Hello, this is Leslie Kane and I am the host of the Why Not Today podcast.
This is a podcast to celebrate people who have been courageous and said, why not today?
I started this podcast to honor my father Patrick Kane who often said, why not today?
I am based in Western Virginia, a Planned community right outside of Washington, DC.
Thanks for joining us today.
And I'm super excited.
My guest is Ms. Emma Gee.
She's a musician, an amazing person and we met through mutual friends and booking music
and I'm excited to hear her story.
But before we hear from her, I always like to talk about connections and how you meet
people.
So I think she, I booked music for a local restaurant, bar in Reston and somebody said,
oh, you got to have Emma Gee play.
And then of course she started playing eclipsos and then other people knew her.
And actually recently somebody said to me, they overheard you playing, she was on the
plaza and she's like, how did you find that person?
She's amazing.
And I'm like, well, it's word of mouth.
So you never know who you're going to know that's going to refer somebody.
So I'm super excited to hear from you today and hear your story.
And I love hearing your voice because you've got an amazing accent.
So dare a little about you before we start talking about courage and a fun fact about
you that people wouldn't know.
Oh goodness.
Okay.
So great to see you, Leslie.
Thank you for having me on this podcast.
And yeah, so who am I?
I depends on where who's asking me really.
If I was in New Zealand where I'm from, I would first start off by telling you that
Kareoia is my mountain.
The Pacific Ocean is my ocean.
The Waikato River is my river.
And my parents go back to Norway, Iran, United States, Fiji.
And I was born in New Zealand.
Who I am today, however, so I'm a singer songwriter.
Yes, have been a professional musician for over 20 years now is wild to think of because
I'm only 34.
But here we are.
And but in addition to that, you know, the last couple of years, I have not pivoted.
I don't I think pivot was the buzzword for most people.
For me, my I've expanded and more I've stepped into who I actually authentically am, which
is not just a musician.
I'm also a youth empowerment through songwriting coach, a speaker, an author, and a girlfriend.
And that's really kind of, you know, for me, it's really important that we look at the
whole person, not just, you know, not just the labels.
Yeah, for sure.
So tell me a fun fact about you.
Oh, the fun fact.
Well, I don't really have to.
I mean, a big fun fact that used to be about me was that I've had 10 brain surgeries, which
people was kind of bug out about.
I didn't know that.
OK, that's a fun fact.
But for for other people who know about that, who have seen my TED talk recently, a fun
fact about me is that I don't like blue cheese.
OK, is that a fun fact?
That's a fun fact.
I think I didn't like blue cheese for a long time until I got older.
So I'm a lot I'm older than you, so maybe it's coming.
Because when I was pretty poor, I didn't like it.
OK, OK, with not liking blue cheese.
That's OK.
So and yeah, I mean, I love that not only did you meet and I booked you, but there's
a lot of people I book.
I don't even know who they are, but I love that we became friends and connect.
And I love everything you represent and your positive energy and your spirit.
And there's just so many things I love about you.
So I couldn't wait to talk to you.
So tell me, what do you how would you define courage?
What does it mean to you?
Courage is the ability to look at adversity and recognize that.
There is more.
Positives on the other side.
OK, so giving yourself permission to take a deep breath.
And leap.
I like that.
All right, take a deep breath and leap.
So eventually, I'm going to take all these courage, everybody's definitions and make
courage.
I like that.
I like that a lot.
All right.
So from brain surgeries, I didn't know that to you move to the US, which I think takes
a lot of courage.
This girl that grew up in the same town my entire life pretty much.
And although I've traveled, not very much.
I mean, in the United States, not out.
So that whole thing.
Right.
Well, to be fair, to travel within the United States is also a wild adventure.
I've been lucky to travel to 27 different states on tour most of the time.
And there's a huge difference between Iowa and Los Angeles and a huge difference between
Los Angeles and Austin and a huge difference between Austin and New York.
And some people would say it takes courage just to live or drive into DC.
I have friends that are from rural areas that won't even come to Northern Virginia because
they're afraid to drive.
I'm not going to lie.
Driving in Los Angeles is a lot scarier than driving in DC.
All right.
So tell me what are things in your life that's taking courage?
And when have you said why not today?
And how can you encourage people?
Like tell me all your why not today?
I think it was, gosh, what's her name?
There was who's the woman?
There is a very famous woman whose name I can't remember right now, which is terrible.
Think of it in the middle of the night.
Sorry.
Think of it in the middle of the night.
I totally will.
Two o'clock in the morning.
I'll text you.
So but there was a saying that basically the challenge of do something that scares you
every day.
Eleanor Roosevelt.
It was Eleanor Roosevelt?
I think it is.
Okay.
So that to me has kind of been my one of my philosophies since I was a child, because,
you know, I had my first brain surgery when I was four months old.
By the time I was 10, 12, I'd had 24 surgeries, 10 brain surgeries, 24 in, you know, all together.
And as a result, it was kind of like, you know, people attributed courage to me every
day because they're like, oh, how do you survive?
And how do you survive having brain surgery?
You deal with it, right?
That's your reality.
That's what you do.
Right.
It's like that's like saying, how do you deal with washing your hands every time you go
to the bathroom?
You just kind of do it.
You know what I mean?
For me, you know, courage has always been like something that I kind of was a little
bit perplexed about because for me, it was just existing, merely existing.
And I think a lot of people who, you know, experience trauma or who experience adversity,
just existing is a kind of courage.
There's a saying, again, of in a world filled with, you know, the intent on making specifically
women and girls feel like they need to purchase this, that and the other thing in order to
feel pretty, loving yourself is the sincerest act of rebellion.
You know, I think every day we are presented with opportunities to be courageous.
For me, I kind of know, so if I'm waking up every day, choosing to scare myself a little
bit, if your comfort zone is here, this is where the awesome stuff happens.
I at the age of, I don't know, 22 decided, you know what, I'm going to really actively
try to scare myself.
How can I do that?
Wow.
I love that.
And sometimes I would fail and sometimes I wouldn't.
You know, I tried bodybuilding for a while because that was totally out of my comfort
zone.
And the only reason I didn't actually go through the competition was because I was talked out
of it by a boyfriend I should not have been dating.
But nonetheless, you know, I tried CrossFit, I did the CrossFit games, I got into doing,
I was the ambassador for Tough Mudder, you know, all these things that were outside of
my comfort zone.
I, you know, took a leap and decided to become a youth empowerment worker at the YMCA.
You know, all these things, I studied to be a mechanic for three and a half years.
Things that were just like, kind of, okay, that's interesting.
Why would you do that?
Because it kind of scared me and let's embrace that a little bit.
I think the most notable growth opportunities for me though, have come directly as a result
of stepping out of that comfort zone.
So by your very example, I packed my bag, you know, back in 2015 and sold all of my
belongings in New Zealand and boarded a plane, spent two weeks in Vietnam by myself, not
speaking the language, read Eat, Love, Pray, whatever it's called.
And I've laughed because I was like, oh, we all know that.
And then moved to the States, not knowing, not being quite prepared for the culture shock,
which was surprising to me.
So what are the things that are culture shock?
Oh my Lord.
So my first ever job in America was working as an outdoor hiking instructor at a girls
camp.
Where did you move by the way?
Did you come here?
No, I went straight to Massachusetts.
Okay.
So I was working as an outdoor hiking instructor at a girls camp.
And the biggest culture shock there was how pippy everybody was.
And I'm incredibly pippy.
Like I'm a very positive person.
Yo, I was like the Scrooge compared to the camp.
So that was a thing.
The food here, definitely.
I wasn't prepared for the obsession with physique as much.
Everybody in America has this obsession with wearing shoes all the time.
In New Zealand, bare feet are fine.
In Fiji, bare feet are fine.
I hate you.
Sorry.
You hate me.
I hate you.
But I think on a cultural level and semi-political level, I think I was not prepared for the
cultural diversity of the states.
New Zealand is a very multicultural country, but very rooted in Southeast Asia and the
Pacifica.
Whereas here, you have everything under the sun.
Right?
And I wasn't in my head prepared for that, nor was I prepared for being typecasted as
Ethiopian, Spanish, and Black, depending on the day, depending on who the person was.
And then all of the cultural perspectives that come with being interpreted as Latino,
Ethiopian, or Black.
So it's just-
Not a white man.
Well, yeah.
And then my accent totally shifts that energy as well.
So that I definitely wasn't prepared for.
I wasn't prepared for the depth of misunderstanding when it comes to multiculturalism.
I think America is very intent on tick one box, move on.
Whereas I'm like, I will tick seven.
I love that.
So how did you immerse yourself or get acclimated?
Did you say it'd be too long or did you come to DC quickly?
So I was working as a hiking instructor in Massachusetts, and then I got a second contract
in Connecticut as an outdoor science education teacher.
Between those two jobs, I had 11 days off, road tripped with a girlfriend to Indiana,
broke down in New York State, ended up in Rockville, Maryland, had my guitar with me,
so decided to go busking and see what happens.
And for anybody who's listening to your podcast who doesn't know what busking is, that's street
performance.
So I would wake up, go sing for people on their way to work, and then see how much money
I made.
And it got to the point where I was like, actually, I can make a living doing this.
And there's an energy about DC that I really fell in love with.
So I made the decision to move here November 2015.
And as you could say, that was another act of courage.
But keeping in mind that this is the nation's capital, and I come from a country that has
seven sheep per person and four cows per person.
To go from that to then living in arguably the most powerful city in the world was nerve
racking.
But I don't know, the universe, the source, God, whatever you want to call it, was just
telling me this is why I needed to be.
So were you always a musician?
Yeah, exactly.
Were you a musician for years before or just got better?
I was actually the lead singer for a hard rock band back in New Zealand called Static
Era.
And we were together for five and a half years.
I was also doing a gigging solo as well, touring with the band, touring solo.
And yeah, that was back in New Zealand.
But it's hard to make a living in New Zealand where you have seven sheep per person.
So I always had other jobs here and there.
To then move here and make a full time income from street performance was wild to me.
Yeah, which is interesting.
Somebody I think it was Crush Funk Rass Band.
Crush Funk is amazing.
Yeah, and I love them.
And they said one time, and somebody recognized them from playing on the street.
Yeah.
But they said one time that they loved you and you were both respectful of the corners
that you played, which is, I mean, that's such a cool thing.
Well, that was one of the things that I really wanted to bring from New Zealand to DC with
me, because I think from my conversations I've had with people, there is this very combative,
abrasive approach people in the music industry tend to have towards one another.
And I'm like, dude, we're all here, we all love what we do, we're all doing this for
a purpose beyond money.
Like for me, my very reason for doing this in DC in the beginning was if I'm going to
live in the world's most powerful city, I want to make sure that the people who go to
work and make decisions that impact the country and the world aren't grumpy.
So I want to make them smile.
I think of people, and this is my naive opinion, like that people are living on playing on
the street or almost living on the street.
And that's how they're surviving is by that not never would have thought you're doing
it to entertain the grumpy people.
You know, I just like I wouldn't even care if people gave me a dollar as long as they
were smiling.
That's all that matters.
In fact, one specific time I was singing at Metro Center, and this is when it kind of
like all fell into place for me.
And I apologize if this triggers anybody who listens to this podcast.
But I was singing a song that I have written.
And suddenly all these police and ambulances turned up and parked across the street.
And I was like, what is going on?
Like, I'm just there singing and people are coming up the escalator and whatever.
And came to find out that somebody across the street had been struggling so much so
that they jumped off of the roof of the building and into their life.
And I was like, I don't know if I can carry on singing.
That feels really rude.
And as soon as I said that out loud to another person who was selling newspapers beside me,
a stranger came up to me and said, no, Emma, we need you.
Exactly.
The reason, you know, I'm so sorry that that person did not feel like they could find a
glimmer of hope, but you have no idea.
This is what he said.
You have no idea how much what you do helps.
And that was a punch in my feelings if ever I had one.
Yeah.
Do you know the story of the starfish?
The starfish?
I usually wear a starfish necklace.
I don't have it on today.
And I share this story often.
The story of starfish is a man was walking down the beach picking up those thousands,
millions of starfish on the beach and he's picking them up and throw them in the ocean.
And somebody walks by and he's like, what the heck are you doing?
You will never make a difference.
And he picked up a starfish and threw it in the water.
He said, I made a difference in that one.
And so I live by that motto.
Like, you never know what you do and people are watching that you can make a positive
influence on one person.
By you being courageous, by you keep playing, that you made a difference in somebody else's
life.
And you just never know who that one person where it could be today and you hear 20 years
from now, like that the next ready to jump.
But you encouraged them.
And so I really live by that.
This tattoo here is of a songbird made out of musical notes.
Back to tribute to a woman who, so I think it was 2017, I went back to Iowa where my
Norwegian family live and for Christmas.
So I was not in DC for about two weeks.
Came back.
Somebody had taken my regular Wednesday or Tuesday spot or wherever it was.
And so I went to a random other place to find, you know, to set up and sing.
And this woman came rushing up to me and stuffed an envelope into my hand and said, thank goodness
you're here.
I have been looking for you everywhere.
Oh my goodness.
Okay.
Random.
I wasn't thinking just open the envelope without thinking, oh, this could be a bad idea.
But nonetheless, it was fine.
There was a Starbucks gift card in there.
And then there was, she'd written this fully, like full computer typed page address to songbird.
And I have no idea who this woman is, like anything about her.
But in this letter, she stated that she was a full time working mom, had two children,
worked two jobs to make ends meet, slept on average between three to five hours a night,
had every second weekend off, was feeling super overwhelmed, super stressed, never quite
knew how to make ends meet, never quite knew, you know, what the next day would bring or
whatever.
And she said that she had two lights in her life.
One was her faith in God, Lord, Jesus, whatever.
And the second was my performances on Wednesday mornings.
Two lights.
And I was like, how is that even a thing?
You never know.
People notice and we're so worried about thinking what if they think bad of us?
Who cares?
Like if that one person...
They need more hugs.
What?
They need more hugs.
Yeah.
If one person can make a difference and just smile and people, I mean, in general, this
is a hard world and this area is hard and we're all busy and COVID was kind of a wake
up call, but we're back to the busyness and we're back to crazy life and people are still
suffering.
And one thing I want to be able to do with this podcast is give people hope, give people
the courage to say, it's just a young girl listening or somebody that wants to play,
be a musician, to think of it not as, okay, a way to make money, but to be a light in
somebody's life.
Like I'd never thought of it that way.
That you enjoy it.
You know, when I'm booking music, it's not the people, a lot of people that I booked
are not making huge bucks doing it.
And you can tell there's a passion.
I don't have that music ability, but I can give it other ways.
I can be passionate about other things.
Well, it's about leading with your why.
Yeah.
You know, whether it's music or something else, it's about leading with your why and
that goes back to your courage thing.
Yeah.
And having the courage to do it.
If your why outshines your fear, that's courage.
Yep.
I love that.
If your why outshines your fear.
And you know, for me, I quit my job 22 years ago, started 28 years ago.
And you know, it was scary, but it was like, I knew that it was for me.
And I knew a lot of people that are stuck in things and miserable in life because they
don't have the courage.
And so I'm hoping to get people courage to follow their dreams, follow their why, follow
their passion.
You just never know, one, where it can take you and two, whose life you can influence.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So fast forward, you're performing more professionally now or doing a lot more.
I have a lot of youth stuff.
I mean, you're doing so many things.
Thank you.
It's like I've expanded, yes, but I'm I'm actually coming back to the real me, the authentic
me.
And I say that because when I was five years old, my mom asked me what I wanted to be when
I grew up.
I wanted to be a rock star, a mum, a counselor, a teacher and a fashion designer.
OK, right.
Got most of those down.
Right.
So what I'm doing now is yes, I'm still playing music and still recording and still writing.
And I'm in the middle of creating this new project, Soundtrack in Progress, which is
two albums and a stage production meets rock opera meets TEDx talk.
But more importantly, I'm really marrying my music and my coaching together to or teaching
together to be a youth empowerment through sound writing coach and to deliver keynote
presentations that combine music and keynote speaking to just remind people of their empowerment,
remind them of their resilience, remind them of their courage, remind them of their magic
and their power.
You know, as Marianne Williamson says, our greatest fear is not that we're inadequate.
Our greatest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
Sometimes we just need a theme song that reminds us of their greatness.
Right.
I need a theme song.
Can you write me a theme song?
I need a song for Why Not Today.
My goal is for yourself and I'm here to help you write it.
OK.
Right.
And then because because it would be inauthentic for me to write it for you.
It needs to come from you.
And especially when it comes to young people, especially young people who are, you know,
still recovering from it.
Of course, we're all recovering from that.
Teenagers are taking, you know, it's a lot more complicated than so much anxiety with
teenagers, especially after being homeschooled for two years and the poor kids in college.
And I talk to parents and their kids are like having all these anxiety and stress.
Like, I mean, what's one of my friends?
Yeah.
Son is 21 and afraid his hair is going to fall out.
Right.
Who thinks that?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's crazy.
So, so, you know, helping them to recognize that, you know, they've made it.
They've survived 100 percent of their bad days so far.
But they have the answers in them.
We just need to let them give them permission to step into their power, step into their
theme song and write their truth unapologetically.
Yeah.
Oh, I love that.
And I, you know, I've geared this more to an older age group because I am, but I'm thinking,
yeah, we need to give that young, the younger generation the courage to do the job they
want to go to college or not go to college to do what they want to do.
And it's their life.
I mean, every parent, every older person, every generation, I believe, wants to make
sure that the next generation is better.
Right.
Not better.
Yeah, exactly.
And so that's what I'm here to help with.
Yeah.
And one of the things I'm passionate with my Mary Kay is teaching young girls how to
take care of their skin.
And they say a woman's self-esteem is highest at age 10.
Really?
Yeah.
Is that scary?
Yeah.
So we can give them courage to do the things to feel better, to be more confident.
And then, you know, you got the whole social media world bombarding people.
Wild.
Yeah.
Social media.
Such a fun thing.
We've talked about that for a while.
All right.
So encouragement for somebody to say why not today?
What would you encourage somebody?
How would you encourage somebody?
Why not today?
You have no idea.
A. You have no idea how powerful you are.
B. You have no idea what could happen tomorrow.
We know that.
C. You have no idea the impact that your actions has on other people, events, and the world.
So why not today?
Because, I mean, it sounds cliched, but tomorrow is not a given.
And I'm a huge believer that when you hear that whisper in your ear, in your soul, in
your gut, that is the universe's way of telling you, get out of your own way.
Listen to that voice.
I always tell people, listen to the first voice, not the second.
Not social media voices, not your friends' voices, not your parents' voices.
You have all of the answers in you.
You just need to be brave enough to let yourself listen.
And I'm actually, simultaneously reading, listening to two books, one's about long thinking
and the other's about busyness.
And this is, we don't carve out time in our life to think anymore.
Or just be.
Or be, yeah.
We're just running so fast in this world.
So much wisdom.
I'm going to have to pull lots of these nuggets and quotes out of here and share them.
So I always try to connect this back to my dad.
And when I share that question with people, it's like, I didn't know your dad.
And so I always listen to the interview and connect back.
And so as I listen to you and thinking you're into community and giving back and a light,
but the thing I think that finally hit me the last point is that you care about empowering
people, the younger people, and giving people a voice.
And I think my dad was a master of that.
He was always peace.
I had friends come over to go out and do whatever.
And he'd see somebody coming to the house and he's like, oh, Emma, could you rake these
leaves and do all, and they did.
I'm like, you guys are crazy.
Like I don't want to do it.
But he asked people questions and he got to know people.
I have friends that said when my dad passed away that they had more deep conversations
or talked to my father more than they ever did their own father, which is really sad.
But he was hard on kids.
And especially we were the family that just invited anybody wherever they were.
And there were people that some young kids have gone through some hard stuff, but he
didn't let them off the hook.
And he made them think and he asked questions.
Yeah.
I imagine you are very good at that with your teaching.
One of the things I heard a saying years ago in Barcelona, of all places, you are loved,
you are loved, and all the answers you have are within you.
Sometimes we just need a little bit of guidance to help us recognize what those answers are.
Yeah.
So I knew when I met you and fell in love with you that you'd be my friend.
And I'm even more convinced that what you shared, we definitely have similar spirits
in life and we could talk forever and we definitely need to connect more.
I'm miss seeing you.
And so if somebody wants to find you, I'm going to get your info to share in the show
notes, but where's the best place to find Emma G?
If you Google Emma G, my face will show up.
But if you want more specifics, action points, yeah, Emma G Music on all social media, except
for TikTok, I'm Emma G Speaks.
And then if you want to go to EmmaGMusic.com, that would be my website.
Okay, yay.
Well thank you so much.
I'm so glad we can have this conversation and follow her, see what she's up to.
She's got a lot of great things going on.
And we do release a new podcast every other Saturday.
This is like 18th or 19th episode.
We are, I keep saying we're working on a website, we're getting closer.
I do have Why Not Today cups, Why Not Today t-shirts, vinyls.
We are spreading the word to give people courage to say why not today.
So thanks again, Emma G and the rest of you.
Thanks for listening and why not today?
Bye.
See ya.
Bye.