Emma Boardman is a woman of extreme talent, drive, experience and inspiration. Despite having suffered some hard knocks along her journey to Mallorca, she has learnt from them all and is now a global creative strategist, speaker, soul-stirrer and publisher based in Valldemossa, where she says she has “found her sweet spot” which is vital to a balanced life.
Born in Dorset, she took the leap into what became a hugely competitive and demanding life at the age of two when she took up gymnastics. “I guess I was a hyperactive child and this was a way of helping me channel my energy,” she told the Bulletin this week. And it was not long before she was competing at very high standards and attracting a growing amount of attention.
“I was trained by two former Olympians, it was very demanding and I had to really push myself. I took it very seriously and it dominated by childhood and it was all going very well until I injured my ankle at the age of 16 and it all came to a sudden end overnight. It was a shock, I was left wondering what I was going to do, I was at a loss and at such a young age. I didn’t want to go to university to sit around studying, I wanted to be active, so after my A Levels I decided to move into dance. It seemed to be the most obvious step. So I trained for three years in London and again channeled all of my efforts into dance and, thanks to my many years as a gymnast, I had a bag of tricks my contemporaries didn’t and also got noticed,” she said.
“I started to get cast for TV shows, films and then became a member of the German pop band Heath Hunter & The Pleasure Company, which had a massive hit Revolution in Paradise in 1996, and before I knew it we were on tour with NSYNC. They had just hit the European scene in a big way and I was suddenly on the tour bus sitting next to Justin Timberlake and his mum. It was a wild and great 18 months being a key part of a top Eurotrash band. It was great use of my dancing, and it opened my eyes to a whole different world. It was a great fun experience and I loved it while it lasted and that led to me becoming a late-night TV presenter on Sky covering the club and live music scene. It all helped to pay the rent while broadening my horizons and expanding my skills.” she said.
Then, at the age of 26, she landed what at the time she thought was going to be her big break. “My agent called to tell me that Paramount were looking for a gymnastic stunt double for Angelina Jolie on Tomb Raider at Pinewood Studios. The casting was relatively simple, a few somersaults while pulling my guns out, the Tomb Raider signature image. But I realised on day one I had bitten off more than I could chew. I was 26, no longer 16. I had not done any really training for 10 years and it was not like being in a pop band or on a TV show. It was brutal - eight hours a day of being dropped from the top of an aircraft hanger. I was being shown animated images by the stunt coordinator and then expected to bring them to life.
“It was relentless, there was no time to let the body recover. I was bruised and battered and after two weeks of being dropped on my head, I didn’t make the final cut and make it to the filming location with Angelina in Cambodia. But I then realised that perhaps it had not been the opportunity I thought it was. I learnt that not every opportunity which comes along is the right one for you. It’s very easy to get caught up in the glamour of Hollywood and big movie sets and all that but, to be honest, it was not for me. However, I took a lot from the experience and it is one I share in my talks,” Emma said. She also had another quite alarming realisation when she was given a trial for Man United TV to present Reds at 5; she interviewed Ryan Giggs.
Loss of hearing shock
“That was the first time I had ever done live TV with a studio director talking in my ear and I suddenly realised that I was having trouble hearing the director. It transpired I had a 75% hearing loss in both ears. It was very awkward and the industry was not as open, diverse and welcoming then as it is now. I was not going to be the presenter with hearing aids in both ears. So that was another chapter that came to an end and I was again left wondering what to do next.
“That is when I learnt to look at what I was good at. I was a survivor, it was ingrained in me. So I looked at what I had, what I was good at and what I could do. I had a lot of great contacts due to all the people I had met over the years in the entertainment industry so I set up the Boardman Bookings agency in London and it was very successful. It was period of ‘anything goes’ in the city and we were busy booking people for all kinds of parties and events and we grew and expanded. I even ended up with 3,000 wonderful theatre costumes which once belonged to the designer for the Monty Python films.
“It was all going so well until the great crash in 2008 - the party suddenly came to an end, it was over. It was all austerity, the luxuries were forgotten. We were liquidated and it was quite embarrassing to say the least. It was probably the biggest wake-up call of my life,” she said. “Not long after I became a mother, but I struggled. I felt like a tiger in a cage. So we hired an au pair and that gave me some freedom again and time to think. My partner was half Italian and I wanted my baby to learn the language, so I began by having our au pair teach my son Italian, and from there I developed a series of baby language classes and wrote a set of original nursery rhymes that were later picked up by Amazon and distributed globally in 9 languages.
“We had moved to Mallorca by then for an adventure. It will be 12 years ago this year since we moved to Alaro, and at the time we weren’t too concerned about schooling for the baby. I was busy with the baby language business and then Covid hit. And that closed yet another chapter. However, that is when I realised that as a result of my hearing loss so many years ago, I had become, unknowingly perhaps, very good at reading people’s faces, because as soon as we all had to mask up, I felt at a bit of a loss - I had no faces to read.
“I was at another what-now situation. I decided to tap into all of my experiences, the highs and lows and wrote The Audacious Way - a soul-led philosophy for brave living, radical self-awareness, and beautiful boundaries,” she explained. Alongside this, Emma has also created ‘Current Situation’ - a seasonal digital magazine and creative broadcast from her life in Mallorca, blending cultural commentary, poetry, and behind-the-scenes musings from a woman rewriting the rules, as well as The Sister Table which is not just a networking circle, but a stage for women to share their voices.
“I want to help people and key to that is helping people find their sweet spot. Sometimes we’re not audacious enough - playing safe, shrinking, or holding back - or we are too audacious, pushing too hard, forcing, overreaching. So it’s finding that middle ground. I was able to find that in Mallorca. This beautiful island has given me space, the ability to switch off the noise, to come home to myself.
Real confidence
“After decades of hustling, pushing, and performing, I finally landed somewhere that feels like peace. We live in a world controlled by the big tech giants and we’re surrounded by constant noise, much of which can be very negative. We need to know how to turn all that off. There are so many daily distractions which knock us off our true path in life.
“We, the little people, are forgotten, silenced. Real confidence isn’t about becoming someone new. It’s about coming home to yourself and that it is what I try to express in my work and talks. I’ve just returned from London where I gave a talk for The Women’s’ Enterprise Evening for Wandsworth Council. Having been away and out of London for so long, I had forgotten how tough the city is. Some of their experiences and daily challenges are quite worrying,” she said.
“It brought home even more the need for us all to find our own peace and to be more stable. I’ve lived life to extremes and I use those experiences in my talks. Every so-called failure was really a redirection for me. After a lifetime of striving and performing, having my 15 minutes of fame, I’ve made peace with rest. I used to think stillness meant falling behind - now I see it as the power source. Slowing down isn’t giving up; it’s tuning in.
“Sometimes failures are gifts but you need to have the perspective to see and realise that and move on. Like I did time and time again, you need to be able to assess yourself, look at and know what works for you and what doesn’t, and then make the most of the positive talents. In the world we live in today, no one else is going to do it for you. Like I said, we’re the little people but we can’t let ourselves be pushed around,” she said.
“Social media is sadly creating generations obsessed with following trends; they all dress the same, think the same, talk the same and that’s worrying. We’re all so different and original and we must not ignore and forget that,” Emma stressed. “I hope that people leave my talks with a simple way to recognise when they are pushing too hard or holding themselves back, with a practical framework for returning to their sweet spot of aligned ambition, a new perspective on success that protects energy, clarity and self-leadership and the confidence to pursue big goals without losing themselves in the process,” she said. If anyone would like some help finding their Sweet Spot! www.emma-boardman.com