Calvin Niles is a coach and consultant known as The Mindful Storyteller, making a positive impact on the lives of leaders, entrepreneurs, coaches, and wider society through his services and products. Through his experience in mindfulness, storytelling, coaching, and business, he empowers others to be authentic in their life and work Calvin has worked with hundreds of people from leaders in large corporates to SMEs, and from solopreneurs to some of the top 10 charities in the UK.
Calvin Niles, The Mindful Storyteller
People call you The Mindful Storyteller, you have created a successful coaching business that has helped hundreds of people tell powerful stories, engage their audiences and be 100% authentic with it. But we know you are also all about holistic personal development and have been reaching thousands of people with your podcast Mindful Conversations. Can you tell us more about your work and how you ended up where you are today?
Well, it's been an incredible journey. I've always had a fascination with stories. I'm not just talking about the usual fascination we have as kids, reading all those fantastic books or watching Marvel. I was interested in Media, and I studied that in college. I did a lot of journalistic writing, filmmaking and just finding different ways to get messages across to audiences. I did more on film in the university which I ultimately left to pursue other ambitions. Well, this is where life got very interesting; I took a bit of a detour and I pursued all kinds of other projects in business, including running my own start-up. I even went into corporate leadership and management. I got married and I had a family. But that soon came to a grinding halt when I became disillusioned with my life. I realised that I wasn't fulfilled in my career, and my marriage also came tumbling down. That was when I started to ask deeper questions. I started to inquire about what makes life rich and meaningful. And I began to reconnect with meditation, which was something that I grew up around my entire life. And I started to practice and embed mindfulness into my life and notice the story I was telling myself.
So, there I was in a corporate role, using all the skills that I learned about - to write and tell great stories in my presentations at board level. Selling ideas for initiatives to make a £1billion business richer while at the same time having to face my own domestic life trauma as well. I began to shine a light on the narrative that I had running about my entire life, and it began to change.
What was the life change?
I realised I wasn’t the only one seeking a rich and more meaningful life. There were many others. And eventually, needing a way to communicate how they went about achieving that too. In other words, I changed my story, and I changed my life. All that was missing was a way to communicate that story with the world. And that's when I started to develop the storytelling offer. These people didn’t want to tell any story, but authentic stories. They wanted to tell stories that had resonance. They wanted to tell powerful stories that came from the heart and that can with connect others at a much deeper level. As you can see, it became more than just telling a story. It became more about telling conscious stories because now is the time where we need those powerful stories that change the world for the better.
Do you have a preference for the kind of people you work with? What kind of audience do you target your business towards?
Well, while not my only service, one of my most popular offers is helping people to tell better stories. Here in the UK, I count a number of leading non-profit organisations as my clients who raise hundreds of millions of pounds annually to help them deliver incredibly powerful work. I have also served the UK Ministry of Defence, a global consulting firm and a number of start-ups who are interested in telling authentic stories in their brand’s businesses.
On top of that, what I really love to do is help coaches and consultants like me who run purpose-driven businesses and who are all about making the world a better place. I want to help those people continue to tell personal-driven narratives, authentic stories that come from the heart in a way that speaks directly to their audience's heart. Because that is really not only how we connect, how we resonate, how we get more business and develop relationships, on a commercial level, that is how we ultimately drive the results that we want to see in people's lives. That's the business we're in. We're in the business of making things better. We're in the business of changing people's lives for the better. Uplevelling all of us. And it just so happens that coaching is the mechanism by which many of us deliver that in this modern world, where we must serve each other to improve, to grow, to perform, to optimise and to connect meaningfully.
You mentioned working in different ways with individuals and organisations. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
Yeah, absolutely. People come to me for different reasons. One reason that should be clear now is in using stories more consciously. Now we could break that down into two separate parts. One I like to call holistic storytelling.
In holistic storytelling, if you're stuck in your life and you need to develop some tools and approaches to build new perspectives and get unstuck on your journey, then Mindful Storytelling helps you to get unstuck by applying mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy approaches on the hero's journey of life. That's what mindful storytelling is all about.
But on the strategic side, as we have been talking about organisations and so on —and that may even include coaches and consultants as I mentioned before, these are professionals who have an impactful message to deliver to an audience for a strategic purpose. And that is about telling the right story, the best story, the one that connects with that audience, the one that comes from your heart, the one that tells your truth.
You see, audiences are much more discerning these days. Gone are the times where we could just tell loosely articulated and fabricate stories. People want authenticity, they want values-based storytelling. They want heartfelt storytelling that hits at deepest level. And so, these stories have to be constructed from that place of clarity. And you also need to develop the confidence to be able to deliver those stories. Sometimes people are afraid, afraid of being seen or afraid of what others might think.
Yes, coaches often want to tell their story, but I can see how people are afraid to be vulnerable at times. Is that a common challenge you encounter?
Vulnerability is becoming more popular now. It is definitely a quality many aspire to have. But you’re right, sometimes there is a fear holding them back. And I would often say, you know when you want to tell your story just consider this. Think of someone's story that you've heard in the past. Whether that's something your grandmother or grandfather told you when you were a child, a close friend shared something with you that really inspired you or it could be even one of your heroes who you've heard telling their story. And it really motivates you. It reminds you that you have the potential to do what you always loved. Do what you always wanted to. It inspires you to question even deeper about your own life, about your own perceived limitations - realising that your potential is greater than you imagined. And then I would say if that person’s story has inspired you, then why can't your story inspire others?
So for me, it was very helpful for my clients to realise that your story is a gift and once you are clear on the reason for sharing your story, once you know that your story is no longer about you anymore, because you've already done your healing journey and changed your perspective. You've done the whole holistic storytelling piece that we discussed in a question or two before this one. But now, you're sharing your story with the world. So there is a mindset shift that happens here to say your story is a gift to others and you want to give that gift wholeheartedly. Just as somebody else's story, you know that hero story, or somebody you really loved dearly, inspires you, your story has the potential to inspire someone else. Your story is now about translating your experience for your audience so that you can moved them to meaningful action.
Some of the other things people say include, “nobody wants to hear my story, or I haven't got the skills. I'm not good enough to do that” etc. And those are the areas where I would hold people's hand and help them to navigate that space to strengthen the skill set that is needed to tell that story in a way that connects with the listener so that they can feel where the storyteller is coming from.
I’d love to hear a little more about the mindfulness piece. It seems to be big part of your work too. Can you tell me how that works?
Well personally, mindfulness has really helped me to see through a lot of the falsehoods about my own story and also to helped me to see that pretty much everything I think is a story. So, I mean, ultimately to be the best storyteller means — to my mind — realising the roles that stories have to play in our lives and in our communication. So, yes, I embed mindfulness in everything I do, because it helps to develop that perspective. But it also creates the space for presence. And when we are present, when we're in the moment, when we're here now, we are actually creating space for a lot more to arise. And out of that spaciousness comes so much inspiration and novelty, new ideas, and even some of our hidden talents start to surface and come out in the way we engage. It doesn't matter if I'm doing mindful communication courses, it doesn't matter if I'm delivering a keynote to an organisation or if I'm just coaching you one-to-one to becoming more mindful. It doesn’t even matter if I’m teaching you how to I use meditation to gain clarity. It touches on everything. However, it especially helps us to be really potent storytellers. If we get to grips with the purpose of stories, how we relate to stories, and then how we can deploy stories for maximum effect —without them controlling us — we see that stories can be seen as only a part of who we are. And that’s freeing! That is a super source of true confidence!
Okay. Now we're starting to get into a kind of a spiritual dimension here. Because, actually, that is also a part of who we are, you know, being able to see that we are more than just the stories we tell. And the stories then become a vehicle for the message that we really want to share. They become the transporters of the voice that comes from deep inside of us, that true voice. We need to sometimes go into that silence to bring that message forth. And then use the power of story to share that message with the world. It always surprises clients when they can tell their stories in ways they never thought possible.
What next for you? What excites you about what the future hold for you in work and life?
I am totally fired up to continue to help people unlock the power of their stories in their business and communication. And spreading the seeds of mindfulness as I do so! But you know what also excites me? I love my book club community where we're exploring stories about spiritual awakening and people reaching their full potential. I'm also really excited about writing more books. My first novel called The Sun Rises in Eastmoor was received well, and I think there are probably a couple of other books in that series to come. I also want to get more men engaged in this holistic work – there is some compelling evidence to suggest that we men resist this a lot more than women. Shall I go on?! Ha-ha! This might be the longest part of the interview!
But honestly, there is a lot more to say about how we can integrate play into our routines, you know? With more play comes more freedom. The future holds a lot of exciting new projects for me. More learning, hosting, retreats, podcasts and just having fun along the way. So, thank you for asking that question. I just feel so enlivened by the work that I'm doing and take delight in sharing it with others.
Want to create a new story for your life? Follow Calvin for more on stories, mindfulness, and poetry on his YouTube channel, connect with him on Instagram or visit his website for more.
