Joshua Alamu - Purpose & Perspective

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Our guest today is vocal coach to the stars and my friend and mentor Joshua Alamu. Not only does he teach some of the world's top singers, Little Mix, Rita Ora and Kelly Jones from Stereophonics but he is also founder and director of Ultimate Artists, a development camp for music artists entering the industry and is designer of Vocal Tubes.

In this inspirational episode, I chat with Josh about his journey from litter picker to vocal coach, his thoughts on how we can achieve a mindset for success and what he thinks makes a great voice.

“There is a plan and there is a purpose and sometimes, we’re too obsessed with the plan and not enough about the purpose. Because the plan can change, but as long as the purpose is the same, it’s all good”
— Joshua Alamu

Podcast Episode Highlights:

1.28 - What is Josh Alamu’s worst ever job?

2.21 - How did Josh feel about having to clean a park at 4 am each day?

5.22 - Josh speaks about feeling directionless and how to approach non-creative jobs with a good attitude

7.28 - Where did Josh’s musical interest come from?

8.24 - Was Josh naturally a talented singer?

9.27 - How did Josh Alamu become a singing teacher?

11.56 - Does Joshua Alamu believe in fate or choice?

13.32 - Is there a personality trait Josh attributes to him being able to teach?

15.09 - How does Josh define success?

19.04 - The importance of mentors

20.00 - Josh tells Beth about the time he chose not to take a life of crime

22.10 - Beth Roars asks Josh Alamu “What makes a good voice?”

24.03 - Does Josh believe you have to experience pain to express emotion in your music?

28.34 - Quickfire Round

29.17 - Fun Fact

30.23 - Can anyone learn to sing?

31.14 - Does Josh Alamu experience self-doubt?

31.29 - How does Josh maintain his positivity?

32.15 - The importance of choice and understanding it’s your superpower

33.21 - The importance of consuming the right things

34.57 - Does Josh believe people are naturally talented or have to work to develop skills?

37.32 - Why perspective is essential

38.35 - Josh and Beth discuss what should motivate an artist and their personal experiences and what is your why?

43.35 - What’s more important, the plan or the purpose?

45.48 - Beth shows Josh’s vocal tubes

45.57 - Beth Roars asks Joshua Alamu what his greatest challenge has been and what he holds as his greatest accomplishment

52.10 - If Josh could gain one quality, what would it be?

52.56 - What advice would Josh Alamu give to someone wanting to enter the music industry?

Key Points:

  1. There is no such thing as a worst job, it’s all about your perspective

  2. It’s important to approach each job with the right attitude, even the jobs that aren’t creative and you don’t necessarily want to do long term. Be aware of the good you’re doing in the world

  3. The importance of learning and being able to make mistakes whilst you do that. Responsibility of a teacher to help with that and create an environment that is comfortable for someone to take risks and feel comfortable, to relax both psychologically and physiologically.  

  4. Find out what your passion is and follow it 

  5. Surround yourself with the right people. Find good mentors. 

  6. Choice is your superpower. We choose what to be. Make the most of your choices.

  7. Find people with the right energy and go towards them

  8. Check-in with yourself regularly on what your motivations are. Make sure you’re being driven by the purpose, not just the plan.

  9. Overcoming our own limiting beliefs are our greatest challenge

  10. We have to go through challenges and hardships to reach our goals, embrace them. You can’t change without a challenge. 

  11. Thick skin and people skills are required for the music industry

Quotes

“I can’t look at any job that I’ve done as a bad job, I just see it as an experience for me to become a better person”

Joshua Alamu

“Doors just open if you work hard enough”

Joshua Alamu

“I was kind of on that way (to being a singer) until I taught my first lesson by accident and it changed everything”

Joshua Alamu

“It’s about communication and personality and making someone feel inspired to learn”

Joshua Alamu

“If you work hard and develop skills and you’re prepared and put in the grind, you get given opportunities”

Joshua Alamu

“I love learning myself, I love transferring the fun of learning for others, I love the discovery of learning, I love creating an environment where people feel totally confident to do anything, particularly make mistakes”

Joshua Alamu

“What is success? Absolutely doing and thriving in what you love”

Joshua Alamu

“Most people don’t have a problem with their voices, they have a problem with their environment”

Joshua Alamu

“Seeing people’s confidence grow is my favourite thing, it doesn’t even matter if someone is a naturally good singer. Sometimes someone just wants to be good at karaoke, seeing their confidence grow from someone who is sheepish in their first lesson, it transfers to the rest of their life as well”

Beth Roars

“I could’ve gone down the singing route, I was in a band and we were signed, but actually you know what, I didn’t want it. I genuinely didn’t want it. I didn’t become a teacher because I didn’t do well in something else, I became a teacher because I wanted to be a teacher” - Joshua Alamu

“Having good people around you is so important. It’s so easy to be dragged down by energies of people who feel that things aren’t possible”

Beth Roars

“The ability to have emotions translate accurately through the nuances of your tone - that’s what makes a good voice. So: the sadness, the happiness, the turmoil, the elation, the love, the pain - if you’re able to translate that through your tone and someone can literally feel every part of that emotion, whether you’re technically proficient or not, that’s a good voice for me”

Joshua Alamu

“Human beings were designed to be able to worship or to be able to celebrate or express something”

Joshua Alamu

“I read somewhere that bravery is not the absence of fear, bravery is knowing the fear is there but you still go ahead with it anyway”

Joshua Alamu

“Our superpower is choice. We can choose to be positive, we can choose to be negative. We can choose to have faith, we can choose not to have faith. We can choose to hope we can choose to doubt, we can choose to love we can choose to hate. We can choose to sing, we can choose to stay silent, we can choose to help, we can choose not to help. Our superpower is choice.”

Joshua Alamu

“What you take in, that’s what you become”

Joshua Alamu

“We’re never natural at anything. I think things are learned and things are grown. I don’t think things are ever just there. You have to grow stuff, nurture it”

Joshua Alamu

“Feed your mind and your soul with really positive stuff and see what starts to happen to your thinking”

Joshua Alamu

“The things that I really really wanted and was getting all wrapped up in; as soon as I just let it go then they ended up happening”

Beth Roars

“It’s that thing, if I hold onto this, that’s all I’ve got. The minute I let it go, the whole world now can come into my hand… that growth mindset is everything”

Joshua Alamu

“With every big dream there has to be a challenge”

Joshua Alamu

“You never know where your blessing is really going to come”

Joshua Alamu

“You can learn anything you put your mind to if you just sit with it and look at it long enough, you will learn it. We can learn anything”

Joshua Alamu

“If you’re in the industry and you can see a gap somewhere, fill it”

Joshua Alamu

Resources Mentioned:

Beth Roars

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