Not Just Coaching | Fran Barley

✨ Welcome to the Melancholy Coaching Podcast! I'm Fran, your host and NLP coach.  

Join me as I interview inspiring business owners and self-improvement seekers about their experiences, whilst delving into personal development, motivation, and strategies for overcoming challenges.

Let's ignite our creative potential together 🎊

Transcript

Fran Barley: 0:00

Hello everyone, welcome to the Melancholy Coaching Podcast. I'm Fran, your host and NLP coach. Join me as I interview inspiring business owners and self-improvement seekers about their experiences whilst delving into personal development, motivation and strategies for overcoming challenges. Let's ignite our creative potential together. Hello everyone and welcome to the very first episode of the Melancholy Coaching Podcast, a show where inspiring stories and motivational messages come to life. I'm your host, Fran, and I'm a passionate neurolinguistic programming coach, NLP. I'm a creative burlesque performer and dedicated house sitter, and as if that isn't enough, I'm also a proud mum to four adult children and nine grandchildren. Yes, you heard that right. There's nine of them. And I'm a devoted carer to my son who has autism. I believe that everyone has the power to transform their lives through self-awareness, creativity, and of course, knowing where to start, which is actually harder than it seems unless you get some guidance. On this podcast, I'll be talking to inspiring people from all walks of life. people who have overcome challenges, followed their passions and are making a difference in the world. As an NLP coach, I listen with an open mind and without judgment. Just to explain a little bit about Melancholy Coaching, so it's myself and my partner Evan. So I'm the NLP coach and Evan's on board as well to help out. Our podcast doesn't necessarily reflect our views so the guests that we have on don't necessarily reflect the views that i have or that evan has i'm interviewing people and listening to their stories and evan is the tech support so my goal with this podcast is to create a safe space so Therefore, even if it's a view that's not necessarily represented by myself or, you know, not necessarily, has to be a bit of alignment within my own values. But, you know, we're all different and I want to celebrate that. So my goal with this podcast is to create a safe space, a genuine understanding and growth. Just because somebody is different or they've got a different lifestyle doesn't make it wrong. To motivate you. is what this podcast is about as well, and to help you discover your own path to growth and fulfillment. And I'll get a little bit more into fulfillment in a moment. I want to tell you a little bit about my journey. So my journey into coaching and self-improvement began about five years ago, and it was during a very difficult period in my life. I'd predominantly worked as a care worker for over 25 years. Absolutely loved doing that, but I was completely burnt out. So I took the opportunity to step back. And I was also going through a severe depressive episode. And I realise now that a lot of that was no doubt linked to being menopausal. I'm a woman in my 50s. I'm 55 now. And I'd not encountered it quite like this before. So whereas previously I'd had a bit of intervention over the years about my depression, but I'd more or less self-managed, this became too much. It was a time of deep struggle. And I realised that I couldn't continue to rely solely on external circumstances to find peace. And referencing that fulfilment again, for me, to feel fulfilled, it was to feel peaceful. I've got a very chaotic mind and the depression was very... a place of a lot of disassociation. So I was a little bit numb. So just to feel that peace in my mind and my body, that inner peace was something that I strove towards. So I knew I had to help myself. I started exploring mindfulness. Now this came about because, a little bit more of a story actually. When I was younger, I struggled at school. Now, no doubt I'm undiagnosed with something or other, but I struggled at school. Couldn't do maths at all. I don't understand numbers now. And I left school with very little in the way of exams. Didn't have a maths exam either. This then had a direct kind of impact on higher education, which at that time I couldn't access. So I kind of got on with my life and did work training, like training through workplaces that I had. So I had all my MVQs and things for care work, but I did it whilst I was also working in a job. So it was kind of work-based placements. To access education in a different way was actually mind-blowing. And I realised there was a lot of courses out there to take part in. And I started to look up CPD courses and that led me to mindfulness. a little bit of meditation. And then that opened the door up to a broader journey of self-discovery. This path led me to become a neuro-linguistic programming practitioner. And over time, I've deepened my studies to become an NLP trainer and master coach. So by becoming an NLP practitioner, I then decided to combine that with coaching. It's not necessarily that that has to be done. But throughout my life, I've also loved classic literature. It's been one of the constants in my life that I've leaned into. So for me, the word melancholy evokes images of days gone by. Think of the words of the Bronte sisters or Edgar Allan Poe. That, you know, out on the misty moors is something that I... I think about a lot. I think it's kind of almost like romanticism in a way. But back in the day, I may well have been diagnosed with melancholia. I think that's actually very likely that I would have been diagnosed with melancholia due to the depression that I had. But now I see it differently. So as a profound state of reflection and depth rather than limitation to the things that I can do in life. and rather than holding it as a complete identity. But no matter where you are in life, you have the ability to become who you choose to be. Change is always possible. And again, if somebody had told me this a few years ago, I wouldn't have believed them, but it is actually true. Our brains are adaptable. We can learn, we can grow, we can forge new neural pathways at any age. So for me, accessing education, again, in my late 40s, early 50s, is actually completely possible, and that means it's possible for you too. My mission for this podcast is to ignite your creative potential and to inspire you to embrace the possibility of transformation, and that being your own transformation. So no matter where you are in life or what challenges you've faced, you have the power to evolve. and create the life that you truly desire, it's never too late to start a new chapter. And yes, I do feel peaceful. Well, most of the time. But I've got the toolkit now, so I amuse myself saying that. I feel peaceful most of the time. When I don't, I've got the toolkit to support myself. And it's NLP techniques such as reframing or anchoring, a little sprinkle of meditation, and of course, mindfulness. But again, it's an active choice. I have to make my mind choose that. So rather than stay in that place of chaos or not feeling peaceful because it's something that I want, I actually actively choose, well, how can I support myself? So for those of you interested in finding out more about me and what I get up to, I've got a radio drama channel on YouTube and I use the word drama interchangeably with play. So the radio dramas and plays on YouTube and that channel is Melancholy Mentor and it's melancholy underscore mentor. My coaching YouTube channel is relatively new. And I'd like to grow it. So I'd love you to come and find that channel. And that's Melancholy Coaching on YouTube. And you could also find me on social media as Fran Barley. So that's F-R-A-N-B-A-R-L-E-Y. So until next time, stay curious and keep igniting your creative potential. Thank you for joining me on the Melancholy Coaching Podcast. I'd love you to subscribe. For queries or to connect, email info at melancholymentor.com Until next time, keep igniting your creative potential.