Alexa: [00:00:00] If you really think about it, are you living your life by your values? And does the work that you do as a singing teacher truly align with them and your overall purpose?
This week, we welcome Louise Callin to the podcast, a dance teacher, mindset coach, and NLP practitioner.
Louise helps us to understand what belief coding, mindset coaching and NLP are, and how her work in this field actually complements the work that she does teaching in the performing arts.
Louise takes us through a few exercises that we can apply when those niggly feelings of not being good enough, imposter syndrome, all those day to day stresses get on top of us. And she gets us started on finding our true values so that we can pursue an authentic, personal, and working life.
Welcome to the podcast, Louise!
Louise Callin, we have been friends for a while now and we've worked together professionally, but I don't know [00:01:00] if I've ever really, truly got into a conversation with you about your past as a dancer and as a performer. Because this started for you when you were about three years old, right? So how did that come about for you?
Louise: Yeah, like firstly, this is super cool. So thank you for inviting me to be on this because this is my first podcast that I'm recording. So that's exciting. . I started dancing. Oh my gosh, I'd say three mum took me to class.
And I want to say I went dancing for maybe three to like seven and I quit don't know why I went cold turkey. And then one day I just said, Mum, I want to go back to dance school. And I actually wanted to go to school that had like, I was like the shiny Lycra. And that was my specification for outfit. So we found one.
And then I was literally just like straight in there. Um, all the classes and I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to do that as a career. so that's where it started as me as a toddler. I can't remember that going at three, if I'm honest. Yeah. I don't think I've even got any [00:02:00] pictures, but I do remember starting back at like nine years old and then that just being straight through then nonstop.
Alexa: And what happened after that? So you went to like a dance club, like many of us probably did to get us into performing arts.
Louise: Yeah. so I went to my local dance school. And pretty much I'd say not dance full time as in like all day, every day, but as a dancer full time after school, most nights and all day Saturday, it's like the highlight of my week. And then I went off to professional ballet school, but I, I went down more the musical theatre route at Elmhurst, um, it's now Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham, but it was in Camberley, so Elmhurst School for Dance, and they offered like a jazz and musical theatre course.
So I went there at 16, I did three years. So quite young to be launched into that now looking back, yeah, it was good. It was good for my foundation of dance, definitely. And I think it was good to go at that point. So it really strengthened, especially in my ballet because that's what they were known for.
So I did that. Not a massive travel distance, but [00:03:00] I boarded there just so that I would be with everybody else doing that because most people were boarding there. So yeah, it was quite an experience.
Alexa: What sort of career did you have then as a performer professionally? Would we have seen you in anything?
Would we recognize some of the shows that you've been in?
Louise: So alongside, like, wanting to be a performer, teaching was really something I dreamed of. Actually, funny story is that when I um, moved to New Zealand, which I'm sure we'll touch on at some point, my mum had run through lots of boxes of my stuff and she'd found books with registers that I had created as a child with all of my classes, obviously fake names, because I just had this passion to teach.
So going through Elmhurst, I knew that teaching was something I wanted to have either as a fallback or as a main kind of role. So my third year, I actually got my qualifications in my, my modern and my tap. I did a few bits and bobs in the UK, actually, not, not sort of more commonly known in London, but I [00:04:00] did something called Thursford Christmas Spectacular, which is quite a big, it's a really good gig for a dancer and a singer. There's lots of singers. I've still got friends that do that actually. That was a really, that was one of my first jobs and I did a few other bits and bobs, but ultimately after a bit of a break with the performing and actually doing my teaching, I then decided to go and work on cruise ships.
So that really became a massive part of my life for about four and a half years. And with the cruise ships, I got the opportunity to dance. and sing as well, do some singer dancer work as well. And then that then actually took me to New Zealand. So my career in a way caught a little bit cut short with my performing because of life choices. I traveled quite a lot with it and did a lot of , things here and there.
Alexa: I wrote an article once for iSing magazine about how, you know, probably from a bias point of view, but how I think cruise ships just aren't highly rated enough as a performer for a job. It's just the most incredible thing to do to go and tour the world and see places that you might never see and then get to go and do a performance in the evening. It's [00:05:00] just incredible. And as you say, you're, you're coping with a lot of different things at once. And and then as a performer, having done that, you going into teaching, you're bringing so much wealth of knowledge to your clients, your students. So how did you then end up being a teacher more full time?
And how did that lead you then into what you do now as like a mindset coach, life coach, belief coder, and NLP er
Louise: Um, so I suppose the journey after cruise ships, I was lucky enough to do the world cruises a few times, which was amazing.
It actually took me to New Zealand and ended up moving to Waiheke Island. I suppose at the time I never thought I'd end up being there as long as I was, but things kind of fell into place. So beautiful, beautiful Waiheke Island, which is just off kind of Auckland shores, sort of a boat ride away.
So that, it took me there. And At first I thought I can't survive here unless I'm dancing or doing something that's aligned with my passion because, yeah, I just, I knew I needed to feed that creative outlet. So I ended up [00:06:00] starting a school and again, it was just meant to be a means to an end. Is that the right way to say it?
A means to the end at the moment, in the moment. I was given like a building basically for maybe three, four months to see if things would work. It started off with like two classes, two days a week, which maybe have like two classes on each. And very quickly within about six months ended up like four nights a week.
And then over time, fast forward, that went on for seven years, the school, I loved it, it became really successful, we were competitive, we did have singing, acting, and um, a lot of dance, obviously predominantly dance with my background, and we progressed into one building, we moved to the next, then we went to the big building, so that's kind of where my teaching full time fell in, and not only that, like, I think teaching full time and running a school It's a whole different job in a way, you know, freelance teaching and then actually being in charge of everything, including the admin, the cleaning, the welfare of your kids.
I was always really interested in the kids [00:07:00] as well and how they were doing and would always make them feel safe and communicate. So I suppose before coaching in any of that path, I already was sort of really mentoring kids quite regularly.
I was like their safe space a little bit like they were coming to dance because they loved it. And some of those kids were there like every night. I was starting to recognize that that, hey, I'm not just a dance class a week for them. Some of them are here 10, 15 hours a week. And I really want the space to be safe for them.
So we just created such a good bond with the team that I had and the teachers. So really enjoyed mentoring. And as a person, I think a lot of people would come to me for advice. I don't know why but friends, you know, and you become that sort of Agony Aunt and some of the stuff I had to deal with the school, like even just conflicts and situations, you just get better at sort of seeing other perspectives, which I'd say having a business and having to run pupils and parents, those singing teachers here that have to deal with parents, it can be a battle at times.
So you gain so many skills in that sense. So. [00:08:00] Then I decided to sell up there just due to personal circumstance where I wanted to be in my life and return back to the UK. Came back here freelance teaching still and I still do that and I do, I do love it. I really love it, but it's not quite the same as running your own school and having that complete control.
So I had some choices to make when I came back. The choices were to kind of go full time, full steam ahead, freelancing, do something myself again, like a school, knowing how stressful that could be, I, I was, I was really 50, 50 for a while. And then after sort of probably about two years, maybe a year and a bit of exploring my options and what is going to lead me down the best path for me to follow my values, which I'm sure we'll touch on in a bit, I started to think like, what do I want out of my life?
So then that is when I started to look into coaching. So, um, I've always actually been into coaching myself. I've had a health coach before. I've had a life coach before I've done counseling like for me personally, and I've always seen a benefit in all of those areas and just [00:09:00] started looking into it a bit more and decided to sign up with like a.
An organization here that offer you, um, just sort of like a cheaper membership, but then you can then progress and qualify with them. So kind of dabbled my toes in it and actually thought, actually, this is really cool.
And that kind of led to something that I feel and hope long run is going to be a bit more sustainable, but still allow me to teach and be creative without crazy stress of it.
Alexa: Our founder at BAST, Line Hilton, she works quite a lot in this area too with mindset and working with hypnotherapy and she's going to be coming on really soon to talk about the nitty gritties with what she does. And for those unfamiliar with the work that you're doing, what exactly is mindset coaching?
How would you describe belief coding and NLP?
Louise: Okay. So let's just break it down just as simple as possible and hope that I kind of say this in the correct way. But mindset coaching, I suppose, for me, personal opinion on mindset [00:10:00] coaching is working with an individual to develop their mindset so that they, um, into a more positive mindset, also growth mindset to achieve their goals, maybe personal goals, professional goals. Um, for me, mindset coaching is quite different to sort of traditional therapies in the fact that yes, we do delve into past a little bit, but only really to see how we need to change, not change the past, but how we can look at how things have been ingrained and programmed and how we change that.
So mindset coaching is very forward thinking. So if you came to me Hey, I'm really struggling to get confidence in my singing. I'm scared to get on stage. I don't know what to do. We'll basically look at what the goal is at the end of, you know, the time working together and get from A to B in stages.
And first of all, my belief is that everything starts with mindset. You could have the most incredible performer, talented performer in front of you, but if they've got a negative mindset, they're always going to come up with hurdles and beliefs that stop them. So mindset coaching is [00:11:00] very broad. And I'd say it's quite bespoke depending on the coach and the person that you work with, but that's where I start with the nitty gritties of why you're thinking something, what's going on, what's the pattern.
Um, so that's as coaching the NLP and the belief coding. So belief coding is an amazing modality. It's not so commonly known, um, but Jess, the founder who is amazing is really pushing that she's even getting it science backed, which is incredible. And her vision is. amazing and she hopes to take it through to schools and get it more mainstreamed, basically.
So belief coding in short the things you really need to experience a session for belief coding to really understand it, but it's works with the subconscious mind. So the programming, the computer that's going on in the background, it works with the subconscious mind in order to basically eliminate limiting beliefs.
So If you've got somebody that's not getting a job, we'll peel it right back down. Why am I not getting this job? I'm not getting any jobs or whatever the hurdle they're [00:12:00] having peel it back down. Um, for example, it might be, it goes right back down to not feeling good enough. And then we'll kind of peel back the layers and work with more of a not meditation state, but a deeper state or take them into a deeper state where we can go back and look a little bit back in their past and see what we can heal.
And then from there, we put some positive beliefs on top of that. So we basically smash negative ones, put the positive on top and kind of reprogram the brain.
NLP I, I feel as there's elements of NLP and belief coding as well. So NLP is a similar concept in that it's all to do with the programming and trying to change a pattern of behavior mindset an emotion, a thought, but we use sort of set techniques. There's hundreds and hundreds of techniques and every NLP coach will have their favorites and the ones that they like and the ones they recommend, but they're a little bit, I'd say better for someone that's not maybe as confident to go down the belief coding route and they're shorter and there's some that you can kind of give [00:13:00] them, like, if you've had a session with somebody, there's things, there's templates you can give them to continue that work. So I'd like to say that's a little bit more easy to explain NLP to someone who maybe isn't as, I would say, as woo woo, you know, like, you know, into manifesting and believing about healing in, in the way belief coding works, but they do have very similar things going on there, they will kind of cross over a little bit. So they're not, I don't use them as three as three separate things. Um, I will do if someone says, Hey, I need an NLP technique done on me. Will you do it on me? Absolutely. I need a belief coding session. Can you do that on me? Absolutely. But ultimately I'd like to create programs bespoke to a person.
I'll work with them for a number of weeks and interweave all of it together to get the best outcome. Basically it's reprogramming the mind. It all comes back down to that, but with different types of techniques and tools.
Alexa: And NLP, does it, what does that stand for? Is it
Louise: neuro linguistic programming?
Sorry, I should have said that at the beginning. Um, neuro linguistic programming. So [00:14:00] neuro, the nervous system, linguistics, all the language we use and the programming just all those habits that we've got ingrained in there. It's just think of it like a computer that you've got your hardware and you've got your software that you put on top, that your hardware is what It's the trickiest stuff to change and that's where the deeper work comes in. So, and once you can start changing that, then it's magic.
Alexa: As you just said there, you, you are going to be tailoring this to the person who you're working with, but could you take us through maybe an NLP exercise or something that maybe we could do to get an insight into what that might include and maybe something that we can take away for ourselves as teachers to.
Louise: So, yeah, so obviously , it's a bit trickier than NLP, a lot of the techniques are sort of like half an hour, 45 minutes long, but there's some little things that I use, so it's not exactly what happens and it's not going to necessarily fix an exact problem in that moment, but I can give you some techniques that I have and actually that [00:15:00] I use when I'm sort of getting answers from clients.
So do you want to be my client? Yes. Yeah. So the first one, it sounds pretty simple, but the, when I'm trying to get information from somebody and a lot of the time, if they're coming in, you know, a lot of people that coming to you with a problem, they want it sorted and there's a lot of agitation around it.
So often we just need to chill them out first. The first thing I would say is just when you feel comfortable, just, I'll do it with you for fun. Um, just shut your eyes and just take a couple of big breaths. So just really sink into your chair, progress in and just release what is no longer serving you today.
Just. Let it out the door, especially for those that are really busy. Often we just need to take this time to just ground and center them. And obviously I don't expect you here to tell the world about your problems, but I just want you to put your hand on your heart and then in your mind and just check in with your body.
So at this point, if I'm asking someone a question like, what's going on in this [00:16:00] situation? And they go, I don't know. I don't know. I'll just say, ask yourself. So even if you just ask yourself for you, obviously you've not come to me with a problem today. So you can just check in with your body. How am I feeling right now?
And what this is doing is it's just allowing your body to listen to what your, I suppose what your, your body's trying to tell you, that kind of gut feeling.
And then from there you can play detective. So I did this actually the other day, Monday, you know, first week back after a few weeks off and just feeling quite anxious a big week ahead. I just checked in with myself and said, why am I feeling anxious? And then I think my body came up with that, you know, there's so much to do, I don't know where to start.
And you just keep asking questions back to your body. And then, this is specifically good if you're struggling with something, and you just need to ground yourself in that moment. [00:17:00] Another thing I tend to do, um, again I don't expect you to give me three emotions now Alexa, unless you want to, is just to check in with people and just say, how are you feeling in three words?
And this is quite good also for group workshops, for teachers teaching in a class. If you've got a few students in front of you and you can feel an energy or maybe you just want to send to them, you can just get them to say out loud one word or three words around the room. Today I'm feeling, for example, happy.
Today I'm feeling sad. And that will just bring an awareness as well. A, for yourself, but also if you're teaching students, you'll kind of get a gauge of how they're actually feeling. And the more you do that, the more you um, you'll get that trust as well if you're working with students. So yeah, so that's a good one.
You can open your eyes if you want. Play detective. So that is something, whenever I'm trying to get anything that's Other than a [00:18:00] surface level answer from my clients, I will keep asking them questions and get them to shut their eyes and completely just hand on heart, feel that love. And I'll notice once they start to do this with their body, their answers will become less.
I don't know. I don't know. And they'll start to know the answer within. So one of the biggest things I've learned really from NLP is just the power. It seems quite cliche, but the power to change. Your thoughts or emotion at any time, you have the power to change your state from happy to sad in a matter of moments.
So it's just feeling it, feeling why you're feeling it, and then just letting it pass and putting sort of strategies in place that might help you. Another one which is Again, it can be quite a complex technique if it was done in a session, but it's just reframe. So reframing a situation that's a good NLP technique.
So if you've got I don't know, what would be a situation that might be stressful for singing teachers? I don't know. What could you, is there anything you can think of that [00:19:00] they might be like, Oh my God, I'm so frustrated that this person's doing this or.
Alexa: So it could be anything from maybe timetabling, late payments, maybe communicating with parents.
There's, there's many things that we probably find create a bit of stress.
Louise: Yeah. So the one thing I've, I've learned and actually adapted it into relationships and all sorts is reframing it and also putting it from a different perspective. So if you've got a frustration with a person, for example, reframe that situation, a look at the positives of the situation, if you can find any, and then also look at the perspective that they might be in.
So someone's late to class or continually late rather than getting frustrated. Hey, like. It's open communication, but also understanding it from a different perspective. So reframing is a very powerful tool. And if it's something you practice daily, it again, will add to that positive mindset of not always going, Oh my God, so frustrating, you know, people get into that habit of just that negative mindset, everything's going wrong.
Reframe it. [00:20:00] Maybe you didn't. An example would be. Okay, I've lost my you get your notice to lose your job or, you know, you've been made redundant. Okay. How can you reframe that? What is the positive out of this situation? So that's really powerful as well, but it's obviously quite a big minefield and there's so much available online as well.
Like there's so much you can look at, but the beauty of having someone working with you is that they will sort of. Use their expertise to find the right techniques and tools that will work for you and also give you coping mechanisms for just daily things like that, like reframe, hand on heart, you know, rape out of 10.
How am I feeling? I'm 4 today. Okay, that's okay. So it comes back to just centering yourself.
Alexa: We had Walt Fritz on the podcast at the very beginning of 2025, so only a few weeks ago, and he's a manual therapist, and he was talking about making change, we had a tongue focus, but he asked a question which really attaches to this biopsychosocial model, which is tapping into that psycho part that [00:21:00] we're talking about here.
And the question that he asked me in the interview, and I'll probably paraphrase it a little bit here, but he said something on the lines of, Do you feel yourself capable of change? And that can really be quite a strong question, whether it's to do with a physical ailment or, or a sensation that we're feeling during singing, or how we feel ourselves emotionally and what our experiences are with our mindset.
Louise: I absolutely agree. And I think, , if we can encourage a growth mindset in our students as well, and that comes down to how we educate them. And as teachers have a growth mindset of like, anything's possible, like, yeah, not capping ourselves to, Oh, they're not, they're never going to get that because they don't have this.
It's, it's encouraging that mindset through your teaching. And I think that that can be really quite powerful because everything we do really creates them as adults as well. Like, especially if we see people quite regularly a week, , I don't know how many times you'll have a certain student, but especially with dance, having [00:22:00] multiple subjects, you, you tend to see that student through different days and different classes.
So you actually become somebody that they see ultimately more than their parents. I've had kids that I've taught the for like so much more, they're just straight to mine after, not mine, my school after, , after being at school. And then they're not going home till like nine at night. So just remembering that the language, language that we pass on.
It's gonna become what they do as well. So yeah, I think that's really powerful. I think if we can adopt that more, um, with teaching, I think if it was educated like more as teachers and coaches, because it is all kind of interlinks, doesn't it?
Alexa: Yeah, for sure.
Louise: Yeah.
Alexa: Where did you get your NLP accreditation?
Louise: So my NLP accreditation is the same as my coaching accreditation. That's called the Coaching Masters. And, um, actually the guy, Liam, oh my God, Liam, Liam Collins. That's it. He's fantastic. I think, yeah, I've, I've been watching the NLP qualification for a while, you know, and you know, it's there. I was like, when I [00:23:00] first started, I was like, right, I really want to progress that.
But, um, yeah, just absolutely fantastic. And then belief coding is a whole separate, , modality literally just under belief coding and Jess Cunningham. It's the one that runs that who is. It's amazing.
Alexa: And for that. I mean, us as teachers, we're probably not going to be offering NLP unless we've had an accreditation or anything like that.
But is there, is there anything else like an insurance that you need, or is it that accreditation that kind of gets you off implementing it in?
Louise: Yeah, so coaching is, , kind of like some forms of performing and teaching is not, it's not, um, what's the word? Not monitored. What's it called? , I've lost my word, regulated.
Yeah. So there is lots of people out there doing without insurance and not doing this, but yes, I, yeah, I'm insured with it for sure because you know, , I think it's important to protect yourself as well and really know what you're doing, but yes, um, yeah, I would say just going down the road of qualifications and insurance.
But if you're just. interested in getting mindset work into singing [00:24:00] and those, if you've got any dance teachers or any other performance performing teachers here, a lot of it, you can just, you can self educate on it. Or if you've had a life coach, you might kind of get some ideas. There's little things that I do, like even like vision boarding, all of that stuff.
Like you can do that with your students. You don't need to be qualified to do that. You need to be qualified to practice NLP. And you need to be qualified to practice belief coding mindset, coaching, not always, but I would always, if you are going to look for a coach and you want to pay someone to either work with you or your students, I would look at their background and how they've got there and also what came before their background.
Cause you know, teaching kids for me for 20 years, , has set me up with a really good background and working with the parents. So the mentoring has just been. kind of within my career since probably about 18 years old. But, um, yes, you don't have to get qualified as a coach if you want to just do a little bit of mindset work with your kids.
And if someone came to me, , a teacher and I did coaching with them and they said, look, do you have any ideas that I could do with my students? [00:25:00] Absolutely. You know, if they're coming to me and working with me, then I'm totally happy to share those resources as long as it's done in the correct way. So
yeah, there's lots of ideas out there that you can implement in your classes and with students and with yourself.
There's loads of little workshops going here and there, you know, manifesting workshops and there's all sorts out there. But , it just depends what outcome you want, and what you want to practice. I wouldn't call yourself a coach if you haven't gone down that road, but implementing it in classes is fine.
Yeah, little bits and bobs.
Alexa: A lot of us probably are including some of this without having that label on it anyway. I mean, the breathing exercises, it's, it's really great for people who might be feeling a bit of music performance anxiety with , focusing on that long exhalation. We know that kind of brings the heart rate down and that's quite linked to the exercise you took us through just before, but many singing teachers do have these other nuanced skills to offer.
[00:26:00] Maybe we're doing singing as well as teaching keyboard or piano or guitar or maybe we are singing teachers but also offer nutrition to maybe people who are suffering reflux or whatever that might be on the other accreditations. How can mindset coaching and belief coding that sort of field compliment the role of a teacher, particularly in the performing arts.
What do you notice about the students that you work with that? And maybe that you would have liked to have had when you were performing yourself.
Louise: Yeah. So I think mindset coaching, belief coding, NLP, any kind of, um, therapies and coaching can be for everybody. Anybody who's got anybody who's just working on personal goals or those, you know, professional goals of creating a business or wanting to get more students.
I suppose the way you can cater it more to performing, it ultimately comes down to each person's bespoke thing they want to work on. So a lot of, [00:27:00] I would say with dancers, a lot of the things I come up against is probably like confidence and self esteem. And I'm sure with singers, it's might be similar process.
And there's a lot of body awareness stuff as well, especially for, well, yeah, actually from a younger age now due to social media, but also for those that go through the full time colleges, there's a lot of pressures. I'm not quite sure what it's like now, but I know back there that it was looking a certain way, being a certain thing, but basically how can it complement?
It can complement every area, any, no matter what area you are, you just need to make sure you're working with the right person that has that knowledge and understanding. So that they can kind of guide you in the correct way. So I've had a dancer that I've worked with a young dancer and I worked with her for 12 weeks.
And ultimately we went in on the angle of dance, but actually it came just down to confidence in life in general. So there's no set path. It's not like I have a program for someone who wants to get over a performance. performance anxiety. And then the whole course [00:28:00] is going to be about that. It might be the first couple of sessions.
Okay. We look at why this is happening and actually it comes down to something that's completely non related, but they didn't realize. So it will compliment anything. I think it's all about having the right person coaching you and how they take the time to explore your personal situation and how it can benefit.
And also what your goal is. So if you've got somebody who wants to get, get more confident getting on stage, that's the end goal. So everything you do is going to work towards that. But leading up to that, we need to peel back the layers and work out what, what beliefs are going on there. And that's where the belief coding can help with any beliefs.
It can help with stage anxiety, beliefs, anything. You could have any discomfort at the beginning, and then we basically sort of whittle it down. So yeah, don't know if that answers your question, but basically anybody can use it and it be It will be beneficial, but the difference is, is just working with people that maybe can relate.
So if you're working with a doctor turned coach and [00:29:00] you're a performer that wants coaching, they might not have the understanding of the performance background and the pressures that you'll be under. So yeah, so I would say, yeah, finding someone who's got that experience in that area, but ultimately all the techniques can complement anybody.
Alexa: I've been really lucky enough to work with you across a couple of weeks and sessions to dig into what my values are as a human and as a teacher and also figuring out what my purpose is, because sometimes it can get a little bit hazy and you, you get some telling signs that maybe things are out of balance and balance was one of the ones that yeah.
And so, firstly, why is it important for us to know what these are so that we can actually follow our authenticity as closely as possible.
Louise: So, values are so important. And actually it was going back to my values, which is why I chose to become a coach because I had a decision to make with another [00:30:00] opportunity.
And I did the process that I've done similar to with you and I'll explain it. But I went back to those values and realized Is this aligned with these things? So I like to, values are all over the internet. You can go on Google and type list of values. Easy peasy task to do. So what you want to do is basically, work out what values align you as much as possible.
So let's take an example. So if your values are balance determination and respect I like to whittle it down to three. There's other ways. Every, lots of coaches do different things. A lot of different things will tell you maybe five values, maybe three, three is easy to remember. So I go down to three. And then when you look at those three values, you can say, right, let's take my teaching job.
For example, does my teaching job give me balance? And if the answer is no, that's where you're going to feel that you're maybe out of whack a little bit. Does my teaching job give me respect? Do I feel respect, respected in my role? If that's a no, then you're going [00:31:00] to have that resistance. So the importance of finding your values is that you're living. Living by them, basically. It's like friendship or a relationship. If you're with somebody, or you've got a friend which has different values to you, which is absolutely fine. You don't have to have the same values, but if their value on respect is not like yours, you'll potentially find those conflicts there.
So by finding those values, you know, by every opportunity you take, is this going. Is this following my values? So is this following the values of balance, determination, respect, new job coming up, right? Am I going to fulfill those areas? And, , Liam from the Coaching Master actually really promotes that if you can get yourself aligned with everything in your life or the areas of your life on your wheel of life wheel, which is something we look at in coaching, , You, that's the closest to happiness to be having that in your home life, your relationships, your work life.
So that's your, your values. And that's a simple thing to find out, but it can be a bit overwhelming. I know when we started working together, there was a lot went there and whittling them down [00:32:00] was tricky at first. So by having me coaching you and sort of saying a few questions, are you sure you want that?
Are you sure you want that? We finally got down to three, didn't we, with you?
So there is a lot available on the internet and you can definitely do that on your own for free. , and then if you need someone further, they can really help narrow them down and just get you to really see what works for you.
Purpose on the other hand is your why. So why you get up in the morning, why you do this, you know, I've, , I work with something called Ikigai, which is a Japanese, , amazing concept of finding your values. And then it follows a series of questions to find your life purpose, it looks at, it looks at what you contribute to the world, what you're good at, what you love, what you're passionate about.
And from there, you kind of work, use those answers, bring them together to what your sole purpose is. So my purpose, I think, I found on that, I did it a couple of years ago, actually, would be helping people. So that's why I enjoy teaching. I enjoy coaching. I'm not good in an office, just, yes, it might help people [00:33:00] being on emails. But for me, that doesn't fulfill my purpose of helping people. I like the reward of working with somebody and getting them from A to B on. more of a intense personable level. And you get that with teaching, you see that progression and you, you get it with coaching. And it's for me, that's really rewarding to offer myself to somebody and know that I'm helping them.
So yeah. So if you can find your purpose, a lot of people don't know their purpose. I've got friends say, I don't know my purpose, especially if they've maybe been off work and they've had kids and, or they've taken a break from something. Um, that would be the place to start. Values first, and then looking at what your purpose is, and then start asking if you're aligned with those values.
Alexa: Just as an example, I've got my six minute success journal here, which I really liked, but. I'm such a perfectionist, to my detriment, that for some reason I stopped [00:34:00] filling it in and engaging with it because
Louise: Alexa!
Alexa: Because I circled something wrong or didn't, or because I think it was maybe during COVID and so I couldn't fulfill those things so I've kind of abandoned it.
So if I just got myself a new one it'd be fine but I'm just playing to the perfectionist. And it's, that's something I have to sort out equally.
Louise: Yeah. And that's something I would go into as a coach as well. I would actually go, but why are you a perfectionist? So that's where we would go there.
Alexa: I don't even think the doctors can tell me that.
Louise: I think we all are as performers. It's just ingrained in us, isn't it? In our training.
Alexa: Yeah. Um, but there's a list of values here. So, and I've circled a few and haven't circled. Many of the others. So if I just give an example of some that might come up activity, aesthetics, authenticity, balance, challenge, confidence, creativity, empathy, enthusiasm, [00:35:00] fantasy, freedom, generosity, honesty, independence, love, openness, passion, perfection.
Of course, I've circled that one. reputation, responsibility, simplicity, success, team spirit, trust, willpower, wisdom. There's so many. How do we know which ones speak to us? Is it just a case of following a feeling?
Louise: I've actually got a question for you just before we go on to that. Oh yeah, go on. Perfection. So did you circle that because you think I'm a perfectionist or did you circle it because you actually think that's really important to me, that my life is perfect?
Or did you circle it just because, I know I'm a perfectionist.
Alexa: Um, I think it was a case of I know that that's what I strive for, even though I know it's just a really unrealistic goal. And it's not one that I've actually followed through with in my three core [00:36:00] values. Yes.
Louise: Yeah.
Alexa: But it's a it's a word that spoke to me because I think I'm, I have that as maybe it's a personality thing I don't know but it's something that I was like, oh, that word is drawn to me for the right or wrong reasons.
So that's why I circled it. But it's not one, as I say, that I ended up keeping. Yeah.
Louise: Yeah. Only because we talked about perfection, didn't we? And then when you said, Oh, of course I'll sign that one. And I thought, well, is that just because you're ingrained to do that? It was interesting. And that's the kind of stuff I would talk you through.
So first of all, yeah. So start off, I've got, um, When I do it with my clients, I've got a list, , that you'll remember, Alexa, I can't remember how many on there, there must be. There's loads, isn't there? Loads. Yeah. Start off with just circling what resonates. What style, the ones that pop out. Don't overthink it, and I always recommend to do this when you've got some calm music on, you've got no distractions.
I candle's lit now. shut the door and just, , actually there's, um, on Spotify, I always use it's called journaling without lyrics. And it's a lovely playlist that someone's created. And it's just beautiful music that I always [00:37:00] put on whenever I need to write something. So obviously getting a good headspace and just channel yourself and then just look at what pops out.
Don't overthink it. So don't go all that, that. No, just circle, circle, circle, circle. Then you want to try and narrow it down further. If you've circled 40, then you've only started going down to 30 and then 20. Again, this is where a coach might be able to help you because , with that input, you might realize actually, no, that's not important to me.
I think I've just circled it because I like the word or, so then go down to about 12 and then from there, there might be some which are similar. So I think we had some with you, Alexa, that actually, when we explored those 12, they were actually meaning the same thing for you. So then we were like, okay, which one was better for you?
And that's when we got to our final three, was it?
Alexa: Yeah.
Louise: So it is just a case of a process. It's a process with no distractions. If you're good at sitting down and doing it yourself, you love journaling, you love writing, you'll love that process. If not so much, definitely get that input and just [00:38:00] keep narrowing it down.
If you're getting frustrated, put it away, come back to it when you're feeling a bit calmer. So for me, it's what jumped out the page first, the words I kind of like, then getting rid of the ones that I kind of thought, not so important. And then the last three. There were others I wanted, but these three were like solid, like they were like, if I could have my dream life, I'd want to live by them.
And my top, top one is balance. That's the one I actually can't remember what the other two were like two years ago. I need to redo it. It's really important to do them regularly. Your values change as you, you know, you grow as well. But balance has been one of the things that I will, if someone says, Hey, I've got a job for you and it's Saturday night.
And then I think Okay. Is that going to offer me the balance I want in my life? And if it's a no, then it's no. So then you can start to make your choices based on them, but it is a process of elimination and you can always do it with a friend. It could be something quite fun. If you've got kids, um, older kids, not obviously young ones, you can do the same with them.
You know, you can have fun with it. [00:39:00] I'm sure online there might be kids values on there that are a little bit more easy to understand. You might, I haven't even looked into that. That's just popped into my mind, but that could be something that you could do with your kids so that you make them aware of.
You know what they stand for, ,
Alexa: I, I worried at the time, like, if I don't circle that, does that make me
Louise: No? Yeah.
Alexa: It's the overthinking thing. And I just think, no, I, I do, I do value things like trust and optimism, but it's just not the thing that is, is my main driver, I guess.
Louise: No, like respect is one that I know someone in my life that they always talk about respect. They haven't got respect. That's, that's not respectful to them. Respect, you can tell is a top value. They've been conditioned. And also actually, uh, love Paul Brunson. Brunson, the coach? Yeah. He talks a lot about, are your values actually your values or is it stuff that people have taught you from a young age?
Yeah. He talks about [00:40:00] that with, I think his faith in Christianity and. He was always taught that that should be his value and actually coming back down the, like older now and make his own choices and doesn't have that kind of pressure. You actually just, are these my values or these are my putting things that I expect people to put me, for me to put down.
So that's also quite important because, you know. People in our lives can be very prominent and it's just making sure that you're making your choices for you.
So yeah, if you're raised in a family where they always talk about respect, that might naturally be your value. But then actually, when now you're not in that scenario, you might be like, Oh, actually, no, that's not as important as it was always drilled into me.
So yeah, so
there's lots of unpicking you can do and you can go deep with it, but generally you can find them on Google and do like a, probably more of a surface level, but I always recommend either workshop or doing it with somebody and just getting that input because they'll be able to uncover things that you haven't thought of as well.
Alexa: So if a singing teacher, any one of our listeners [00:41:00] is wanting to explore, maybe getting an NLP accreditation or doing some mindset coaching themselves, or even offering this as part of their business, where would you advise that they get started?
Louise: So I think the best thing for someone looking to kind of qualify in this area would be to do a bit of research online, you know, have a look. I mean, the internet is so good for so many things, but it's also very noisy, but there's some fantastic coaches on there. And then there's also a lot of people out there trying to do it and maybe not doing it.
, It's being realistic, going into something like coaching alone is tough. I'm not going to say here, like, it is promoted as a, do a course and you're going to earn so much money working from home. It's like anything, it's like singing, teaching as well. You've got to get the, the students. So if especially it's alongside stuff, I really recommend going down that path.
And I recommend doing it full time as well, but it's just being aware that like anything, it's not a quick fix. And I think it is sometimes the coaching industry, it's sold as a quick [00:42:00] fix to. better income and quit the job, you can do this. So just going into it, open minded in that sense, knowing that everything you do, you've got to promote yourself at the end of it.
And you are basically out there in the open. So really firstly thinking about what you want to get out of it, I would say would be the first step. And what does that look like to you? , And are you prepared to put the work in to do that? If it's to compliment singing, teaching things. And I think it's fantastic if you're able to put the hours in.
I mean, an NLP course, generally for me, it was six months and it was intense. You know, you've got to have that time. I, um, I've been coaching masters. I, I promote them because I was really happy with them. So they're a good one to start with. And they, , I don't work for them. So I feel like they've got options there, which are really resourceful.
They've got loads of awesome sources. , and then I just follow a lot of coaches. I also listen to a lot of podcasts as well with coaches. It fascinates me to even just, just mindful, um, Mindful podcast and they tend to have a lot of [00:43:00] coaches and people in psychology, they tend to have them on there. So you learn a lot from that.
So I would say first step is just working out what you want to get from it. Then looking at the avenues of, you know, what does that look like to you? What are the finances you've got in order to be able to put towards a course? And, , it's finding the right company for you. I would do research, but, um,, first hand, that's the, that's the path I went down. Um, like anything, it's time and money, but it's an investment in yourself. And I think when you do a coaching qualification, you're not only becoming a coach at the end of it, you're actually completely kind of coaching yourself as well. You're learning so much. There's so many techniques that get practiced on you.
You get to practice up techniques on others. You're kind of getting that in the process. So with some people just do these courses, just For self development, maybe not the NLP because that's more of a intense course, but belief coding, coaching, accreditation. Some of the people I got paired up with in training were just doing it for them to be, to find out [00:44:00] what they wanted.
So yeah, motive and research, I would say. And also if you want to reach out to me, like I'm happy to give some guidance on that for anybody that's looking to dabble in that world. It's a cool world, but like anything, it's, it's, it takes time to build,
Alexa: What is coming up for you? Because you have a squad.
Louise: I do. About to be launched.
Alexa: Tell us about that.
Louise: Yes, I do. So for me, I'm still freelance teaching. I still want to keep that creative outlet going. I love choreography and I love, I mean, that's been my life is dance and teaching and being around performers. Uh, what else is coming up?
So yes, I've obviously got my coaching on my own. So I do one to one coaching courses. , NLP belief coding for like individual sessions for anybody that wants something very specific. And then I've got the women's success squad. So I, whilst working with performers, I'll work with performers on sort of referral. My main kind of, my main niche is working with women, sorry guys, , working with women out there to, um, empower them to [00:45:00] just get unstuck out. You know, the, the same old routine and to make the changes in their life that they need to. So I work with a lot of women on one to one, and then obviously performers as well.
And obviously it all crosses over as well. And then I have the women's success squad, which myself and my business partner, Amy, who is also up before, well, she's got a school. She's got a school up in Nottinghamshire. I want to say, yeah. So her background is teaching as well and educating children and in a similar domain.
But we have broadened it to not just performers and business owners in that industry. We want to make it general to women because we're really passionate about creating like a community of women together and why this squad is so good. It's going to be group coaching, so it'll be like a monthly membership.
There's group coaching included, there'll be goals set, there'll be worksheets, growth work, a lot of support along the way. And then there'll also be opportunities for networking, so that's fantastic for people with businesses. And also just creating a community, making friends, and the beauty [00:46:00] of me and Amy is that we met online.
That sounds like we're dated. We didn't date. We met online through coaching. And, um, yeah, that is the power of the online community. So we kind of want to. Do that on next level. So really passionate about that. So any women out there listening to this and it just needing support, whether personally or professionally, that squad is going to offer that and friendships, networking, collab, everything.
And we'll have guest speakers and all sorts of more cater to everyone. The mums out there, business owners, , really women that just. determined to make something more or get some guidance, you know, they're not quite sure where to go. And that's similar to what I do with the coaching as well. But it's just, , we're really excited about the squad.
So that should be coming in January, I'd say into January, February, we're going to be launching, but it's all coming together in the background. And it's, um, yeah, so that's for me this year, , as well as lots of other personal [00:47:00] things, which are good. It's, exciting year ahead. So
Alexa: Yeah, great. And where can we find out more, get in touch with you?
What's the best place?
Louise: , so will there be anywhere that I can put my website for these guys?
Alexa: Yeah, so it will be in the show notes.
Louise: In the show notes, , I've got a website, um, www. louisecallincoach. com. , again, you'll see mainly catered to women, but I will work with , performers and teachers on referral.
, I just had to kind of niche down obviously as a coach. So that's, there's a lot of information about my background on there, about what I do and, um, belief coding, NLP, all of that. I'm also on the socials as well. Louise Callin coach, please follow me. And we also have a women's success squad group on Facebook.
So it's a free group. And, , Yeah, we're building a community there and then we're going to be taking it into a more elite membership. So that is Women's Success Squad private Facebook group. So you can find us on there.
Alexa: Brilliant. Oh, Louise, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for keeping us [00:48:00] company.
Louise: No, thank you. It's been lovely. Thank you.