Laura Piening

Finding Clarity Now

Ep. 74 - In this episode of Trailblazers Impact Podcast, Nan McKay speaks with Laura Piening about her passion for building teams and helping individuals reach their maximum potential by finding clarity. She shares how she honed this passion over the years working in the organizational development business and the nonprofit world. Building dynamic teams and helping individuals reach their maximum potential is a life calling for Laura Piening through her business Creating Clarity Now. Her expertise and vision in transforming organizations was honed through a 30-year career in the business and nonprofit world, where she broke through several barriers, including becoming one of the first women to work in international banking on Wall Street.

Top Takeaways:

- Learn the secrets that will help you accept change
- The power of being comfortable with the uncertainty for both individuals and organizations
- The importance of an organization to engage workers in decision-making before setting any rules and regulations in the modern-day world
- How choosing a career path not chosen by many can open up more opportunities for you
- The power a woman held in the corporate world back in the 1980
- Making major decisions and how they influence the rest of your life

Listen in to learn what secrets Laura believes you should know to accept change as a part of moving on to a new environment.

"My passion is to help people be strong in whatever they choose to do and bring their best to it. Bring their courage to stay in that uncertainty so they start bringing different solutions to everyday issues."

Best Self-help Inspirational Podcast of an Enthusiastic Lady

Parallel to work experiences, Laura Piening achieved personal and spiritual development through a wide variety of teachings, practices, and creative experiences. Her goal has been to integrate her values and beliefs in every aspect of her life. Her pioneering path has led her to this time and place where many people seek this same integration of values, beliefs, work, and lifestyle.

She served as one of the few female pages in the New York Senate and earned an MBA. Wanting to challenge herself to do more than just make money, her next journey was to the world of nonprofits, where she sharpened her skills at unlocking teams' passions and building a culture of collaboration. With her current project, Creating Clarity Now, she uses her experience in helping clients build an agile organization and embrace a common vision.

As a child, Laura's mother asked her if she wanted to be a big fish in a little pond or a little fish in a big pond. Laura answered, "Neither. I want to be a big fish in a big pond with other big fish loving life and living in harmony!" She knew, even then, that true power seeks peers, and she has been building relationships and helping others to instill clarity of vision in their work for decades. Today, the Power Peers Network is the actualization of this intention.

Learn why it is important to be comfortable with uncertainty as a way to allow solutions to appear.

Key Moments:

- Laura Piening shares the secrets or what she believes helps people accept change and adapt to new environments [2:53]
- Why you need to be comfortable with the uncertainty to allow fantastic solutions to bubble inside of you [5:29]
- Laura explains how and why she started her organization development business back in the 1980s [6:42]
- Why an organization needs to talk to workers before they set out rules and regulations to ensure success [8:15]
- Why we need to allow uncertainty to linger in today's world to shift how we do things [9:53]
- She explains how her early life influenced her to be both an organizer and an independent woman [11:11]
- How was Laura able to choose an MBA in Finance during her time when most women didn't? The experiences and opportunities that opened up for her [12:35]
- Laura describes how she found the advantage of working as a woman in the early 1980s [15:00]
- What form of discrimination did she experience back then? [17:04]
- What are some of the major decisions that influenced where Laura is today? [18:30]
- What is her true passion? How is she accomplishing it now? [21:00]
- Laura talks about important contributions she believes she has made working as a nonprofit executive for years [23:36]
- She looks back at some of her best moments in life [26:23]
- What is the hardest thing she has ever had to do? [27:25]
- Laura shares some of the things she wants to accomplish with her business going forward [28:08]
- What is the Power Peers Network and what does it do for people? [29:18]
- Laura says she's excited for old age and the challenges she believes she'll be facing in the years ahead [31:38]
- How the Power Peers community works, its mission, and how to join [32:22]