Ellen McDonough is an expert in Marketing, Communication, PR, Advertising, Digital Marketing, Management for Sustainable Development (MSc Dublin City University 2012) focusing her energies in improving adoption of sustainable practices for individuals and business.
Can you speak a little bit about where you grew up and how that place shaped you?
In my section of Boston (Dorchester) in the 60s, 85% of us were first generation kids of Irish or Italian parents who worked hard to attain middle class while trying to keep the traditions and folklore of the ‘old country’ alive.
My very high quality Catholic school rewarded the great curiosity that I had in 'most' subjects and allowed my confidence to blossom. After school, we roamed the neighbourhoods like sheep on the hillsides in Ireland knowing that we had freedom as long as we stayed within the parish boundaries and rules. Parental supervision was limited to sports, school events and birthday parties. (However, the vast network of neighbours always kept a watchful eye behind curtains.) The result was that decision-making was developed at a very early age with the understanding of the positive and negative results.
The vibrant political landscape - from the Kennedys, Martin Luther King and the moon landing to Nixon and the Vietnam War - was presented on television instead of only print media. The magic of the first 'screens' became rooted in daily culture and the world became smaller.
My generation of Americans were born into the vortex of a brand new world that offered freedom, reward for achievement and an appetite for risk.
You’re a trained Communication Expert. Can you talk about your educational steps and exploring that professional path?
My initial adventure into communication training was through public speaking. At the age of 9, it was determined by virtue of my ability to speak clearly with substantial projection (basically, I was the loudest) that I would be the class spokesperson for events in our school auditorium which at the time had no audio system. Any fear of getting up in front of audiences vanished soon thereafter and I have enjoyed being ‘on stage’ ever since.
In secondary school, I participated in public speaking competitions and wrote for the school newspaper. However, I always considered these as skills in need of a subject. So, while communication was undoubtedly on my ‘university-search’ list, so were business and engineering. Ultimately, I found a dual-degree programme and did both communication and management degrees. [I still have a great interest in engineering!]
The surprise was that there was very little overlap or interconnectivity in the two curricula, the result is that I developed into a hybrid: A manager of communication systems (including technology which was a big focus in business school).
How would you describe your current work to people who don’t know you?
Very small businesses have been a primary focus for me. Generally, they spend the majority of their time managing day-to-day operations. Long-term strategic business management including marketing communication, financial, technology and resource efficiency systems are often not skill sets that they have in-house.
My firm works with them to create a plan, develop the systems, and train employees to, as much as possible, integrate these new skills into their day-to-day operations. These often become long-term relationships. Twenty-two years is the current record.
How do you view your own personal development? What are you looking to explore or master?
The logic of sustainability practices became very central for me when I was publishing the local newspaper in my region of the West of Ireland. The constant search for interesting and informative subjects to write about led us to a variety of subjects that were relatively new back in 2004. These included complementary health, bio-diversity, poor waste practices (aka dumping), energy-saving light bulbs, and the list goes on!
Ultimately, 'sustainability' became my focus long before it became a ubiquitous term for logical systems. In 2008, I bought the third electric vehicle in Ireland (more quad-cycle with a computer and batteries than a car). Sadly, the recession necessitated the closing of the newspaper, but, in 2010, I enrolled in a Masters programme on Sustainable Management.
I actually thought that I would change the world of small business with resource efficiency when I graduated. Alas, the Irish government has been very slow to introduce meaningful incentives for micro businesses to afford to embrace retrofitting and sustainable practices. However, I am very excited about working with Th!nk Europe to create change!
