Before any of this, there was Upala.

The Authentic Singing Journey will always have a special place in my heart. So let me tell you how it began.

Upala — my late wife — was recovering from the surgery that saved her life after her brain tumour. The doctors had given her one year. She didn't want to spend it resting. She wanted to travel, and to share the power of authentic singing with the world.

We had no money left in the bank. And I had never recorded anything like this before.

This was before Covid. There weren't many online programs combining music and guided sessions back then. It was new — to me, and to the first people who signed up.

I remember the self-doubt. Will this work? Will people believe me when I say much love to you at the end of a session? Will the music be good enough? Will anyone actually pay for this?

For those first recordings, Upala almost literally held my hand while I spoke into the mic and played.

And then we did start travelling. And people did sign up. And they loved it. First came the Dutch program, and later the English one. Our community grew from tens of people to thousands, all over the world, discovering their own authentic voices.

As the months passed, Upala grew stronger, lighter, full of purpose. So we kept going further. A community member in South Africa reached out and invited us to hold retreats there. So we went.

She mostly just taught by being. By living.

It grew into something I'm still proud of — forty weeks in Dutch, then another forty in English, one session a week. Not a quick course; a slow path you walk a week at a time.

And people didn't come to it to learn to sing better. They came, week by week, and met the voice they'd quietened somewhere along the way — not a prettier voice, an honest one.

Music and guided sessions, woven together, at your own pace, in your own room, for as long as you need them. I still haven't found anything quite like it. Don't expect miracles from it; expect a real relationship with your own voice.

And of course, other programs followed. But that's a story for another day.

With love,
Jacob