My Favorite Room: Big views, big inspiration for Peggy Klaus in this home office

Oct. 1—An upstairs home office with views that go on for miles proves just the ticket for leadership coach and best-selling author Peggy Klaus. "It's got windows all around. It's upstairs on the second floor so I look out on the Sangre de Cristos. I've got a pretty full 180-degree view of the mountains and hills and greenery," she describes.

Measuring about 12 feet by 20 feet, the room looks out onto New Mexico high desert terrain to the north, east and south. She says, "I feel incredibly inspired by looking at this beautiful landscape. Everyone who's been up here has said, 'Omigosh Peggy, the energy up here is fabulous.' It just feels open and spacious and light. I see the sunrise because I'm facing east over the mountains and it's exquisite."

It's good that Klaus loves this room, because she's in here from 6:30am to 9:30pm most days, with a break here and there for a hike or to hop onto the treadmill. With her lifestyle, "I spend a lot of time up here. I work 70 hours a week. This is like my sanctuary. It's like being in a little bird's nest. I feel on top of the world. I am very rejuvenated being up here."

One wall is painted sage green and the others are white. There's a built-in bench seat, some plants, a folk art depiction of a tree by Mose Tolliver, collages by her friend Tracy King, an off-white rug, an electric piano and a whimsical ceramic car with dots all over it. The lighting is overhead. Klaus herself can usually be found seated at her built-in semi-circle of a desk, either working on the computer or the phone, perhaps doing a podcast or in a Zoom session where clients take note of the setting. "It's a lot of windows. It's very airy. I wanted to keep it open so if I have to do virtual trainings, I can do them up here," she reasons.

Even better, "I can walk right out onto the roof. When my clients say, 'Where are you? It looks so fabulous. Can you show me the out-side,' I can walk right onto the roof and show the terroir. They get such a kick out of it. I go out the door and it's like a step up and there I am on the roof. It's a flat roof."

Most importantly, "It gives me an expansiveness of thought. I just love being up here. It's very comforting. It's very stimulating. You look at the views. You look at the sky. You look at the clouds. It's enormous."

Klaus grew up in a Philadelphia suburb, and has lived in Washington, D.C. and Wisconsin (for college), Taos (in the seventies), London (for graduate work at the Royal Academy of Music and The Drama Studio), Los Angeles and mostly in Berkeley, California. There, she became a communication coach for clients at American Express, CBS, Salvatore Ferragamo, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Google and Sony. Meaning, exactly what? She explains, "I work with a lot of executives around their leadership skills. For example, when someone gets promoted to a senior executive position, looking at their strengths and asking, what do you want to enhance and reinforce? And what are the things that are detrimental and how do we eliminate or at least alleviate them? So it's helping them with strategy, helping them to run teams, helping them to manage up." Her book BRAG! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It was a best seller, and so was its follow-up The Hard Truth about Soft Skills.

After visiting Santa Fe regularly, she moved here four years ago with her sister. "I love the arts scene — performing arts and visual arts. I do a lot of hiking. I love the scenery and the whole geography of the South-west. I love the terrain. It's very beautiful to me," Klaus comments. In fact, "I've never been happier. I'm a happy person and I've lived in some wonderful places, but I truly feel that this is heaven on earth. For me. I have been so fortunate to have found a lot of people who are so kind, generous, smart, curious, adventurous, with great values and interests. That really is something I am so grateful for. In the four years I've been here, I have amassed a wonderful cadre of folks that are my friends."

Her Santa Fe aerie north of town is where she reaches out to the world — friends, clients, her marketing team, her publicists, the universities where she guest lectures like Harvard's Kennedy School. Klaus is a master at striking up relationships. She figures, "I've always been able to combine the professional with the personal because the work I do is so personal. Whether it's one-to-one or 1,000, it's very personal. It really meshes everything I love. Learning. Curiosity. Being with people."

Now 70, Klaus has no intention of slowing down. With the many Sagittarius fire aspects this extrovert has in her astrological chart, she's still pursuing the big life she was always destined for. Hosting visitors. Getting involved in politics. Writing proposals. Expanding her business to support more people becoming more confident. As she sees it, "I've studied a lot. I've done my own therapeutic work. I have a very good sense about people. I'm curious. I'm relentless. My goal is simply to have them become the best person they can be. That's what I'm facilitating."

My Favorite Room: Big views, big inspiration for Peggy Klaus in this home office