We’re looking forward to introducing you to Aideen Ni Riada. Check out our conversation below.
Aideen, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. Are you walking a path—or wandering?
For a long time, I thought life was about finding the right path. Now I know it’s really about choosing the right next step. That’s why I love this question about whether I’m walking a path or wandering because my journey has taught me that both can be true.
I’ve always had a lot of energy, so I used to bounce from one great idea to another.
In my late twenties, I learned about NLP and how visualising big goals could supposedly bring them to life. I spent almost a decade imagining future moments, imagining success, imagining the life I wanted… and yet nothing really moved. Those goals were like destinations with no map – points on a path I couldn’t see. And when the visualisation didn’t help me as much as I hoped, I felt deep confusion, even a sense of failure.
That confusion pushed me to retreat inward. I stopped forcing outcomes and began surrendering to what was actually happening in my real, everyday life. And something unexpected happened: I noticed that my power didn’t exist in the distant future – it existed in the feeling of enthusiasm, curiosity, or interest I felt in each moment. That “oh cool, I’m interested in this” feeling became my compass.
One simple example changed everything:
I noticed that one of my promo videos online got far more responses than anything else I’d shared. Instead of overthinking it or rushing toward a big future vision, I just followed that thread. One small step led to another, which led to me writing my first book, Discover Your True Value — which became a little self-help book that has helped so many people. That book was never the “big dream.” It grew out of me following one spark of enthusiasm in the moment.
From the outside, my life might look like wandering. But now I see it as mindful stepping. In Buddhism, they talk about walking a path that isn’t about a destination, but about presence. That’s the path I walk now, one honest step at a time, guided not by a distant dream, but by what feels true in this moment.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Aideen Ní Riada, an Intuitive Voice Coach, Singer, and Speaker, and my work is all about helping purpose-driven women and professionals find their natural voice so they can express themselves with clarity, confidence, and heart. I support people who often feel trapped creatively, personally, and in their careers.
My background weaves together psychology, spirituality, and singing, but also years of experience in PR, marketing, and image work. That combination allows me to help clients not only overcome their internal blocks but also step into stronger leadership in their workplace or small business. As they express themselves more authentically, we also refine how they are seen, their messaging, presence, and visibility, so their voice aligns with the impact they want to make.
My approach is calm, intuitive, and deeply personal. I hold space for self-doubt to soften, inner guidance to rise, and expression to become natural again. It’s not just about voice technique. It’s about reclaiming the parts of yourself you’ve silenced and leading from a grounded, open-hearted place.
At the core of my work are the values I stand for: self-love, inner wisdom, authenticity, and emotional safety. I believe your voice is sacred and when expressed with truth and trust, it becomes a catalyst for connection, healing, and change.
This work supports women in moving from overgiving to empowered boundaries, from hesitation to confident self-expression, and from hiding to being fully seen. Whether I’m teaching, coaching, performing, or podcasting, my mission is the same:
To help you speak and lead from your truest essence so your voice reflects your value and creates the ripple only you were born to make.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
What breaks the bonds between people is usually silence not the peaceful kind, but the kind that happens when we stop speaking our truth.
It’s the holding back, the shrinking, the over-giving, the bracing.
It’s when fear becomes louder than our voice.
When we edit ourselves to fit in.
When we stop letting others see who we really are.
Misunderstandings, resentment, distance all grow in the spaces where our real thoughts, needs, boundaries, and desires go unspoken.
And sometimes, the deepest disconnection happens when we silence ourselves.
What restores the bond between us… is voice.
Not perfect words, but honest ones.
The courage to say:
“I’m hurting.”
“I’m not sure.”
“This matters to me.”
“This is who I am.”
Connection begins to return when we choose truth over performance.
Presence over pretending.
Curiosity over defense.
We heal the gap when we listen with our whole hearts.
When we speak with compassion instead of armor.
When we let ourselves be fully seen—not as the version we think we should be, but as who we truly are.
Because honest communication is love in motion.
It repairs.
It realigns.
It brings us home—to each other, and to ourselves.
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
One of my biggest lessons in life has been this: to not blindly follow someone else’s teachings without testing those ideas and trusting my own intuition.
Like many people, I spent years looking for “the answer.”
We search through religion, self-help books, professional identities, or the roles we lean into, wife, daughter, leader, artist. But all of these are simplified versions of the truth.
For me, the wound was giving up my power. I innocently tried to follow the teachings of a personal development program. The leader had valuable things to say, but he also believed, and told us, that his system had all the answers. The people who succeeded materially and financially were held up as examples. The rest of us clapped for them while silently wondering what we were doing wrong.
I didn’t realise it at the time, but that dynamic reduced anyone who wasn’t achieving material success to “less important.” And I had attached myself to a system that would only celebrate me if I produced a very specific kind of success.
But the truth is, we all deserve to be celebrated for every success —
success in understanding,
success in making tiny changes,
success in trying again,
success in just taking the smallest step forward.
I was stubborn, and because the system promised it could teach me everything, I stopped searching deeper within myself. It became a kind of addiction – looking for a shortcut instead of looking honestly at what I needed to change, or the parts of myself I needed to be truer to.
The truth is, none of us can walk someone else’s path.
We can get inspiration and guidance, but the steps are ours alone.
Leaving that personal development program felt like having a huge umbilical cord cut. I suddenly had to stand on my own two feet — and I wasn’t ready. I needed true supporters in my life, so I moved home to my hometown and lived with my mother for six months while I rebuilt my identity and learned a new way of living.
My wound was a pattern:
a pattern of giving up my power because I was afraid I didn’t have what it took to be successful.
If I handed my power over to someone else, then I didn’t have to blame myself if things didn’t work out.
Healing began when I learned to see my flaws and my gaps not as proof that I couldn’t do it, but as places where I could grow. I started taking responsibility in a different way — with honesty, but also with love. While I followed someone else’s path, I never had to look at myself. Now I do. And because of that, I finally have the power to change.
This path takes courage. The courage to be honest with myself, the courage to take responsibility, and also the courage to take credit for the things I do well.
And because of that courage, I now have my own business as a voice coach.
I have music out in the world, singles I’ve released, songs I’ve created with my husband, Mike.
It isn’t always easy, and it’s still scary sometimes.
But it’s real.
It’s my voice.
It’s my life.
And I’m going to make the most of it – my way.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Whose ideas do you rely on most that aren’t your own?
For me, the idea that I now rely on is “you reap what you sow.”
My naïve approach to life used to be that you could just think about something and it would happen. There was a part of me that felt I deserved good things, so I’d watch, wait, and hope but I didn’t have faith in my ability to achieve what I wanted. I was always looking outside myself for a way to get there.
I carried an internal anger that my life wasn’t different but I wasn’t taking responsibility for the seeds I had or hadn’t planted.
Learning that I have to sow seeds put me back in the driver’s seat of my life. It also helped me understand something simple but profound: things take time just like a seed needs time to sprout and grow. And then some seeds grow, and some don’t. But what matters most is the act of sowing.
I began to accept the situation I was actually in. Instead of being angry at my life, I started noticing opportunities for small changes and small seeds.
One example is the fulfilment I found when I started teaching people to sing for fun. I began teaching because I wanted to be around music more. But the unexpected side effect was the joy it brought to them and the deep fulfilment it brought to me.
Another seed was a simple social media video that recorded about seeing your own value. It received a much bigger response than any of my other posts and that encouraged me to get the video transcribed. I turned it into a little PDF guide… then into a fully-fledged self-help book now available on Amazon.
These examples taught me this:
Now, every time I sow a small seed, I’m reminded that I’m not waiting for my life to change, I’m actively nurturing it.
This idea of sowing seeds has become a cornerstone of how I live. Sowing seeds means something new will eventually happen. With persistence, there will always be some kind of harvest.
We can all change our lives by sowing better seeds!
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What will you regret not doing?
I’ve come to realise that regret doesn’t come from disappointing others, it comes from abandoning myself. And when I ask myself what I would truly regret, the answer is clear: not releasing an album of my songs.
Most people wouldn’t mind whether I ever create an album or not. Many may never hear me sing. But regret isn’t about what others think. It’s about honouring the dreams that live quietly inside each of us. Those urges and longings we’ve carried since childhood are clues to who we really are.
For me, that longing is singing.
When I sing, I feel like the truest version of myself… not the achiever, not the do-er, not the woman holding everything together, but the soul beneath all of that. Singing helps me tune into emotions I often override in everyday life.
If I ignored my longing to sing, things might appear fine on the outside, but they wouldn’t feel true on the inside.
My wish to create an album comes from a deep desire to share love and connection through music. A single moment of connection during a performance can stay with someone longer than we realise, and an album becomes a gift that can be returned to again and again. In its own quiet way, it could become my legacy.
I encourage the people I work with to honour their deepest dreams, even if no one else sees the result. I remind myself of the same truth: even if my album never receives recognition, it will still matter because it will be honest, heartfelt, and real.
The real regret would be silencing the part of me that still believes in beauty, meaning, and possibility and that part of me sings.
And I hope everyone finds that part of themselves, whatever form it takes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.aideen-ni-riada.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aideenniriada/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aideenniriada/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/resonatewithaideen
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@aideen-ni-riada
- Other: MUSIC LINKS
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/14wNNLdTZKt7s0i5dKFSpj?si=wa5CthnUQo-vRgGMhMUiuRESONATE PODCAST WITH AIDEEN
Image Credits
Kristina Sobel Photography
