Ms Motivator!

How many of us can say that we will mark our 50th birthday by launching a book on Amazon? Well, that’s exactly what Monaghan-born motivational speaker Breda McCague did last week in London at a Ladies Day event on June 23, at which she was also the keynote speaker.

The author, who has had parallel careers in corporate finance and the Reserve Defence Forces, has poured everything she learned in those tough environments into this groundbreaking publication.

Breda’s book ‘Operation Growth – Your Ultimate Barracks 2 Boardroom Leadership & Mindset Guidebook’ is largely aimed at professionals trying to get careers off the ground.

“Entrepreneurs who are trying to get themselves out of their comfort zone,” she identified of her intended readership, “and definitely anybody in a leadership role that doesn’t really understand the profundity of managing humans well. It’ll give them insights into how to motivate and support people to be more productive and happier in their roles.”

The cover of Breda’s book features photography by Monaghan and Celt photographer Rory Geary. It shows Breda facing herself in combat and corporate modes! Rory suggested that Monaghan Peace Campus would make a good backdrop as there is an art installation on the wall. This not only demonstrated Breda’s ability to innovate, but it was also a nod to her native Monaghan.

Breda designed the book so the reader can come back to it again and again: “I’ve written the chapters in modules because I want to move the book into an online programme at some point. At the end of each module, there are questions to test your own thinking and to make you reflect on the topic. Then there is space for notes at the back of the book.”

The story of how the book came about is an epic tale in itself. Breda met her publisher Karen Weaver, originally from Clones but now living in Australia, who owns KMD Books at a TED Talk a few years ago.

“She asked me when I was going to write my own book. At that point, I had a book in my head, but I hadn’t put pen to paper. What followed was Karen’s book series ‘Hear Us Roar’. She invited me to write a chapter in one of those books: the Lioness edition,” Breda explained. ‘Hear Us Roar’ features inspirational stories from authors around the world. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Breda drew on her life experience to write a chapter on the theme of resilience. Those books are also available on Amazon.

Karen then suggested Breda write her own book.

“She offered to publish it for me to support me on my journey,” Breda recalled. “I scheduled myself from May to August 2025 and I smashed it in four months.”

Operation Growth was officially launched on a billboard in Times Square, New York, last November, when Karen brought her global authors collective to the Big Apple, where they won gold in the 2025 Women Changing the World awards.

Breda’s wardrobe is as colourful as her personality and she has a sunny disposition, but things haven’t always gone according to plan: “My life was not going the way I had planned it. My career was always flying, but my personal life was going the opposite direction. I built a vision board in 2020 to map my future out. That’s where all of this has come from. That vision board is still on my wall and it’s still working. It has given my brain clarity on what it wants, why it wants it and, after that, you just find ways of making that happen.”

Determined and focused, the army may have had something to do with her discipline: “When I was 17 my friend rang me up and said it was the first year that girls were allowed into the Reserve Defence Forces. So she and I joined and were the two out of the first three girls ever allowed into Castleblayney Barracks in 1993. We were only going in there out of curiosity to see why they thought women couldn’t join the army.”

Breda fell in love with the army and stayed there for 20 years, the first female officer ever in Castleblayney and Monaghan, Lieutenant McCague was responsible for training, welfare and safety.

Aiming 4 Awesome

Her enthusiasm is infectious, so much so, that she founded her own business on the principle. She embraced entrepreneurship: “I think it suits me because I’m a single mum. I have found being my own boss much more flexible. My company is called ‘Aiming 4 Awesome’. I run leadership programmes in different companies, which I call Operation Growth Bootcamp because it’s aligned to the book. I also do conference stage talks across the country and around the world on a multitude of topics from growth mindsets to emotionally intelligent leadership.”

Based in Carrickmacross, Breda also MCs events and award ceremonies throughout the country.

Operation Growth is available from Helen Drumm’s Sound Quality in Monaghan Town or you can contact Breda directly through: www.bredamccague.com