Unlock Leadership and Resilience with the Power of Music – Interview with Singer/Songwriter, Emma G
- Apr 10
- 7 min read
Updated: Apr 15
Emma G is a New Zealand-born singer-songwriter, educator, and leadership speaker based in Washington, DC. Through a unique blend of music, storytelling, and coaching, she helps individuals and organizations explore resilience, emotional intelligence, and authentic leadership.
With a background spanning performance, education, and personal development, Emma’s work sits at the intersection of creativity and transformation. Her programs and keynote presentations use songwriting, voice work, and narrative reflection to help people reconnect with their confidence, communication skills, and sense of purpose.
She is the author of Mental Health Sounds Like This, a book that explores the powerful connection between music, emotional well-being, and personal growth. In addition to her speaking and coaching work, Emma continues to write and perform original music, recently making her debut full-length performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
In this interview, Emma shares how her personal journey shaped her mission, why music can be such a powerful catalyst for transformation, and how individuals and organizations can reconnect with their voice in meaningful ways.
Emma G, Empowerment Coach and Singer-Songwriter
Who is Emma G? Introduce yourself, your hobbies, your favorites, you at home and in business. Tell us something interesting about yourself.
Hello! I’m Emma G, a singer-songwriter, keynote speaker, educator, and empowerment coach originally from New Zealand, now based in Washington, DC, where I’ve been building my life and work for the past eleven years. Music has always been at the center of my world, partly because in many ways, music saved my life. By the time I was twelve years old, I had already undergone ten brain surgeries (twenty-four in total over my lifetime). During those years of recovery and uncertainty, music became my anchor. It helped me neurologically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually, long before I fully understood why.
Today, that lived experience shapes the work I do with others through music, leadership, and personal development. Professionally, I combine my work as a performing artist with speaking, coaching, and education. I help individuals and organizations reconnect with their voice, literally and metaphorically, using music, storytelling, and research-backed strategies for resilience, confidence, and leadership.
Outside of work, I’m a pretty active person. I love spending time at the gym, hanging out with friends, and enjoying quiet moments at home with my cat. I’m also very involved in my husband’s self-defense school, Krav Maga CDK, where I help support the community and contribute to programs around courage coaching and mental toughness. I’ve been happily married for just over two years to the love of my life, and one of my favorite things about our life together is that our work overlaps in meaningful ways, he helps people build physical confidence and resilience, while I focus on the emotional and creative side of empowerment.
And of course, I still love performing and gigging whenever I can. Whether I’m on stage with a band, delivering a keynote, or coaching someone one-on-one, the mission remains the same, helping people recognize that their voice, their story, their courage, their perspective, matters.
Can you share a bit about your journey and what inspired you to do the work you do today?
My journey really began long before I understood what it would become.
As a child, I lived through a series of serious health challenges due to hydrocephalus. During that time, music became far more than a hobby, it became a lifeline. When you’re navigating hospitals, recovery, and uncertainty at such a young age, you’re forced to process a lot emotionally. Music gave me a way to do that. Writing songs helped me make sense of my experiences, express emotions I didn’t always have words for, and reconnect with a sense of agency and identity.
Over time, I started to realize that this wasn’t just something that helped me, it was something that could help other people too.
That realization led me into education. I spent many years working with young people through the YMCA and various other organizations and schools within New Zealand, and I began to see firsthand how powerful creative expression could be for helping students process stress, build confidence, and develop a stronger sense of self. Eventually, that work evolved into what I now do professionally, combining music, education, coaching, and leadership development.
Today, my work lives at the intersection of music, mental health, and personal growth. Through performances, keynote speaking, coaching, and songwriting programs, I help people reconnect with their voice, both literally and metaphorically.
What continues to inspire me is the moment when someone realizes they’re not stuck with the story they’ve been telling themselves. Whether it happens in a workshop, a coaching session, or through a song lyric, that moment of realization is powerful.
For me, the mission is simple, helping people recognize that they have more agency, resilience, and creativity within them than they may have ever been taught to see.
And if music can help unlock that, the way it did for me, then I believe it’s one of the most powerful tools we have.
How do you combine music, coaching, and speaking to help people transform their lives?
At their core, music, coaching, and speaking all serve the same purpose, helping people see themselves and their possibilities differently.
Music has a unique ability to bypass our intellectual defenses and reach us emotionally. A song can articulate something someone has been feeling for years but hasn’t been able to put into words. When that happens, people often experience a sense of recognition: “That’s exactly how I feel.” That moment alone can be incredibly powerful.
Coaching builds on that awareness. Once someone recognizes a thought pattern, emotional habit, or limiting belief, coaching helps them explore new ways of responding to it. It’s about creating space for reflection, helping people ask better questions, and supporting them as they develop healthier, more empowering narratives about themselves and their lives.
Speaking allows me to bring those ideas to larger groups in a way that is both engaging and memorable. When I integrate live music into keynote presentations or workshops, the message becomes experiential rather than purely intellectual. Instead of just hearing about resilience, leadership, or emotional regulation, audiences feel it through the music and stories.
In many ways, music becomes the bridge. It opens people up emotionally, which makes them more receptive to the insights and tools that come through coaching and education.
The goal is not to tell people who they should become. It’s to help them reconnect with their own voice, their values, their creativity, their resilience, so they can make choices that align with the life they truly want to lead.
When that happens, transformation tends to follow naturally.
What results or transformations have you seen in people you’ve worked with?
One of the most meaningful transformations I see is confidence, but not the surface-level kind. I’m talking about the deeper confidence that comes from someone realizing they are capable of expressing themselves honestly and being heard.
For many clients, that starts with something simple. A teenager who was too shy to sing in front of anyone performs a song they wrote themselves. An adult who thought they were “not creative” begins writing lyrics that capture experiences they’ve never shared before. Those moments can be incredibly powerful.
I’ve also seen people develop stronger emotional awareness and communication skills. When someone learns to articulate their thoughts and feelings through music or storytelling, it often translates into other areas of life, relationships improve, leadership confidence grows, and people become more comfortable speaking up in professional settings.
For young people, especially, the impact can be profound. When students discover that their voice has value, it can change how they see themselves. I’ve watched students go from feeling invisible or misunderstood to standing on stage, sharing their work, and realizing that their perspective matters.
For adults, the transformation often looks like reconnection, reconnecting with creativity, purpose, or a part of themselves they had set aside for years.
What’s powerful is that these changes rarely happen because someone is “fixed.” They happen because people begin to recognize strengths they already had but hadn’t fully explored yet.
My role is really to create the environment where that discovery can happen.
What upcoming projects, books, or events are you most excited about right now?
There are several things I’m really excited about right now, especially projects that bring together music, storytelling, and personal development.
One of the highlights recently was my debut full-length performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. The show was titled Love Sounds Like This, and it explored themes of resilience, self-awareness, and community through a combination of live music and storytelling. That experience reinforced something I’ve always believed, that music can open the door to conversations about leadership, mental health, and personal growth in a way that feels authentic and accessible. I was also blessed to bring two of my teen clients on stage to sing backing vocals for me. That was hugely monumental for them.
I’m also continuing to expand my work around Empowerment Through Singing and Songwriting, delivering workshops and programs that help young people and adults build confidence, emotional awareness, and communication skills through creative expression.
Another project I’m very proud of is my most recent book, Mental Health Sounds Like This, which explores the connection between music, emotional well-being, and personal reflection. The book has resonated with readers who are looking for practical ways to process life’s challenges through creativity and storytelling. I'm about to head out on tour around New Zealand in support of the book.
At the same time, I’m continuing to write and release new music. I have several upcoming songs in the works that explore themes like identity, resilience, and self-discovery. For me, music has always been both a creative outlet and a tool for understanding life’s experiences, so continuing to share new material is something I’m really passionate about.
Ultimately, what excites me most is continuing to create spaces, whether through music, writing, speaking, or coaching, where people can reconnect with their voice and recognize that their stories matter.
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