Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emily Finke. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Emily, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
The learning process for the kind of work I do has been rather unconventional. This is mainly due to the fact that I never envisioned myself doing this kind of work. From a young age, I had an intrinsic passion for the arts that allowed me to explore creativity before I ever received any formal training. By the time I was in high school, I had “normal” goals of a “regular” job, but I felt God calling my life in a different direction, one that encompassed and utilized my many creative interests. Through God’s guidance, I began realizing how my intrinsic passion for the arts, music, and creativity could be used. Much of my knowledge in the different fields in which I work has been gained through experience driven by my desire to create. I have received formal training in music in the form of private lessons since age six when I began learning guitar followed by the violin at age eight, the piano at age ten, and voice at age sixteen. Outside of formal training, I have also taught myself or been informally coached to play the ukulele, bass guitar, and mandolin. I began studying entrepreneurism at age ten when I started a greeting card business and have continued to develop my skills as I run my music business and studio. The majority of the other creative and business skills I utilize in my work have been self-taught with occasional guidance or coaching from others. These skills include music composition, songwriting, orchestral arranging, acting, modeling, graphic design, videography, writing, sewing/styling, makeup/hair styling, marketing, public relations, music production, audio engineering, and directing all of which play large roles in my work both individually and unitarily. Looking back on my life up to this point, I see how perfect God’s timing has been in leading me to learn these skills. Even before I graduated high school, I was making strides toward creating my music business. After high school, I felt God calling me to my work and thus made the decision to not attend college. Being an individual with diverse skills but little formal training in many of them has often made me feel like a “jack of all trades but a master of none.” It has taken me many years to realize the benefits of my diverse interests and creative explorations.
I was very blessed to be raised with opportunities to explore my interests and develop my skills. I am also very blessed to have the people in my life at the proper times to help and guide me in developing my skills in certain areas. People with confidence in young people to give them opportunities to grow and prove themselves and their skills have given me some of my biggest breaks in this industry. Whether learning from others or learning on my own, I have learned to do so many things by simply doing it, observing the results, making corrections, and repeating the process. I have always been a doer and learned best by having opportunities to try things. Experience is a skill in itself and a most essential skill in work such as mine.
Through following God’s lead and His calling on my life, it is evident to see how God was working in my life through the many skills I was able to acquire. I thank God every day for the opportunity to do this kind of work and for the opportunity to continue to learn. Each day, every project that I work on is an opportunity to discover something new, try something new, and keep working towards something better.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My main area of work is in music as a singer, composer, recording artist, and producer. I am an opera singer (a lyric coloratura mezzo-soprano), and my singing journey has taken me around the world to perform at Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, and Atlanta, GA, for the International Singer-Songwriters Association (ISSA) Music Awards and more locally to record music at Echo Beach Studios in Jupiter, FL, and at my home in Lake Placid, FL. My projects are quite distinctive and unique as my creative style is heavily influenced by my classical music and opera training, my love of early twentieth-century entertainment and production methods, my Christian faith, and my independent spirit. I have been told that I possess a gift similar to Glenn Miller, an industriousness comparable to George M. Cohan, and a personality akin to Audrey Hepburn. I am just very dedicated to my art and expressing myself through creativity while not letting the world’s and industry’s standards define me or my music. In an effort to better define the sound of my music, I have created a new term that I hope will catch on in the industry to become a new genre. I call my music “Nouveau Classic.” As a child, I loved playing make-believe and putting on shows for my family or making “movies” with my cousins. My innate love of entertainment came from a desire to make people smile and spread joy. At age sixteen, I discovered my ultimate passion for singing and was cast in my first theatrical production. I also began training with renowned vocal coach Craig Wich in Jupiter, Florida, with whom I continue to train. When I was seventeen, I received training in acting and modeling to accompany my vocal training and love of the theatre and entertainment. At this same time, the love that I had possessed for writing poetry and stories since I was very young came back in the form of songwriting, and I wrote and arranged my first original song for voice and chamber orchestra. My song was neither classical, pop, or any genre that exists but a sound as unique as my voice and me. As I fully embraced the path that I felt God calling me down, I wrote and arranged song after song, creating the sounds that I heard in my head, and expressing myself through the poetic lyrics.
Having always been an independent and entrepreneurial person, I began blazing my own trail in the music industry. My musicality and training, interest in audio engineering, experience with ensembles, and prior business endeavors allowed me to produce, record, and release my first single at age twenty which culminated in the launch of my independent music business. In the past three years, I have released seven singles (four original songs and three covers) with accompanying music videos for five of the songs amongst many other projects. The skills I have developed and continue to develop through my life have been instrumental in the success of my music business and other associated endeavors as a creative entrepreneur.
I have been offered practically instant fame and success by respected people in the industry if I did things “their way” or changed who I am and what I love. It is very tempting to consider a career path that promises success with considerably more ease than the one I am on, but I am unwilling to compromise myself or my passion. My work and I may not be “mainstream” or “popular” at this moment, but Glenn Miller and Elvis Presley (just to name a couple) were also considered unconventional and even crazy for their uniqueness and for pursuing their dreams. Being different is not easy, but to deny the individuality that God has given me would be the ultimate challenge.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I have only one goal in my life and subsequently my career: to honor God. If I accomplish that, all other hopes and dreams will fall into place. Just like the parable of the talents in the Bible, I recognize the responsibility I have been given. Talents are not meant to be buried or hidden away or neglected. Talents are meant to be grown, to be used, and to be returned to their Giver having been multiplied. I believe that my talents are a blessing and gift from God and, as such, are unequivocally dedicated to Him. My whole life, I have felt called to entertainment that I may have the opportunity to utilize my gifts for the glory of God. I have felt called to be a revolutionary, to blaze a trail unlike any before me. To me, success is not measured in wealth or fame but in the opportunities I have been given to share my gifts and inspire others. To make a difference in the world by sharing the Gospel, spreading positivity and love, and reflecting the Light of Christ would be considered the ultimate success. This is my goal, my mission, that in everything I do, whether directly or indirectly, I will point people to Christ.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Like most things in my career, building my social media presence has been a lot of trial and error. I am grateful for the things I was able to learn to create success, and I am very happy to share some of these things with you. From approximately May of 2020 to November of 2020, I built my Facebook page from a following of 300 to 10,000. I have not been actively building my presence since this time, but my Facebook page has consistently maintained an average of 9.8k followers. As most are aware, the year of 2020 was not filled with many public opportunities, thus my following was built completely through online marketing. I utilized Facebook Ads to boost certain posts on my page and to create ads to target my key audience. With a bit of study, I was able to pinpoint my niche and was soon garnering hundreds of followers a day. In my opinion, gaining followers is not difficult. Keeping them is the real trick. My only advice on this point may seem cliche, but here it is: be completely genuine, humble, and considerate. This is who I am and thus the way I have always been on social media, and I now have a solid following of wonderful people who I feel truly care about me. Likewise, I truly care about them. In fact, some of the “followers” I gained during my active marketing have now become wonderful friends. Additionally, I try to respond to every comment I receive in a genuine way even though this can seem daunting or unnecessary. I am not afraid to have conversations with people on my posts as this is how people get to know each other. Followers on social media are still people, and authentic, considerate engagements are what show people that you are different, you are worth getting to know better, and you are worth supporting. I have been told multiple times by my followers how much they appreciate this simple little act. Taking this approach, I have been amazed at how nice people are and how genuinely supportive they are of people they have only met online. I could count on one hand the number of “hate comments” I have gotten. I am not afraid to stand up for who I am and what I believe in, but in all my years on social media with thousands of followers, I have been so humbled and blessed by the number of truly wonderful people there are in this world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.emilyefinke.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emily_e_finke/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emilyefinke
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/emilyefinke
- Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/173u0vyT12JMEiG8yRTr5q?si=pIzfY32OQIinjmJomV3lZA Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/emily-e-finke/1516515287
Image Credits
Ashley Finke