Emily Ann Peterson
In 2013, Emily Ann Peterson was diagnosed with a degenerative neurological hand tremor, which forever altered her two-decade livelihood as a cellist/cello teacher. Refusing to lose her life’s love of expression, she knew she’d have to be brave. In an act of neurological defiance, she expanded into wider mediums and broke through her creative glass ceiling, opening the door to limitless possibilities through songwriting.
Her book Bare Naked Bravery: How to Be Creatively Courageous helps people from all walks of life understand what bravery really is – allowing them to step into it by creatively using vulnerability, imagination and improvisation. Her podcast, Bare Naked Bravery, features conversations with everyday heroes and creative entrepreneurs about the quiet successes and loud failures required to do the brave things for which we know and love them. Alongside the podcast, Emily also facilitates a Facebook group that offers a welcoming, safe community for creative misfits to finally find belonging and acceptance.
Emily writes for people who struggle to remember what hope feels like and sings to those who yearn for something secret. She speaks to those who are done being bored and crave all things beautiful, strong, sacred, and sensual. Her goal is to inspire a global resonance and magnanimous community through the marriage of art and whole-person development.
Learn more about Emily and hear her music at www.emilyannpeterson.com.
021: Emily Ann Peterson, Conversation 2: Turn Off Your Computer
During a book launch, Emily still turned off her computer in a stressful time. Book launches are crazy and people want your time like crazy. She still did it.
Despite her defining environmental differently than I expected, her experience was similar. As others found, it’s not what you avoid, it’s what you replace it with. I didn’t hear her describe the experience negatively.
Instead I heard her talk about ritual, alignment, values, relationships, family, and other things the experience contributed to. As others found, acting on values leads to finding value and wanting to do more.
We also talked about bravery, her just-released book, and the experiences that led to it.
Beyond her challenge and book, you’ll hear her sign up for another personal challenge.
019: Emily Ann Peterson, Conversation 1: Bare Naked Bravery
I’ve been part of Emily’s community since she interviewed me on her podcast in June. I’ve seen support, growth, openness, and everything you’d expect from a group formed around bare naked bravery.
Learning more about her just-released book, Bare Naked Bravery: How to Be Creatively Courageous, I see why I like her methods of developing bravery. They’re based on the same effective techniques I base mine on for developing leadership—active, experiential learning, starting with the basics and building. She brings her techniques from music—the Suzuki Method in particular—which makes sense. Think of the bravery to perform in front of an audience, to reveal your truth and beauty, knowing others will critique and criticize.
If you want to be more brave, I recommend listening. We talk about how acting—to be brave, to act on your environmental values—apply everywhere in life. Explore her community online and read her book.
Emily’s personal challenge
Emily interpreted environment differently than others, which give me something to learn, which is part of why I’m doing this podcast.
If you’re considering committing to a personal challenge but haven’t narrowed it down yet, hers may give you ideas on how to.
Read the full transcript.