FACES & PLACES
LOCAL COLOR 2 - June 2006

Martin Smith
by Megan Wetzel

Martin Smith is a man of many faces. He’s an amazing public speaker and he has won numerous awards. He’s a life and empowerment coach, a relationship coach, a career counselor, and a sports performance consultant. More than anything, Martin is a teacher.

He grew up just outside of London, England, where he played and coached professional soccer. At the University of London, he started by studying to be an accountant but ended up getting a double degree in Politics/Government and Economics. After graduation Martin found that he wasn’t interested in jobs associated with his degree. Because Martin was at a state level in three sports, he was permitted to earn his certificate in movement science, otherwise known as a physical education degree, in just one year.

A year later, Martin began teaching, on a college level, economics and business and management studies. This was the same year he began playing semi-professional soccer. During his final year in England, he worked as a government education consultant - relating what the students were doing in the classroom to what they were doing in their daily lives.

Martin’s passions include helping others see their true creativity and develop their most confident selves. He brings humor and insight into his work and has been interested in whole brain learning for a number of years.

In 1990, he moved to the US and became the Head Teacher at the Alternative School in Jackson, NJ. He then moved to Yardley, PA to pursue other possibilities. He spent two years looking for the right opportunity to use all the skills he had acquired over the previous ten plus years. Then one day he received a letter from the Solebury School to come in for an interview. This school had what he was thinking his “ideal” school would be like. He has been teaching at the Solebury School since then and, within the last three years, has been working as a coach for families, children, couples, teachers, and sports teams.

Martin now lives in New Hope, PA and enjoys every moment of it. “New Hope is Heaven,” Martin states. He doesn’t mind the weekend traffic and likes the people around town. He loves working at the school and is grateful for the opportunity to work with the students there. He describes them as “Magical” and “Intelligent”. He has a son, David, who is 21 and a daughter, Louise, who is 18. On Martin’s limited free time, he enjoys many genres of music and some travel. He loves reading and enjoys famous quotes.

Recently, Martin, along with his friend Erik Johnke, an accomplished film director, has created a workshop appropriately titled “Unlocking your Creative Potential”. The two started putting ideas together in January of this year and decided on the creativity workshop as their first venture. They hope this is the first of many workshops and are very excited to bring the workshop to New Hope. The workshop is an intensive two-day program and will examine the sources of creativity. It will help attendees find and nurture an inner connection to their best creative selves. The workshop is limited to 24 participants.

Workshop details:
Date: Saturday, June 24th – Sunday, June 25th.
Time: Saturday at 10am- 6pm and Sunday from 9am-4pm
Place: New Hope Arts Inc., 2nd Floor, Corner of Stockton and Bridge Streets.
Cost: $250.00, includes lunch on Saturday.

Before I left the interview, I glanced at the far wall of Martin’s home and noticed my favorite Picasso painting “The Guitar.” I mentioned this to Martin and he got up and handed me a scrap-book full of quotes that he had typed, cut out, and placed in this book. I read one by Picasso and his words summed up for me how I feel about Martin and his life’s’ work: “Everything you can imagine is real”.

Website: www.MartinSmithCoach.com