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):
Watch the video of the episode with Marianne. (The video versions are more rough and ready than the audio-only episodes.)
~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/
FULL BIOGRAPHY FROM MARIANNE
I first heard about coaching on BBC Radio’s Woman’s Hour early in 1999. I was inspired and by the end of the programme I found myself dialing the information line for more information. I signed up to the 2 year Coach U course a few weeks later. Lots of coaches tell a similar story – they stumbled on coaching and just knew that it was what they wanted to do for a living.
A graduate of Coach U, Marianne has coached for over 20 years. In 2005 she was awarded the designation Master Coach (MCC) by the ICF. She is co- founder of Firework Coaching Company, training career coaches to deliver the Firework Career Coaching Programme. Educated at Edinburgh and East London Universities, with a first class degree in Sociology and then post grad work, Marianne worked as a writer, research consultant, and senior manager in the field of community health. She is author of the Office Workers' Survival Handbook. Originally from Glasgow, Marianne has lived and worked in London, Edinburgh, New York, Geneva and Sydney. She now lives with her partner by the sea in Brighton. They have one daughter and one new granddaughter!
Marianne is a graduate of the Coaching Supervision Academy (2007). She is an experienced mentor coach, coach supervisor and author of the eBook So You Want to Become a Coach (although she stopped updating it in 2013). 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. Marianne loves working with those who, like her, feel compelled to make a difference in their community or in the world as a whole.
FIREWORK
Marianne created the Firework Career Coaching Programme with colleague Kate Edmonds in 2003. They spent a year researching the field of career transition, reading everything they could find and speaking with experts in the field. They met every Friday and brainstormed and wrote together, finally creating the Firework Programme in 2004. First they used the programme with their own clients, then they set up Firework Coaching Company and piloted the first Firework course, licensing and training the first cohort of Firework coaches in 2005. Since then, Firework has trained hundreds of coaches in UK, Dublin, Helsinki and Chicago.
Careershifters now trains coaches in the Firework career coaching model. (since 2013).
In 2013 Marianne co-founded Mirus Coaching for Social Change, offering pro-bono and low-cost coaching to community and human rights activists, campaigners and social entrepreneurs. Mirus coaches offered coaching to change agents by telephone and Skype world-wide. Mirus was closed down in 2018 when the co-founder Alma Neville sadly died.
Marianne has many years' experience as an activist and campaigner in the field of women’s health and human rights. She is a former board member of RAW, a human rights organization set up to support women and girls raped in conflict zones around the world. Marianne is also active on green issues locally in Brighton. She is currently a trustee of Exeter Street Hall, a local venue owned and run by her local community. She is involved with others in setting up a project to provide pro-bono coaching for Extinction Rebellion activists.