We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emily Deahl. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emily below.
Emily, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
When I was growing up, competitive dance was my entire life. All I wanted was to become the best dancer in the world. But, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that attacked my joints and heart at the age of 5. Against all of my doctor’s wishes, I continued to dance. When I became very sick, my body couldn’t keep up with the workload and my dance teacher had to remove me from our competition pieces. It broke my heart into a million pieces. My dad pulled me aside that day and said “Unfortunately, you’re going to have to work harder than everyone else in the room if you want the same opportunities. Fortunately, that will get you everywhere you want to go in life.” And that’s what I did. I carried that with me into adulthood and my tenacity became my secret weapon. When everything else fails, you can always rely on your work ethic and your attitude.
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 began making music as soon as I moved to Los Angeles when I was 17. I originally moved there to dance, but very quickly realized that industry was not for me. In order to become the artist I wanted to be, I knew I needed to learn how to sing and act. Once I started singing and writing my own songs, I never looked back. It’s taken me a very long time to streamline all of my skills into a brand that makes sense to me. And it’s constantly changing. The past 10 years of releasing music have helped me discover my passion for marketing, video making and most importantly, being a voice for women. I look back and can’t believe my art is now so politically charged, but I can’t imagine another way.
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 three skills that have impacted my creative journey the most thus far are my resiliency, confidence and hustle. I call those things skills because you have to develop them over time. I’ve learned how to be resilient from failing, I’ve learned how to be confident from being insecure and I’ve learned how to hustle from being broke. If I could give any advice to someone early on in their journey, it would be to take more action. Do more things. Don’t think so much about how you’re going to do it just go do something. Taking action has solved every mental battle I’ve ever faced. If you fail, try again. Keep trying things until you figure it out for yourself. Don’t focus on the noise. Keep your head down and do you.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
I don’t think either of these is totally right or totally wrong. I think it’s a mix of both. You should definitely focus on your strengths but you shouldn’t neglect your weaknesses either. Focusing on your weaknesses from time to time can help you improve your strengths. It’s also important to determine whether or not your weaknesses are weaknesses or if they are fear. I thought social media was a weakness of mine until I discovered I was just scared of it. Once I put my insecurities aside and started taking it seriously, my entire career changed. I found my audience, my voice and discovered I had a talent for content creation. I keep my strengths at the forefront of what I do, but when I’m faced with a challenge that can be solved with the development of a new skill, I’m going to learn how to do it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://emilydeahl.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilydeahl/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/emilydeahl
Image Credits
Derek Batt Nick L. Photo Luke Rogers
