Be Your Inner Superstar With Carrie Griffiths – Episode 17

Carrie Griffiths is a voice coach, business coach and former singer who has enjoyed success as an international performer and best-selling artist.

Having started her successful voice coaching business with just £6 she has developed a system for contemporary artists and active Speakers to help them to tap into the power of their voices and develop more vocal control, strength and power without causing damage, so that they can connect with more of their audience, make a bigger impact and increase the longevity of their careers.

Drawing from her own experiences as an entrepreneur and best-selling co-author she has created a program that helps busy creatives to go from stressed-out freelancers to profitable business owners, without the ridiculous hours.

Her simple, four-step process will show you how you can tackle overwhelm, cut out the crap, and be more productive in less time, so that you can make more money without the headache.

Connect with Carrie

FREE E-BOOK: https://bit.ly/Creatives5CF

FREE CONSULTATION: https://clarity-focus-session.youcanbook.me

0:08
Welcome, everyone to the confidence in singing Podcast. I’m Aideen. And my guest today is Carrie Griffiths who is a vocal coach, previously professional singer, and now a business and transformational life coach. And welcome, Carrie.

0:23
Hello. Thank you for having me.

0:25
Oh, I feel really honored. It’s almost Roger Burnley, who I interviewed a number of weeks ago and recommended I talk to you and you are just Why are you so amazing? Oh,

0:38
wow, thank you. I love I just love what I do. And I love helping people. And I love giving joy to the world. I love life. And I wake up every day thinking you know what great things are gonna happen today. And something great happens every single day.

0:52
That’s a great question. Whoo, what great things are happening today. Let me read out your bio, just to fill in some of those gaps. And we are going to have a juicy conversation today about your music about you and what how you work with people and your tips for all the aspiring secret singers out there. So Carrie Griffith is a voice coach, business coach, author and former singer who is a national performer and best selling artist. She has developed a system for artists and speakers to help them to tap into the to develop more vocal control strength and power without causing damage, so they can connect more with their audience make a bigger impact and the longevity of their careers. She has also created a business firm that helps busy creatives to go from stressed freelancers to profitable business owners without the ridiculous hours. Perfect, Sign me up. Welcome. So how are you? My first question to you is where did your passion for singing come from? How did you build your own confidence?

2:02
Well, okay, it all stems back to when I was around about four years old. My parents were very musical. They weren’t musicians, but they were musical. And we, you know, growing up, I’ve come from a family of two West West Indian parents with big families. And we always had a lot of people over. I had aunts and uncles who lived in our in our house. And they were all musical and there was just a lot of music in the family. But I wasn’t a singer, I was a dancer. So I was a dancer all the way through my childhood. I loved Madonna, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, five star. Anyone with anything with dancing in it, I used to watch Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. There was a there was a ballroom show on I think it was on a Friday or Saturday night called comes out. And it was ballroom like, you know, all of my friends thought I was crazy. And I watched that, but I was I was obsessed by it. And I just loved dancing. So I was a dancer first. But I always performed. And as I got older, and I realized that people liked to watch me perform. Obviously, that helped my confidence. Because, you know, my family were very, very, they were very encouraging. But they wouldn’t, they didn’t tell me I was good when I wasn’t they told me when I needed to improve as well. So there was a lot of encouragement, there was a lot of critiquing, but in a very, very positive way. And my mum always supported me if I wanted to go off to tap dancing lessons, we didn’t have money, but she would find the money. I went to tap dance lessons. I went to ballet, ballet lessons and that kind of stuff.

3:37
Isn’t that awesome? Like what I’ve picked up from that as well is that your mom had an abundance mindset? Yeah. Because I mean, I was told Aideen you can do ballet or swimming, you know, one or the other. And I was like, devastated. And so there’s, there’s, there’s something to when a parent supports you like that!

3:57
Absolutely. I mean, I don’t, I don’t know if if I had would be the person that I am. If I didn’t have my mum there in those early days and well all through really supporting me the whole way. And my and my family are supportive as well, but my mum was always there. And I don’t know where that came from with her because she grew up very, very, very poor as well in the East End of London. But she just, she always she loved performing herself, and she felt that she had missed out. And she didn’t want me to miss out as well. Where she wasn’t thing you’ve done. She really is. I mean, what I do now in terms of the business coaching, she doesn’t really understand. I’ve got a book out. She knows I did a live event a couple of weeks ago. She knows we’ve got a magazine out the other stuff. She’s a bit like, I know she teaches singing. But the rest of it. Yeah, so I didn’t actually come to singing until I was 23. And my husband out of the blue he said I’m gonna buy you singing lessons and I thought, but I’m not a singer. I’m a dancer. So I must have been Singing around the plays I must have been. I don’t know if it was because I was bad or good. But he gave me the singing lessons. But he gave me the singing lessons at 23. And it just took off. And I haven’t looked back.

5:12
That’s absolutely for now. I know that you’ve had a career with your singing, which is something that a lot of singers aspire to, but maybe don’t get the opportunity is that they need or maybe don’t get to the level that they need to get to, in order to get tells us a bit about that.

5:30
Well, yeah, I was I was, I’ve been a singer for about 12 years when things really took off. And what happened was that I just always said, Yes, I would, I will travel the length and breadth of, of the UK to do a gig even if it was two or three songs because I just wanted to be a singer. I read this book. I’ve never found the book again. But it said act as if, and I thought why I’m so I’m going to act as a singer, so to to act as if I’m a singer, I need to sing. And I sang everywhere. I did everything I I took on board, everything that my my singing teachers and performance teachers taught me and I would go out and I would teach other people. So I built this reputation as being reliable. I wasn’t the best singer. I was nowhere near the best singer but I was reliable. I said I was going to be somewhere I would be there. If it was a solo gig. I’d sing solo if it was a rock gig. I’d sing rock if it was a reggae gig. I’d sing reggae. And on top of that, I had a strong strong image you can kind of see I had a strong

6:32
well we have our audio listeners as well. So, We know we’ve got the West Indies heritage. So what did you look like back then?

6:41
WelI back then. So this was 2010 2011 I’m really into the pumpkin skinhead scene at the moment. I’ve got a red afro, a short kind of red Afro it’s kind of it used to be shaved on one side and kind of long over the other but it’s growing out now. Yeah, but I have a I have a punk rock image at that time. I adopted the skinhead girls look which is a feather cut very, very strong. And go and look it up skinhead girls feather cut and I would wear Fred Perrys I still wear Fred Perrys now. Ben Sherman shirts. It’s very very smart with with brogue shoes or Dr. Marten shoes or Dr. Martens boots and denims but it’s a very very strong look. And I was noticed by a Ska band Buster shuffle. So in Ska that’s a very strong look the skinhead look is, is very big scar is very big in this kind of scene. Yeah. And so so I was noticed by this, this band and they basically stole me from the band I was in. And then I spent five years with them touring Europe touring the world and, and having all of these amazing experiences.

7:49
Oh, that sounds amazing. I have a friend who’s mad and disco music so and reggae as well. I’d have to what’s the name of that band that you were with

7:58
Buster shuffle

8:01
Okay, I’m gonna pass that on. Yeah, yeah, cool. Now, I know that things had to change after a few years, obviously, you were you know, doing a lot of traveling then. And so what would you say you gained from that time.

8:18
Although I was always very confident as a performer, I was very, very shy person. And I didn’t really have very high self esteem. I had very, very low self esteem. And, and at the time that I joined Buster shuffle, I was in a very, very abusive relationship. And traveling, trapped while actually being away from him and traveling. And realizing that actually, I did have birth, gave me self worth and gave me the confidence to stand up to him and leave. Well, yeah,

8:52
congratulate. Yeah, that was a that’s an amazing thing. And it is it sometimes it takes a step away, to see things clearer. But those are the those are the, you know, it takes a bit of guts to do that. But you have to nearly do the thing to gain rather than gain the confidence before you do the thing. Would you agree with that?

9:13
Absolutely. You don’t get confidence. Confidence isn’t given to you. You’re not born, we’re born with confidence. And it gets knocked out of us. By the time we’re seven, we lose 90% I don’t know the actual statistic but a lot of the confidence that we are born with, whether it’s outward confidence or inner confidence, and it takes a long time to build it up. And sometimes we don’t even realize I was always that sassy. One, no one can touch me I’m fine, I’m fine. But inside I was very, very broken and and having that success as a singer helped me to regain my trust in myself and my self love my self worth so that I can and now I help other people with theirs as well.

9:56
And it sounds like you have a very strong work ethic as well. Oh wow. salutely Yeah, from the family, I’m sure that you come from That’s really amazing. So, nowadays, if your confidence needs a bit of a boost, what do you do for that?

10:13
I have a really strong community. So I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the phrase, you know, you, you become the, you become the people that you the five people that you spend most time with. Yeah. And I’m, I’m really fortunate that I’ve found and built a very strong community around me. So they pull me up when I need to be pulled up. And sometimes I just call my mom, you know,

10:41
she thinks you’re awesome. That’s great. Yeah, it is. So

10:47
in terms of building myself up, sometimes I just flick through, because I forget some of the things that I’ve done, you know, and I might, I might just be scrolling through Facebook, or I might actually just go online, and I’ll see something I’ve seen myself. And I’m like, I forgot that I did that. So then I go and search for something else. And maybe on those days when I’m like, you know, when those days when you don’t feel like a very good thing, you know, I can’t belt today, or I can’t hit that note or move abroad. I just yeah, you know, it happens to all of us, you know, and I go back and I remind myself of the of the achievements that I have had. And that reminds me that I will have more.

11:27
That’s beautiful. I’ve actually gone through a big phase of creating an environment that reminds me of stuff. So I found a beautiful little sticker that goes on the mirror that says Hello gorgeous, it’s bright pink. So my husband is a little bit like okay, I use this bathroom as well is this for me to say he is gorgeous. So and just for an affirmation cards and you know, colors that I enjoy looking at. And sometimes we think stagnate in our environment. And by changing something in your environment, or even like that, getting something cool a new haircut or Doc Marten’s and your identity becomes stronger and you start to feel you again, because you’ve put some you’ve you’ve given up by saying yeah, you can have that. Yeah,

12:14
exactly that and one of the other things that I do, I don’t live so close to the river. Now I used to I was brought up in Fulham and Hammersmith right on the river on a council estate, which was great, but you

12:25
had the river had the

12:27
river. Yeah. And so what I would do, I try to go to the river everyday during lockdown for for the reaction to re Energize. And then I found that even when we opened up again, if I was feeling low, just to walk by the river, just to look at the ducks, you know, nothing major, you know, didn’t have to go in, do I do a 20 minute long meditation, I just go and look at the river and watch the ducks and back to simple life.

12:52
You know, that’s just so true. It’s absolutely brilliant advice. Really, really good. So with aspiring singers, and not only on their voices, but on their careers, but let’s start with voice work. So what is it that you find people need the most help with when they start?

13:13
Self belief, without a doubt, without even established singers? They always say I need more confidence in something. And it’s reminding them that it’s okay to make mistakes. We all make mistakes you that’s how you learn. And that’s how we learn. And so what I do in my lessons when we try something new, I explain what we’re going to do I give him demonstrations. We try it together, when it’s when it’s your turn. Maybe it will work. Maybe it won’t. It doesn’t matter. Yes, I love that. It’s giving that space to make mistakes and to get it wrong until you get it right.

13:53
Absolutely. And for me I talk a lot about play because I feel like it should be played for people we say play music. Yeah. So I think we play with our singing as well. So what I do is play and I really feel like it also helps your brain work better because you tend when you’re critical. Very linear, and I need it. Oh, I understand it with my brain so my voice should be able to do it. Which doesn’t always work that way. It’s hard. You’re being hard on yourself, you know? Not good. Not good. One of

14:25
the things that I say we’ve got to make a lot of exactly be kind to yourself, you know, make some silly noises make some silly faces. It’s all singing techniques are all silly. They’re all silly noises. Yeah, sometimes you have to make the silly faces to get the noise out.

14:39
Oh, great. I’m gonna talk about that my students more by silly faces. I do there’s one thing when someone’s rude. I get them to give everyone in the room a dirty look like Oh, yeah. Yeah, to look around. So that can be really really empowering. And so apart from from say those those more people starting off with you, and I know you work on Also with singers, both themselves and kind of are starting to lean into my audience and how do I, how do I do marketing and things like that? So tell us a little bit about that element too.

15:12
Okay, oh, there’s so much there. But yeah, you’re right. It’s finding finding the right audience, because we all want to sink to everyone, but we can’t. So it’s about finding, understanding your own values, and who are the who are the people that you’d like to spend your time around, you know, the kind of people you want to spend your time around are the ones that you will want to work with in terms of your internal network, your managers, your agents, promoters, crew, that type of thing. And then by attracting those people, you’re you’re going to attract those people as your audience as well. So if you’re very, if you’re very wholesome, and like, and like pretty things and colorful flowers, and that kind of stuff, you’re gonna attract those types of people. There’s no contraband or to death metal crowd, if that’s, you know, if you’re, if you’re singing folk music, you know, yeah, I can cross over but you know, and those are extremes, right? Those are extremes. So, yeah, it is very important to work out who your audience is, but it starts with yourself. So who do you want to spend time around? And that will tell you who you want to attract as your audience as well. So that’s, that’s one thing. The next is understanding that it’s okay to want to be a big, big, big superstar. When my singers come to me, they say, I don’t want to be a superstar sake. Of course you do. You wouldn’t be here. If you didn’t, everyone wants to be a superstar, right? Yeah, understanding and accepting that it’s okay to want to want that. And once you believe that you can have it then it’s more likely to happen. It was kind of Battlefront for me. But I always kind of had this inner Thiele feeling as a performer that I was a great performer, just because I’ve done it for so many years. I was never a fantastic singer, as I said earlier, but I was a great, I am still a great performer. And so it’s not always about being the best singer. But it’s about being authentic, as in knowing who you are, what you want to bring to the table. And you just want to give those people a good night out, right? So you’ve got to, you’ve got to do as long as you leave, look, good night out. You’ll you’ll be fine. But self belief is the main thing.

17:29
Yeah. And I mean, when you say, you know, I am a fantastic singer, a singer, I’m not like it’s sort of, and it’s so subjective. So one person is going to actually think you are the best singer that they’ve ever heard. And then another person is going to be like, oh, we’ll take it or leave it, or would you turn her down, please. And I say this to beginners as well. But there’s no audience for everyone. So for some people, it’s their grandma’s children or their cat. And then for for other people, it’s the open mic night or it’s the session down in the local Irish pub or around the campfire. If you’re here in America, although I haven’t found a way to get the American singing around the campfire yet I think I need to get a group of singers. Yeah, years to come. So it’s, it’s fun, it’s fun getting people to to, to steps forward. I really love what you’re saying. There’s absolutely fantastic. So is there you know, anything that you that surprising about what you’ve found out about yourself through your singing career? You’re learning to sing?

18:35
Good question, anything that I’m surprised about? Because I was such a shy child, I’m surprised at how well I can connect with people quite quickly. Okay, maybe that’s the NLP that I’ve done as well. But I, before I did NLP, I was already quite good at that. And I think that’s just I think that just comes from a place of loving humans and wanting everyone to have a good time.

19:00
Yes. And that’s a great thing to be. What would you say the value for singing of singing? It’s like when someone says, Oh, I’m not sure if I should bother learning to sing. And now I really, you know, I’m not great. And I might just want to join a choir like, is there any point? What would you say to someone like that?

19:18
Oh, my goodness, it opens up a whole new world singing is like a whole new community is like a secret world, right? Once you once you embrace it, and they’re, they’re helping let’s start with the health benefits. So first of all, when you’re when you’re breathing properly, it’s going to relax you It helps you to relax, releases, relieves stress, helps you to have a better night’s sleep helps you to connect with your body I have, he won’t mind me saying I have a client who took a lot of drugs and was not connected to himself. They were not connected to themselves for many, many, many years. And just that the act of breathing and noticing how their body feels when they breathe, just gave just gave them an inkling as into what they had been missing that they can now reconnect with. So reconnecting with your body reconnecting with your mind, breathing properly relieving stress. When you look after your voice, you are going to look after your body, you’re the rest of your health naturally, because everything comes through your voice, if you’re having a bad day, think about how you sound when you call in sick to work, or come in today. You know, yes, everything comes through your voice. So once you start looking after your voice, you’re naturally going to look after the rest of your health, when you drink a lot of water, you have nice skin as well. And in terms of like socially, we subconsciously singing helps us to bond with other people. Whether you’re singing by yourself, or you’re singing in a group, especially when you’re singing in a group, you will naturally start bonding with other people singing releases, those feel good chemicals into the brain. And so the more that you sing, even if you don’t think you’re a great singer, just the act of letting that voice out, you know, let it out, you know, you got to let it out. And that just releases a whole load of good, good, feel good chemicals that will just make you want to do it more. And when people you, we don’t realize how much people enjoy hearing other people sing. Even if you believe that you’re not a great singer, people around you just like hearing you, in that joyful moment. Just enjoying the act of singing.

21:42
Absolutely. Oh, so as podcasts, you know, when you hear a bus driver whistling? It’s like, Yay, with so much it’s brings joy.

21:51
Yeah, my favorite thing is to hear little kids singing nursery rhymes. I love that I don’t teach children anymore. But that’s my favorite thing.

21:59
Yes. It’s just so joyful. It brings us right back. And I feel like singing because we do it more as children. it reconnects to that that inner child.

22:09
Yeah. And going back to play as you were saying earlier.

22:12
Yes, playfulness. So can you tell I’d love to hear if there was like about a performance moment in your career where you just felt like, Oh, my God, I’m exactly where I want to be. And this is like, the best.

22:32
Yeah. If any of my followers are listening to this, they’ll know this story. A few years ago, I can’t remember what year it was. But we were right at busta shuffle. We’re right at the height of our of our plsa At our peak. And there’s a punk band that I really, really love. And I’ve loved since I was a child called Cock Sparrer. A child since a teenager called Cock Sparrer and Cock Sparrer were headlining, and we were supporting them. I think we were maybe two or three bands below them on the lineup. And they would thous I mean, I don’t know 20,000 People maybe. And they had been singing our lyrics. And they’d been you know, shout… They said call me Ru Girl, ru girl. So they’ve been chanting ru girl, ru girl, Carrie, Carryie, you know, and it was awesome. And I was like, Yeah, I’ve done it. And so I picked up my beer. And I held up my beer. And I said, “Prost”, that’s the German for cheers. And I was like, You Did It Girl!

23:32
Yes. Yeah. You know, my husband played a gig for Macy Gray, in a big stadium like that, you know, and I was like, Mike, you just you have to take that moment and sear it into your memory. Because that was like, that’s the moment that you maybe want to experience again. You’ve had it at least that time you’ve you really did have that. And I really feel like you know, we are sometimes as singers, or even in life. We’re aspiring for some moment. But when you are in that moment, you have to fully let yourself be there and experience that and it sounds like you. You acknowledge that moment in that moment. Yeah, but just thinking it’s another gig, which, you know.

24:18
Yeah. I think that’s one of the reasons that I appreciate it so much is because I I enjoy the process. And in business, there’s this thing, enjoy the process, enjoy the process, and it can become a cliche, but I just loved going out and singing anywhere. I’d sing in the street on the bus. My daughter got used to it by the time she was six, she knows that mom just sings everywhere. You know, I just enjoyed the you know, the get being in a van loading up the van when it’s snowing, and it’s like minus 15 in the Czech Republic. It was hard at the time, but I was like, I would rather do this than be in working nights and same degrees. You know, so it was just appreciating every single moment. And while I was Leaving when I was in that abusive relationship when I was going through the transition of leaving that guy, I, I stumbled upon mindfulness. And I made a conscious effort that if, you know, I would just appreciate every moment, I got to the point where we were on, I can’t remember where we were on summer in Germany, we were on a long, long, long drive, it was like a 16 hour drive. And, you know, we hadn’t seen, we hadn’t seen our beds for about four days. And we’d slept in the van overnight and all of the toilets were, you know, at the road, roadside toilets, you know, that kind of glamorous stuff, you know, the glamorous, I’d been going for a we buy the, you know, buy the bins at a stop, you know, it’s really, really glamorous stuff, you know? Anyway,

25:46
thanks for sharing that with us so that we can get a visual of it.

25:50
If you’re gonna be a singer, this is what you that’s what you’re letting yourself in. Yeah, very, it’s not very true. And green rooms, but at some point of after a proper hand wash. My, one of my bandmates offered me a chocolate Hobnob, and I was like, this is the best chocolate I’ve ever had in my life. I was just, I just been practicing mindfulness and, and appreciation and gratitude. So coming back to my point, when I had that moment when I was like, yeah, we’ve done it. It was a big moment, but it wasn’t one that I had ever anticipated.

26:32
Isn’t that amazing? I’m so proud of you. That’s just so far. I hope you’re going to be doing some singing again. I know that when we we chatted briefly before, before we got together today. You mentioned that you might

26:46
maybe Yeah, I mean, I stopped performing in 2017. The break up with the band was difficult. It wasn’t. It wasn’t nasty. But it made me question a lot of the things that I had been doing for a long time. And I said, Oh, I don’t want to perform anymore. I’m I started saying I would never perform again. And then I thought you know why? Why put that limitation on yourself. Earlier this year, probably September, I decided that I had the bug for singing again and wanting to get back on stage. So I got in touch with a friend of mine who I’ve worked with over the years. And every now and then when, when he’s he’s asked me I do sing with him because I just love what he does so much. So I’m going to be joining his new put together coalition. It’s called the coalition of sound actually Brandy Row and the coalition of sound. So I’ll be singing with that group. We will be going out sometime from March.

27:40
Steak. That’s great. And I bet some of your fans from Buster shuffle are going to be so excited to see you back in action again.

27:48
Yeah, and it’s it’s it’s punk roots. It’s like funk, funk. No, it’s like punk folk, folk folk punk roots anyway, so Yeah, they’ll love it as well. So if you’re into folk music, and you’re into punk, and rock and roll, you will love it,

28:01
we’ll all going to have to have a look. Absolutely can’t judge it by the the name you’ve just put on us, we’re gonna all have to find out as to and see how it sits with us. So am I surprised? Exactly. And you know, what’s your energy? So sometimes you’d be surprised what you might enjoy it because it depends on the singer and what you get from them and that vibe from them. So I always find that, you know, yeah, you can have certain and one or two songs by an artist that you never would have dreamed of listening to before, and somehow can jump out. We are going to give you a chance everybody, why are we giving carrot curry chance? Well, I think it’s cuz she’s so sweet. And wet. Now tell me a little bit a bit more about the life coaching side of your coaching because I know that we may have some listeners that run their own business or that maybe want to at some point, what kind of work do you do with people in that arena? And let me why did you decide to move into that? What was the instigating factor?

29:06
I see a lot of creative entrepreneurs who well who are freelancers, just kind of not not quite drowning but very confused, and then getting overwhelmed and not sure what to do next. Not sure what a business what a business actually looks like, rather than being self employed in a in a job where you’re just a very, very bad employer, you know, working all the hours, you would, you wouldn’t expect to go work for an employer and work 1214 hours a day without a lunch break. Without holiday pay without sick pay, doing all of the jobs you would have you would expect to have one role that is very defined and that’s the job that you do. But as freelancers and entrepreneurs we find ourselves doing lots and lots of different things. Some were not so good at, you know, things leak. There are holes in what we do. We’re not sure We don’t know what we don’t know. And so what I do is I help creative freelancers to put some, put some things in place to, to make you less busy so that you’re not overwhelmed. You’re ending the confusion, you’re more organized, it’s not particularly sexy, but it gets the job done so that you become a profitable business owner, rather than someone who is a bad employer for yourself.

30:25
And how did that you come into that from the singing was that like one of your students kind of, you know, cuz that’s what has happened to me where one student will be like, 80, and I have a feeling you can help me with this. And it’ll be maybe a little bit more spiritual or psychotic. It but I love when that happens. How did that happen for you?

30:46
Well, actually, I got my own business coach and mentors. Because I didn’t realize when I started voice coaching, I didn’t realize that I had a business, I just did it, you know, I put I put out an advert for six pounds, and I made the money back in like, in one in one student. And, and it grew, within three months, I was fully booked. But I wasn’t enjoying myself, I had all this money, and I had all these clients. But I had no time for myself. And I had to learn how, how to run it as a business so that I could I don’t earn as much money now as I did. But I have a lot more peace. So I had to learn how a business runs. So how did I get into helping others? Well, actually, one of my business coaches asked me to start a business with her. Yeah, so she had been my coach and mentor. And there are now five of us, who have a business where we help female entrepreneurs. And so that then gave me the confidence to go out and help other people. And so now, in my own business, I help creatives of all genders, to go from being busy and overwhelmed freelancers to profitable business owners.

31:58
Wonderful. It’s so needed, and so true as well, because the manager times I’m like, oh my god, I just do not want to have to go into the backend of my website and do one thing, or, yeah, yeah, I don’t want to have to, you know, copy and paste this bio is already now cuz I’m gonna have to make sure that you paste it everywhere. But it’s like, every time I have to do it, I’m like, oh, yeah, this

32:21
could help me with this. And apologize, because mine is really long.

32:25
So it takes us you’re,

32:28
you’re a graphic designer, you’re an editor, you’re a website designer, you’re you’re an accountant, you’re a bookkeeper.

32:33
You’re Yeah, you know, completely completely. And it’s so true. So anyway, I’m definitely more about that work that you’re doing, because I’m really curious how you might be able to help someone like me, because I’m hoping to also launch an album next year. And get something moving. Now, I just wanted to come back to something we kind of touched on before we started, which was finding your identity, because when I was asked what my dream was, I was 28. At the time, I said I want to be, but I can’t do that. And a lot of the work I do at my singer is helping them see themselves differently. Is that something that you work on with people too?

33:15
Yeah, it is. I mean, not not in such a direct way, unless you know that we’re actually working on a person’s image. But it’s, it’s more, it’s more subtle. It’s more about building, as I said earlier, the self belief and you know, what is it that you want? If you’re not a singer, then what are you and we don’t have to have to actually identify ourselves as singers. So for a long time, yeah, I was a singer until I got there. And then when I when I was a singer, I was like, Oh, I sing with Buster shuffle, or, I, I described what I do, rather than saying, I’m a singer. So if you say I’m a singer, you know, what’s the first thing people say? Oh, you’re going to go on the voice. And on Britain’s Got Talent. You know, they’re they’re not seeing you as a person. But when you explain what it is that you do, you know, I, you know, I travel, I travel around Europe, and I help people have a good night out. Oh, how do you do that? Well, I’m in this band. And we do such and such and such. Oh, really? What’s that about? And so you give more of your you’re sharing more of yourself rather than just this, this blanket kind of title. Yeah. And it puts less pressure on yourself as well, because you’re actually talking about yourself rather than being a singer.

34:32
Yes, that idea? Yeah. When I first started off, I would always say I help people that are that are that I would I very rarely see. singing teacher. I would say Oh, well I you know, I have adult fun and that’s it. Now it’s changing because I feel like I’m moving into something a little you know, you have to change what you do as you evolve also,

34:57
when I first started, I would I would teach it Anyone and everyone literally. And that’s what I became. That’s why I was fully booked so quickly, I would teach five year olds, 18 year olds, someone who just wanted to just to see if they would have a voice and have a voice, I would teach anyone now, I’m very niche. I teach people who are working towards exams, auditions or performances. Or if you are a hobbyist, you want to put in the long term, you want the long term game of actually learning how to use your voice. So I don’t really work with anyone who just wants to try it for fun. There are people like you for that, which is, and that’s perfect, because we need singers singing teachers of every kind.

35:35
Absolutely, definitely. Yeah. Great. Showing up in a few minutes. And it’s been an absolute pleasure talking to you. I’m so excited to go and check out your music and encourage all of our listeners to find out more about you, Carrie. So before we go, is there anything that you wanted to or if any links that you’d like to share so that people can connect with you? Or anything? Maybe any last words of encouragement? What do you really want to say to the listeners right now?

36:10
That’s a really good quote. Oh, God so much. What which one do I pick? Go go out and go out and have some fun. Whether you whether you do want to sing for fun, or you do want to be a professional singer, if you are a professional singer, own it. You know, it’s it’s okay. As I said earlier, it’s okay to want to be a superstar when you are a superstar. You don’t have to be Beyonce to be a superstar. Maybe you’ll even go further than her, you know, but as long as you are owning what you do, even on those dark days when you’re feeling like can I really do this? Yes, you can. You absolutely can. If I’ve gone out and I become a better than a best selling artists and I come from a council estate in Fulham. You can do it.

36:53
Great, fantastic. So tell us how to connect with you then as well.

36:57
Okay, so you can catch me on LinkedIn, all of the socials apart from Twitter. So LinkedIn, Facebook, I’m just Carrie Griffiths you’re you’re welcome to follow add me as a friend I I’m friendly to everyone. My Facebook page is Carrie Griffiths coaching that page is not quite so fun as my as my personal profile. So just just add me as a friend. Instagram is also Carrie Griffiths official. And LinkedIn is Carrie Griffiths, you can catch some, we’ve got a few videos on YouTube. My main one my main ones are there’s a three part series that I just released on YouTube a couple of weeks ago. And that’s all about how to sing high notes more powerfully. So that’s this. That’s the stuff that we’re scared of. Right? So sometimes you can actually hit the note but it sounds a bit weak. And you’re like, oh, I don’t like the sound of that. So that series will help you to make that those high notes stronger.

37:50
Absolutely. Then we go. There’s so much freedom when you do that when you can really go for the higher notes, something that I’ve only myself been working on. Because you need the right technique for those things. For sure. Yeah. So you only even think so. Yeah, yeah, you have to do it. Right. So and singing, you’re singing that belting strong notes, high notes. That was some series to check out. So thank you so much. Thank you for being here.

38:19
Thank you so much. I’ve really enjoyed it. Thank you. Yes,

38:22
so Carrie, basically you’re based in London, aren’t you? Yeah. And so if anybody’s over there, we’re gonna have to find out when your next gigs are going to be and you know, booking for lesson guys, why not? And you know, go for it

38:37
on online or face to face lessons. We do both.

38:41
Perfect. Thank you so much. Okay, everyone. Thank you for listening. Bye bye.