Essie Jain is an English singer and songwriter, who has been performing and recording music for over two decades. Her songs have traveled far and wide out into the world and gently weaved themselves into the fabric of people’s lives, daily healing practices and stories.

Essie often works alongside her husband, guitarist and long term collaborator Patrick Glynn, for both recordings and live performances. They live in Los Angeles with their daughter Opal.

Rick Shugarman is a yoga instructor, growth coach, and entrepreneur whose work bridges the physical, mental, and creative aspects of human potential. As the founder of Beat Up The Sun, he explores the transformative power of morning rituals, yoga, and mindfulness to cultivate clarity, resilience, and purpose. The phrase “beating up the sun” refers to a morning routine of being up and moving with the sun as it’s rising. Like most transformations, it was born out of necessity.

Before stepping into the personal growth space, Rick’s career spanned multiple industries, from real estate investing and construction to teaching high school mathematics in underprivileged settings, and two years as a professional musician. As a real estate investor and business owner, he honed the discipline, vision, and adaptability needed to navigate uncertainty. As a math teacher, he developed a deep appreciation for structure, problem-solving, and guiding others toward breakthrough moments. And as a lifelong musician, he embraces creativity as an essential tool for personal evolution.

For most of his life, Rick thought yoga was weird, and spirituality even weirder. He knows firsthand what it’s like to be spiritually disconnected—and has experienced, in real time, the profound impact that a deeper connection with nature, presence, and the universe can have. By integrating these elements, he has seen how they can supercharge not only inner peace and happiness, but also professional success, financial freedom, and personal relationships.

Leveraging his background in education, Rick has created a step-by-step introduction to yoga on his website, BeatUpTheSun.com, which he gives away for free. His aim is to make yoga accessible to beginners of all abilities, guiding them from their very first pose with confidence and an immediate sense of “I can.

Debbie Solaris is an ET contactee, interdimensional traveler, and galactic historian. After a fateful extraterrestrial contact experience onboard an Arcturian starship several years ago, Debbie awakened to her true star lineage and higher calling. Through her ancestral connection with the Akashic Records, she has been receiving downloads of galactic historical information and universal spiritual knowledge ever since. She feels it’s a big part of her mission while here on Earth to help awaken others to their own true Divine selves and cosmic origins. 

Pia Leichter is a creative partner, published author, certified coach, and entrepreneur. Her path has been anything but ordinary: a recovering nomad, she’s reported as a journalist in Sri Lanka, graduated summa cum laude from NYU, and worked as an award-winning creative director for some of the biggest brands in the world. Now, as the founder of Kollektiv Studio, she’s uniquely positioned to co-create wild visions and ventures. 

She recently published Welcome to the Creative Club, a book that challenges everything people thought they knew about creativity. Praised by Google's Global Head of Creative & Innovation as "life-changing" and by iconic fashion designer Betsey Johnson as "a wild ride," this part-memoir, part-guide invites readers to make life their biggest art project and reclaim their creative power.

Experienced Athlete with a demonstrated history of working in the sports industry. It has taught me the foundations of hard work, discipline, time management, and how to overcome adversity. Also, skilled in Business Management, Public Speaking, Strategic Thinking, Sports, and Social Media Marketing. Graduating in both PhB-Philosophy and Business Economics from the University of Notre Dame. Strong media and communication professional.

As a Political Scientist with a lifelong passion for government service, I took my degrees in Political Science with an advanced degree in International Relations at the University of Southern California. Since that time, with fidelity to purpose, my central focus has remained on issues of National Security.
As a Political Scientist with a lifelong passion for government service, I took my degrees in Political Science with an advanced degree in International Relations at the University of Southern California. Since that time, with fidelity to purpose, my central focus has remained on issues of National Security.

During graduate school, I worked with Top Secret clearances for Analytical Assessments Corporation. I conducted research, analyzed, and wrote on matters of critical concern to the United States. After completing graduate school, I was hired to write on classified projects at Eaton, Information Management Systems Division, a multinational corporation once located in Southern California. Conducting research and working with a team to complete White Papers on intelligence systems, I continued to write on subjects related to the national security interests of the United States.

Following my time at Eaton, IMSD, I instructed courses on California Government, U.S. Government, U.S. International Relations, and other Political Science courses. I have taught at the University of California, Irvine; the Whizin Center of Continuing Education at the American Jewish University; and numerous community colleges, as well as Summit Bible College. I also had the opportunity to serve as Commissioner and Committee Chair of Community and Media Outreach for the County of Kern’s Human Relations Commission; worked on fundraising for a Cambodian Relief Effort to provide clean water to villages inside Cambodia; and, traveled to Domnesti, Romania to part of a Romanian Orphaned and Abandoned Children Relief Effort.

By electing me to be your principled public servant, I will work to always put the people of California and this nation first in order to achieve the America First Doctrine by deregulating the economy and lowering taxes for economic growth and prosperity, securing our borders, restoring the nation’s security, empowering law enforcement and strengthening the Rule of Law, ending California’s water crisis, delivering on school choice for every child, supporting energy independence and protecting the fossil fuel industry, bringing back America’s manufacturing industry, as well as voter integrity.

Learn More at:

https://www.denicegarypandol.com/

or

https://linktr.ee/gopandol

You know how they say “life gets greater later?”

Well, hand her a champagne flute and multi hyphenate entrepreneur and the woman some might call the “modern-day Harriet Tubman” of the Black travel movement would certainly toast to that! “Accidentally” launching her millions-generating, bonafide global crusade Black in Tulum in her early 40s, Nubia Younge — a single mom from the ‘hood’ in Boston who didn’t get her passport stamp until she was 32 — says she was probably the last person to see her success helping usher in now tens of thousands Black American travelers, weary of microaggressions in the workplace for one, to Mexico, coming.

“Despite having like, zero, professional background in travel, I’ve always had a passion for hospitality and bringing people together,” says the former administrative assistant and corporate meeting planner who, over the last five years, has watched “Black In Tulum” blow up so big it literally spawned unrelated “Black In” movements in dozens of countries worldwide – from Thailand to Portugal – causing her to eventually trademark it.

“Quarantined in Tulum during the Pandemic,” she explains,” I noticed a small group of other Black travelers and decided to host a brunch on the beach for us. At that time, there weren’t many Black folks living there, let alone any kind of real Black social network, so the brunch, which I organized for free, was a hit, and word spread quickly. That day I created a Facebook group called “Black in Tulum,” and the community grew from 25 to 28,000 in just four” years.

“By my third event,” continues the unintentional entrepreneur, who now owns Black In Tulum, Black in Travel and Black Card Elite Concierge Services,“ a travel agent suggested I charge for tickets, so I did, starting small.”

What began as a simple idea to connect people quickly grew into her first full-fledged business. From 2020 to 2023, Black in Tulum became a major hub for Black American travelers from Tulum to Playa del Carmen, now one of the world’s top destinations for Black American expats, offering everything from beach brunches to yacht parties. Some of the events she put on, says Younge, generated enough revenue in just one night for Younge to pay her rent for years.Leveling up to partner with venues and negotiating commissions to host events there — literally helping COVID-strapped businesses survive — Younge soon realized she wasn’t just providing a social service for clients and an economic boost to local businesses, she was facilitating a major economic boost for herself and her family.

Taking note of the literal flood of predominantly Black travelers continually flocking to her for advice on where to stay, which restaurants to go to and what else to do during their travels, Younge’s budding brand really took off when she launched what would later become “Black Card Elite,” a concierge service to help meet their demands, which brings in $30 to $50K a year.

Within four years she had made close to $2 million. “I didn’t have anyone guiding me—this success was built from the ground up, says the former welfare recipient, community college graduate and English tutor who has gone on to employ her adult son along with 12 contractors – along with 8 regularly spinning DJS – to work across her businesses. The next hurdle, though? Much like a lottery winner, figuring out, and quickly, how to accommodate all this newfound success. “When I worked in Corporate, I don’t think I ever made more than $60,000 a year, like ever. So here I am, making close to 2 million bucks in just a couple of years, and I’m like, ‘Oh My God. Now I have to really learn business. I have to hire a lawyer. I have to hire a CPA. I’m holding on for dear life, like Nubia, we can’t go into this with a scarcity mindset. I had to self-talk myself through this whole process because in addition to all of this success happening organically – I never paid for ads or marketing, it was all word of mouth – I didn’t have a mentor. I didn’t have anybody telling me the best direction to go in.”

These days, Nubia knows exactly where she’s headed. With Black in Tulum now a globally-recognized cultural vehicle for Black travelers, with well over 100,000 followers across all social media platforms, her focus is now serving as an enthusiastic ambassador for Black women of a certain age across all backgrounds who wish to the “soft life” in this politically tumultuous era.

“I plan to provide specially curated retreats globally where all women need to do is kick up their feet, and prepare to be wined and dined like the queens they are,” she says of her newest brand, Ori Table. Ori is a word from the Yoruba tradition that basically means divine alignment, while it also means “the head.” “These retreats are going to be very intimate, like, eight people total, in luxurious places around the world where you’re investing in yourself, you’re investing in rest, you’re investing in the environment” – she explains of her intent around sustainability –“ but we’re also doing maybe a workshop or two within the retreat centered around giving your life even ‘more.’ If your ‘more’ is wanting to be an entrepreneur, scale your business or whatever,” she explains,“ then we’ll discuss those things, because as women who have often given the best of themselves to others, it is actually we who are most deserving.”

Nubia’s travel avatar for Ori Table looks a lot like her because it is – the woman who has spent many years feeling like she wasn’t enough but decided, once and for all, to bust out of society’s prison. “Everything I’ve built stems from me evolving into my true authentic self – I’ve gone through the coals, through the fire, and now I’m showing up organically for myself and others,” she says. “I’m excited to continue to offer global-scale events, experiences and slices of cultural joy to those who wish to revel in them.”