Dr. Peggy Marshall

"Because sustaining change isn’t just a concept—it’s a discipline, a rhythm, a way of working and living." - Dr. Peggy Marshall

You’ve likely been part of change efforts that began with clarity and energy. Maybe you even led them. The vision was compelling. The plan was solid. People were engaged. Everything felt possible.

And then… life happened.

The urgency faded. The momentum slowed. What started as a powerful shift began to quietly stall—not because people didn’t care, but because sustainment has its own rules. And most change models stop short of teaching them.

That’s what this work is all about.

Sustaining Impact began as a conversation—a pattern I kept seeing in my work with leaders, teams, and clients who were navigating meaningful transformation. They had clarity, courage, and momentum, but something was missing in the middle. The support systems faded. The habits didn’t stick. The change lost its foothold.

Over time, it became more than a pattern. It became a process, a way of thinking about the often-overlooked middle space of change. A way to create intentional practices that help change not just start, but actually stick.

Now, that process is becoming a book.

Why the Process Matters

You already know how to begin change. You’ve facilitated breakthroughs, designed strategies, inspired new habits. You’ve helped people and systems move toward possibility.

But you also know that insight isn’t enough, and transformation rarely follows a straight line.

That’s where the Sustaining Impact process comes in.

It’s designed to help you—and those you lead or support—navigate the messy, necessary work that happens after the kickoff, when the slide decks are closed and the daily grind rushes back in. When the emotional high has passed and the real-life pull of old habits starts creeping in.

This process gives you language for the space between inspiration and integration.
It builds a bridge between clarity and consistency.
It offers structure without rigidity, rhythm without burnout, support without micromanagement.

And now, it’s being captured in book form, not as a fixed formula, but as a living, adaptable guide you can return to again and again.

You’re Not Doing It Wrong—You’re Just in the Middle

If you’ve ever launched a great initiative only to watch it slowly lose steam, you’re not alone.

So many change efforts stall—not because people lack motivation, but because we treat the sustainment phase like a bonus round, not the core of the work. We celebrate the insight, the spark, the shift. But we forget to build in the scaffolding that keeps the change alive.

You’ve likely felt that tension yourself—that gap between what you know matters and what actually survives the day-to-day. That isn’t a personal failing. It’s a missing structure.

You don’t need more pressure.
You need a different process.

And that’s what Sustaining Impact offers: a framework for staying in meaningful relationship with the change you’re committed to.

The Sustaining Impact Process

A rhythm, not a recipe. A return to what matters.

Over the years, this work has evolved into a clear, intentional framework, one that supports individuals and teams through the full arc of change. Not just at the beginning, but especially in the middle, where sustaining momentum becomes its own kind of leadership.

The process includes eight phases, each offering a specific kind of focus—and a specific kind of courage.

The 8 Phases of Sustaining Impact

1. Clarity
   You begin with vision. You pause to reconnect with what matters, why it matters, and what’s calling you forward. Without clarity, sustainment becomes survival.
2. Choosing
   Clarity invites agency. You make intentional choices aligned with your values, goals, and energy. Choosing also means deciding what to release.
3. Clearing
   Before new ways of working can take hold, you must let go. Whether it’s outdated habits, limiting beliefs, or simply overcommitment—clearing creates space for growth.
4. Committing
   Sustaining impact requires more than interest, it requires consistency. This is where intention meets discipline, and actions align with values, even on the hard days.
5. Championing
   No one sustains impact alone. You need champions, inside yourself and around you, to advocate, reinforce, and remind. This is about building visibility and support.
6. Courage
   The middle gets messy. Doubt creeps in. Resistance surfaces. Courage is what helps you stay in the work when progress is slow, when the path is unclear, or when you're tired.
7. Celebrate
   Celebration sustains energy. This phase honors growth, visible or invisible. It reminds you (and others) that change is happening, and that effort is worth pausing for.
8. Continue
   Sustainment is never static. You reflect, recalibrate, and re-engage. Continue is the phase of ongoing integration—where change becomes part of how you live and lead.

These phases aren’t always linear. You’ll move between them. You’ll revisit them. But together, they form a rhythm that helps your work take root, and grow over time.

From Practice to Pages

This book didn’t begin as an abstract idea. It began as a lived experience. As a question I kept asking:

Why do meaningful changes fade?
And what helps them endure?

The answers didn’t arrive all at once. They revealed themselves through real conversations, real teams, and real leadership challenges. As I tracked the patterns, the process emerged—one I’ve used across industries, sectors, and coaching engagements.

Now I’m turning that process into a book.

Not to lock it down.
But to open it up.

To give language to what you’ve probably already felt.
To offer guidance that’s both practical and grounded in humanity.
To help you keep doing work that doesn’t just inspire—but lasts.

Why This Matters to You

If you’re a coach, a leader, a culture builder, or a change agent, you’re in this for more than quick wins. You care about depth. Alignment. Real transformation.

This process, and this book, is for the moments when:

• No one’s watching, but you keep showing up.
• The applause has faded, but the vision still calls.
• You’re tired but still committed to what matters.

Because sustainability isn’t about perfection.
It’s about the willingness to return.
Again and again.

The Work We Tend Grows

You know this in your bones: the work you tend is the work that grows.
The impact you sustain is the impact that transforms.

Sustaining Impact is more than a process. It’s a practice.
One that honors the messy, beautiful, unglamorous middle.
One that helps you hold the thread of change, even when it’s hard.
One that reminds you: this is still worth it.

Because your impact doesn’t begin and end with a launch.
It lives in the way you keep showing up.

The full book—Sustaining Impact: Inspiration Meets Perspiration—will be available late summer 2025. In the meantime, join us on May 7th for a special webinar preview where we’ll explore several of the key concepts that will be featured in the book.  It’s a chance to engage with the material, reflect in community, and start thinking differently about what it means to truly sustain change.

Join us on Zoom.

In my work with leaders, changemakers, and purpose-driven professionals, I’ve witnessed a familiar struggle: the inability to sustain impact over time. They start strong, driven by vision, energized by purpose, but somewhere along the way, momentum fades. The culprits aren’t always obvious. It’s not a lack of skill or passion. More often, it’s the invisible clutter that crowds their capacity. It’s the absence of absolute clarity about what truly matters. And most subtly, it’s the old wiring of the brain, patterns of overcommitment, fear of letting go, or resistance to uncertainty that quietly sabotage their best intentions. These are the patterns I’ve seen time and again. And it’s why the work of clearing space, reclaiming clarity, and rewiring our internal narratives is at the heart of sustaining meaningful change.

These challenges often show up in subtle, familiar ways, saying yes when we mean no, mistaking motivation for true alignment, or hesitating to fully commit out of fear. Let’s explore the most common patterns that quietly derail even the best of intentions.

We all begin with good intentions.
A new goal, a meaningful project, a fresh commitment to ourselves or others. At the start, we feel the pull of possibility, the momentum of change. But sustaining that impact? That’s where the work deepens.

Because commitment isn’t just about saying yes. It’s about knowing what we’re saying yes to, and what we’re willing to say no to in the process.

Overcommitting from Ego or Pressure

How often do we say yes from a place of fear, guilt, people-pleasing, or the need to prove ourselves?
We take on more than we have capacity for, driven by a desire to be needed, liked, or admired. It feels like commitment, but underneath, it’s a survival strategy.

Real commitment? It comes from discernment, not just enthusiasm.
It asks: Is this mine to carry?
It reminds us that every yes is a no to something else often our wellbeing, relationships, or deeper priorities.

Confusing Motivation with Alignment

Motivation is fleeting.
It flares up with inspiration, a spark of excitement, but it fizzles when life gets hard, messy, or mundane.

Alignment, though?
That’s the steady pulse beneath the surface.
When motivation fades (and it will), alignment keeps us grounded.
It connects us back to our values, our purpose, our "why."

Next time the energy dips, ask yourself:
Was I riding a wave of hype, or is this still resonant at my core?

Underestimating the Cost of Commitment

It’s easy to commit to a goal when it’s all vision and possibility.
But the cost, the energy, trade-offs, discomfort, that’s where we get surprised.

Every worthwhile commitment has a cost.

• The cost of time that won’t go elsewhere.
• The cost of discomfort as we stretch beyond the familiar.
• The cost of saying no to things we enjoy or things that simply feel easier.

Clarity about the cost isn’t meant to scare us off, it helps us stay when things get hard. It reminds us we chose this path on purpose.

Fear of Disappointment or Failure

Sometimes, we half-commit.
Not because we’re lazy, but because we’re afraid.
Afraid that if we give it our all and still don’t succeed, it might say something about our worth.

Avoiding full commitment can feel safer than risking vulnerability.
But true impact requires risking showing up fully even when the outcome is uncertain.

What would it mean to give yourself permission to commit, not to the outcome, but to the process?

Inconsistent Inner Leadership

We rely on willpower or external accountability, but haven’t built the inner voice that sustains us day by day.

The inner critic talks us out of progress:
"You’re behind."
"You’ll never catch up."
"What’s the point?"

But inner leadership, the voice of the inner champion, reminds us to return with grace:
"This is hard, but you’re still in it."
"Rest if you need to, but don’t quit on yourself."
"Progress isn’t linear."

Sustaining impact means nurturing that inner voice. The one that helps you recommit, not just once, but every day.

Clearing: Making Space for What Matters

Commitment isn’t just about saying yes, it’s also about knowing when to say no.
It’s about clearing space, letting go of what no longer fits.

But clearing is hard.
Not just practically but emotionally.

It can feel like pruning away parts of ourselves.
Like admitting something is overgrown, out of season, or simply no longer ours to carry.

Here are the most common barriers I see in the clearing process:

Emotional Attachment to the Old

We hold onto roles, routines, and responsibilities because they’ve become tied to our identity.

"If I let go of this, who am I?"

Clearing asks us to confront those identities gently.
To honor that we are allowed to outgrow things, even things that once mattered deeply.

Fear of the Unknown

Clearing creates space but also uncertainty.
It’s easier to cling to clutter than face the ambiguity of what’s next.

"At least I know how to manage the chaos I have."

Yet space is where new alignment has room to emerge.
Without it, nothing new can take root.

Invisible Clutter

Not all clutter is physical.

• Resentment.
• Self-doubt.
• Unspoken expectations.
• Toxic thought loops.

Sometimes, the heaviest weight is the one we haven’t even named yet.

Perceived Waste or Guilt

We stay tethered to projects, goals, or relationships because we’ve invested so much.

"I can’t quit now I’ve already put so much into this."

But sunk costs aren’t a reason to keep sinking.
Letting go can feel like failure but often, it’s freedom.

Lack of Permission or Boundaries

Especially in leadership or caregiving roles, we feel we can’t release responsibilities without disappointing others.

"If I step back, who will carry it?"

But sustaining impact means knowing when to carry and when to release.
With trust that others will rise,
Or that space itself will offer new solutions.

Reflection: Make Space, Release with Intention

These questions are here to guide your clearing process.
To help you create space for what truly matters:

Mental and Emotional Clutter

• What’s been weighing on my mind lately—quietly or loudly?
• What belief about myself is no longer true—but I’m still carrying it?

Roles, Goals, and Responsibilities

• What commitments no longer feel aligned with who I’m becoming?
• What am I doing out of obligation rather than resonance?

Patterns and Narratives

• What old story about success, identity, or worth is keeping me stuck?
• Who am I trying to please or impress—and at what cost?

Practical Clearing

• What could I let go of this week to create 1% more space?
• If I cleared just one thing, what would unlock the most energy?

Emotional Permission

• What would it feel like to release something with kindness instead of guilt?
• What would I say to a friend who needed permission to let this go?

Sustaining impact isn’t about pushing harder.
It’s about aligning deeper.
It’s about committing with clarity, clearing with courage, and returning to yourself again and again.

We’ll dive deeper into these themes, explore practical strategies, and create space for meaningful reflection. This is an opportunity to reconnect with your why, clear what’s getting in the way, and recommit to the work, and life that matters most.

Zoom link for webinar https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89306258336?pwd=DKiN81Y6PdmueKawvEa6NQlCaoHi14.1

 

 

You’re sitting in a meeting. You’ve thought of something insightful—something that could move the conversation forward. But instead of speaking, you stay quiet. A voice inside whispers:

"Don’t say that. It’s probably obvious. Or wrong."

Later, you pause before sending an email you’ve reread six times.

"Is this too much? Not enough? Will they take it the wrong way?"

At night, you replay the day’s moments on a loop—what you said, what you didn’t, what you could have done differently. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. That internal script isn’t intuition or wisdom. It’s your inner critic. And for many of us, it’s been speaking for a long time.

The Shape-Shifting Voice

The inner critic doesn’t always sound harsh. Sometimes, it disguises itself as ambition: "You should be further along by now." Or humility: "Don’t make it about you." Or caution: "You don’t want to mess this up."

It might even feel helpful. Like it is keeping you sharp or responsible. But if you trace the impact, the pattern is clear: it makes you smaller. It contracts your confidence. It slows your momentum. It turns leadership into a place of tension rather than alignment.

And if you’re someone who supports others a leader, coach, educator, or creative professional, this isn’t just your internal struggle. It shapes the energy you bring to others. When you are constantly second-guessing yourself, your ability to empower those around you becomes compromised.

The Cost of Letting the Critic Lead

Letting your inner critic take the lead doesn’t just affect your mindset. It has tangible consequences:

• You miss out on opportunities because you’re too afraid to try.
• You undervalue your voice in rooms that need to hear it.
• You overwork, overextend, and overdeliver to prove your worth.
• You make decisions from fear instead of clarity.
• You support others from a place of depletion rather than wholeness.

This isn't a personal flaw. It's a learned pattern. But it's a pattern that can be unlearned.

Is Your Inner Critic Running the Show?

The inner critic often flies under the radar, disguised as reason, modesty, or high standards. But its fingerprints are easy to spot. Here are five common signs it may be running the show:

1. Persistent self-doubt, even in areas where you have experience or success.
2. Harsh self-talk, including thoughts like "I’ll never get this right," or "What’s wrong with me?"
3. Difficulty accepting praise or acknowledging your accomplishments.
4. Perfectionism or procrastination that hides a fear of not being good enough.
5. Constant comparison that leaves you feeling behind, unworthy, or invisible.

Sound familiar? Then it’s time to meet that voice head-on.

Why This Work Matters

This isn’t just about feeling better. It’s about performing better, leading better, living better. When we quiet the inner critic, we:

• Gain access to clearer, values-based decisions.
• Build resilience by replacing shame with self-compassion.
• Reclaim the energy we’ve spent proving ourselves.
• Increase our ability to hold space for others, without self-abandonment.

Silencing the inner critic is more than a mindset shift. It’s a leadership imperative.

Five Practices to Quiet the Inner Critic

So how do we shift from inner judgment to inner support? Here are five practices we’ll explore in our upcoming webinar:

1. Name the Voice Your inner critic thrives in the shadows. Naming it gives you distance and power. You might call it "The Perfectionist," "The Worrier," or "The Impostor." Giving it a name helps you respond with intention, not identification.
2. Practice Self-Compassion When the critic appears, meet it with kindness. Self-compassion isn’t complacency, it’s courage. Pause. Breathe. Ask: What would I say to a friend in this moment? Then say that to yourself.
3. Challenge the Thought Critics speak in cognitive distortions: all-or-nothing thinking, catastrophizing, and labeling. Catch the thought. Label it: "I'm having the thought that I'm not good enough." Then question it. Is this absolutely true? Who would I be without this thought?
4. Anchor in Values When fear is loud, values must be louder. Ask: What matters most in this moment? Let your decisions be led by purpose, not protection.
5. Get Support and Perspective The inner critic grows stronger in isolation. Coaching, therapy, peer support these offer reflection, reframe, and reinforcement. You don’t have to face the critic alone.

Transforming the Voice

Ultimately, the goal isn’t to banish the inner critic completely. The goal is to shift the balance of power. To replace the critic with an inner coach:

• From "You’re not good enough" to "You’re learning. Keep going."
• From "You always mess this up" to "Mistakes are part of growth."
• From "Don’t try you’ll fail" to "Trying is how you succeed."

This voice already lives within you. The more you practice listening to it, the stronger it becomes.

Join Us: Silencing the Inner Critic Webinar

On Wednesday, June 12, join us live for a webinar designed to help you:

• Identify your inner critic’s unique voice
• Reframe your internal narrative
• Develop rituals of resilience and self-support
• Replace fear-based habits with values-led action

Whether you're a coach, leader, educator, or just someone ready to stop playing small, this session will offer tools, insight, and community to help you rise into your full potential.

Because the voice you listen to shapes the life you lead.

Ready to turn the volume down on doubt?

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89306258336?pwd=DKiN81Y6PdmueKawvEa6NQlCaoHi14.1

 

For many professionals, summer feels like a strange in-between. The calendar slows, but the pressure to stay productive lingers. The world seems to exhale but only briefly before the back-to-school or fiscal-year energy ramps up again. We tell ourselves we’ll catch up, rest, maybe reset. But by the time August rolls around, we’re often left wondering: Where did the time go?

What if this summer could be different? What if summer wasn’t a break from learning, but an invitation into a different kind of growth one that’s not about working harder, but about aligning deeper?  At Global IOC, we believe that sustainable impact doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when leaders, coaches, and change-makers pause long enough to ask themselves the deeper questions:

--What unfinished learning or insight deserves more space this season?
--What qualities do I need to cultivate to deepen not just expand my leadership?
--What rhythms, rituals, or supports will help me sustain what I’ve learned?

Summer offers the space to explore those questions and to begin living into the answers.

Growth Looks Different in Every Season

In spring, we plant. In fall, we harvest. But summer? Summer is for cultivating. It’s the season when growth is happening just below the surface. Quietly. Consistently. Almost invisibly. It’s when roots deepen and foundations strengthen.

As Parker Palmer writes in Let Your Life Speak, “Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you.” This kind of listening takes time. And summer offers it. For leaders and coaches, this same seasonal rhythm applies. Summer may not be packed with performance reviews, project launches, or strategy rollouts but that’s exactly why it’s a powerful time for inner development. When we take time to clear mental clutter, realign with what matters, and recharge our energy, we don’t just prepare for the next quarter we prepare for the next chapter.

This summer, we’re offering three unique ways to support that process each one designed to foster meaningful growth without overwhelm.

1. Rediscover What Drives You
DISC and Values-Based Leadership Training
Whether you’re a new coach, an experienced leader, or somewhere in between, summer is a perfect time to reconnect with your core motivations. Our DISC and Values-Based Training goes beyond labels and behavior patterns it helps you articulate how you want to lead and why you lead the way you do.

Susan David, author of Emotional Agility, reminds us that when leaders become emotionally flexible and values-connected, they’re more likely to adapt to change and respond with clarity rather than react from fear. This training supports that agility by giving you practical language, awareness, and tools for understanding not only your style but how your core drivers influence your decisions, relationships, and team dynamics. If you’re feeling out of sync, stuck in reactive patterns, or unsure of how to motivate those around you, this training is your reset button.

Whether you're looking to deepen your own skills or enhance your team's effectiveness, our DISC and Values-Based Training offers a flexible, high-impact pathway.  For those interested in certification, this training provides the foundational knowledge and credentials to integrate DISC-Values assessments into your coaching practice, leadership development programs, or internal training initiatives. You’ll gain not only theoretical insight but also the practical ability to administer assessments and debrief individuals and teams building capacity as a trusted facilitator of growth. If that is not a pathway for you, why not consider strengthening your team by offering the DISC-Values assessment and team debrief?

Using the DISC-Values assessment to strengthen your team offers a range of benefits that go far beyond personality insights. It helps improve communication across styles, enabling team members to better understand one another and reduce miscommunication. It fosters greater collaboration and trust by creating a shared language for working through differences. Teams gain clarity as they align roles and responsibilities with individual strengths and motivators, which also helps develop emotionally intelligent leaders who can flex their style to meet the needs of others. The result is increased engagement and retention, as individuals feel seen, valued, and empowered. Over time, DISC-Values supports the development of a culture rooted in feedback and growth and builds the resilience and adaptability required to navigate change together with confidence.

2. Release the Weight of Emotional Drama-Detach from Drama Summer Intensive
Let’s be honest: emotional drama is exhausting. Whether it shows up as inner narratives that spiral into self-doubt or workplace dynamics that drain your energy, drama derails impact. It clouds judgment, fractures communication, and saps resilience.

The Detach from Drama Summer Intensive was created as a high-impact program built for leaders and coaches who want clear, research-based tools to navigate the emotional complexity of work and life. Grounded in the soon-to-be-released book Detach from Drama, this intensive introduces a practical model to help you understand how drama starts, why it escalates, and what you can do to change the cycle.

You’ll learn to:
Recognize the patterns of emotional reactivity before they hijack focus
Help others regulate emotional triggers with proven strategies
Reframe meaning and reduce internal drama narratives
Guide the interruption of emotional contagion and lead others out of chaos

Clarity is hard to access when we’re operating from a place of reactivity, fear, or emotional overload. This program helps you reclaim that clarity not just for the people you lead or support, but for yourself. And it’s not just theory. Lisa Feldman Barrett’s neuroscience of emotion reminds us that emotions are not fixed reflexes, we construct them. That means we have agency. The Detach from Drama model reminds us to use that agency wisely to pause, shift perception, and reauthor the story you’re living and sharing. Whether you’re supporting clients through charged transitions or navigating team tension, you’ll walk away with the language, tools, and insight to lead with steadiness even when the emotional waters rise.

3. Sustaining Impact: From Inspiration to Integration
Many of us know how to set goals. Fewer know how to sustain them. That’s why we created Sustaining Impact, a program rooted in the realities of growth, commitment, and renewal and based upon the upcoming book by the same name. What makes this offering unique is its flexibility. It allows each participant to personalize their journey based on their most pressing needs and current challenges. The process begins with a free brief Sustaining Impact self-assessment designed to identify which of the nine pathways to sustaining change may be underdeveloped or misaligned. Based on this, participants receive a customized summary report with resources highlighting their three lowest-scoring pathways as these are often where the most leverage for transformation exists.

From there, participants have two additional options:

Extended Assessment + Customized Action Plan
For those who want to go deeper, the longer version of the assessment includes 10 additional questions per the three low-scoring areas. This generates a more nuanced report to build a customized action plan to begin addressing these obstacles through targeted reflection and behavior shifts. This option includes an hour of coaching with the book’s author.

Six-Session Coaching Track
For individuals ready to accelerate their growth with guided support, a six-session coaching engagement with the book’s author is offered. These sessions are structured around the results of the brief or extended assessment and are tailored to help participants integrate the tools, rituals, and mindsets needed to sustain their desired impact.

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, reminds us that identity-based change is the most durable: “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” Sustaining Impact provides not only clarity on what needs to shift but a practical, empowering framework to help you become that person.

Whether you want to clarify your purpose, manage energy more wisely, establish healthy boundaries, or navigate resistance and renewal, this program meets you where you are and walks with you toward where you want to go.

A Different Kind of Summer School
What these three offerings have in common is simple: They invite transformation from the inside out. They aren’t about checking a box or cramming in more content. They’re about slowing down enough to listen to what you really need and then giving yourself permission to receive it. This summer, we invite you to trade the pressure to “get ahead” for the gift of becoming aligned. Because when you reconnect with your values, release emotional weight, and commit to what truly matters, you don’t just grow. You thrive. And when you thrive, so do the people you serve.