Fireside with Voxgig

Pat Dwyer is an award-winning improv comedian who is also a professional public speaker and facilitator. Earlier in his career, Pat moved to Chicago, where he worked and toured with the world-famous Second City Theater and iO Theater, among others. Now, in his speaking and facilitating roles, he works with organizations to show them how laughter and comedy can improve a company’s profit, culture a...

Natalia Wiechowski is a certified digital marketing professional and a Forbes Coaches Council member. She also holds a PhD in philosophy and social science. At age 29, Natalia decided to drastically change her life and career by moving from her native Germany to Dubai and becoming a personal branding strategist. Natalia believes that personal branding can be the key to having a dream life and a ca...

Oisín Lunny is a professional public speaker, master of ceremonies (MC), radio presenter and journalist. He has hosted and moderated events and given keynote presentations at over 200 conferences worldwide, including TEDx, MWC and SXSW. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and is music editor for ‘The Phoenix’ magazine. In this episode, Oisín talks to Richard about how his early PR career led...

Danielle Brown MBE is a double Paralympic gold medallist and five-time World Champion in archery. She successfully transitioned from the United Kingdom disabled team onto the able-bodied team. Besides her sporting achievements, Danielle works to help others achieve their ambitions through her work as a professional public speaker, trainer and coach. She is writing a book titled Be Your Best Self ....

Furkan Karayel is a software engineer, founder and CEO of Diversein.com, a global diversity and inclusion platform, and a professional tech speaker. Among the many accolades Furkan has received are the ‘Diversity and Inclusion Role Model in Business’ award by the International Diversity Leadership Awards, and the ‘Trailblazer’ award by the Women in Tech Dublin Awards. In this episode, Furkan tells...

Kevlin Henney is a professional public speaker and the highly regarded author of 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know . He also runs his own software consultancy firm. In this episode, Kevlin tells Richard how he started his career as a software developer and quickly made the transition into public speaking. He explains the struggles he went through trying to figure out his unique speaking style...

Jim Gordon–universally known as “Flash”– is the founder of Boxworks co-working space in Waterford, Ireland, where Voxgig has its headquarters. Flash is also proprietor of the award-winning Revolution, a gastro bar and events venue in downtown Waterford. In this episode, Flash tells Richard what it was like to fall into the business sector after many years as a hard-working chef. He describes the d...

Florin Cardasim is a software architect, an Agile coach, a corporate trainer, and a community and corporate speaker. He is also founder of CodeCamp Romania, an initiative for young software developers in Romania and Moldova.   In this episode, Florin and Richard discuss Florin’s trial-and-error style of speaking. Using this style taught him the importance of understanding the audience, and that it...

Dov Baron is a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, a professional public speaker, and author of the bestselling Fiercely Loyal: How High Performing Companies Develop and Retain Top Talent and One Red Thread: Discovering the Purpose Already Woven Into Your Life . In this episode, Dov describes his first speaking experience, which was comical and moving, yet surprisingly successful. He also explai...

Karina Ochis is a serial entrepreneur, an international professional speaker, and a life coach and trainer. On top of all this, Karina is author of the bestselling The Influence of Social Media on US Presidential Campaigns and co-author of Cracking the Code to Success . She has lived all over the world and currently resides in her home country of Romania. In this episode, Karina takes Richard thro...

Doug Thompson is a Texan who gets to travel all over the world with his job as Senior Technology Strategist with the Microsoft Education sales team. In other words, he gets to speak for work! In this episode, Doug tells Richard why he finds it important to know your own personality in order to become truly comfortable with speaking in public. He goes into why he uses improvization in his talks, an...

Andreea Wade is the founder and CEO of opening.io. She is an event organizer and public speaker—an unusual combination—with many different passions. She has started several different businesses in a variety of sectors. Andrea relates how she had a panic attack during her first public speaking experience. She tells us that she still experiences stage fright but it reminds her that she cares. She al...

Oscar Santolalla has been working in the tech sector for over 10 years. He is currently a sales engineer at Ubisecure. A Peruvian living in Helsinki, Finland, Oscar hosts his own public speaking podcast titled ‘Time to Shine’. He has also authored the book Create and Deliver a Killer Product Demo. In this episode, Oscar explains how Toastmasters changed his life by allowing him to practice his pub...

In this episode, Richard speaks to Tanya Butenko, founder of NodeGirls, an organization for women and other gender minorities in the tech world. Tanya is a native Ukrainian who now lives in Australia. She delves into the story of one of her first presentations. The topic of that presentation was a personal one that made her extremely emotional. She discusses why this topic was a bad choice for her...

Dylan Schiemann is a professional conference speaker and the founder of Dojo Toolkit. He is one of those lucky human beings who does not get nervous before talks! He attributes this confidence to his early speaking experiences, which he tells us about in this episode. Dylan also explains what conference talks, sales discussions and venture capital pitches have in common, and tells us how his own i...

Vicky Lee is a self-described ‘Pythonista’. She’s a software engineer and community organizer who began organizing events in order to bring people together and create a sense of community. In this episode, Vicky describes how she fell into the diversity-driven sphere of tech, and tells us about her first venture into organizing meetups—which, perhaps surprisingly, stemmed from her forum for Irish-...

Why do introverts make great public speakers? Karl Hyden, a mental toughness coach for the professional introvert and self-touted Texan from Western Ireland, explains why. He has mastered the art of overcoming the personality barriers that can keep us from the success he believes we all deserve. You’ll learn about the four different types of introverts, the core differences between introverts and...

For the past several years, Pauline Kwasniak has been diligently working to establish herself in the events organization industry. She has recently started a tough, fascinating trip into the event organizers’ public speaking sphere. In this interview, Pauline tells Richard what lead her into event organizing and public speaking. She explains how living in a country that is not the country of her b...

Every great speaker needs a great speech. In this episode, Richard speaks with Simon Gibson, high-profile speech writer and founder of World Speech Day. You will hear about how Simon transitioned from being a script writer to a speech writer, what exactly a speech writer does, the history of speaking, and how great speeches have the power to change the world. Simon also provides some insights into...

Andrew Grill calls himself a ‘practical futurist’. He is a professional writer, blogger and conference speaker—which means he gets paid to talk. And he wants to help you do the same. You’ll learn why the first 90 seconds of a talk are vital, how clichés kill your talk, and how to tell when you’ve hooked your audience. Andrew also gives us tips on how to survive when the tech lets you down (somethi...

In this episode, Richard sits down with Debbie Forster, CEO of the Tech Talent Charter . Debbie is an American who has lived in England for over 30 years. Her fascinating career is full of twists and turns, from being a head teacher to her current high-profile role. She tells Richard about her eventful journey, and explains how all her experiences have influenced her public speaking and have helpe...