The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius

Legacy Life Reflections: With the Unstoppable Force of Nature Christine Marsh. Trailblazing at 84 on the Path to Becoming THE Global Influencer on 'Living Life to the Full', well in to your 90's and Beyond!

• Chris Grimes - Facilitator. Coach. Motivational Comedian

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Meet Christine Marsh, a force of nature who at 84 became a model and is now trailblazing on a path to becoming the key Global Influencer on "Living Life to the Full" for the over-50s and beyond by age 90! Wrapped in sunflower yellow and radiating unstoppable energy, Christine shares her extraordinary journey from being born in India during wartime, to International Business Change Facilitator, Speaker, and Author.

Christine's story is one of perpetual reinvention and refusal to accept limitations. Born to a military father who had "ordered a son," she grew up being called "Bill"—yet rather than breaking her spirit, this fueled her determination. Unable to read conventionally until a teacher recognized she saw patterns rather than letters, Christine developed unique problem-solving abilities that would later define her career. At 50, when corporate life deemed her past her "sell-by date," she pivoted. At 81, following her husband's death, she faced a blank canvas and chose to "mature disgracefully" rather than retire quietly.

Throughout our conversation, Christine shares wisdom that feels both timeless and urgently relevant: "Change is inevitable. Stress is manageable. Misery is optional." She illuminates her approach to facilitation with the metaphor of an orange negotiation exercise, showing how collaboration trumps competition. With the eye of a detective, she spots patterns others miss, embodying Leonardo da Vinci's principle that "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

What emerges is a masterclass in resilience and reinvention. Christine's philosophy—"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent"—has carried her through decades of breaking barriers. Her book "Flashpoint Transformation: Life's Choices" poses a question we all face: "Are you ready to jump or waiting to be pushed?" As she puts it with characteristic directness: "You only have the moment. You can't change the past, you can't determine the future. Please savour every single moment."

Ready to rethink what's possible at any age? Christine's story might just be the spark that ignites your own transformation. Visit thechristinemarsh.com to connect with this remarkable woman who doesn't know the meaning of "can't."

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening!

Chris Grimes:

Welcome to another episode of the Good Listening To Show your life and times with me, chris Grimes, the storytelling show that features the Clearing, where all good questions come to get asked and all good stories come to be told, and where all my guests have two things in common they're all creative individuals and all with an interesting story to tell. There are some lovely storytelling metaphors a clearing, a tree, a juicy storytelling exercise called 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, some alchemy, some gold, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare and a cake. So it's all to play for. So, yes, welcome to the Good Listening To Show your life and times with me. Chris Grimes, are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin. Good morning, good morning, thrice. Good morning, chris Grimes, is me.

Chris Grimes:

But very, very importantly, this is the lovely Christine Marsh. I've been visited by a queen, I feel. She was delivered moments ago by TJ, who is a Sierra Leonean minder stroke taxi driver, and you arrived wearing your resplendent sunflower yellow. I thought it was appropriate. It was, and it is a beautiful, glorious May Day. It is the 1st of May, may Day, may Day, but we need no help because this is going to be a glorious, glorious episode. I'm just going to blow some happy smoke at you. First of all, I'm going to reveal your slide, so if you're watching this, this is the beauty that is Christine Marsh.

Chris Grimes:

You've got a website which is the Christine Marsh, and you really truly are the Christine Marsh. I've been noticing you on LinkedIn for quite some time and I got back in touch with you a couple of weeks ago. I've prepared four superlatives. You are the irrepressible, incomparable, indomitable and unstoppable. You are Christine Marsh. You became a model at 84. Yeah, and you are on a mission. Cop load of this. By the time I'm 90. This is now me speaking in your words, and you can do this in a moment. I will let you in in a minute. I'm just really positioning how exciting this is very uh flattering, so keep going you're well, I'll just go back a step.

Chris Grimes:

you're a business change facilitator from c-suite level only and below, very rarely. International speaker and author. We're going to talk about your book as well, but you're on a trailblazing mission. By the time I'm 90, I want to be the key global influencer on living life to the full for the over 50s. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome for a very special Legacy Life Reflections episode of the Good Listening To Show Stories of Distinction and Genius. Christine Marsh, the sound of one man clapping to bring you in. So how's morale? How was your journey down with TJ? Talk about TJ if you'd like to too. Let's just get you into the show.

Christine Marsh:

Well, tj knows that if we have to be somewhere at a certain time I go a bit ballistic if he's late, and he's only ever done that once and he'll never, ever do it again. He's never seen me angry, but it was for a wonderful luncheon in Claridge's, and to go into a preset table setting as the late arrival was the most embarrassing thing.

Chris Grimes:

Although there is currency in being enigmatically late, but obviously you're a stickler for timekeeping.

Christine Marsh:

I think it was Alice Kavinska, who is a fifth-generation healer. Her books are in I don't know how many languages. She actually sorted me out after a very nasty car accident and she's taken care of me ever since. But she gives these luncheons in Claridge's they're brunches, actually, and women are invited. There's guest speakers talking about you know, basically health and keeping things going, and she also has these books, which I rely on, about owning your own energy. So energy to me is crucial.

Chris Grimes:

You have so many beautiful quotes pertaining to energy. There's a lovely analogy about being a matchbox yes, and you can please do talk about the box of matches, the ignition of fire. And then one of your quotes that I loved was the idea that in order to shine, you need to burn. We'll get on to all of that. But first of all, just to go back a step. If people don't have a frame of reference for the beauty that is the Christine Marsh, on your extraordinary mission to go way beyond 90 and beyond, there's nothing stopping you. You're totally unstoppable. But what got you on the trailblazing path that you now find yourself on?

Christine Marsh:

I think, because my background had been corporate life and I'd gone from an operational background new product development right the way through. So I understood the supply chain and then I got really annoyed that training did not appear to be matching what we needed. Now, that's no reflection on the wonderful guy who was running it, richard Shepard, who's been one of my stalwart supporters and is still there rooting for me anytime he can. But the key thing was that it had to be relevant and I felt I could make a contribution. And you know they told me I wasn't suitable. I couldn't do the transition from operational to learning and development. Now you don't tell me what I can't do, chris, you really don't.

Christine Marsh:

I think we know that that's not the best way to it's indomitable. Yeah, you know, come on. I thought well, anyway, they wouldn't listen. So I resigned, went off and got this glamorous job, going to Geneva and working with Elf Oil and all sorts of stuff. Do you know? I missed the people. The retail is a hard world. I felt there was so much we could do or I could help contribute to Richard in looking at 3,997 people and breaking it down into digestible chunks and together, when I went back after three months um, my chair was now in learning and development and when richard was talking about what it was like when he heard I was actually going to join him and oh my god, I can't with this a bit of an, I told you.

Chris Grimes:

So there you are. You're back in exactly the chair you'd already decided you're going to sit down on he's been a fantastic mate.

Christine Marsh:

He came to my book launch. Um, you know, you have someone who sees talent in other people and gives you the opportunity to shine and your book we're going to talk about.

Chris Grimes:

We're going to do a dedicated section about your good book, but flashpoint transformation, I know there's. The story of the matchbox is in there and it's about life choices. It's a collective compendium of your wisdom over the eight decades you've been doing what you do beautifully, and what's really compelling is are you ready to jump or waiting to be pushed? And this is what we're also going to be talking about.

Christine Marsh:

I think the main quote with that is change is inevitable. And the people who sit hoping that life's going to go on, especially where we are at the moment, it isn't. It's fast, it's vibrant, it's scary and you know that's not going to happen. So change is inevitable. Stress is manageable and a lot of people don't understand that. There's a lot of people saying you know, stress is not good for you, I'm sorry, but that's our survival. Yes, stress is not good for you. I'm sorry, but that's our survival. Yes, you know, we need that adrenaline to get stuff out of trouble. Yeah, the problem is we used to be able to go and punch somebody. We're not supposed to do that anymore. They were upsetting us. So we repressed stress and we're in a stress state of adrenaline fix.

Christine Marsh:

But the key thing to me was life's choices and the percentage of people if I could help them. Now that is just a taster. I don't go into my business. Everyone thought I was going to write a business book and I thought no, this is just me sharing some tips and techniques and provoking people to think you know what are their life's choices? Are they ready to jump, are they going to wait choices? Are they ready to jump or are they going to wait? But stress is manageable.

Christine Marsh:

What I love is misery is optional. I I work with one client in birmingham. The company had been taken over by a french company and that wasn't going down very well and the problem was that, um, the one guy was trying you know everyone's doom and gloom and down in the dark places and I was in life dreadful and he said he would go home, take it out on the wife, kids, the dog, that kind of thing, yeah, and come back in with a smile, say well, you know, today's another day and we're going in smiling and everyone said what the bloody hell's the matter with you today? Don't you know how dreadful it is? You know how can you possibly see positive in anything that we're doing?

Chris Grimes:

So misery is optional and we're getting beautiful quotes already. We're suffusing this with just delicious quotes. There is a favorite inspirational quote invocation at the end, which we'll come on to no-transcript juicy storytelling exercise called five, four, three, two, one. There's going to be some alchemy, some gold, a couple of random squirrels, a cheeky bit of shakespeare, a golden baton and a cake. So it's all to play for. Yes, nom, nom, nom, nom nom. I'm glad you're looking forward to the cake. No breakfast, so that is essential and I couldn't resist. But do a Legacy Life Reflections show with you. It's so, so, so so. Not over, because you're trailblazing to 90 and beyond, but it's just really exciting to get someone that is all about zest and energy and how you apply that energy. Here you are at 84 and a model at 84 too.

Christine Marsh:

Chris, can I just add the 50 was when in the boardroom where I was after a very hostile takeover, there was a stuffed eagle and one of the directors laughed and he said that's what happens to the women around here they end up as stuffed birds. Oh, and when I was coming up to 50, I knew I was going to be made redundant.

Chris Grimes:

Wow and sure enough, wow, so you passed your sell-by date in retail, best before date, those kind of things, and that's why you specifically picked it's not over and it's almost like the next phase of life from 50 plus. Yes, and what happened to that particular individual and when he said that to you?

Christine Marsh:

at that time I had been one of the survivors of a hostile takeover bid and there were only 30 of us and I knew I had a shelf life of about 18 20 months and then, once they'd leached or you'd contributed yes you'd be offered a redundancy, so I was already planning my own business.

Chris Grimes:

Okay, let's get you on the open road. The clearing, first of all, is your serious happy place. So, christine Marsh, business change facilitator, world-renowned international speaker and author, where is what is a clearing for you? Where do you go in your life's rich tapestry to get clutter-free, inspirational and able to think?

Christine Marsh:

physically I can't. I can't physically go somewhere. Um, because of the traveling that I've done and I think, the four years you mentioned the death of my husband and basically that was survival, so I found it hard to have a happy place and having to move and everything that's going on there it's in my head. I know that sounds dreadful, but I have a place quietly in my head where I go and, if I may help you, help us explore that.

Chris Grimes:

So how would you describe that special place in your head? It's quiet um, I like music in the background and virtually concentrating on my breathing and just get some peace and stop the world and get off I love that and you travel to many, many places, but the place is self-containment, it's within your own head whenever you need to go there, and that's quite zen of itself as a borrowing from that philosophy. But when was the last time you remember being in your clearing?

Christine Marsh:

I think when did I last go there? It was at 18th of December 2024. And I'd looked at the fact. I'd moved, everything had settled. And I thought now what? And I had two options I could mature and age gracefully or be disgraceful. Guess which one I chose?

Chris Grimes:

I'm glad you did.

Christine Marsh:

So that basically was okay. Start a new life. Blank sheet of paper. What are you going to do with the rest of your life?

Chris Grimes:

that was one of the first really compelling things in a very early part of our first conversation, when you talked about life presenting you, after the death of your husband, with a completely blank piece of paper. So rather than retracting within and just staying in your no-transcript.

Christine Marsh:

He never particularly wanted to know what I did, but he supported me in my madness. The only time that it went a bit pear-shaped is we got involved in pyramid marketing and that was another story and I started selling. I never saw it selling, I was just offering a service. I never thought sales was imposing on somebody. And, uh, I actually found that my area, my region, got top marks and the phone went and it was christine, we want you in geneva on tuesday as one of our speakers.

Christine Marsh:

And he, he said no. Now that came as a shock. Your husband said no, no, can't do it. You are a wife, you're a mother, we've got two young children. And I'm very proud of him because, having said no, I think that was his survival technique with three women in his life, with our two daughters first, and then think about it. He came and he said you've worked really hard for this. What you need? How long will you be away? Can we work together? And that was how we got through my mad, crazy adventures. Afterwards, just tell me where you're going, let me know when you're back and if you can manage to send smoke signals up or something to say you're still breathing. He supported, but he never really wanted to know what I did.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, so he allowed you to weave your magic. Yes, and magic you have weaved, and that's what the collective wisdom is all about here in the book that we'll talk about later on as well. So, if I may, I'm now going to intrude slightly in your clearing by arriving with a tree and I'm going to shake your tree, and it's a bit deliberately existential, a bit waiting for god. Oh ask, and this is where you've had five minutes, christine marsh, or as long as you've needed, since you very kindly agreed to be in the show, to have thought about four things that have shaped you, three things that inspire you, two things that never fail to grab your attention and borrow from the film up. That's a bit. Well, squirrels, you know what are your shiny object syndromes, your, your monsters of destruction? And then the one is a quirky or unusual fact about you. Okay, so over to you. It's not a memory test, I'll curate you through it, but uh, four things that have shaped you.

Christine Marsh:

first of all, being born in india. I think that was, uh, what I call my unorthodox beginning and introduction to life. Born in 1940, the war started and my father was posted. Well, he was in India with my mother and elder daughter elder sister beg your pardon and get my relationships right here All the families were actually moved up into Kashmir and we were there virtually for the duration of the war. So my sister bless her, rosemary, I love her dearly. She's in canada.

Christine Marsh:

Um, she was sent to boarding school and that was a bit tough because I was a little cosseted brat that was left behind. I didn't get any education. Uh, nobody got at me. So my brain was never formatted, I never had to. I never had any tick boxes or exams. I think it's two or three. Now they're testing these little mites. I think it's wicked. You know the time when you should be having fun and creating and developing your imagination and all the gorgeous things about being a child. So basically, it turned out that the penalty for that freedom was when we returned in 1947, I think there was something that went on where the Brits were kicked out of India. They found I couldn't read. So this disruptive child actually was masking the fact that these black squiggles didn't mean anything, and I wonder how. I don't know if it's mean anything, yeah, and I wonder how I don't know if it's verging on dyslexia. I don't know all the official terms, yes, but basically, artistically, I see shapes and I never related that shape to a word.

Christine Marsh:

You know, it was one teacher who twigged that within this shall I tell you what she did to me sure she sat me down and she showed me and it was black squiggles. They didn't look many of them and it's actually the famous uh saying. I think they use it to test typing things on keyboards, do? They was printing because colin was a printer, so there's a lazy dog in there, yeah the red fox jumps over the brown lazy dog or the other way around.

Christine Marsh:

So she, oh. And I thought, oh, oh, there's a dog here. And I thought what's the dog? I can see black squiggles. And what she did? She got the picture of that squiggle to equal dog. Right click, got it fox. She taught me nouns buff, just like that, wonder what they're doing. Oh, jumping verb yeah verb yeah Right.

Christine Marsh:

Adjectives color brown, red. I mean, isn't that brilliant? Where does this teaching spark of how, that genius? She has been the foundation of why I felt that nobody should be judged unless they had the opportunity to learn, and that's been my life mission.

Chris Grimes:

And seeing patterns in the squiggles I don't doubt would have helped you later on as a facilitator, because you're there looking at supply chains and just seeing patterns of behaviour. So actually it's a very compelling way to learn, rather than the obvious way to learn.

Christine Marsh:

Yes, you'll see, you'll go. I did some work with Elizabeth Arden and again, the clients have all become dear friends. When Colin died, the number of people who turned up on my doorstep to see if I was okay.

Chris Grimes:

Yes.

Christine Marsh:

And still do so. The key thing really was I give you one and a half hour. We just paid a fortune to one of the top people and what they do. They send in graduates on £500 a day and they're charging £4,000 a day for the services and he'd had these reports and all they'd done is ask the people what the problem was and then send it back as a report or no solutions to it yeah he gave me one and a half hours.

Christine Marsh:

He said get down on my production line if you come back with anything that can be sorted. And I thought you're saying I can't, don't you? You? And guess what the response was. So you go down, they have this very expensive cellophane that they wrap I think you pay that instead of what's the cosmetics in the jar kind of thing. And there was wastage and I thought well, how can you afford to waste that amount off a bale of cellophane?

Christine Marsh:

Fortunately there was a delivery just coming in, went out and watched the forklift driver and no one had trained them. They were using agency staff. So the forklift prongs, instead of going into the pallet and lifting the pallet, were going on the top of the pallet and scratching. Well, you know, you lost a good six inches Sorry if you're into centimeters or something, I'm still in inches and pounds and shillings Bear with me. And the other thing was they had five different titles and you thought why do you need five managers here on a production unit? And it had been the way of quelling the troublemakers If they moaned, give them a bit more money and give them another title and shut them up. But you know what happened to decision-making Over the fence? It's them, they decide, they decide. Yes, so deferring responsibility Totally. You know you didn't have that clarity of who did what actually?

Chris Grimes:

And again coming full circle, it's you noticing the squiggles of patterns of behaviour and then changing, and then presumably saving an absolute fortune.

Christine Marsh:

Well, from that I was then put into what Support Sunlight is it Unilever? And that was on a negotiation skills workshop. Well, you can imagine this container coming across the oceans where it's got, say, let's, SO7 in it. Well, the departments didn't collaborate. They were in competition to get the biggest supply at the best price with each other.

Christine Marsh:

It's loopy yes so what I did? I got them in in a workshop, and this is where I don't get this out of textbooks. The only letters after my name a cpt, and that certified performance technologist yeah, and that has to be American and what's what's so compelling.

Chris Grimes:

Going back again, a full step is that most people will be reflecting back on their career at 84, but you're still out there, wanting to speak, wanting to connect, wanting to help solve problems.

Christine Marsh:

I'm learning. You know nothing. Nothing is unsolvable. I know that sounds pretty dramatic. You sometimes have no option. We've got to solve what we're doing to this planet or we're going to be zotted, aren't we? Let's face it.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, so next shape it Number one, is being born in India and then meeting your first key influencer, teacher, who saw how to help you how to help you.

Christine Marsh:

Yes, I think what happened then was um, basically um, coming back to the uk, this army brat, but because you moved around so much.

Christine Marsh:

Chris, I don't know if you've experienced that, but you're always a new kid on the block yeah there were established friendships, so I became an observer an outlier and out, which again is very useful for the art of the celebration, Just watching the connections who goes out with who, who's talking about who behind their backs, all this kind of quite difficult observation stuff going on. But do you realize how many people were army brats that had been in India? Joanna Lumley, the goons, Peter Sellers, all those were army brats and our survival technique was humour.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, yes.

Christine Marsh:

So that's why I have a laugh at life.

Chris Grimes:

A great lens indeed, so that's wonderful Shapeage. Number three please.

Christine Marsh:

Oh, what did I do there? Well, obviously, family, I don't. They should have come first, but you have responsibility. We married very young, 21. We had two beautiful daughters, Alison and Rachel. And it was very different then because back in the sort of late 70s women stayed at home stereotypes and I think Alison was five, rachel was three. At the time it was two years' difference. You know I had when Colin was made redundant to make some pennies to help and the Avon round was going. So how many people out there started with an Avon round?

Chris Grimes:

Bing bong Avon calling. I remember that.

Christine Marsh:

Yeah, but you know it fitted in with women and family and you could do it in the evening, and so he bought me a little fiat and I used to bomb around helping people. As I said, I didn't see selling imposing, it was providing a service, and that's always been. Whatever I do, if I can't provide a bona fide service that gives you a result, then kick me out yes, so you're inveterately always trying to help and shift things to make them more efficient.

Christine Marsh:

Detective work? I like to see it as. Do you know what that means? Detective work is finding information, not readily available.

Christine Marsh:

So I'm being told one thing and the other. So when they were sort of competing for this thing, what I placed on the table was one orange and these people had to negotiate for the orange and they split into groups, so one were playing the provider of the orange and the other were the people who wanted to buy the orange. Chris, you wouldn't believe what came out of that simple exercise. Oh sure, it was unbelievable. They were really getting into it. And this young kid got it. A young gentleman there, rather Sorry kids. Are nanny goats offsprings, aren't they? Sorry, it's a horrible phrase. Sorry kids. But basically no one had said what are you going to use it for? Why have this possession of the orange? Why are you fighting over an orange and what it was? One people, or one group needed the zest. The other people needed the juice for a drink. Yeah, the other people needed the pips because they were looking long term and planning an orange orchard. So they weren't looking in immediate return, they were looking at long term. Can you see how my brain?

Chris Grimes:

yes, there's chucks over the art of collaboration. Yes, yes, that's a wonderful exercise. I've seen it described before. It's not just cutting it in half and giving them half each. That's the most obvious compromise. But then digging into who needs the zest, the pips, the rind. Yes, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you. We could be at shapeage number four now, please right.

Christine Marsh:

So the family obviously got into work, really because that was a necessity. I will tell you about pyramid selling at some time, because that was absolutely the formation of my speaking and management career, but really the key thing is for is the whole thing of communication. Yeah, now I'm going to ask you a question. Certainly Okay, I'm going to describe something that's really clear in my head. Yeah, what do you see? The animal has long nose, big furry ears. Without thinking what pops into your head, Long nose, big furry ears.

Chris Grimes:

I'm getting a donkey hybrid. Could be an anteater. Long nose Dog, yeah, okay.

Christine Marsh:

We're supposed to have one animal, not a zoo.

Chris Grimes:

I'll go for the zoo. I'll go for the donkey, I'll go for the donkey Right.

Christine Marsh:

Do you know? This is why we get on. I think in the years I've been using this, I've only found 25 people who see a donkey, the same as I do.

Chris Grimes:

Oh, you do too. Yes, oh, that's a revelation. There you go. That's a source of great joy, thank you.

Christine Marsh:

Yeah, I know the donkey donkeys. So you get I love it because you're doing watching so you get the very quick-witted people who don't allow you to even finish and then you know they see an anteater. And then you say, well, what happens to the big furry ears? There aren't any. And what happens when his nose is in or it's not, his nose is his tongue. So you have this absolutely random conversation about anteaters and then somebody will see a nice bunny rabbit yeah, yeah, yeah they go to the soft fluffy bit, you know, and they forget all about the long nose.

Christine Marsh:

And then you have a big debate Is it a skull or is it a nose? And you know from that simple exercise. I've done it with groups all over the place and it just shows communication is an illusion. Who's it? Was it George Shaw? What's he called Bernard?

Chris Grimes:

Shaw.

Christine Marsh:

Yeah, an illusion. Who's it? Was it george shaw? What's he called? George bernard shaw? Yeah, he said that to be a problem with communication is the illusion that's taking place absolutely and I think that's such a yes because we spout off and it's not what you say, it's what people hear I hope you hear. What animal did you see? I wonder.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, you can actually comment and say what animals did you see? What animals did you see? I'm thrilled that I've had the we share a donkey there you go.

Christine Marsh:

That's why we connect that's the first bit.

Chris Grimes:

That's four things that have shaped you and now three things that inspire you. Uh, christine, okay travel.

Christine Marsh:

It really is, I think, because we came back from India, went out to Singapore it was north, you were doing Cambridge, you then came down and you were doing Oxford and then you went. Oh, it was ridiculous, but I had five blissful years in Singapore and made, I think, a true friend lifelong. I've only got very few true friends who know me to the depth because I'm usually quite a private person, believe it or not. So Jill, who's sadly gone on ahead of me, she really was a big influence for me. So second name, jill King at that stage, and then she became Jill Kemp and her daughter is my goddaughter, sarah, and she's got a lovely son, simon, who is the chef who cooks meals to die for. If you want to go to South Africa or I'll bring him over here, chris, and make him cook for us, yes, please.

Chris Grimes:

The way to my heart is with fruit food. Nom, nom, nom, nom nom.

Christine Marsh:

Yeah. So you know, that was really the travel factor and that's why I went through this unorthodox beginning, yeah, and then from seven to 36 was orthodox yeah. Well, it wasn't actually, because at 36 I decided to start my own business, yeah, and that really was the biggest decision I've ever made. And here I am and that was the prime objective.

Chris Grimes:

Is that the yeah?

Christine Marsh:

yeah, it was. Um, I I'd had to sack somebody over technicality and I felt pig sick because I knew higher-ups were getting away with it. Yeah, this kid was just being a scapegoat and I was driving back and I thought that's, I can't work like this is going to do me in yeah I'm in the prime of life. Why don't I focus on company's objectives? So what's your problem?

Chris Grimes:

Hence the prime objective, prime objectives, yes, and you saying you're in the prime of life you always are you have a perpetual carpe diem Still in, still, in, still. In the prime of life, I mean, what is again? I can't get over the fact that it's so not over, because your mission is, you know, going as long as you can, being as inspirational as you can.

Christine Marsh:

So 50 is getting over this and the momentum is growing. Now More and more groups are saying look, this is ridiculous. Yes, the retirement age no longer is. You know, they want you to work till what? 70 before you get your pensions. That's one of the things they're muting. So you know this. Health I don't know whether it's medicine or are we eating healthier or what not, but we don't pop off quite as early as we used to. I think women still outlast the men.

Christine Marsh:

Yes, but so and I'm sorry that you're proof of that, because I know that obviously- yeah, no, he was out mowing the lawn and didn't feel well and the cruelest thing, chris, was, it was the beginning of COVID and the ambulance came and I wasn't allowed to go with him, children weren't allowed to visit him and we were allowed to see his dead body.

Chris Grimes:

Yes.

Christine Marsh:

Now you know how families have coped with losing children. I just feel sick. Yes, you know we'd had a good, full life. He would not have wanted to be an invalid. Yeah, it doesn't sort of help that you're left muttering at him and giving a few swear words, of leaving me in this mess to mop up and may I ask, did he go very quickly?

Chris Grimes:

That, was it Just a sort of aneurysm snap gone.

Christine Marsh:

It was an aneurysm gone, bang. No, nothing you could do about it. But the problem was I don't know what's worse, because my dear friend Penny Reid, bless her. Penny's been a good friend to me. I think it was about seven and a half years of losing somebody through. I think it was about seven and a half years of losing somebody through. I don't know if it's dementia or Alzheimer's, it's just basically a lingering part. Yes, whereas this you know, you didn't have time to tell them that you loved him.

Chris Grimes:

Yes.

Christine Marsh:

And I think that's a fact, but it's not giving you that chance.

Chris Grimes:

And this was the genesis of your blank piece of paper to start again. Yeah, less immortals would just sort of reflect. Stop, I suppose. Deal with whatever inheritance you have and then get on with a happy retirement.

Christine Marsh:

But you've not done that no, I'd go, I'd think I don't know what would happen. I think if you've got something that you want to rekindle and with me it was art, because my father only allowed me a one year in art college and in my book you can see what I did at 18 and then basically that died a death. You know, you did things for the school and whatnot, but I thought what am I going to do now with this blank sheet of paper? So at 81 I went on a fabulous course of flavors, holidays, do art courses or cooking courses or whatever, and that was ideal. So I've been to Scotland, I've been to Tuscany, I've just got back from Southeast Sicily with a tutor.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah.

Christine Marsh:

And I've now got an opportunity in Stowe-on-the-World at one of the libraries to have an exhibition.

Chris Grimes:

They want me to sell my stuff and Stowe-on-the-Worldold, at one of the libraries to have an exhibition. They want me to sell my stuff and Stowe-on-the-Wold is where TJ has brought you down this very day. Yes, yes.

Christine Marsh:

That's where I decided that I wanted to be part of a community and I have cultivated good friendships because it's independent living but, I deliberately went around Stowe and I think I bought in every shop to become a friend and a known and I can walk in. Now people say, hi, christine, how are you doing? But you, you have to contribute. You can't sit there and spend the world to come to you that's such a trailblazing philosophy of itself.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, beautiful, we're still on to the other inspirations. So another source of inspiration, and you are being truly inspirational.

Christine Marsh:

I think that the people my eldest daughter, she I worked with training people, she works with training dogs. She's just fantastic with other healing skills. She's got our youngest daughter, rachel, is a fully qualified conservator and she's managing one of the museums in Woking and her artwork is out this world. I mean, I wish I could draw and paint like she does. But um, there you go it's.

Chris Grimes:

Uh, what's your own medium of your own art? Is it um? Is it watercolor?

Christine Marsh:

what do you like to well, you're trying to put me in the box again so we can imagine what that feels like. What's your medium, christine? Uh, I dabble. You know I decided right. I'm going to try everything. So if you look in my book, there's a I think it's on page 80 or something. There's a beautiful turtle that I've done in oil pastels. Tuscany is a watercolor. Uh, you couldn't oils, but you could do acrylics, so you've got. So I've dabbled and I've just had so much fun. There isn't a style because I'm experimenting.

Chris Grimes:

Life is still an experiment, for goodness sake, you're still throwing paint at the canvas of life. Yeah, because you don't know what you can do. That's Jackson Pollock, isn't it? I think Is that right?

Christine Marsh:

I don't know it sounds, don't know, it sounds very impressive. Yes, just hurling paint at the wall and seeing what flops out metaphorically, then, then I will do a very, very detailed calligraphy. Okay. So I love calligraphy, I love the shape and the space and you know you do an alphabet. Well, the letter I has a different space to the letter o or the letter m or the letter z you've done a cheeky bit of calligraphy in dedicating the book to me as well, which I loved as well.

Chris Grimes:

Thank you.

Christine Marsh:

But no, I just love seeing. It's a space between things. That's what I see. Ah, yes, does that make sense?

Chris Grimes:

It does To all of your philosophy. Seeing black squiggly lines to sort of learn to read. It's the spaces in between, yes, and also fixing stuff, curating stuff, yeah, and you know, you're a people whisperer, your daughter is a dog whisperer. One of your other daughters is an art whisperer. Yeah, wonderful stuff. Now on to the third inspiration, I think.

Christine Marsh:

Music, okay, music. I was very lucky, my sister being eight years older. What was she? 18, beautiful, big taffeted ball gowns and young handsome men collecting. I was a spotty 11-year-old. I mean it's not fair, is it? I mean it really is grim. We've all been spotty 11-year-olds. Anyway, sorry, that was a big sigh there, but she always had classical music playing and I thank her very much because her exposure to. I can't even pronounce his name, it's Bruges or Bruges or something. But I will cry. If I want a good cry and I did after Colin died I will put that music on. It's one of the most exquisite poignant pieces of music. It's just one of those things that it builds in crescension and it gets to the point where you're at that point of agony I can't describe it any other way and the only thing you can do is cry and do you sit in your clearing.

Christine Marsh:

Do you know? That's where I go with that kind of music.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, it's a quiet space, that quiet space inside your head, the zen center point, if you like it's a bit like your own clearing, metaphorically, which I so love having us this and then the the other music, obviously with colin.

Christine Marsh:

We both love cars and we both love jazz and big band. So we originally saw account baisey duke ellington at the fitzgerald all down in bristol. They used to come to. You know fantastic things here. My daughters were a little bit shocked when for the actual crematorium I wanted a Count Basie tune. Everyone said, listening to Colin coming in, it was him, because it comes in, it's slinky and then it goes. The trumpets come out. We'll find out the Count Basie track as well. Yes, please, because that is my husband.

Chris Grimes:

OK, now we're on to the squirrels. May I throw you a squirrel? Oh yes, it doesn't matter if you don't catch it. But, squirrels, don't tell me I can't catch it. In fact, I've got a slide for the squirrels. Look at that.

Christine Marsh:

Oh, aren't they gorgeous.

Chris Grimes:

I've just revealed a big slide of some squirrels. Apparently, they look like that when they encounter a particularly spectacular nut. So there you go. So squirrels, borrow from the film Up. These are, what are your two squirrels? What in your life never failed to stop you in your track? It's sometimes called shiny object syndrome. What never fails to stop you in your tracks, chris?

Christine Marsh:

Sunset.

Chris Grimes:

Beautiful.

Christine Marsh:

A sunset, a sunrise, sunset. That entry and departure of the warmth of the sun, I just find that's life, isn't it? We have sunrises and then we have sunsets.

Chris Grimes:

And here you are in your sunflower yellow garb. Today that's a great squirrel, a sunset, yes, wonderful, any particular place on the planet. You remember a favorite sunset?

Christine Marsh:

oh, I don't know, I mean where. I've traveled all around europe. I think my most exciting adventure was going across russia to siberia and from siberia out to the altai mountains by the mongolian border. That first trip was organized. There's 14 of us, which was hysterical Americans, you name it wanting showers and lifts and hotels and whatnot. But two years later I thought I haven't connected. I've been a tourist and I'm not a tourist, so I went back by myself.

Chris Grimes:

And what year was this 2002. And the photos, honestly not a tourist.

Christine Marsh:

So I went back by myself. And what year was this or how long ago, 2002, uh-huh, and the photos. Honestly, quest. You had someone on your podcast as a very famous photographer and I've got photos there, way out in the altai mountains yes uh, that you won't get again. I don't know who will be allowed to wander around with a camera like I did and by all means, send a photograph as well.

Chris Grimes:

And when I talk about your episode, I'll put this is your sunset, your outer Mongolian sunset, which is beautiful.

Christine Marsh:

It'll be that or it might be the storm because we wanted to go to. Mount Beluka is the mother mountain. She's the sacred mountain. People do pilgrimages. She's there with her two peaks of her daughters and they actually had the research station there. We couldn't get there by horse, which is normally the way you go, so they decided to hire a helicopter. Chris, I got to send you a picture of this helicopter. You go to this disused airfield with this wreck of a helicopter sitting in a field.

Chris Grimes:

Good luck Digga, digga, digga, digga, digga.

Christine Marsh:

No doors that shut Two pilots. So you're sat there and this thing does take off. And then you're going and you hit this storm I mean the black clouds. There was no way we could do that. So we had to divert across the border into the following country. But you know, he landed in a meadow and no human had been there. Wow, there was no path to it, it was just a safe plan. The natural streams, the flowers, and I thought this is heaven on earth.

Chris Grimes:

Look what we do to her yeah, flopped into a in a rickety helicopter into a field that no man has ever landed in before.

Christine Marsh:

I got a picture of me sitting there in the meadow yes, with a helicopter in the back yeah, yes, and I'm glad it got you back it's a bit hairy as to whether it would take off again.

Chris Grimes:

That's a great squirrel wrapped in sunsets of glory, and now you're allowed a second squirrel.

Christine Marsh:

So squirrel next one oh, I had a cataract or two cataracts done, because you sort of do that and I think you don't realize how your vision gets blurred and suddenly to look at a dandelion in all its glory. I would just sit and look at it and you think we're surrounded by these things. But life is such a place we do not stop and look who is it, we don't have time to wander and look at the daffodils or something. That's in windermere, isn't it?

Chris Grimes:

it sounds a bit ts elliott as well. It's something you know, lonely as a cloud. Yeah, come across. A bunch of daffodils is the main gist of it.

Christine Marsh:

Yeah, yes so that's what I do now. If I'm out for a walk, um, I'll suddenly see a flash of color. It could be a bird, it could be a flower, it could be a tree, it could be a cloud, it could be anything, and it's just saying we're surrounded like this, we're too busy, and it's. You know, go, go, go, go go. We do not replenish our batteries like we used to. We don't.

Chris Grimes:

That is such sage-like advice and and a really happy, optimistic warning to us all. And just the comedian me is saying I can see clearly now my cataracts have gone, but then there's a dandelion there. Go in all its glory, yeah, yeah. So that's that's so. Sunsets and dandelions are wonderful squirrels. Thank you so much.

Chris Grimes:

That's just beautiful storytelling, right there yellow jackets and friendly squirrels, yeah, and I'm very happy you're excited to see my squirrel, I say my family think I'm a complete loony that I whip out and I love those. So there you are. You are a spectacular nut, is what they're joking there as well. So back to your beautiful slide there. And now a quirky or unusual fact about you, christine Marsh. We couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us.

Christine Marsh:

Mm-hmm. Couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us. Mm-hmm, okay, my father, as a military officer, had ordered a son Right. The certificates in India had to be filled out with Anthony Eden's signature very quickly to claim British citizenship. Yeah, so he came and William Richard was already written in. I must have been a rebel from conception.

Chris Grimes:

Nobody's going to tell me that I can't be a girl or whatever, I don't know, but I've just understood he ordered a son and then out pops Christine. Sorry, I got a bit lost there.

Christine Marsh:

Yeah, Without the necessary appendages, Of course. So you've got. You know that was a big shock. But no girl's name at all. I mean, it just was not in his mind. Do you know what he said? I don't care. Sorry, I'm humming it up here because you've got to laugh or cry. I don't care what anyone else calls it, I'm going to call it Bill.

Chris Grimes:

Good grief.

Christine Marsh:

So the William became Bill. My mother concurred, my sister concurred my sister's children if you go onto Facebook they'll be saying Auntie, bill. My school friends, jane, who I met at 15, I'm Bill to all her children. I'm a godmother to my lovely Adam, so I have Jill, and then my dear friend Jane, jane Whitmore, who has stuck with me, and I'm Bill to her family, bill. But you know what he called me chris. Well, you know christine. So I never had christine used in my present. I was not, I sent my uncle, my uncle fred.

Christine Marsh:

He told my father off when I was must have been about 12, something like that. How dare you yes, I was going to say how dare you call this beautiful young child growing into going to be an amazing woman bill?

Chris Grimes:

and he was the first one who called me christy and he would have got on quite well with henry the eighth, your dad, I think.

Christine Marsh:

Well, it was uh, it was a sad story, but have you ever made peace with that?

Chris Grimes:

I mean, I know that's an affectionate moniker to call you bill. No, it wasn't with your friend which your friends, oh, your friends, yeah, but with your dad. That's deeply damaging and toxic it what he wanted.

Christine Marsh:

You know you talk a lot about collaboration, chris. Well, he wanted competition. Right, he took me as a young girl, as a mascot, to boxing matches and I would sit in the front row being splattered by blood as people smashed hell out of each other and and I thought, why has life got to have winners and losers? This is ridiculous. We can collaborate, surely. So all the work that I do within, or I've done within, organizations right up to very recently, well before COVID, I was working over in Poland, do a lot of work in Germany. All that had to stop. But people call me in um, my, what exactly do you do? You haven't asked me, but basically we don't know what she does, but she sorts things yes you know, whatever it is.

Christine Marsh:

So the facilitation has been an integral part of what I've done, as well as standard, you know, standing up and spouting my stuff, kind of thing.

Chris Grimes:

And is there forgiveness with your father as in how you think back on that, because that's such an extraordinary sort of ignorant denial.

Christine Marsh:

Yeah, but you see the things that you know. You talk about kids with self-harm. I don't know if any parents are out there having to deal with that or any anybody who wants the pain of self-harm or to get out of doing something you don't want to do. And I'd run in a relay race in Singapore and I was number three in what the circuit was and our best girl was number four, you know, and all I had drummed and Christine, get, oh, bill, whatever it's called get the baton to her. You must get to the baton her. We've got to win this relay race. So I put spurt on, gave her the baton and she came in second. I thought about that.

Christine Marsh:

But there was a talent scout and he went up because my father never watched me, but anyway, uh, went up to my mom, said do you realize the speed your daughter's just run at that? That's amateur athletic speed. She should be in Malaysia. We've got the thing. She should be on our relay team. And you know what he did he immediately bought me the best pair of Spiked shoes in Singapore Raffles Hotel. Have you been there, chris?

Chris Grimes:

Yes, I have.

Christine Marsh:

Well, you know, the cricket field is still there. Well, they used to have like a circuit. So next thing I'm running with this guy and he starts talking and I thought, well, I'm not quite certain what I'm here for. And he speeded up and I speeded up, quite naturally. Anyway, he came back and dad had been timing me. So they then got this girl I'm trying to think Kim, something or other, who was their top person, and they said Christine or Bill, whatever, we want you to have a run round with her. And I thought you're not being very friendly because she was deliberately speeding up. And I thought you know, don't tell me, I can't keep up with you, you're not going to leave me behind. And I kept up with her. So the next thing I'm on the team to go to kuala lumpur to compete. Can you imagine what that relay team felt like?

Chris Grimes:

yes, I love the idea. You're not going to leave me behind. You must have had such courage in that sorry, snorting, that's not I did I'm. I'm staggered and floored by your father's outlook. That's extraordinary and you know.

Christine Marsh:

I hope you found some redress well what I did, because I wasn't going to run, I was not going to go into competition. That wasn't what I wanted. There had to be a way of collaborating. Now I knew that as a young child. Yeah, I thought, well, if I scratch the back of my leg I won't be able to run. Well, in Singapore we had, we were up on something called Pasapanjang, they were here and they had shingle hills, yeah, and I thought, if I scrape myself a little bit, then I can't run. Now, this is self-harm. I hadn't realized. But, chris, you sit at the top but you don't realize. When you're on shingle you keep going. So I'm down there, I get to the bottom. I've taken the skin from the back of my knee up to my butt off. I mean, I'd done serious damage. That was a bit dramatic not to run in a relay. He never forgave me for that.

Chris Grimes:

Wow. As I say, I hope you've redressed it, because that's such an extraordinary revelation as to the true nature of the man that was your father.

Chris Grimes:

So, that's almost like a Just let that float out there. We have shaken your tree, hurrah, and now we stay in your clearing, which is that wonderful zen place within your own head scape. Yeah, there's beautiful music playing as well. Next we're going to talk about alchemy and gold. So when you're at purpose and in flow, christine march, business change facilitator, international speaker and what are you absolutely happiest doing in what you're here to reveal to the world?

Christine Marsh:

I think looking at someone and seeing potential beautiful and thinking, oh, you could blossom, do you know?

Christine Marsh:

women say, oh, I'm only a, I just do this, and they demean what they do. And I'm thinking don't do that, you this. And they demean what they do and I'm thinking don't do that, you've project managed Christmas lunch, for goodness sake. You know, you've done amazing things, but this I'm only a just drives me scatty, because nobody's only a. Everybody has got their own gifts and things that you've developed, got their own gifts and things that you've developed. So I've now got clients who are on LinkedIn, who were the young sproggs, and they are now top-notch and we're still in contact.

Christine Marsh:

I get so much pleasure from seeing their capabilities they had. I didn't have the capabilities, but if you allow somebody the opportunity or the space or the encouragement, what comes out is magic yes, what's so wonderful is you haven't played it forward with your own conditioning.

Chris Grimes:

You are just a revelation in trying to nurture and help others despite your own background well, can't do anything about it. So and seeing potential and redressing the idea of non-assertive language choices and self-limiting beliefs, and just realizing full potential in all that you come across that sounds very impressive. I didn't know, I did that you are very impressive and, yes, you do do that. Hurrah, I'm going to award you with a cake. Now, that's something else I can give you have a cake, cake.

Chris Grimes:

Oh, thank you. So let's talk about cake. So do you like cake? Yes, christine, marge, yes, yes. And what's your favourite type of cake? Dundee cake. I like that A bit of Scottish dundee cake, lovely. So the dundee cake shall be yours Right At this moment.

Christine Marsh:

It's a metaphorical cake but I Look it's no good without a piece of cheese.

Chris Grimes:

Oh, donkeys in common when we talk about animals with long noses and furries. And yes, I love cheese with either ginger cake or Dundee cake. They go together, they do, and it's quite an unusual thing. But yes, cheese with Dundee cake shall be yours. Now you get to put a cherry on the cake with stuff like what's a favourite and you've given us many delicious quotes already. But what's a favourite inspirational quote, Christine Marsh, that's always given you sucker and pulled you towards your future.

Christine Marsh:

Oh dear, what is it? Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent, and that's.

Chris Grimes:

Eleanor Roosevelt bless her Lovely quote. Just say it again, just to deliberately reincorporate.

Christine Marsh:

Nobody and I am meaning this, nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. Just tell them to get lost.

Chris Grimes:

Perfect. With the gift of hindsight, what notes, help or advice might you proffer to a younger version of yourself, Christine?

Christine Marsh:

Oh, don't give in to other people's judgments. Don't try to conform to what their wishes are. Be yourself.

Chris Grimes:

Again, beautifully succinct and a perfect mantra to help pull us all towards our future, Lovely. I'll just ask another question now. What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given by somebody else that's helped you? Oh gosh.

Christine Marsh:

Trust your intuition, go with that inner voice, even though the analogy of fire people try and dampen you, they try and put it out. Never, ever, let that spark go out.

Chris Grimes:

And we talked about spark and fire. I said that at the beginning Do you want to just tell us the quick story? Well, you don't have to do it quickly, but the idea of your lovely analogy or allegory of matches and about in order to shine, you need to burn.

Christine Marsh:

You see, in the book I talk about the elements. Right, so you have wind, you have water, water you have. What's the other one? Wind, water and something anyway, fire, fire.

Chris Grimes:

But there's four earth.

Christine Marsh:

Oh, thank you those. So I do cover that. That is fundamental because we're part of it. You know we're just we're made up of the same component bits, to be honest anyway. Um, fire then was in one of my presentations I'm talking about. Sometimes the forest fire is needed and that destruction when you sit there, like after Colin died, and you're just looking at this black land, thinking what can possibly grow anywhere, when I'm feeling like this Some seeds will only germinate in intense heat. So those little seedlings that come up need that for your rebirth and your development. So fire is the transformational element. But a lot of people don't take it further to see it as a transformational factor. It's a destructive or whatever. And it gives you warmth. But in Gloucester we had the. Is it Moreland's Match Factory? Yeah, so you know that was that lovely rasping noise.

Christine Marsh:

Yeah, and the youngsters don't do that now, do they? They don't strike matches. I even delight how many people have fires now. They have central heating To be out in the woods. Come on, Chris, did you ever?

Chris Grimes:

do that Definitely go feral. Did you A bit of chaffing wood and striking matches? Yes, absolutely.

Christine Marsh:

Yeah, so you know that combustion is change. Yes, and you have to go through combustion sometimes.

Chris Grimes:

So glimmers of light even in the darkness, and germination through adversity. Yes, oh, lovely stuff. We're ramping up to Shakespeare in a moment to talk about legacy, but just before we get there, this is the pass the golden baton moment, please. So who would you most like to pass the golden baton along to, in order to keep the golden thread of the storytelling going, now that you've experienced this from within?

Christine Marsh:

you see, I've got two contenders, that the one young woman who is in the book, who has overcome adversity.

Chris Grimes:

But you want famous people who've made it or not it's whoever you think would most like to be given or passed along, because it's your golden thread of storytelling.

Christine Marsh:

I think the key thing is she is the one who was told you'd never make your dream, and she's done it, despite people telling her what she couldn't do. But I don't think she'd come to be interviewed. I don't think she'd be comfortable doing that. She just gets on with it. The other person is Dr Ingram and jai ningram, who I think would be the one I'd nominate it too sure so she has had a consultancy business. I met her at a conference in warsaw. I just love this. The poly polymath, is it?

Chris Grimes:

of what she does. Yes, a polymath, someone who can't just do one thing, has has to do many, many things.

Christine Marsh:

I'm one of those as well.

Chris Grimes:

You are a polymath absolutely.

Christine Marsh:

But where we got on so well was, in addition to doing really serious consultancy work with big names, she had something called a NEM school and she goes out into deprived villages and ensures that youngsters get some education. Yeah, she's an amazing woman and, uh, she's just retaking up painting herself now, but she came and visited me. Chris, stone in the world is a mad magnet. People want to come. I'm sure, to see stone in the world and, by the way, christine lives there now. It's maybe not quite like that, but it's a clean of stone in the world. It's just a lovely part of the world, yeah, where people can come. Yes, and it's all on your doorstep, so if you can't be happy there, you won't be happy anywhere love that that's a great advert for still on the world.

Chris Grimes:

What do you buy these still in the world?

Christine Marsh:

yeah, so I think um she would be the one and now.

Chris Grimes:

Thank you so much for that, inspired by shakespeare, and all the world to stage and all the men and women merely players. This is borrowing from the seven ages of man, stroke, woman, and we're way beyond. We're 84, on to 190 and beyond. So how, when all is said and done, wind you forward 30 years. Would you most like Christine Marsh to be remembered?

Christine Marsh:

She didn't know the meaning of can't Boom Am.

Chris Grimes:

I, yes, that'll do, and may I say you're a trailblazer in that regard and you know, by the time you're 90, you're going to be the key global influencer on living life to the full for the over 50s. Nobody stuffs your eagle. That's great. So now we're going to do a very exciting thing is called show us your qr code, please. Whoa more excitement. So if you'd like to connect uh, obviously, with christine marsh online, your website is thechristinemarshcom and I know exactly why you've called it that because there is only one, thechristinemarshcom. And then joe, my lovely uh studio assistant, is now going to show you your QR code, please. Which is how do I use these things? Well, it's flashing up on screen now. So if you're watching this online and you'd like to just scan the QR code, it will take you straight, not to your house in Star of the World transformed, no, it will take you there.

Christine Marsh:

So just talk us through what people can find at christinemarshcom what you'll find there is, um, basically the redefined services that I'm offering. Right, because I used to do big project, uh, with big company players and been to moscow and rome and italy and you name it. They've sent me all. I'm very fortunate to have had that trust, because I don't have all the letters after my name to say I've studied this or been to that university, my experience is what learning comes from experience and wisdom comes from. No. Wisdom comes from experience, isn't it?

Christine Marsh:

Yes you've given the brilliant the Terry Hunchick quote that you wanted to reincorporate.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, could you read it? For me, certainly can if the book which we're going to do a special bit about in a section. But knowledge comes from learning, wisdom comes from experience. That's a Terry Pratchett quote. It's a brilliant one. And another epicentric quote I loved when we first spoke is your Leonardo da Vinci quote, which is blazing on your website. Just remind everybody what that is simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Christine Marsh:

I will go in where you've had top companies uh employing high flyers, and I go in and I think, but you've missed the fact you haven't fought the truck, the forklift driver hasn't been trained. You've missed the fact that the uh person who's buying something on a heat sealer hasn't told the operators so the bags are being sealed at too high a temperature and they split. You know, to me it's detective work.

Christine Marsh:

Yes, things that can't easily be seen, but because my brain isn't cluttered with formats, or this is the way, and these are the questions you ask and everything I cut through all that.

Chris Grimes:

And anywhere else on the internet. People can come and find you so you can talk about your newsletter.

Christine Marsh:

I'm on YouTube as well. You come up as Christine Marsh, the Christine Marsh Facebook and you name it. But what I am in the midst of rebranding because the project work now I leave to the youngsters coming in that they've got the energy. I now have streamlined it. And the thing that I think is the core to everything I do is facilitation. Now, facilitation is just making things easier.

Christine Marsh:

It doesn't mean you go in with a solution. You go in and you provide an environment where people actually work through, with a little bit of nudge here and there, but most of the time you allow them to do the exploration rather. And so facilitation, I'm looking for anybody, either an individual who's hit a point in their life where they're not certain whether they're going to jump or waiting to be pushed, or this path or that path. And I use something called self-model, and that's something I use, which is clarity on situation, acknowledging the emotions, looking at the logic and getting that separated from assumptions, and that's quite difficult. And then the future. You've got three options put up with it and shut up right, see who will collaborate with you, because you can't do it by yourself. And the third one really is spreading the word out there and being prepared to ask for help people. You know they moan and groan but they don't come to any resolution and they can't cope with that. There has to be a better way.

Chris Grimes:

Beautifully put and very reminiscent of the quote I love about facilitation. Which is the best resource a good facilitator can bring into the room is themselves, is the art of facilitation being enablement to get things working more smoothly and better.

Christine Marsh:

Well, chris, that's your area of expertise, so you know, sometimes you would love to have your five benneth and the hard thing is to let them work it through.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, as this has been your moment in the sunshine in the Good Listening 2 show, we are going to do a Captain's Log supplemental about your book in just a second, but in this part of the program, as this has been your moment in the sunshine of the good listening, to show stories of distinction and genius. Is there anything else you'd like to say?

Christine Marsh:

christine marsh I would like to say you only have the moment. You can't change the past, you can't determine the future. You can it, but you know what happens. Then Please savor every single moment. It is the presence. That's all you've got, mate, because one minute somebody you love is there and the next minute they're gone Something you thought you could do. You've now become old and you can't, so grab and live the moment.

Chris Grimes:

So, ladies and gentlemen, you've been listening to the queen of still in the world, who is christine marsh. Thank you so much for being here. There is the captain's log supplemental as I'm describing coming up soon. If you'd like a conversation about being in the show too, there's another qr code coming up. Thank you, the lovely joe in the other room. This is to um.

Chris Grimes:

Well, the good listening to showcom is the main website. Legacy life reflections. It's far from over yet. There's no morbid intention with that, but legacy life reflectionscom is a very particular, special series strand of the show to record either your story or the story of somebody near, dear or close to you for posterity. Again, no morbid intention, but lest we forget before it's too late. So two websites, um, legacylifereflectionscom, which is a special series strand within the good listening to show anyway, but also, if you'd like to um talk about telling your story and amplifying your brand by being my guest here on linkedin, just get in touch and we'll have a conversation. Thank you so much. Uh, so, yes, um, I've been chris grimes. This has been Christine Marsh. Hang on for a captain's log about your good book in just a second. Anything else else you'd like to say?

Christine Marsh:

I think you meet somebody along life's path that you instantly connect with. Chris has got the same donkey in his head that I have, which is delightful to know. There's other people that see that. But seriously, you're very special, special person. You're offering a service that people should be grateful for and if you get the opportunity to sit in this chair, you're mad if you don't take it.

Chris Grimes:

Oh, thank you. That's wonderfully generous of you. So thank you very much indeed. That's Chris DeVos. I'm Chris Grimes. Good night.

Chris Grimes:

You've been listening to the Good Listening to show with me, chris grimes. If you'd like to be in the show too, or indeed gift an episode to capture the story of someone else with me as your host, then you can find out how care of the series strands at the good listening to showcom website, and one of these series strands is called legacy life reflections. If you've been thinking about how to go about recording your life story or the life story of somebody close to you for posterity, but in a really interesting, effortless and creative way, then maybe the Good Listening To Show can help, using the unique structure of the show. I'll be your host as together we take a trip down memory lane to record the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 of either your or their life story, and then you can decide whether you go public or private with your episode. Get in touch if you'd like to find out more.

Chris Grimes:

Tune in next week for more stories from the clearing, and don't forget to subscribe and review wherever you get your podcasts. So your wonderful book, the wisdom of which you've been imparting all the way through flashpoint transformation, life's choices. Are you the big enigmatic question? Are you ready to jump or waiting to be pushed? Just tell us the story behind, the story of your collective shared wisdom of this book, and then I'm going to invite you, once you you've spoken about it, to read an extract of your choice from it.

Christine Marsh:

Okay, the key thing was that, please remember, having been called stupid because I couldn't read, I can talk. I think you've got the gist of that. So you know, in addition to the consultancy facilitation, public speaking just give me an audience and I'm in my element. And obviously then the writing of the book was my biggest fear, because I can gauge when I'm with a human being, whether they're vibing positively or negatively or whatever is it. Once you put it in writing, you have no control of how people interpret it, and that scared me and I knew the critic would come.

Christine Marsh:

Now my lovely richard shepherd, yes, phoned me up and he said sack the editor, christine. I said were you talking to her? Because I I had to control that. I designed it, I wrote it, I did it. That's my baby, right? I had the help of some graphic designs, putting colors and whatnot, but basically that is my lifeblood. I didn't want to write a business book on that one. It had to be very personal. It was my gift really to try and nudge people to look at themselves and what they really wanted. Did they have to rekindle a dream? And Richard phoned me up and he said and I said oh, I'm delighted. He said pardon. I said it means, richard, you've got to page 80. And there was one error there. Can you find it on page 80?

Chris Grimes:

Page 80?.

Christine Marsh:

It's is or in it's one letter.

Chris Grimes:

Okay, and he spotted it. Ah, will you use your energy in a positive and productive way, rather than is?

Christine Marsh:

Rather a positive. Now I pretended sorry, richard that that was a deliberate just for you, but actually it was a genuine error. That book did not exist I had. I designed it, I wrote it, I got a lovely guy, andy, who's known me for years, down in swansea doing it and basically I've got boxes to sell and people who've got it. I can't believe what they've taken from it. And that's what I wanted. I wanted to be the nudge and inspiration that there were things there that they are capable of doing.

Chris Grimes:

And if I may give the book a compliment, I think it's so, so, so accessible because it's suffused with beautiful storytelling. And it's accessible because it's only 90 pages long and you can read it on a train journey. I did that yesterday. Really, I thought it was fantastic and it is suffused with wisdom.

Christine Marsh:

Well, the attention span now is what? It's a matter of minutes, isn't? It you know this scrolling that we do in life.

Chris Grimes:

Now, it's a sincere compliment, because I'm terrible at business books, okay, but I loved this. So, flashpoint, transformation Life's Choices Ready to Jump or Waiting to be Pushed by Christine Marsh, who we know and there's something slightly different here, a catalyst for change and an inspirational speaker. So would you like to read this is your moment to put it on a metaphorical plinth within the clearing, as the captain's loft sometimes.

Christine Marsh:

This is up in India and one of my memories was lying in the forest floor and the sun's beams were filtering and all those little motes or something that you see in sunlight, and I think our minds like that. If you've got this man that jumps all over the place, you know how do you capture all those little sparkly bits and turn them into something of value that lasts into daylight?

Chris Grimes:

And you call these fireflies of your mind, don't you?

Christine Marsh:

Yes, something like that. I've tried to put that. The beginning quotes have meant something to me and I think the rekindling one is I have to take a risk and jump. I have to take a chance, otherwise I will never know what I can achieve. Christine Marsh, so that's mine. Yeah, this one in everyone's life, and this is very important because you've come into mine at everyone's life. At some time your inner flame goes out. It's then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for the people who rekindled the inner spark.

Chris Grimes:

Beautiful, wonderful. Thank you so much. Anything else you'd like to say about the?

Christine Marsh:

book. Just if you want a copy, it's available on my website. I haven't put it on Amazon. I had a thing about Amazon, so you have to come to me if you would like a copy. It's available on my website. I haven't put it on amazon. I had a thing about amazon, so you have to come to me if you would like a copy. Uh, it's also in audio because some people like to listen while they're driving things like that. But it's, it's tactile, it's a book to pick up and, yes, and dip in and out of wonderful, so you can get that at thechristinemarshcom.

Chris Grimes:

So again, thank you so much for listening. This has been a captain's log supplemental. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you for listening. We good night.