Catalyst Atlanta Speaker Spotlight // Amena Brown Owen

We are so excited about Catalyst Atlanta 2012. If you haven't entered for a chance to win new kicks or a dream vacation do so NOW! You also get 35+ songs as a FREE download gift from us & a few of our favorite musical artist friends.

Continuing through to October we will be featuring a different speaker answering some questions about the MAKING of a leader. We are really pumped for YOU to get to know these leaders on a deeper level & have them answer some tough [and some fun] questions about leadership. We had such a great response from our speakers we are excited to be able to share two speaker spotlights with you each week, on Tuesday & Thursday.

As a poet, speaker, journalist, and event host Amena Brown Owen's words excite, ignite and inspire. Whether in front of audiences as intimate as 50 or as sprawling as 20,000, she has something to say that matters. The author of a chapbook and two spoken word CDs, Amena has performed and spoken at events across the nation such as The RightNow Conference, National Youth Workers Convention, Rock the Desert, Catalyst Conference, Chick-fil-A Leadercast, Atlantis Music Conference, and the 2008 National Poetry Slam Competition. She also speaks at conferences and events for high school and college students, young adults, and women, where she has facilitated several workshops and breakout sessions on creativity, singleness, writing, and building artistic community. As a part of a generation that is searching for the real and the genuine in an age of constant carbon copy, Amena is both regal and dramatic in her creative interpretation on the stage, and in her candid and expressive conversation one on one. This nonconformist lends her voice to finding inspiration, truth, and purpose and encourages those she encounters to do the same.

Looking back at the past 10 years what are some of your biggest mistakes that you learned from that you would share with others to not repeat the same thing?
One mistake I made was assuming that because you are working a job you don't like that you can't learn anything from it. I worked a corporate job that I really didn't like, but after I became a full-time artist I realized that job was trying to teach me the discipline required to be a full-time artist/entrepreneur. I had to learn the hard way to gain as much wisdom and learning even from experiences that are not ideal.

What is one mistake you witness leaders making more frequently than others? What are the steps to avoid this mistake?
The mistake I have watched other leaders make, and the mistake I have made so many times myself, is not coming to God and asking for his help when I don't know what I'm doing. Sometimes as leaders, we feel like we need to know it all, have all the answers, have every scenario figured out, and unfortunately prayer is last on my list of things to do to solve a problem. Many times I go the long around a problem only to come back to God, admit I don't know what I'm doing, ask for his help, and realize that would have been easier all along. After all, there's nothing I'm dealing with where God doesn't know what's best.
  
What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Pay attention to what makes you come alive.

Do you have a nickname? how did you get it?
I wouldn't call this a nickname but I tried to be a rapper in high school and my emcee name was Teknique.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
When I grew up I wanted to be a comedian. I watched Eddie Murphy, Comic Relief, and Whoopi Goldberg's one-woman show in the 1980s. I wanted to be able to talk to a crowd and keep them engaged with nothing but a stool and a microphone. I get to do that some today, so I guess I still want to be something like that when I grow up.