A New Life:Deirdre Cronnelly swapped working in international telecoms for a career in motivating people, writes Brian O'Connell
A valuable piece of advice from her father, prior to beginning secondary school, would have a major bearing on Deirdre Cronnelly's initial career. When looking at her subject options, she was finding it hard to choose between business and languages.
Her father interjected: "You can always pick up business in later life, but languages are much harder to pick up."
So Cronnelly took the advice on board, and over time found that she had a natural aptitude for both French and German.
So much so, in fact, that she continued with a degree in both languages in Trinity College after completing secondary school. Summers were spent abroad, and before her final exams, she took a year out to teach in Austria.
"I hadn't a clue really what I wanted to do. I had some vague notion of teaching, but the year in Austria made me realise it wasn't for me. I was always interested in how things worked and how to get things done, so I knew purely academic work wouldn't be for me."
The family had a successful roofing business in Co Meath, and Cronnelly often helped out behind the counter. "When your family is self-employed, from an early age you're around people who are not afraid to take chances."
With that in mind, Cronnelly took on a postgraduate qualification in the University of Ulster in international business and put her CV together in order to get a decent work placement. In jest, under interests, she listed Guinness and whiskey. Somehow, the CV found it's way to the desk of BT's financial controller, who called Cronnelly for a casual meeting . . . in a bar.
"He liked my honesty I think and asked me what did I want to do after college. I said I wasn't sure but I was keen to do something different.
"He offered me a three-month placement in BT mobile in Leeds, working with the strategy department. It was at a time before mobile phones were widespread. I was part of a team predicting what the future would look like. It was an exciting time for the industry.
After her placement, Cronnelly returned to college and finished her dissertation. BT was so impressed with her placement that it offered her a chance to join the company as a management accountant.
Her work also involved product development, working on everything from voice mail, branding and marketing of products, which have since become commonplace. Yet she felt that her languages were not being utilised enough and, two years in, she began looking at overseas opportunities.
"I had learned loads in a short space of time, yet I wasn't using my languages so I applied for a job with the international arm. The next few years were spent travelling all over the world, bidding for mobile-phone licences.
"A typical day would have been to go into a country, see what stage it was at in terms of licences and who was interested in bidding. We would then align ourselves with partners, and start working on a draft licence. So the work would be from the early stages right through to the submission of a bid."
By this stage, Cronnelly says she had become responsible for much of BT's international market bidding. With that experience, she returned to Ireland, and worked with Esat Digifone on the launch of its Irish network. In total she would spend five years with Esat before reigniting her international career and finally deciding on a change of direction.
"Looking back, the main thing with Esat was that I think we launched Wap technology before it was ready to be launched. In our defence, though, we got all the basic stuff, like a good network and a good product. I left just as the 3G bidding was under way, and headed for the Caribbean, where I worked building networks and launching services.
"It might sound exotic, but, believe me, after a year or two it was a case of the same old, same old in terms of work. I got very bored to be honest and began to feel like taking on new challenges. The other factor was that I had no real control over my life. I had been working six days a week and 12 hours a day and it began to take its toll."
The tipping point came when Cronnelly caught sight of herself in the mirror on her 35th birthday, and didn't like what she saw. She looked tired and unhappy. She had made little time for friends and family, never ate properly, and spent her life jumping on and off planes. Her boyfriend was nagging at her to take a break. Something had to give.
"I guess I was lucky in that I had been working so hard that I had a lot of savings built up. My contracts were lucrative, and I had no time to spend my salary. It meant that I could take six months out if I wanted to. I also had a house in Dublin rented out while I was in the Caribbean, and the rent covered the mortgage so I didn't have to worry about it."
A four-month stint travelling through Central America helped Cronnelly re-assess her life. She admits it took her quite a while to switch from corporate mindset to backpacker.
She had been working to a high level in business for 15 years and decided it was time for a change. On her return, Cronnelly made her health and fitness a priority and went back to college to study to be a personal trainer.
She also took a course in nutrition. With bills beginning to mount, from time to time she took on freelance contracts to help balance the books. More and more, though, she began to look at how people go about changing their lives for the better.
With her new health and fitness qualifications, combined with her business background, she found herself well placed to offer advice to those thinking of making career and life changes. A new career was about to begin.
"I was always interested in health and fitness, and how these things work to make people feel better about themselves. Now that I myself was looking for a change in direction, I ended up thinking about setting up a motivation company, which would help people get in shape and feel better about themselves.
"The company, called Afresh, is all about giving people the tools to help change direction and I now work with everyone, from bus drivers to business employees. My role is to help get them more motivated by properly exercising, having a positive attitude and eating properly. Employers benefit by having absentee levels down, and a higher motivated staff. And I benefit by doing something for myself."
Afresh has been a success for Cronnelly, and she now employs six staff and has contracts with several major public and private bodies.
"I'm working with 3,000 bus drivers at the moment, making them think about things like how much coffee they're drinking and how its affecting them and getting them to start taking exercise. It's a totally full-on business, and similar to my previous work I'm still trying to get people motivated to be more productive.
"Now, though, I do it on a one-to-one level and get much greater satisfaction from making a positive impact on people's lives."
Ironically, Cronnelly is still putting in the hours, but she says she can now dictate her own schedule and has control over her life.
"My life is 95 per cent fuller now, in that I have more time to spend with family and friends. It's nothing like what it used to be in terms of money, and I do miss that sometimes, but I have lots of time for people to compensate.
"My advice to anyone thinking
of a career change is to believe in yourself and be practical. If you come up with a logical plan and follow it through, then there's
no reason why it won't work for you."