Fireside with Voxgig

We’re always interested here at Voxgig in how people get into public speaking in their careers. Lesley Tully started off studying Film. She tells us how this training gave her an understanding of visuals, which turned out to be a great asset in her subsequent career and in the role she is now in: an expert on Design Thinking. Orla and Lesley get into the subject of evangelizing for your own job; i...

Allan Kelly is a conference organiser, speaker, author and a coder who’s on a mission to help other coders get in touch with the world around them. His Fireside Chat with Richard had a wonderfully warming feel, just like his Agile on the Beach conference in Cornwall. He began by revealing that he actually apologised for giving a new talk at a conference, He believes strongly that repurposing confe...

Onyi Anyado is a global leadership speaker from Hackney in East London, and he’s on a mission to achieve distinction, for himself and for wannabe public speakers. He’s written two books and delivered a powerful TEDx Talk called From Detention to Distinction. His Fireside Chat with Richard crackled with dynamism and passion. He revealed that he feels divinely inspired to help people find their own...

John Collins is Director of Content with Intercom, the customer messaging platform. He’s a man who knows how to spread a message effectively, having worked as a tech journalist for more than 20 years. He’s now responsible for producing the award-winning content at Intercom, including the blog, the podcasts, the books and the social media communications. In our Fireside Chat, John talks about how I...

Should innovators kick over the table or just rearrange the things on it? Does it even make sense to regard the question in black and white? TEDx speaker Máirín Murray joined Orla on this episode to share her passion for technical products that produce a positive social impact. Máirín is a tech innovator and ethics evangelist. Previously, she was Senior Digital Content Producer at the BBC. She is...

Alex is a record-breaking adventurer, keynote speaker, published author, brand ambassador and charity fundraiser from Cheshire, England. He is dedicated to inspiring others to achieve their own ‘Everest’ in life. Alex is not your typical Everest speaker. After single-handedly raising over £35,000 in corporate sponsorship whilst still at school, his first attempt to climb to the summit of Mount Eve...

Richard is an international conference speaker, serial entrepreneur, published author and CEO of Voxgig. He also writes a weekly column, ‘Startup Diary’, for the Irish Independent newspaper.  He tells Orla how he never envisaged himself as a public speaker in the earlier part of his career. He found, though, that he “always ended up on stage, one way or another”! As he found himself being asked mo...

April Dunford is a positioning consultant. In plain English, that means she tells companies where their brand belongs in the market and what customers they should target. Her knowledge comes from 25 years of experience running tech startups and working for global tech giants. She is the author of a brilliant book on positioning called Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Positioning So Your Customers Ge...

Mick tells Orla how he fell into public speaking as a career. He has made a virtue out of the underdog story; according to him, he has failed at everything he ever tried, and the keynote speech he now travels the world delivering is the culmination of that. Having finally achieved his dream of representing his country, he and his team came last in the World Sudoku Championships. But he has made qu...

Petra Kindler is a spoken word artist, a comedian, a literary translator, playwright, and freelance creative director. She’s a German who has been living in Ireland for over thirty years and she specialises in pointing out the ridiculous in everyday life. Petra tells Orla how she went from being a high-level creative director at German advertising agencies to the pretty unique position of being a...

We usually feature top public speakers on Fireside with Voxgig, but in this episode, we decided to speak with a top public speaking coach. Peter Hopwood describes himself as a pitch and presentations coach, and he supports public speaking professionals at every stage in their speaking career. During our thought-provoking Fireside Chat, he revealed that speakers can always learn something new, no m...

Orla chats to Bonnie Williams, a dialogue and performance coach for actors, public speakers and other professionals. Bonnie describes herself as a “Amsterdam-based American European”. She’s also an actor and a TEDx speaker coach, and was featured in Marie Claire magazine. Bonnie has worked for many years helping business people apply the skills of acting to the corporate world. She tells us how en...

Russ Miles is a tech and microservices whizz who can define chaos engineering in ninety seconds. He is an international keynote speaker at tech conferences and he is CEO of ChaosIQ, which builds commercial and open source software for companies that are engaged in chaos engineering. In a lively Fireside Chat with Richard, Russ revealed how he taps into the power of story to captivate his audience....

Deepa Mann-Kler is an artist, entrepreneur and public speaker. She’s also the creator of the very cool Neon Dogs installation that has lit up the night sky in London, Amsterdam, Derry/Londonderry, and various other parts of the world. In her Fireside Chat, Deepa shared a reassuring message with aspiring speakers. Don’t worry about making a fancy presentation. Just strip back to the real story you...

In this episode, host Orla Shanaghy talks to Wojciech Kolodziejczak. Wojciech specializes in cross-cultural communication, networking, and negotiation skills for British, Polish, and other international businesses. He also lectures on cross-cultural networking skills for the Federation of Small Businesses, London Metropolitan University and other organizations. Wojciech opens up to Orla about the...

Lauren Currie is an award-winning European designer who is a champion for diversity. She has received an OBE for her initiatives to achieve diversity through design. As a regular public speaker on the subject of design, she’s also passionate about bringing diversity to the speaker line-up at conferences. In our podcast, she reveals how a bright red sofa has helped reduce the nerves of more than 50...

Martin Brooks describes himself as an impacttologist, and he has spent decades studying the theory and implications of impact. He runs a training company that helps managers, media personalities and politicians discover the impact of great communication. In a thought-provoking Fireside Chat, Martin and Richard explored whether great public speakers are born or made. Martin believes that your exper...

Emily Ross is an entrepreneur, public speaker, and founder of Inkvine Consulting, which helps tech and commercial companies to scale and grow. Emily has never been afraid to play with fire – she was a fire dancer and was regularly seen at event venues throughout Ireland, juggling balls of fire. As if that wasn’t enough, she’s also an advisory board member for South by Southwest this year. Emily is...

In this podcast, Richard enjoyed a highly stimulating, thought provoking and honest chat with Andrew Vorster. Andrew is a thought leader and innovation catalyst, and a full-time professional public speaker. Andrew grew up on a farm in South Africa and immersed in African storytelling traditions from an early age. As a young child, he was gifted with the honorary title of storyteller by his local Z...

Gina London has made communication the cornerstone of her career. She spent 20 years as a top TV correspondent with CNN and regularly reported live from the White House. Now she runs The Language of Leadership, a company which trains Fortune 500 CEOs and other business leaders to become brilliant communicators. Gina told Richard how she borrows from the world of magic to grab the attention of her...

In this episode, host Orla Shanaghy chats to Anna Jordan, founder of ModwordsFest, Ireland’s first open mic festival for spoken word artists. Anna is also a freelance festival programmer, playwright, creative writing facilitator and publican. Anna tells Orla how growing up as a budding writer in a small city prompted her to set up her own creative writing groups and direct her own plays. She descr...

In this episode, Richard speaks with Andrew Macadam. Andrew is currently the Managing Director for startups in Western Europe at Microsoft. He has also held a myriad of other roles, including being an Evangelist, which at Microsoft means you go out and get people excited about new technologies. Throughout Andrews diverse roles he has experienced a lot of public speaking. He discusses with Richard...

In this episode Richard speaks with Neil O’Brien. Neil is the founder of the company Time to Fly and is currently one of Ireland’s most sought after professional conference speakers and life coaches. He focuses on the topics of mental fitness, mental health and wellbeing. He has many corporate clients and has coached elite and professional sports people in the past. Neil tells Richard about how go...

In this episode, Richard speaks with Kwame Nyanning. Kwame is the founder and CEO of Dangerous, a venture studio focused on developing financial products and services for millennials and generation Z. Kwame tells Richard about his interesting start in public speaking, which involved him on stage doing hip hop! They discuss how incredible it feels when you actually succeed at a talk—and how, unfort...

In this episode, Richard speaks with Mary Carty, co-founder of the ground-breaking Outbox Incubator and a professional keynote speaker. You will hear how Mary’s mother sparked her public speaking career by encouraging her to speak in church every Sunday, and how this fostered her self-confidence. Mary gives interesting insights into how public speaking can come in handy when you are trying to pres...