Tipperary entrepreneur manifests her success from salon floors to podcast studios

Anna O’Connor welcomes you with an immediate, unselfconscious warmth, the kind that makes you feel as if you’ve known her far longer than you have.

Bright, spirited, and fully attuned to the people around her, she moves through her home in Portroe with a quiet confidence and infectious energy.

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As we talk, it becomes clear that Anna is far more than a businesswoman — in her own words, she is a “Swiss army knife,” full of skills, passions, and boundless ambition. Her main venture, Aranna, now boasts two thriving salons, one in Nenagh and the other in Templemore.

Anna’s story begins, in the half-light of the 1990s — that peculiar decade of Spice Girls optimism and dial-up dreams. Born in Tipperary in the mid-1980s, she spent her childhood summers in Edinburgh under the watchful glamour of her Aunty Jody.

Jody, proprietor of an upmarket salon just off Princes Street, was less a relative than an oracle — dispensing wisdom amid the whirr of hairdryers and the perfumed fog of setting spray.

It was there, wandering the salon as a wide-eyed teenager, that Anna first caught the scent of possibility: the seductive, slightly thrilling notion that one day she might helm her own salon.

After finishing school in 2002, she qualified as a hairdresser and spent many years in a bustling little salon in Killaloe, perfecting her trade. 

Life, as it often does, had other plans. After many years in hairdressing, Anna moved into dental nursing while also performing in a band.

Along the way, she became a young mother, and for a time, the dream of owning her own salon took a back seat. Yet even as life pulled her in different directions, the spark first ignited during those summers in Edinburgh never fully faded.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, Anna took a step back and really looked at her life. “A dentist I worked with in Nenagh wanted to manifest her own dental surgery, and I wanted to manifest my own business,” she recalls.

“I think it’s so important to have people who believe in you. She used to tell me, ‘I believe in you, you can do it.’ She opened her own practice first — Expressions Dental in Roscrea — and seeing her take that leap inspired me to take mine.”

It was then Anna decided it was finally time to pursue that long-held dream, setting the stage for what would become Aranna.

Anna’s entrepreneurial spirit shows no signs of slowing. Her latest venture, The Gratitude Attitude Podcast, launched in 2023 with just a microphone and a vision.

Through candid conversations, she shares lessons on perseverance, gratitude, and taking charge of your own life, encouraging listeners to set goals, explore new hobbies, and embrace healthier routines.

The podcast has grown to 70 episodes, with a new one released every week. Entertainment runs in Anna’s blood. From a young age, she was immersed in music and performance — by 15, she was performing in a band, honing her stage presence and creative confidence, and her grandparents formerly owned Larkin’s Pub in Garrykennedy, a local institution renowned for its traditional Irish music scene.

“Entertainment is in my blood, and I really enjoy it,” she says. “I’m now pursuing that side of things for myself — I’ve grown my Instagram and TikTok over the past few years and am exploring opportunities with a management company.

With The Gratitude Attitude, I hope to secure a sponsor and build a business out of myself — so that will be my next step.”

Anna O’Connor moves through life with unbreakable spirit, a wry humour, and a radiance that lifts everyone around her. Challenges are met with curiosity, setbacks with laughter, and every new venture carries her unmistakable energy.

She embodies a rare blend of warmth and determination, proving that joy and drive are not opposites but twin engines of a life fully lived.

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