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Fellow Creative Misfit, Tamara submitted the following question: "I'm in a really bad place financially. Like really bad. It seems like everyone I'm talking with about becoming a client of mine is back peddling and turning away. What do I do?" Ohhh girl. I've been there. and I've got some things for you to think about... perhaps they will reveal your next steps for getting yourself out of a financial pickle like this one.

Fellow Bare Naked Bravery community member submitting this stellar question for this week, "How do you balance self-care with self-discipline?" Suuuuch a good question! So that's what I dive into today. Where is the line between kindness, compassion, and getting uncomfortable? Do they belong together? Let's find out!

Over the last couple weeks I've seen this happen a lot: my creative friend will go on vacation, work maybe 1 hour everyday while away only to return to a super hugely financially profitable week! Why does this happen?! And how have I been able to be soooo productive? It's allll about the 80/20 Pareto Principle. 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. That's what we're talking about today on this week's peep show mini episode!

The lovely @libby_bryant (from Instagram) asks, "How do you put yourself out there if you don't know exactly what you want? Should you just wait until you're 100% clear?" This is a question we ALL face as creatives, which makes it a perfect one for today. Emily Ann answers with personal experience and hopefully some extra pizzaz too!

Today's Peep-Show focuses on Go-to Ways to Get a Bravery Boost Before doing something that makes you nervous. 

Eryn Morgan (@eagleandmouse on Instagram) asked me a couple weeks ago about how I find the motivation to sit down and be creative. Time Blocking is a huuuuge factor in this for me. If you're curious about how to get started with this, then this is the episode for you!

Worry is not entirely a bad thing. However as with a lot of things in life, if it's used in excess, then it most definitely is a bad thing. So when you've found yourself stuck on the hamster wheel of worry, what do you do to cut yourself free? How do you turn worry into momentum, especially momentum that's going in the *right* direction? That's what we're talking about on today's peep show mini episode!

This week I'm driving all the way across the country! My creative sabbatical in Atlanta, GA has wrapped up and I'm headed back to the Pacific Northwest to nestle into a new life on Orcas Island, WA. I'm really excited about it and this week's Peep Show is all about how much I gain from these long road trips. There's something magical about being in the midst of big horizons...

I faced a looooong to-do list this week, which is why today we're looking at why it's so important to celebrate and connect, even with the small stuff. Our seasons of bravery sometimes BEG us for this and I know that sometimes those really dark seasons of bravery make it really hard to reach out and connect with folks. But it's sooo soooooo soooooo important that we do this. Take a listen and learn how I did that this week.

I've given some crazy wonderful announcements this week and my brain is going ALL over the place, so here we are at the end of this week and I'm really wishing I had done this one thing more: expression, for the sake of expression. Take a listen to this week's Peep Show episode to find out what I mean and why it's so so important to me.

This week I was asked to write an article for Teach Well all about setting difficult boundaries. I know that many of us creatives and entrepreneurial types have to deal with this topic a LOT in business. But even as just a human you have to set boundaries. So that's what we're talking about today. I've identified 7 steps you'll need to take to set, hold, and enforce a difficult boundary (with a bonus 8th step.)

I got LAID OUT with a cold earlier this week and was confronted with some honesty that changed a few things for me. So that's what this week's peep show is all about: regaining control of the brake pedal, taking your foot off the gas pedal, and making decisions that require projects to either come to a full stop or get postponed. 

This subject was brought up this week by a Bravery Student of mine. She's a creative and someone caught her off her game. Their comparison comments messed with her groove, so her question to me was "What do I do now that I've begun to second-guess myself?" The whole situation pushed my Mama Bear buttons and today's peep show episode covers my official answer to that question...

When you're putting yourself out there, things can get scary and overwhelming. But one of the best "mantras" I've adopted in the last several months is this: I have helpers. I've seen over and over again that helpers really are all around us. We just have to look for them. So that's what we talk about on today's peep show mini episode of Bare Naked Bravery: All my favorite go-to sources to find my helpers!

At the time of recording this little peep show & mini episode, I was really overwhelmed. Like *scared* overwhelmed. I turned to my favorite ways of refocusing myself and regaining my sense of power. So that's what I divulge in this little peek behind the curtain of the bravery I am facing first-hand.

Feeling discouragement, apathy, dissatisfaction and general ickiness is the least fun thing I can think of. When we're feeling really stagnant in life, there are some pretty reliable methods I personally turn to when I'm in a funk. That's what this episode is all about!

Indecision (and too many decisions) can freeze us, lock up our progress, and create big time avoidance and resistance towards accomplishing a big brave task. Creatives fall victim to this for so many valid reasons. In this peep show mini episode I show you how I walked through this kind of speedbump with one of my Bravery students this week

There comes a season when waiting is no longer an option. And then you're left with a) the knowledge that action is the next step and b) the task of acting. They're two separate things. I, myself, have gotten caught up in the knowledge speed-bump - especially this last week.

Saying yes (or no) to something can make you crazy, especially if you're like me. I love to say yes. I love to do ALL THE THINGS. But lately, I've seen a personal turning point arise. It's time to start saying no to things.

But HOW??? That's what today's Peep Show episode is all about. Take a listen.

I've had some experience in the realms of addiction. I've also more recently had some experience with the serious let-downs of being addicted to the false sense of high that comes from setting big dreams and big goals for yourself.

This Peep Show episode is all about that. And like all the other Peep Show Episodes on Bare Naked Bravery, this episode exists to give you peep behind the curtain in my life around the ways I am personally experiencing bravery on a day-to-day basis...

This week is my birthday. I will be 31 years old. I cannot imagine what my life would look like if I dropped out of school to get married at the age of 8.

To honor the education and experience I've been granted in my 31 years, I'm donating $31 every month this year to speakupforthepoor.org -- They serve over 1100 girls in 26 villages, helping them stay in school and out of child marriage, and they fund more than 20 girls removed from brothels in Bangladesh.

There is no greater human rights issue than the way we treat girls in poverty. They deserve to be heard, to be educated, to have options, to have dreams.

If you are inspired by the work I do and want to celebrate 31 years of living bravely with me, then I challenge YOU to sponsor a girl's education for $31/month.

Let's make it happen. Let's transform these girls into what we know they can be, perhaps things they don't yet have permission to dream about...

Visit speakupforthepoor.org to begin your own sponsorship of bravery.

If you're a long-time listener of the show, you'll know that sometimes I publish bonus episodes alongside our weekly interview episodes. I like to call these bonus episodes "Peep Shows" because they're a peep behind the curtain of the kind of bravery I'm personally encountering on a day-to-day basis. Today is no exception to that. Here is Part 2 of our 3-part series on the Voices of the 2017 Women's March...

I like to call these bonus episodes "Peep Shows" because they're a peep behind the curtain of the kind of bravery I'm personally encountering on a day-to-day basis. Today is no exception to that. But today's Peep Show episode and next week's Peep Show is just a little bit different than ones I've done previously...

This week want to do something a little different in honor of the turning of a new year. Instead of our usual interview style episode, I wanted to share with you how I conduct an end-of-year ritual and plan for the new year! 

It's pretty fitting that this was the week we talk about death and goodbyes on the podcast because earlier this week my darling grandmother passed away. 

Here's a little peek into how saying goodbye well has looked in my life recently...

When you've got a huge announcement, how do you go about making it? Who do you tell first? What role does privacy and intimacy play in this decision? Is it like throwing spaghetti and seeing what sticks? or more like passing notes in class?

I've got a big announcement to make (you'll hear it below.) There will be more details revealed as time unfolds, but for now these issues of intimacy, privacy, and over-exposure are top of my mind...

Wherein Emily Ann attends a dance class for the first in forEVER!!! Eeek!

In today's Peep Show edition of Bare Naked Bravery, I give a little peek at what it looks like to lean toward hope in ways that are unique to your personality type.