Spotlight On: Irish influencer and entrepreneur Louise Cooney

Louise Cooney is one of Ireland’s top influencers, best known for her fashion, beauty, lifestyle and travel content.

The Limerick native is Goss.ie’s latest Spotlight On cover star and in this exclusive interview, she reveals how starting a blog after college changed her life forever.

The 30-year-old also opens up about the pressures that come with her job, her relationship with her boyfriend Mark, and addresses wild rumours she’s heard about herself…

After working on a fashion magazine while in college, Louise decided to start a blog back in 2014 to share her outfits and thoughts online.

Since then, her popularity has exploded and she now has a whopping 220k Instagram followers and 40.4k YouTube subscribers.

Not only is Louise a social media star, but she is also a successful businesswoman and entrepreneur who has launched two successful brands – Cloo Active and 67 Spritz.

Read our exclusive interview with Louise below, where she discusses turning down Love Island, constant engagement speculation, and more…

How did you first get into content creating/influencing? 

In college, I studied communications. When I was studying that, I was also editing the college fashion magazine. So fashion, writing and photography was always a love of mine. When I got my first job after my Masters, it wasn’t in fashion at all. I had always worked in retail and modelling, and I missed that side of it. So I decided to start my own blog, which at the time was a website. That was back in 2014.

I would take photos of my outfits and put them up with almost like a diary entry filling people in. That’s where it all started. And then over the years, social media kept growing and becoming more important. It used to be all about Facebook, then it was Snapchat, and now it’s Instagram and TikTok. YouTube then replaced the website. It’s all about growing and evolving, because it’s constantly changing.

So that’s how I started and gradually over the years, I’ve come to where I am now.

I definitely didn’t anticipate how big my platform would get and the opportunities I’ve gotten thanks to my job. But at the same time, I’ve always been interested in business and when you see an opportunity there and a way to make money out of doing something that you enjoy, that’s the goal.

That’s what we all want to do. That was always my driver behind it, and that’s how I’m still doing it.

Do you think that you still would’ve launched your own businesses even without your social media following? 

I think so, I always had that in me. I think I would’ve been doing marketing because that’s what I did my Masters in and I do have such an interest in that. Starting businesses is something that I really enjoy and I definitely could’ve seen myself in a start-up of some sort.

I just find it so exciting, the creativity, the ideas, putting all your time into something and taking risks – I really do enjoy that. So I think regardless, I would’ve ended up somewhere along this road.

What would you say are the best and worst parts of being an influencer? 

The best bits are working with amazing brands, getting to travel and see things and places that I never would have before. Also, the people I’ve met along the way, and the flexibility that comes with working for yourself. They’re definitely the pros of what I do.

The cons… There’s a lot of pressure that comes with the job. It’s a pressure that I put on myself. I don’t think there’s a day that goes by that I’m not like, ‘Am I doing enough? Am I doing the right thing?’

Every January 1st, it’s like the clock restarts and you have to start all over again and make sure that you’re going to earn enough to do all the things I want to do. I have to think, ‘If I get sick tomorrow, do I have enough money in the bank to take care of myself? Do I have enough money to pay the rent?’ So there is a lot of pressure in that sense.

Have you ever heard any wild rumours about yourself, or read something about yourself that is just completely untrue?

I have, and it’s not nice or healthy for me to read that. It does affect the way you act and the way you share. I just want to do what feels natural to me and I don’t want to be sharing things based on the good or bad things people say. I only pay attention to the people in my life who really know me.

At the end of the day, all I want to do is give value to my followers, so I try not to give too much energy to the negativity. I usually just ignore it, I definitely don’t seek out confrontation. I’ve been in this industry so long now that I’ve learned what to share and what not to share. I don’t try to be controversial, which might be boring for some people, but it’s just easier that way.

Things can be taken out of context online, so I try and be mindful of what I’m sharing and make sure I’m fully educated on something before I talk about it.

People can find fault in anything, and that’s stressful because I don’t want to be made out to be something I’m not or taken up wrong. I want to give off a good impression and stand behind my values and what I believe in.

It must be very hard to switch off from your job. What do you do to switch off and take a break from the online world? 

I just have to put the phone down sometimes. Leave it on the counter or in another room, and spend time with people I love. You have to be assertive and take time away from the online world, and instead immerse yourself in what is your world outside of that. That’s the only way I can switch off.

I do think exercise is great. But sometimes I’ll be out for a walk and listening to a podcast and that will make me think of more ideas for work. So I just find being around people that love me the most is the best way to switch off.

Another thing you love to do in your downtime is read a book, and your book club is very popular. Would you like to write your own book in the future? 

I’d never say never, but it’s not something I would do right now. I think I’d like to live a little more before I’d do something like that. I still feel like I have a lot left to do. I’m only in my 30s a couple of months, and I have so many other things going on at the moment.

Can you tell us about some of the exciting things you have coming up in the year ahead? 

So 67 Spritz, my wine spritzer brand, launched in August. We’ve been exclusive with Dunnes since then but at the end of February, we’re going to expand on that and hopefully be available in as many places as possible. I want it to be easily accessed, so that’s the plan with that.

With Cloo Active, we have more styles coming, and hopefully more in-person experiences because it’s so nice to meet the people who buy the clothes and get feedback directly from them. We want to be able to reach people all over Ireland and hopefully further afield as well, that would be the dream.

Outside of that, I’m launching my second series of my Open Book podcast this year. We’re changing it up a little bit. We’re moving away from heavily focusing on books, and expanding out of that. What people enjoyed about the first series the most was the honest conversations. So by taking the books out of the equation, we’re opening up for more guests to be able to come on and have those open conversations where they can tell us stories about their lives and their experiences. So that should be coming back in February.

And then personally, I have so many weddings coming up. I have five weddings this year including my sister’s, my boyfriend’s brother, a couple of my best friends. So they should be fun.

With so many people getting married around you, do you feel pressure to take the next step with your boyfriend Mark and get engaged? 

When you get to this age, you definitely start to feel that pressure like ‘Should I be moving into that next stage because all my friends are?’

Like I literally can’t go on holidays with Mark without people saying to me, ‘Oh you’re waiting for the ring!’ It’s so annoying. I’m like, ‘Can I not just live my life in my 30s like I did in my 20s without being constantly asked that question?’

You obviously share a lot of your life with your followers, but does constantly getting questions about your relationship make you want to keep that part of your life more private? 

No, I don’t mind it. I just share what feels right and what everyone around me is okay with. My family, friends and Mark have all been around it long enough now so they get it, and they’ll tell me if they don’t want me to post something. And I’m fine with that.

Whatever is right and ok to share, I’ll share but I don’t like to push boundaries with other people in my life. I think at the end of the day, people follow me for my fashion and beauty content, but it is nice to share other bits that are going on in my life too.

You moved over to New York before you met Mark, but decided to move back to Ireland when the coronavirus pandemic began. Do you think you’d ever move back there with Mark?

I don’t think so. I’m really happy in Dublin, and I love being able to travel from here. I think the balance of life is so lovely here, and the people are amazing. Especially being at the age I’m at where everyone is getting married and having babies, I would much rather be here for all that. I think I was always going to come back to Ireland anyway, but Covid just sped it up.

Also with my businesses being here. I’m lucky because we live in a small country, so I can just pop down to West Cork to see 67 Spritz being made in front of me. Last week, I was visiting a factory down there to see if we can get our clothes made here. So it’s nice to be able to do that.

I’m definitely glad that I’m back in Ireland. I love our country and I love the people.

You’ve used your platform to do a lot of charity work in the past. Is that something that’s important to you?

Yes definitely. I’m lucky that I have this platform, I’m in a very lucky position to be able to do what I do and be able to help. It’s just really important to me, whether it’s helping with a friend’s fundraiser or trying to raise money through my own page. I’ve worked with numerous charities, and I always try and do what I can to help.

If we all do a little bit, it’ll go a long way. That giving mentality is important, because we all need to help each other out at different times.

You’ve done some TV work before. Would you like to try your hand at presenting down the line?

Yeah, I think the experience I’ve got from doing the podcast this past year has made me realise that I do enjoy it. I’m getting good at interviewing people and making them feel comfortable, so presenting a show is not something I would ever rule out. I guess we’ll see if that opportunity ever arises…

What about appearing on a TV show like Dancing with the Stars? Is that something you’d be interested in?

Oh my god, I’m terrible at dancing! I’m literally so so bad. I went to watch the live show last weekend, and I just don’t know how they remember all the steps. I also went to a class with judge Arthur Gourounlian and I could not keep up at all, I was so embarrassed!

But I don’t care, I can make fun of myself so I’d do it in the morning and make a fool of myself and have fun doing it. I think the only show I’d never do is I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! Not that I’d ever be asked, but I could never because I’m terrified of everything.

You previously revealed you were asked to go on Love Island. Do you regret turning it down? 

No definitely not. I could never go on Love Island, I would be terrible. I love watching it, but I could never do it myself.

What advice do you wish you could give your younger self?

Go easier on yourself. Focus on what’s really important like your family and friends. But then saying that, I probably wouldn’t be where I am work wise if I wasn’t so hard on myself when I was younger. I wish younger me would just enjoy herself more.

I feel like at the age I’m at now, I really know what makes me happy and that’s success to me.

You’ve mentioned your professional goals for the year ahead, what about personal goals you want to tick off your bucket list? 

I guess there are certain things that I’m working on to just get my mindset in a really good place. I want to look after my mental health as much as I do with my physical health. That’s really important because I think when you look after both of those and you’re happy, everything else will fall into place. I’m just taking everything day by day.