Meet Emily Cleary

We were lucky to catch up with Emily Cleary recently and have shared our conversation below.

Emily, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I think a lot about the word purpose and what that means to me and it has and is still taking me time to understand it, I found a lot of my purpose in my job as a therapist and being able to create a safe space for healing for my clients, I also realized as I am expressing to my clients self-care is important I was not doing the same for myself which led me to dive back into putting time and love back into my radio show that was started back in my freshman year of college. The difference now was that I was doing it solo which was a completely different approach that ultimately led to the thought of a podcast.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a therapist who is also a radio DJ and recent podcast host! I have been in the radio scene for about 7 years probably 8 at this point and I loved it the moment I stepped into the booth, I remember walking around the club fair as a freshman in college and nothing stuck out to me and I was also nervous being new but the table for my college radio station was instantly comforting and fit like a glove. The rest is history as I graduated with my degree in psychology for my undergraduate years and masters in forensic mental health counseling at the same school I continued to have a passion and love for radio and was lucky enough to continue to be apart of the WQRI family. My show is about all genres of music and topics of conversation that can bring you out of any stress for the day. granted, I am biased to musicals and rock music. my podcast is based on the theater community and the lovely individuals that make the magic of broadway come to life, ever since I was able to speak I was singing and fell madly in love with theater and always will be. I was also lucky enough to sit on the e-board as their live events coordinator. I found a passion in working with artists and concert set up which I never knew I had! I am now working on building my podcast (Sign of the Times) thanks to my amazing friend (bestie) Jen who also has an incredible and successful podcast (At this Performance Podcast, go listen it’s incredible) that has been helping me every step of the way. She has been an amazing inspiration and support. My rock in this chaotic podcasting universe. More episodes coming soon!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

When I look back on what has been impactful on my journey it has been finding community within your passions. It’s so amazing to be able to nerd out with people who are so amazingly passionate about the same things, It helps when I am in a brain fog or having ‘DJ block’ as to what to do for my show that day. granted, i wont say my show doesn’t thrive in chaos and ‘off the dome’ content but its very helpful to have support and guidance to keep the balance. I have found the moment I step ( or sit ) behind the mic my anxiety that gives that voice of “you cant do this” volume is deafened significantly. Does that mean i am not nervous being on air or conducting an interview? Absolutely not. I have and continuing to create a space where I feel safe and confident in an environment that I love so much, I always repeat to myself, ” if your not at least a little nervous the passion is gone”. My advice would be to embrace the nervousness or anxiety when it arrives by creating boundaries and knowing you’ve created something you love and let that passion and confidence soar.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

I think this is really importance to speak on because I do get overwhelmed and burnt out. It is something I am working on continuously to understand what it looks like for me because it can be different for everyone. My mental health has impacting a lot of what I love to do and the most important thing i did was set boundaries within myself and surrendered to saying ” I need to rest and thats ok”. That is still not an easy thing for me to accept but on the days I do I feel better and can continue to put my work ethic into my passions. I am biased by being a therapist but mine has helped me recognize more within myself that might seem obvious but I tend to push to the side. Therapy is not for everyone so going back to my comment about finding community and a healthy support system has changed my life. Self care always.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: sign.of.the.times28 and emilyacleary28