GirlCrew - it's a global online platform and app that helps women make new friends, wherever they are in the world. It all started when a young woman, left alone due to coupled-up friends, needed someone to go to a concert with. A short note posted online, in search of a buddy, turned into GirlCrew. It has since saved women from bad dates, helped people overcome challenges at work and even sourced witnesses for weddings. Meet its co-founders, yes co-founders, because three heads are better than one.
Margaret E Ward talks to Elva Carri, Aine Mulloy and Pamela Newenham who reveal their unlikely paths to entrepreneurship, which involved making and selling draught excluders and selling raffle tickets for a box of chocolates. Listen to three inspiring women talk about taking on Mark Zuckerberg and the world, one meet-up at a time. They discuss their strategies, teamwork and making big business decisions over social media.
Fionnuala Meehan had "no clear career path" after her arts degree. So she took a job in a call centre where she was regularly pranked by German teenagers. She had her first child while still working in the call centre, then later moving on to work for internet giant AOL. Next stop was Google, where she now manages 650 staff as head of Irish operations, while also raising three children.
How does she do it? She's on the 5.30pm train home, she gets 8 hours sleep a night and she coaches, instead of "manages", her team. Fionnuala reveals her simple tools for resilience, how to understand millennials in order to get the best out of them and the home life set-up that allows her to work at such a high level. The tech boss also talks switching-off and if it's true what they say about Google - are the beanbags and free food just a ploy to get employees to work longer hours?
Dr Ciara Clancy, accidental entrepreneur, physiotherapist, and 20-something CEO, has just been named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. She plasters her office not with accolades and press clippings, but with her "why." In her office you'll find thank you cards and letters all over the walls, from the thousands of people her technology has helped.
Ciara is CEO of Beats Medical, an app that helps people with Parkinson's manage their pain at home. Whether you're an employee, unemployed, or self-employed, listen to how her remarkable story unfolded, from 22-year-old physiotherapist to 28-year-old CEO, who saved her company when it ran out of money. Succeeding in business and life, comes down to one fundamental principle says Ciara, a principle that has never let her or her team down.
Ciara tells Margaret E Ward her inspiring story of not fitting into the entrepreneurial mould, and how her childhood was not littered with "mini businesses." If you're someone who cares deeply about others and longs to make impact, but aren't sure you have the business acumen to do what it takes, this episode of Broadly Speaking is for you.
Businessman Feargal Quinn's first book Crowning the Consumer sold more than 100,000 copies and was translated into 14 languages. It came after building a national chain of grocery stores, Superquinn, which he started at the age of 23.
How did he do it? By always having the advantage over his competitor. And how did he do that? By making the customer front and centre of his every move. He held meetings in the grocery aisles, ran 'win your weight in groceries' competitions, and was the first person to play music in a supermarket. And when every other grocery store in Ireland was down on sales, because of foot and mouth disease, Superquinn's sales were up. How?
Listen to a business pro have his career dissected by Margaret E Ward, where Feargal, who went on to become a Senator in the Irish parliament, reveals his number one business principle. A clue? It involves an old Australian toy. This was one of Feargal's last ever interviews before his death in April 2019.
And a bonus segment: Our panel of experts also talk through the mechanics of getting a pay rise or promotion.
Ellvena Graham, OBE, is currently chairman of ESB, Ireland's electricity supply board, but in 2008 she was a director in the Royal Bank of Scotland when it lost £24.3bn - the biggest corporate loss in British history. How did the daughter of a mechanic from a rural town survive? She tells Margaret E Ward, through deep exhales, how she navigated those unimaginable days of the financial crash, what they taught her and how anyone can lean into crisis. There is a way out, she says, but solutions take time.
Ellvena talks about the practicalities of keeping your cool when a storm rages around you, why comfort zones are sterile grounds for growth and how she wishes she spread her wings earlier. She is also very real about good long nights of sleep, and other basic hacks that can sustain you in business.
And our panel of experts talk about the sticky issue of boundaries - what to do when your boss rings and emails you at home.
When the recession hit in 2008, Bobby Kerr's national chain of more than 100 coffee shops, Insomnia, was on the frontline. "We were a luxury item," he tells Margaret E Ward. How do you survive that? By 2008, Bobby was a well-seasoned businessman used to risk. He had, after all, left a very comfortable job at 36, five days after the birth of his fourth child, to start what would become Insomnia. Between then and now, he had also weathered a fire and high high-street rents. So how did he navigate the recession?
He talks us through the various strategies that he employed that kept his footfall at boom-time levels, even though Dublin city had lost 100,000 people to emigration. But sailing the choppy waters of a financial crash hasn't been his only challenge, he has also survived a serious form of cancer. Not one of these things have broken him, just strengthened and changed him for the better. Our panel also discusses how to navigate the waters outside of your professional comfort zone.
Ireland's first female private investigator (PI) Sandra Mara, cracked her first case at 9. She found not only her passion but also fulfilment and decided to follow her father into the family business of private investigations. "That's no job for a woman," he said as he tried desperately to throw her off course. Sandra, however, went on to have a lengthy and successful career as Ireland's first ever professional female PI, working all around the world, writing three books, while navigating death threats and raising her children.
How did she do it all? And how did she manage the stress? Sandra reveals all to Margaret E Ward. And there's more. In our advice slot Margaret talks through tactics, with three experts, to help introverts succeed in the workplace. She also meets two business leaders to discuss what thought leadership actually is and why it should matter to your company.
"I need help" - the 3 most powerful words any manager or entrepreneur can say. Aine Kerr is a serial risk taker. She left her permanent pensionable teaching job at 20, to retrain as a journalist. She left her high-profile political correspondent role in the Irish Independent to join international media start-up, Storyful, during the recession. She then moved to New York to become Facebook's manager of Journalism Partnerships. And now, Aine is back in business start-up phase, co-founding Kinzen, an app that puts people, around the world, in control of their news.
Aine talks us through her decision-making processes, and the key practices that have allowed her to take big risks and dream big. She also reveals her weaknesses in business and how she overcomes them thanks to one nifty thought. Lastly, Aine talks us through negotiating titles in the workplace and how to manage staff if you're an ambitious perfectionist, who finds it hard to delegate.