Last year, Cardiff-based Andrea Callanan became a best-selling author and was interviewed on a TV talk show in LA sharing the power of owning your voice – for a good decade, she was one of the main Music Industry Voice Coaches, teaching public speakers, chart-toppers, Broadway and West End performers, TV actors, comedians, dancers and actors, Britain’s Got Talent finalists, X-factor and ‘The Voice’ contestants and a huge number of “pleasure singers”, children, teenagers and groups.
She is now founder and owner of the award-winning people development company – inspire me, which specialises in providing proven emotional and financial return by working with mindset, behaviour, positive psychology and creativity (including singing!), alongside her coaching business working with high achieving female entrepreneurs, she travels the world, sharing her skills and passion and is a globally recognised vibrant motivational speaker, having shared the stage with the likes of Simon Sinek and Joel Brown.
Tell us a bit about yourself, background and your current role
I am a Voice, Confidence and Success Coach and the Founder and Owner of inspire me (www.andinspireme.com) – an award-winning people development company that specialises in corporate engagement.
I’m also an international motivational speaker and number 1 best-selling Author of “You Are Meant For More”.
I come from Barry in South Wales and began life as a classical singer. Having worked in the music industry for a number of years, I now affectionately refer to myself as a music industry survivor! I’ve been a voice coach for nearly 25 years and I’m an ex record label owner. I’ve released, written and sung on some releases and toured as a singer many moons ago.
I also worked briefly as a manger in a contact centre.
I’m a Guardian Small Business Leader, an Insider Magazine Rising Star, A ‘Top 25 Inspirational Welsh Woman’ and a local Entrepreneur of the year finalist. I also sit on the Business Wales Strategic Board for the Welsh Government.
I am passionate about people recognising they have choice and discovering and using their voice.
Did you ever sit down and plan your career?
Yes! I’m a big planner. I’m a great believer in having a direction to follow. When I first became self-employed back in 2001, I planned out a few things I wanted to have achieved by the time I was 30, 35 and 45. I had achieved all of them by my 30th birthday. I’m a great believer in visioning and setting intention. I practice the Law of Attraction and plan regularly in my business. I create both physical and digital vision boards and dedicate time daily to visioning and planning my desired outcomes for the day, week, month, quarter and year! If you fail to plan you plan to fail, right? This year in particular, I intentionally didn’t plan in the way I usually do because I was figuring out what I wanted. It was tough (for me and my team!) but also SO worthwhile. Figuring out what we desire in our lives is so important and helps us with our planning and success.
Have you faced any challenges along the way?
SO many. Health is one of my major challenges. Autoimmune disease and burnout with Adrenal fatigue. I always have the challenge of time….being dynamic, busy and ambitious while raising a family is sometimes very challenging. Brexit affected out business too. As someone who uses Positive Psychology, I often see challenges as learning opportunities, sometimes though things can just be hard. We hit the magic 10-year-old birthday with inspire me last month and I’m so proud that we’re still here when we so easily might not have been. It’s ok to embrace tough times and acknowledge them. It’s often only by acceptance that we can let go and move through those times.
How do you feel about mentoring? Have you mentored anyone or are you someone’s mentee?
Absolutely – I’m a MASSIVE fan of mentoring. I started mentoring people initially to set up businesses as musicians about 16 years ago. I’ve since gone on to mentor young adults. I’ve been a Big Ideas Role Model for the Welsh Government entrepreneurship scheme in children and young adults for many years. As a coach and long-time voice, confidence and mindset coach I mentor many people in their businesses and as speakers. I’ve had mentors throughout the whole of my career and also received huge value in paid coaching programmes too as well as business accelerator programmes. This year I’ve dived in with no less than 5 coaches! All for different aspects of my life and business. It’s been crazy but really worthwhile. I feel like I’ve taken a quantum leap this year in my business and self-mastery and my visibility.
What do you want to see happen within the next five years when it comes to diversity?
It’s really important to me to encourage female leaders to claim their space at the table! In fact, I often talk about how we can make and buy our own tables these days and don’t need permission anymore to have a voice. I want to see more unapologetic success from women who are standing tall and inspiring others to follow in their footsteps.
What has been your biggest achievement to date?
My children…..100 per cent
What is your next challenge and what are you hoping to achieve in the future?
My next challenge is to take inspire me to the next level so I can reach, impact and influence more people to show up as their best selves in their lives and work. With my personal brand I’ll be travelling more coaching and speaking internationally in 2019, this will be both a blessing and a challenge, juggling family and business life. I believe that if we’re not being challenged, we’re not growing.
