But to her, the cause is worth it. As executive director of the Northern California region of the Leads Club, a national networking group, Peterson works extensively to bolster small businesses, all through the power of networking. It's something close to her heart—her personal business connections once saved her during a tough point in her own life and inspired her to mix her business sense with her faith.

"It's about finding people their passion and helping them express it," Peterson says. "That way, you draw out their best."

After growing up in Los Altos and graduating from Homestead High School, Peterson headed for UCLA. Her thoughts of attending medical school faded when she married and had her first child while still in college, but she did graduate with double degrees in sociology and biochemistry and then moved to Colorado with her family.

There she had complications while delivering twins and underwent the heartbreaking experience of losing one. After speaking about that experience at Denver Theological Seminary in Colorado (today called Denver Seminary), she was invited to become the school's first female student. Peterson accepted and began working toward a master's degree in divinity as well as in counseling. "Getting the religious background is important, of course, but the social work and the counseling—that's what being a pastor is really all about," she says.

But when she and her husband divorced, she found the Presbyterian seminary wasn't very accepting of a single mother. She was expected to take a leave from her studies. "In the late 1970s, the ministry was just opening to women," Peterson says.

Armed with her background in social work, she talked herself into a job on an army base, counseling and serving as chaplain to soldiers in Special Forces. She couldn't put together enough money to move into an apartment, so she and her children lived in an abandoned building. "I was counseling half the security force, so they knew I was there and didn't throw us out," she says.

Her supervisor discovered what was going on and contacted Peterson's Methodist pastor. The church picked up the necessary deposit for an apartment. "I always told my kids that it was temporary, that it was character-building," she says. "I was homeless, yet working with violent offenders. God just brings the right people into your life."

Peterson picked up on this kindness in the many positions she's held since then. She started a grass-roots AIDS organization in San Luis Obispo County back before the disease got its current name. "At that point, I was doing three jobs, and they all overlapped," she says. In addition to her volunteering, she continued ministering at her local church as well as selling Mary Kay cosmetics. Co-workers from Mary Kay would volunteer with the AIDS patients, and she'd serve as their spiritual adviser as well.

This multitasking followed Peterson back to the Bay Area, but she now works full time for the Leads Club, which she joined about four years ago. "When I first got started in business, 75 percent of my business came from referrals," she says. "Every job I've ever had, even grad school, has been the result of networking. I've never officially applied for anything."

Peterson harnesses this power by traveling around her nine-county region, visiting with each of her 27 clubs and helping foster new ones. Leads clubs bring professionals together to share references, which can greatly help small businesses. "The best advertising is word of mouth," she says.

At the Jan. 29 event commemorating the 25th anniversary of the national Leads Club, Peterson spotted a contractor seated at the same table as an interior designer. The designer later recommended the contractor to a client, and in turn, the contractor recommended three additional businesses, such as landscapers. "Ninety-eight percent of California businesses are small—under 10 people," Peterson says. "We try to teach them how to market themselves."

Peterson greatly succeeded at that task. Her children, now 24 and 26, both graduated from UC­Santa Cruz and are developing their own professional lives. While Leads Club consumes most of her time, she still continues her faith-based work at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in Mountain View, something that still grounds her no matter how many miles she logs. "My faith has given me a foundation," she says.