On a bright Lagos morning, Yemisi Peters – popularly called YP- speaks with the calm assuredness of someone who truly has lived what she teaches. Her voice is calm yet carries an undercurrent of warmth. She leans forward a bit, as if to fill the silent space between her and the listener, and almost like a benediction whispers:
“Your uniqueness isn’t an error; it’s a blessing to fulfill your purpose.”
For Peters, a certified coach, speaker, and trainer at the John Maxwell Leadership Team, this is not a slogan; this is the axis on which her life turns. As the world is an increasing arena of comparisons and performances, she has built a practice on very simple principles: gratitude, growth, and a positive attitude. She calls it AGGPA, but the acronym is less important than the lived reality it represents. Her work is not about forcing people to fit into a mold-it is about helping them realize that the mold never existed in the first place.
From Curiosity to Calling
Peters’ curriculum to coaching was not straightforward or comfortable. She admits she never really thought of being “a coach” in the conventional way.
“It started with curiosity,” she remembers. “I had this natural pull toward communication, toward people. I was fascinated by how much of our lives are shaped by the stories we tell ourselves, and I wanted to help others rewrite those stories.”
She has started her career in service, spending most of her time listening rather than speaking, and found that certain voices carry weight, not because of the loudness, but because of the authenticity with which the words are spoken. Gradually, from casual encouragement directed at her team, she began to move into something bigger. Her certification through the Maxwell Leadership Team handed her not just a platform but global strategies and a toolkit on leadership.
Nevertheless, Peters argues that it was not the certificates that differentiated her from others: “Tools matter, but transformation comes from faith, gratitude, and attitude. Without those, leadership feels hollow,” she elaborates.
Power in Attitude
Ask Peters what she believes makes or breaks success, and she won’t hesitate: attitude.
Peters describes the toxic attitude that steals all glow from success. “I’ve seen people who had everything – money, networks, opportunity, but their attitude was toxic, and their success had no glow,” she tells. “And I have seen those who have had neither money nor networks nor opportunity yet have glowed, because they carried themselves with gratitude, hope, and resilience. That is the true wealth.”
Most of her clients come to her workshops with their notebooks open, ready to jot down formulas. Instead, what they leave with is something much harder to distill: new energy and a subtle but deep transformation of the way they see themselves. Peters doesn’t toss about affirmations; she nudges people to start doing.
“Clarity comes from action, not thinking,” she says. “It is better to take imperfect steps in the right direction than stay paralyzed by overthinking.”
Lessons From a Life in Seasons
Peters has an intimate understanding of what starting over means. In her book, Life Is in Seasons, she delves into her own periods of doubt, loss, and reinvention.
“I’ve tasted both affluence and lack,” she says. “I have felt the fear of going back to square one and the courage it takes going forward. Because of this, I can sit with someone in their valley and say, ‘I understand.’”
Clients say that she is both firm and yielding; she will not sugarcoat the truth but will give it to you with compassion. One client said it best: “She’s warm but uncompromising. You know she believes in you but won’t let you settle for less than your best.”
This duality of gentleness and iron is the very thing that has helped her voice stand clearly and distinctly in this crowded coaching industry.
Socializing on media as refuge
Unlike many of her colleagues, Peters never sees social media as a stage for her. Instead, she nurtures it as a sanctuary for herself. Her Facebook feed reads less like a brand statement polished to perfection and more like an entry in her journal-handed out to her friends.
“Hello dear friends,” she wrote recently, “a new beginning. We are so happy we got to the 6th month with our bodies, our souls and minds intact! Stay grateful, stay joyful, stay hopeful.”
Not a glib statement, but one that is engraved into her way of life. This transparency is almost magnetic to her developing online community implying they return to find because Peters shows up as herself, time and again, with no bright graphics or reels as the say.
Building Leaders, One Voice at a Time
Inwardly, Peters honors personal development just as she devotes her energy to others. She attends leadership conferences around the world, invests in her own development, and keeps mentors around her that stretch, challenge, and level her.
“You cannot lead others where you have not gone yourself,” she insists. “If I stop learning, I stop leading.”
That unwinding humility is perhaps what makes her coaching so resonant. Her life becomes a mirror for those she intends to help: a living testimony of wholeness emerging from brokenness.
“When a woman owns her voice,” Peters says softly, “she creates thousands more to claim their own.”
What Lies Ahead
Moving forward, Peters sees herself branching out beyond the one-on-one coaching arena. She is working on training sessions for emerging leaders, programs for start-up entrepreneurs, and interesting ways to function on digital platforms to reach a global audience.
But the vision is more than scale. It cuts into the personal.
“If I could give every woman one piece of advice, it would be this: Embrace your uniqueness. Don’t trade it for acceptance. Your uniqueness is the gift that unlocks your purpose,” she says.
She pauses and with a smile says, “And always, always – carry it with the right attitude and gratitude.”
The Lasting Impression
Peters gives a welcome reprieve from a standard prescribed interview process. She does not preach; she engages in dialogue. She does not prescribe; she leads you to follow her. You come to realize that the real magic of her power lies not in the words she speaks but in the living embodiment of her very being.
Her legacy is not built on books sold and workshops filled, but on the quiet shifts in perception that she causes in the hearts of her clients. They walk away from her not just with techniques but with belief – belief in themselves, belief in their gifts, and belief in the possibility of furtherance of those gifts.
This probably also explains why she holds gratitude at the very core of all that she teaches. Gratitude is, she explains, not this passive acknowledgment but active knowing of what already is. Thereafter, growth is set to occur.
In this railed world where voices get louder and expediencies become the favored choices, Yemisi Peters offers another way: a slow and deep rhythm founded upon faith, gratitude, growth, and attitude.
Thus, as a parting thought, it is more than just coaching; it is soul work.
For those so blessed to run across YP, they are made aware that their uniqueness is not only real, it is imperative.
