. So, yeah, claims are really special for me, but the feeling I get you can't, you can't explain it. That's what I do my job for and that's what the insurance is there and that's a family helped through such a difficult time yeah, I can really see that and I'm sure you get lots of word of mouth business coming to you because of the support that you give your existing clients.

Emma Clayton:

so, um, it just it just feels like you've just really taken something. That's it, just it just feels like you've just really taken something that's otherwise quite kind of sterile and hands off and you know, it's almost like a one time conversation with your broker to get your insurance in place and then it's like, god forbid, you have to go through that claims process.

Emma Clayton:

It's like you're generally on your own, but they're so held by you and your team when they have to go through that, and it's so beautiful that you've been able to turn your pain into something that's, you know, actually going to ensure other people have, you know, better experience amongst what is a really hard time.

Emma Clayton:

Yeah, I feel like there's. You know we can't talk about insurance without talking about, you know, a lot of the negative press that insurance gets. You know, and I'm, as a 20-year insurance veteran, if you like, I often roll my eyes when I'm in conversations around insurance because, you know, generally, is any excuse not to pay out? What's the point in having it kind of grey area claims that are potentially very emotive, like a child's cover claim, and make a decision based on you know, outside of the terms and conditions, if you like.

Emma Astley:

it was always a yes from me yeah, I don't know, like I don't know that.

Emma Clayton:

I met anyone that took a hard line on these claims. So having that firsthand experience of actually seeing these papers come across your desk and actually still knowing that this is a person that you're dealing with, I feel there's a lot more heart, especially when you get to the claims kind of areas than insurance is given credit for. So what's your experience Because you've talked a lot about claims that have been paid out With dealing with these companies? I mean, it's been eight years since I left and I was in the reinsurance world, so I was sort of behind the scenes, if you like. But like if you were to debunk some myths for people out there that are perhaps still sceptical, what's your experience? What would you say to them?

Emma Astley:

I think that the type of people that make them comments are the ones that are really scared of even looking into insurance. So it's very easy to say, oh, insurance doesn't pay out, so I'm not going to bother with it, or I don't need insurance, I get it through work, or, oh, I've already got insurance. We're a lot of them type of comments, but to me that's it is a barrier. It's very easy for us to say that and that then shuts the other person up and budges them away. And that's because of previous experience that most of them people have had. So they've either been online, put the details in and then been bombarded and I mean some people up to 17 times per day, offended by call centers. It's disgusting and if anybody is listening to this, if you're doing that, you need to look at processes, because you cannot keep hounding people the way you're doing it. Things have changed. You know. You change your business to go with the times now, because it's not needed, it's not wanted and you shouldn't be doing it.

Emma Clayton:

End of Sorry, I get a bit thinky, don't I? You get on your high horse go for it.

Emma Astley:

I love it. Sorry, or it's. You know some of them. They look online. They don't know what they're looking for. They put something in and before they know it, it's under an upgrade and they think, oh bloody hell, I don't understand this. So it oh bloody hell, I don't understand this. So it's pushing families further away from insurance. So if we can break down the barriers by doing a stupid reel online or actually sharing a client's testimonial or making something really easy and catchy just to bring down that reassurance, that's how it should be.

Emma Astley:

Like all of our processes in the company is. You know, if anybody inquires that then it goes through and they book into our diary whenever they want, when it's right for them. We do not call them. I don't believe in it. It's just, it's icky, I hate it. So no cold call calling from us at all, and then it's just gently then reminding people every few days, every week, until they're ready to book in. You know we've had it where people inquired 18 months ago and then they are ready, then they book in. You know we've had it where people inquired 18 months ago and then they are ready. Then they book in and they actually pick up the phone but they always seem to pick up but it's when they're ready. Life's busy, things are going on. That's why they don't need a call. They're just going to block you.

Emma Astley:

So it's about the right processes and I think that's what makes us break down barriers. You know, I've had it where we've had. I've done a Zoom with somebody or a phone call and I've been speaking to Mrs and then in the background Mr's been listening and all of a sudden he's getting closer to the phone and we're breaking down the barriers and before we know it we've been on the phone call or been on Zoom it's 45 minutes in, we're having such a good laugh and call. I've been on zoom it's 45 minutes in, we're having such a good laugh and he's all open-minded about insurance and talking about the differences and he's very open-minded then because he feels relaxed and he trusts me.

Emma Astley:

Um, and I love doing that, I get a kick off that as well, where, you know, I understand why people are scared and you know there's so many myths out there, but that's because there's bad brokers out there and pushy advisors, pushy sales people or you know some bad advisors that actually don't know where to place the business. So if they do have a higher bmi or any medical conditions, they're just going to one insurer or it's declined, they're not trying again and it's like, oh my god you'll. You're losing business, but you're not looking after that client, you're not doing what is rest you know best for them.

Emma Astley:

Um, I have so many examples, I could go on all day, emma, because it's um, yeah, yeah so much needs to change yeah, it's happening so many amazing advisors out there now that they are changing, which I love seeing them doing more videos and getting out there and braving it. And you know there's more forums now and stuff like I love the protection guru forum. I don't know if you've seen that. Um, it's brilliant. All the insurers and all the advisors get together once a month and they all talk about insurance the bad things, the good things, the new things. Um, as you can see, I'm geeky about insurance. I know like I'm mad. I know I love it.

Emma Clayton:

Oh, I love it because we need this, like I think. Part of the problem, I think, is that you have a lot of people in this game that are not passionate about it and therefore they don't look for the right. Yeah, they don't, they're not going above and beyond to find the right cover, the right protection for these people, and there is, like I know, there was a lot of talk of the protection gap, um, back in the day when I was in the industry.

Emma Astley:

I'm assuming that's not got any smaller no, well, there has been a few, you know insurance companies that have left and they've been bought by other firms and things. So we have lost a few insurers along the last few years. But, as in product wise, a lot of the insurers are listening to the advisors. Now, you know, like Zurich's policy at the moment where it's children's cover and they can add it on like guardian and vitality, adding on the children's cover if the adult only wants or can get life insurance and all the other nice unique stuff of the free gp services, the mental health support you know, being able to get adhd, autism or any neuro diverse conditions diagnosed through your life insurance. It's just there's speech and language therapy. There's so much out there, and these are all examples of things that are helping my clients. So I I love talking everything but bloody life insurance because there's so much out there now for families that they can use now without claiming on it as such, if you know what I mean.

Emma Clayton:

There's so many benefits, yeah I think there's more than just life insurance I heard you talking about this somewhere. It must have been in one of your videos um and I think it's. Is it right that you don't actually legally have to have life insurance anymore?

Emma Astley:

no, a lot of our clients come through and they've said oh, my mortgage advisor has as quoted me. He's told me I need to have life insurance to get this good rate, I need to have life insurance for this mortgage to go through. I just want to run down the motorway and grab this actor by the neck and say that is naughty. They should not be saying that, yes, of course that family should look at the protection to have that mortgage covered, or more than that, depending on the circumstances. But no advisor should be saying you have to have life insurance for a mortgage to complete. It's total BS. It's just an old school salesy catchy thing to say, isn't it? It's like the old school lead generators and companies. What they have to say and oh, get a free trust document if you take out your life insurance and all that. It's all. It's still being done, but in a bit of a different way now, or video form, and it's just, it's wrong. Yeah, it really winds me up, as you can tell.

Emma Clayton:

Yeah yeah, I mean I only have life insurance now because I did have income protection. I had um critical illness all through my employment, so as soon as I left that, you know it's one of the kind of big decisions I mean it wasn't a deal breaker for me, but it was it was kind of like well, I've got 300 grand's worth of critical illness cover and I'm like a high risk category because of this, this and the other.

Emma Clayton:

So it was kind of like and I knew I wouldn't get necessarily get the cover if it wasn't expensive because of BMI and family history and all those kind of things.

Emma Clayton:

Yeah, um, like I've got a friend in a awful situation at the moment where her husband he's only 55, very healthy, doesn't eat meat, goes to the gym, doesn't drink alcohol, had a terrible, like really debilitating stroke and he's been in hospital for three months and they're just like now getting into motion, um kind of plans to bring him home, but he will always need care and so she hasn't been able to work for three months that he's been in there. Um, they're not sure when his employment is well, his employer are going to stop paying his wage. Their life has turned upside down and now their financial situation is very uncertain and you know you can only pray that you know they're gonna come good, but they have no cover and she comes from insurance as well and I was like, have you got critical illness? And they didn't. They didn't have it. It's one of them, isn't it. You have to have car insurance.

Emma Astley:

Yeah.

Emma Clayton:

You don't like insurance is there to cover the risk. So, if you don't have insurance, you are taking that risk on yourself and I think that's such a huge responsibility that I think, like you said earlier, like people just kind of like, try not to almost think about it or know about it as well.

Emma Astley:

Know about it. Yeah, so many don't think they know it, need it, because they don't know it exists. So a lot that come through and you know, 30% of people that inquire with us don't have any insurances, because they just say, oh, I'm young, I'm okay, I didn't think I needed it, and it's that. It's why we need to be educating out there, isn't it? I think, just letting people know what is available, what is affordable, and that we are going to take that time then to tweak and give you different options until it is affordable and suitable for your circumstances. So it's that education piece, isn't it?

Emma Clayton:

we didn't know about it, we didn't have a clue about it well, I love what you're doing online, so we definitely need to give you a follow. Where are the best places to come and follow you? Is it instagram, linkedin all?

Emma Astley:

platforms we're on, but it is mainly I use all different the platforms all bit differently really, but we are mainly on instagram, uh, which I just feel safe. On. There I can talk about lily. I've got a lovely, lovely following, like. They are my little cheerleaders. They're just amazing people and they've come from like the baby loss and the ibf journey, um, and all mums and dads that follow us and, um, yeah, they're my little champions. They really do help me raise awareness for more people about the importance of insurance, really yeah, I love that.

Emma Clayton:

So we'll make sure that your links are linked in the show notes as well, um, but I wanted just to touch on this because, like, obviously this is the modern leader way podcast and actually what I see in what I've seen from you and actually what I'm gleaning as we're talking and we're actually going to get into your human design chart as well um is a lot of those modern leader traits that I talk about, because they are very much around um, like bringing the heart to the forefront, right.

Emma Clayton:

Actually, when we look at a lot of business, especially insurance, it's lacking a whole like beating heart and like just sense of um passion and just, yeah, just people wanting to be in there making a difference. I definitely get that from you and I feel like there's this, you know, with the personal story, this like openness to being vulnerable, and you know a lot of people wouldn't want to talk about their story because they wouldn't want to cry and show that vulnerability. But I get that. It's a big part of like your reason for what you do and I that vulnerability just draws people in, like people want to listen, they. I think there's an instant trust building when there's a personal story and connection like that. So, um, I also like, love that and in terms of like just that authenticity, and and then you bring this fun factor, like there's just I just really see someone that's just being herself online yeah and that there is so much to say for that.

Emma Clayton:

So like yeah to you, but in terms of like this, wanting to make a difference um I see, you've like won awards, you've been in like cover magazine, you've been on some other podcasts and stuff. So obviously you're making a difference with the families that you're working with and making sure they get the cover, but in terms of, like, the work you're doing with the insurance industry to change that, tell us a little bit about some of the things you're doing there.

Emma Astley:

Oh, I love working with the insurers, like I just absolutely love it. So, yeah, the last few years I've been involved with a lot of side of the propositions team the claims underwriting, marketing so, yeah, a lot of Royal London asked me to one of their conferences one year and that was what it all started and I think that was about four years ago and I had this big buzz of, you know, talking to people and actually explaining how it is at the front line being an advisor. And then you know that moved on to working with the marketing team in regards to how we are different online and how I want them to be as an insurer. You know, I'm sick of hearing about life insurance £5 a month or pensions. It's like, oh my God, you have so many good products to talk about, why are you not doing it? You keep saying about compliance and legal and yes, that has a factor into it, but you've got to also look at how many people were helping in regards to talking about it, showing examples, giving them case studies, um. I've worked with the underwriters claims um as well in regards to how they can talk to clients directly to get more information off them instead of going out for gp reports, so that speeds things up a lot when the client does have medical information that's needed to give a final decision on an application, so that then the quick turnaround of somebody actually getting covered, instead of waiting months for a gp report because that side of it is so difficult, trying to obtain that information directly from a surgery, um, I just love getting involved and doing all that side of it. Really, to you know, show insurers that us as an advisor can make a difference and they need to listen to us in regards to changing things about the product, the services, the systems, the processes, the claims.

Emma Astley:

Um, yeah, there's, there's a lot that I've been involved with and I just want to keep doing that side of it because it's so important that you know there's so much I want to get added to these policies. Like I love the GP services, I love the mental health support and personally myself, I'm using that with my life insurance. At the moment I'm on number four of my therapy sessions and this week and it's just. It's just so needed and helpful but also very quick to use. If I would have been waiting on the nhs, unfortunately I could have been waiting a year, two years to actually get seen or get that therapy session needed. Um, and so many of our clients are tagging me in instagram quite regularly of how it's helped them, what a difference it's made. It's life changing and that's all within your life insurance. Like so I get a big kick of making changes and working with the insurers because it helps my clients. Yeah, you need to rein me in sometimes, emma.

Emma Clayton:

I love it. No, it's brilliant. Shut up, no, absolutely. This is exactly what we wanted to have on here in terms of conversation, and I feel like that's a nice little segue into looking at your human design chart, because there's a couple of things like literally I can look at it and just go oh how interesting. So let me let me pull this over here and share it with you, and then you can have a little look and I know you said you've kind of followed someone that um talks human design but you're not really sure.

Emma Clayton:

Kind of much more about it. So for those listening. I'm just going to share on the screen. Ok, so this is your human design chart. So it looks very complex at first sight, but don't worry too much.

Emma Clayton:

I'm just going to pull a few things out around here. So the first thing so you are a emotional generator. We didn't know your exact time of birth but there and it does change throughout the day but there was a couple of things a we kind of knew it was morning, um and I'll get onto it in a minute because I looked like 70 of your essence has this purpose, if you like, and it just felt like that really fitted. So this is the one we're going with, but you are an emotional generator all the way through and what that means. So the generator is your energy type and this is when you love what you do. You can go like an energizer bunny, like you can give it. That's me.

Emma Clayton:

Just don't stop. But the key is you have to love what you do. So the minute you don't love what you do, it's almost like degenerative, like literally you push back on that.

Emma Clayton:

So all the while you love what you do, you can just go, go, go and like that's good for you, that's healthy for you yeah um, you do have to kind of know when enough is enough in terms of, like that burnout kind of point, um, but you have this defined sacral, which is this pink square here which does mean that you're this is like your life force, energy. You generate that within. So you've got like bucket loads of it when you love what you do. Um, a big kind of red flag for a generator in terms of like, whether or not you're going down a line that is kind of in alignment with who you came here to be, if you like, is frustration. So when you feel frustrated, it's either something that you know you're just not meant to be doing, like the tech before we got on with the headphones not coming through. You know that frustration is like, yeah, hand it over to someone that knows how to do it. You're not meant to be like fixing that sort of stuff. But also, I think the frustration that you might experience when dealing with insurance companies or the industry is at large. It's a signpost for you that you are. It's either out of alignment, therefore you get to change it, or, um, you're just not meant to be going down that route.

Emma Clayton:

So frustration is kind of a big red flag, if you like. But the opposite of that. When you know you're like onto something, it's when you get that real satisfied feeling at the end of the day. So when you can sit down, exhale and go I'm exhausted but I feel so good. Yeah, that's when you know you're just onto something. I get the feeling you get. You have a few of those days no, god, yeah, yeah, brilliant so the emotional piece.

Emma Clayton:

This is um. So you have this emotional defined center over here. This is your decision making center, with emotional center. We do not rely on our emotions to make decisions, for obvious reasons. But what we do is we kind of ride out this like extra. We might experience the extreme highs and lows of the emotions. We ride that wave out and then when we come back to some sort of cool calm, collected, that's when we use that kind of last wave to inform our decision. So oftentimes with emotional authorities, um, it's essential that you at least sleep with big decisions, you sleep on it at least one sleep, but no more than three sleeps, because you're never as an emotional authority, it's unlikely you're ever going to get to 100 certainty around a decision.

Emma Clayton:

So it's really getting to know oh, I'm in an emotional wave, even if it's a high right, like you're ecstatic about something. You also don't go book the holiday necessarily in that high. You sleep on it one one night and then you like, am I still feeling that emotional charge around it? Do I still make that decision? Um, so that's the emotional piece. And then you've got this um, six, three.

Emma Clayton:

So this changed throughout. Six three role model martyr. This is your profile line, so these are kind of like the roles you came here to play. So they did change throughout the day, but the three was consistent throughout it. And the three is trial and error. Like you grow through trial and error.

Emma Clayton:

We're going to try this over here and then we're going to like, basically build it, try it again, build it, make it better. But that is basically how, like who you're to, how you're meant to come here and do things right. So I would imagine there's a lot of that through not just your life but your career, in particular in insurance. That's been like a lot of trial and error. I don't like the way that that's done over there. So we're going to do it differently here and we're going to try this and then build it out.

Emma Clayton:

And the six line is more appropriate for you in terms of the other numbers that it could have been, because the six is all about like you're, at this stage of your life, where you're sat. I describe it as like you're sat on a roof so you can see the landscape, you've got the vision and therefore you know. It's almost like you know that you're making changes for the better and that it's going to shape the industry for the better, for your clients, and you know that your clients and people that are yet to come across it need this insurance, and it's just like you're already there, you know, and it's just like how you bring them along then in terms of that. So you've kind of like the six line is very much like you know, you've got the vision, you see how it all unfolds and then it's just like how you translate that to bring people along with you.

Emma Clayton:

Yeah, and then the really fascinating thing I won't go too much more into it was this kind of so it's here incarnation cross, left angle cross of education, and this is like the 70% of your essence and it's made up of your sun and your moon, which are these top two numbers here and these top two numbers on this side and this. When I read this, I was like, well, yeah, of course. Of course this is Emma and it basically says you're here to educate. Your style is not really about sharing, but more about your style is not really about sharing, but more about expounding to the masses who are ready to hear your message. So when living your type and your strategy, which is generator and emotional authority I'm sorry, generator and responding to life, which is your strategy you'll find an audience who's open and receptive to hear what you have to say and you're here to deliver the word in whatever field that you have happen to have a passion for it's insurance.

Emma Clayton:

Oh my gosh, yeah that education, that awareness piece like this is literally what you're here to do yeah and I was like yeah, that's, that's definitely, that's definitely, emma in terms of what you shared with me and what I've seen. It's like you are doing exactly what you came here to to do so there's like loads more in this chart. I won't I won't go too much into it because that would be getting on to like a whole reading, but I just thought that was really interesting to bring in from from what we've heard from you and just yeah, so um, yes, thank you for letting me share that no, thanks for asking.

Emma Astley:

It's like you said the screen. I just kept looking and thinking what's this, what's this? So I'm so glad you could just explain it all, because it just looked like bloody gobble goop to me. But it does no, it was interesting, yeah, it's interesting.

Emma Clayton:

I have um for anyone listening that's also interested in diving into their own human design. I have something called the HD Initiation, which is my free little short course. It's like 90 minutes you can literally walk through that. It will show you where to go to run your own chart and how to start to understand some of that information in there. So the link is always in the show notes for that as well. But, emma, thank you so much for coming on and being a guest and I know it's a bit of a random request from me when I reached out. But, um, I'm so glad we got to have this conversation and to hear your story from um, from you firsthand, and just to hear your passion and also, um, you know, in hopefully inspire more people to seek out insurance. And obviously we know where to go now, um, when we're ready to have that conversation.

Emma Astley:

So thank you. Thank you so much. No, you are a little love.

Emma Clayton:

Thank you for having me you're very welcome and thanks again for listening, guys, and we'll see you next week. Until then, take care, you, you, you, thank you.

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