Every Deal Is a Dance Ep.3: Authenticity in Action: Emily Aiken on Storytelling, Trust & the Era of Creative Abundance

In Episode 3 of Every Deal Is a Dance, host Mishawn Nolan speaks with Emily Aiken, brand creative and founder of The Story Studio, about what it really means to build trust through authentic storytelling.

From her early career in television to mentoring TED Fellows and helping businesses find their true voice, Emily has spent a lifetime helping others translate their values into impact. The conversation unpacks why being seen is transformative, how creative abundance is shaping a new generation of leaders, and why truth and trust remain the cornerstones of authentic connection.

🎧 Listen now to discover how storytelling, trust, and alignment create flow — on and off the dance floor.

Every Deal Is a Dance Ep. 3:

Podcast Transcript:

You're listening to Every Deal Is A Dance, part of the Look Legal pods from the law firm Nolan Heimann And now, here is your host, Attorney Mishawn Nolan.

Mishawn Nolan (00:22)

I'm Mishawn Nolan and I'm co-founder and co-managing partner of Nolan Heimann LLP. Before I was a lawyer, I was a dancer and then I was a choreographer. And so it's not surprising that my law practice reflects dance principles of alignment and flow, especially when I'm working with my clients to monetize their creative ventures. And essentially what it means is aligning your abilities with your goals while at the same time balancing structure and reinvention. I want to make growing businesses less scary and less overwhelming for creators. So everyone I interview in this series is someone who has a story to tell about authenticity, about their reinvention and their journey as a creative business maker. It is an opportunity to hear stories of alignment and flow in action.

Mishawn Nolan (01:16)

Emily Aiken is a brand creative and strategist and founder of @TheStoryStudio Emily has mentored TED fellows owned a commercial production company, always staying at the forefront of technology and storytelling. If you ever have lunch with her, bring something to take notes with. So I met Emily. It's over 15 years ago, maybe closer to 20. Emily was starting a new business venture and she was looking for a trademark attorney. The trademark attorney that she had been working with retired and became a monk and we were introduced and it was, think, love at first conversation. And Emily has been a mentor of mine ever since. She has taught me almost everything I know about branding and has really encouraged me to lean into authenticity and has changed my view on being authentic in the workplace. When I was first an attorney, I completely hid the fact that I was a dancer. I would not ever let anyone know. I wouldn't give a glimpse of the fact that I was a dancer because being a female attorney, being a young female attorney, the last image I wanted in people's minds was that of a dancer. But I met Emily when I was a little bit more mature in my career and she encouraged me and taught me how important it is to be authentic in who you are and how you show up.

She's the one who gave me the courage to be able to admit to the world that I actually am a dancer still in my soul, even though I don't practice dance daily, and that it has actually informed who I am as a lawyer and a business person. I'm excited to speak with you today, Emily, about how your superpowers have made you a better business maker. So let's start at the core, at the beginning. When did you know you were a creator?

Emily Aiken (03:11)

Gosh, that is such a good question. It actually snuck up on me. I was exposed to the love of other people's expression of creativity when I was super, super young. And I was just always in awe. My parents had fourth row orchestra seats to the Curran theater at ACT in San Francisco. ⁓

When I was four or five, I was in those fourth row orchestra seats. I was there before we ever had a TV. We did theater before we did TV. So I fell in love with the narrative of theater. I just think it's the best. I mean, it's just so like, it's, you know you suspend your disbelief, you're swept away., and it's almost like the church of great storytelling, right? And when I hear an orchestra warming up right now, I like, get chills.

I immediately get chills if I'm anywhere near the orchestra. It makes me crazy. So that really was the seed that was planted. But of course, I also had a love, I was a very curious girl and not very typical, and I was curious and I was loving science and marine biology. And I created a lab with my best friend, Ford Desmond Johnson. His father bought a Bunsen burner into the basement of the house of their house. They had multiple basements in this old house on the hill. And we would do experiments, we had bunsen burners and we went and got, we just, and we took notes. I mean, I was very scientific and curious. So I thought I was going to go into biology and marine biology specifically. And it turns out when I got into college, I was really lousy at math. I mean, I didn't do it. I asked, I literally, didn't quite get a flunk, I dropped the class right before I was going to get a D. So I was going to UC Santa Barbara and I switched courses and I was already in love with history and I took theater and that's I just decided to go where my passion was and my love was and the thing about the theater is you do everything, it is, if you're a curious person about anything, it is the ultimate Renaissance experience.

It's historical, it's Renaissance, it's construction and painting and design, it's acting, it's directing, it's learning the difference between series and parallel electrical circuitry. I mean, it's just everything. And it's also responsibility, autonomy and showing up on time and delivering when you say you're going to deliver. And all those things just knocked me out. I just fell deeply in love and they actually wanted me to be an actor there.

That's what I was really, they really were pushing me into the actor part of everything, but I started getting panic attacks on stage. So I switched to design because it was just too scary. So ultimately I ended up getting into design and directing for the theater so I could bring both design and love and the acting love through directing into play.

Mishawn Nolan (06:31)

It's so interesting because I read something recently by Neil deGrasse Tyson and he compared science and art and creativity. And what he said was that science is about discovering the laws that currently exist, but creativity is about bringing something new into the world that doesn't already exist. So it's interesting that you have that journey that first you were trying to discover the natural laws of what currently exists, but then you realize actually what drives you more is to bring something new into the world.

Emily Aiken (07:09)

Community is really, you know, it is like church. You know, the original very, old ancient, ancient theater was in the sections of church. You know, it is, it's community and you come together and you immerse yourself. And, you know, some of my favorite stories in the old Greek comedies and, you know, love the Oresteia and, know, you just, it is just that storytelling. You get down to the very primal stories of who we are as human beings and how we connect to each other.

And so the theater always was this place of magic for me. Unfortunately, I liked to make money. I graduated after five years. And I said to my parents, said, “Why did you let me study the theater? You know I don't want to be poor.”

Mishawn Nolan (07:46)

Yeah. So is that what drove you from theater, along your journey to where you are now?

Emily Aiken (08:07)

Yeah, yeah, it is. I had my master's card. I got accepted to the master's program at NYU. And I looked at my then husband and I said, “do you want to live in a cold water flat and working off, off, off Broadway,?” He said, “Yeah.” I go, “cause I don't.” So we came to Los Angeles and I became a lighting and sound technician consultant for this Bonaventure Hotel, which you now see, it was like it not even opened and it was so funny. So I then I took my lighting and my scenic and my knowledge of sound into that. But in short order, I got ⁓ a job as a page at NBC. And I got it because the guy that ran, he was a VP of the department. His best friend taught me directing at my school. So I got an interview with him.

Mishawn Nolan (08:54)

wow.

Emily Aiken (09:05)

And ultimately, I became a page at NBC. So I started off as Kenneth. ⁓ My little boy.

Mishawn Nolan (09:10)

And then, how did you get from from there, right? to scenic design, theater design, page, then then how did you get to where you are now?

Emily Aiken (09:25)

Well, I thought I was gonna be an art director when I came to town, right? ⁓ But when I got at, when I started working at NBC, it became, know, as you know, I'm very chatty. You haven't had to ask me too many questions yet. And I ⁓ got to know a lot of people and I took internships and I was given an internship in, talent relations and creative services. ⁓ And that's where I started editing and I started putting ⁓ little two minute featurettes together featuring talent that would appear on the different talk shows. So the Tonight Show, ⁓ Mike Douglas wasn't around anymore, but there were all the different talk shows. And I would put these elements together and then I would help produce these, what they call promotion festivals. Like we'd take all the rooms in this plaza suite, all the plaza suites on the eighth floor, we'd bring in nine crews in nine suites, and we would feed them talent, local entertainment talent. Like in Los Angeles, it was Gary Franklin, and they'd interview all the talent. And we'd do that for three days in a row. And that's how we would promote shows for the fall when shows launched on one of the three networks, NBC. You only had three networks then.

Mishawn Nolan (10:49)

Yes.

Emily Aiken (10:50)

So I got into that and slowly I moved into promotion ⁓ and I became known for doing presentations, pitching new shows and on air promotion, pitching new shows. And that was sort of how I just sort of migrated. So I did CBS, ABC, NBC. I helped launch the WB television network. Everything from the Animaniacs ⁓ to Designing Women, you know, did the on air promotion, promoting those shows inside of the networks systems.

Mishawn Nolan (11:21)

And then you went out on your own and launched your own business.

Emily Aiken (11:25)

Yeah, I did. This is the classic glass ceiling moment. It was very hard as a woman to get promoted in these environments. ⁓ And I'm kind of stubborn that way. ⁓ at one particular, I had gone to all the networks. I'd helped launch a few things. I had my own company, and then I went into ⁓ one of the companies, ABC has a local station, KABC, and I was working there and ⁓ the directorship of the department came up and I thought, ⁓ great. And so ⁓ I applied, but all the other people in my department applied too. I was the only female there and it was one of those classic experiences where the president of ABC, we were at a party. He called me over.

The president of K ABC, he had been the president of ABC at the time, but now he was back as general manager of K ABC TV. He said to me, Emmy, I know you're a rock star. I would love to give you this job, but I can't because Ricky has kids. He has kids and he has a family. So I have to give them the job.

Mishawn Nolan (12:42)

Awful.

Emily Aiken (12:42)

That happened quite a bit. I mean, that was, you know, those things happen.

Mishawn Nolan (12:45)

Yes. I had similar experiences as a lawyer growing up as a young woman lawyer. I had people asking me when they were going to make me an offer on my salary, asking me if I was married because they would offer me less money if I was married. If I had kids, you know, it somehow impacted the value that I brought to the company.

Emily Aiken (13:11)

Yeah, that's horrible. And that's what sealed the deal for me. That's when I went and really committed to having my own company. And eventually I took on a partner ⁓ and we had a great little crew. As a matter of fact, the person that's recording this podcast is one of those people that came into my life. ⁓ And we did advertising promotion and it was interesting. ⁓ There were two other companies out of maybe 15 that had women as a founder or co-founder. ⁓ And it was always very interesting and challenging to get into the system and to play the game. I actually took on a ⁓ male ⁓ partner because I felt like I needed to balance that out for obvious reasons at the time. Don't feel that way anymore though.

Mishawn Nolan (14:07)

Right. I'm thrilled we don't feel that way anymore. ⁓ So eventually fast forward, you launched @ the Story Studio. ⁓ Tell me about @ the Story Studio.

Emily Aiken (14:11)

Yeah, I know. Well, I knew that in my production company life, I could not work 80 hours a week for the rest of my life. And that even so, retirement was never going to equal savings because in the entertainment industry, just, you know, either you get residuals or you're for hire. And I was a for hire. know, advertising promotion wasn't residual. So I went to study business and I studied business in the Silicon Valley. went back there and it's equivalent to an MBA. And if you're anybody listening to this wants to look up the AJI network, A-J-I network. That is where I learned ⁓ and studied business for four years. ⁓ And it was mind boggling, was life changing. ⁓ It really is an ontological design, which of course, where you look at how people ⁓ move in business, what are the permanent domains of concerns for people in business? How do they move?

How do you structure offers around that? And story is critical to that. Story and the authentic story that you offer is really the lightning. It's the lightning moment where you can connect with someone and offer value. And that's where I, at four years of study is a long time while you're running a business and doing your other stuff. I mean, I spent way too much time on the couch answering questions. But by the group that I took it was a private group. They studied with Fernando Flores, who is a genius himself in business as a consultant to businesses all over the continent, all over the world, actually. In the top one, two or three businesses, he was consulting for one of them. And he's the one that created this ontology for how we are as people in business.

And ⁓ so one of his students started his own offer and that's where I studied. ⁓ it just rewired my brain completely. And it allowed me to really take my curiosity and my love of learning, my Renaissance inclination from being a theater person, wanting to understand and to know and to see all the different landscapes that we live inside of. then how does that personally matter to the individual in the marketplace in that role, trying to make their way in business. So I launched the story studio, which is more about helping people, ⁓ you know, assess their authentic offer, their authentic value systems, and then to develop a story that is authentic to them, that they can stage, no staging word, in the marketplace, right? So how do you stage it in a consistent way in every single aspect of what you do? From how you speak or how you onboard your employees to how you invoice people to how you show up in the digital domain. Any which way there is a consistent experience that you can produce, a promise that you make and keep. That's the key. What promise can you make and keep as an experience for everybody in your world? And that's called where I take the strategy and help you stage it.

Mishawn Nolan (17:43)

Yes, you've been guiding us for a long time. ⁓ So what I'm hearing is, I know you and what I'm hearing in this conversation is incredible curiosity. I know that you are this Renaissance thinker, but at the core of everything is storytelling. Everything you have done, everything you've talked about is about storytelling. Why are you driven to tell stories?

Emily Aiken (17:45)

Ha ha ha ha! It's transformative. Stories are transformative for the person telling it, for the person who receives it. ⁓ And whether at the moment there is impact or not, is the DNA of being human. Story, the living of story, the witnessing of other people's stories, the sharing of our stories. It makes a great song, great moments, great feelings.

Story is where you create trust. Story is where people begin to trust you. When you make a promise in the marketplace, if your story is great and if you can produce and you can produce transformative connection with people, then you've got loyalty in your brand. You've got loyalty in your relationships. Trust is at the heart of all of this. And I love to be really in the game of building trust for people, between people, about people, trust is really, I think, magical in our world. It's really important.

Mishawn Nolan (19:21)

So in the world that we live in right now where facts are not facts and we're all losing touch with reality, what, and I know you're a futurist, what do you think is going to happen to trust? What are we going to do to ensure that we continue to build trust?

Emily Aiken (19:44)

Well, think more in-person encounters. think ⁓ people face-to-face, people connecting with each other, ⁓ going back into that style. mean, of course, The Moth and a lot of the little story environments are really kind of interesting. But we are entering the era of creative abundance. And ⁓ yes, reality is in deep, deep question, right? But when I'm in a room with you, not when I'm on Zoom even with you, but Zoom's not so bad really, but that connection with somebody and having a relatable, meaningful exchange of information and showing up in your actions over and over again in a consistent way, that builds trust and trust is the ultimate foundation. The problem with the fakery out there is that trust is being shattered. So I think the people that actually lead, you can only go so far on a fake coin. The coin of the realm, fakery can only take you so far, right? Systems break up, systems break out. But when you touch somebody with a story or with a work of art or with an image or a vision, they know it's true for them. And that's the trust, that's the component that you connect. What's true for me? If you touch me with what's true for me, no matter whether it's, you know, an image you made up in AI or one that you shot with your Polaroid at the age of, you know, 10, that will connect to me. That will be meaningful to me. And I think actually creative abundance is where we're headed and the arts are really profound. And I think speaking truth and speaking your truth and finding people that can connect to that, that is going to be the thing that saves us, ultimately at end of the day. Yeah, I mean, quantum physics ⁓ shows us we've got, we've got, there's a lot of systems in place right now that show us that reality is kind of over. There's a lot of reality, especially in media, in the reportage, what they call reporting is really having a hard time. But we know in our gut when we've had an experience in life and that experience is experienced by somebody else, you share it with them and they get it. We just have to keep showing up for each other and being consistent and producing trust with our truth. That's really it, I think.

Mishawn Nolan (22:22)

And from working with you, I know at the core of expressing truth and telling your truth is authenticity and being comfortable with being your authentic self. And it takes a tremendous amount of bravery to be authentic, especially when you're scared about what's going on in the world. So when you work with people and they're scared to actually be their authentic selves, how do you teach them? How do you coach them to be brave?

Emily Aiken (22:52)

Wow, well, I can't pretend to actually have that talent, but I will tell you, since I've worked with you, that you feel seen by me, I'm gonna guess.

Mishawn Nolan (23:04)

Absolutely.

Emily Aiken (23:06)

So when people feel seen by somebody else, that is magic. My seeing you gives you a lot of confidence, doesn't it?

Mishawn Nolan (23:18)

Absolutely, you have written things that ⁓ I read and I say to you, that's creepy. It's like you were in my brain. And your response to me was, I'm just reflecting back to you, which you've said to me.

Emily Aiken (23:27)

Right. I mean, being seen, I was working with a client who put together one of the most amazing nonprofits, it's called Tree People and Andy Lipkus. you know, he, they were going to put a whole new facility together and they needed an interpretive plan for it. And the guy that was designing it, another client of mine, gifted me to them because he wanted to make sure that they were clear on their brand and their brand story.

So ⁓ I did my typical intake and my whiteboarding and they did the whiteboarding as well. And anyway, I wrote the thing and it was time to actually had not met Andy Lupkus, but the guy that gifted me did a really good job of using my methodology and bringing all the information forward. So I wrote the thing and then I made some revisions and then I was in the yurt with the crew. It's four different division people and Andy and we're reading through it and we took a break and we were he was over getting some sushi was a lunch break and I was working on making a few changes and as far as we gotten into the creative brief or what I call the character brief and he was getting a bite of sushi and he said like who are you. Who are you and I said.

What do you mean? Because I think you've just saved me lots of therapy. I have felt completely seen. And that's just, and I didn't do all the intake work, right? But the careful listening and documenting because people don't create businesses or successful businesses, I should say, out of thin air or like trying to be like somebody else. They're creating it from their own being.

You know, that's that you just business is personal. It's a very personal thing. So if you can reflect back to someone, their unique being and in the value systems that drive them and there you'll find the promise that they can actually keep. They're actually producing an experience in the world. That's where the business, the heart of the business lives in its success, right?

Mishawn Nolan (25:50)

Yes. So ⁓ the world is a pretty scary place right now, but I know you, you're an optimist. What do you see moving forward and how do you think that authenticity and trust will guide us through what we're all going through right now?

Emily Aiken (26:00)

Yes. It's an interesting time. COVID has broken a lot of things. COVID really broke a lot of developmental things, right? We have 18 to 25 year old boys that actually, and this is a fact, this is like statistics and the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, they all just posted about this this week, that the 18 to 25 year old male actually is what delivered Trump this latest election. Okay. That is really more about they don't know. This is somebody, one of my tennis buddies was just talking to me about this and her boys. They really just are even further behind in their maturation. They don't know where they belong. They feel unseen. They don't feel like they're connected. So I think that because of that ⁓ lost in space, the fakery and the broken promises are not going to survive. And the key to that will be they're going to have to go to the places where they are delivered trust. And it's a very tough time. There's going to be a transaction switch from the transactional worship. Right now, there's a lot of worship of Elon Musk and transactions, and not about necessarily the substance or the delivery, right? There's been a lot of conversations about the bad customer service at Tesla. I've had friends stranded on the freeway where the cars just stop working, right? There's no trust there. There's just like, know, ⁓ lot of awe over innovation and expertise. So I think as we go into the future with creative abundance, and people can actually exercise their creativity and actually find a place and a voice for it. I think that that is actually gonna be a key to self-expression and finding themselves sooner than later. So I think that, you know, I feel like the women, I hate to be sexist about this, but women have matured and they survived COVID a little better than the boys, the men, young men. And I think that those two, the reality that they're gonna come together, I think that the young men are gonna catch up and they're gonna get that they can't destroy the very thing that is going to nurture them. They can't destroy the thing that actually is gonna allow them to exist in a secure manner. So we'll see. So that's my feeling about creativity and being a creator. Everybody's gonna become a creator to some degree.

And I think that that will allow people that feel lost and are seduced by fakery that'll allow them to find a new way to develop trust and expression in the world. Does that sound corny? I think it does, doesn't it?

Mishawn Nolan (29:15)

Well, no, they get to participate, right? They get to participate in the world. They get to participate in creating and being involved because that's what Gen Z and Alpha, that's what they want. They want to participate. They don't want to passively view.

Emily Aiken (29:17)

Yes. Right. And they're going to be able to, mean, the accelerated ability to produce and create things is astonishing. And it gives you a sense of empowerment and you know, how you connect that to a transaction is a different conversation. Monetizing that is a very different conversation, having a secure life, but there's going to be a lot of rich juice of self purpose, self fulfilled purpose that's going to come out of this era of creative abundance.

And I think the fakery and the lies will only go so far. It is a question. mean, I am an optimist. I just have to be. And I guess I trust that other people, there will be enough other curious people out there to lead the way to be the pebble in the pond that ripples out. It's like, not everybody is a futurist. Not everybody wants to know, to look ahead, it's scary. But if there's enough of us that look ahead and see the opportunity for self-expression and to building trust in community, you know, I think we can make it.

Nolan Heimann (30:45)

Thanks for listening to Every Deal is a Dance. If you've enjoyed the show, please share with other creative business makers and kindly rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform. For more information on how we can help with your own legal needs, check out our services at nolanheimann.com. That's N-O-L-A-N-H-E-I-M-A-N-N.com.