Before you read Michelle’s interview, I just want to stress something. No amount of words on a page can accurately describe the magic of having a conversation with Michelle. If you can imagine what it might be like to have an actual chat with a ray of light, then my call with Michelle was the closest thing to it.

In her interview, we talked about her inspirational coaching career and how it found its feet, as well as her recently published book – Inspired Magic. If you’re looking for inspiration on a spiritual and deeply mental level, then Michelle should be at the top of your call list! 

What made you want to become a coach?

In short, I was in a really awful car accident a few years back. I was quite badly injured and spent years working with various types of therapists to try and combat the daily pain I was suffering with. During this process, I met a coach who used a variety of different modalities of treatment. After working with her for a fairly short amount of time, I started to get much much better. I found it strange that although my ailments were physical, it was working on my mentality that had started to induce improvements. I went into Neuro-Linguistic Programming because I wanted to know more about this process and how it was working for me.

I was so inspired by this coach and the healing I received from her – I realised that this was what I wanted to do, I wanted to help people too. 

What is NLP and how does it help you?

To understand Neuro-Linguistic Programming, we can break up the word.

Neurorefers to the mind, linguistics is the words that we say, write and think, and programmingis really just our behaviours and patterns. For me, NLP is like software. If your brain is a computer and you’re running a programme that isn’t getting the result that you want, then NLP comes in and does an analysis on how you’re thinking and updates it to allow you get the right results. An example would be someone who’s constantly giving themselves negative self-talk and then wondering why they don’t get wonderful results – well, the programme they are using isn’t taking them to what they want.

‘Your thoughts are the inception point for everything you do in your life’. 

Tell us about your personal health and wellness journey?

Since discovering coaching and NLP, my health and wellness journey has changed significantly – I even became a yoga teacher! I realised that there we so many things I’d wanted to do, but I’d stopped myself because I would think ‘it’s going to take too long’.

I wanted to learn more about nutrition, so I became a certified nutrition specialist. Whatever crosses my mind, I no longer feel those physical or mental blocks that would previously have stopped me.

‘Now is now’.

What was a defining moment in your business journey?

For me in business, it’s about thinking: what does everyone come to you for? When you get lost in a moment, what is it that you’re doing? If you’re enjoying something, what is that activity?

I’ve always been the one that people come to for advice. I think that’s mostly because I don’t really harbor judgement around anything and I just love to listen and understand people. When I had my first real client (a paying client, because that’s really the big one, right?) and I saw his transformation – he’d come to me for advice about a career, but he actually had deep underlying trauma. Together, we released that trauma and I got to see everything he was capable of after that. It was the proof I needed.

‘I was in, I was all in and I just knew’.

If you had one piece of advice to give someone at the beginning of their wellness journey, what would it be?

Anything good is possible. The body’s entire reason for being is to create homeostasis and be healthy. Our thoughts, actions, foods, and movements are the things that cause dis-ease in our bodies.

‘Disease is simply a dis-ease’.

No matter where you’ve been, your biography does not dictate your future or your health.

What do you do to look after you?

I buffer in a significant amount of time before and after clients. What I don’t want to do is bring a feeling from a previous session, into my next session.

‘I need to be able to have a full vessel of myself to maintain my own health and be the best coach I can possibly be.’

In today’s society, we wear a badge of honour called ‘busy’, instead of ‘healthy and productive’. For me, as an introvert, in order to get to ‘healthy and productive’, I need to sit in silence to recharge myself.

However, my number one methodology is celebration! No matter what process you’re doing with me, the last step is always a celebration. This is an act of self-care because you’re teaching your neurology that you like accomplishing things and you’re worthy of every amazing outcome. Celebrating can be anything – a high-five to yourself, singing a song, a piece of dark chocolate or dancing! I have a playlist of happy songs and I just dance it out!

What are your goals for 2019?

My biggest 2019 goal is to launch my online courses. I know that there are lessons that can be learned through video and workbooks when one-on-one coaching isn’t available.

In terms of self-care and health, I want to be in the best shape of my life!

What are your book recommendations?

• The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho (I read this 5 times a year every year!)
• The Four Agreements – Don Miguel Ruiz (The most common sense rules to live your life by)

What is Inspired Magic? – The Book

When I was 17 years old, I wrote down a ‘things to do in my lifetime’ list (not a bucket list because that encourages thinking about death). On that list was ‘I want to write a book’. I went on to study literature and just fell in love with reading the stories that people had spun – I knew I wanted to create that level of emotion for someone else. I wanted to encourage people to understand their own story and that their future was a blank page waiting to be written.

‘I want to inspire people to touch an area of their life that they may have forgotten’.

 Once upon a time, everyone had a dream, but somewhere between negative emotions and limiting decisions, they decided that dream was not possible. I want them to go back to that person and tell themselves that they can live that dream. Inspired Magic gives them the tools to take that action.

My mission is to inspire you to step out of your comfort zone and into your greatness. I aim to show you a life outside of the one you thought you were destined for, and into the magic of your own creation, to touch a part of your spirit by uncovering the passion, desire, and confidence that lies just under the surface of the negative beliefs and emotions you have accrued over the years. My goal is to re-introduce you to yourself—your true self—and let that person follow your dreams to the life you have always desired. Ultimately, you only live one life, and I want you to tap into your Inspired Magic. Be a magician, and create an inspired life.  

Speaking with Michelle was, for want of a more encompassing word, enriching. Her love for ‘reintroducing people to themselves’is boundless. As much as we connected to discuss her story, she was inquisitive and supportive about mine too. Inspired Magic is all the things Michelle does so well. It’s nurturing, uplifting and offers guidance from someone who truly understands personal growth.

To find out more about Michelle and her magical ethos, check her out: http://inspiredmagic.com or on Instagram.