---

What I Do 

Ingrid Marsh is a speaker, actor and communication coach who works at the intersection of voice, identity and second acts. Drawing on a career that spans corporate leadership, entrepreneurship, broadcasting and acting - all begun or reborn midlife - she helps individuals and organisations dissolve limiting beliefs, speak with authenticity and show up fully, unapologetically and powerfully in work and life.

---

About Ingrid

Ingrid Marsh is a speaker, thought leader, NLP practitioner, holistic empowerment coach, broadcaster and actor whose work centres on presence, voice, communication and self-mastery. She is also the founder of The Chai Vibe, a guilt-free sticky chai wellness ritual (founded in her 50's), and is also an accomplished poet, presenter and serial entrepreneur.

Her poem The Blind Side was published in Words By, a UNICEF-funded poetry collection. She is a member of the IEEE AI Ethics Committee, contributing to conversations on unconscious bias in the technology we create. Ingrid has been described by Google and others as a “fantastic public speaker” and is known for delivering talks that feel less like lectures and more like lived experiences.

Her media work includes BBC radio voice-overs, a life-coaching column for The South London Press, broadcasting on Asian Star Radio, expert commentary on LBC’s Nick Ferrari Show, and panel appearances on Sky’s OH TV alongside MP Tessa Jowell and Paralympian Will Bayley.

As an actor, Ingrid began her screen career in her fifties, appearing in short films alongside James Bond actor Colin Salmon, comedian James Walsh, and in a sketch on BBC’s The Michael McIntyre Big Show - challenging ageist assumptions about visibility, relevance and creative reinvention.

The Unpolished Journey

Early Life: Refusing the Script

From a young age, Ingrid questioned the rules she was expected to live by. Growing up in a faith school, she challenged beliefs, noticed inequities, and resisted conformity - often choosing solitude over belonging. By seven, she was already asking why opportunities were distributed differently based on race. She was confident, curious and outspoken.

There was, however, one unspoken wound: her father left before she was born and never returned. Raised by a single mother, Ingrid internalised a sense of incompleteness — not because of lack, but because of the label.

Her mother became her first blueprint for strength. Determined that her children would not be diminished by circumstance, she worked relentlessly, raised seven children, and created stability, pride and possibility in a world that often denied it. That example - quiet, disciplined, unwavering - shaped everything that followed.

For many years, Ingrid channelled her ambition into visibility: broadcasting, public speaking, success. Beneath it all was an unacknowledged hope - that her father would see her name and feel regret.

That reckoning came one rainy afternoon in a Balham pub. Exhausted, emotionally and spiritually exhausted, Ingrid realised that proving herself had become its own prison. In a moment of symbolic release, she wrote her father’s name on a napkin, stepped outside, and burned it.

She forgave him.
More importantly, she forgave herself for handing him the authority to define her worth.

That moment marked the beginning of her unpolished freedom - no longer driven by defiance, but by truth.

 

Motherhood, Education and Unconscious Bias

As a single mother, Ingrid became acutely aware of how early expectations shape outcomes - particularly for Black boys. To protect her son’s potential, she moved him three times between schools where expectations were limited and bias went unchecked.

Despite an impeccable behavioural record and high SATs results, he was denied access to triple science GCSEs. Ingrid moved him mid-secondary to a school grounded in growth mindset and inclusive practice.

The result?
A string of A and A* grades - including the treble science denied to him: A*' in Physics, A*' in Biology and A*' in Chemistry.

Her son went on to study Economics and Politics at the University of Nottingham, followed by a Master’s in Law at the University of Exeter. He is among a small percentage of Black British men under 25 to have attended a Russell Group university - in fact, two.

This experience deepened Ingrid’s conviction: ability is not scarce - opportunity and belief is.

Health, Presence and the Body as Proof

The cumulative emotional strain eventually took its toll on Ingrid’s health. At fifty, rather than retreating, she chose embodiment as resistance.

She ran every day for 30 days - through rain, snow and the Beast from the East - documenting the journey publicly. Wearing hoop earrings and defying every stereotype of what a “runner” should look like, she demonstrated growth mindset in motion.

It was never about fitness.
It was about presence.
One foot in front of the other.
Proof that age, race and appearance have nothing to do with capability.

---

Business, Creativity and Second Acts

Ingrid’s professional life has never followed a straight line.

She began in account management at ICV, working with institutions including JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. At 23, she bought her first property. As a single mother, she later founded Max-Oliver’s, a French lifestyle store in Islington, which turned over a quarter of a million pounds within months of launch.

Yet success without alignment left her unfulfilled.

In her fifties, Ingrid retrained as a chandler, baker and master herbalist, deepening the holistic dimension of her work. This led to the creation of The Chai Vibe - a modern, antioxidant-rich chai ritual sweetened with organic coconut nectar, offering comfort without compromise.

And then came acting.

Starting later - deliberately - Ingrid stepped into screen work, not as reinvention, but as reclamation. A second act grounded in voice, visibility and truth.

---

The Work Today

Ingrid’s work addresses the silent constraints that limit expression - unconscious bias, stereotype threat, fixed mindset cultures and internalised expectations.

She helps individuals and organisations:

• Speak with authority and authenticity

• Build presence without performance

• Dissolve limiting narratives around age, race, gender and identity

• Cultivate confidence rooted in self-trust rather than approval

Her talks draw on neuroscience, psychology, lived experience and embodiment, influenced by thinkers such as Dr Carol Dweck and Carl Jung, particularly the Inner Warrior archetype - courage without aggression, strength without armour.

---

Outcomes

Participants leave with:

• Unshakeable self-belief

• Greater vocal confidence and presence

• A growth-oriented mindset

• Tools to communicate clearly, powerfully and truthfully

• Renewed creativity, engagement and emotional resilience

Her work serves women and men, leaders, creatives as well as those navigating second acts - especially those who have been told, subtly or explicitly, to shrink.

---

 

Final Note

Ingrid does not teach perfection.
She teaches permission.

To speak.
To be seen.
To arrive - unpolished, and powerful.

Interview on Hayes FM when programme talking about Unleashing Your Inner Badass

LET'S ROLL

TESTIMONIALS

Ingrid Marsh is a phenomenal and captivating speaker! Ingrid gave our Closing Keynote and not only did she capture our audience, she also related to each and every one of them. This in itself is a characteristic of a phenomenal speaker. Ingrid carried the audience along on her journey AND actively made them a part of her delivery. She bravely shared her most personal struggles and showed vulnerability which truly inspired and connected with the audience. She was truthful, blunt and 100% transparent as she spoke to the audience of Career minded Women in Business.

Jessica Ajayi, Event Organiser  - Get Supply Ready.  

Live Testimonial