I first met Patti Noble when we were both working at the Dole Mansion. I was a community engagement specialist, and Patti oversaw Music Under the Trees, a summer event that brought people together on the front lawn for live music, drinks, and snacks. It was the kind of event designed around the simple idea of giving people a reason to gather. Something Patti excels at.
Patti and I didn’t work closely together when we first met, but whenever our paths crossed, I appreciated her outgoing personality and tell it like it is demeanor. She was good at what she did, and she had a way of getting things done.
A few years later, after we had both moved on to other jobs, Patti reached out. She had just joined a local publication, the one you are reading now, as its editor and remembered the blurbs and articles I had written while we worked together. Would I be interested in writing for the magazine?
I agreed to meet her for coffee to hear more. I left that meeting knowing I wanted to give it a try, and that deci-sion has led to one of the most rewarding professional experiences I've had. Through the magazine, we've been able to meet and write about people we likely would never have encountered otherwise, from veter-ans and the people who serve them to senior citizens who have shared stories from extraordinary lives. We've met business owners, nonprofit leaders and everyday people whose experiences turned out to be far more fascinating than we ever could have known.
It has also given me a different perspective on people like Patti, and I owe this opportunity to Patti’s ability to connect people.
The person I knew when we first met was capable, outgoing and direct. What I’ve learned since is that those qualities are just one part of a much bigger story, one that includes loss, trauma, struggles with self-image, an eating disorder, ADHD, motherhood, reinvention and a lifelong desire to be of service to others. Those experiences have become part of how Patti approaches her work today.
Patti holds a degree in public relations from Illinois State University and after college, she worked in her uncle’s business, helping build a division that resold Cellular One services during the early days of cell phones becoming commonplace. She left that career when she was five months pregnant with her first child, Will, who was born in 1999. Patti stayed home to focus on her family for a while, and when she and they moved to Crystal Lake in 2008, she began finding her place in a new community.
At first, that was not as easy as she expected. Patti was a runner and joined Healthbridge soon after moving, eventually connecting with the Hillstriders and finding a workout and training circle. But she also wanted a social circle. Many of the people she met had lived in Crystal Lake for years and already had established friendships.
So, Patti kept getting involved. Volunteering at her children’s schools introduced her to other parents, running led her to Brenda, the founder of The Break Teen Center, and building a house introduced her to local business owners. Each connection seemed to lead to another, and over time, those relationships became the foundation for Patti’s life and work in Crystal Lake.
Her involvement in the community grew from there. She coached Girls on the Run and served on the board of The Break Teen Center for four years. During that time, she created the Oktoberfest fundraiser, turning Main Beach into a festival setting for six years.
Patti and her family added to their family with this: Patti's family grew through adoption, bringing home her son Abe from Ethiopia. Motherhood, she says, has taught her more about herself and the world than anything else she has done. It has also been part of the ongoing process of figuring out who she is and what she wants to offer others.
That desire to help people eventually led Patti in another direction. In 2019, she earned a life coaching certification and began working part time as a therapeutic mentor for Pioneer Center. She also started Finding Peace, Inc., initially imagining it would lean more toward the coaching side of consulting. Then, like for so many others, COVID changed her plans.
Unable to see Pioneer families in person, Patti had to step back and reevaluate what she wanted her work to look like. She knew she wanted to help people, but she also began recognizing that she could use her own strengths differently. She reflected on who she was and what she could offer. “I can help people share their story because I have a story of my own,” she says.
Patti had always gravitated toward nonprofit work and events, and over time, she realized the common thread wasn't necessarily the service she was providing, but that it was connection, and the ability to gather people together.
“I am a person of service,” she says. “I need to feel like I am making a difference and doing important work. I am learning that I can do that for myself, too. And I can do that through my business.” Finding Peace, Inc. was created in 2019, and it's offshoot, Events With Benefits, was established two years later. Today, Patti is expanding the business beyond any singular service to encompass storytelling, communications, public relations and creating meaningful experiences. That can mean writing a professional or founder bio, developing an About page or brand story, creating feature style content, shaping messaging, organizing an event or helping a business or nonprofit connect with its community.
At the center of all of it is Patti’s ability to listen. She notes that some of her favorite magazine assignments begin with a conversation and end with a story that captures something a person may not have known how to put into words themselves. “I love listening for the details that reveal who someone really is, not simply what they do, and then turning those details into a story that allows other people to connect with them.”
That emphasis on connection has followed Patti throughout her career, from non-profits, to small businesses, to community events.
Her own relationships tend to have longevity, too. Patti has maintained a 51-year friendship with her childhood best friend, Cheryl, whom she met as a child, shortly after they moved next door to each other in Glen Ellyn. Their friendship has carried them through marriage, children, loss, divorce, death, trauma, illness and other changes in life. Patti is also godmother to Cheryl’s younger son, Jerret.
For Patti, connection is not simply a business strategy, it is something she has spent much of her life cultivating.
That is where the name Finding Peace comes in. “Finding Peace doesn't imply that I have everything figured out,” Patti says. “Quite the opposite.” For Patti, finding peace is about learning to navigate uncertainty, loss, self-image and the different seasons of life while becoming more comfortable with her own story.
On a personal level, she hopes the Finding Peace blog will give her a place to explore some of those experiences. Professionally, she wants to help other people find clarity in their own stories and confidence in how they share them. And when it comes to the people and businesses she works with, she wants them to feel that same sense of relief.
“I want people to be able to put their mind at ease about the details,” she says. “I want them to know ‘hey, I got you.’” That may be the simplest description of what Patti does, and who she is. Whether she is organizing an event, helping a business find the right words, telling someone’s story or connecting a community, she creates space for people to gather and connect.
The magazine has given Patti another avenue for doing that work. It has also given her the opportunity to keep learning and sharing the stories of the people around her. Since I’ve met Patti, the work has changed, the businesses have evolved, and the circumstances have shifted, but the connection piece, the essence of who she is, remains unchanged.