I Thought It Was a Messaging Problem. It Was a People Problem.

Before she became a consultant, Darcy Blessing was the person everyone wanted in the room.

She lit up teams, spotted tension before anyone named it, and could turn even the most off-track project into a win. She was expressive. Energetic. She asked the questions no one else thought to ask. She connected the dots. Fast. Always had.

“I was a cheerleader in high school,” she says. “And not just on the field. It’s how I’ve always been wired.”

That spark carried her through a career that started in pharmaceutical sales, where she quickly realized that connection, not scripts, was what made conversations land. She moved into marketing not because she wanted a new job title, but because she wanted to build stories that actually meant something to the people hearing them.

“Storytelling has always been my thing. It’s a superpower, but also a survival mechanism.”

She spent ten years at Orthopedic ONE helping patients and physicians feel seen in a healthcare system that often forgets the human part. She followed that with four years at Cardinal Health and three years at ABB Optical, leading complex brand initiatives at scale. From the outside, it looked like a perfect arc. But inside, something wasn’t lining up.

“There’s more to life than this. This is why people lose their mind at forty.”

So she left corporate and joined Nivalmi.

She brought her relational leadership style with her. She asked clients what was holding them back. She listened for what wasn’t being said. But something started to shift. In some rooms, the warmth worked. In others, it missed.

Not everyone speaks in stories. Some people want numbers. Results. A plan.

That was the moment she started seeing the real issue. Clients would ask for help with messaging. Better positioning. A sharper brand. But what she saw underneath was something else. Conflicting styles. Unspoken expectations. No shared language for the swirl.

“I thought it was a messaging problem. It was a people problem.”

Then came Zookeeper.

Darcy took the assessment expecting insight. What she got was something closer to clarity.

Her result was Lemur. Creative. Expressive. Energetic. And way, way overextended. Her score was ninety seven.

“My energy can create momentum or chaos. I wasn’t broken. I was just overdoing it.”

It unlocked everything. For her. For her clients. For the teams trying to collaborate without ever really understanding each other. Zookeeper didn’t just give her language. It gave her authority.

“The less I do, the more I do.”

Today, Darcy leads Zookeeper at Nivalmi. She helps founders, operators, and leadership teams see what they’ve been circling for years. She brings behavior to the forefront. She slows down the swirl. She helps people understand their animal and the animals around them so they can finally lead with clarity.

“Everyone has powerful strengths and dysfunctional coping mechanisms. The goal is to understand both.”

She didn’t become a consultant to change businesses. She became one because she could name what no one else could. And because once you understand your pattern, you stop performing someone else’s.

Once you know your animal, everything makes sense.

And that’s where the real work begins.