Humor, Heart, and High Performance – The Irish Wisdom of Conor Cunneen

In this lighthearted and enlightening episode of Life-Changing Challengers, host Brad Minus welcomes the always entertaining and deeply insightful Conor Cunneen—an award-winning motivational speaker, business humorist, and founder of Irishman Speaks. With a signature blend of storytelling, Irish charm, and business savvy, Conor shares lessons from his global career, his battle with cancer, and his mission to help organizations improve performance with a smile.

From growing up in Middleton, County Cork—home of Irish whiskey and hurling—to rising through the ranks of major brands like Murphy’s, Heineken, and Unilever, Conor’s journey is packed with lessons in adaptability, authenticity, and human connection. He offers tools for personal and professional growth using his GAB and CHAPS frameworks, helping people align their goals, improve their attitude, and transform behavior through intention and joy. It’s an episode full of laughter, leadership, and Irish wit.

Episode Highlights

• [2:00] – Growing up in a small Irish town surrounded by whiskey, Gaelic football, and dreams of playing for Manchester United
• [14:00] – From brand manager at Murphy’s to launching Heineken in Ireland
• [24:00] – Making the leap to the UK and eventually moving to the U.S. with Unilever
• [45:00] – Creating the brand “Irishman Speaks” after being laid off—and thriving as a speaker
• [58:00] – Conor’s GAB and CHAPS method for improving performance, morale, and workplace culture
• [1:10:00] – His battles with thyroid and prostate cancer, and how adversity fueled his message

Key Takeaways

1. Lead with Humanity – You can’t always raise someone’s net worth, but you can always raise their self-worth.
2. Micro Goals Create Momentum – Simple daily actions like offering compliments or hearing “thank you” can shift workplace energy and personal fulfillment.
3. Laughter Builds Connection – A well-placed joke or story isn't just entertaining—it’s a bridge to deeper learning and team engagement.
4. Purpose Evolves Through Challenges – From layoffs to cancer, life’s hardest chapters can become your most powerful message.
5. Legacy Is Intentional – What do you want to be known for after you leave the room—or the role? Let that shape your behavior today.

Links & Resources

• 🌐 Website: IrishmanSpeaks.com
• 📺 YouTube: Irishman Speaks Channel
• 📕 Books by Conor:
  • For the Love of Being Irish
  • SHEIFGAB! Staying Motivated and Productive in Job Search
• 📱 Follow Conor on Social:
  • LinkedIn: @ConorCunneen
  • Twitter: @IrishmanSpeaks

Contact Brad @ Life Changing Challengers
Instagram: @bradaminus
Facebook: @bradaminus
X(Twitter): @bradaminus
YouTube: @lifechangingchallengers
LifeChangingChallengers.com

Want to be a guest on Life-Changing Challengers? Send Brad Minus a message on PodMatch, here.

Transcript

Brad Minus: And welcome back to another episode of Life-Changing Challengers. Hey everybody, we have got someone special for you today. This is Conor Cunneen and he is a motivational keynote speaker. he basically looks at, performance but he uses a lot of humor with it, so get ready to laugh.

We're gonna have a good time with this one. he's a humorist as well. So this is gonna be fun. So Conor, how you doing today? 

Conor Cunneen: I'm doing good. You're putting pressure on me already. Brad, 

Brad Minus: Pressure? No pressure, no pressure. This is just you and me. Hey Conor. Can you give us a little bit of information on, your childhood?

what was the compliment of your family, where did you grow up? What, what's the location like? And what was it like to be Conor as a kid? 

I grew up in a small little town in county Cork. Cork is on the south coast of Ireland. the town I grew up in is Middleton.

Which is where Irish Distillers distilled a wonderful brand of Middleton Irish whiskey, red Breast Whiskey, Patty Jemison, et cetera. my dad was the doctor in that town, and in those days, the distillery would not have had his own medical staff or anything like that. So my dad was the local doctor for the.

Distillery. And I remember him a few times getting a phone call and saying, doc, you gotta come down to the distillery. So, that was, Middleton, I also do remember actually, I. In those days, Middleton and the distillery were on its last legs. This was at a time when Irish whiskey had a poor brand image, and there wasn't a lot of, distilling being done there.

But when we were very young, me and a couple of friends would be running around the distillery, just, getting underneath the security gate and a, an aged. A security guard would be chasing after us and using, I was like, come back here, you little aria. Can I tell your dad on you, kind of thing. So that was growing up in, Middleton County, the cork, three brothers, one sister and I, when I left there at 18, I just went Cork University, university College, cork, and then discover the, the big bad world.

I had a good, fun time when I was growing up. My goal, I tell people, you can achieve anything you want though. Now the problem with that is that I wanted to be a goalkeeper for Manchester United. I never achieved that. So, I maybe oversell the fact that you can achieve anything you want. I don't actually believe that, but I do believe it's important to have goals, which will probably speak about later on.

So I'm obviously you grew up playing, football or we call it soccer here. 

Conor Cunneen: Yeah, we actually call it soccer in Ireland as well, Brad, because the main two main Irish Gaelic games are hurling, which is kind of a cross between lacrosse and field hockey and Gaelic football, which is, kind of a cross between Australian rules, football and rugby.

so the main football in Ireland actually is GIC football. 15 players on each team. So the other GIC football game is in Ireland, is known as soccer. So in countries where there's more than one football. code. I think that's when the word soccer takes precedence. Then 

Brad Minus: I have learned so much from being able to interview people from Europe and from Australia, because I didn't know any of this.

I didn't know there were so many different versions of football and that Gaelic football. Actually, you know what? I saw a small, indie Christmas movie that came out this past year that had Gaelic football in it. Right. Yeah. 

Conor Cunneen: was, was Colin Meanie the Irish actor on that one? Yes, yes. I saw that a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah, that's right. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. So it was nice to get, so it was nice to see this, that this ga of football and it's just completely different. But I, I mean, there's so many things that I didn't know. I didn't know That England actually likes NFL type football. Like they're actually playing, they've actually got teams of American football.

So you guys got American football and Gaelic football. Australian football, yeah. I mean it's, it's run rampant. And I didn't know about all these different sports. Like what was the other sport that you mentioned where you said it was, the other 

Conor Cunneen: sport? I'll spell this 'cause I, they, my Irish accent might throw the people out, but it's called hurling, H-U-R-L-I-N-G.

And I would encourage anyone to get onto YouTube and just do a search for Hurling Ireland. It is apparently the fastest field of sport in the world. You've got 15 guys with, hurleys, they're called, which is kind of a bit like a cross, a baseball bat and lacrosse, bat or whatever you would the phrase for the lacrosse is, and they're playing 15 to a team.

And the amazing thing, Brad, is that it's an amateur sport. At least they don't get paid for playing the game. But each county would've a a team. And in August and September, both hurling and football, that's what's called the All Ireland final, which is the Super Bowl of hurling and, football.

And, in those games that would be about maybe 78 to 80,000 people attending the, super Bowl of hurling or football. It's known as the All Ireland. Final 

Brad Minus: is hurling played in any other country? 

Conor Cunneen: it isn't, kind of quite amazing because, I mean, when you look at all the stuff that's on ESPN and they've got sports for every single pass, mean flies climbing up a wall kind of gets on ESPN.

I think the Irish hurling authorities have done a desperately poor job in promoting the product because it's an incredibly exciting and action packed game. 

Brad Minus: I am definitely gonna check that out because that sounds amazing. 

I never, I had never thought that actually the most watched sport, the biggest spectator sport in the world is actually cricket. 

Conor Cunneen: I could probably believe it because of Indian and Pakistan, the size of their populations that I didn't actually realize that that was the most watched sport. But, that's a sport now that, oh, they play a little bit of it in Ireland, but it's not, although they are, Ireland has got a pretty good international team.

but that's pretty slow moving sport. But when we talk about crazy sports, I was just flicking on ESPN the other night. my wife was, and she just said. Did you see this pillow fighting pillow on? 

Brad Minus: gotta be a joke. 

Conor Cunneen: There was wel to wait guys, I swear to God in a ring pillow fighting. 

Brad Minus: that just sounds crazy.

what I did think was kind of interesting was so, oh well you're in Chicago, you know, like corn hole, you know, you throw the beanbag in there. Yeah. I had no clue that there was a professional corn hole league. Yeah. And Axe throwing. Yep. The reason why it became so big is because there's actually an axe throwing league.

so the ones that you go to the bars and there's the hatchet throwing, and they show you the, so there's a hatchet throwing, and that's actually what that is. They call it axe throwing at the bars and all those clubs, but it's actually hatchet. And then they have Axe throwing. Which is a big two handed ax and they throw it.

Yeah. All this stuff. People are getting money for professional and people are going and watching it. And I was like, I had no clue. I felt like I was in a bubble. You know, and I never really, I think other sport, 

Conor Cunneen: The other sport that has taken off big time, particularly in Europe and the uk, is Darts, which I know we play here as well, but there was a 16-year-old kid.

I can't remember his name now that won the World Championship. He might be 17 years of age. No, he's won the World Championship, but he is taken a game by storm in the last 15, 18 months. So everyone is watching him and, dart Snow has just become a huge sport and kids are seven and eight are playing it and going on Darts leagues, et cetera.

So, it shows I think, the importance of having a Nikon in any sport. If you can get someone that really is good and kind of grabs people's attention, it builds sport. I mean, Michael Jordan is probably the best example of that. He explored the NBA. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. Explored the NBA and still being talked about.

Absolutely, yeah. Still being compared to still being talked about. Yeah. I'm not sure. Three, four, 5-year-old kids should be running around with darts with a pointy edge. I'm not sure that that sounds like a great idea. Maybe not. Maybe not so, but anyway. So, you said you went to Cork University.

Yeah. Or is it University of Cork or University 

Conor Cunneen: of College? Cork is known as UCC. so I did a commerce, degree. there just basically a business, degree. Didn't really have any idea what I wanted to do. And when I left, college, well, I met my darling wife in college. That was the best thing that happened.

when I left college, the only time I ever moved positions for. Money was when I left college. I was kind of going to go down the accounting route, which is the normal route for people coming outta business. But, Murphy's Iris which is a competitor of Guinness. were looking for, brand managers.

And a friend of mine said to me, he said, can Murphy's are looking for brand managers I'm going to apply for, and they're three positions. and I said to Greg, I still remember this now. I put pitch myself now as being a marketing. well, having a good knowledge of marketing, at least, right? I said to Greg, I said, what's a brand manager?

Right? I swear to God. but we actually, that course did not include marketing at all in those days. So, but I got into more fees because they offered me more money than the accounting firm that had offered me a position. And I just fell in love with the overall marketing, idea. and the, I fell in love with Murphy's Stove for a long time.

But you can't get that in the States. So no, I'm a Guinness, or I like Guinness. Anyway, spent a couple of years there. What brought me to the States, if I can jump that far ahead, I don't know whether you want me to jump that far ahead at the moment or not. 

Brad Minus: Do you got some great stories that happened in between there?

Conor Cunneen: there's probably quite a good few stories on. I tell people that I actually launched the Heineken brand in Ireland, Brad. Pretty impressive. 

Brad Minus: that is impressive. 

Conor Cunneen: Now, if you probe a little bit deeper and you ask me what did I do?

at that time, Murphy's, were launching the Heineken brand. Heineken actually bought Murphy's, eventually, but, so the Heineken brand was being launched. so what I did as an assistant brand manager, I used to go around to the pubs and put up the point of sale. I launched the Heineken brand.

Hey, name to fame Long 

Brad Minus: I take it, Exactly, you know, show them that it was drinkable. Yeah. So I imagine you got quite a few Heinekens in you, in, in, in that point, just to show them. But, I am, I've tried Murphy's once.

I can't remember where it was. I think it was in Canada Probably, that somebody had just brought it or something. it was very good. I love Guinness. I search for it, and whenever it's on tap, I can't resist. 

Someone tells me that they're gonna ring me the can. I'm like, well, let's see what else you got. But when they tell me it's on draft. Yeah. I'm all over Guinness. 

Conor Cunneen: Yeah. Well, and one of my challenges now, and quite a few Irish people have, this issue is it's difficult to get a well poured point of Guinness in the United States.

And in fact, the one day of the year, I absolutely will not drink Guinness. is on Patrick's Day. Because they're poor rubbish that day. Guinness requires a too poor fill, needs to be put down and allowed to settle. So those little, as I said, nitrogen orphan bubbles, find their way to some Guinness Wonderland, which is the white creamy head.

And then once they've all settled there, the Burma will take the. Pint glass, top it up and hand it with love and care and attention to the drooling patron. I mean, that's what should happen. And that happens in Ireland, but it doesn't happen that often here in the United States. 

Brad Minus: the great Guinness Toast, I don't know if they're still doing it.

I used to attend every year and most of the time that's exactly what it was. the Americans would. The complete Americans that knew nothing about Guinness. Yeah. And was there for the first time. They would all complain. They weren't getting their, their drinks on time. They said it was slow.

But what they didn't realize was that they would sit there and they'd pour, pour, pour, let it settle and then finish it. And then there was, there's a place here in Florida, IBOR City, and they would actually, they would do the, too poor, but then they would put a, Some sort of design on the top, inside the head that was, you know, they do something.

Either they would put like the branding of the bar or the Guinness logo or something was pretty cool. 

Conor Cunneen: Yeah, yeah. no, it's an amazing brand and actually is another brand I think that is sort revitalized pretty dramatically in the last 10, 12 years as well. I think it was in Ireland in particular, when I was growing up, it was seen as an old.

Parsons drink. Now it's the most popular drink, as I understand it, amongst the Gen Z, age group. again, so, you can rebrand if you put the right kind of efforts into it. jemison is one of the fastest growing, whiskeys in the world Irish whiskeys, one of the fastest growing, sections, in the whole world at this stage.

and 25 years ago, people would've said, nah, not gonna happen. 

Brad Minus: Oh, yeah, no, no, no. out here several times, several of the big radio, stations out here, there was one year where they all went to Ireland. Yeah. And they all got the tour of the Jameson factory. 

Conor Cunneen: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: They would put 'em up and they, and they, of course, they went to the, they went to the pubs and the, and the whole bit.

And they talked about Guinness as well. But then they all talked about having this great tour of the Jameson factory. Yeah. Walking out with, you know, with bottles of Jameson and, and stuff. and I think there's one, where is it? But there's a Jameson restaurant while Kee, not Wal Keegan. I think it's in Wilmette.

Conor Cunneen: there is, and I can't, I know the one you're talking about already. I'm having a blank on where it actually was. 

Brad Minus: right, right. But I had, yeah, but there's, there was spec, I don't know if, I don't think it was owned by Jameson. No, but I think they had, they got the licensing right, because the, the, the font and the, the logo was the genius and.

Was was actually the Jameson Whiskey logo. And yes, I got a Jameson while I was there because I felt like it would've been sacrilegious if I didn't. So no, that's, I mean, no, I think there's a lot of, we have a lot of Irish culture, I don't know, and lack of a better term, I'd say a lot of Irish appropriation out here in America.

Conor Cunneen: I suppose, yeah, that's probably true. But then again, like depending which. authority. Look at, either 30 to bring 30 and 40 million people living in the United States have got some Irish, heritage or Irish, blood in them. So it's a huge part of the US culture, obviously, and because now we're kind of in a total global world.

I mean, American cultures come through Ireland, Irish cultures come into the uk, Australia and the United States, et cetera. So it's a never ending change, I think. 

Brad Minus: Okay. So just to get some of these questions answered, and I'm sure that I'm only gonna ask them because I don't know, and I'm thinking that some of the people will ask you as well, and then we're gonna get back to your story.

first of all, kilts, are they both Irish and Scottish, or are they basically Scottish? any Irish man who claims that 

Conor Cunneen: great. Put it that way. It's, really a Scottish thing. Years and years ago, before, trousers pants were invented.

But kilt is primarily a Scottish thing. 

Brad Minus: Okay. And that basically says the same thing for bagpipes. 

Conor Cunneen: the main, pipe in Ireland, or the most traditional Irish pipe is what's called the Ilan Pipe, U-I-L-E-A-N-N. And the way that is played is that they get the music by squeezing the bag underneath the arm.

bagpipes are very much associated with Scotland, but most of the Irish, large bands here use bagpipes as well. So, the iland pipe is the more traditional one, and if you ever want to see really good musicians playing the iland pipe, you might be familiar with the chieftains.

Yes, they were an Irish, folk, music band. Yeah. And they used to have a couple of very good ill pipe players. the chieftains, if someone wants to go onto YouTube after checking Harling, they can go to the chieftains. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. No, the chieftains are great. No, it's great. but yeah, but there's a lot of string instruments though, that are, that are associated with Ireland.

Right. 

Conor Cunneen: the harp is the main one. And that's really the only one I think will really be associated with our and the harp. Actually, Brad is the Irish national icon. So on all of the government, livery and stationary, the harp, peers. And the interesting thing is green is not the national color of Ireland.

It's actually blue. Now, don't ask me why. I'm not sure. I suppose I should check it sometime, but the official government color is blue. 

Brad Minus: Wow. 

Conor Cunneen: Yep. 

Brad Minus: There is something that we all need to learn. Because of course, everybody, St. Patrick's Day we're, you know, in the whole bit and people wear green thinking.

You know, and then, people are like, oh, well you're not Irish so you shouldn't wear green. And I'm like. this has become a national holiday and I think that it celebrates Ireland. and again, like you said, we've all got a little piece of Ireland in us somewhere, 

Yeah. But that's, that's great. All right, so we've taken care of some of those questions that I know a lot of people have, but are afraid to ask a real Irishman. So this is good. We're moving on here. So, you were with Murphy's and then you came to the United States. What was the idea behind it?

Did Murphy's actually send you here? 

Conor Cunneen: Well, no. I left Murphy's after a couple of years and had a couple of different corporate moves and eventually I ended up, with a company called, best Foods who were taken over by Unilever you'd be familiar with. 

The brands I was responsible for were primarily, Hels mayonnaise. And, no soups and sauces in the European Market, Ireland. They transferred me over to look after the UK business for a couple of years, and then I was asked to go to the United States. And I remember a friend of mine in Ireland who actually worked with a competitor.

He said, Conor, I, here you're going over to the states to mess that place up now. Are you? Yeah. Well, he actually used a different four letter word compared to, to miss. But we won't get involved in that. 

Brad Minus: get it. 

Conor Cunneen: That's amazing. 

Brad Minus: alright. you went to the UK first?

Conor Cunneen: yeah, I was working in the UK for two years. So what happened, Brad, was that. I had done a pretty good job with the Irish business, food service business that we were working on, and they said, let's bring the Irish guy over to the UK as well. So I was actually working on the Irish business and on the UK business, and what just happened there was that I'd fly out on, Monday morning and, fly back, to Dublin on, either Thursday or Friday.

But the challenge I had though was that I'd leave Dublin on, Monday morning, come into the uk. I. I, I'm pretty enthusiastic and lively guys, so when we have meetings on Monday morning, for instance, after I arrive in the uk, after a while, I realized that they haven't got a clue what I'm saying. I'm speaking far too fast, so I'd slow down and keep slowing down.

Then for the rest of the, the week, I'll go back to our, maybe on Thursday night. I go into the meetings on Friday and I'm speaking slow by Irish standards and my friends are thinking this guy's had a stroke or something like that. So it was, really for, I really, really enjoyed working with my buddies in the, the uk.

We were there almost for two years. we were actually planning to land permanently in the uk, but I was able to turn the UK business around and then they said, do you wanna come over to the us? So. I came over to the US and I've been working on my Chicago accent now, Brad, for about 25 years. Nearly near.

Brad Minus: so what would you say the difference as far as the culture goes between Ireland and the uk? Besides, they speak a lot slower, 

Conor Cunneen: They speak a lot slower. 

Differences would've been, I think, in, they were a bit more proper, kind of in the way they looked after themselves and spoke, et cetera. And the, business environment, I mean, I was advised that, this suggests me you're using a lot of, bombs. so we pull back a little bit on that. But the group I was working with though, I couldn't say there was much differences 'cause I was really only, doing business there and really kind of come back to Ireland to live at the weekends, et cetera.

all I gotta say is that, 25 plus years, on, I still have got some good friends, from the uk and I, have really fond memories of the whole place. Were you basically in London. A place called Escher, which is southwest of London, near, Heathrow, airport. it's kind of one of the fancier places.

No, I wasn't staying in the fancy place. But, one of the fancier places where a lot of the soccer stars have their, training facilities. Chelsea has got a training facility there. A lot of the soccer stars live around that area as well. 

Too warm and hum. But London and the, the fall or the autumn as we would call it, I think it's just a beautiful city. 

Brad Minus: Excellent. Yeah, I, and the only reason I ask is 'cause I'm actually heading to London next month. Right. for, I'm heading there for, for some business that I got that I gotta do in our, in at our office there.

Right. And, I'm looking forward to it. 'cause I've never been, so, I, I just the idea of the, what you thought between that 'cause Then my next question obviously is, is, is now Europe coming over to the United States? Did you have some sort of culture shock and what might have, you know, what might have stirred that?

Yeah. 

Conor Cunneen: probably the culture, shock. I, for me was not too bad because I come over here. And I'm after being. No, we, we, well, first culture shock was we arrive at Christmas, time and I drag my 14-year-old darling daughter out of high school in Ireland and dump her into a freshman class in Nle at 14 years of age.

I mean, it was just in the middle of freshman year, Christmas time, that that was kind of cruelty and, but she was. Being brilliant about her. I've never, I, I remember when she got married a few years back, I said to her at the wedding, you could've, I never remember you once giving me, I used the copy because the word shit, for yeah, when I was, had Ru ruined your life kind of thing.

The positive is that she met her husband, at the school as well. So there was positives, there. But the first major challenge, Brad was. We arrive, went Christmas time, three or four days before Christmas. My wife wanted to get out of Ireland before Christmas 'cause she thought it'd be too mud if we were there at Christmas.

but six days after we arrived, Chicago has its worst snow storm since 1967. 

Brad Minus: geez. 

Conor Cunneen: So we, I mean, snow in Ireland, that's a major snow storm in Ireland. I've never seen a snowblower in my life. we arrive into Chicago, we can't get access to our house. all of our belongings were stuck in transit because they couldn't get 'em out.

one of the many interesting little things that happened is we brought over some wines and other bits and pieces, which I think technically you're not supposed to do, but I would put 'em into, packaging and the large, transport or transit, cube. And because it was freezing.

The wines kind of pushed the corks out. So a lot of the clothing was damaged by red wine. Oh, no. 

Brad Minus: Oh my God. 

Conor Cunneen: That would've been 98, the winter of, Christmas 98, 99 is what it was. But my wife still is with me. So as I say, if we survive that, we'll survive anything. 

Brad Minus: I've, I dragged mine around too, so I get that. Yeah. but in 1979 I was there and we had what we called the blizzard of 79. Yeah. And literally, so I was nine years old. Yeah. And the snow drifts. Were taller than me. My dad's six feet tall. The snow dress were taller than him.

Yeah. but it was a blast. We had a great time because the sledding, the skiing, all of that was like unparalleled. We would, we'd, like, we had, we had, these dress were so big that we would literally put the, you know, build giant forts. We'd have to tunnel through, to get to each other's houses. 

Yeah, our snowblowers and our shovels never got more exercise. 'cause it was just, it was a constant, constant thing. 

Conor Cunneen: Yeah. Well, no, the change is, I actually said this to someone the other day when I was on the phone to them in Ireland. I've used a snowblower once this winter. That's a total change, like for Chicago.

Really? I swear only once. 

Brad Minus: Wait, but it's been cold, you guys. It's been 

Conor Cunneen: cold. Yeah, it's been cold. All right. When there was another snow storm, but, it is totally changed what's happened, in the last few years in terms of the amount of snow that we are we're getting.

Brad Minus: yeah. My last question was, and you just answered it, was, do you still get back to Ireland once in a while? 

Conor Cunneen: yeah, I tried to get back at least once a year. We're gonna be back twice this year for weddings and, things like that. And anytime I'm in danger of losing the hours broke and I desperately need a good point of Guinness, I go back to Ireland.

Brad Minus: Oh, okay. So wait, I then I that there's another thing that myth. I dunno if it's a myth or if it's the truth you can tell us, but we understand that Guinness here doesn't taste the same as it does in Ireland, and then the alcohol content is a little bit higher in Ireland. Is that true?

Conor Cunneen: I take the alcohol content first. My understanding is the alcohol content is 4.2%, here and in Ireland. And the reason why it doesn't taste as good here as it does in Ireland is because you're not in Ireland. We can follow that logic because When we used to go to, we were living in, Ireland.

We'd go to France, pretty often, for vacation, and you'd be buying, $3 bottles of wine, red wine, and it was magic. So you'd buy a case of it, bring it back to Ireland and bring it back to Ireland. And then we're drinking the $3 bottle of wine in our back garden.

And it's rubbish. It tastes awful. From my view, my belief is that so much of, your perception is based on your environment and experiences, and I think, Guinness service is poured well, it tastes, good, but the challenge is a lot of the time it's not poured well. And it's just something that I think Guinness could be more active on here in the us That's my perception.

But it's easy for one person to talk about a corporate brand. 

Brad Minus: No. No, but that's good to know because all of us we're under this myth that, you know, it tastes different, it's supposed to be better and blah, blah, blah. But I, I get what you're, I get what you're saying, and I, and I'm right there with you. So, you know, Portillo's.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Portillo's is at Chicago Mainstay. I mean, if you want a good beef sandwich, there's Portillo's. Now, don't get me wrong, there's plenty of mom and pop shops out there that are much better than Portillo's. Yeah. But if you want, if you know that you want a decent beef sandwich, you can go to Portillo's and you can get one.

We've got two here in Tampa, and it isn't the same. It's, yeah. the, what the excuse is, is the water. 

Conor Cunneen: Yeah. I'll tell you an interesting one. when I was on Orlando about two years ago, we were driving near Universal Studio somewhere.

There was a backup of mile long that didn't make any sense to me. I took to the outside lane, I was able to avoid the backhoe 'cause people were obviously in the line for something. You know what they were in the line for? It was the opening of the first White Castle in Orlando. In Florida.

Yes. And people were lying for 24 hours for this magic. 

Brad Minus: Another Chicago mainstay. Yeah. And another Chi, another Chicago chain that was, that was built there, bred there and made popular there. And here it is coming into Florida and people are lined up out the door to get to it. That Portillo's I was telling you about.

During lunch, you can't get in, you have to plan. You know, you either gotta be there at 11 o'clock. Or know that you're not gonna eat till two, right? Yeah. So, but that's, you know, that's Chicago. Alright, so let's run back here real quick. And, so you get back here to Chicago, and, you brought your whole family and everybody's running.

Unfortunately, you're stuck in a snowstorm when you get here. and you started the layout and then you were working. and who were you working for when you got here? I was 

Conor Cunneen: working, we call Unilever because they took over the company right? So I was, VP of marketing for their food service business, and we were responsible for selling, product and services into, restaurants, hotels, hospitality, 

Institutions, that kind of thing. So it was a pretty, good, business and I really enjoyed it because my boss when I came over first, he was a, a Italian American with a wonderful name of Mike Bevilacqua. out in New York, he made Robert De Niro sound like a choir boy. So being an f bomb, dropping Irish guy myself, I felt really at home with this kind of a guy.

it was interesting though that, a couple of years after we were taken over by Unilever I wasn't a good cultural fit for them 'cause Unilever's a great organization, but bit more straight list than what, we were, especially with our Baa Mike Bevera. And, after a period of time we just, separated.

Brad Minus: yeah, they wanted me 

Conor Cunneen: to go back to Europe for family reasons. I told them to get stuffed. they told me get stuffed so with a mutual stuffing. And, but, I understand that one person cannot determine a, an HR policy for an organization. So, left them and I started doing some consulting initially on the food service area.

Was being asked to speak at conferences, was being asked to come back and speak at conferences. And at the time I left, I went to an old placement company for a couple of months where they were kind of giving you advice and how to build your resume and what your future was, et cetera.

I decided I didn't wanna do that, I just wanna do my own thing. But what I did do when I was at the old placement company was I saw what, job search, and, unemployment, which I used very, very carefully to spend a few minutes time does to people's psyche. And I said to the outplacement company, I'll do it lunch and learn.

someday I'm staying sane and productive in job search. I did that thinking it was gonna be a once off. They said, Cameron, will you do it again next week and the week after. And since then, I've done a lot of work with people in job search. It's not an income stream of mine. I've written a book on the topic, which is this one here is not whether, staying motivated and productive in job search.

and that really allowed me to hone my. Motivational messages and made me realize that, hey, I've got some kind of content that does help people, whether they're in job search or whether they're in job. so, after a little while, I morphed into Irishman Speaks and, today the brand is Irishman Speaks and the mission is to improve people performance and productivity with a smile.

Improve people performance and productivity with a smile. 

Brad Minus: I love that. that's exactly what we're here. This is exactly what life changing challenges is. It's, you know, usually speak on, people with that have a, major adversity in their life, somewhere down the line. Be an obstacle and it a disease, tragedy in their life, something.

And then how they've overcome it with, doing stuff that are. Unorthodox. You know, obviously your whole life's been unorthodox, so this, makes it a lot easier. especially since, you said you went to business and then all of a sudden you found yourself marketing and then where you bounced around.

I think that's fantastic. Yeah. makes for great stories. But that's what we need and especially in jobs right now where people feel stuck. not everybody is made for. making their own business, you know, not everybody's about being an entrepreneur. 

Which is what goes crazy. all over the internet today, right? Yeah. Everything is, oh, be your own boss. You become entrepreneur, but not everybody's made for that. Yeah. 

Conor Cunneen: That's 

Brad Minus: true. 

Conor Cunneen: Yeah. I mean, you gotta have the entrepreneurial spirit.

You gotta find the right idea, and then you gotta be able to survive for a couple of years. Because quite honestly, job satisfaction couldn't get anything better, but revenue stream can be all over the place. I mean, COVID. The week when the country closed down, I got about 18 phone calls from event planner saying, Conor, we're canceling.

We're not doing it. We'll have to Woody Berkeley some other time. 2009, 10 11 kind of thing. When the other depression happened, boy, that was pretty difficult as well. So you've gotta have, mental resilience. I think in my business as well. You need a physical resilience, but you also have to have some financial resilience so that when things are a little bit difficult, you can keep on keeping on.

Brad Minus: I get that. You know, and I went through the same exact thing. So, you know that I'm an endurance coach, at the time I had a roster of like 32 people it was only because I had taken on that many people because I worked on contract as an IT contractor and right around covid, I had just signed a new contract and they took it from me.

Yeah. And so I just started picking up more people and then all of a sudden they were like, well, we really can't meet, so, I can't, I can't go to the gym. But I'm like, that's the greatest thing about endurance sports is everything's done outside. But the true, yeah, yeah. The pools were, the pools were limited.

people were, they were just, scared and then of course people were losing, losing income, so of course they weren't. Yeah. The first thing that's gonna go is their endurance coach. Right? 

Conor Cunneen: absolutely. Same with the bringing in, speakers and things like that. the positive of the covid though, for someone, like me, it did actually allow me to develop it.

I think good skillset on, webinars and Zoom, et cetera. So I now can do, training and, speaking via Zoom or teams to organizations. I was doing a little bit of it, but this has opened up totally new avenues for me. 

Brad Minus: Okay, so let's talk about your advice on, job performance and people that are feeling stuck in their jobs, which is what I think is, going on right now, and has been going on for a while.

It's not the fact that there's not jobs out there. we're at a 4.1 unemployment rate. And if you look at all the job boards, There's a plethora of jobs out there, but the people that are already in their jobs and they feel like, well, I have to take this job because I need money.

Yeah. What are some of the, the tricks, trades, techniques that you talk about to help people either move on or stay in their job and get more fulfilled? Right. 

Conor Cunneen: I've been in that once or twice or had, bosses that were like something out of a horror movie or something like that. But here's where I start with organizations, Brad, is that I say that most leaders cannot improve their employees net worth. But almost all leaders can improve employee's self-worth.

Hmm. Okay. So, I mean, unless you're Elon Musk, you're not gonna be able to improve what your employee's, network anyway, significantly. But every single one who's watching or listening to this can improve. their colleagues' self-worth. And if you do that, you're gonna be more productive.

And what I try to do is I provide some good concepts, which you can speak about as to how, anyone can improve their employees, their colleagues are subordinates, self-worth, so they, can improve the productivity and performance, and do it with a smile as well. 

Brad Minus: Excellent. Do you want to, go into some of the techniques?

Conor Cunneen: Yeah. the core keynote I do is based around the Gift of Gab and Gab. Brad is an acronym for goals, attitude, and behavior. Okay. Goals, attitude, and behavior. 

Brad Minus: I like it. 

Conor Cunneen: idea here is that if you can adapt the concept I'm gonna speak about, you will be able to create a different work environment.

but you gotta be intentional about doing it. I think people will say to me, Conor, that's really good content. I love it. And I say, alright, you've got good content. You've got good ideas, now it's up to you and you gotta be intentional about doing this. So if we take, goals, what I speak about is that I speak about macro and micro goals.

And the basic macro goal, I say to people, whether they're, I'm speaking to executive team or whether I'm speaking to, supervisors or people on the shop floor, the factory floor, the question I put to them is, what do you want to be famous for? What do you want to be famous for? Now, I don't mean famous like Lady Gaga or Kardashians or something like that.

I mean, what do you want to be famous for with your work colleagues? What is it you want your work colleagues to say about you after you've left the room? Or if you are being introduced to the, new leader in the department or the CEO, what is it you would like your, person who's introducing you to say about you?

and this applies particularly to the interview process, Brad, we spoke about the job search earlier, one of the core pieces of information or advice I give someone who's going for an interview. Or someone was going for a sales call, you're probably not gonna clinch the deal after the first interview or for sales pitch.

So what I say is, what is it you want the interviewer to be saying about you after you have left? If you're doing a sales call, you ain't going to get a business first time, but what is it? I want that person who may be making the final decision to say about me after I've left the room.

I need to know what it is I want them to be saying about me. So if I'm going for an interview for a, a, a job, I, I, I want, I, I'm going and say, all right, the things that are important to them, the things that I've got, I wanna show them I'm productive. I wanna show them I'm proactive and I'm a good team player, for instance.

So I encourage people to find three attributes, then go into the interview or into the sales call and illustrate those three. Attributes so that when you've left the call and the interviewer selling you up to the next level, they'll say, this person definitely is proactive. They're, a good team player, et cetera, and they're productive.

That kind of thing. so the macro goal, I say for organizations and for each individual, and what I do, Brad, is I say to people, alright, you've got a piece of paper in front of you. Just write down what are the three attributes. You would like to be known for or be famous for. And I say, alright, you write those down, I will now give you five micro goals that will help you to achieve those without knowing what you've written down.

So, okay. So the next part of this then is what are the five micro goals and the five micro goals? Actually spell the acronym chaps. C-H-A-P-S. Alright. One of the things I, I do believe, Brad, that is, that as a, a speaker or presenter, if you are presenting more than two or three concepts, it's really difficult for people to remember them.

So I encourage people a lot of the time to find an acronym that can, they can hang the lessons onto. So the, the acronym for the chat for the five micro goals that if you adopt and adapt will help you to achieve your macro goal. spells, chap, so I'll ask you a question. Alright? would it be fair to say, Brad, that if someone compliments you, you feel better?

Yes. Okay. Alright, so let's turn it around. Would it be fair to say that if you compliment someone, they're likely to feel better? Yes. Okay. Alright. So the micro goal I'm going to put to you and to the listeners is the first micro goal is I will compliment one work colleague tomorrow. We'll compliment one person, neighbor, whatever it is.

And the idea, reason why I say micro goals is because we feel better when we achieve a micro goal. So if tomorrow you compliment someone and you've set it as a micro goal, that dopamine kicks in, you feel slightly better because I've complimented someone. But what about the person that you've complimented?

How do you think that they're gonna feel positive and upbeat it as well? It's a win-win first element of chaps. Second element of chaps is H. For here, as in here, the words. Thank you. My goal as a leader or as a supervisor tomorrow when I go into work is I'm going to hear the words thank you from. A work colleague or from one of my people.

Now, you may well have actually been thanked in the last few days, but it goes over our head. However, if I go in with the intention that I'm going to hear the worst thank you, I've got to do something positive for that work colleague, for that, associate or whatever it is. So when I do that, something positive, I'll hear the worst.

Thank you. I realize, Hey, I've achieved in all the chaps, micro goal dopamine kicks in. I feel better. What about the person you've, complimented or done something for, they're gonna appreciate you more as well. So, simple little micro goes like that. 

Brad Minus: that's fantastic. 

thank you. And those things coming to you is, thank you. and I think that we need to, it's something that needs to, be put back into our community, to our languages. A lot of times now it's like, oh, thank you. It's like I didn't do anything and they kind of just shove it off and Oh, yeah, whatever.

Hey, I didn't do anything or No problem, whatever, is to look back at that person in the eyes and say, oh, you're very welcome, or You're welcome. and we're, we're missing that nowadays, as I've noticed that, that people just throw it away and it's like, oh, thank you. You know? Yeah. Oh, you're welcome. You know what I mean?

Yep. And continue that energy. Yeah. Just say you're welcome. And, and continue your conversation. 

Conor Cunneen: It's true, it's about appreciation as well. I mean, you are appreciating them by doing something for them.

They're coming back to you and you are kind of taking it in. So it's bit, it's kind of win-wins is what I try to work on with this, chaps, acronym. And I, I, I jokingly say, look, you can hear Thank you anytime you want. 

Hear the worst Thank you. From a car driver behind me and you say, what? By that I mean, like, you let someone in in front of you, they give you the wave. I mean, that's, you don't hear it, but it actually is a thank you. And then what I say, Brad, is that the next time someone wants to be let in, in front of you, tell them, go away.

I've already achieved my micro goal for the day.

Brad Minus: Do you do that often? 

Conor Cunneen: I do. The gift of GABA for, I mean, the idea behind the gift of GABA is to improve people performance and productivity with a smile. There is not an organization here in the United States or anywhere in the world that does not want to improve their people.

Their performance and their productivity. So I can speak to manufacturing, I can speak, I speak a lot to healthcare 'cause I've had two boats of cancer over the years. I can speak to, education, road construction, I've done it for as well kind of thing. So any group that wants to improve their people performance and productivity can appreciate the gift of GAB and the CHAPS acronym.

Brad Minus: Oh, I love that. And for, for those of you listening, if if you want a company or if you've ever an organization and you wanna hear more or actually, you know, get hit Conor, into your organization to do that gift of Gab, make sure you go to irishman speaks.com and he has oh, he is got loads of stuff on here.

And it's absolutely, it's a great website. It's got great resources. You need to check that out. However, I need to step back, 'cause Conor, I. You just said something that, that just threw me. You said that you went through two bouts of cancer. Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Yeah. When did that happen? 

Conor Cunneen: when I was in Ireland, I had, thyroid cancer, and then here in the states I had prostate cancer, a few years back.

but again, you talk about life changing, challenges, Brad, When, life hands you, lemons, you make lemonade, et cetera. With this, what I found was it opened doors for me. I know I speak a lot to oncology groups, cancer celebrations, survivorship groups, et cetera, and healthcare in general. 

I try to bring a little bit of levity to these programs, as well. I tell event planners when I'm chatting with them and they're saying, will we bring this guy in or not? I tell them that, I've had a, a, the thyroid whipped out and the prostate whipped out. So having had a thyroidectomy and a prostatectomy, I now have an Irish condition.

No one has, there's not much left of me. Yes. 

Brad Minus: Alright, well, you and the rest of my family, and unfortunately I haven't hit that yet, but my whole family, I think we should have numerous stakes in the Synthroid drug. You should be able to join us. I'm sure that you've been either been on Synthroid or a portion of it for, you know, for as many years as you had.

Yeah. Yep, yep. Yeah. My whole family, I don't know what it is. We all have, they've all had, most of the women in my family That had this issue with the thyroid. And we should have like, owned most of the company by now. 

Conor Cunneen: I think that 98.4% of people in the United States are on a version of it.

But I'll tell you an interesting one. I was on Synthroid or a brand, I think it might been Synthroid might be the brand. I'll just take a generic now, obviously, but when I came over here to the States when I was in Ireland, the tablet I was on, was, Synthroid or version of, I come over here to the States immediately.

The tablet is three times more expensive than it was in Ireland. It doesn't surprise. I mean, it's not, well, some of the pricing here in the healthcare system. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. big pharma is, has, you know, it's got their hooks into us pretty good. I wish it wasn't so, but obviously you hear everything on the news, and, it's not a great thing.

Why do you think we have got people that literally go over to Canada and go to the pharmacies and get stuff. One, you don't need a prescription. and well at least not for non narcotics. but they'll go in there, but it's cheaper, you know? Yeah. It's absolutely a hundred percent cheaper.

And it's so weird that, you know, out here, it's like we maintain 80% of the big pharma's profits so they can continue to sell it to Europe and Canada, at, a quarter of the price. Yep. but hopefully, one of these days our government or somebody will be able to, you know, take care of.

But you know, right now is, as long as it's available and insurance companies are at least taking care of a part of it, there's not really a lot that we can do. and the demand stays high. Why does the demand stay high? Because we're paying for it and we continue to pay for it until it gets to the point where we're not paying for it anymore.

And there's more competition in the marketplace. Big pharma's gonna win every time. 

Conor Cunneen: Yeah. and I mean, I think the lobbying, levels that big pharma are able to push into effect in Washington, et cetera, it's so difficult for this to ever change, I think.

Brad Minus: So, yeah, I am really, really excited about, I wanna learn more. I wanna see you more. we need to dig into some of your videos and I definitely tell everybody out there, you know, he's got a ton of videos on his site and you have a, YouTube site, correct?

Conor Cunneen: have a YouTube site, which is Irishman Speaks all one word. If they just key in Irishman speaks, Conor can, it'll take a as well. where I put a lot of my material and virtually everything we've spoken about here appears in some kind of format or some little clip from a keynote that I would've done on my YouTube channel.

Brad Minus: Excellent. So I'm gonna make sure that all of the links to social media, to YouTube to his site, irishman speaks.com. Again, irishman speaks.com, and, make sure that you've got all that. He's got videos, he's got a blog on there. there's some information on keynotes and workshops and stuff coming up.

you can get his meeting planner, and get on, his schedule and get him out to either your organization or your business. if you happen to be watching this on YouTube. I really appreciate it. go ahead and hit that subscribe, like, hit that notification bell so you always know when another episode is dropping.

If you're listening on Apple or Spotify or some other podcast directory, really appreciate it if you give us a review and I don't even care if it's a bad review because any information that I get, any kind of feedback, it just helps me evolve the podcast that much further. 

Had a great time on this. I learned a lot and I really appreciate it. thank you again. It is been a pleasure, Brad. 

Conor Cunneen: It's been a pleasure. Oh, well I'm sorry it doesn't get you feeling homesick. 

Brad Minus: It's sunny and 82 outside right now, so I really feel bad for you. But for O'Conor and myself, thank you for listening and we'll see you in the next one. Cheers.