Founder Profile: Susan Fisher (Wharton MBA/MA86)
MEET SUSAN FISHER, LIFELONG STUDENT OF PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION
“Building Body of 9 leverages all of the life experiences I have had and is creating a platform and container for me to live into my greater life purpose”
Susan Fisher (WG86, Lauder Institute MA86) is the Co-Founder and CEO of Body of 9, a comprehensive body-based process that offers Coaches and Holistic Practitioners an assessment platform that supercharges all of the existing tools that they use to support their clients.
Body of 9 is an innovative, body-based personality assessment that, through your posture, body type, and how you physically express yourself, identifies your Natural Number. This gives you an experience of your innate self, taking your understanding of who you are to a whole new level.
Susan studied Mathematical Economics from Brown University and graduated with an MBA/MA at Wharton where she was in the inaugural class at the Lauder Institute. She then pursued a career in management consulting, high-tech marketing, finance and operations in Silicon Valley. Despite her achievements, this career did not feed Susan’s need for a deeper knowing of her purpose, nor did it yield any real sense of fulfillment.
Susan experienced a moment of awakening while attending The Coaches Training Institute’s (CTI) Leadership Program in 2002 — when her Natural Number 6 was first activated. She recognized that she had found her true life’s purpose. She became a pioneer in the study and research into the 9 Natural Numbers — a system of tools which describe the body’s nine regions of activations.
Since 2012, Susan and her husband Martin have been working together to build Body of 9, researching and working with thousands of people worldwide to refine their process and support personal transformation. Susan is on-staff at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur and has presented at events and conferences around the world, including Burning Man, the Spoken Word Stage, Envision Conference in Norway, and the Montana Mind, Body, Soul Conference.
Tell us a bit about your company
Body of 9 is a company dedicated to introducing and teaching about a body-based assessment that, through your posture, body type, and how you physically express yourself, identifies what is called your Natural Number. This gives you an experience of your innate self, taking your understanding of who you are to a whole new level.
What inspired you to start your business — what opportunity in the market are you seeking to address?
When I found out my Natural Number in 2002 it explained everything I love about myself that no one else seemed to understand. I was fascinated with the possibilities this discovery opens up for us as individuals, in relationships, and in business. I immediately saw the possibilities for personal growth and development, for business and productivity and for developing powerful, authentic, and intimate relationships. From that moment forward I have dedicated my energy to researching, understanding, and teaching about the nine Natural Numbers.
What is it about your personal background, experience, or perspective that fuels your passion for this venture?
Building Body of 9 leverages all of the life experiences I have had and is creating a platform and container for me to live into my greater life purpose. In life we can only change ourselves, and only affect the world within our chosen sphere of influence — I felt early on in my life that I had a big purpose.
Since being introduced to this discovery in 2002 I have been living into that purpose — researching , teaching, and identifying peoples’ Natural Numbers.
Everything I have done and experienced has prepared me for the role of taking this work out into the world. Introducing new information is extraordinarily challenging, on a daily basis. I have learned how to know and use my innate power and abilities as gifts. I have learned to support others at the level of their nature. This lets me make the difference in people’s lives that I know in my being that I was meant to make.
What are one or two of the biggest wins or most encouraging experiences you’ve had so far?
When our Natural Number is identified it starts us down a path for being our most authentic and powerful self so that we can live consciously, on-purpose, as a gift to the world around us. Learning to activate all nine Natural Numbers in the body transforms us to a more cosmic whole being that is balance and rounded out. When you can enhance your perceptive abilities by activating all of the Natural Number regions at will you are able to connect with, understand, and relate to others who don’t share Natural Number with you.
What has been one or two of your biggest learnings so far?
Natural Numbers do not repeat in nuclear families of less than 9 people. This is a mind boggling statistic — it means that no one in your family understands how you take in information, what you are innately good at, what you care about and so much more of your natural way of being. No wonder we don’t feel supported or seen. This underscores the importance of this truth about our human experience getting out into the world. We long to be understood, to be seen and valued. Understanding your Natural Number and those around you, take the first steps toward truly knowing each other.
What is an obstacle that you are grappling with as you continue to build this venture?
Presenting new and unknown information, that does not necessarily align with current beliefs or understanding, to a person who does not know they need it, and may not be interested in learning, changing, growing or being happy is the most challenging thing we grapple with. And to compound this challenge, there are nine different ways in which we encounter resistance. This means that we need to take into account how people of each of the Natural Numbers use language, eye contact, body language. There are nine distinctly different ways in which this happens that are based on how our body is constructed and activated. It is body based, and experiential and it takes time to integrate into our bodies. This is very complex. It is also still very much in the early-adopter stage for the curious and those who care about making a difference and having the impact they were designed to have.
What surprises have you encountered as an entrepreneur? Something out of left field?
Body of 9 is evolutionary work that creates a sustainable growth path for the evolution of our sensory capacity and our ability to be together in community. As human beings we do not begin to tap the full potential of our “earth-suits,” our bodies, what we are capable of when we expand our ability to perceive and connect. We have what you might call magical abilities that get closed down and denied, called woo-woo, made fun of — so we lose access to them. I have continually been surprised with what people can do when they unleash their full potential.
What has been the most rewarding thing about starting your own business?
As we are building Body of 9 we are including people and perspectives of all 9 Natural Numbers. All voices are important, all perspectives honored, and we value each contribution equally. Seeing how this creates powerful impact and incredibly fulfilled and happy staff is very rewarding. All our staff go through the same training as our Certification Students — so they grow and evolve — each understanding the importance of who they are in the whole.
