'We all need to document our memories'

Orla Bakeberg is on a mission to inspire. Dublin-born Orla moved to South Africa with her parents at a young age and that’s where her highly successful business journey began.

The path has taken her to Geesala in North Mayo where she now lives with her husband Brian. But initial thoughts of semi-retiring to Ireland have been shelved as they pursue another business venture.

Apart from her work, Orla is a keen photographer and is eager to inspire people to capture their own special moments through words or photographs. We met in Ballina to chat about her career and life and what her hopes are for the future.

Angelina: Orla, thanks for talking to me. Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Orla: I am originally Dublin-born and moved to South Africa at quite a young age. I finished school over there with my adventurous parents. Then straight away got into business with my dad and my brother. We lived in Zimbabwe. 

I eventually met my husband, who's now Irish, and he is South African-born, and we lived in Botswana for many years. We've been in business together since we met. 

I'm a brand builder. I love marketing, creating, connecting the brand with the consumer. We set up what was a small activation company with an in-store brand ambassador for Unilever around Botswana as we were promoting their OMO powder. I had the activators in the stores all around the country. It's a small population, but it's a big country, it's bigger than France. I love the connection of the brand to the consumer. 

Then we used to do schools' programmes for Aquafresh toothpaste with GlaxoSmithKline. That was really rewarding because you're teaching little babies how to brush their teeth and dental hygiene. That then expanded the business through to Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho. We operated in eight countries, and it was all our own business.

Angelina: What was the next part of the journey for you?

Orla: We sold the business in 2017, and Brian said, 'Look, we've got an opportunity here. Let's go to Ireland.' 

He loves Ireland. Every time he's visited here, he's always loved it. We said 'We'll come and semi-retire in Ireland', which we have not done! 

Then we travelled around a bit, had a look, and then we bought a restaurant. How to lose your money in a quick short period of time? Do the restaurant thing! But anyway, lessons learned. Luckily, we got rid of it just before Covid. That was a blessing in itself. 

Then we carried on. I was doing some work with The Printed Image - a print company based in Dublin, again, building their brands, building the customers' brands, and that kind of thing. My brother has a speaker bureau. He started it in South Africa. He's now gone global, and he asked me to join him and help him to build his global presence. I've been doing that for the last few years. I've really loved it. I love seeing the brand and connecting him with his speakers and his customers and his partnerships and all of that. 

Then Brian and I took over this business called An Even Better Place to Work, which is an online employee engagement programme. Brian is more of the operational side of it, the commercial side of it. Again, I'm doing the brand building. It was started 17 years ago by an Irishman in the UK, and he didn't really develop it here in Ireland. It's got a great presence in England, Canada, America and South Africa. We took it over at the end of 2022. We bought it, the IP, everything, and spent last year building the brand, just getting it more modernised. Now we're getting it out into the Irish market.

Angelina: What does it do exactly in layman's terms, Orla?

Orla: It's online and you click in anonymously. It's all about people's needs at work and to feel valued at work. It's not about your paycheque or the brand. It's about you as a person in your job. It's a suite of diagnostics. There are 28 questions you fill in a few minutes, and it gives you a chart, and it gives your manager a chart as to how the mood of the business is across everything from connection, well-being, diversity, inclusion, safety at work, AI at work. There are all sorts of different suites of diagnostics. 

Then it gives you solutions as to how you can address those, what you could do as a business to create better connection and collaboration in the teams. You can't fix everything. But if you can at least try and have a look at where you need to fix things, you'd be amazed at how it can change things. When people are happy at work, they're productive, when they're productive, you make money.

Angelina: You mentioned work-life balance earlier - is that important to you?

Orla: I say yes to everything. Having moved back to Ireland, and particularly to Mayo, where we've been the last two years, it's brought out the creative side in me. I'm a photographer and I love outdoor photography. Then I write words and Brian, being my number one supporter, said come on, do something, write a book. I started putting calendars together with positive quotes on them. I have written a book too. 

Over and above the business side, I have the creative outlook. I put pressure on myself to achieve, but only I know what I want to achieve. But it's a great release from the business side of things. I just write or go take pictures or for a walk. It's been a good balance. Brian has taught me that - take a breath, go outside, look up, and just observe, and then come back to it all.

Angelina: Tell me a little about the photography.

Orla: I've always loved it. Living in Southern Africa, there are great opportunities for amazing photos - wild animals, beautiful night skies, all that stuff. Again, it's just for personal use. But I have my technique, I see a picture in the picture. It's not about the equipment. It's about what you see in the picture. 

A lot of people don't see what I see, and I think everybody does. My book has pictures in it but it's not a coffee table book, it's a softback book, but there's space in it for you to write. You look at the picture and maybe make notes on what you think of it. Then I have some poetry that I've written about family and other memories. But the photographs inspire my writing.

Angelina: What inspires you Orla?

Orla: People really I think. It's allowing yourself to just be. Women are very bad at that. I mean, I won't even forgive myself if I can't go for a walk because it's snowing. My personal slogan is 'Capture moments, memories forever'. I have to keep living that and reminding myself of it. 

But people inspire me. I'm part of Network Mayo, and they're just such an inspiring group of people. The energy in that particular sector, honestly, I just think it's fantastic. I got shortlisted, and I'm delighted to be on the Empower Cumasú Programme. But applying for those things and applying for the Businesswoman of the Year Awards with Network Mayo, opened my eyes that actually I do have a good story to tell. That actually inspires me - I'm inspiring people. Every person who reads my book, who wants my calendar, anything like that, I've done my job. It's outside of business. Business is business, but it's building the brand, and that's inspiring. I will probably never make money out of it, but I don't want to. I just want to inspire.

Angelina: What advice would you give someone who wants to pursue their dream?

Orla: Believe in what you believe in. Go with your gut 100%. There's always a fear. If it's financial, just think about it, don't be rash. It's a case of believe in what you want to do. Don't lose sight of your dream - write it down, keep it there and focus on it when you can and tell every single person that you can, that is what you'd like to achieve. Somebody will give you the right nugget of advice in that moment for exactly what you want. You just have to keep sharing and don't thwart your own creativity, your own desire to do whatever it is. But keep thinking about it and talking to people about it. Look for those groups like Network Mayo because you want like-minded people to influence your day.

Angelina: Have you goals and aspirations you'd like to achieve Orla?

Orla: For the business, we would love to have An Even Better Place to Work front of mind for people at work in Ireland. Obviously, that's an objective. For me, outside of that, it's developing more in the writing. 

Mayo Sligo Leitrim ETB supported me doing a creative writing course from my book that I just completed. The same group of people that I've never met before, we are now going to write a book because they didn't want to lose the connection. They said, what can we do to keep coming to you and keep writing? They're all writing so beautifully, and I've opened their mind to writing. We can all write a book. Whether somebody reads it or not, it's beside the point. You can write the book. I want to do more of that. I want to do writing retreats. 

I want to get involved with writing because I do believe that we all need to document our memories. Your kids will value that. I lost my parents very quickly in 2015, and I realised, coming back to Ireland, I can't ask them about things in the past. Or just little funny things about family. You realise you must write things down. You only appreciate them at a certain age, write it. That's what I want to do, is to get people to write your legacy out, just your moment, capture it, and somebody will read it someday.