How Singing Changed My Leadership with Áine Gleeson

Áine Gleeson, founder of WowWe, shares her powerful journey from childhood singing to losing her confidence after being dropped from a music group at 14, and finally reclaiming her voice as an adult through coaching and determination.

• Music was a safe, joyful family experience during childhood road trips and gatherings
• A pivotal rejection at age 14 silenced Áine's singing voice for decades
• Joining a local music group as an adult rekindled her desire to sing
• Focusing on connecting with listeners rather than worrying about judgment transformed her confidence
• Singing at her son's wedding became a profound emotional experience that touched many
• Finding her voice changed her leadership approach at WowWe, creating a culture where everyone's contributions matter
• Understanding different communication styles helps create inclusive spaces where all voices are valued
• Small steps toward self-expression can create ripple effects of positive change

Don't wait to be chosen, choose yourself. Today is the day. You do matter, and small steps do a lot.

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Transcript

Aideen Ni Riada: 0:02

Welcome. This is the Resonate podcast with Aideen. I'm Aideen Ni Riada and my guest today is Áine Gleeson. Áine is the founder of WowWe, one of Ireland's leading gift companies. She's a proud Ennis native and multi award winning entrepreneur. Áine built WowWe on curiosity, creativity and and heart, and her business offers people meaningful gifts that they just love to give. Áine actually came to me for singing coaching, which was a long time dream of hers, and I'm so thrilled to share that she's now singing regularly and bringing the same heart and courage to her voice as she has to her business. Thank you for joining us today, áine voice, as she has to her business.

Aine Gleeson: 0:44

Thank you for joining us today, Áine. It's lovely to be here. It's an absolute pleasure. I'm delighted.

Aideen Ni Riada: 0:49

I'm so excited as well to share the journey of your singing with other people, because for you it was a long time goal. You were involved in traditional music. Tell us a little bit about your background with music in general and how that led you to the singing when.

Aine Gleeson: 1:08

I think back, I suppose, on my childhood.

Aine Gleeson: 1:12

Some of the fondest memories we had were going on road trips as a family and singing and having music in the car. And I was a middle child, I always seemed to get the middle seat, but we used to sing. We'd start the journey with a prayer for a safe journey and then we'd belt into singing and my mom would sing the lyrics she knew and some lyrics that she made up along the way, and my dad would tap the steering wheel to the beat and we would all join in in the back and I have very fond memories of that. It was a choice of that or counting all the numbers of cars coming against us, so we always chose the musical route. And, yeah, I've fond memories of that and lots of different songs along the way that, even when I hear them now they bring, bring me right back there, great memories of how I suppose I gelled together with my siblings and my parents in that car, that car. You know we'd often be stuck behind a tractor and instead of moaning we were singing.

Aideen Ni Riada: 2:12

I love it and it's so interesting singing does. It is something that a lot of people connect more to their childhood than to their adult life. Right, it's something that's more common. You know, kids are allowed to sing. They make noise and everything. But as we get older, there's more judgment around our voices, and often our singing voices as well. But you didn't, um, just sing as a child. I know that you are also had instruments and you were doing some music that way as well. Tell us a little bit about that too.

Aine Gleeson: 2:42

I suppose my granddad played the concertina and from the age it was safe. We all had tin whistles in our mouths and my dad would have had the school band and my mom played as well and so did her siblings. So music was in the house and we were very carefree in our music. Music was a safe thing to do with our family and our cousins and I just loved it. And as I became older you start entering competitions and I suppose a little part of the judging starts. And I suppose my memory brings me right back as I'm talking to you today.

Aine Gleeson: 3:20

When I was 14 years of age. It was a ce, a Cayley band competition out in Tulla in County Clare, and I remember sitting on the steps of a monument waiting to see would I get picked or not for the band. So there's 20 people in a row and he's got to pick 14. And I can still hear his footsteps going along saying yeah, I'll take you, I won't take you, I'll pick you. And he got to me and he looked and he continued without picking me. I was dropped, basically, and I do understand how sports people get, you know, especially in teams. I do understand how picking and dropping can have such a dramatic effect on on your confidence. And not alone did I get dropped that day, but my voice dropped as well, aideen, it dropped to a level of okay, I don't make the cut, I'm not good enough, and unfortunately it kind of stopped there.

Aine Gleeson: 4:23

I would sing if I was at a party. I would sing if I had a glass of wine. I would sing in the shower, I'd sing in the kitchen to a safe place, I would sing to my children, but any other singing or music had just ceased and that always, always, disappointed me. So I'm thinking, maybe five years ago my dad said there's a music group in town who gather on a Tuesday night. He said it's a real humble thing and they'd love if you join them and bring your accordion. I said, dad, my accordion's in a box for 30 years. He said I know. But he said you were well able to play that. He said why don't you join them? They're all adults, there's no judgment. There's no judgment. There is no, there's no critics. Just why don't you just go for one Tuesday and see how you get on? So reluctantly I said, okay, I'll go, and I went in and I got such a warm welcome and they played some tunes that I knew and some ones that I didn't, and they sang some songs as well and I thought, thought, oh my God, for the first time, this is gorgeous, I belong here. The music was coming back to me and I kind of went home on a high and it was getting very close to Christmas and they always had a Christmas gathering.

Aine Gleeson: 5:35

So I arrived at the Christmas party with my glitz and my glamour and they said you know, everybody tonight here has to sing. And I went, oh, and honestly it transported me right back to that step in Tulla where I froze, and it's amazing how things sit. I had no idea that was still there, but I thought I can't sing. So they went around the table and they sang like imperfectly, they sang with their eyes closed. They sang ch chanos, they sang funny songs.

Aine Gleeson: 6:06

We got a version of O Holy Night and it came to me and I passed on and there was a part of me saying I really want to sing. I was itching to sing, I wanted to sing and I couldn't sing. And I listened to the people who sang and I thought I'm equally as good as they are and yet I can't do it. Why can't I do it? And I really had to examine that part inside of me. What was stopping me? What is even vulnerable? What am I scared of? These are really nice people who I can sit, laugh and chat with. I'm well used to speaking at conferences laugh and chat with. I'm well used to speaking at conferences. I'm not a shy individual and yet when it comes to this part, I freeze. But I left the Christmas party and I remember going over the bypass in my car thinking next Christmas, when I'm asked to sing, I'm going to sing whatever it takes. And so that little thought sat silently and I was the non-singer in the group so they never asked me again and that even annoyed me. I thought I really, really want to sing.

Aine Gleeson: 7:13

So I was lying on a beach in La Hinch the following summer and something came up about singing and I said to my sister I would love to sing and she said why don't you? I said I've no confidence to sing. I just would get you know I'd freeze up completely. And she said I have the woman for you. It's Aideen Nereida. She said she's got a program running. It's called singing for confidence or something. She said I'll send you her link and look her up.

Aine Gleeson: 7:40

And that was the start to a whole new journey for me. I had to sit in front of a camera with Aideen and watch myself singing. I had to sing funny songs, like you know, a warm-up with the meows and woofs and all kinds of things. I had to get really vulnerable actually with myself. That was a rude awakening for me, but it was a wonderful. It was a wonderful experience and it allowed me to start expressing myself and unlocking that stupid part from the monument seat in Tulla to what's really going on.

Aine Gleeson: 8:21

And I remember one of the things that you said to me and and you mightn't even remember this, but you said when you're singing, don't take any notice of who else is in the room, just take notice of those words and how you think they might connect to the people who are listening. And that's all you need to do, because nobody else will hear anything other than the words you're singing and it's how you express them that they're listening to. Not a judgment way of singing, and I don't know how it works for your other students, but those words to me and even still, if I'm singing in company now and I get those little heebie jeebies inside me. I think, ok, sing with expression. What are the words in that song that will resonate with the listeners, what will touch them, what will connect them?

Aine Gleeson: 9:11

And I went into the Christmas concert the following year Now you know I won't say I wasn't nervous because they didn't know this part of me and they said will you sing this year?

Aine Gleeson: 9:24

I said I will and I could see heads turning and go. Oh, and the song I sang was the Rosalind Fair, which was one that you were helping me with, and I was able to introduce it with my accordion and my tin whistle and one of the guys in the group played the guitar with me and off I went and I can honestly say I came home. You know that group is full of crack and in Ireland that's a way of enjoying yourself. I did not need any cocaine. I was that high coming home that I had reached my mission. I I knew I had touched the souls of everybody listening. That song is a love story about a couple meeting at a fair, getting married at a fair, and all the joy of the banjo and the fiddle and the music and the tuning and that resonated with everybody there, as well as me being the newbie on the block being able to sing and to hear all their comments at the end, and it made my Christmas.

Aideen Ni Riada: 10:22

I'm so happy and you actually seemed to. You threw yourself into it, I guess, and it was really interesting to see your confidence grow. I know from experience working with lots of people that when we can concentrate on the message of what we're saying, it does help our confidence, because even when we're speaking, we're not thinking too much about ourselves. We're actually thinking more about what it is we're trying to communicate and in singing, the people who are really loved, singers who are loved they're the ones who communicate something within the music. And when you took that on board, that was the transformation.

Aideen Ni Riada: 11:03

It takes all of your attention away from how I feel and puts your attention back on the person listening, and that's really a beautiful thing and it's a beautiful song, and I know that the song itself had meaning for you. So this is something that I talk to people about a lot is don't just pick a song because you think it sounds nice or you like the way someone else sings it. Pick a song that has the meaning in it that you have attached to something, and I know that there's a story behind that song as well. Would you like to tell people about it?

Aine Gleeson: 11:33

well, it's a love story. I suppose it brings in music. It brings in a fair fair. I know Liam Clancy sang it and I always admired how he sang it, and Nancy Griffith sings it as well. But I've kind of developed my own style singing the song. But I suppose another story that resonates is that my son got married in 2022.

Aine Gleeson: 11:54

And I don't know if people can kind of resonate with this, but when it's your son's wedding, it's not like a daughter. You're slightly detached in that it's about the bride in so many ways and I wanted to sing and give something to them that would be memorable. So I sang what a Wonderful World in the church for them and I remember it was in Poland, in one of these traditional kind of ornate churches with the marble and the gold and the high pillars, and my voice went up to the top of the church and when I opened my eyes, most of the church were crying and you know it's great to get validation. Oh, we love your voice. Your voice is so sweet. I love how you sing, but when you open your eyes and you've connected with so many people who are crying from the words and the emotion of the occasion, like one of the lines in that song is I've heard my children cry, I've watched you grow. You'll know much more than I'll ever know it's.

Aine Gleeson: 13:00

It couldn't be more apt for a wedding and that's one of my biggest moments in singing that I could bring the joy to the congregation and to my son and his wife. And they were also not. My son was not crying, could not be crying, but he was smiling with a smirk saying well done, ma'am. And his wife now was crying, and they since have a little baby girl called Daisy, and I recently recorded a song for her called my Wonder Child, a song that Mary Black sings. Able to give that, to express myself through song and to be able to give that back is I can't describe it, but it doesn't really get any better than that for me.

Aideen Ni Riada: 13:45

I love that and I know, look, you're from County Clare in Ireland and singing is more part of our culture in Ireland. But I hear this um objection from people that they would just say, well, nobody wants to hear my voice. And what would you say to someone listening who has the dream to saying that maybe is talking themselves back out of it again?

Aine Gleeson: 14:08

I think you should let nobody dim your light. I do think of your voice is the one thing that you come with that's so unique to you. You can take your voice places that you can't take anything else. You know you can do chest voice, you can do high voice, you can do all kinds of silly voices. You can, with coaching, find you know that you can reach a higher pitch, a lower pitch, you can entertain people. You can practice using your voice in different tones. That would help you in business or in your relationships, in your personal life.

Aine Gleeson: 14:48

Like voice is actually so important. If somebody shouts at you, that message is so differently delivered to somebody who says something in a calm voice. Even general communication is your voice and what I would say is don't let anybody change that or dim it. It's yours, it's only yours and gentle, small steps, get some help. I think in Ireland especially we're very poor to look for assistance or coaching. I know in the US sometimes you know they could have 10 different coaches for different aspects of their lives and here we think, oh no, we're finished school, now we're done. Yeah, you know. And in in Ireland we're poor to look for help. But with help and with encouragement and it might be just somebody tapping you on the shoulder and saying I'll kill you. You're singing the fiddle and the shoulder and saying I kill you. You're singing the fiddle and the banjo and all I could hear in my head at three in the morning was that fiddle and the banjo.

Aine Gleeson: 15:45

He said I just loved it, like hearing little things like that for somebody who wouldn't sing two and a half years ago. There's that in every person listening they can bring their voices. You know, even if it's little warm-ups that you can find on YouTube for yourself, you'd be surprised Like I go for my walk every morning with my sister and on my way home I hum and I warm up my voice for a half an hour. It's great healing, it's great expression. I just feel wonderful after it. My breakfast, my shower, I'm into work and I'm actually able to face anything and I even feel the tone that I can speak to people with, or if something comes into my email that rocks me or I've got to address it. I have a whole new approach for that, with tone that I probably wouldn't have had until I really understood where I could take my voice.

Aideen Ni Riada: 16:37

I really understood where I could take my voice, that's beautiful.

Aine Gleeson: 16:40

My message to people is small steps. It's today is what counts. This moment is what counts, not how you felt or who critiqued you 20 years ago. It's about now and there's a whole beautiful future for everybody, in small steps. I really believe that.

Aideen Ni Riada: 16:58

Me too. I really do, and I think everybody's voice is so important. I bet you didn't realise how much of an impact your voice could have, yeah, and how significant those moments where people have connected with that message that you brought have been no, I would have had no idea.

Aine Gleeson: 17:16

And it's until you see the reaction, or see them frowning, or to see them closing their eyes or to hear them join in with you. That's another been another plus. I went whoa. Um, people saying I love how you sang, that I love that version. Or somebody actually recently asked me could they record with me and they'd love to play the Ellen Pipes and another guy played. They have a song, they want me to sing with them and play. And I went whoa. This could take me to a lot of places I've never been. I even want to write songs now Because when I listen to songs on the radio that I love, they're very simple lyrics, they're real stuff, they're not anything fancy, they're things that happen to us every day and that we experience. I now want to write songs.

Aideen Ni Riada: 18:06

Oh wow, I'm delighted to hear that that's so exciting, so exciting. So, look, we've talked a lot about the singing and I'm really excited to share this episode because I think it will really help people to decide to take that next small step towards doing what it is that they love to do, and if that's singing and so I just wanted to ask you is there anything you'd like to tell me about your own work and how your voice has changed within the business end of things, because you mentioned there briefly that you thought things had changed for you a little bit oh um.

Aine Gleeson: 18:43

I'm the founder of wowieie. It's an online gift business based here in the west of Ireland. There's nine wonderful creative women working with me and we paint, we embroider, we engrave and we print every day on beautiful gifts and we ship them around the world. And part of our creation is voice, in that we sit down every Thursday and we join as a team and we share our ideas, we work on any problems that we've had and I suppose our motto and our mission is to make our team better as a group and to listen to each other, and that there is no idea or comment that's silly or foolish.

Aine Gleeson: 19:28

And I have seen one particular lady who would never contribute in a meeting like she's speaking now, speaking now openly. I love her ideas. She's coming to the meeting ready to, I suppose, contribute and she's found her voice because of a culture I think that was created for myself, from what I know in voice, and that everybody's voice matters and that everybody can be heard and that you know sometimes they've come with really great ideas for a gift and to see those gifts trashed out on maybe a board with other people ideas with colours and we always would finish, we'd, we'd go and what else and what else, and to hear them all contributing. Nobody's shy and these are quite people, but they've seen how their voice, contributing to the meeting, has created gifts. And then they see how people come online and buy those actual gifts that were their idea, their voice at the beginning.

Aine Gleeson: 20:33

You know, I can't, I suppose and by those actual gifts that were their idea, their voice at the beginning, you know I can't, I suppose, emphasize how important it is that everybody's voice matters, whether it's at work, at home, in a relationship. And the joy that it's brought me to see those people, I suppose, lifted up in business and dying to contribute, dying to have their say, it's really important to me and it's very special to see that part growing and, I suppose, leadership within it, in that everybody feels safe and everybody feels that they have a voice and everybody can contribute. That's so important to me and there's a business here that can accommodate it and grow from it.

Aideen Ni Riada: 21:12

And there's a business here that can accommodate it and grow from it. I love that, and do you think having conquered your own fear around singing was like a thing that actually could help you understand when someone was holding back, that you could nearly sense and feel that they were holding back, because you have done that so much with your own voice?

Aine Gleeson: 21:38

Yes, absolutely. And I remember an introvert coming to me and she's saying I'm not able to contribute at meetings because I'm an introvert, I can't speak on the spot. So she said, if it's OK with you, can I think about the questions and the brainstorming and can I come to you tomorrow and, like she, she's a powerhouse. She comes with wonderful things now and she's learning to use her voice, but not in an instant. So she will come back the next day to me privately and, boom, she's got wonderful things to contribute.

Aine Gleeson: 22:05

So that in itself was very interesting for me to learn that it's not everybody can speak on the spot and that I have to learn more about different kinds of voice and different kinds of people, how they contribute. It's not that they can't, but sometimes they need to do it in a different way. And she's full. The girls are fully aware of it now and they'll say, okay, what did she come with? You know, because last week it was amazing. So that's so interesting that I can resonate with her and how she can. She can contribute confidently. She's not the girl at the meeting who comes with nothing now.

Aideen Ni Riada: 22:43

I love that and I loved how she was. She was willing to negotiate that situation on a one to one basis with you, and now it's part of the whole culture that they know that she'll come back with something awesome. That's amazing, um, so look, I don't know. I think we've covered an awful lot already.

Aideen Ni Riada: 23:02

Anya, I have loved working with you and I I think I always feel this little, um, kind of feeling of joy when I see someone I've worked with doing something similar with other people. It's like you know you're paying it forward within your business, helping people gain confidence and helping their voice be heard, and that just makes me feel like that. That ripple effect means that there's a lot of power each of us have in the world, because you doing that with your group of people in work means that they are probably able to do something similar for people in their family or perhaps with a friend, and that gives me great hope for the world at large, because I think a lot of people are feeling very sad and, you know, maybe a lack of optimism for this world because of so many things that are going on. But when I see someone like you and I know that my little part was significant in some way to you and you're so significant in so many ways to the people that you work with and those people will be significant to others.

Aine Gleeson: 24:09

Absolutely. I'm a firm believer that you know what happens at home comes into work and what happens at work goes home. So if I can assist and make somebody feel better, that they're going home feeling a bit better about themselves, I genuinely believe that's contagious, and if we're going home from work feeling a little bit better about it's wonderful.

Aideen Ni Riada: 24:33

Amen to that. We'll finish up there, Áine. Is there any last words that you'd like to say or any last piece of advice that you'd like to give people that may be struggling with their confidence or may be struggling with their voice?

Aine Gleeson: 24:45

Think, speak, write, create, share whatever it is. You know that is easy for you to express yourself. Um, don't wait to be chosen, choose yourself. Today is the day you do matter, and small steps does a lot beautiful advice.

Aideen Ni Riada: 25:03

Thank you so much. This is Áine Gleeson from WowWe and you can check her out at wowweie we. Um, I'll have the information and have the spelling in the show notes and we would love to hear from you If you have any comments about today's show or you'd like to speak to Áine about something or myself. We would like to hear from you and thank you all for listening. Until the next episode of the Resonate podcast with Aideen, we'll say goodbye and slán. We may as well use a little bit of Irish, right. Á, yeah.

Aine Gleeson: 25:32

That's correct slán.

Aideen Ni Riada: 25:34

Bye everyone.