Clare Downes
Do reference my website for a fuller picture of the scope of my coaching and to learn a little more about me: www.martlet.life.
I enjoy working with people who are seeking support during transition; whether this is within themselves, their business or most likely both together. This change could be managing a scaling business, stepping up and into leadership, managing different and more critical relationships, extracting yourself successfully from a business partnership with friends or family, navigating a change of career direction, dealing with the process of a business sale and what comes after...
I am pragmatic, practical, intuitive, supportive, warm and challenging - when each is needed. I seek to establish long-standing relationships, which may start with a specific need but then lead to an ongoing relationship as your career and life evolve and progress.
I also work with aspiring athlete young athletes on areas such as performance mindset, confidence and a holistic approach to their life and sport.
Qualifications
Graduate of www.meylercampbell.com Mastered programme for executive business coaching. Accredited by The Association for Coaching (AC). The programme also holds the European Quality Award (EQA) as conferred by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC).
Myers Briggs, MBTI qualified practitioner
Accredited to deliver Positive Psychology Intensive Coaching
Counselling Accreditation (Level Two)
Finding Mastery: High Performance Psychology (for business and sport) with Michael Gervais
Politics with International Relations (BA Hons)
Life before becoming a coach
After studying International Politics, I developed a career within Marketing and Business Development: client and agency - Unilever (Bird's Eye Walls), hospitality (Groupe Chez Gerard Restaurants), working on brands such as Diet Coke and Weetabix and supporting dynamic start-ups.
I then returned from London to my home in Shropshire and established and grew my own marketing communications agency from 2000-2018. Alongside this, I set up and still run a conference/ meeting facility on our family farm in Shropshire.
In 2018, I successfully merged my marketing business, to focus full-time on coaching.
Why I became a coach
I took the step to coaching in 2016 as I had increasingly found that my passion and interest lay with the people in the businesses that I was working with. I felt that I could make more of an impact through working with the individuals within business.
Having run a marketing communications agency for 18 years centred on supporting scaling businesses, I had a deep insight and understanding and wished to use this on a more focused one to one basis. I find people and business fascinating and keep doing so, which keeps me loving what I now do!
What you can work with me on:
CEOs/MD/Founder/C-suite and SLT members where pace is fast and a need to understand yourself and others is required
Stepping into your next phase of leadership and testing yourself with new experiences, discomfort and personal challenges
Founders adapting to being CEOs in their growing businesses
Succession planning within a business, working with the potential leader-in-waiting
The invaluable No 2 in a scaling business is a vital role, which can be an intricate relationship to balance; between a dynamic ideas-driven founder and the rest of the senior team
Young leadership teams, being required to take on their roles at speed, often lacking a business area specific mentor or role model
Enabling Founders to step away gracefully into another role or out of the business
Supporting Founders leading up to and following a business sale as they adapt to life after this particular business
Supporting business partners extricating themselves from a partnership
Extensive knowledge of the commercial and emotional intricacies of family businesses
Beyond 1:1 coaching, I offer:
My core focus is one to one coaching.
I also work with business partners with a combination of duo and individual sessions.
For individuals requiring intensive support at key life junctures: redundancy, return from maternity or illness, major age milestones etc...provide structured three month focused coaching, to build a plan for the next steps.
My pricing model
Charge monthly/ bi-monthly depending on frequency of one to one session (up to 2 hours) plus adhoc support, as needed, between sessions
Do not sell programmes. A month's notice out of courtesy. Advise a minimum investment of 6 months of coaching
Cost is dependent on size and stage of the business or a private individual
I prefer to discuss costs on a individual basis
More about me
Outside of coaching, I am involved with my local community - a Trustee of www.ekolearning.org.uk and Vice Chair of Shrewsbury Athletics Club.
Education, the outdoors and sport are all extremely important to me.
I am a farmer's wife and daughter - and feel that this understanding of rural business and the community, provides me with a balanced perspective which I bring to my coaching approach.
I am a mother of two teenage children - one a runner and one a cricketer; sport plays a big part in our family life!
I run most days and take part in local Half Marathons and 10k races, to fuel my competitive spirit!