Identity, Self-Trust, and the Power of Stories with Hannah Peterson

What if the life you want is on the other side of trusting yourself?

In this episode of Unapologetic Leadership, Cory Dunham sits down with Hannah Peterson to explore how identity, self-trust, and storytelling shape the way we lead and live.

From stepping into the unknown to rewriting your own narrative, this conversation dives into how confidence is built through action, courage, and embracing who you truly are—even when it’s uncomfortable.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, uncertain, or not “ready,” this episode will challenge you to take the first step and start leading your own story.

About Hannah Peterson

Hannah Peterson is the Executive Director of Wonder Productions. Prior to this, she spent almost 14 years working in Latin America and Africa on education, digital health, and innovative finance projects. She began her career as a Volunteer Coordinator in Nicaragua, where her passion for connecting across cultures first began.

She holds a Master’s Degree in Global Human Development from Georgetown University and a BA in Sociology and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. In January 2025, she wrote her first play, Vacate, and performed it in April 2025 to a sold-out audience at Joe’s Movement Emporium—where she discovered the power of storytelling to build empathy and connection.

Contact Hannah:
Email: hpeterson@wonderproductionsmedia.com
Instagram: wonderproductions_dc
Website: www.wonderproductionsmedia.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Unapologetic Leadership. If you felt stressed, overwhelmed, wrestling with the imposter syndrome, wondering if you're just not good enough, then this podcast is for you. So here's your host, Corey Dunham.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Welcome to Unapologetic Leadership. And I have here Hannah Peterson, who is the executive director of Wonder Productions, and she's also a playwright and does many more things. So welcome, Hannah.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Yeah, so tell us more about what you do and how you help people.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Yeah, so I have worked in international development for my entire career. So for the last 14 years. So me stepping into this leadership position of executive director of Wonder Productions is a relatively new role and identity for me. And what we do with this production company is it's a media production company, and we produce content and stories that range from podcasts to plays to web series, TV shows, films, and the whole concept around it is to tell stories of people who have had the experience of living away from their home country. And this really was inspired by my career in international development. I've had the privilege of living and working in Latin America and Eastern Africa in various countries for the last decade or so. And I know the power of working across cultures and meeting people who are different from you and forming intimate relationships and friendships and being colleagues with people, seeing them every day, and really gaining that empathy with people who might have different upbringings from you and backgrounds. And I feel like with what's happening now in the world, with so much division and polarization and the power of algorithms to kind of portray the realities of the world, I thought this seems like a great time for people who have had these experiences to tell their stories as a way to show people how you can connect, how you can build empathy, how you can build bridges and the beauty that can come out of it. And people love stories. We've been telling stories for centuries. And I figure now stories in terms of humanizing people are kind of the best way to find that connection with each other. So I wrote a play about a year ago, which used my experience working in Central America to kind of bring empathy around the immigration situation that's happening in the United States. And I'd never written a play before, just decided to dive in, be creative, get my friends involved. And that is kind of what spurred this whole idea because now I want more people to have the opportunity to do it.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Yeah. So yeah, the goal is right now we are just trying to find storytellers. A lot of times people don't think that they have a story. When you ask them, you know, if do you have a story from when you were living in this country? And they're like, I don't know. I don't know if I have a story that people would want to hear. It's like we all have stories and we all need to hear these stories. So we're doing a lot of work now just to kind of get those stories out there, meet people, have opportunities and spaces for people to do that. So we've been doing storytelling competitions. We're doing the play that I wrote and performed again in a couple of weeks. We have a few other groups that we're working with, like immigrants and military families and veterans and athletes that we'll also be doing storytelling events with. So it's just kind of about getting these stories out there and meeting people.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

That's very cool. And tell me more about, I know you mentioned a little bit that you said you're gonna do the, you know, the writing that you did and that you also performed in this. But tell me about you never performed before because when we were speaking before, you said you had never performed, which surprised me the fact that you were you did it in this particular case. So tell me more about that and how did that come about?

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Yes, I have no acting experience, I have no writing experience.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

At least you didn't. You didn't, but not. I didn't.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

I didn't, and now I do. And you know, I think there's sometimes a block in our minds where we feel like once we've picked our path, that's the direction that we need to go in. And pivoting and trying something new feels extremely scary. And I know I grew up with a father, for example, who's a lawyer and had chosen his path at 20, probably even earlier than that, maybe 18, and has worked for the same firm for his entire career. And that was an example of a lot of people in my life. And so you kind of have that idea of like, we just you choose one thing and that becomes your expertise, and you do it. And luckily, now I feel like the generation that I'm in is changing that a little bit of like putting ourselves in positions where we can constantly be learning, constantly reinventing ourselves and failing, honestly, and being comfortable with failing, being comfortable with making mistakes, being comfortable and not always being the best, but being open to improving and learning. And so for me, about a year ago, I was having a conversation with people, my kind of friends and network in international development. I decided to start a series, just a very, you know, informal series of meetings where we would just let ourselves dream. Because I feel like a lot of us, when you start a current international development, you don't just happen upon that career. You normally have a very profound experience that tells you, you know, this is the direction that you're going in. Because if you're going to be putting yourselves in war zones, in places where there are famine, in places where there are high levels of violence and risk and you know, health concerns, and you're moving your family there, or you're moving by yourself to these countries, that's not a light decision that you make. This is really part of your identity. Right. And so for a lot of us, we have these experiences. You know, for me and myself, I moved to Nicaragua right after I finished undergrad and had a very profound experience there where I just felt so like that this is where I'm supposed to be. I every all the work I was doing felt so natural to me. It felt so authentic to me. And it was one of those feelings that people tell you, like, you should want to do what you're doing, even if you're not getting paid to do it.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Um, because I was that's huge, actually. But go ahead, continue.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

It is. And I had that right out the gates of being in a situation where actually my first year I was volunteering, so I wasn't actually getting paid. And I thought to myself, when I moved there, I started meeting people who were working for USAID and diplomats and the State Department and NGOs, and realized this was an entire career that people actually get paid for, and there are master's degrees in this, and this whole world I was unaware of. And I thought to myself, well, if I just did a year of this working so hard and not getting paid, imagine what I could do if I did get paid and how happy I would be going down this path. And the biggest thing for me was that I was I moved to a place that I didn't know. I was in a place where on the surface everybody seemed very different for me, different religion, different language, different socioeconomic status. You know, on paper we had nothing in common. And instead I was able to be at people's houses for 10 hours laughing, not looking at my watch, not looking at my phone, fully present and honestly listening to people, just absorbing being that person that they could, you know, talk to me about things, trust me, form these deep relationships, and that pulled me into this career. But unfortunately, as you kind of as most jobs, you start kind of very much on the ground, very human-centric. And then as you kind of get higher and higher, you're in an office and you're doing proposals or contracts or things. And it definitely got to a point where I'm like, I'm not feeling that connection anymore. And I'm craving it, and I'm craving creativity. And I know other people are feeling this way as well. So I started this session with my friends just to start dreaming, and what came up from that was our memories of being in like our middle school musicals or high school musicals, even if we were like tree number five in the backgrounds, just like the community, honestly, was what it came down to of having a cast that felt like a family to have a purpose, going to rehearsal and also just like being free, being childlike, being silly, like reverting back to that very raw core version of ourselves. And that's what started it all. I was like, well, this could be so fun if I brought my friends together. And then things transpired where I decided actually I have a story to tell. I have experiences that I've lived in Central America, and I might have a different way to talk about what's happening with immigration right now because I have a lot of close friends, people I consider my family that are making these decisions. Why don't I try to write a play, convince my friends to be in it who had also really had zero experience? And I actually ended up acting in it. And we ended up, there's about 25 of us. We basically like taught ourselves what to do. I took a few courses on playwriting, and then we sold out a theater last April. Um thank you. And yeah, it was the best experience that I've had and just kind of a culmination, honestly, of like a lot of different threads of my life that I hadn't necessarily put together before, but I was like, this seems so obvious. Like I love telling stories. People are always telling me that I'm a good storyteller. I love bringing community together. I love finding ways to make people feel seen and heard. That is like all of a sudden, all these things came together. And I was like, this is what I'm supposed to do. This is the most organic way that it came about, but I want to just keep finding ways to do it. And I feel like through it, I trusted myself a lot more, which I think is a key element of leadership as well, because to have that kind of inner drive, to trust yourself, to know, kind of have that conviction behind what you wanted to do with this project and keep with it throughout the whole, you know, the whole duration of it and come to the other side where everyone is so proud of what we accomplished. Everyone feels like we did it together, everyone respects each other. And a testament to that is that we're about to do it again in a couple of weeks. And the fact that most people who went on that stage, their biggest fear was being on a stage. And they told me that after they finished it last April, they would never get on a stage again because they had conquered their fear and then they were gonna move on. Like a hundred percent of the cast signed on to do it again.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

That's excellent.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Yeah. So yeah, it's just as you know, when you lead with joy, when you lead with passion, when you create that inclusive space, people want that. They're craving that. And that's how Wonder Productions came to be. Because I was like, if I could do that with one play, imagine what I could do for other people that want that opportunity, just feel like this whole sector, you know, of media, of storytelling isn't for them because they chose a different path, you know, 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Yeah, no, I think that's fantastic. You mentioned so many things, and just you sharing this story of your life, your experiences, and even just doing this one play where trust was created, teamwork, teamwork, yes, everybody developing increased confidence, like you said, in yourself, or you've increased your trust within yourself, which is great. Yeah, it also deals with taking action. Uh yeah, some inspired action, and some that you're just like, Can I do this? Probably, but do I want to do this? Probably not, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

And that relates to me a lot. Yeah, yeah. And that relates to me a lot because I've never I've typically been an introverted person most of my life, reserved, never in performance, and I never could see myself as a speaker until maybe a few years ago. And but through doing this one Christmas performance at used to be Concordia University in the Ann Arbor, Southeastern Michigan area. And I've done that for the last five or six years, and it's like, oh my gosh, everything you just said about community and people learning and growing together, dreaming, reinventing yourself, and just having trust that okay, things are gonna turn out, you probably do a good job, but you're gonna learn something from it and somehow develop a stronger identity of who you are and the integrity that's created within yourself, just within yourself. Yeah, so that self-leadership is a huge, huge thing that all these things you mentioned talk about. How we can lead ourselves better, and how that can also filter out into other people's dreams and stories, and really impacting the world, because that's what I'm hearing. It's created a huge impact, not just on you or the individual people, but the people who now get to hear these stories and to get to experience and especially the biggest thing of performing and elevating themselves up to say, Wow, I never wanted to really perform on stage necessarily or do this, but because they did now they've elevated themselves and their skill sets and their confidence. Yeah, so many wonderful things you've mentioned. Yeah, this is fantastic. Totally, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

And I do think like when you go for it, you inspire everyone else around you to go for it, whatever that it is for them. Because a lot of people do feel like I can't do it for whatever reason, you know, I have this dream, but it would be way too hard or just impossible to do. And I have spoken to a lot of people, specifically who are part of the play, that are like, you know, because I saw you go out and do it when a lot of people would have told you, like, this is not gonna work, or I mean, and they did when I remember a year ago when I would tell people, like, I'm writing a play, even my parents were like started laughing as they're only started laughing. What are you talking about? Yeah. And yeah, because it is sometimes people, you know, it's a lot of people just stay comfortable, you know, and stay in what they know and do that forever, even when they have these dreams. But I do feel like the minute you take that first step, you don't realize it. But everyone else is they're watching that and they're saying, okay, well, you know, I don't want to do a play, but I want to do X, Y, and Z. And so actually, like since then, I've had people who are in the play, they've gone on to do storytelling workshops. One girl who was in the play actually just participated in like a story slam and told her story in front of an audience. Like, there's just all these little, like, even one of the people in the play, he's undocumented and he has been inspired to write his own story and write it into a play since then and has wanted to for years, just never, you know, had the confidence to do it. So you do have that benefit, even though it feels kind of like this is just for me, like it has this effect of the people around you once they, you know, what they get that energy from you.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

Yeah, no, I think that's powerful. And one of the definitions of leadership I've been given over the years is that a leadership is example, example, example. So I appreciate you mentioning that and seeing how that inspiration can just filter into so many other people. You can't force other people to do things, but you can inspire them. So I appreciate that in you. And tell me how has inner conviction really played a role for you, maybe when it comes to making tough decisions, because you're talking about you're doing things in recent times that you've never thought of yourself doing and you didn't grow up doing these things. So, how does your inner conviction keep you focused in moving in that direction of your dream?

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Yeah. I mean, it is funny when you think of you know your younger version, and definitely even as you're talking about being an introvert, some people can't even believe what I used to be like when I was in high school. I think probably 95% of my graduating class never heard a word come out of my mouth. What you wanna you wanna know? But but yes, I was so introverted. I was so scared. I was relatively young for my grade, which also I think just affects your confidence. And I was also an identical, well, I am an identical twin, which I think a lot of people don't realize necessarily what impact that has on the formation of your identity, interesting, your in kind of independence, even in and also just kind of the interrelatedness of our past and our journey. And that's why you tend to see a lot of twins like living together and or at least living close by, or some people, you know, sometimes you see them working for the same company, and it's because you the world creates this environment where you're a unit and you are just one of a duo. Most people don't know your name. You spend most of your time correcting people, you spend most of your time sitting there for hours when people want to play games of telling you apart and telling you like you have a fatter face, you have a bigger nose, you know, things that you would never tell anyone else, but people want to find differences between you and they're just picking your appearance apart. And you also have a mirror walking next to you at all times, which is quite profound when you think about like going through puberty or having, you know, any of the insecurities that you have growing up, you're fighting that within yourself, but then you also have someone who's standing right next to you who is literally that depiction, no matter how much you try to escape from it. So we ended up, you know, a part of why I didn't talk growing up was because I had her. And any new environment that we went into, I always had the safety of her next to me. If we went to a new, you know, summer camp or a party or anything. It was like, well, I don't really need to push myself to put myself out there, to talk to someone, to be vulnerable, to be an uncomfortable position because I can just sit in the corner and talk to her. And if that will be the night. And it wasn't until we went to university together and then I moved to Nicaragua, she moved to Dallas, and that was the first time that we were separate. And it was, I think, for each of us transformational. I mean, to be in an entire country where nobody knew I was a twin, nobody knew who she was, and there was no comparison. I could just put myself in a room and be who exactly I wanted to be. And all the friendships that I had were my friendships. They wanted to be around me, not this twin ship. And also, it meant that I had no one to rely on. I mean, I was moving to a new country. By myself, I had to make friends, I had to succeed in my job, all of these things I had to do on my own. And when I think back now through the last, you know, the now 14 years that we've been living apart and living very independent lives, I have put myself in very challenging situations. You know, I've moved to more countries by myself. I moved to Colombia by myself and within the first 24 hours got robbed of all of my belongings and had to figure that out by myself. I've traveled all around the world. I've been in just very challenging situations. And each one of them, I just rely on myself. And for some people, that might, you know, that's how you were born. You always had to do that. But for me, it's been a learning experience because I was literally born with someone next to me, someone attached to me. And so I've had to go through all these different stages, all these different challenges that I've set myself up with and rely completely on myself and trust myself a hundred percent and make take risks and know that there was no one else that was going to help me or get me out of the situation. And by the time that I started this last year, I feel like I had such a strong foundation of that faith in myself that no matter what direction I went in, I would, I knew I would put in the work. I would knew I would do what it needed to be successful. I knew I had built the community around me and had the network around me that would also lead me to success. And for that, I feel like I'm so proud of myself because uh it definitely couldn't have gone in that direction for sure. But I think just that added elements of my identity has like even more so proven like just all the ways that I've grown, all the ways that I've, you know, gone through this journey and prevailed in all these different ways to where I really feel like now I've kind of reached the pinnacle of like, I'm ready to be a leader. I'm ready to have control over my life. I'm ready to bring people into it. I have a vision, I have a direction, and I like I just believe in myself and I know whatever challenge comes, I know how to handle it.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

Wow, that's amazing because I mean you've mentioned it a few different times too. Identity, the identity you create with yourself, not so much externally, what everybody else is doing or seeing, but yeah, how you value yourself and how you respect yourself and then keep showing up with that integrity. So I think that's great. And actually, we're getting close to the end of this episode, which I'm bummed about because you have shared so many different things and so many insights, some things that we talked about before, but some that I wasn't even aware of. So I really appreciate that in terms of all this leadership and self-leadership and developing the confidence and beliefs in yourself. So I think that's fantastic. So you already talked about bold moves. I like to ask people, you know, what bold moves have been difficult, but you've talked about a ton that you've done. But yeah, do you have any other insights for people, maybe a starting path that when they feel because I'm kind of the era of your dad's where you said that he's worked at one place for pretty much most of his life? I'm kind of the same way whereas now people are shifting not just jobs, but they're shifting careers multiple times throughout their whole life and working.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

So any any just initial things that you're thinking of that what could help other people who've kind of been set in their ways and haven't, you know, because as human beings, we develop habits to kind of protect us and allow us not to think about everything, but yeah, to stay on a path of inspiration, maybe of dreaming and keeping reinventing yourself. Basically, that just means improving yourself. Yeah. Do you have any suggestions, a tip or two?

SPEAKER_01 26:22

Yeah, I mean, I come from an interesting position in that because I worked at international developments, uh, people might be aware that about a year ago, USAID was dismantled. And that means that there's tens of thousands of people now who are out of work, who have always worked in international development, whether they were working for USAID or an implementing partner or a contractor. So it's actually, you know, we're all on this intro, and I was one of them, you know, a year ago, I also lost my employment. So, you know, I'm constantly around people now who are now thinking, okay, like I, especially in government, you know, that's the most secure job that they say that you're supposed to have. Those attract people who want that stability, who, you know, a lot of people who were laid off, those were people who had been working there for 20, 30 years, they had planned to retire there. This was their life. And it's interesting because of what's happened, now people are having to kind of rethink what's, you know, was I even happy? You know, what was I actually even enjoying what I was doing? Or was this just kind of the easy, comfortable thing? Or, you know, the type of impact that I want to have, are there other ways that I could be doing that? Is was it just USAID where that could happen? Or I was always working on international projects. Are there similar ways that I can use my skills on domestic work? And also just kind of and letting ourselves dream, because a lot of times there are just not even that space to do that. So like life just happens so fast. And for so many people, you that stability is necessary, that dreaming or quitting or pivoting is just way too scary. And I've been on a few panels now for different kinds of because obviously with you know master's programs specifically, people are a little bit scared because they're they've taken two years off of their work, hoping to increase their education and chances at a better job. And now a lot of those jobs don't exist. And so, you know, I'm going into this entrepreneurial route. So people are like, well, I don't know necessarily if we should be, you know, pushing that on people who wanted this government kind of safe quote unquote life. Would they want to be the risk taker and be an entrepreneur right now, like what you're doing? And my answer to that is I feel like I would rather be doing what I'm doing than sitting back and waiting for other people to control my destiny, you know, like people who are applying to 400 jobs and waiting for one email of maybe an interview, or even people who are in their jobs and thinking, just maybe if I wait three more years, I'll get that promotion and then I'll be able to do what I want to do. There's so much of life where we just feel like we're putting our lives in other people's hands. And to me, actually, like starting your own thing is taking back control. And if you're someone who likes control, I feel like rather than sitting and waiting for someone to respond to you, why don't you send them the email? Why don't you find a way to make something happen, you know? And yeah, I do also feel like a lot of people can tell you, like, why don't you start like start a business? They just have this idea of start a business. And uh I had that a year ago. I was working with a professional coach, and she said, like, it really seems like you're in this place where you would love to start your own thing. Is one thing to want to start your own business, is a very other thing to figure out what that is. And I do feel like people try to force it so much and are so confused when it doesn't work. And uh what I would say to that is a lot of times the most successful things are the things that are so authentic to you and happen so organically. So a lot of my friends now who are looking for jobs, it's so funny because I'll they'll be telling, like, oh, I I hate this, I have to apply to this job later, but I just spent four hours, you know, doing this other thing. And I'll be like, Well, have you ever thought about the thing that you just did for four hours? Like, maybe that's what you love, and maybe you should see how you could do something with that because it's already so it's so you. It's what you would do if you, you know, people say, like, if you had a free day, what would you do? And then try to find some way to be productive around that. Yeah. I feel like we all think of success in this certain way. We have to get this dream job or whatever it is. But I'm like, it's not that most of the time. It's actually just figuring out who you are and how you can, you know, make that into the dream, make that into your passion. And people will flock to that because it will seem so authentic to you. So don't think of them as like separate things. Think about how, you know, one of the best questions is like, if you had a Tuesday, what would your dream Tuesday be? Now, what would your dream Saturday be? But what would your dream Tuesday be? If it was up to you, what would you be doing on a workday? And when you start to think about that question, you know, I think that can give you a lot of direction of like how you want to be spending your time and the type of impact that you want to have that already feels so close to your identity.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Yeah. I think that's wonderful. Thank you for that great advice. Because I think so many people do disconnect. And I know thinking of my journey in life, I've disconnected like, ooh, I either I wasn't trained for that or I'm not good at that. Therefore, I can't imagine having my dream Tuesday on what I would truly want to do that are within my interests and my capacity that I would want to do. Yeah, yeah. So I think many times because of people's mentality, as you said, they've allowed other people to dictate their lives and like ooh, I want somebody else to provide me this ideal, secure lifestyle and job, rather than how can I live this passionate life while securing my own and putting my hand to something that's impactful to society and that's worthwhile and valuable. So, yeah. So thank you, thank you very much, Hannah, for sharing your wisdom, your experience, and just the fact that you can no longer say, I've never performed in a play or I've never written one. So can't say that anymore. I'd love that. Can't say that anymore. Yeah, love that when people transform and they can no longer say that, even though that may have been a huge part of most of your life's identity, but you can't say that anymore, which is I think amazing. So thank you again. Yeah, so thank you again for being on this episode of Unapologetic Leadership.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

Absolutely. So happy to be here with you. It was so much fun. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

Awesome, awesome. Well, good, good. Tell us what's the best way people can connect with you.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

Yeah, so we Wonder Productions, we're on Instagram, we're on LinkedIn. Instagram, our handle is wonderproductions underscore DC. And there you can get all the information of upcoming events, our websites on there, tickets to things, more information about our team. So that's definitely, I would say, the one-stop shop to go to right now to find out what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Hannah.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 34:15

And I want to thank you for listening to this episode of Unapologetic Leadership, where stories are extremely important in sharing our passions with other people, inspiring other people. And remember that your own self-leadership can develop your trust in yourself, your beliefs, and your confidence to make more impact on what we do in this world.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

So that's it for today's episode of Unapologetic Leadership. Head on over to wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week that posts a review on Apple Podcasts or iTunes will win a chance the grand prize drawing to win a twenty-five thousand dollar private VIP day with Corey Dunham himself. So head on over to Unapologetic Leadership Podcast dot com and pick up a free copy of Corey's gift and join us on the next episode.