Beckie Haydon

What if my dreams don’t come true? What if no one wants to listen to what I have to say? What if others don’t see the value in what I am offering?

If these negative thought patterns sound familiar, then you’re far from alone. In fact, these inner ambushes used to derail coach Beckie Haydon, too, before she took control of her self-talk with the help of the College’s neuro-linguistic programming training (NLP) and hypnosis.

“I have played the victim my whole life and everything was always happening to me and not for me,” says Beckie, who grew up in the UK.

“There were some uncomfortable moments in facing that realisation.”

These days, Beckie runs an impressive six-figure coaching business, offering a range of coaching options for female entrepreneurs struggling with confidence and mindset issues.

But there was a time, not so long ago, that Beckie’s life was unrecognisable. A born performer who had been singing and dancing since the age of three, Beckie spent her formative years auditioning for shows in London’s musical theatre scene.

She studied at Stage School, had an agent, and scored roles in Chess and Tommy. But the treadmill of auditions, the rejections, the feast-or-famine cycles of employment wore her down.

“You go to five or six auditions a week and don’t get any of the parts, and it really took a toll on my mental health,” she says.

“At Stage School, I was often told that my weight was an issue and that I had to lose weight for some roles.”

In 2016, Beckie walked away from the performing arts industry and moved home to Shropshire, where she taught singing and dancing to young adults with the same musical aspirations she once had.

“There was a feeling at the time that I had failed because at that point it was the only thing I wanted to do with my life and I didn’t know what to do next,” she says.

Crucially, Beckie started a blog called Sunday Soul, which offered up messages of positivity and inspiration to her growing band of readers.

“A lot of people were saying to me, ‘God, these blogs are really helping me, thank-you so much,” she says.

In January 2019, Beckie and her boyfriend made a fresh start in Australia, settling in the Southern Highlands of NSW. Buoyed by the response to her blog and the new setting, Beckie decided to strike out in an entirely new direction.

“That was where the Life Coaching College came in and I started to wonder if coaching could become a career,” she says.

“My mother trained as a life coach, plus I have always been the person that other people come to for advice.”

Beckie investigated a range of Colleges, but opted for The Life Coaching College’s Master Practitioner of Coaching course because she felt the staff had her best interests at heart.

“I spoke to other colleges, but they were pretty keen for me to sign up on the spot and pay a deposit,” Beckie says.

“Whereas, with the College, I liked the fact I didn’t feel that they were pitching me, and they encouraged me to go away and come to a decision myself.

“I also liked how everything was in the one place: I didn’t have to go to different places to get a range of qualifications and studies, such as in MBIT, NLP and hypnosis.”

In the end, Beckie’s experience at the college surprised her — but in a positive way.

“It was life-changing as I didn’t realise how much work I would do on myself in the process of learning to help other people,” she says.

“I also didn’t realise how much I was holding myself back, and to have that experience and to be in the room with lots of other people having that experience too, while feeling very held and supported by the tutors, it was really amazing.”

Beckie launched her business while studying, offering limited coaching spots on Facebook for free, before transitioning to her paid model, which offers women a range of different packages — from self-paced visibility training that helps women overcome imposter syndrome to one-on-one coaching.

Beckie has worked with more than 100 women; established a successful mindset podcast, called Arise; and is creating more self-paced coaching modules for female entrepreneurs.

While there are days she misses the “buzz” of performing, she has no regrets about the path she has chosen.

“The more work I do on myself, the more I realise that nothing externally is going to give me the things that I want, as it all happens from within,” she says.