Best Of Belfast: Northern Ireland's #1 Interview Podcast Matthew Thompson

Graham Robinson is an Artist and Director with over 15 years of experience working with household names like Netflix, Universal Music Group, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Dua Lipa and the BBC.

In this episode, we talk about:


How the creative journey is made up of incremental steps rather than huge Hollywood moments
Discovering his art form at a young age
The role of the artist in society
Balancing virtual worlds with the "real-world"
Being led by intuition/calling rather than logic/reason
What he learned from his time working in London and LA
How Belfast is positioned to carve its own path in the new era of story-telling
Why he thinks the big-budget feature film model is about to be disrupted
The deep heritage/history of Northern Ireland as a place of creativity and impact
And his vision for the future of the screen industry in NI

Check it out.

https://bestofbelfast.org/stories/graham-robinson-virtual-artist-and-director

Alan Mahon is the Belfast-born Founder and CEO of Brewgooder, an impact beer brand, B Corp, and the fastest-growing independent UK beer brand of 2023.

In this episode, we talk about:


Meeting George Clooney & Leonardo Dicaprio
Leaving his "three mums” behind to move to Scotland
The tension between doing good and making money
How getting a parasite in Nepal led to him starting his business
The power of pub culture and its impact on relationships
Using business as a vehicle to change the world
Not compromising on quality just because you're "doing good”
Why he moved back to Northern Ireland after so many years
And advice he'd give to an 18-year-old version of himself

Check it out!

https://bestofbelfast.org/stories/alan-mahon-brewgooder

Marty Neill is the founder of AirPOS. He’s also an ex-music journalist and avid retro gamer.

In this episode, we talk about:


Leaving school illegally at 15-years-old
Building and selling video games as a kid on his Spectrum + 2
How all the best things in his life have come from “tiny rooms”
Why you should never fall in love with your business
Ideas being the “real currency”
How COVID both destroyed and transformed his business
Why your business will never love you back
The huge opportunities that exist in Belfast
And the new Retro Arcade opening in Belfast later this year

Check it out.

https://bestofbelfast.org/stories/marty-neill-airpos

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir is the publisher of the Andersonstown News in Belfast and the Irish Echo in New York.

In this episode, we talk about:


Why he has a blackbird on his business card
How he was able to buy a business with no money
The future of the newspaper industry
Growing up in Andytown during the sixties
Challenges facing the media sector
The symbiotic relationship between Ireland/America
Life lessons from a Buddhist Chaplain
And dealing with the chaos of modern life

Check it out.

https://bestofbelfast.org/stories/mairtin-o-muilleoir-andersonstown-news

Patrick Treacy is a pioneer in Aesthetic Medicine. Throughout his incredible career, he’s won countless awards, trained thousands of doctors and trail-blazed new protocols used around the world today.

In this episode, we talk about:


Smuggling cars across the German border to pay for med school
Being arrested in Iraq under suspected espionage
How being from Ireland quite literally saved his life
His phone call with Nelson Mandela
Treating Michael Jackson and the subsequent friendship that ensued
How he wants to spend the next few decades
And advice he’d give to his 18-year-old self

Check it out!

https://bestofbelfast.org/stories/patrick-treacy-aesthetic-medicine

Peter Hannan is a Meat Merchant who supplies 400+ restaurants throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe, including some of the biggest names in the industry.

In this episode, we talk about:


How he started out in the meat business
(Aka, butchering lambs for his mum's mate's freezer as a boy)
Moving to America at 19-years-old to learn from the masters of his industry
Becoming the highest-paid executive in Ireland by the age of 22
Setting up his own business
The decision to focus on quality rather than quantity
Why attention to detail is the most crucial thing in business
Buying 5 tonnes of salt from Pakistan
How one smoke break changed his business forever
And advice he'd give to his 18-year-old self

Check it out.

https://bestofbelfast.org/stories/peter-hannan-meat-merchant

Hannan Meats: https://www.hannanmeats.com/