Alexa: Ever wondered what it's like for other singing teachers in that all important first year of vocal coaching? That leap from passion to profession, from maybe one day to this, is it- it's rarely a straight line. 

In today's episode, we are diving into the journey of Mark Lowman, from a career in hospitality and travel to stepping into life as a vocal coach. What does it take to start from scratch, build a studio, and back yourself when imposter syndrome rears its ugly head? 

This is an honest look at that first year, the turning points, the practical steps, and the mindset shifts that make it all possible. It's about more than technique. It's about courage and reinvention and finding your voice not only as a singer, but as a teacher. 

Welcoming Mark Lowman. 

Mark, I've got a bit of a game to get us started, to get to know you. And I was going to call it 'Quickfire Quickies', but then I thought that sounded a bit [00:01:00] inappropriate. So I've, I've gone for 'Quickfire Confessions'. It doesn't quite satisfy the alliteration, but perhaps it is just a little bit more suitable seeing as we have met each other before. 

Mark: Absolutely. We'll, we'll roll with that one for now. 

Alexa: Okay, here we go. Leading choirs or one-to-one teaching?  

Mark: Oh, leading choirs. 

Alexa: Biscuit dunker in your tea or coffee or no dunker? 

Mark: Absolute dunker.  

Alexa: Favourite biscuit?  

Mark: Uh, chocolate digestive.  

Alexa: Ooh, good choice. 

Favourite SOVT right now? 

Mark: Ooh. Straws  

Alexa: Ice bath or ice lolly? 

Mark: Ice lolly. 

Alexa: Steaming or nebulizing?  

Mark: Steaming.  

Alexa: Current song on repeat? 

Mark: Pink Pony Club - Chappell Roan.  

Alexa: Scales or songs?  

Mark: Songs.  

Alexa: Favourite pastime other than singing and music? 

Mark: Ooh, that's a hard one. Uh, tennis.  

Alexa: [00:02:00] Back hand or front hand?  

Mark: Uh, forehand. Definitely.  

Alexa: Forehand. As you can tell, I'm not a tennis player.  

Mark: My back hand's a bit wild. It'll probably end up over a fence somewhere. So....  

Alexa: well, that was great to get to know you- enjoyable. I'm not a dunker.  

Mark: Are you not? I think it depends on the biscuit. You need good control with dunking. 'Cause if it drops off into your tea or coffee and then you just got a, a mushy coffee, haven't you? So...  

Alexa: yeah. Biscuit soup. 

Before you pursued a career as a vocal coach, you were involved in a completely different field, so the hospitality and travel industry. So what were you doing here and what did a typical week look like for you? 

Mark: Yeah, so I, I spent, oh, 15 plus years in the travel and hospitality industry. So my, my jobs across both industries, they kind of varied. When I, I first started out within hotels running events. I was a wedding planner for about 18 months as well as part of that, through to more recently leading sort of big sales and marketing teams for so the whole of [00:03:00] Australia and New Zealand for an international cruise line. So that was my, my last job. 

So a typical week you know, involved lots of meetings across various different time zones from the US to the UK, Pacific. So quite a lot of long hours, high pressure sales environments, lots of international travel as well. So it was, it was really varied. Yeah, again, for, for that sort of industry, you know, you get to meet so many people from across the globe. 

So yeah, it was a really exciting time for my life when I was younger.  

Alexa: I have a really awkward story from when I worked behind the bar at a wedding venue. I think it was holidays that I used to work there, like between, academic years at university, and during the course of this wedding evening, the bride and groom split up. 

Mark: Oh, no. 

Alexa: That's not what you want, is it?  

Mark: Oh, you see everything at weddings and particularly, you know, so do any working behind the bar or as a wedding planner and stuff, you get to see all the nitty [00:04:00] gritty that happens behind the scenes. The panic, you know, the last minute wobbles and stuff. But it is, oh, to split up at your actual wedding, so that's a bit awkward. 

Alexa: Yeah. Quite. 

So what led you into vocal coaching? Was there a specific moment where you thought, yes, actually this is what I want to do and I'm gonna go for it? 

Mark: Yeah, I, I think it was, um, you know, in terms of the whole, the whole story, it was quite a slow burn actually for me becoming a vocal coach. I'd, I'd only started singing back in 2014, I think it was. I'd never had singing lessons before that. I'd loved music, but I'd just, I'd lost all my confidence, like in my teenage years and, and things. 

And then I, I got a new job and I moved to a different area and I didn't know anyone and so I wanted to try and build friendships and, and, and networks. So I joined a choir. And then throughout that choir, there was, there was a vocal coaching side as well. So I took up singing lessons. And then I started being introduced into this world of, you know, what singing teaching is about and [00:05:00] learning to sing. 

I just found this new hobby and passion that I, I loved outside of my kind of professional career. And then as time went on I met some friends. We decided to set our own choir up, and they asked me to come on board to do some choreography and performance coaching as part of that. 

That, that was kind of the, the introduction really into the world of vocal coaching. But I think that that kind of, this is it going for it moment was, was probably after doing the BAST course. 

I did it as a bit of a supplementary thing, really, just to help me with my choir teaching and maybe get some pocket money, starting to do some one-to-one coaching with choir members. 

And I felt like I needed more knowledge and, and more expertise to, to do that. So after the BAST course, I thought maybe this is a reality that I actually could become a vocal coach and actually make a living out of it. But as things happen in life, it gets in the way you think I'm saving for a mortgage. I don't wanna rock the boat. I've got a stable career and, and stuff, so maybe I'll put that on the back burner for now. 

And that was kind of all taken outta my hands back in 2024. [00:06:00] I was made redundant from my corporate career and, you know, I felt quite lost at that time as you do through redundancy. You know, 15 years of something you've always known that you felt like you were quite strong at. It was all over in kind of a moment. But it was out of my control and I kind of really at that point felt like I needed a change. I needed to be in control of something, something fresh, something that really fits my purpose and my passions. 

And turning that, that hobby into an actual career. The overwhelming support I got from friends and my choir members as well at the time, were like, Mark, you, you were born to coach. Like, please listen to us. Just do this, finally. You've been talking about it for so long, about having a change of lifestyle and a and change of career. So maybe this is the time now. You've got nothing to lose. And I didn't, you know, I, I've got no stable job and income after redundancy. So I really had nothing to lose from a financial point of view. I was no longer looking at buying houses and getting mortgages. So I thought, no, I'm gonna do this. 

This is the moment.  

Alexa: [00:07:00] Let's say things had turned out differently and you hadn't been made redundant. Do you think that you still would have pursued vocal coaching and stepped away from that career eventually? 

Mark: Yeah, I, I, I think in, in my previous job, it, you know, as I said, I, I was working in a career, which was high pressure, a lot of long hours and, and that job role had evolved and my remit had become wider. And I was starting to actually not have any time, even from choir stuff. I was missing weeks sometimes. 

And it was kind of taking over. It was an exciting career and the rewards from that financially and stuff were, were giving me stability. But it, it kind of was a point where I, I thought, um, if this carries on, I'm not gonna be able to really enjoy a lot of my own personal passions because the, the work has just become so much, you know, I was traveling a lot. I was in Australia and New Zealand a lot. 

I kind of was at a point anyway, I think that I needed to make a change for my own personal lifestyle, health and wellbeing as well. I, I [00:08:00] really needed something that gave me the opportunity to take back control. 

So I, I, I think I would've probably done it anyway. It was just, yeah, that timing happened and it kind of forced, it forced my hand, you know, actually I should just do this. I was close to probably making that decision anyway.  

Alexa: And quite serendipitous really of timing to have that sort of decision made for you in a way. 

Mark: Yeah, absolutely. Because as human beings, you know, having change in your life is quite a difficult thing to manage. It can be exciting, but we've got lots of external pressures in life, whether you've got children, whether you've got mortgages, houses to run, bills to pay, we all wanna be secure and stable, don't we? 

So if, if you're gonna make these big lifestyle decisions, it can be really hard for you to just bite the bullet and say, right, I'm gonna throw my entire family into some sort of financial insecurity for however long until I build this business up. So, you know, it, it's very difficult as humans for us to grab change and [00:09:00] just do it without sometimes thinking of some of the consequences. 

So... 

Alexa: as with any career that we do, there's going to be transferrable skills. So what did a degree in international hospitality management and having this previous career do in terms of transferable skills over into the stuff that you do now as a vocal coach?  

Mark: Yeah, I'll, I'll start with the, the degree because a lot of people now have degrees in variety of different subjects, but they go into completely different areas in their career, and I think what, what a degree in any qualification, whether it's college qualification, vocational qualifications, they give you a way of learning and, and a way of thinking, a way of working as a team with your student colleagues and in, in groups, it gives you a whole breadth of different transferable skills, not just the subject matter that you've actually studied completely. And a lot of university degrees now actually do offer various other [00:10:00] supplementary and optional modules that, you know, enable you to, to learn different life skills, whether it's technological stuff, AI, how to work a spreadsheet, as simple as that. 

You know, there, there's lots of different things that a university or in, in college and in education that you can then take to transfer. 

But I think particularly from, from my point of view in the, in the hospitality management side of things and then going on into a career is being put in front of people from all different walks of life, all different cultures, all different backgrounds. It's been hugely beneficial actually to running a service-based business like vocal coaching, you know, getting to understand and how to communicate with a variety of different people. We all learn, retain information in different ways. So we as coaches and mentors, we have to find ways to effectively communicate with the people stood in front of us and understand how they best learn. 

And that's really what's gonna help get the best out of that student coach relationship. I think particularly in my choir for example, you know, we have got 50 plus [00:11:00] people. We all have different views. We all have some similar views, but we are there as a collective with a common bond and love of music. 

So you know, it's really about the way you communicate. You listen, you manage expectation and make people feel valued, bring them all together to focus on the common goal. I think that's been something really important within the world of hospitality, be able to give people a service that they feel they get value for, that they come back with memorable experiences from.  

Alexa: In terms of your choir, as you say, you've got 50 plus members being with you on a, on a weekly basis. How are you therefore handling different personalities and different needs and abilities in that choir and therefore using these skills that you had in hospitality? 

Mark: Yeah, I, I think with choir, with being a coach anyway, and, and even with choirs when you are dealing with large groups of people, the same goes for in the corporate world, if you're a line manager, for example, you have to be open-minded, you have to be tolerant, empathetic, [00:12:00] adaptable to a variety of different personalities and situations. 

As I said, you have 50 people in my choir though, from all different walks of life, cultures, genders, experience levels, uh, but we are there with a common interest and uniting people is all getting, is all about getting, you know, one another to, to love respect and, and bond over a shared view, to learn from differing views and to use that power and passion to deliver like these really epic, you know, diverse, memorable performances through the medium of song. 

So whether you're a complete beginner in a group, or you are a pro within, within the group, what we try to ensure is that everyone's got the right level of support, whether it's as simple as having lyrics on a Google Drive, all of the recordings of our harmony so that people can learn at home, videos of the choreography that we do. 

So again, they can continue learning at home and feel like they've got the right level of support. It's not just two hours a week in a rehearsal, and then they've gotta expect it to remember everything for the next week. We have things like a private Facebook group, WhatsApp chats with the different harmony [00:13:00] groups. We have some representatives within the choir called the Go-tos. They help field questions out for, for us, the coaches. So we've always got ways to have really open and honest communication and to say, look, every question is valid. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced singer, we are here to answer those questions and to, to give you, some form of education as well. 

It enables everyone to then learn and support one another.  

Alexa: Sticking on the choir theme for a second. What would you say are the main differences that you experience working as a vocal coach for an adult choir and then for a youth choir, which you are the head of at Vocalize Youth Choir.  

Mark: Yeah. Uh, it's very different dealing with adults versus dealing with, with children. 

So firstly the work with, with the adults in the choir. So a lot of the, the vocal coaching I do with the adults is one-to-one in my studios as private lessons. And within the choir section I will obviously throw some tips in about certain vocal techniques and stuff. But my responsibility within the adult [00:14:00] choir is more on the choreography and performance side. 

So I do all the recordings of the choreography and have to teach that to the adults. I find adults tend to pick up things a lot quicker than say the kids do, particularly when it comes to singing. The children, they, they just take a, a little bit longer to I guess sometimes focus when they've had long days at school, they then come to have to learn how to sing in harmony, how to then combine both singing and dancing at the same time. 

So I think with the kids, it does take them a little bit longer. We have to take more care and attention with, with the children to ensure that they are understanding what we're talking about and to give them the confidence to raise their hand and ask a question and, and to come forward. 

I think that's the biggest difference the adults, you know, they're, they're a bit more sometimes self-sufficient in a lot of the things they do. They can go online, they can download the harmony guides. They can do that with choreography videos with the kids they're always having to say, maybe ask a parent to access something. 

The kids can't get [00:15:00] together as regularly outside of choir to practice, whereas the adults will go around each other's houses and have little practice sessions and stuff. So it is a very different, it takes a bit longer to get the kids to a point where they're confident at going out and delivering. 

They've come so far in the last 18 months. It's amazing to see all their hard work and results, but it's, you know, it's just taken probably twice as long, I'd say, with the kids to get them to a point that the adults were say at at that same time period. 

Alexa: We love a bit of a rep share on this podcast, so I just wonder what's been a really popular song that you've explored in both of these choirs?  

Mark: Oh, that's a tough question. There's so many, I mean, over the course of like eight years now, we've probably nearly done 200 plus songs, you know, of different repertoire. 

Um, I'd say right now kids choir a lot of obsession over K-Pop Demon Hunters, of course, Golden, which just fills me with dread and fear when somebody asks can you help me with the top notes of singing Golden. [00:16:00] And as a male vocal coach I sort of clench my legs a little bit. There are some big notes up there for a man to sing. It is been probably a really popular choice for that, for the kids asking to do, do that sort of song. 

For the adults, one song that they've absolutely loved doing, which we've just done in our previous show we did True Colours Cyndi Lauper, we did a kind of real stripped back version and yeah, just the, the harmonies, it was so simple. 

There was no choreography. It was just standing in a group collectively in four part harmony. And it was just absolutely stunning. They loved doing things like that where they can really just take stock for a moment and really listen and, and hear the voices and what they sound like. So that was kind of a real touching moment recently that yeah for a song they, they're gonna remember for a long time. 

Alexa: How have you learned to navigate that challenge at times of being a male vocal coach, working with female singers and the demonstration side of things? [00:17:00]  

Mark: Yeah, that, that, that's probably been the thing that I was most scared of when I started out this journey of being a vocal coach is, okay, so I know sort of my range as a singer. I know where my strengths are. I know where some of the opportunities I have as a singer for growth need to be but when it comes to like, oh, what if I do have a, you know, a 12-year-old girl that's gonna have a a, a much higher potentially range than I do that wants to sing, say Golden or Defying Gravity, and all of a sudden I'm thrust into, right, how do I demonstrate how to hit say an F5 or an A5, for example as a male coach, because I'm potentially not gonna be able to sing it in that sort of style and tone and power that say Cynthia Erivo can belt that out. 

That's for me at the moment, that's where I'm at as a, as a singer. And biology plays a part in, in that as well. So what, what I've kind of been doing a lot of is, is maybe right, I'll demonstrate [00:18:00] maybe up there, but in head voice or falsetto and explain to the client in front of me that I'm gonna, you know we have different biologies as as human beings, we have different ranges. So I'm gonna actually demonstrate this in a head voice, but I'm gonna demonstrate what I believe for you is the right mouth position to be having the vowel pronunciations. So any breathing, posture or any movement. So I would demonstrate a a lot of things I just probably won't be able to hit it in a, in the same sort of style they're expecting say like a female musical theatre singer to hit. 

What I will then also do is demonstrate with the client as well. So I will work on the buildup to where that note is going with them as far as I can go, and then I'll pull out and let them carry on. So that kind of again, gives 'em that momentum and platform to, right, they're gonna go and now go for it, even though I'm not gonna be able to potentially get right up to that, that point. 

So I think that's been something I've trialed a lot. I've looked at maybe, yeah, I'll sing it an octave down. But again, just [00:19:00] making sure that they've got the right placement, the right mouth shapes, vowel and consonant pronunciations, all of those sorts of things. So yeah, that, that's definitely been a challenge but it's not impossible. And I think, you know, a lot of people, they want to see their vocal coaches demonstrate what they're talking about. But I, I also think there is a, an element of we have to be realistic. We can't, as vocal coaches continue to thrash out every single day at the absolute extremes of our ranges in demonstration. 

Because if you've got an eight or nine, 10 hours worth of lessons you're teaching in a day and then a choir in the evening, you've gotta have vocal stamina. And if you did that five, six days a week, you wanna do it safely and you want to have recovery time as well. 

So we do have to adapt to different situations and different teaching techniques.  

Alexa: This is a another podcast episode topic that we're actually looking to bring is actually how we deal with demonstration as vocal coaches. You know, there's so much at play. If we think about the female voice, if somebody's going [00:20:00] through menopause, we have a great podcast with Joanne Bozeman on that and how actually range might be affected. And therefore, if you're working with a classical singer, what that means. 

As you mentioned, if you're working, you know, your seventh hour of teaching and the last four have wanted to be belting. Like, is it fair to ask the singing teacher to belt for that fourth hour, and, and carry on and do a whole day of high extreme singing? 

Probably not. 

Mark: And with, with range as well. It is not necessarily about always focusing on the the upper end of the range and looking at those big, chest belts and mixed belts up there. 

There's also the other end of a range. We have lower voices and lower chest voices going into the bottom end that also can require focus. So maybe for a female teacher teaching a male bass singer, for example, to go down there, like how would that person adapt? 

So again, it, it is really dependent, both male and female and, and any gender out there is [00:21:00] gonna have their challenges with various parts of ranges, whether you are a coach or a singer, like that's just natural. It's part of the learning journey. It's part of us growing as, as individuals that we also have as coaches. 

We're not expected to know and be able to do absolutely everything. We are constantly, continually developing and growing as singers and coaches as well. 

Alexa: So what were some of the initial steps that you took to becoming a vocal coach?  

Mark: For me, I think this is where my kind of career in business really helped me when I had that turning point moment of being made redundant and saying, right where I'm gonna start this as a vocal coaching business. 

Now where do I start? I knew I should probably make some form of business plan. I should map out exactly what it is I'm trying to achieve here. So I, I started out- yes, use some business terminology now - doing a SWOT analysis, if anyone hasn't heard of it looking at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

So as, as my business [00:22:00] looking at, okay, what am I good at? What are my biggest strengths I believe? What areas do I think I'm not so strong at currently? What are the biggest opportunities? Where can I kind of look to, to grow, and threats, anything external that might impact the operation of this business. 

So I did that, my strengths: well, I knew how to manage money. I knew how to market. I knew how to do social media. All of the business side of things covered- I know I can do that. 

Another strength was that yes, I had completed the BAST 20 hour course. So I had some foundational knowledge of what I was gonna do. 

Then on the flip side, some of my weakness, well: I'm not as experienced as a lot of singing teachers out there. I'm brand new to this. I've done one course which has given me the most incredible, you know, knowledge base to start with across a multitude of different areas of being a vocal coach. But yeah, I don't have a music degree. I don't have 20- 30 years of performance experience in the West [00:23:00] End. So I looked at that as a bit of like a, oh, maybe I'm not good enough. So that was in my weakness box and we'll talk about that probably more in a, in a bit anyway, on imposter syndrome. 

Opportunities: well I've got all this business knowledge and I've got BAST so the opportunities are that I've got the great foundations I can keep building. There's always courses out there to be going on to expand your knowledge. Opportunities were that I had a local area where there wasn't any other contemporary pop and rock singing teachers in the area. So that was an opportunity that I could have a captive audience and a niche. And the threats: well, cost of living out there. Singing lessons can be viewed as a luxury, I think for, for a lot of people. For some people they're in necessity if it's part of their career. But that could be a threat out there that as a small independent business, if there is a cost of living crisis, people are saving money. So how do I then potentially navigate that? So that was looking at, yeah, a bit of a, an overarching analysis of this potential business. 

Decided, yeah, I'm still gonna plough [00:24:00] ahead. I think there's legs in this. And then I kind of looked at, right, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna offer as my product? So one-to-one vocal coaching was the core product, I'm gonna start with. I'm not gonna offer anything else for now. Not big group classes, not loads of online lessons or anything else. I need to get something started and not spread myself too thinly. Where am I gonna do this? New businesses, you can't really have a business that's got extreme costs potentially to start with 'cause it's a bigger risk. And for me, I didn't want to take that risk. 

I didn't wanna take out loans or anything. I thought I'm gonna start somewhere where it's not gonna cost me loads in rent. So I thought I'll use my own home as a place to, to set my studio up, which is essentially there's no extra rent on top of what I pay already. 

The price of lessons was the next thing to look at. I'd luckily done a bit of research in sort of the wider region at different singing teachers and what they were charging. Also what I paid in the past for singing lessons. [00:25:00] And also I'd done a bit of a survey to my choir members 'cause that gave me a cross section of 50 people in the local area. 

And some guidance on if you were looking for senior lessons, what would you be willing to pay for an hour? So that gave me an a bit of indication as to roughly where I should possibly price something at. 

And then I looked at, okay, right, what are my actual outgoings? What do I need to afford to live to pay my bills? So what's my break even point? What is that point that I need to earn in order for me to try and make this sustainable? Does that fit with the price that everyone has suggested I should charge? Therefore, how many clients do I need to attract on a weekly basis to do that and achieve that? So that's how I kind of looked at that price and then came up with that cost that I'm like, okay, I think that's achievable. 

I've got people in my choir that I already know are definitely gonna do lessons. So that's given me a good foundation. All I need to do is find a few extra and then I've broken even. So that was for me, how I wanted it, it needed to be financially viable. [00:26:00] Otherwise I wouldn't have a roof over my head or a place to teach clients. So...  

Alexa: and can I just ask Mark, just on that, if it's not too cheeky- what was the result of that survey in terms of what people were willing to pay for a session? And where is it that you are based?  

Mark: So I'm, I'm based in Burwood, which is in, it's a little village town in Dorset just between Salisbury and Bournemouth. 

It's quite a big residential town. Lots of families, lots of people that are retired. So again, it's a good demographic from a, you know, income perspective. There's, a lot of stable homes around, you know, sort of the area and and high income families as well. 

So there is definitely obviously money within the region, that was something else I considered was looking at, you know, financially viable in, in my area. You have to look at that with any demographics of businesses, what are you charging, does it fit with the area that you are also, living in? 

So I did a bit of research as well on various census demographics and things just to see what is that town look like. But yeah the feedback from, from the actual [00:27:00] survey itself suggested kind of price points around, for me, £35-£40 for an hour. I charge £40 an hour, so I did go with the slightly upper limit on that. 

But, you know, for me, that's what I needed to achieve for me to make this potentially financially viable with the number of clients that I'd initially had, say they would do lessons. So I needed to, to go with that. So that's, that's kind of why I, I picked that price.  

Alexa: I think it's really interesting to hear that, 'cause you're in your first year of teaching, aren't you just coming to the end of that first year and a question that comes up a lot is, what should I charge? And people undercharging themselves because of that imposter syndrome coming in. 

Tell us about your imposter syndrome. I know you spoke before about how, you know, you hadn't had that experience in the West End and that sort of performance background, but what was feeding into that for you and how do you manage it? 

Mark: Yeah, I, I, I think if I look throughout my life, I've generally erred the side of caution with a lot of things I've done. I've [00:28:00] always been somebody that yeah, maybe was quite insecure about themselves and, and always quite shy and, quiet for a lot of my life. So I think my imposter syndrome was kind of rooted from there maybe. And it's just played through. I've always sometimes had a bit of self doubt, questions, you know, particularly coming up when I was doing this vocal coaching, one minute I was like, I was made redundant, right? I need to do something exciting. Yes, I'm gonna go for this. The next minute I was looking back saying, oh, you know, my career's just been taken away. Maybe I'm not good enough to do this. Don't have the qualifications I feel I need. I don't, I'm not experienced enough. I don't like the sound of my own voice. Why does anybody want to pay me to teach them to sing? There's all those sorts of really negative things that just start cropping up in, in your head. 

And I thought, you know, it got to a point where I was like, I can't sit here and think that way because I'm never gonna get anywhere with that sort of thought process. All throughout my career and stuff, when I've achieved something, it's because I've really put clarity. I've been in my conviction, you know, I've gone to job interviews where I've been [00:29:00] really, really punchy and focused on what I want to achieve. 

So, I don't know why that had crept back up all of a sudden. I think it, because it was all so new. And I'd just gone through a redundancy where you kind of do feel like, oh, I'm not good enough. You're gonna have those sorts of thoughts in, in your head. So I, I said I can't sit there and, and have those thoughts anymore. 

So, you, even if I have to fake it till I make it, you know, behind the scenes, I've gotta fill those skill gaps I think I might need. I feel knowledge is power in this scenario. I revisited the entire BAST course from start to finish. I looked at all the old videos, all my notes, and realised I actually knew more than I thought I did. 

And then that probably gave me, I think, a bit more of a boost. And then kind of weeks went by. And I was like, okay, I still haven't started teaching yet. What's going on? And then I was putting it off a little bit more. And then BAST came up with the five day challenge. And it was about, yeah, helping kickstart your careers. 

And I thought that this is, I'm gonna join this, this might give [00:30:00] me some inspiration to just get going with it and really knock some of that confidence into actual action. And then there was this kind of light bulb moment when Line came on the screen, started talking about imposter syndrome, and it completely resonated with everything I'd been feeling. 

And she said something quite profound that in, as teachers, you don't need to know everything about everything to begin, you just need to get started. You're gonna learn so much from the experience of actually teaching day in, day out. But if you don't, kind of ever start, you're only gonna sit on these feelings of negativity and self-doubt. 

And then that's just gonna turn into you never actually achieving a dream that you've got. So that for me was quite that profound moment in, in that kind of five day challenge scenario. Just to say, do you know what, like, I may not be the most experienced person, but we've all gotta start somewhere. 

I look at my first day in my hospitality and travel industry career to 15 years later in a senior position leading a whole [00:31:00] kind of region of sales and marketing. I wouldn't have thought I'd ever been doing that at day one as a more of an admin coordinator to the job I was in 15 years later. 

So I'd look back and thought, well that journey's I had to start somewhere. I had to build that experience even with the limited sort of experience of qualifications I had at the start of that. So I've just gotta say right. I've got a good foundation. Let's get going. Let's get that experience under my belt. 

Those hours of teaching are gonna teach me and give me so much more tools in the armory to, to carry on. And then in time I can start to develop my skillset further and understand, okay, I don't feel confident in this, in some of my lessons, so I need to plug some skills somewhere. Let's go find the right qualification, accreditation, webinar, course, whatever it is that's gonna help me on my journey. 

But without that teaching experience, how am I gonna know exactly what it is that possibly that I need to then develop as a coach as well?  

Alexa: And you [00:32:00] had people saying, Mark, please do this. You'd be great. Which is really lovely to have in the back of your mind. Or even as I say to singers sometimes write these comments down because in moments of self-doubt you have just to reach for a notepad or a jar that you've put all these thoughts in and just read them because they actually happened. 

I think there's such resilience and strength in our reflection and our acknowledgement of us working through imposter syndrome because it can be so debilitating sometimes and make you want to just say, you know, the easiest option is for me to just pull away from this and not do it. 

But to actually go through and say, no, here are the facts and challenge those thoughts and reframe them is such a strong character trait and stuff that we are going to see in singers all the time.  

Mark: And it is so deeply personal, these sorts of journeys. You know, you wanna make a success of something, but yet you are afraid of making a mistake because as a, as a one person band, as you are in a self-employed singing [00:33:00] teacher role like this you don't want people to give negative feedback or comments that are gonna then affect prospective clients coming in and coming to book with you as a singing teacher. 

So you are always worried about, oh, what if somebody doesn't like me? Or, I don't do something right and somebody gets a vocal injury. All these things crop up in your head. Right. So, but it is, I think about having a plan and thinking, right. If I'm structured and planned, then follow the steps. 

Yes. Okay. You might have to take a few deviations here and there, but if you've done as much as you can to be as prepared as you can it's then all about just right I've gotta ride the wave. I've gotta get through this first year at least, just so that I know I can then look back now and think: one year ago I was unemployed, panicking about whether I was gonna be able to support myself financially. I didn't have the experience under my belt. And a year later I now have 50 plus clients on the book. I've got two choirs that I [00:34:00] teach. All this wealth of experience, all these different types of singers coming in from not just amateur home singers, but people that are out in bands gigging, lead singers of local bands, people that are in school productions or doing local theatre work. 

I'm getting a whole breadth of different clients come through a year later that I never thought a year ago anyone with some singing experience would wanna come and see an inexperienced singing teacher, but that's not the case. So that's for me, been that kind of moment of saying you have to look back and reflect on your journey as well to see how far you've come that's gonna spur you on to carry on. 

Don't just kind of keep looking forward. Do look back from time to time and say, wow, I did that. Yeah, okay it's taken some help. I've asked a lot of people for help at times, but I've done that. I'm now at a point where I didn't think I'd ever be, so let's knock that imposter syndrome on the head. Yeah, it will still crop back from time to time, but you've got [00:35:00] more tools to turn that imposter syndrome into something positive now. 

So... 

Alexa: here, here. 

Looking back then, what's something that you used to believe in about singing and singing teaching that you don't believe anymore, that you've changed your mind on?  

Mark: Very good question. And I think this is something that a, you know, a lot of people, um, before they kind of entertained doing singing lessons or joining a choir, and definitely for me, I thought this, that there was like one fixed way to learn to sing. 

Just like driving a car or riding a bike or... I didn't kind of really think about, well, there's actually gonna be a variety of different methodologies and techniques and ways. I thought you just go to singing lessons, you learn the way, do some grades, and then done, you're a singer. 

And I think it became very apparent back in 2013 when my very, very first lesson was with Chris Johnson, and he started doing all these different things. And I thought, oh, I didn't expect that. And then as lessons developed and went on, we were doing all [00:36:00] sorts of different techniques and then sometimes we'll use for a same scenario, but it was a different technique that we were using. 

So there's all different ways of being able to achieve a result. It's not just a one size fits all, one way approach. If one way doesn't work for the singer, there's gonna be a multitude of different other things that we can try to get the result for that singer as well. So... 

it was just eye-opening, I guess, at the time. And I think even more so now, even now as a vocal coach and, and a singer there's always new things that come out. There's always new research, new ways of working that we are always gonna find to implement into lessons that might completely change the game for somebody. 

Definitely there's no one size fits all. There's not one way to learn to sing. Everyone's got their own style and technique and draws on different influences from different methodologies or different frameworks or their degree or their experience. And I don't think there's one way that's necessarily the [00:37:00] best way. 

I think it's what's best for the client. Having that two-way feedback, like how asking your students, how did that feel doing that? Getting that student to understand their body, the physiological things, the psychological things, the resonance, the feeling, like did that feel easy? Because then that student starts to build confidence. 

So yeah, that felt really good. That felt right. And then if we think, okay, well we're gonna use that technique and try it again. There is a lot of trial and error that goes on with oh yeah, with coaching people. We don't have x-ray vision. I can't see that person's vocal folds. I can't see what's going on internally. 

I have to look at the person, their posture, their neck tension, their mouth shapes, always. What's their breathing doing? Their mindset. There's so many different, it's such a holistic way of working. Like a GP does, a GP sitting in front of a patient doesn't have x-ray goggles that can see inside. They have to ask the right questions, get the feedback, then start a process of elimination, trial and error. Let's [00:38:00] find out what could be the cause of something. Let's send you for a blood test. Let's send you for an x-ray. And we are the same. We have to kind of really start to try and diagnose a challenge and then try and implement what we think would be the right I guess solution to that student's challenge. 

And if that doesn't work right, what are we gonna try next? You might get through 2, 3, 4 different mechanisms for one challenge a student's facing before you find the right one that's gonna work for that individual. 

Alexa: Did you grow up in the nineties? 

Mark: I did grow up in the nineties , yeah.  

Alexa: I don't know if you would've played this, but I had a, I had a game called Dream Phone. It was a board of, well actually this doesn't even seem very nice now that I'm gonna say it. It was a board of men and you had to find out who had a crush on you. 

Mark: Oh, okay.  

Alexa: Hilarious. So you had a group of boys in the cinema. At the park. In the mall. And you had to phone them up and get clues. And it's a bit like that. 

Mark: Yeah,  

Alexa: I love that game.[00:39:00]  

Mark: That is brilliant. 

Alexa: How would you describe your teaching style and your mission as a singing teacher and vocal coach?  

Mark: See, this was something definitely when I started looking at becoming a vocal coach, and again, probably comes back to the, my sort of business experience of like when we were creating brands or products within the things I was working with. 

It was, you start off with looking like, what is this product trying to solve? What is the mission statement? For example, what's that end goal? It's really hard sometimes to come up with sort of a mission statement, as such, but I, I kind of looked at, right. I believe every voice is unique, completely going back to this one size fits all approach, that I don't think there is a one size fits all. 

What I then didn't want to do, and this is goes back to when I first started singing that there's a lot of scary terminology out there that as a complete beginner singer, you think, oh, I dunno what that means, or that, that's too technical. I don't want to get [00:40:00] involved in that. And even the most experienced singers, they're like, oh, I don't wanna do, learn about all the sciencey stuff it is too overwhelming for me. 

So I needed something that was quite generic. But put people at ease. And psychologically when we do any new skill, you have a sense or start a new job, you have a sense of nervousness and anxiety about starting something new, whether you are gonna be good enough to do it, whether you are gonna make loads of mistakes. 

So I needed a sort of a mission that was quite comforting, essentially. So yeah, I believe every voice is unique. My mission is to create a supportive judgment free space where you can unlock your full unlimited potential. I didn't want to thrust prospective clients into the rabbit hole of scary technical words. 

I wanted to make them feel really relaxed that singing wasn't something really challenging and difficult. I wanted them to come into a lesson where they could hit the ground running by being really calm, really composed. That is an open environment here where yes, you can learn, you're free to learn. 

There's no consequence or [00:41:00] pressure. As soon as unnecessary tension starts creeping in, we know that that can cause the voice to do a whole multitude of sins and different things. So, I wanted them to have a space where they could be free to just be themselves and enjoy the process. 

And then my teaching style, that's one that I feel puts the student at the centre of the lesson. So I do like pre-questionnaire to find out a little bit about what the student, what they like musically, whether it's different artists, different songs where they feel that their voice is now, are they a beginner? Are they a semi-pro? Any challenges they feel in their voice- is it... oh, I, I feel like my range is a problem or I feel it hurts when I sing or I feel like I can't sing in tune. So, yeah, I, I ask them a few kind of basic questions just to give me a bit of a heads up as to what I could be expecting from a first lesson. 

Then I get 'em to do some vocal assessment at the beginning. Again, this is a lot of stuff that we did on the BAST course, was just really trying to assess the voice and, and get that [00:42:00] understanding of, okay, what might be going on here at different points in that, in that student's range. Is there, they got a really weak vocal fold closure? Are they really strong vocal fold closure? Are they not breathing at all? Is there a lot of tension coming in? Is there any sickness that might be affecting it or different health conditions that could be affecting the voice? 

So yeah, it's really to just understand that client, tailor every then experience, whether it's the vocal warmups we do, certain exercises, tailor it to like what I feel they want to get out of the lesson. 

And continual feedback, asking them how things are going throughout the lesson. How did that feel for you? Is there anything that you felt different there? That, as me as a coach gives me an indication of, okay something could be working right here, or actually we need to change direction. I always say lessons do take and any new skill, it takes patience. It takes practice to achieve well-rounded results. 

You can't I guess resolve every challenge in a one hour lesson. It, it can take sometimes weeks and months, sometimes [00:43:00] even years, to, to tackle certain things, whether you are building your voice, like going to the gym, to to build muscle, it takes a lot of dedication and hard work and continual practice in the right ways to be able to achieve that goal, for example. 

And the voice is exactly the same. It's building blocks. Every single thing we're adding, you build the right blocks, so you've got solid foundations and then you build this house, right? If you start off on soggy footing, you know what's gonna happen is that thing might collapse down or you might get yourself a vocal injury or something. 

So there is definitely a lot about really tailoring what that student needs in front of you. 

And then just talk about continual development and follow the pace the student feels they can cope with as well. If you find that things are going a bit too quick and they're looking a bit baffled, then, okay, I'll slow the pace down. 

I'm a facilitator and a mentor to their own success. I want them to own their own success and their own practice as well. It's not about me standing at the front of a classroom directing orders, you must do this, or it's [00:44:00] gonna be detention. It's not gonna feel that individual's gonna be valued or feel like they're getting support or the opportunity to grow. People need space to grow. They need space. They need patience. They need time. They also need to own their own success and feel like they're very much a part of that journey. 

Alexa: Something that's quite lovely from what you've just said is, is we had a chat about imposter syndrome just now, and and some of your key words there in your mission statement really speak to that experience and the values that maybe you have been highlighting throughout this conversation really comes through in your mission statement, your mission as a coach. 

And I've chatted with people like, uh, Louise Callin and Gemma Sugrue on the podcast about understanding what our values are that we live by. And I realised through some of my work with Louise is that I love feeling. I love it when something absolutely makes me sob. If I'm like, oh yeah, that book sounds really bloody miserable. [00:45:00] Oh, great. Bingo. 

But it all kind of came down to the fact that what spurs me on as a singing teacher is to create really strong stories. I feel like my mission is to help somebody find such control and ease, and management over their system so that the stories that we tell can be so free and have the opportunity to actually reach people. 

And so as you really digging into those values can help you with your mission statement and how you want to show up in the world as a singing teacher. 

Mark: Yeah, absolutely. If, if you look back throughout like our entire lives, we go to school or university or college or we have a sports class when we're younger, like we always have coaches and mentors and teachers out there that inspire us to go on our journeys and our careers. And I, I look back to kind of back at school days ... where I ended up in hospitality and travel stemmed from being inspired by my teachers in [00:46:00] business studies and food technology , and all those sorts of subjects where I'd really, really... teachers that gave me a real lasting impact and inspired me in the subject they were teaching that I then went on to do those sorts of things in, in my career. 

So I, I think, when we are here as coaches they look to us for inspiration. So we need to be there to be that real angel on their shoulder, positive guiding force that's gonna tackle the little devil on the other shoulder that's telling you, you are not good enough to do this and you are never gonna be able to do this  

Alexa: while our little devil is going.... OI!  

Mark: Exactly. 

We are there having to inspire the people we are standing in front of us. So, you know, we, we've gotta be able to make them feel valued, make them feel warm, make them come back for more lessons. 

We are running businesses here as well. It's our livelihoods. We want people to come back time and time again. And the way to do that in any business, whether it's hotels, you go back to a hotel because you've [00:47:00] had a memorable experience and you choose to spend your hard earned money going back on holiday in that resort or that place because the service has been exceptional. 

The staff that served you have given you that lasting, personalised experience. And it's the same for teaching . We don't need to know everything. But we need to make that person feel like they're getting good value for money, that they've got the right level of technical expertise techniques but also wider than that. Again, they feel valued, they feel special, they feel like they're getting results, and they're growing in confidence every single day. 

Alexa: What keeps you excited about teaching?  

Mark: Well, I think every day is so, so different. Every student that comes through the door, every lesson, you have a complete variety of different challenges to overcome every single day. 

The research and learning about singing and coaching is continual, like everything as research develops, as technology develops, there's always gonna be something new and exciting to try and implement in a [00:48:00] lesson to make that student's journey and experience and, and skill grow. 

Getting to do something I love every day. That's what keeps me excited about teaching. I've loved music for so long, never thought as I said, I'd be good enough to do this as a career, and now I am. It's given me so much relaxation. I feel like I'm back to my old self again. I've got this whole confidence that I lost a long time ago. 

So going out now and yeah, performing even with my choir and stuff and teaching my choir, I just feel like I've got so much energy and I'm so sprightly again. You have a bit colour back in your face and you look like you're enjoying and living life again. 

And it's, yeah, having that impact on people, however big or small that impact is on someone's life, personal development and career. That's probably the biggest reward for me that keeps me excited is that, yeah, I can hopefully give somebody, give back to some, something to somebody that they never thought they had. Like I was that unconfident, shy kid, that's kind of come out of their shell through [00:49:00] various things that have happened in my life. 

Now I wanna try and help someone else have that experience. 

Alexa: And is there a particular area of technique that you are loving teaching at the moment? Like, is someone coming in and they've got overly APN'd tongue position. Are you like, yeah! 

Mark: Tongue position's one of those things that I'm definitely gonna do a bit more research on because I've, I've noticed that myself in my, my singing that I thought, oh, why is my tongue doing that? And I dislocated my jaw a couple of years ago, and so I get terrible TMJ pain and yeah, it's really affected my singing sometimes. So yeah, I'm definitely gonna do a lot more research about some of things like tongue position and jaw and stuff like that. 

But one thing I've definitely been loving doing at the moment in lessons is I did join a webinar actually run by Chris Johnson a few weeks ago on Real Range Extension. And he was looking at like different specific scenarios that would benefit students. And I'm not gonna go into every bit of detail because I want people to go and see the session for themselves with Chris. But... 

Alexa: yeah, we love Chris... 

Mark: ...a lot of physical movement to get over [00:50:00] vocal barriers. It could be something as simple as bowing or waving your arms in the air, the whole shaking whilst doing a an AH or something. Stuff that's gonna try and help release a potentially a bit more range, reduce tension in the voice. So that's been something I've definitely been implementing a lot with some of my students that have been working through their transitions and they're finding that they're just grabbing and reaching so much for higher notes and I've tried everything under the sun to try and release, whether it's deep breathing, whether it's certain mouth shapes, but then sometimes these physical movements have just like that, a bow in the middle of trying to do it, and somebody has hit that top F that they were always dreaming of hitting. 

So yeah, there's lots of, I said different things, but I've been, yeah, particularly like the whole physical movement aspect and, and giving release to, to students through that. 

Alexa: What's next for you and your work?  

Mark: Oh, so definitely now I'm coming up to kind of my second start of my second year I've talked a lot [00:51:00] about personal development in this, but I definitely think I, I like to do a bit more of my own personal development as a coach. 

I think year one was all about just getting some experience under my belt, and now I've done that. I can identify maybe, oh, I don't feel so confident that I've got enough technical expertise to, to tackle certain scenarios. So that's something I'm gonna dig a bit deeper into. Possibly do I need to do more professional accreditations or courses, join more webinars, conferences, anything that's gonna really immerse me more into the whole world of vocal coaching the anatomy. Lots of different things there. So, that's something I think I will kind of look to now in year two. 

I'm quite happy with the number of clients I've got at the moment. I would like a few more to come in possibly. But I wanted with this career change is not to get to a point of working 70 hours a week, again, where I have no time to even really carefully consider every student that comes in and to give them that well-rounded experience to follow up with them to then teach my choirs as [00:52:00] well. 

And I wanna try and maybe do a bit more performing myself again. I've got another singing friend we're looking at doing some small little duo things in residential homes and SEN schools to do actual performances, but also group singing classes. So, yeah, I'm definitely gonna start looking into a few options of gentle expansion out without getting to a point where I'm burnt out as an individual. I think that's most important is, is maybe make, making sure that you can walk before you run. So many businesses out there fail because they take on far too much too soon, grow too quickly, and before they know it, oh, we can't afford to employ more people to come in and support. 

And I don't want to get to the point where I've having to let clients down all the time and things like that. So I'm, I'm gonna be still quite cautious with what I do, in year two. But just, yeah, kind of push a little bit more expansion, more personal development. So I get to the point where I'm making sure my clients are getting the best experience from me as a vocal coach. 

Alexa: And you mentioned that you have, what, 50 [00:53:00] plus people on your books at the moment. So how, how many hours a week are you actually working in comparison to your hospitality job?  

Mark: Uh, so hospitality, I was probably working like 70 hours a week. That was a little bit, bit tough. At the moment one-to-one coaching I'm probably doing about 20 hours a week. So part-time kind of vocal coaching one-to-one, and then obviously the other hours are filled up with doing my choir and a lot of preparation for that. 

This first year has been all about just rebalancing life, making sure I've got enough scope and space to think about what I'm doing every day and really lesson plan and get my teeth into a lot of, you know, course content I've done with BAST as well, just to refresh things so that I am in a place of being completely confident with what I'm doing, every single day. 

That's where I'm at this year. 

Alexa: Oh, Mark, it's been so lovely to chat with you and see what your first year of setting yourself up as a singing teacher's been like. Thank you so much for giving us that little welcome in. [00:54:00] Where can we find out more about you, book in a singing lesson, get in touch? 

Mark: Yeah, of course. So I, I've got social media pages, Facebook, I've just started an Instagram up. But if you go to my website: www.marklohmanvocals.co.uk I'm sure the link will be popped in the bio or something there's details there for one-to-one tuition, about my choir as well, where you can link to the website there. 

So yeah, there's a form to fill out if you wanna get in touch, have a little chat, book a lesson. Just let me know.  

Alexa: Oh, Mark Lowman, it's been such a pleasure and it's been a pleasure to match with your curtain. We are gonna send you off now to go get a biscuit, dunk it in a, in a cup of tea. Have an ice lolly. Have a have a steam. Listen to Pink Pony Club. Have a little sing song, and uh, go and play a game of tennis. Yeah. And then go and lead a choir.  

Mark: Thank you so much, Alexa. It's been a pleasure.