Episode #10: Marianne Craig - Founding Firework Coaching, Questioning Everything and Where Were the Coaches When the Banks Went Down?

Marianne Craig is a master coach and the co-founder of Firework Coaching Company, home of the renowned and proven Firework framework for helping people change career. From a young age, Marianne realised the value of questioning everything, but that only started to become her profession in the midst of what Marianne calls a fulfillment crisis. She was listening to BBC Woman’s Hour in 1999 when she heard a coach speaking. By the end of the programme she was already calling the helpline: she knew it was what she wanted to do for a living. Since then, she has racked up thousands of hours of coaching, founding Firework in 2003, becoming an ICF accredited Master Coach in 2005 and forming many other collaborations including Mirus Coaching for Social Change, Mentor Coaches International and a new project providing pro bono coaching to Extinction Rebellion activists. With 25 years' experience as a business owner, coach and consultant she works with people who are at a life or career crossroads. Her specialism is supporting clients to find meaningful and fulfilling work. In this episode, we talk about: - How, as a working class little girl on a council estate near Glasgow, she first learned about her sense of agency in the world. - How she created the renowned Firework Career Coaching Framework, started Firework Coaching Company and later sold it. - Why she has never got bored of her work with people changing careers. - What she thinks makes a great website for a coach (as one of the first people to have a coaching website) and how to launch it. - How she tried every kind of marketing in existence and what she learned from that experimentation (and what she recommends you do so you don’t have to experiment with everything). Plus, starting from Marianne’s bugbears about the coaching industry, we get into a fascinating conversation about the morals and ethics of coaching, and ask questions like, is the end is near for ‘the client’s agenda’ and ‘where were the coaches when the banks went down’? For more information about Marianne, visit: https://www.coachlifeandcareer.com/ or http://www.mentor-coach.com/ For information about Robbie’s wider work and writing, visit www.robbieswalecoaching.com. Music by My Good Man William: listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4KmeQUcTbeE31uFynHQLQg Things and people we mentioned (that you might be interested in): ~4: James Bianco and the Coach’s Journey episode with James: https://www.thecoachsjourney.com/podcast/episode-5-james-bianco-beware-your-simple-stories-about-coaching-success ~5: Laura Berman Fortgang: https://laurabermanfortgang.com/ ~10: Coach U: https://www.coachu.com/ ~30 and ~37: Firework: https://www.fireworkcoaching.com/ ~38: Kate Edmunds: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/kate-edmonds-5aa25516 ~39: CTI: https://coactive.com/ ~40: Careershifters: http://www.careershifters.org/ ~40: My temping colleague, Amy, and her awesome vintage dress company, Clarence and Alabama: https://www.clarenceandalabama.co.uk/ ~41: Richard Alderson: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/richardalderson ~54: Marianne’s ebook, So You Want To Become A Coach - A Guide to Training and Skills for Life and Business Coaching: http://www.mentor-coach.com/become_a_life_coach.htm ~55: The ICF (International Coaching Federation) and their levels of credential, ACC, PCC and MCC: https://www.coachfederation.org.uk/credentialing/credential_path ~56: Academy of Coaching Supervision: https://coachingsupervisionacademy.com/ ~58: ICF International events: https://coachfederation.org/events/icf-converge-2019 ~82: Sir John Whitmore and his book Coaching For Performance: https://www.performanceconsultants.com/coaching-for-performance-book ~82: Association for Coaching: https://www.associationforcoaching.com/ ~90: Climate Change Coaches: https://www.climatechangecoaches.com/ ~93: Mirus Coaching for Social Change and Alma Neville ~94: Robert Holden: https://www.robertholden.com/ ~110: Exeter Street Hall, the new community centre where Marianne is a trustee: https://exeterstreethall.org/

Om Podcasten

Coach’s Journey founder Robbie Swale and a team of hosts interview coaches about how they created a successful business and how they create impact for their clients. Through these conversations, you can learn how each coach came to coaching, grew their coaching practice and found their way to the successful business they have today. Each interview, like each journey, is different. But each is also packed with insights, tips, suggestions and ideas to grow your coaching business and have even greater impact creating change in the lives of your clients. Past guests include life coaches, business coaches, executivecoaches, career coaches, leadership coaches and more. Some are household names; some are coaches you’ve never heard of. All of them share ideas on the key topics for creating a coaching business: money, fees, impact with clients, training and more. About Robbie: Robbie Swale is a leadership coach, podcaster and the author of four books. He has trained with masters in the field of coaching and building coaching businesses, including Rich Litvin, Robert Holden and guests on the podcast like Katie Harvey and Myles Downey. He is the creator of The Coaching Business Flywheel, which attempts to boil down everything he has learned from many years supporting coaches to grow their businesses and interviewing amazing coaches on this podcast, into one simple, actionable model. Subscribe and read more about the podcast, The Coach’s Journey Community and get the free ebook An Introduction to The Coaching Business Flywheel at www.thecoachsjourney.com