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

Emily, appreciate you joining us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

I think for the most part, people don’t see past the surface level view of my projects into the deeper meaning of whatever story I’m telling. So I am judged on whatever opinion they choose to make in the first 3 seconds of viewing or listening. I would imagine this is true for every artist these days. However, I believe grabbing someone’s attention is half the battle. The ones who stick around were supposed to hear the message and it was never intended for those who don’t. A common misconception I see often is that I’m a confident person who doesn’t care what anyone thinks, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m painfully insecure like everyone else, but I’ve figured out a way to market my insecurities.

Emily, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up as a dancer, but after moving to Los Angeles after high school I quickly realized that industry was not for me. I felt like I had a lot more to say creatively and fell in love with songwriting as a way to showcase some of the ideas running through my head. But I’m a theatre baby at heart, and knew eventually I needed to figure out how to turn my ideas into an entire spectacle of a performance from start to finish. It took me a long time to figure out who I wanted to be and what I wanted to say and to be very honest, TikTok helped me with that. I’ve always felt comfortable being myself on that platform and turning every spur of the moment idea into piece of content that people can engage with in real time. I’m proud of the work I’ve put into promoting my brand, growing my following from 0 to 60 with my outrageous marketing tactics and by being a voice for women at the heart of it all. If there’s one thing you can count on from me, it’s to always swing the bat, regardless of the outcome.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I had just moved to Nashville and was kicked off a TV show that I had been scheduled to start filming for several months. This was one of a thousand rejections I had experienced in my career, but this time it was different. Because once I landed back in Nashville, the pandemic began. I was in a brand new city I had yet to build a life for myself in and could no longer do the very thing I moved there to do. I was on the verge of giving up, when my friend told me I needed to join this new app TikTok. I disregarded it for several months until I realized I had nothing left to lose and I truly believe that is why it worked. I began by “throwing shit at the wall” to see what stuck. It was only a couple videos in when I had my first viral moment. It was a parody song about dating in 2020. So I continued to make more of those until that didn’t work anymore, and started throwing shit at the wall again. The next thing that went viral was a behind the scenes content piece of how I filmed a backwards music video in the middle of the street. I rode that wave until it stopped working, then I discovered my passion for guerilla marketing which remains a huge part of my brand to this day. My advice for all my friends and peers starting to build a social media presence now is to not overthink, just do more. Create everyday until you find something that sticks. And if you have to, keep pivoting until you find something else that sticks. But don’t make excuses, social media is too important. I saw a quote the other day that said “We don’t have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it.”

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I imagine if you are still creating in this industry, you are resilient. We all face setbacks and rejections on a daily basis and you can only rely on yourself to get back up and get back to creating again. So my career is nothing but a series of resilient events tied together. The one that sticks out the most though is when I got back from a tour in China. I went from playing nightly sold out shows, to living back in my childhood bedroom with my parents. There was a string of horrifying, traumatic events that led to the end of that tour, that finished in me losing all my money and being more broken than I’d ever been. After a scary encounter with depression, I decided if I was going to move forward, I need to get better at my craft. I learned how to play some new instruments, learned how to write songs differently, moved to a new city and played open mics every night. I was determined to get myself out of my comfort zone and did something that scared me every day. It was a small chapter in the grand scheme of things, but the biggest turning point in my mindset. You can be good, but you can always get better. You can fail, but you can always get up. You can be told no over and over and over again, but you don’t have to accept it as your reality.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilydeahl/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/emilydeahl

Image Credits
Derek Batt Mia Ferrari Chris Gill