Meet Aaron Embrey

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aaron Embrey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Aaron, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I’ve experienced some deep transformations in my life, and over time, I’ve also learned that REAL change requires the courage to actually take action and create something new. I believe, my purpose is all about empowering others to step into the unknown and create their own change through their unique self-expression and creativity.

For WAY too long in my life, I hid integral and essential parts of my identity which absolutely, starved my creative spirit…

Once I (finally!) started embracing my authentic self, it ignited a spiritual and creative awakening inside me that catalyzed even more changes outside of me—both personally and professionally. Sharing my unique perspective through my art has always given me a certain sense of hope—even in my most challenging times. It’s also shown me the healing power of authentic self-expression and artistic self-care. The mantra of my art/work is “create change” because I’ve learned—firsthand—how the creative process can transform a life.

Now, I love supporting and nurturing the creative process in others, empowering them to ignite change in their own lives by expressing and sharing their own unique ideas and making new things of their own. My calling and purpose is definitely to nurture and amplify creativity in others, and once I finally started leaning into that purpose, I realized how I might help to initiate change and transformation in others by empowering their own authentic creative spirit.

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?
After decades of “creating on demand” and only offering creative services (i.e. photography, logos + website design), I’m excited to be reinventing myself professionally and focusing more fully on teaching, supporting, and empowering others creatively by sharing my unique expertise.

Now, I’m also offering more intimate group classes, courses, and workshops, as well as 1:1 design lessons in both graphic design and human design.

I’m especially excited about my new membership community, The Wild Creators Club. It’s definitely a work-in-progress that’s currently providing a weekly space for creative co-working and conversation. I designed it to be a nurturing container where we, creators and creatives can cultivate our practices & projects together.

My goal with all of my new offerings is to help others “rewild their creative process” by sparking self-expression, courage, and change-making. And I’m sharing all the tools, resources, and insights I’ve gathered over years of experience on my new website RewildingCreativity.com, and my podcast for Wild Creators (at wildcreating.com)

This pivot is giving me an opportunity to align more closely with my purpose of igniting transformative creativity, for sure. I love igniting others in their creative processes and watching them grow!

My hope is that by living as a more empowered creative human, I might help fellow artists, entrepreneurs, and innovators unlock new levels of creative potential so we can all make new things and positive changes, together.

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?
The qualities or skills that have been the most impactful for me are probably creativity, resilience, and courage…

Creativity: Nurturing my inherent creativity by building a consistent creative practice literally saved my life (early on) and eventually showed me the power of artistic self-expression. It gave me an outlet and a sense of empowerment during my most challenging times. I suggest making time for creative activities you enjoy no matter how small. Simple acts of creation can spark profound transformations!

Resilience: I’ve faced challenges, losses, and setbacks on my path, but somehow, every time, I managed to pick myself up, heal, and move forward again. Resilience has been vital. To cultivate it, I can’t avoid my pain. I have to feel it fully, and then, find the opportunities for growth. I’m developing spiritual practices that nourish me. Remembering that I’ve overcome difficulties before, and I will again. My hardships don’t define my worth. With time and self-care, we will integrate our experience and gain wisdom.

Courage: It definitely took some courage to finally come out as transgender back in 2010, courage to leave my unfulfilling corporate career, and courage to believe in my purpose enough to take consistent/persistent, creative action. I would certainly encourage others to cultivate the courage to live more authentically, take more risks in service of their dreams, and boldly chart their own paths. I’ve found small daily(-ish) acts of courage help build my “courage muscles” over time.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
The biggest challenge I’ve faced in the past year was probably the loss of my beloved art barn, a home studio, sacred playhouse, and creative workspace, in a devastating, Sunday afternoon fire, last summer.

As heartbreaking as it was, the experience forced me to (eventually!) take a hard look at what was truly working in my business and start making some bold changes…

Out of the ashes, I’m slowly reinventing myself professionally to align more closely with my purpose of igniting creativity and change in others.

I’m still in the process of transforming obstacles into new opportunities by pivoting into more teaching and mentoring. My new offerings like the Wild Creators Club are allowing me to help myself AND empower others at this pivotal point in my journey.

While it was an incredibly difficult loss, I chose to see the fire as a chance to create something new. So, I’m focusing on the potential for growth and (still!) letting go of old aspects of my work that need to evolve and change. There’s been grief—sure, but there’s also been immense gratitude for this powerful catalyst that pushed me toward purposeful change in my life/art/work.

My advice would be to be proactive but patient with yourself when facing big setbacks. Reflect on how it might be an opportunity disguised as a challenge! Find the potential gifts it might bring for reinvention and to get back to the essence of you/your work. With time, patience, and gentle self-care, we can overcome almost anything by using it as fuel for change.

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Image Credits
©Aaron Embrey

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