Typology

Sevens have a core belief that in order for them to be secure, loved and valued they have to bring the energy and excitement into every situation. There's this expectation and pressure to be on all the time. And though they are generally wired with a great deal of energy, so it does come easily to them, Sevens have a lot more to offer than just their energy and humor. The struggle for a Seven comes when they get trapped in the role of "entertainer" and distract themselves with exciting situations or experiences in an attempt to avoid having hard conversations, painful feelings, and loneliness. The path to transformation for a Seven is to learn how to manifest their joy from a place of abundance, rather than emptiness. Once Sevens learn to notice when they feel the need to escape from the events of life, they can teach themselves to pause and just sit in a feeling without feeling stuck. This week on Typology, Annie F. Downs, discusses how she stopped running from pain and is learning to share more of her true self through her own path to transformation.

For those of you who are new to the Enneagram and listening, Eights are called the Challengers. Sometimes they're called the Boss. Eights are typically people who are real forces of nature in the world. They live larger than life. The deadly sin or passion of Eights is lust. That doesn't necessarily mean in the sexual sense of the word, although Eights do have a hunger for excess in every area of life. For those of you who don't know, it's a lust for intensity. They just want immediate engagement with other people. They walk in a room and think where's the engagement, where's the juice? They go right to where the energy is and want to either challenge it or engage it or just feed on it. This intensity is easy to spot in an Eight's concern with justice. Eights are very concerned with standing up for the underdog. They love to defend the defenseless, to be the voice of the voiceless. It gives them great satisfaction to stand in the line of fire for people who are vulnerable. And you'll hear that in my conversation with today's guest, Scott Harrison. If you haven't heard of Scott yet, he spent almost 10 years as a successful nightclub promoter in New York City before leaving to volunteer on a hospital ship off the coast of Liberia, West Africa as a volunteer photojournalist. Returning home to New York City two years later, he founded the non-profit organization charity: water in 2006. Turning his full attention to the global water crisis and the world's 663 million people without clean water to drink, he created public installations and innovative online fundraising platforms to spread international awareness of the issue. In eleven years, with the help of more than over 1 million donors worldwide, charity: water has raised more than $300 million and funded over 28,000 water projects in 26 countries. When completed, those projects will provide over 8.2 million people with clean, safe drinking water. Scott has recently been recognized in Fortune Magazine's 40 under 40 list, the Forbes Magazine Impact 30 list and was recently #10 in Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business issue. He is currently a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. His new book, Thirst: A Story of Redemption, Compassion, and a Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World (published on October 2, 2018), recounts the twists and turns that built charity: water into one of the most trusted and admired nonprofits in the world. For more information on Scott, visit www.charitywater.org.

What's your best friend's number? Understanding the Enneagram can profoundly impact how you relate to others and help you build strong friendships. Knowing your friends' number allows you to understand each other's tendencies and creates space for conversation and compassion. Today on Typology, listen as Michael Gungor and Mike McHargue, co-hosts of the wildly popular podcast, The Liturgists, demonstrate the role the Enneagram has played in their friendship. Michael Gungor is one half of Gungor, and is a co-host of The Liturgists Podcast. Michael is a Grammy-nominated musician and composer who lives in Los Angeles, California. He leads the musical collective Gungor with his wife Lisa Gungor and is a co-founder of The Liturgists with Mike McHargue ('Science Mike'). Mike McHargue (better known as Science Mike) is an author, podcaster, and speaker who travels the world helping people understand the science of life's most profound and mundane experiences. His bestselling debut book, Finding God in the Waves, has helped thousands understand faith in the 21st century. Mike's the host of Ask Science Mike, and co-hosts The Liturgists Podcast with his friend Michael Gungor. He's recently appeared before sold-out audiences in New York, Chicago, and London, and is a frequent contributor to RELEVANT magazine, Storyline, BioLogos, and The Washington Post. Mike lives in Los Angles, CA with his wife, Jenny, and two daughters.

In last week's episode, Mark Scandrette shared some simple steps to help you begin using the Enneagram to move from unconscious to conscious living. In part two, Mark and Ian continue their conversation by discussing the importance of doing work within a community and asking the right questions. Mark Scandrette has written five books on practical spirituality that seek to apply spiritual wisdom to everyday life: FREE, Practicing The Way of Jesus, Soul Graffiti, Belonging and Becoming (Co-authored with Lisa Scandrette) and The Ninefold Path Notebook (with Danielle Welch). He regularly teaches and offers workshops and training events based on themes from these books. Before each book is published he usually spends several years piloting the concepts and processes explored with groups in multiple contexts. He is currently working on his 6th book on self-awareness, personality and transformation. He also speaks nationally and internationally at universities, conferences and churches and offers training to leaders and organizations through workshops, retreats and group intensives. Mark teaches a doctoral course on spiritual formation at Fuller Theological seminary and has taught courses at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Church Divinity School of the Pacific. Wherever Mark travels he speaks with the goal of awakening imagination and inviting audiences to take new steps into life and wholeness. For more about Mark, visit www.markscandrette.com.

Every day listeners email asking, "I know my type, now what?" Well, the truth is that simply knowing your Enneagram type doesn't change anything in and of itself other than to arm you with a little bit of self-knowledge. Understanding where you go in points of stress and where you go in growth helps explain a lot about why each of us has particular struggles. But to really begin to heal and experience true transformation, we have to be willing to face our shadows because that's where the distortions of our reality live and multiply. It's tough to start doing the work but we're simply not going to grow unless we're willing to look in the places that are going to create moments of shame and self-reflection that are uncomfortable. But that's one of the many gifts of the Enneagram. The Enneagram provides us with an opportunity to compassionately look into our shadow…to hold up a mirror to those behaviors that we can change. In today's episode, Mark Scandrette joins Ian and shares some simple steps you can start using today to help you begin to move from unconscious to conscious living. This episode was so full of great insights that we split it into two parts to help you really absorb the content. Mark Scandrette has written five books on practical spirituality that seek to apply spiritual wisdom to everyday life: FREE, Practicing The Way of Jesus, Soul Graffiti, Belonging and Becoming (Co-authored with Lisa Scandrette) and The Ninefold Path Notebook (with Danielle Welch). He regularly teaches and offers workshops and training events based on themes from these books. Before each book is published he usually spends several years piloting the concepts and processes explored with groups in multiple contexts. He is currently working on a 6th book on self-awareness, personality and transformation. He also speaks nationally and internationally at universities, conferences and churches and offers training to leaders and organizations through workshops, retreats and group intensives. Mark teaches a doctoral course on spiritual formation at Fuller Theological seminary and has taught courses at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Church Divinity School of the Pacific. Wherever Mark travels he speaks with the goal of awakening imagination and inviting audiences to take new steps into life and wholeness. For more about Mark, visit www.markscandrette.com.

Open to new experiences, Sevens are self-confident, optimistic and joyful people who exude loads of energy. They bring a sense of adventure and energy to their relationships and generally try to avoid negative feelings. But that doesn't mean that Sevens aren't emotionally articulate. In fact, as part of the Head Triad, Sevens are very intelligent about a variety of subjects, including emotions. It's just that it's not the first thing they want to talk about. In today's episode, Enneagram 7, Dave Barnes joins us to discuss how integrating the Enneagram into his spiritual development has helped him slow down his internal processor and taught him to keep tabs on whether or not he is staying present in the moment. About Dave Barnes: Dave Barnes is a respected Nashville artist and songwriter who received GRAMMY and CMA nominations for Blake Shelton's recording of his hit song "God Gave Me You." Barnes has also penned songs for Tim McGraw, Thomas Rhett & Maren Morris, Reba McEntire, Marc Broussard, Billy Currington, Hunter Hayes, Matt Wertz, Ben Rector, among many others. Touring extensively over the past 15 years as a headlining artist, he has also opened for Bonnie Raitt, Taylor Swift, John Mayer, Lady Antebellum, Hanson, and One Republic, to name a few. Dave Barnes has recorded three EP's and ten full-length albums, including his newest project, the LP Who Knew It Would Be So Hard To Be Myself, releasing February 9, 2018. He is also well known for his brand of humor, having sold out several stand-up comedy shows throughout the Southeast. Many of his comedic videos are posted to his YouTube video series.

The Enneagram is a great tool for discovering why we feel the way we feel, act the way we act, and think the way we think. For Fives, who are unconsciously motivated by Avarice (or Greed), the Enneagram can help identify when fear begins to take over and they are operating with a perpetual scarcity mentality. On auto-pilot, Fives can be inclined to disassociate and observe from a distance, rather than jumping in and participating in life. In today's episode, Tim Mackie and Jon Collins from The Bible Project, discuss how the Enneagram has helped them tackle undiscovered territory in their own temperaments and value systems, and how learning to name, pay attention to, and honor these parts of their personality has allowed them to release control of different parts of their lives and receive every part of what each day brings. Tim Mackie is a writer and creative director for The Bible Project. He has a PhD in Semitic Languages and Biblical Studies. He wrote his dissertation on the manuscript history of the book of Ezekiel, with a focus on the Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls. What a total nerd! He is a professor at Western Seminary and served as a teaching pastor for many years. Jon Collins is a writer and creative director for The Bible Project. He has a BA in Biblical Studies from Multnomah University (where he met Tim). Jon is affectionately known by the team as the Architect of Ideas. He is a master of making complex ideas simple and has spent the last decade founding and leading digital media and marketing companies. Together, Tim and Jon founded The Bible Project. The Bible Project is a non-profit animation studio that produces short-form, fully animated videos to make the biblical story accessible to everyone, everywhere. They create videos, podcasts, and study guides. To learn more, visit www.thebibleproject.com.

Sixes have excellent analytical minds, are great strategists, troubleshooters, problem-solvers, and of course, see worst-case scenarios that other people don't see. The passion of the Six is fear which is often experienced as anxiety…anxiety that the unexpected could happen at any time. Sixes are really good at playing out all the worst-case scenarios in any given situation. But once they launch a mental narrative in their head of all that could go wrong, these fictional stories can take on lives of their own and can grow and crowd out what's actually happening. For growth and transformation, Sixes need to learn to acknowledge their fear and doubt, own their own power and authority instead of projecting it onto others, and make a conscious effort to develop trust in others. In today's episode, Jeff Chu joins Ian to talk about embracing his fears by identifying those aspects of his personality that are responses to things he's been through in the past. Jeff Chu is a Brooklyn-based freelance reporter and writer as well as a seminarian at Princeton Theological Seminary. Most recently, he was on staff at Fast Company for almost eight years. During that time, Jeff edited, wrote, and reported on lots of different things. Jeff's reporting and writing have also appeared in a bunch of other places—The New York Times Magazine, Travel+Leisure, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Modern Farmer. When big publishers were still starting magazines and pouring millions of dollars into them, Jeff was an editor on the launch team of the now-defunct Conde Nast Portfolio. And before that, he spent seven years at Time magazine, where he really received his journalistic education. Jeff was a London-based web producer and staff writer.

When you truly begin doing your work, the Enneagram really should mess with you. It should dis-equilibrate you, throw you back on your heals, make you wonder, "Who am I? Who is everybody else? What am I supposed to do now? This week we're back with part 2 of Claire Diaz-Ortiz's interview revealing how her research into Enneagram Threes has helped her dig beneath the surface and shift her focus towards using the gifts she's developed to lift up others from behind the scenes. Claire Diaz-Ortiz is an author, speaker and Silicon Valley innovator who was an early employee at Twitter. Named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company, she holds an MBA and other degrees from Stanford and Oxford and has been featured widely in print and broadcast media. She writes a popular business blog at ClaireDiazOrtiz.com and is the award-winning author of eight books that have been published in more than a dozen countries. To learn more about Claire, visit www.clairediazortiz.com.

Welcome back to Season 2 of Typology. I'm thrilled to continue Season Two with a really great friend who I've known for many years, Aaron Niequist. Though Aaron is a four on the Enneagram, we're actually going to explore some new territory today. We're going to go into some content that'll be great for every single number to know and learn about. With two fours on the line, I do need to say that because otherwise, everyone will just assume that all we're going to do is talk about ourselves for a long time. Not today. So many of our listeners have asked me to talk about subtypes. Everybody asks, "Can you please say more about subtypes? What are they and how do I determine mine?" Those are great questions actually because there are multiple variations of type. I think what happens with each variation is you get another degree of clarity about the nature of the type itself, it's different flavors and expressions. One of the most important next steps a person can take after they know all the basics is to learn their subtype. If you are somebody who, for example, can't figure out your type, I would steer you toward instincts and subtypes because that's another way of kind of getting at type. So tune in as I break it down for you and Aaron. Aaron Niequist has served as a leader at some of the most influential churches in the country. In 2014, he launched a neo-liturgical, ecumenical, practice-based service at Willow Creek in Chicago. He also created a series of liturgical recordings called A New Liturgy to help people create holy space wherever they find themselves. Niequist and his wife, bestselling author Shauna Niequist, live in the suburbs of Chicago with their two sons. For more information, visit aaronniequist.com and anewliturgy.com.