The Fingal Business Podcast: Recent Episodes
Sharon Rossignuolo
The Fingal Business Podcast is brought to you by Local Enterprise Office Fingal, one of 31 local enterprise offices around the country.
Local Enterprise Office Fingal helps local businesses through a wide range of practical initiatives and programmes. The LEO is your first stop shop for business supports.
The Fingal Business Podcast, hosted by Sharon Rossignuolo, aims to share quality information for small business owners/managers to enable you to be more effective in running a successful enterprise.
In this uplifting episode, we speak to James Stewart of the Fingal-based Celtic Candles. James shares some brilliant insights on developing your business and his experience of why people will decide to do business with you.
In this motivational episode, we speak to Ann McGee, Founder, MD at MIAS Pharma, about her business journey and the insights that have helped her develop her service-based enterprise.
In this episode, we speak to the Director of Pavilions Shopping Centre, Ian Hunter, about the business of retail and the key to achieving success. Getting the basics right, listening to your customers, and creating memorable experiences are just some of Ian's excellent tips in this inspiring episode.
In this episode, we speak to Donnacha Neary, Founder and Managing Director of Sonica, an award-winning construction and state-of-the-art office fit-out company. Fingal-based Sonica has earned a stellar reputation as the company of choice for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Hubspot, Indeed, GSK, Diageo and many more. Donnacha shares his start-up experience how this has culminated in the success of Sonica and the creation of their flagship HQ, First Landings, in Skerries.
In this episode, we talk to Jeanne Mahony, Co-founder of Hope Beer,
about what it takes to start a craft beer brewing company. A value-packed interview with plenty of tips to inspire entrepreneurs at all stages of business.
In this episode, we talk to Tom Keogh on how they transitioned from selling potatoes from the family farm to creating the phenomenally successful brand, Keoghs Crisps. Tom explains the challenges they encountered and shares the learnings that will benefit anyone starting in business today.
In this episode, we talk to the Founder and CEO of Gourmet Food Parlour Lorraine Heskin, who shares some excellent insights and advice about starting and growing a successful business. Gourmet Food Parlour was awarded Best Managed Company in the Deloitte Best Managed Companies Awards Programme in 2019 and 2020.
In today's episode, we're talking about HR and leadership in changing times with our featured expert and MD of The HR Suite, Caroline McEnery.
About Our Featured Expert:
Caroline McEnery, Managing Director of The HR Suite and HR and Employment Law Expert. Caroline is a former member of the Low Pay Commission and is also an adjudicator in the Work Place Relations Commission. Top trainer and presenter, keynote speaker, expert investigator, mediator, WRC Adjudication Officer, and owner of The HR Suite. She has also completed a Masters in Human Resources at the University of Limerick; she is CIPD accredited and a trained mediator. Caroline had worked across various HR areas for over 20 years in Kerry Group and the retail and hospitality sector. She was the Operations and HR Director of the Garvey Group before setting up The HR Suite in 2009.
Caroline speaks widely and writes articles and papers on thought leadership about the future landscape of HR and the challenges and opportunities that it presents for employers and employees. She also speaks on the area of employment law, mediation, and other relevant HR-related topics. She is a regular contributor and expert presenter & trainer in all HR and Employment Law areas. Caroline is the author of "The Art of Asking the Right Questions," a tool kit for people managers to ensure they maximise their people's talent. The guide contains top tips and guidelines for anyone who manages people regarding recruitment, appraisals, personal development, etc.
She is also a lead mentor on the ACORNS programme, which promotes entrepreneurship for women. She is a member of the going for growth entrepreneurship programme and continuing the momentum programme.
For more information, check out the website; www.thehrsuite.com
This episode is all about the Dos and Don’ts of website design with the Director of Digital Marketing and Strategy at Digital Insights, Keith Feighery.
About Our Featured Expert:
Keith is a leading Digital Marketer with over 15 years of experience creating digital marketing programmes, developing enterprise software applications, and building successful online retail businesses. Keith is currently Director of Digital Marketing and Strategy with Dublin-based agency and consultancy Digital Insights. Keith is a leading corporate trainer in Digital Marketing and lectures with Ireland’s premier Business College, Trinity College Dublin.
For more information, check out the website; www.digitalinsights.ie
In this episode, we cover how you can think differently about the new Normal with Motivational Speaker and Author of The Green Platform, Declan Coyle.
About Our Featured Expert:
Declan is a director of Andec and one of Ireland's most internationally experienced Leadership Training & Development consultants. He is also much sought after as a Conference Keynote speaker. He has delivered specialist programmes on leadership, management, sales, and organisational development to clients in Ireland, the UK, Holland, Germany, France, Hungary, Ukraine, USA, Hong Kong, Thailand, The Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, China, and Australia. His unique use of tools such as NLP to focus Leadership Teams on personal and company goals to maintain consistently high levels of motivation and success is underpinned by harnessing individual personality styles' unique power using the Enneagram Model. He combines this with the Red & Green Platform System he developed that has revolutionised leadership and coaching thinking and performance in companies where he has worked. Declan has worked with government ministers, government departments, semi-state bodies, multi-national companies, SME's and charities. He has also given regular training sessions to PLATO groups – owner-managers of SME's. Declan has worked extensively with senior management and sales teams from Alltech, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Takeda Pharmaceutical, Mars Corporation, PMI (Pharmaceutical Managers' of Ireland), Apple, LloydsPharmacy, Aurivo, and many more.
His success as a key motivator and executive coach for Business Leaders has in recent years been harnessed in the sports arena where he has given regular goal setting and mental strength motivational sessions to several GAA teams, including the Cavan, Kerry, Cork (Football) Tipperary (Hurling), Down, Offaly (Football), Dublin (Hurling), and Wicklow teams. He worked closely with Kilmacud Crokes when they won the 2008 All-Ireland Club Championship. Declan is himself a former Ulster Championship medal winner who played senior football with Cavan. He also worked with the Kentucky Wildcats when they won the National Basketball Title in the U.S. He is the author of the Number 1 Best Selling book, The Green Platform, an innovative "inner software" methodology that has transformed the morale, productivity, and profitability of companies across the globe. He also wrote 116 weekly hugely popular motivational columns for Fit Magazine published with the Irish Independent, Ireland's largest-selling daily newspaper. He has rewritten 90 of those inspirational columns for his new book Living The Green Platform – Life-Changing Stories. He has been a guest on many television shows and radio programmes, including The Late Late Show, The Saturday Night Show (twice), Ireland AM, The Joe B. & Denny Show, Radio Vermont, and One To One With Bill Goodman in the U.S.
For more information, check out the website; www.thegreenplatform.com
In today’s episode, we’re sharing networking tips as we discuss the power of networking for your business with our featured expert Wendy Stunt.
About Wendy Stunt:
Wendy Stunt is a Managing Partner of Aster Connects, the foundation of which is based on the power of networking. Good business connectors are a unique set of people who always seem to know how to help, or if they can't, they know someone who can, and they quickly put you in touch with them.
Wendy is also Director of Go DigiCard (Digital Business of the Year 2020), an innovative Irish Company bringing businesses together with a Digital Business Card Solution; since its establishment, the company has quickly gained customers worldwide. Wendy is a proud Ambassador in the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and works with many companies to build and enhance their online Digital Strategies and Social Media Marketing. She is passionate about helping companies connect in the Digital World.
Wendy has a wide network of contacts both in Ireland and across Europe. She has received many award nominations, including "Irelands Most Inspiring Business Woman 2019," and was announced the winner in the category of "Entrepreneur of the Year 2019" in the Irish Women's Awards.
In this episode, we’re sharing valuable tips on how to be legally sound in your business with our featured expert and principal solicitor at Boland Law, Grace Boland
Grace Boland is the principal solicitor of Boland Law. She is a very
experienced commercial solicitor who has advised companies of all sizes
in various markets, including financial services, food, catering
services, facilities management, property services, retail outlets, and
aviation. Having worked in large organisations and now being a business
owner, she understands businesses' pressures. She provides plain English
commercial legal advice on various matters, including commercial
contracts, employment law, GDPR, protecting the brand, and corporate
governance. Before
establishing Boland Law, Grace worked in the legal department of one of Ireland’s main banks
for over 19 years, where she held several senior
leadership roles. She worked on numerous key projects and advised the
Board on some of the most high-profile and significant matters affecting
the Bank. She was also the Bank's legal representative to the Banking
and Payments Federation of Ireland and the Law Society of Ireland. She
took a lead role and drafted many papers on behalf of the industry. Grace is also a director of the charity Teen-Turn, an initiative to encourage
secondary school girls from disadvantaged areas in STEM careers. For more information, check out the website; www.bolandlaw.ie
Marketing your Professional Services Business
In this episode, we’re sharing expert advice on how to market a professional service business with our featured guest and founder of Marketing Clever, Mary Cloonan.
Mary Cloonan, founder of Marketing Clever, is a virtual head of marketing for her clients. With over 20 years experience she enjoys working with ambitious professional services firms, businesses and organisations keen to grow and use a clear and clever marketing tactics to align and integrate goals with strategy. Engagements vary from half day workshops a few times a year to long running weekly arrangements with clients. Mary focuses on your target market and help build the most effective commercial marketing plan for you.
You can find out more at:
www.marketingclever.ie
In this episode, we go behind the scenes with celebrity Chef and Founder of Ballyknocken Cookery School, Catherine Fulvio, who shares her business perspective and valuable advice on using social media for PR, building confidence, and overcoming business overwhelm in challenging times.
About Catherine Fulvio
Daytime Emmy nominated chef Catherine Fulvio is the founder of the award-winning Ballyknocken Cookery School at her family farm and home in County Wicklow. She is the author of six multi-award-winning cookbooks and presenter of many TV shows, which have featured on RTE, BBC, Amazon Prime, and Netflix. Her current TV shows in the USA have recently been nominated for seven taste awards.
More recently, Catherine has expanded her cookery teaching business with the launch of her Online Cookery School. She offers a wide selection from short courses to three-month certificate courses and does live cook-along and team building sessions for corporates and private groups. She can be contacted at catherinefulvio.com.