Meet Debbie Peterson, CSP

We recently connected with Debbie Peterson, CSP and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Debbie, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

This is a hefty question, and it’s been a journey. I don’t feel that purpose is concrete and definitive. It’s not like you wake up and it’s been bestowed upon you; you have it, and it never changes. It’s not like you are born with it or not. We all have the potential to discover our own. My company is called “Getting to Clarity” because that’s been my journey – getting clarity on ME – and I’m still getting that clarity.

Where did it start? I would say that it really started with me playing small, playing it safe, being the rule follower. What does that mean? When I was a young woman, I really didn’t think about my own potential. I thought about what was easy and safe to accomplish, and that served me well until it didn’t. My “hitting the wall” was defined by my life unraveling. At work, I felt there was something MORE for me, but I struggled to understand what that was. It was a vague feeling that wouldn’t leave me alone. My answer was to become perfect in every area of my life, but that led to stress and unhappiness that nudged me into depression and anxiety. I was flat-out miserable and thought there had to be more than this feeling in my life. There was no happiness or joy (just the outward pretense that there was); it was just a roller-coaster of emotions as I struggled as a working woman, a wife, and a mother.

It was a time of heart palpitations, sleeplessness, stress, anxiety, and medications. By the age of 40 – high blood pressure medicine, migraine medicine, and anti-anxiety medicine. It’s really not where I thought I would be in my life.

Long story – short…I was being torn down so I could be rebuilt, but I didn’t understand that at the time.

What happened next? I got selected to attend a mindset training through work. I had no idea that once I walked through that door, it would change my life irrevocably. Although the training had applications for work, it had bigger applications in my own life. In a matter of hours, I understood that I was the most in my own way. I had a boatload of limiting beliefs about myself, and, more importantly, I had far more influence in dealing with them than I thought.

Although I started to feel relief, I also started to understand that I wasn’t the only one who was going through this and that I was meant to pay it forward. My purpose started with this feeling. I was meant to pay it forward.

So, for me, purpose is something you are led to, and your job is to follow the breadcrumbs to get there. The feelings you have toward what you are doing are the breadcrumbs. Does it light you up? Follow it. Does it feel heavy and suck the life out of you? Don’t follow it. Is it exciting, interesting, and it scares you – follow it!

Never, in a million years, would I have thought I would be on stage keynoting at conferences of a thousand people or more. Never did I think I would run my own business. Never did I think I would coach leaders and consult with businesses to make a bigger, clear impact on their aspiring leaders.

My teacher once said to me when I asked about my purpose, he said, “Don’t overcomplicate it. Keep it simple.”

CLARITY is my purpose. It is my journey, my gift, something I can’t not do. It’s what I have been gifted and what I pay forward. How it plays out continues to evolve, but the purpose remains the same. Simply put, I help people find their own clarity.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

As for my story, I think I covered that in the previous section.

As for what I do and what is most exciting, I would say this. I really pinch myself when it comes to what I get to do. I get to travel the country (and one day, I hope to travel internationally) to help professionals get “clarity” about who they are, what they want to do at their next level, and how they can make a bigger impact – whether that’s in their career, their leadership, their organization, or their own business.

BUT, it is doing it in a way that doesn’t sacrifice their own well-being in the process. As busy professionals, we tend to focus on everything. We are so busy that we don’t give ourselves the space or grace to figure out who we are, what we want, and what is truly important and meaningful to us. By focusing on everything, we dilute who we are and the impact we are capable of making. My keynote, The Clarity Compass: Making a Bigger Impact, is a framework I’ve created for the way forward to our next level of impact. By answering 5 key questions, you get individual clarity on your direction and a focus on the right things. It’s helping them to create their vision of the next level and giving them the tools to get into action.

The exciting part is how it impacts my audiences. I am not giving them my answers, I am guiding them to uncover their own answers. When, after the keynote, workshop, or graduation from the cohort, I hear how this has impacted them, the clarity they have gotten, the permission they’ve given themselves to pursue something they previously couldn’t, it just makes my little toes tap! I routinely hear people tell me it’s like I’ve crawled inside their heads – probably because I have been where they are.

As for what is next, I have done a great deal of work in the Financial Services sector, and am taking Clarity and Impact on the road to other industries and sectors. Recently, I’ve had the great pleasure to serve nursing, collision, and transportation sectors. But I want to continue to play bigger and impact other industries that are a fit.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

(1) Clarity of Self – Understanding who I am and who I am meant to be. That means also understanding who I am not and who I don’t want to be. This is a HUGE endeavor and isn’t a one and done exercise. It means a lot of introspection and examination of what I value/what I don’t, and what I stand for/against. Some ways to get better at this: Pay attention to how you feel when you are doing something. Your feelings are an indicator of what is a fit and what is not. Trust is a big part of the process. Trust yourself when your ideas come up, especially when they nudge you out of your comfort zone. The people who lie to us the most are ourselves. We tell ourselves that we “can’t” by the limiting beliefs WE have formed about ourselves – and yes they were created by us. Limiting Beliefs are the lies we tell ourselves (without realizing it), and as long as we allow them to continue, we allow them to define us. We are all worth more than that.

(2) Clarity of Others – we are on the planet with other people for a reason. We aren’t meant to go through life alone, but when things get difficult, that’s exactly what we try to do – go it alone. People can help you if you let them. They can support and guide you; they can short-cut your progress/success. My decision to move from “going it alone” to “going with others” was a game-changer! But they have to be the right people because not everyone who is with you is FOR you. Only by having clarity of self, can you get clarity of others who can support you. Surround yourself with the people who will have your back. Who get you, who will tell you what you need to hear, not necessarily what you want to hear. Having a “crew” personally and professionally is key.

(3) Clarity of what is getting in the way. See the information about Limiting Beliefs above. The most transformational part of my journey was realizing how my stories, emotional baggage, and limiting thoughts held me back. It was realizing that in every situation, I was receiving feedback via my outcomes and that I had the power to make different choices that would give me different outcomes. I have so much more control than I thought I did. How can you get better? Bring your stories, your challenges, your defeats, your heavy burdens, and your emotions into the light to be examined. What is behind them? What is their purpose? The emotion isn’t the purpose, it’s the indicator, the lesson is the gift if you’re looking for it.

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?

My ideal client is an association or organization that has events/conferences with a focus on “women in…” or a focus on aspiring/emerging leaders from a professional development perspective. These are the two demographics I love to help with my content and keynotes because they have the questions my processes and frameworks can help guide them toward their answers. I get to help them create their vision of their next level professionally and give them the tools to achieve it. Clarity creates direction, direction creates action, action creates momentum. Such fun!

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Megan DiPiero Photography
Howard Tucker (Mort Tucker Photography)

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