I have met some exceedingly interesting people in the past year or so. There are so many people out in the webisphere who strive to bring out the best in others, who work toward a harmonious and accepting world, who add their voices of reason and acceptance to this choir of humanity that we are trying to build.
One such person is Deborah Watts, whom I met while participating in a week-long workshop where we learned how to use LinkedIn to our advantage. I started following her on Facebook and LinkedIn and resonated with her posts. So I asked her for an interview and thankfully, she agreed.
Deborah works with “Purpose-Driven, Disruptive Leaders.” Her LinkedIn bio is addressed “Dear Maverick,” and she starts with three words that I believe most people long for: “I see you.”
I spoke with Deborah via Zoom one afternoon and was struck by the powerful, positive way she described herself and the people she works with.
“There’s always this tension … that you want to express your own voice and you know that there’s something unique that’s coming through you, but at the same time, you’re human and you want to connect with other humans and you want to feel a sense of belonging,” she said.
“And what I came to understand was that there were almost black and white ways to fit in. And the irony of it was I would do all the things to fit in and I still (couldn’t find) a place (to belong).”
She said that her life is defined by being what she calls a “Maverick,” someone who is a purpose-driven leader who has decided to build his or her business and life in his or her own way — not necessarily by the accepted business rules we’ve all been trained to follow.
“There have been periods of life, and I think this is a common thing for all people, when we suppress our inner disruptor and we try to go along and we’re trying to be connected. I’d say in this period of time in my life, I’m kind of burning all the boats and really setting out on my own,” she explained.
Deborah has developed a framework to help those maverick, disruptive leaders develop and determine certainty in their goals.
“My currency is certainty,” she said. She helps her clients by “boiling down all of the side effects that people experience when they go through this (discovery) process, Obviously, we know the one thing that you can be certain about in life is that nothing is certain. Everything’s always changing, so I always want to consistently be at my best or at least be at my best frame of mind regardless of what’s happening around me.”
She said she was always looking for ways to be more certain inside herself because “I noticed that when I had more certainty from within, then I was able to be more resilient, I was able to be more present for people. Think about it, the worst times of your life were times of incredible uncertainty. I help people find their own way of certainty because for each person it’s different. I use the same tools but we craft it to what they personally need to feel settled when everything around them is chaotic.”
She calls those leaders who do things their own way “disruptors.” And says there are four types of disruptors: the outcast, the rebel, the maverick and the global villager.
- An outcast is usually someone, who as a kid, was not accepted and felt rejected by peers.
- The rebel is someone whose focus is on righting wrongs, being an activist.
- Then comes the maverick who is totally focused on his or her mission and vision.
- Finally, there’s the global villager, who has accomplished many of his or her goals and is now focused “on helping everyone into the oneness and really helping others and lifting others up.”
Not all leaders are disruptors, but, she said, when we see a leader who is a disruptor, “they usually have gone through something close to this progression throughout their lives. They started out with ‘what’s wrong with me? No one likes me’; and then there’s a part where they’re like ‘I’m going to fight the government,’ and they become an activist; and then they get to a place where they’re like ‘Whatever with that. I’m just really focused on building something incredible for the world’; and then that final stage when they’ve built and sold their empires; they’ve been there, done that, and now their focus is really on helping others up and supporting others as they’re on that journey. To me a maverick is that third stage, where they’re just really focused on their purpose and their mission.”
Many of her posts encourage her readers to be empathetic with each other, to work toward the common good, and to be the best versions of themselves possible. I have included a few of them along with this post.
“For me, I had such a sense of aloneness at such a deep level and it was so painful to me,” she said. “I would notice the times when I felt pure bliss were when I had feelings of we’re all in this game together and we’re cheering for the underdog and it doesn’t matter what the cool kids (are doing), we’re all here together on the same side. Whenever there was that bliss there was a common sense of there was more that connected us than separated us. So I started to really have an acute sensitivity to that and I just talk about it all the time and eventually it just became a theme of my work.”
Deborah described her audience as “purpose-driven leaders in business or in the community. They are well-versed in personal development. They’ve gone through their own journey and they’re at a place where all of the general stuff doesn’t work for them anymore. … There is a deep yearning for connection and there’s also a deep yearning for the ability to self-validate. So I attract people who are interested in mastery much more so than people who are interested in a quick 5-minute pill. The work that I do really is very iterative and requires a hunger or thirst to really master conflicts.”
She has some big goals for the coming months and years. She’s planning a book that outlines her methods and tells stories of mavericks and how they’ve prospered.
“Certain books have changed my life,” she said. “I know the power of a good book and I want to produce something that is of value.”
She noticed, however, that most of the books she’s read have a common theme and a common world-view. “They were, pretty much, all written by Caucasian men, so I really want to be a voice for someone who is not a Caucasian man. And I know there are (other) voices out there, but I don’t hear anything that’s similar to my voice. So I want to make sure that it’s out there. And I want to make sure that all these stories are told.”
And she’s hoping to start a podcast.
While growing up, Deborah says she just wanted to belong, but felt she couldn’t, no matter what she did. “I thought I was the only person on the planet (having those feelings).” With her podcast, she wants to create a space for mavericks and disruptors to speak up and share their stories. “I want listeners to say ‘that person is like me, I have a similar background to them. If they could do this then I can do it too.’”
Then, within the next several years, she wants to develop a foundation that brings together global villagers to work on projects that encourage and model interdependence – schools, performing arts centers, homeless shelters, community facilities that demonstrate the benefits of developing interdependence. “Most people have never seen interdependence,” she said. “They don’t actually know what it looks, feels, sounds like to be in an interdependent community where people are not focused on independence but are open to being able to contribute to the collective resources,”
As I mentioned earlier, her posts are encouraging and full of love for the people she works with.
“You don’t have to teach people how to be a maverick. You just have to trust them ,” she said. “If you step away from trying to teach them anything and just trust them, it’s amazing. They will amaze you every time.”
Thank you, Deborah, for sharing yourself with us. I can’t wait to see what the future brings you!
If you know someone who focuses on the good and strives to bring people together, let me know. I’ll see if they are open to talking with me. Just comment in the section below or send me a message at susie@stix-n-stonez.com
Here are some ways you can connect with Deborah:
Her website at Honeybee-you.com
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube