Ever since I can remember I have wanted to work in media, in particular - TV. Growing up in a family of seven children meant I always had someone to play with, and we created our own theatre shows, and then acted them out in front of the ‘audience’, this is where the love and passion developed - to entertain and tell a good story, your average sibling can be a tough critic after all !!

I remember clearly - being offered a sales job in Galway, when I was about 19, the money was incredible.  At the same time, Independent Radio in Dublin offered me a role, the salary was almost half, but it meant a foot in the door to media.  I never looked back, and I continue today to just keep following that dream. The role in radio was in sales and sponsorship, I was always afraid to take that leap into the presenting world, I didn’t think I had what it took.

I would spend my evenings in East Coast Radio and any place that would allow me in the door to see how they worked, I was like a sponge.  I wanted to know it all, yet I had no qualification, just a gut instinct I could do it.  A couple of years later I went back to college to study journalism, worked in a local newspaper and set up a PR agency - anything to work in media!

A few years ago, after a chance encounter with a Hollywood coach, I decided to just go for it and do a presenting course with him and hone my skills. That coach recommended me for an audition. Fast forward six years, and I had my own show on Sky 191 Irish TV, as well as working on the RTE show At Your Service as their PR expert.

Most recently my sister company Hashtag Media launched ‘Social TV’ which is TV for social media platforms. I love storytelling, and believe everyone has a story, it’s great to meet someone for an interview and find out what makes them tick, sometimes a simple conversation can take you to another place entirely.

"I spoke with media mogul Norah Casey last week about this, a pandemic is an opportunity to grow to adapt. 80 per cent of the most successful companies in the world were forged in a recession. This is time for huge change"

Can you explain in more detail what your marketing initiative ‘Social TV’ can offer for events?

Social TV was forged as a meeting of social media and television style broadcasting, it offers snippets of interviews at events, everything from attendees to speakers right through to a virtual walk through of the event - it has proven to increase attendances at these events.

The passive viewer (someone that is watching TV, working and looking at their phone screen) is a huge audience for social media; we capture that in a few minutes.  People do not have the attention span to watch a 30-minute show - they want to know what you have and do they want it in about one minute!

Can you recall any events that didn’t go to plan and did you learn any lessons from it?

No event goes to plan, if it did, we would not be pushing ourselves enough and getting complacent, there is always room for improvement. At one event the videographer didn’t tell us the sound that was recorded could not be used as it was barely audible- they didn’t bring the right equipment.

This taught me a hard lesson - ALWAYS hire someone that is better than you, double-check everything and ask questions.

From chatting to guests here on TLC, there is a mixed reaction how the pandemic has affected their business. How has the pandemic affected your business?

I spoke with media mogul Norah Casey last week about this, a pandemic is an opportunity to grow to adapt. 80 per cent of the most successful companies in the world were forged in a recession. This is time for huge change.

I’m mainly mentoring business people now in PR and offering strategies to make sure they have a vision. So many businesses have had to change their business model.

In terms of Social TV - this is about to explode, there has been a 67 per cent increase in people buying online, that is incredible - if they are online browsing - they are viewing.  We just received news that we are media partners for World Skills Ireland - creating video content for them to share on their platforms.

We are keeping busy creating mini social series for social media, it’s the ideal time to rethink and recalibrate.