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About
I've been working with executives and professionals since 2015. In those early years, I taught English the way I'd been trained, grammar exercises, textbook practice, correcting every mistake.
But the longer I stayed silent in Spanish, paralysed by the same internal feelings of inadequacy I saw in my clients, the more I understood what they actually needed.
By 2017, I'd stopped teaching from a curriculum and started designing each session around the psychological barriers that kept them stuck, because I was facing those same barriers every day.
What I discovered
My clients already knew English. They could read reports, follow presentations, write professional emails.
What they couldn't do was trust themselves when they spoke.
They practiced sentences before saying them. They translated in their heads. They stayed quieter than they wanted to be in meetings where their expertise mattered.
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The gap wasn't knowledge. It was confidence. |
So I built a methodology that addresses both, refining your English while building the psychological safety you need to actually use it.
How I work
I combine technical precision with mindset coaching.
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Licensed NLP training gives me tools to help you identify and change the limiting beliefs that keep you silent—the internal voice telling you you're not ready, not good enough, not fluent enough yet. A CIPD Diploma in Learning & Development provides the framework for how adults learn in complex professional environments and how to design coaching that produces lasting change.
My own experience learning Spanish means I understand exactly what it feels like to know the words but have difficulty getting them out. To feel reduced by a language. To sound smaller than you are. |
This combination, technical expertise, psychological insight, and lived experience, is what makes the work effective.
What we actually do
Each session is designed around your specific blocks and the real situations where you need to show up in English.
We work on pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary, always in service of the moments that matter to you. The presentation to the board. The negotiation with international partners. The meeting where you need to challenge an idea or defend your position.
You learn to speak before you're certain.
To trust your instincts.
To sound like yourself, even when you're imperfect.
My Background
I'm Richard Marshall - founder of Pro Coach English, licensed NLP Practitioner, holder of a CIPD Diploma in Learning & Development, and author of More Than Words: Essays on Language, Identity, and the Courage to Speak (out this year).
When I moved to Spain in 2015, I experienced a complete change in how I showed up. In English, I was confident and well spoken, fast enough to have spent years performing stand-up comedy in London. In Spanish, I became hesitant and shy.
That experience became the foundation for everything I do now.
I also host the Speak English with Confidence podcast, previously known as From Lost to the River, where I talk with professionals, coaches, language experts, and psychologists about what actually gets in the way of communicating confidently in English.
Engaging conversations that show what it looks and sounds like when things finally change.
I understand what keeps people silent because I lived it myself, years of having things to say but not being able to get the words out.
If this resonates, start here.
Before we schedule a call, I'd like to understand your situation.
