So that’s what she did. She got a safe job in a bank, married a friend from high school (who also worked in a bank), and they worked hard to buy a house and be socially acceptable. They did have a two year stint living in the United Kingdom, where Deb felt free for the first time in her life to pursue her dream of working in publishing (she worked for a small travel guide publishing company based in the South West of England). 

Once back in New Zealand, having continued to suppress her writing dreams, she was diagnosed with life-debilitating endometriosis in her late twenties. Determined to heal through nutrition, natural health and personal growth, Deb’s first of many journeys into her heart began in her 30th year, resulting in leaving the safe bank job and her stagnant marriage.

Over many journeys Deb has battled, befriended and retrained a lot of dragons!

She’s been in the online business building and coaching space since 2008, setting up her first academy with an American based partner and members from all around the globe.

All was going well with that until 22 February 2011, when a violent earthquake struck her home city, Christchurch, New Zealand. It destroyed most of the buildings in the central city, killed 185 people, and injured thousands more.

Miraculously Deb safely emerged from the building she had been working in at the time, and decided to dedicate the rest of her life to documenting and inspiring transformative journeys. Part of her post earthquake journey has been to document and photograph the city’s journey from demolition to rebuild; as well as voluntarily work with crush injured survivors to raise funds to help them and their children adjust to their dramatically changed lives.

She also worked closely with the urban search and rescue trained New Zealand Response Volunteer Teams to publish their book Responders. This became a best-seller. It documented the New Zealand Response Teams’ Christchurch earthquake deployments through stories and photographs supplied by the volunteers.

Since 2012 Deb has written and independently published six best-selling books about the Christchurch earthquake and the city’s transformation; a 500+ page private family history book (and is working on the next one); and helped other people independently publish their non-fiction books, business material, industry awards submissions (which they won), and market their businesses online (she’s also built websites for clients in the pet care, building demolition, salvage, construction,  business coaching, and technology industries). She’s passionate about producing high-quality work, in authentic and creative ways.

She has also writes and publishes many digital publications (Personal Quest/PQ Guides) about online business, writing, self-publishing, and personal growth and self-actualization. These digital publications are all available inside KESWiN Academy to monthly membership subscribers. However, some are also available as bonuses for when sign up for stand alone group coaching programs. 

As part of Deb’s post-earthquake growth journey, she studied NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and Neuro-Semantics, branches of self-actualization psychology, from 2016, under the mentorship of Dr Alan Fayter. Prior to this she had helped him publish his book on earthquake proof strategies for staying calm in any crisis. She graduated as a Master Practitioner in 2018.

In 2020, because… um… well… like most people around the world, it turned out she had a lot of time on her hands. So Deb got creative as an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) and has been building lots of modular buildings (adapting from existing sets as well as creating her own). She often uses these as backdrops on Zoom or to add value to social media posts, as well as training and coaching sessions that she runs, so expect to see them appear in various places. She even did an impressive LEGO Christmas village display for a Zonta Club Christmas House Tour in 2024.

Deb returned to training people online in 2022, firstly focusing on providing technical support and software user training for a New Zealand volunteer organization. Clearly Deb is highly creative and multi-skilled across a wide range of subjects (writing, publishing, nutrition, natural healing, online business, technology. As well as designing and publishing books, and building LEGO villages, she has built all of her online technology, and lots more). 

She also genuinely cares about the people she works with, often building authentic, close and life-long connections with them. Deb has even traveled overseas and around New Zealand to meet them in person, and further grow their friendships. In fact, her first professional speaking event was at a conference held in Portland, Oregon USA, to an audience of 500+ people.

However, all these journeys into her heart, battles with her dragons, discovering her inner-tuitions and hidden treasure, has always had one core focus: to bring out the best in herself and empower the people she connects with to have the courage, self-belief, autonomy and confidence to do the same.

In short, we can 100% categorically state that Deb is authentic and wants to help the people she works with. Her mission is to inspire and empower individuals to live life authentically, freely, creatively, and to their fullest potential.

And this is why she has built KESWiN Academy’s online platform entirely on her own, plus has created all the content herself (no generative LLM/AI has ever been invited to set foot into Deb’s digital world. Far from being a luddite, she is also very much autonomy, security, and privacy conscious). It’s her way of ensuring quality and maintaining the true spirit of personal growth and self-actualization. 

Deb loves coaching small groups of individuals like you, as you set off on your life changing heroic quests. Keeping the groups small means that you each get personalized guidance and the full attention from Deb that you deserve. Therefore, if Deb’s story has resonated with you, and made you think about being part of her Journey into Your Heart Group Coaching Program, then she looks forward to meeting you soon.