Aloha Michelle,
You need to make sure you are talking apples to apples when referencing between systems. For example in the Diamond Feng Shui manual, a person born Feb 18, 1977-Feb 6, 1978 is a "snake for their ANIMAL SYMBOL, and earth for their FORTUNE ELEMENT. You can be out looking on the web and plug in your birth date into a Feng Shui generator where they may say your are a "Fire" Snake. What you have to be aware of is the context or calculation used. The "Fire Snake" example is the YEAR ELEMENT for that birth year, not the FORTUNE ELEMENT. We originally had a person's Year Element listed int he Personal Energy Chart in the Diamond Feng Shui manual, and pulled it because people were getting mixed up between the two, and Marie found that working with a person's Fortune Element is more dynamic and useful.
There will be other situations where Compass Feng Shui (used in the Diamond Feng Shui system) will sector out the areas in the house by standing in the middle of the home and taking the directions, and another system will have you stand at the front door looking into the house, and assign directions based on saying that front door is "North," no matter if it's in the East, West, or South of the house.
It comes down to choosing a school and sticking with it, rather than a buffet approach.
Much Love, Shawn