Earlier this month I had the pleasure of interviewing Emily McGill, a communications consultant and tarot reader. After nearly a decade and a half working in entertainment in New York City as a storytelling strategist and Broadway publicist, her path of self-exploration led her down a path of healing and evolution.
Emily’s passions are unlocking the magic in others, amplifying unheard voices (inner and outer), offering platforms for open dialogue, and creating meaningful experiences while cultivating community. She is the founder of The Pink Tank, a women’s group integrating the personal and the professional, and a co-founder of S.N.O.B. (Sunday Night on Broadway), a monthly Broadway industry dance party. She is also a member of PR collective Spiral5 and a co-author of their signature course, The Career Rebel’s Guide to Modern PR.
Tell me about your business, and what kind of work you do.
I am a communications consultant and tarot reader, and self-described “recovering” Broadway publicist. Ultimately, I help artists, creatives, and businesses translate their (often obscure, abstract) ideas into easily digestible messages to share with their audiences. This mirrors the work that I do with tarot clients who are looking for clarity and awareness around a particular question – or not! Sometimes it is a general reading.
My favorite way to describe a tarot reading is as a visual or physical, external representation of information that we hold within our hearts, guts, or spirits, and NOT our heads. Something that you know deep within yourself but haven’t found the words to express could be given context and language through the cards. They never lie.
Have you ever used numerology or tarot readings to inform your business decisions?
Absolutely! Tarot is a daily practice for me, so it informs every aspect of my life, including my business. Every morning I pull cards from two different decks to see what might lie ahead, or what to keep in mind as I navigate my day. Sometimes I’ll get a chance to tap further into the cards with readings for clients, or my weekly Instagram Live show with comedian Jenn Lederer, Pause for the Cause.
When I was really reconsidering my career and life during the great pandemmy pause, every single day I considered what the tarot cards were saying to me as I determined how to move forward in my business direction and my personal life. They’re irrevocably intertwined.
To what extent do you think your astrological sign affects your entrepreneurship, leadership style, or business acumen?
I’m a Cancer sun, Scorpio rising, and Virgo moon – I’m the nurturer, mother of the zodiac, always looking to uplift and support and highlight my clients and projects, a natural cheerleader who will cut you if you cross her or the people she loves. I’m highly emotional, deeply sensitive, and I love structures and organizational systems to support everything.
Understanding my astrology helps me understand why I respond in certain ways and make the decisions that I do, especially in relation to what is happening as the planets move through our solar system. The more I come to understand my own chart and the planetary meanings, the better prepared I feel to navigate my life.
Have you ever visited a psychic or paranormal medium to find professional solutions?
My own psychic or intuitive abilities often help me explore professional solutions, but most of the work I do is with spiritual practitioners and therapists of various modalities helping me integrate my whole being into solutions across every facet of my life.
My therapist has helped me find all sorts of professional solutions and she’s one of the most intuitive people I’ve ever met. Her magic is so expansive and inviting, and helped me discover mine. My hypnotherapist, Shama Dhanani, is another whose work helps me explore solutions from a new perspective and make clearer, better-informed decisions. I don’t think her sessions can get better, and each time they do.
What first got you into paranormal, esoteric, or mystical knowledge?
I’ve always been curious about things you can’t explain, plus my late grandma spoke through an Ouija board and cut the lights at my 12th birthday party in the room she’d died in 5 years earlier.
As I began my Saturn return, my Noni passed. She was my only living grandparent, we were incredibly close, and once she transitioned I started therapy. This gave me the opportunity to really explore my own practices and education of spirituality, and I embraced new perspectives and ways of thinking, reconsidering the limiting beliefs I held.
What do you have to say to the naysayers or the doubters?
You’re welcome to doubt all you want. I know it works and it is real. Subatomic particles don’t lie. Energy doesn’t lie. This works better when you believe we’re all connected and that everything is one, but either way, I’m going to keep practicing my magic. I hope you practice yours too.
Do you think your beliefs have strengthened your business skills or improved your entrepreneurship?
Absolutely! My skills and relationships are stronger because I am coming into everything as my very most authentic self. There is no performance or pretense, and when there is, it is identified and explored rather than scolded and shamed. The closer I get to my center, the farther my reach seems to grow. Being my favorite self gives those around me permission to do the same and it’s always more fun to collaborate with people like that.
