• Founder / CEO at Focus at Will Labs – Exciting new neuroscience productivity music service that delivers focus enhancement on demand for working, studying, creative writing, and reading.
• Founder of Brilliant Studio Visual Artists Inc – Providing Creative Visual Artists – Photographers, Film Makers, Sketch Artists, Sculptors and Live Scrapbookers for the wedding and event business. Based in Los Angeles, California.
• President of Henshall Photography – Specialized in contemporary wedding photography and wedding related commercial/editorialfood flower and decor photography.
• Senior Audio Network Consultant at Digidesign Inc. – When we sold Rocket Network to Avid, part of the arrangement was that I was to work at DigiDesign for a period overseeing the transfer of our patented reliable and fast media transfer technology to new Avid technology and to explore new wide area media network business opportunities.I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Digi team for the 18 months I was there and made some very good friends. I left the corporate high tech world to make a distinct career move back to being a full time artist again.
• Chairman & CEO of Rocket Network – Created groundbreaking wide area networking technology for the media creation industry -recording studios, video editing etc. Company sold to Avid/Digidesign in 2003. I also founded The Channel ISP, one of the first Internet providers in the UK as an initial division of RocketNetwork.
• Pop Star of Londonbeat – I was the founder, main songwriter and general studio musician in the multi platinum selling UK soul pop band LONDONBEAT. Most folk will remember the huge smash hit “I’ve Been Thinking About You” which topped the charts all over the world in 91/92, other hits were “Better Love”, “Come Back” and “Build It With Love”. We were signed to RadioActive/MCA Records in the USA and RadioActive/RCA Records in the rest of the world.

This gave me a great deal of experience being in front of the media promoting our records and learning what you have to do to get hits out and on the radio. I learnt a lot about the messy, sordid and nepotistic side of the music business. Oh and we also had a lot of fun too. 

I hung up my boots in 95 when I had been on the road long enough and started the hi-tech company Rocket Network, actually originally a “virtual band” project called RES ROCKET SURFER. If you are interested in this do a search on Google, lots of stuff out there about it. It was very ground-breaking. Stuff which now is taken for granted like everyone having email and the web itself existing for instance.

MELISSA REBRONJA

I am a Hypnotherapist with over 15 years’ experience helping people heal and empower themselves. My modalities include Hypnotherapy, Relationship and Life Coaching, Energy Healing and more.  I hold a safe space for you to relax into your Authentic Presence. I’ve traveled a long way to be the light I am today. I was raised in a harsh culture and abusive family environment, in a country eventually destroyed by war. 

I learned that the only way out… is through; feeling and forgiving the past, surrendering and trusting the future, living fully in the present, here, now, today.  It is my mission to help heal our collective heart, helping YOU live, love and prosper by being your most authentic self. I’ve helped many people remove blocks, heal pain and ultimately discover themselves as their own source of everything they need.

My clients come from the worlds of entertainment, business, music and all walks of life.

I have musical albums released under my full name and EMAR, singing devotional music in over ten different languages. I am currently pioneering a new genre of music called  Hypnotic Dance Meditation, and writing my first book. 

MELISSA REBRONJA (EMAR)

MY LIFE:

Hi, my name is Melissa Rebronja also known as EMAR (pronounced as my initials M.R.). I love people. I want every human to be happy. I was born in a beautiful country that no longer exists. As a child, my first piece of writing began “My wish is that…”. I wished that people who had no limbs would grow them. And people who were sad would be happy. My teacher made me read it in front of the class.

A decade later, I wrote an essay about the war & destruction of my homeland. I got an A+ with this note: “Outstanding! A valuable document. Keep it for reading to your children after the madness has died down.”

I have no children and I don’t know if the madness has died down. But here we are…

I have lived in four different cities (Belgrade, Toronto, Vancouver & LA) in three different countries (former Yugoslavia, Canada & USA). I have friends that I love from all different religions and cultures all over the world. My family consists of Atheists, Muslims and Christians. I LOVE all of them. I see our world as ONE.

My wish is for everyone to love each other. When I see people being good to each other it touches my heart.

The first song I ever wrote was about the madness of war & separation, ”It Could’ve Been Me”. Later, as I embraced my voice as a messenger of peace, I wrote ”Sutra” and EMAR came to be. It’s about returning home, forgiveness and love.

I sing in many different languages ’cause I want everyone on Earth to relate. I celebrate many different cultures in my music ’cause I want YOU to know you belong, no matter what color, religion or nation you are.

I sing and write about love & forgiveness. I want peace and oneness for ALL of us. Thank-you for reading and listening. I feel blessed by your presence on my page.

Love,
Melissa Rebronja EMAR

PRESS BIO:

Melissa Rebronja EMAR is a songstress who knows no borders.

World traveler, mystic, LA Lady.

As a songwriter and recording artist, her green eyes gaze into the sky and beyond, feet firmly planted on the urban streets she calls home.

Marrying world, acoustic, spiritual, and pop sounds, she creates a musical space that MOVES, where celebration becomes devotion becomes freedom.

She was born in Belgrade, gateway between the West and the Orient, razed to the ground time and time again in its chaotic history, but still standing where the Danube and the Sava Rivers meet, its red heart beating. There, she dreamed of becoming a singer, practicing in the mirror with an imaginary mic. The mic wouldn’t be imaginary for long.

When she was a teenager, she left the walnut tree in her back yard and moved to Canada. She came to know this young country as her home, and herself as North American.

Her debut album, EMBRACE YOURSELF, included the radio single & BRAVO TV video “Beautiful” as well as the huge Itunes download, her haunting version of “Wonderwall.” She quickly followed up with YOU’LL BE MINE.

Following her gypsy spirit into new musical realms, she then released one album and one EPs under the name EMAR. She won rave reviews from international media, dj’s and fans for SACRED SOUL, on which she sang in English, Serbian, Hindi, Persian, and Arabic. She added Mandarin, Gypsy, and Farsi to the mix on MOON, proving how far from your mother tongue you can go to express yourself when the spirit moves you.

Exposed to war in her place of birth, she knows about the bruised places on the earth and in our souls, and the power of music to heal and unite.

Music moving from one tribe to all tribes, radiating compassion and communion.

What will her next incarnation be? As always, she will dance between the street smart and the spiritual. Tough and tender.

Taking us all on her magic carpet ride.

She likes company.

Stay tuned.

HYPNOTIC DANCE MEDITATION aka HDM with MELISSA REBRONJA and WILL HENSHALL

Hypnotic Dance Meditation grew out of a collaboration between Los Angeles based label founders Will Henshall and Melissa Rebronja. Will is an award winning veteran music producer and songwriter who founded the 90s #1 selling UK pop soul band Londonbeat. Melissa is a celebrity hypnotherapist, relationship counselor and heart healer, with a parallel career as a singer, and voice over artist.

HDM is designed for people who would like to be able to meditate, but can’t sit still long enough. Like us. The act of moving your body at the same time as listening to a guided hypnosis based meditation allows the fidgets to become dance moves while your unconscious tunes into a new type of stillness.

From Seed to Flower...
Indra is the Founder of Silent Moon Imaginarium

Indra Singh is an intuitive guide for those that are ready to face their shadow, em-brace their own wild inner guru and live a truly authentic life. She is the creator of the international flower elixir brand ‘Silent Moon Imaginarium’ and is on a mission to spread awareness of ‘The Power of the Flower’ and vibrational medicine to the masses.Indra spent many years traveling the world and searching externally for her guru; that one soul that would save her. It was only when Indra returned home that she found her true guru; the wild one within. 

During her search Indra enjoyed a successful career in Yoga and meditation. She was featured several times on the cover of Yoga Magazine and has written many inspirational articles for Elephant Journal and various yoga publications. Alongside the deep spiritual works, Indra followed her love for colour and the natural world, exploring the realms of Aura Soma, Shamanic Healing and plant medicine.In 2015 she was guided to work intensively with nature; channeling the vibrational energy of flowers and plants and creating elixirs by the light of the moon.

Silent Moon Imaginarium was born and quickly became an international brand with a loyal following on four continents.As well as her powerful elixirs and misters, Indra offers life transforming 1:1 programs, online support groups and magical live events – helping people honour their inner shadow and connect with their wild authentic self.

Ariel Moger collaborates closely with campaigns to develop materials and policy recommendations for activists, journalists and key decision-makers, as well as monitors, researches and analyzes legislative and regulatory attacks on the environment and public health.

Friends of the Earth strives for a healthier and more just world. Together they speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. They organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature. https://foe.org/about-us/

Prior to Friends of the Earth, Ariel advocated for ocean-friendly federal policies as Oceana’s Policy Fellow. Before moving to DC,

she worked in Southeast Florida as a consultant for the Institute for Sustainable Communities and the City of Miami Beach on climate resilience and sea level rise adaptation projects.

Ariel has a Master of Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School and a B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University. 

Sherry Wilde was born & raised in southwestern Wisconsin and continues to spend the majority of her time there. In 1987 her community experienced a UFO flap that was considered one of the most active in the world.  Over the next 18-24 months, Sherry was forced to accept her involvement in a phenomenon that was totally unknown to her.  

Sherry spent the next several years of her life trying to exonerate the experiences from her mind and did her best to return to a normal life, but when heavy contact started again in late 2009, after several years of relative peace, she could no longer ignore it.

Inexplicably, she found herself writing a book about the encounters as her memory opened up to the past events and the teachings these beings had imparted to her.  Overcoming her fear and learning the truth of her involvement with these ultra-dimensional beings became her life goal.

Following the publication of her book The Forgotten Promise in late 2012, Sherry was poisoned and fell seriously ill, forcing her to curtail all speaking engagements for several years. Recently a documentary was filmed about her life and a major film project is also in the works.  You can find out more, and access her blog posts on her website.

Sally Sampson is the founder and president of ChopChop magazine.

On her motivation behind ChopChop magazine: My career experience has been as a cookbook writer and a magazine contributor. I wrote different cookbooks and I contributed to a lot of different food magazines and other magazines. And I also had a child with a chronic illness. She needed to be on a very, very low-fat diet, so as a result I learned a lot about obesity. I began to feel that writing cookbooks wasn’t what I wanted to keep doing. I wanted to give back in some way. And I thought that I could use my skills as a cookbook writer to help address obesity by getting doctors to prescribe cooking during well-child visits. So, I don’t know if you have children, but it’s now mandated that you take your kids at certain times and that doctor’s talk about healthy eating and physical activity during these appointments.

On expanding the mission: We’ve expanded the mission to obesity, poor nutrition and hunger. Unfortunately, that covers a huge portion of the population. Poor nutrition is an obesity effect, rich and poor, and hunger affects the poor and we’re focused in our brains on those most at risk, but ChopChop is written to appeal to any children. We hope that the Whole Foods moms pay for it and the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) food moms get it for free through their SNAP program.

On whether she sees the niche market of children’s food magazines as growing: Well, it’s definitely grown. We’ve quadrupled in volume since our first year. And we have a bit of a strange business model. We’re a non-profit and we don’t take any ads. So, it really is 39 pages of content. There is one page where we have sponsors.

On any stumbling blocks that she’s had to overcome: If you asked my staff if we had stumbling blocks, they would say yes more than I would. I’m just the sort of person who puts one foot in front of the other and I don’t worry too much. Having had a chronically ill child, I don’t worry too much about anything other than my children being sick.

On the most pleasant moment she’s had throughout this magazine journey: We went to the White House and we interviewed Mrs. Obama; we did sort of a shared 5th anniversary of “Let’s Move” and ChopChop. We both launched within a month of each other and that was really incredible. We brought two kids to the White House and they interviewed her and she was amazing; she gave us way more time than she said she would. She was beyond charming with the kids. That was an amazing experience. We also won the James Beard Award, which was also incredible. So, those things are not insignificant, but I would say that the letters that we get from kids are just really moving and very real.

On whether anyone has ever told her she was out of her mind for launching a print magazine in a digital age: Oh yes, all of the time. Of course, the people who ask us if we’re out of our minds are not our readers. I think for a child to get this beautiful four-color thing that they can hold and touch, where they see a child who looks like them is important. We show kids of every color, adorable, braces, in wheelchairs; we just featured a child with Down Syndrome. We show real kids, and we don’t put makeup on them; we don’t tell them to smile. So, your grandchildren, and I don’t have grandchildren yet, but my grandchildren someday; the idea is that any child should be able to open the magazine and feel like they can relate.

On the myth that digital natives do not want anything to do with print: I honestly could not begin to understand why people feel that way. I still read paper books and I love magazines. I just think that there is something really special about print. I have an iPad and I read The New York Times on it; I read little things on it. But I think there is no sensuality to digital. Touching and feeling the paper is amazing. And I think for a child, for the magazine to be theirs, is pretty incredible.

On why she thinks it took the magazine industry so long to discover that print is not dead: I think it’s human nature and that people just have a tendency to go to extremes. First it was: no, you can’t eat any fat. Now you can eat fat. It must be the nature of human beings. I don’t know. I never felt like paper was dead and as you said in the beginning, we launched when people thought we were nuts. We launched within a very short time of Gourmet closing. Everybody asked why we were doing paper? But it just seemed like the right thing to do.

On whether she feels now that ChopChop is a movement rather than just a magazine: I do. If you think about it, we’ve got the cooking club; we have the curriculum; we’re not just a magazine. And also, when I started, not only did people ask was I crazy for doing print, but they also asked are you crazy; kid’s cooking? Like, who cares? But you look at it now and everybody sees kid’s cooking as a pipeline to many different things, whether it’s teaching kids about math or teaching them manners or teaching them to be responsible for themselves; really cooking is everything. There’s nothing that you can’t learn in a kitchen.

On what she would say if this interview were conducted one year from now: I would tell you that we launched a third magazine called “Seasoned.” And that magazine is for older adults. And you would say to me, but you’re focused on kids, and I would say to you, we’re focused on people who need help in the kitchen. “Seasoned” is launching in February, 2017. The AARP Foundation gave us a grant and I believe we’re actually launching in Mississippi as one of four southern states. It’s a smaller magazine and it’s for adults who need to cook from scratch instead of buying junk, and who are downsizing.

On what someone would find her doing if they showed up unexpectedly one evening at her home: I cook a ton. This sounds crazy, but whenever I’m emptying my dishwasher, I’m sort of amazed at how much I cook. I cook all of the time. I don’t eat anything prepared; I make every single thing from scratch.

On what keeps her up at night: Not ChopChop. The direction of the country keeps me up at night, or if my children are having a problem, that concerns me, even though they’re in their 20s. That’s the sort of thing that keeps me up at night.

Kathy Feinstein is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Mental Performance Consultant in private practice in Naples, Florida.  She works with sports parents, coaches and athletes of all ages and levels in a variety of sports.  Kathy also hosts a weekly podcast, Parenting Peak Performers whose mission is to help sports parents manage the challenges specific to parenting competitive athletes.  Her education, depth of counseling experience, specialized training in sport psychology, and parenting two competitive athletes uniquely qualifies Kathy to do the work she absolutely loves!