Emma Pears - entrepreneur, composer, author, musician, mum and much, much more. This week I’m speaking to someone who cannot be put under one title because she just doesn’t fit a mould. Amongst her repertoire she’s a published song writer, is a social entrepreneur, volunteers in prisons and works with housing associations and organisations such as the NHS, The London Fire Brigade and with leaders in HSBC. She conducts choirs at places like Wembley Arena and is currently writing a book for a major publisher. And she’s also a wife to a husband who works full time and the Mum of two gorgeous kids.
Emma Pears says ‘I don’t have all the answers but I want to help people find more joy in life’. She studied music, creative arts and composition at university before spending time working in refuges for the homeless on a volunteer basis. There she saw the complexity of life on the streets, the myriad of reasons people find themselves there which can’t be fixed by simply ‘making them a cup of tea’. This sparked a desire for her to help these people move forward, if they wanted to and she went on to study for a Masters at Cambridge exploring how to do that. Emma went from that to starting ‘SingingNation’ bringing people from across generations together in community choirs. Her choirs have allowed people to feel that they belong, to feel a sense of connection, to feel valued and to often change mindsets. People who come afraid and faced only by psychological barriers begin to consider that change is possible. Time and again she has seen how individuals become empowered with the belief that they can make decisions that make them happy.
We discuss giving your brain time to think and making thinking something that should be on our to-do list, especially given that it’s not something modern life gives us time for. Emma says ‘If I allow my brain time to think it will then come to the answer more quickly’. We look at the process of writing a book and the process of writing a song ‘There’s a difference between writing a song on a whim and writing a song as a job’. Emma is an inspiration to me and to many others, I’ve no doubt that she will provide you with encouragement and curiosity simply through listening.