SPEAKER_01: 0:05

Hey y'all, this is the Authentic Heart Podcast, and I am your host, Amber Westerman. Thank you so much for joining today. Before we get started with today's episode, we're gonna do our usual affirmation drawing to just to help us start this week off on the right foot. Today's affirmation is Manifestation begins with imagination. I give myself permission to dream boldly. Let's take that in for a second. Manifestation begins with imagination. I give myself permission to dream boldly. I think this is huge for adults because I think as we get older and more serious in life, we tend to think that imagination and dreaming boldly is childish. And it can overtake our mind and it can cause our creative inner child to be stifled. And it can just make life a lot darker and more boring and not enjoyable. And I think it's really important as adults to dream boldly and to work with our imagination and be creative because we are creative beings. We were created by the creator and we are meant to be creating. That is like one of our sole purposes in life is to create everything that we do is a new creation. And so the more that we can do as you know traumatized adults is to nourish that inner creator in us, and it just makes life more enjoyable. So I hope that you incorporate some sort of extra creativity or just fueling your imagination over the next week or two. All right. So before I bring Naughty on, I just want to say, you know, when you meet somebody and you just like instantly connect. Think of who that person is in your mind. You you feel like you've known each other for a lifetime and you just relate in so many ways on a soul level. That was how I was with today's guest, Nadia Vea. She is an incredible pop rock, she calls it a pop-istic artist. And I actually met her online on Instagram, and we just connected right away and hit it off. And I'm so grateful to have her in my life. And she has a really inspiring, unique story. And so I wanted to invite her onto the show to share her story with you and her insights. So without further ado, let's get going. Nadia and I are good friends, and it feels like we have been forever, but it's really only been a short time, and we met on Instagram through a chat group. How did you get connected to that little chat group?

SPEAKER_02: 3:04

I think I want to say uh Callie J added me into the group. Okay, I remember you telling me. Yeah, it was like a hype support group that we were all in. Um for musicians, yeah. For musicians, making sure that we all got, you know, each other's posts and like could be like, yeah, girl, what's up? Getting it. And uh yeah. Then we ended up meeting for a hike when I was visiting Nashville and like lost friends.

SPEAKER_01: 3:32

I remember whenever you reached out to me and said you were in Nashville and you're like, you want to go for a hike or something? I was like, man, like any person that I feel like, especially in Nashville, that's ever reached out to like meetup or something, it's always been for coffee. And I'm like, this girl wants to go on a hike. Okay. We're gonna be friends. We're already friends.

SPEAKER_02: 3:54

Yes, I'll take a hike over a coffee shop or a bar any day.

SPEAKER_01: 3:58

Right. So share if you would a little bit about yourself. I'd love to hear your story for my listeners. And I know I I know it already, but I if you don't mind sharing.

SPEAKER_02: 4:13

Yeah, so um, I'm a populistic rock artist now based in Nashville. I almost said Nashville, Georgia. Nashville, Tennessee, by way of Atlanta, Georgia. And at the time that you and I met, I was actually, I think I was living in LA, right? I don't remember. Time is weird ever since 2020. I think so. Yeah, I think I was living in LA. But yeah, loving Nashville. Um got my start in music. Pretty young, I I like really knew I wanted to do something with music. Like I was always just like really drawn to like rhythmic patterns and like you know, melodies. And um I just really loved the way you could express yourself through those. And then I found poetry and like the fact that you could put words to melody and became obsessed. And I was in bands in high school, and like my first band was like this emo band called Broken Harmony. I love it. True emo girly over here. Um I love it, but uh it was yeah, we had a screamer, I was like the melodic vocal part of it, and um oh my gosh, I'm I've never heard any of this music.

SPEAKER_01: 5:21

I you've gotta share some with me.

SPEAKER_02: 5:23

Yeah, I think like the MySpace is like the MySpace page still exists somewhere and there might be like a little sound bite somewhere in the ether. I don't I I don't know, I gotta go find it, but it was uh harmony. I'm gonna look it up. Broken harmony. But that was like my first real like going after the music dream in high school. And you know, my mom was like always like my biggest supporter of my music. And unfortunately, you know, she passed when I was like just about to turn 17, and I really kind of stepped away from music after that and decided to go down a bunch of like side streets that at the time like I was like, this is you know, like immediately looking back, I was like, this has been a series of misadventures, but now I see them as pathways to like you know, where I'm at now. And I I luckily found my way back to music, and it has been absolutely pivotal in me actually facing like the loss of my mother and a bunch of other, you know, just trauma and things that I even subjected myself to over the years of facing that loss. And yeah, music is powerful, and I'm grateful to have the music community that I've been building over the years, you being one of those people that I've been able to connect with music. And I love you too. And yeah, I um that's like kind of the cliff note.

SPEAKER_01: 6:50

I'm curious whenever you kind of resented music after losing your mom. I I can imagine anybody probably would just like, you know, that that's a very challenging thing to go through, would just kind of change their life. Was there like something in particular or like a moment in particular that made you decide like I need this back in my life?

SPEAKER_02: 7:15

Yes, I remember very distinctively the day that I was like, I need a change, like something is missing from my life, and it involves a creative path. Like I didn't know exactly how I was gonna get there, but I just knew I needed to be in touch with my creative side because it was also such an inherent part of my relationship with my mom. Like she was an artist through and through and a very sensitive, empathetic, empathetic soul. And yeah, I just needed that. I woke up one day and I was just like, I'm unhappy. Like I was in a relationship with a guy that wasn't necessarily necessarily supportive of me wanting to pursue music. I remember one day just saying, like, I want to be a musician. And he was like, Oh, you're too old to be a musician. And I was like two, twenty-three at the time, something like that. And I didn't even say like I wanted to be like a pop star, I just said, I want to do music. Like, I wasn't like, I'm gonna be Katy Perry, you know. Right. He kind of just shot it down and I was like, okay, and I like, you know, put that in a box and stored it away for later. And I probably stayed in the relationship for another like few months, six months, something like that. And, you know, I was in school for marketing. I was working in fashion at the America's Mart in Atlanta, and I was dating this guy and living in a pretty cush apartment in downtown Atlanta and had a pretty, you know, on paper, comfortable life, but I was like literally miserable. And I remember like the the night that like my life changed. I was visiting a friend who was in recovery for heroin, and she was on Suboxone, which is a drug that people who do op, you know, who uh have opioid addiction um use to get off of opioids. And I was visiting with her, and I remember I took um I was like just hanging out with her and I was like, I kind of want to see like what this is all about because like I was very close to her and it was I was always the friend that was trying to like I was like the more straight-edge friend that was trying to always help like the addicts, like you know, I think that was my way of coping with my mother's loss. But anyways, I was like, let me just try this and see what this is all about. Like, why you keep you know going back to this this girl heroin, you know? And I you know, essentially when you when you use to boxone, it's just the same as like doing a dose of of that. And I was messed up, like I was so messed up. Like you could have come up to me and told me that my entire family and everything that I had ever loved was obliterated, and I would have felt absolutely nothing. And I was throwing up, I was sick, but like I I just you know, like my ability to care for anything and and being like a very sensitive soul, like you know, you know, as art, we feel deeply. Yeah, but I felt nothing. And the next day I woke up and I I was still a little high. Like my eyes were like my pupils were like little pin pin needles. And I just remember being like, I would have never done that. Like, that's not me. Like, I must be so unhappy that I thought like I wanted to try this, like I must be in such a bad place. So, like, literally that day I decided to quit my boyfriend, quit school, and to quit my job. And I was like, I gotta, I've I need to be an artist, and I had no idea what that would look like. And I, you know, started packing up my things and you know, broke up with the boy, you know, let him know what was going on, and started the process of like moving out. And I was moving into a very less cush situation that I knew wouldn't have laundry. You know, I wouldn't have a laundry room for a while. So I was like, let me do a load of laundry on my last day here and get get that out of the way. Realized I was out of soap. And as God would have it, my key to unlock my artist's dreams was like in the process of leaving my old life. I knocked on the door of our our neighbor, the only neighbor in the building that I really had exchanged words with in my time there. And he was this quirky, like weird, weird dude that always wore like striped pants, had handlebar mustache. And I was like, Hey neighbor, can I borrow a cup of soap? And he was like, Why, of course. And he like opened it the book to his apartment, and there was this like lira and like silks and like all this circus stuff behind him. And I was like, Oh, like that's really cool. What's all this about? And he was like, I'm a ringmaster, and I was like, of course you are.

SPEAKER_01: 11:34

Oh my gosh, how funny. I don't think you've ever told me this story.

SPEAKER_02: 11:38

And I was like, Okay, um, wow, that's really crazy. Um, I've always wanted to join the circus. And um, he was like, Well, report here Tuesday at 7 p.m. and we'll start training. So I started showing up with literally zero flexibility, literally like no, you know, gymnastics or athletic background whatsoever to these hand-to-hand acrobatics rehearsals and like started, you know, training. And like, I, you know, I did very basic, very basic hand-to-hand acro. And I was so thankful though, because it was a new creative outlet and I got to connect with this artist community in Atlanta that I otherwise would have never connected to. And I quickly realized that the circus life was not for me. Fell on my neck at a rehearsal, and I was like, yeah, I don't know if I I haven't been training for this my whole life, you know. Luckily, everything ended up being fine. But I did perform one show or one series of a show, like their Valentine's Day series, uh, as a hand-to-hand acrobatic performer. And I got to sing in the circus band. And that was the seed that was planted for me back into music. That's how I met my first songwriting partner. I did a folk music duo. And uh my buddy Ben Farmer is yeah, he kind of helped me develop my pen. And like, he's an incredible songwriter, went to like Berkeley School of Music and like really helped me like understand the art of like storytelling. And then from there, like, you know, found yeah, that was my journey back into music.

SPEAKER_01: 13:10

Back into music. Oh my gosh. I love it. I don't think I've ever heard all of those, the details. Like I knew you would were in the circus and such. I had a little, I don't know if I told you, I had a little moment in my life where I uh was really into acro yoga as well. I'm just like partner yoga. But yeah, as soon as I started getting to the point at the basics where like if I wanted to continue to grow in it, I was gonna have to do some more dangerous things. I was like, uh, I don't, I don't know about this.

SPEAKER_02: 13:43

I I admire people who like are about it and like go, you know, do all the crazy flipsy dipsy things. I just it's crazy. It is, it's so and it's it's wonderful, you know, it opens you up, like your whole whole body. Um I I accessed a lot more as a performer, as a vocalist, even like doing some of that that stuff. But yeah, it's it's it requires a lot of time and and focus.

SPEAKER_01: 14:09

So yeah, I love how just like the moment that you decided to change things, like instantly, instantly you met the person that like gave you a path forward. I think like it gives me chills. It's so cool because like my goal is to just help people align with their heart. And I mean, you know this. This is what we were we were planning to do as a duo podcast, which we'll go into that in a little bit.

SPEAKER_02: 14:39

The whole journey there.

SPEAKER_01: 14:41

Yeah, which led to this, you know, so it's great. But yeah, my whole goal is to like open people's eyes up to taking chances and to the beauty in it and the support that like God is always on our side, and the universe will manifest what it is that we want if we just listen to our heart and like what is bringing joy to us and what ultimately just makes us feel better than we are now and or in our past, you know? Yeah, and that's such a beautiful example of just like being being at a really low point. And sometimes it takes sometimes it takes that in order for us to make that big move. Sometimes it takes us just being at a very, very low, low. And then we turn around and we're like, oh, but this is here. It's been waiting for me. I mean, here's your neighbor.

SPEAKER_02: 15:41

It's crazy. Like silver platter, like here, like this is what you asked for. You made affirmative action. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01: 15:47

Yeah. Oh my gosh. I I love it. That's yeah, that's so fun. So yeah, so Nadia and I, what I mentioned, we we almost a year ago now, it's crazy, decided. Well, one day uh we had hung out a few times in Nashville when she would be in town and when I was living there, and I was like going through my old videos in my phone, and I found a video of Nadia and I just like cracking up in a stairwell at a dealership, right? That we just found while her car was getting worked on. And we were singing the same song over and over and over again, try to try to get a cool social media video to the point of deliriousness. And um, there was just a video I found of us cracking up and I texted her, I was like, Nadia, we should just sing. I know we're both really busy, but we should try to start a podcast together. And she's like, I'm in. And so we went on a journey of doing that, and it was gonna be called Tune Up with Amber and Nadia, and it basically like all the same things because we're both passionate about wellness and about lifting people up, and so it's gonna be pretty much the same thing, but then time and our schedules, like we're both we're both entrepreneurs, we're both artists, and we both have our own very, very busy lives, and it just hadn't worked out for it to be like a consistent thing for us, and that's okay because I feel like it was it was a lesson for us, and I feel like it was also a guide, like it happened for a reason. It brought us closer and it brought us here now, and yeah, I I feel like it also just like happened because you and I both share the thread of like kind of struggling and finding our voices and like being really rooted in that.

SPEAKER_02: 17:42

And I feel like this gives us a chance to kind of like grow and explore our own expressive voices with ourselves in individu, you know, individual episodes, just kind of talking about things we're passionate about and then like also connecting with other people, right?

SPEAKER_01: 17:58

And with each other still from time to time, but less pressure on it on the timings of it. We'll make it yeah, yeah. Oh gosh, I had a like thought when you said that. Oh talking about helping us with our voices and speaking up, it made me think of how like so many times when we were coordinating things, we were just like doing, we were being our people pleasing selves. We're both very big people pleasers. And gosh, I can't even think of any specific examples, but we would just constantly go back and forth, like, oh, that's okay. Like, we'll do this, we'll do this.

SPEAKER_02: 18:36

Well, and I feel like it was so I think like it was like we were also supposed to go on the journey of like trying to start a podcast together. So one, we could learn how to start a podcast, and two, so we can kind of heal some of the things that maybe keep us from being in our like lion's fire voice. Because we're both Leos, but like I think like we've been through a lot of things, like bullying and like just like lots of trauma that has just like forced us to kind of just mums the word, just kind of like pull back in behind the scenes. But like we're supposed to be that way. We're we're supposed to be expressive and like helping other people embody that same authentic expression. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 19:25

Like it was it was so cute because like we would I remember you mentioned it when you like called it out.

SPEAKER_02: 19:31

I don't remember where we were, but I feel like yeah, we were both like you would have something come up, or I would have something scheduling come up, and we'd both be like, Oh my god, I'm so sorry. Oh my god, I'm you know, like we were like very good, we're very considerate of of each other's feelings to a point of um where it becomes problematic, but we're healing.

SPEAKER_01: 19:51

Yeah. I was just having a phone call with my dad the other day and having to share with him that I needed to let go of some. Something that I've been working on with him to a certain degree because telling people no is a really hard thing for me because I am such a people pleaser. And I was like crying to him. Like it felt so good to stand up in my own voice and speak up for myself. I kind of forgot where I was going with that. But it's this the same sort of thing. I feel like I'm still continuously learning how to like honor myself. Oh, because I I told him that I have noticed over the years, and sometimes I like I forget and then I realize myself doing it, and then I forget again. It's like a cycle that I go through of I tend to put other people in front of my own needs. And because I want so badly for other people to like me or enjoy my presence or like or I want to feel valued, I want to feel worthy around these people or something. And it's it's very interesting, even in the music industry, how I feel like there's this like there's this thing where you have to like prove yourself as an artist. And it's so freaking annoying because sure it takes work, you know, to get to wherever you want to be as an artist and with any career, but we're worthy of anything all the time, and we don't have to prove anyone anything, in my opinion. I don't know, that's that's something that I've just kind of really been going through lately on my own journey, is like it's that constant just reconnecting with your heart and uh letting the heart lead the way, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 21:44

Cause like it can be so easy to like our industry does have place a lot of expectation and like pressure, so that that whole like heart-led work can easily become just poisoned by that. Like if you're not careful, if you're not like doing things to like reset, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 22:08

Have you had situations on your path as an artist where you've come across like mentors who are constantly telling you, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, and it like kind of pulls you out of like what your heart wants you to do in the music?

SPEAKER_02: 22:25

Absolutely. And I I I think like also too. So I had this manager I was working with in LA that was like very much trying to Disney princesify my work. And then I feel like I was it it like triggered some daddy issues for me. So then I ran the exact opposite direction, and then I feel like I feel like I started expressing things in a way that like wasn't authentic even more so. So I had to find my way back to like what my authentic, like expressive voice was through my branding and through everything. And yeah, I I do feel like this industry is so quick to like while while you know, feedback and constructive criticism is wonderful, right?

SPEAKER_01: 23:15

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 23:15

I was about to say that, yeah. I feel like this industry has such a way of offering that feedback and it not being constructive, like it just being more of a deconstruction, and it you have to be careful how you uh ingest it, you know, how you take it in and 100%.

SPEAKER_01: 23:36

It's yeah, because like it's important to be open, I feel like, to industry professionals' suggestions and like you know, have an open ear and an open mind and like try new things because that helps us find where we truly stand in ourselves and with our music. It does help us, I feel like, hone in on our our brand and our messaging and you know, but it's easy to get lost in it.

SPEAKER_02: 24:06

Sorry, there's a fruit fly. It's okay. It stays away from me.

SPEAKER_01: 24:17

It's all good. I I've been having those lately too. I need to, I think I've been overwatering my plants.

SPEAKER_02: 24:25

I hate when that happens. Like, oh my gosh, I've been just trying to take care of my plant babies.

SPEAKER_01: 24:30

Right. Yeah. But I know I hadn't asked you that before, and that was just something that I feel like that's something I've gone through over the last several, like five years on my journey, is just like the constant weaving of being in this industry and taking art and something that's such a delicate thing to an artist, and monetizing it and turning it into a serious business. It's like such a fine balance, and it's yeah, it's it's very, very interesting.

SPEAKER_02: 25:09

It is, and you you have to stay the course, and there's gonna be many iterations of what you're doing, as you know, like as we've seen over our journeys, it's like there's like been so many different iterations to our careers, but like if you stay the course, you really find yourself rooted in like what you know is gonna go the distance because it's authentic to you. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 25:36

Yeah. So what uh what are you up to with your music right now? Because we haven't really caught up that much lately.

SPEAKER_02: 25:43

And if you feel like you have anything that you want to share, well, um, I'm doing my first writer's camp next week here in Nashville.

SPEAKER_01: 25:53

Woohoo! Like uh like a retreat type of thing. Five days.

SPEAKER_02: 25:58

Oh cool. I've never done something like this, like that concentration, concentration camp. Oh god.

SPEAKER_00: 26:05

Like oh no, not yet.

SPEAKER_02: 26:08

Sorry, not that kind of a concentrated amount of time. Right.

unknown: 26:15

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02: 26:17

Oh my god. What I meant was a concentrated time to write. So very excited about that.

SPEAKER_01: 26:30

That's awesome. I did that once in Nashville and it was amazing. It was incredible.

SPEAKER_02: 26:34

Awesome. Yeah, I've I I I don't know what to expect. I'm looking forward to the new experience, and I'm one of the focus artists, which is I don't even know what that means. Ooh. But it's through Hell Yes, writers camp, hell yes demos. Cool. And yeah, I'm just psyched to see what the end of the week brings and just to like be creating again. Because I feel like it's been such a whirlwind of like just life after life. And you know, while I love music to stay on the front burner, it's always the first thing to go to the back burner when life lives. It's so true.

SPEAKER_01: 27:09

Yeah. Well, that's so exciting. I'm so excited for you. Thank you. Okay, I guess my final question on my end is what advice would you give to someone who might be in the police that you were that day that you just kind of felt like you were at a really low low and didn't have any idea what you were what the future was holding for you. You were just like wanted to, or even right before that, like you know, like just where you're in a place where you just feel lost and stuck. What advice would you give to somebody in that place or like to younger your younger self?

SPEAKER_02: 27:51

So for anyone out there listening who just feels like you're just you don't know where to turn, you don't know what you're doing, and you you haven't quite figured out your purpose. It took me a while to figure out that myself, and I feel like it's constantly evolving. But the biggest thing that I I would say is you have to be okay throwing it all on red. Like that's what got me around that corner. I was just like, okay, we're going all in. I have no idea what this looks like. This could be completely not possible, but I have to believe that it's possible and see what happens. And don't get me wrong, when I rounded that corner, I did not know what I was going to be facing, and I had to face a lot of really scary stuff. But when you get through that hurdle, you start to see more clearly how you can create the life of your dreams from a sustainable place. And the best thing I can advise you to do is to just take a leap of faith on yourself because you deserve it, and this world is structured to you know make it seem like it's not possible, but it is entirely possible to manifest the circus ringmaster inviting you to the next chapter of your life.

SPEAKER_01: 29:24

You just have to close, close the door for it to happen. Yeah, close the door that's been holding you. Yeah. That's beautiful. Well, I love this. This I've learned some new things about you today. This has been lovely. Thank you so much for coming on to my new podcast. How can people find your music and everything that you're up to?

SPEAKER_02: 29:48

You can find me on all the things at Nadia Vea, and that's N-A-D-I-A-V. And if you want to get in touch, email me at Nadia at NadiaVea.com. And thank you so much for having me. And I look forward to chatting with you on my podcast soon.

SPEAKER_01: 30:06

Yay! And go check out her music. Thank you so much. All right. So before we get on with our day, I just want to go over a couple key takeaways that Nadia and I talked about in today's episode. Number one is let your heart lead the pivot. If something feels off or you feel like you keep beating your head against a wall, remember that you are allowed to pivot, change directions at any time, and let go and just trust that the stars will align in beautiful, unexpected ways. Number two, turn pain into purpose. I believe that we all go through specific hard challenges in life because we are the only ones that really can truly get through it. And because it happens to us in order to help others. And so just remember that grief and hard seasons can become fuel for healing and for creating something that helps other people and helps you get to know your heart better. I think that's a big part of it too. Number three, boundaries protect your peace and your voice. People pleasing is not love as much as we want it to be. And you do not have to say yes to the things that feel like a no in your heart. I know that is a big one for me. The right people will love you for it though. Number four, protect your authenticity throughout all the noise. Not every opinion is for you, even if they think that they have the answers. Choose your mentors and feedback in life that strengthen your true voice, that like feel fueling for you and inspiring. I know I've worked with mentors who actually made me feel stifled. And I learned some things from them, but I also later on realized that they were not really the mentor for me. Maybe for somebody else they might fuel, but I think that's a really big key takeaway, at least for me in my life right now. Number five, small steps reveal the next open door. Life is constantly evolving. If you are going through a challenging time in life, I hope hearing Nadia's story felt inspiring. Thank you for listening today. If you really enjoyed this episode, you can subscribe on whichever platform you're listening on. And I would be so grateful if you left a review as well. It really helps new podcasts like this one be boosted in the algorithm because it's showing that people are interested in it. So I'd be really grateful for that. And then if you want to stay updated on my music happenings and everything else, you can join my email list or find me on your favorite social media platforms. I hope you all have a beautiful week ahead. Until next time.