An Entrepreneur Like You

This month's podcast is with the visionary John Brady who created Bowsy.

With such accolades as Winner of Tech Startup of the year; Irish Times Innovation Awards Finalist & Winner 2022 Chambers Ireland Diversity & Inclusion Award they are flying !

John takes us through his journey from living in Jakarta, Indonesia and coming home to Ireland to start his entrepreneurial endeavours - I often wonder are entrepreneurs born or made ? In John's case, it seems he may have been born into it, as he grew up seeing how hard his entrepreneur Father worked.

Bowsy addresses inequalities in hiring and the internship quandary and they are now scaling to the UK and USA - building success upon hard work, timing, opportunity and a great VISION> This is a wonderful story and John is a joy to chat with. Tune in !

This month I am delighted to share a roller coaster rip roaring romp of an interview with the amazing Aveline O'​ Sullivan of 'Bloom in a Box'

We discuss the label 'entrepreneur' and why more of us don't realise thats what we are. Aveline shares her journey (described as being a burning desire) and competition within herself - can we ever be done / happy / content or does the curiosity of the 'next' challenge keep us moving forward?

Always good in a crisis - and feeling she could do anything - she has redefined what it means to GIVE - finding a niche in gift giving for every occasion, happy or sad and everything in between. Aveline KNOWS her customer inside out.

Tune In - this is an amazing story.

This month we meet Killian Stokes.  From working class bohemian beginnings he developed a 'gra' for the opportunities within the developing sectors. Exploring the inequality of access to fundamental basics, water, food, health, education he merged economics, business and travelling to find his 'ikigai' the one thing that would light him up and enable him to make a difference. 

On a trip to Uganda he discovered the inequalities within the coffee sector and decided to make a difference. In a global industry worth over €100bn euro per year (and every day we drink a mind boggling 2 billion cups of coffee); almost none of the profits from coffee go back to coffee growing countries or to the farmers who work so hard to produce the beans. So about 8 years ago a bunch of African and European entrepreneurs launched Moyee Coffee UK & Ireland. Their ambition was to reimagine the coffee industry and share more of the value from coffee with coffee growing countries. They called this model FairChain. They set up Moyee’s first roastery in Addis Ababa, established partnerships with coffee communities in the Jimma region and began to develop a roadmap for a living income for coffee farmers which could also protect and rejuvenate the wildlife habitats of the coffee belt.

We discuss impact through entrepreneurialism and how your purchasing power can affect real change. We also delve into the idea of trade not aid and chat about the future of collaboration and equality. Killian is an academic and an activist - tune in to be inspired by his vision and drive. 

#future #business #podcast #entrepreneur #collaboration #change #coffee #opportunities #entrepreneurs #power #partnerships #economics

This month we meet 'Alpaca Joe' - From procurement and pensions to running Ireland's most successful Alpaca farm, Joe Phelan takes us through his journey. From a farming family, he knew traditional farming would give diminishing returns - and he came across the amazing Alpaca. He immediately saw the value within Alpaca farming but prudently researched for 2 years before he made the leap. This decision took him to Peru and he ended up living in Wicklow with 100 Alpacas ! He launched Alpaca trekking with Prosecco and it took off to make him a market leader. With over 10 million views from an early article that went viral - his fate was sealed, and he became 'Alpaca Joe' forevermore. With Alpacas having a calming effect he has now moved into the wellness sphere and built a village so you can stay with them. Their therapeutic work is now taking off with huge added value for those that are neurodivergent, stressed, anxious or non verbal. This is a gorgeous conversation and Joe is a delight to chat to, informative, entertaining and riveting how he has found his niche.

Fun Facts: Joe knows every Alpaca by name ! One of his Alpacas is notorious for biting bums (of the other Alpacas) and Alpacas smell like popcorn!

Join us for this month's podcast. It all started with a dream of marrying an Italian man and living on a vineyard ! Michelle Lawlor nailed the (wine) Apprentice and moved from London to Hong Kong and what followed can only be described as a meteoric rise ! She learned how to negotiate living in a different culture and thrive - learning everything she could from those around her - and upon arriving back in Ireland horticultures loss became the vintner's win.

Using all her business experience she saw a gap in the Irish market for wine as nature intended. She believes that the closer you get to nature, the better it is for everyone and sources beautiful organic and biodynamic wines from Europe and further afield. Nude wines were the first in Ireland to do virtual wine tasting and with a unique no nonsense approach to buying and enjoying wine she landed a guest spot on Ireland AM as the wine expert.

Join us to learn more about all things wine, this is a gorgeous interview, full of laughter (and no drink was taken).

This month I have the extreme pleasure of chatting to Seany McCleary. A Monaghan native - who started washing cars n painting fences to raise the money to buy sweets in bulk (and re sell at school) with "Gerry Bon Bon" to working in a chip van age 14 -- Seany hustled his way through 'bandit country' all the way to New York;  and there has been no stopping him. Learning from everyone along the way he has honed how to stay in his lane and keep solving problems.  Inspired by travel and food, he understands how community and transparency is at the heart of success.

He has now helped 140 new food outlets to get up and running and turn over more than €25 million a year.

Seany was named the Rising Star - Young Professional of the Year at the CausewayXchange awards in 2021.  In 2022 he won the National Enterprise Awards and then took gold for his pitch at the National Start up Awards .

Join us for a rip roaring whizz through Seany's journey. A serial entrepreneur with many more businesses to come ...

Founder & Director of StreatSchool & Blasta Street Kitchen empowering Street Food Vendors

Streat School Blasta Mush Mor Verify a Vendor

Welcome to our first podcast of 2023 ! This month we meet the amazing Kimberly Brophy. Learning 'how to graft' from the family business she  started her side hustle called Love Kimberly aged just 22.  We dive into how isolating it can be as an entrepreneur, how crazy it can be trying to handle it all - especially when the business succeeds.  Kimberly talks us through how her first business took off just from instagram, whilst still working full time. When she wrapped it, she knew there was another business in her. Coming into UCD Innovation Academy she honed an idea for a tanning brand. Building it from the ground up, she sourced the best suppliers, explored the gap in the market and launched Naked Glow. 

A runaway success - Naked Glow by Love Kimberly proves that Luxury skincare products can carry a high street price tag, whilst delivering exceptional results through high end ingredients. Knowing your customer inside out is key - and delivering high end sustainable products. A road that hasn't been without its ups and downs, Kimberly - a self proclaimed tan addict - shares her journey with us - tune in to hear how you CAN build something to be incredibly proud of ... watch this space ... because Kimberly has more coming ! 

Meet Rachel Murphy - from dancer and actress at an early age she always knew she was going to be an entrepreneur. She franchised the family business 'Fit Kids Fit Teens' aged 18 and has gone on to become a successful entrepreneur and educator. Rachel is passionate about experiential learning and embodied learning. She has found what works for her and now practices these divergent styles through her role in the UCD Innovation Academy. Now her dancers perform across Ireland and her business is flying - so of course she took on a Masters and now teaches at UCD ! Living proof that there is more than one way to create your path - a total joy to chat too.  If you would like to know more about the Grad Cert in Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, listen in !

We also meet Jiaqi Zhang, our new Tech Integration Manager. We demystify technology and chat about AR, VR, 3D printing, metaverse, cybersecurity and much more. If you want to understand the landscape of digital technologies transforming our work and lives we have designed a course to help you embrace a digital growth mindset necessary to foster lifelong learning, including learning strategies for new digital tools and technologies without fear. This course starts by looking at 'homodigitalis' - how our minds interact with the digital world, and borrowing from neuroscience, anthropology and psychology, we dive into debates about digital etiquette and examine how we interact and understand the emerging world. We explain the ways these technologies are transforming the world of work – our behaviours, our roles and our interaction with each other.

Register now and join us for our upcoming information session to learn how UCD’s Graduate Certificate in Digital Transformation, Technology & Resilience can help you achieve the digital skills, literacy and mindset necessary to thrive in a digital first world.

Register here https://bit.ly/3VC2LZ4 and out more by visiting our website https://bit.ly/3txja4s

#business #technology #digital #innovation #growth

For more details see:

https://www.innovationacademy.ie/courses/ucd-graduate-certificate-in-digital-transformation-technology-and-resilience/

Join us for this month's podcast.

Meet Daren Knight MBA- a real life NINJA!

We had a fascinating conversation from joining the Royal Marines Commando and experiencing every kind of environment : Jungle, desert, mountain, Arctic. Daren has an incredible story and I learned so much. We chat about resilience, teamwork, agility, discipline, and so much more! (Finding out about 'Poo buddies' certainly surprised me!)

He became a bodyguard (of course it was all top secret as to who ...) but he does share stories as to working with 'High risk clients' with hypervigilance and a protection mindset (yes he sits with his back to the wall). It finally led to becoming a marintime counter terrorism consultant in piracy.

Daren now practices Amatsu therapy from the Shinobi tradition, 3,500 years of healing practice within the traditional Ninja community. He has found his path.  He has found out what he is not. Healing the world one person at a time.

Meet the Queen of Halloween who lives in Ireland's spookiest Halloween House.

This month's podcast is the spooky Halloween Edition.

Halloween originated in County Meath with the Samhain bonfires 2000 years ago to mark the end of the harvest.

A huge celebration, with feasting, fire performances and storytelling - Melissa built upon her love of Hallloween and made her passon into her dream job.

Graduating from the UCD Innovation Academy, Melissa was appointed as Creative Director of the PUCA festival !

We talk all things Halloween, tattoos, hair extensions, pubic wigs, boudoir photos, and modelling!

Full of creative enegy, this interview is joyful and Melissa is a pleasure to listen to.

Tune in wherever you get your podcasts.