We are back for another great interview on our podcast on how to unlock your world of creativity. Our guest today joins us on our around-the-world journey where we talk to creative practitioners about how they get inspired and how they organize ideas. And most of all, how they gain the confidence and the connections to launch their work out into the world.
Today we have the pleasure to chat withDeborah Johnson. As an entertainer, pianist, vocalist, and composer, she has toured the world and has been up for multiple Grammy Awards.
As an educator, Deborah taught at every level through graduate school. As a speaker and podcast host, her words touch the mind and her music touches the heart. Authoring multiple books, producing over two-dozen albums, and writing three full-length musicals makes her one of the most prolific women composers and writers in the world. Deborah has won multiple awards, but she claims her biggest accomplishment is successfully raising and launching three sons.
On today’s show, we pay particular attention to a creative’s mid-career midlife and the next steps to perhaps not just refining, but reinventing the craft and personal brand. Deborah has a program, called hero mountain summit, that is a guide on getting out of your roundabout. If you're in the middle of a roundabout, which many people right now are, especially after the two and a half now or almost three years that we've just experienced so much upheaval, people have found a way to reinvent and that's what is getting out of that roundabout. She also is vocal about it in her book Women at Halftime: Principles for Producing Your Successful Second Half.
Her latest book The Summit: Journey to Hero Mountain, is an allegory. Which is a story within a story, the character’s original name is Mallery which means not good enough or ill-fated. And it has to change for her to get to her summit. And it changes to Andreette, which means a strong and courageous one, but she has to go through all these little different lands. Because in the book before this, she goes through hero mountain, which is her woman at half times
In her work, there is an emphasis on women at halftime. We've been talking about mid-career midlife, which by definition says, we're not done. There's still another half of the game left. As an experienced creative, she teaches us some lessons to hold onto at that midpoint.
