Money Stuck on Repeat? A Human Design Strategist on What Women Entrepreneurs Overlook
Irene McKenna is a Human Design Strategist and Energy Healer who helps soul-driven women entrepreneurs with money energetics and the patterns that repeat around it. Midway through a rebrand—shifting her focus from general people-pleasing patterns to money energetics—she took time to answer three questions about what she sees when a woman keeps making the same amount of money no matter what she tries.
What the Chart Shows That She Hasn't Been Looking At
McKenna looks at two layers. The first is a woman's capacity to receive, which she ties to self-worth, how empowered she feels in her life, and the value she places on her own work. She examines whether the Will (Heart) center is defined or undefined, and the interplay of the Personality Sun and Earth. "When I read the money frequency in someone's design, I look at seven specific elements, and underneath all of them is a frequency and a theme," she said. "What she's embodying shapes the money that can flow in. So it gives a practical element to the often intangible money vibes conversation."
The second layer is the outer game: whether the business is structured the way she is designed to work, or whether she is pushing and hustling in ways that cut against the energy that naturally draws in her right-fit clients. Which layer matters most depends on her story—what she has tried and where she keeps getting stuck. "My work is intuitive and individual, because the answer lives in her patterns as much as in her chart," McKenna said.
What Online Money Advice Leaves Out
Most advice online picks one side, McKenna observes. It is either all frequency and vibes, or it is "you need a new strategy." In her experience, three things have to come together: her receiving frequency and her money story; the practical business pieces that fit the stage she is actually in; and her strategy, messaging, and what she embodies, all aligned with her design. "When these are treated separately, we end up chasing pieces, looking for the one thing that will finally move the business forward," she said. "The real shift happens when the pieces work together."
For readers who want to understand the framework she references, Human Design is a system that maps personality and decision-making through centers and gates; the Will (Heart) center is one of several centers practitioners interpret. McKenna's approach also draws on EFT tapping, an energy healing technique she lists among her tools.
The Decision She Wishes Women Would Stop Making Too Quickly
When money feels stuck, McKenna says women entrepreneurs too often change the external things: their offers, their messaging, or their ideal client. "A new business often takes around two years to reach profitability," she said. "Every time she reworks her offer, her message, or who she's speaking to, she restarts that clock. She never stays long enough to validate who she serves and the results she delivers, or to build a pathway that consistently brings clients to her."
Instead, she sees women caught in the swirl of believing one of these things has to change, "when what she may really need is time, commitment, and the right strategy to get her there."
Practical Takeaways
- Look at both layers: receiving capacity (self-worth, empowerment, the value placed on one's work) and the outer game (business structure aligned with natural energy).
- Stop treating frequency and strategy as separate tracks; the shift happens when they work together.
- Before overhauling offers, messaging, or ideal client, consider whether the real need is time, commitment, and a consistent pathway to clients.
McKenna's work is available through Frequency Recoded, where she offers Human Design and EFT-based guidance for women entrepreneurs. As she put it, the answer lives in her patterns as much as in her chart—a reminder that lasting money shifts often begin with what is already there, waiting to be seen.
Blessings.