Brief episode of my key reflections and takeaways of 2019 and essentially the decade--the importance of letting go of old behaviors and patterns that no longer serve me; continuing to practice the pause; and prioritize peace, serenity and my spirituality above anything. Thanks for listening and for all the support since the launch of this show this year! Happy New Year!

Breakout R&B singer, songwriter and producer Baby Rose @babyrosemusic is today's guest. Big thanks to Rose for the heartfelt and vulnerable conversation. She shares powerful reminders around the importance of surrendering, creating from authenticity and purity, her foundations in faith and spirituality, the moment she embraced her voice, both spoken and sung, the love she has for her mother and more. She also reflects on her debut album To Myself and the healing lessons and reminders she’s received since the difficult breakup that was the catalyst for the album.

Baby Rose’s portrait photo is taken by Nicole Hernandez which also happens to be the cover of her new holiday EP called To: You.

Happy holidays <3

Imani aka The Hood Healer is a psychic clairvoyant from Los Angeles who is bicoastal and currently based in New York. As previously mentioned, Imani has been a significant part of my spiritual growth and creative pursuits in the last year, so I was grateful to have her as my guest on Episode 2 of Progression back in February. You can catch up on that episode here.

We’re now officially in Virgo season, and there’s no better way to welcome the season on the show with none other than the Virgo queen herself, Imani. We reflect on how 2019 has been so far, more gems around embracing your personal power, and the concepts of becoming and unbecoming in life. We revisit her thoughts on the Age of Aquarius and everything in between, from her continuous community healing work surrounding topics of womb healing and wellness and more. Follow Imani at @thehoodhealer.

Audio recording and editing by Jasmine Chen

On today’s episode, I sit down with one of my favorite bands: Orlando-based band SALES @sales, comprising of Lauren Morgan and Jordan Shih. We talk about how they’ve navigated the music industry as an independent band since 2012 through shared trust, friendship and open communication to work through growing pains and celebrate wins as a duo.

We talk about the origin of their band name, how hip hop has influenced their business approach and creative process, how it’s important to know your worth and not to compare yourself to others, working through different relationships and more.

In celebration of the one year anniversary of their latest project forever & ever this week, we also dive into how some of my favorite songs from the album came together.

I first met SALES when I interviewed them for an emerging artist research project around 2014-2015 back during my SoundCloud days. I fell in love with their music immediately--their music feels open yet cozy and intimate and evokes a lot of different emotions. Once I reached out to connect, we hit it off immediately, so it was an honor to have them as guests on the show to hear about their progression from first meeting in Latin class in high school to continuously creating and building their SALES UNIVERSE to being one of, if not the only independent band, to have played Coachella this year.

Learn more at wearenotsales.com

Photo by Malcolm Martin

Additional audio editing by Jasmine Chen

Happy Gemini Season! Episode 8 is fitting - 8 is a special number for me, one of them being because it’s my life path number and my birthday is coming up in a few days so thought I’d take the time to share some reflections on what the last year has taught me, what lessons have been recurring for me:

- Patience

- Accepting that I’m in my own lane and that there’s no traffic in my lane--s/o to The Hood Healer, Imani, on that key phrase and reminder!

- The importance of pause and rest

- Easy does it - be easy on yourself

- Ask for what you need - be impeccable with my words, a lesson in boundaries too

More episodes to come. Thanks for being on this journey with me.

Much love,

Jane

"Any time I make a song that sounds sad or sounds not positive, it's hard to make it. It brings me down. Music is something that makes me happy so I like to make music that has an uplifting side to it. If I'm writing about something that was a bad experience, I can write about getting out of that bad experience..."

I sit down with Jacksonville, FL artist Yuno @yvno about the way he's been able to craft his own unique sound that blends different influences from emo and indie to rap and classic R&B to create music that encourages, inspires and uplifts, even if the subject matter of the song is about heartbreak or negative emotions.

I came across Yuno's music in 2011-2012, especially "Sunlight" which is one of my forever favorites. Yuno was a "bedroom" musician before the name was used more in the mainstream. He creates music at home alone, songwriting, playing all his own instruments, and self-producing and engineering too. He also creates his own artwork and takes photos too.

In addition to diving into some of the songs he created from his last project Moodie, we talk about the importance of taking a hiatus, how cooking vegan food inspires his creativity, and his favorite smoothie recipes.

I share a few quick takeaways from the book called The Untethered Soul, the journey beyond yourself by Michael A. Singer. The Untethered Soul has been a go-to in my library of personal transformation guided books and resources. I talk about the things that resonated with me the most, particularly the concept around "removing your inner thorns" to find inner freedom within and more.

“It’s my responsibility to be me.”

“The universe isn’t set up to harm you. It’s set up to help you.”

Singer, songwriter and producer Tiffany Gouché about the path she’s carving in her own time and sound. We talk about the journey she’s been on, coming into standing in her truth as a queer black woman and defying stereotypes in the R&B and soul music space. We talk about how she’s come into her own artistry, from being part of the gospel choir to learning how to play piano and produce first before gaining courage to write and sing for herself as an artist and other artists like Lalah Hathaway. We talk about past traumas, including an incredibly poignant, sad memory Tiffany recalls that played a major role in why she didn’t initially pursue singing.

We talk about how she transforms negative self-talk and fears into self-love, acceptance, compassion and confidence through her reliance on her spirituality; navigating noise on social media; the importance of being aware when the ego is running the show; taking time with your art and music to not make “microwave music" and ultimately creating from truth, love and an open heart.

This episode is a must listen for anyone searching for more confidence and trust within oneself and one's art and creativity. Thank you Tiffany for sharing your vulnerability and honesty on this episode.

Follow and listen to Tiffany at @tiffanygouche. Photo credit: Rikkí Wright

Happy First Day of Spring and Happy Full Moon. The beginning of Spring and the full moon signifies a time for change, a restart, a realignment, a time to shed old skin, a time to plant new seeds.

In Episode 4, I wanted to share some notes from Essentialism that are relevant to this topic of getting clear about your purpose and conserving your energy for what’s most essential to you.

These notes come from a book I read called Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. Essentialism is defined as “making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at your highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.”

This comes down to honoring your truth and being clear about your intentions, setting boundaries and being aware of your deal breakers to ensure you’re aligned with your purpose.

To gain more clarity on your purpose, ask yourself the following questions:

What do I feel deeply inspired by?

What am I particularly talented at?

If I could be truly excellent at one thing, what would it be?

I talk about these things and my top takeaways from reading the book. I hope they’re helpful for you as you make room for new changes and blessings with the start of a new season. Learn more at progression.fm/episodes

In Episode 3 of Progression, I welcome the ever talented, genre-defying duo April + VISTA, following the release of their critically acclaimed EP You Are Here among other milestones they experienced last year. They talk about what it means to be genre-defying and how their music is centered on the theme of overcoming things in life–to feel and address pain in order to push forward and grow. Plus, April and Matt share how they manage their anxiety, what role spirituality has played in their lives, the power of dreams, tips on lucid dreaming, and more. Episode edited by Jasmine Chen. Learn more at progression.fm