Bare Naked Bravery: How To Be Creatively Courageous - Stories Of Raw Valor, Inspired Entrepreneurship, And Exposed Ambition

Over this last year, in anticipation of my book publishing later this month, I've appeared on a lot of podcasts as a guest. One of my favorite interviews to be a part of was for the Courage & Clarity podcast, hosted by Steph Crowder. Love her. Well, Steph also released another conversation with someone whose story exemplifies so much of what we talk about here on the show that as I was listening to it, I was thinking, "The Bare Naked Bravery folks need to hear this. Wouldn't it be so cool to get to talk with her?!" Well, fate would have it that I was driving at the time and forgot to write down "Contact Catherine Rains" on my to-do list. But evidently, Catherine was thinking the same thing and contacted US! So you guys, this is gonna be a great story about growing up with a bi-polar parent, quitting your job for art, battling cancer, getting divorced, and then quitting your job again to go back into art full-time. Catherine Rains is the artist behind @TheHotelArtist on Instagram - go check her out, becaus

  This week I needed to hop on a soapbox. I saw a quote the other day attributed to the lovely Brené Brown which I (shockingly) disagreed with. Normally, I love Brené's work, but the quote I read of hers did not sit right with me. So in today's podcast episode, I outline why I disagree and how I would've said what she said a little differently. It is my belief and I've witnessed this to be true in countless environments, that we MUST constantly evaluate ourselves in order to have constant improvement. Holding ourselves against the standards of our defiant expectation is imperative to nurture the growth and progress we hope to see in the world. I also know it's super important to not just constantly evaluate yourself but to also clearly outline how that improvement could occur. We don't need to give ourselves rejection, we need guidance and encouragement. But we can't give quality guidance and encouragement without identifying our current situation and where we expect to go. Also in this episode is 1) how much

Bailie Slevin is with us today to talk about money and making it! This year has been my "year of money" and what I've noticed is that I actually *like* talking about money and making money. That was not always the case. It used to be something that I avoided like the plague, but after making the choice to "befriend" it, I've learned that it's a really powerful tool and completely relates to bravery, especially bravery as an artist. Bailie is a guest nomination from a previous Bare Naked Bravery guest, Yuri Cataldo! I always love it when we get to see Resonant Bravery in action. If you're a new listener of Bare Naked Bravery, I'd say about 90% of the guests you hear are now nominations from either a listener or a previous guest, which is so cool. FYI - if you know of someone who you'd like to hear on the show, you can submit them by going to barenakedbravery.com and scrolling all the way to the bottom. There's a link down there waiting for your nomination! Okay, back to Bailie Slevin. She is the founder of Ent

When I look back over my life, I can see just how powerful planning for seasons of bravery can be. That being said, I've gotten really burned by making some really audacious goals and not being able to attain them. There's an art to making plans, especially plans that you can stick to. That's what this week's Bare Naked Bravery podcast episode is all about: how to plan for seasons of bravery! Obviously, the end of the year is the time where a LOT of folks are making new year's resolutions and preparing for the next year. It's a good thing to do. However, most folks end up quitting those resolutions within the first week. Been there. Done that! So I've created a new workshop on How to Conduct Your Own Season of Bravery Ritual for this very purpose. It's filled with several stages of rituals which build into planning and mapping out your desired goals. The workshop has a guidebook, and video If you're interested in what we talk about on today's episode, then Keep in Touch with Emily Ann Peterson http://emilyann

Get ready for the most amazing rest of your life. and I don't mean the remainder of your life (although that will happen too.) I'm specifically referring to your rest as in relaxation and sleep. Today we have Karen Brody with us! She wrote the book Daring to Rest: a 40-day program for Women which uses yoga nidra techniques to restore your body's ability to function at a really powerful level. Karen had a long personal history of severe panic attacks until she found yoga nidra meditation over a decade ago. At that time, she was a sleep-deprived mother of two small children on anti-anxiety medication. She signed up for a yoga nidra meditation class simply looking to lie down for a nap. What she got was “the best nap of her life.” As she continued to practice yoga nidra regularly, her deep fatigue lifted; she wrote a critically acclaimed play, got off anti-anxiety pills, and started to teach this yoga nidra “power nap” to every exhausted mother she knew. If you've been a listener of the show for awhile, then you

I've really been looking forward to having someone one the show to talk about Imagination and specifically how that looks in quantum physics. Now, before you tune out and roll your eyes about either science or magical mysterious stuff that we typically have a hard time explaining, I want you to know this stuff really does matter. We see so much pain and suffering in the world and it's easy to get caught up in the sameness and finite path that our culture is going down. This is exactly why I invited psychotherapist and author Mel Schwartz onto the show today. He just wrote this book called "The Possibility Principle: How Quantum Physics Can Improve the Way You Think, Live, and Love" It's a fantastic place for someone to dive into this subject matter and really learn how to use the knowledge it can offer us. Mel and I chat about the power that lies behind doors that we're nervous about opening. We talk about the mysteriousness of synchronicity, and how to lean into your intuition. We talk about how much we need

Earlier this week I submitted the final manuscript of my book Bare Naked Bravery: How to Be Creatively Courageous to my formatter. It’s official. I can no longer make changes or edits or additions to my book. The line in the sand has been drawn. That was my final answer. (At least for this first edition.) To celebrate such a nerve-wracking accomplishment, I reached for my phone, posted several fun announcements on social media, did a quick “hooray” via Facebook livestream in the Bare Naked Bravery Community group, and then I took 2 shots of tequila. As the liquid courage hit my bloodstream, I began to ask myself… “Why is it that we celebrate bravery after-the-fact? Why can’t we celebrate before it happens more often?” This line of questioning brought me to a whole weekend of ruminating on what rituals mean and how we can build and create them to empower our future bravery as well as celebrate our past feats of bravery. So I dove alllll the way in. I started writing about it, adding to my personal knowledge an

Woah are we in for a ride today! Yuri Cataldo is with us this week to share his story of bravery through business and career. Yuri Cataldo is a classically trained set/costume designer (IU, Juilliard, Yale) with credits on Broadway, Feature Films, Indie Films, Dance, Theatre, and Opera. In 2011 he founded IndigoH2O, the only multiple award-winning bottled alkaline water in the world and the 2015 best tasting water in the world. Through his efforts, IndigoH2O has been sold all across the USA and Europe, has been featured at the Oscars, Golden Globes, the Emmy’s, the MTV VMA’s, and in 50+ magazines and articles in the last two years. (CNN, BuzzFeed, INC, Playboy, Huffington Post, PBS, Indy Star, etc.). He was the architect of the Business of Creative Enterprises major at Emerson College where he combined his years of experience in the arts, design, entrepreneurship, marketing, and publicity into creating a unique educational experience that will aid the next generation of artist in creating their own path to su

I am kinda nervous about sharing this conversation, because our guest today is one of my personal performance coaches. She's amazing and in the same breath, I know she knows things about me, my performance, and how I show up in the world that I don't always reveal to my audiences. Vicki Ambinder is with us today and even though I'm a little nervous about opening up this discussion to y'all with someone who knows so much about my inner artist workings, I'm excited. I'm excited because Vicki has some seriously amazing tools to share with us about how to connect with an audience, how to stay in the "zone of genius" during a performance, and how to practice things that are difficult. ALL of those things relate directly to being brave and therefore this podcast. Which is precisely why I asked her if she'd join us on today's episode. Vicki Ambinder is based in Portland, Oregon and so the majority of her and I's sessions together have been via online forms. However, I first met Vicki because she randomly picked me a

This week's peep show episode is all about how to stop wasting your time and energy in areas of life or your creativity that just doesn't pay off. The law of diminishing returns is an important one and pertains to having incessant worrying habits, over-planning things, over-controlling things, and even not caring about things enough! We'll chat a little about how to spot crazy-makers in your life and what make s a good system for preventing and stopping these creativity leaks. Keep in Touch with Emily Ann Peterson http://emilyannpeterson.comhttp://instagram.com/emilyannpete http://facebook.com/emilyannpeterson http://twitter.com/emilyapeterson Credits If you're diggin' the music in today's episode, that's because it's brought to you by my friends at Music Box Licensing, a premier creative music agency dedicated to finding and crafting unique soundtracks. To find out more about all the artists, musicians, and other sponsors of the show, please visit barenakedbravery.com/sponsors 3 Ways You Can Support the Brav

Today's episode is a gem of an experience. We've got Albert Flynn Desilver with us and we're got really deep on some subject matter that is relevant to ALL of us, regardless of art form or communication mediums. Albert just published this beautiful book called "Writing as a Path to Awakening: a Year to Becoming an Excellent Writer and Living an Awakened Life." I highly recommend that you dive into this book with me. I can tell it was crafted with such care for us writers and intentional humans. If you're not familiar with Albert's work, he  is an internationally published poet, memoirist, and novelist. He's a highly regarded and sought-after speaker and workshop leader. He's taught and presented with folks like Elizabeth Gilbert, Cheryl Strayed, Maxine Hong Kingston, Michael McClure, and U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan among many others. You'll hear snippets of other really impressive feats of career bravery and experience throughout the rest of this conversation. As always, links to everything Albert and I talk

MJ Fitzpatrick is a dynamite Australian and I'm super stoked to have him on the show today. He's got a story that even though the details might be different from yours and mine, the experience, the pain, the tribulation, the total hell he went through might still be very similar to yours. Y'all. In this conversation, MJ quotes Oprah. and I'm gonna let that sink in for a bit, because I'm SOOOO glad he did! I love her. MJ will forever go in my book as the first male who has quoted Oprah to my face. So amazing. Today MJ Fitzpatrick and I discuss what it's like to live in hell, the different types of hell, the only thing that can get you out of hell, and how we can get back to joy even if it's just for a brief moment in the midst of hell. We also talk about why it's so stinking common (and yet amazing) to witness someone use their wounds, their experience of hell, to create joy and a life they actually look forward to living. This is a really good episode y'all. So hang on tight! [Insert Audio Block Here] Brave T

We're spending today's peep show episode in the realm of the real bravery I'm experiencing right now. If you're listening to some of the mutters on this show and in our facebook group, then you'll know that I'm doing the final revisions of the Bare Naked Bravery book this month. It's kinda terrifying, but fortunately something happened which we talk about today. Take a listen!   Keep in Touch with Emily Ann Peterson http://emilyannpeterson.comhttp://instagram.com/emilyannpete http://facebook.com/emilyannpeterson http://twitter.com/emilyapeterson Credits If you're diggin' the music in today's episode, that's because it's brought to you by my friends at Music Box Licensing, a premier creative music agency dedicated to finding and crafting unique soundtracks. To find out more about all the artists, musicians, and other sponsors of the show, please visit barenakedbravery.com/sponsors 3 Ways You Can Support the Bravery! Leave a review on iTunes We would LOVE it if you’d leave a podcast rating or review on iTunes

Today we're chatting with Deepak Ramola who is the Founder & Artistic Director of Project FUEL. FUEL stands for: Forward the Understanding of Every Life Lesson. The organisation collects life lessons from people of all ages and backgrounds around the world.  and so through his methodology Deepak teaches human wisdom. In essence, Deepak collects little bits of wisdom from all over the world and that's what he's here to share with us! Please take a minute to check out his TEDx talk, his website, and to submit your own life lesson on his site! All those links are in the show notes for this episode. Towards the end of this recording we had some tech elves jump into the call.   Brave Take-Aways Okay, your Brave Take-Away from today's show is to hop on over to Deepak's website www.projectfuel.in and submit your own life lesson. Like he mentioned, he's got a goal of collecting 1 million life lessons and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you've got some to add. After you officially submit your life lesson, h

Karin Stevens of Karin Stevens Dance, or KSD for short, is someone who I deeply admire. That has been true for a very long while. She and I got started in the Seattle art/music scenes at about the same time and we worked on a project together that became something really wonderful, for both of us separately and also together. I know you'll really appreciate how caring and thoughtful and eloquently Karin speaks about some of these subjects we cover today. We cover what it means to forge a career for yourself, how to dance with the dark-side of making art, what it means to value yourself when things aren't going as well as they could be going, and why movement is so important for the world. If you've ever had those really powerful internal dialogs of "What does this all mean?! and why am I even doing this?!" Then this is the episode for you my friend. As always, links to the things Karin and I mention are in the show notes for this episode over at barenakedbravery.com - and Karin is already in our Bare Naked Br

Sometimes the bravery we face happens without warning. Sometimes we know it's coming. So when we have advance notice of an oncoming brave season of life, how do we prepare for it? That's what this week's peep show episode is all about. Specifically, how do we lean on our intuition to tell us what we need to prepare and *why* we need those things. Keep in Touch with Emily Ann Peterson http://emilyannpeterson.comhttp://instagram.com/emilyannpete http://facebook.com/emilyannpeterson http://twitter.com/emilyapeterson Credits If you're diggin' the music in today's episode, that's because it's brought to you by my friends at Music Box Licensing, a premier creative music agency dedicated to finding and crafting unique soundtracks. To find out more about all the artists, musicians, and other sponsors of the show, please visit barenakedbravery.com/sponsors 3 Ways You Can Support the Bravery! Leave a review on iTunes We would LOVE it if you’d leave a podcast rating or review on iTunes.   Simply click here to get star

Today we get to have a chat with painter and poet, David Lesinski. Ever since Marisa Molina nominated him for the show, I've had my eye on how he's showing up in the world for a several weeks now and I can tell you that today's conversation has the potential to be a hugely life-changing for you, especially if you're an artist. I'm really excited about this one. David has a mission to provide people with the tools, knowledge, and support necessary to evolve themselves to great states of health and happiness so they can live a fulfilling life and go out and impact the world in a positive way. In the past, David provided this support as as a special education teacher, yoga instructor, meditation teacher, Ayurvedic-based emotional wellness coach and all that. Now, he gets to help people heal and evolve using his Paintings and Poetry... Today he and I chat about how to break out of autopilot, why us artists shouldn't just stack our metaphorical (or literal) paintings in the garage for no one to see, and how import

Jan Krist is a phenomenal artist. She's a force to be reckoned with and I am so proud to call her my mentor. I met Jan while I was at my post-diagnosis Artist Residency in the mountains of Leavenworth, WA. Today's recording occurred on the last day of a songwriter's retreat. I snagged her for a quick podcast recording and so I apologize for our energy levels in this conversation. Ha! We were both exhausted but I think that's what makes this episode so raw and real. We talked about mentorship, what it's like to be censored as an artist, how to use our art to communicate truth, and why artists have a responsibility to make our art. Jan even flipped the conversation back on me and asked some big important questions. (I blushed, you can hear it in my voice!) I know you're really enjoy this intimate conversation between a mentee and her mentor, Jan Krist. Let's take a listen! Brave Take-Aways I'm so glad I got to share that conversation with you. Seriously. Jan's wisdom has meant soooo much to me over the last sev

Bare Naked Bravery recently celebrated it's 1 year birthday! So exciting! When I started the show, I didn't really know what to expect. All I knew was that I wanted to publish an episode every week for a year and see what happened. Well I'll tell you: great big things!  I spend today's peep show episode talking about the big changes in store for the Bare Naked Bravery Community in the coming season. I also reveal some of my decision making process in the midst of all these changes and celebrations. Take a listen! Very good things!  Keep in Touch with Emily Ann Peterson http://emilyannpeterson.comhttp://instagram.com/emilyannpete http://facebook.com/emilyannpeterson http://twitter.com/emilyapeterson Credits If you're diggin' the music in today's episode, that's because it's brought to you by my friends at Music Box Licensing, a premier creative music agency dedicated to finding and crafting unique soundtracks. To find out more about all the artists, musicians, and other sponsors of the show, please visit baren

Okay. Brace yourselves. Today we're gonna talk about some subjects that don't always come across as socially acceptable. But this isn't necessarily unusual for this show nor is it unusual for our guest today. Alexandra Harbushka joins us to talk about her new podcast and community: Life with Herpes. Alexandra is special to me because we're business bffs, we're in a podcast mastermind together, AND I'm helping her be brave with this brand new somewhat terrifying new project of Life with Herpes. I think we're all in *some* closet at some point in our lives. So the process of making the big reveal to people whose opinions you care about - that's a really scary and brave thing to do! Without further ado, I give Alexandra Harbuska who will tell out all about it! Brave Take-Aways Today's Brave Take Away is to also drop into the Bare Naked Bravery community and post in our facebook group. What moments have required you to "come out of the closet?" What was that like? How was the news received? I think we're all in *