I grew up discussing graduate-level marketing research at the dinner table.

My dad received his PhD in marketing before I knew the full meaning of money. This explains why, at age 6, my first lemonade stand was so wildly successful and why I immediately spent it *all* on dress-up clothes.

It also explains why my teenage attempts at selling AVON almost got me banned from my dad's university. Evidently, it *is* possible to leave one too many catalogues hanging in bathroom stalls across campus. (Feel free to add this humiliation to the long list of reasons why multi-level marketing companies are the absolute worst.)

15+ years as a business consultant began when my first business defied the 2008 recession.

With the combined resources of a Bachelor in Business Administration from Texas Tech University, my skills as a musician, and training as a Suzuki cello teacher—my Seattle-based music studio became a fast success.

Creative and music industry colleagues soon reached out for consulting and the clients snowballed from there. 

#1 Amazon bestselling book

Bare Naked Bravery: How to Be Creatively Courageous, was written after receiving a career-halting health diagnosis—a degenerative, neurological hand tremor. Knowing I’d have to “be brave,” but not knowing what that really meant, I got curious. Really curious. (Hint: True bravery never feels brave.)

In the following years, I blended my musical offerings and consulting to include song-infused keynotes and workshops for Fortune500 companies, tech startups, and corporate conferences.

Trauma symptoms snuck in.

Symptoms from my religious trauma and other earlier traumas began cropping up in the day-to-day operations of business. The consulting practice grew and so did frustrations with trauma-related annoyances. Business clients soon echoed their own encounters with post-traumatic career chaos. One client aptly said, "Ain't nobody got time for a panic attack!"

Curiosity struck again.

COVID-19 and my mother's terminal battle with glioblastoma presented the opportunity to pursue a Masters in Business Administration from The University of Wyoming. My curiosity narrowed while supporting my clients through their own pandemic trauma and grief; my academic studies focused on the power of (cult) influence, coercive control in marketing psychology, and consumer behavior. 

Peterson Resilience Consulting exists as a model of resilience for my clients. I walk the talk by working smart, not hard and by being honest about my boundaries. Through business consulting and career coaching with me, clients learn to thrive beyond their traumas while creating sustainable structures and systems that support their well-being and recovery.