Her Story
About Cynthia
Cynthia Peterson is the Founder and CEO of Out The Box Productions based in Sterling, Virginia. She formalized her business in 2021 after years of informally organizing wellness events for women through nonprofit and ministry roles, including serving as her church's women's director. Peterson holds a Master's in Social Work from George Mason University, which she completed in 2008, and is a member of the National Association of Social Workers. Her professional path includes 17 years in a prior role before transitioning to focus full-time on her company. Through Out The Box Productions, she creates wellness events such as yoga and mindfulness sessions to help women recharge and prioritize self-care. She is also developing a marketplace platform and app that connects customers hosting milestone events with vetted vendors including DJs, planners, and caterers. Peterson attributes her approach to a commitment to alignment with her purpose and building community, values she integrates into her work to support women in choosing themselves without guilt.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Cynthia
01What do you attribute your success to?
I feel like at this point what has made me successful is being focused on my alignment and purpose. Literally if it's something that I don't feel like is going to be aligned with where I'm going or part of the purpose that God placed on my life I have to leave it.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I kind of pave my own way which is out the box right but there wasn't necessarily anyone giving me the advice. I was in a space that I just did not feel settled like I didn't feel like it aligned or was within my purpose anymore. I had a co-worker say to me that she felt like I was a fish swimming upstream and everyone else was flowing downstream. I just felt like I could not stay and that was more my intuition of just knowing that I could no longer continue to be somewhere that didn't align with my purpose.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The biggest thing is really being in tune with who they are and listening to their intuition and if they have an idea or vision for something trusting that and not allowing other people to dissuade them but really being rooted and grounded in who they know they are because I think sometimes we allow people to talk us out of things and I feel like one of the biggest things that I can encourage young women to do is to really have a really good sense of self and honor that along the way.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges for me in this business is that I'm doing something brand new that I have never done before even though I feel like all of my skills and knowledge has brought me to this point I'm still doing something that like I've never built an app or you know sort of thing. So really I think just having the courage to move even when there's uncertainty. Also for the women that I work with the challenge is not always being focused on taking care of themselves taking care of everyone except for themselves so I try to encourage them to choose themselves without guilt.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The value of joy is my North Star so the things that bring me joy are the things that I gravitate to. The second one would be building community like we talked about just briefly because that's important. It's like anything that we do in life we those connections are important to in terms of having positive people around you with like-minded who can encourage and hold you accountable and love you unconditionally.
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