We’re in Terrie McEvoy’s spacious open-plan kitchen: big island, cream walls, sliding doors. She and husband David have kindly laid a spread out for the VIP crew who have decamped to their Swords home for this exclusive photoshoot today. Suddenly, while slicing a baguette, one of the team cuts themselves, and Terrie springs into action: tending, examining, plasters at the ready, caring to the nth degree.
Terrie may be many things to many people: a doting mum to three-year-old Sydney; a devoted wife of six years to her best pal, David; an influencer to her 372,000 social media followers; a podcaster to her 10,000 weekly listeners; a business partner to Suzanne Jackson and Siobhan Murray who together run Mantra Official, a footwear and accessories business. But ask her what she works at and Terrie McEvoy will tell you she’s a nurse.
In fact, this Trinity graduate says that it’s her years spent nursing and witnessing trauma that’s taught her not only how to be calm under pressure but how not to sweat the small stuff. She says it’s something that has served her well in business too, which she tends to focus on a little more now before baby number two arrives and she steps back temporarily.
Nesting in this happy family home, she says, a home where she’s thankful to say laughter abounds, is the plan of action now. “I feel calm and happy here”, she tells us. “I feel like there are such good vibes in this house, it’s definitely our haven”. Here in this haven is where Terrie and David record and edit their podcast, Ten Down, a podcast that shows off their combined sense of fun. Well able to slag each other and brush it off, their relatability is their trump card which has earned them over 1 million downloads.
Later with the shots done we sit and chat about being scatty, being calm under pressure and being married to your best friend…
Terrie, the secret’s out, another baby is on the way!
I know, we’re so excited. Can’t believe it’s going to be a boy as well; we’re over the moon!
How hard was it to keep a secret?
I feel like the first time was harder because we were just bursting to tell people. This time was easier, also because we’re so distracted and busy with Sydney. Time is ticking on nicely now; we’re due at the end of August!
You’re a very open and public person; do you struggle to keep secrets generally?
I’m doing this [social media] ten years. I started Instagram when we went to Australia in 2015 and I feel like the internet was very different back then, there wasn’t as much trolling, there weren’t as many people ready to pounce on every word you said. I feel I was a lot looser lipped then and I would have shared a lot more with my followers whereas now I try to protect my privacy a bit more, and Sydney’s too, which is why we don’t share her face. I’m not sure if it’s an age thing, but I wouldn’t come on every day anymore and tell everybody everything. Sure, if I did there would be nothing left for us! I do feel the need to protect myself more now, and that’s not just a social media thing, it’s growing up too, and not feeling the need to please everybody and tell everybody everything anymore.
As you mentioned you’re having a boy which David is over the moon about because he’s been tormented by women all his life, he says!
[Laughing] He has four sisters; he’s been surrounded by women all his life and when there’s a lot of women we do tend to dominate!
The four sisters must have had the craic with him growing up, dressing him up and all!
[Laughing] He has one older sister and three younger so yeah, they had him tormented! But it’s made him an incredible person, and I am so proud of who he is. He’s so amazing, he just gets all aspects of being a woman. He’s also very kind. But he’s just always wanted a little boy pal, so it was so fantastic when we found out. As a mum I would have been happy with either – healthy happy baby with ten fingers and ten toes but when I found out it was a boy, I was just so happy for him.
Looking at your own parents Terrie, what traits are important for you to carry forward?
I know everybody probably says this about their parents but mine really are incredible. My dad worked two jobs growing up. My earliest memory of my dad would be going into wake him for dinner because he worked day and night. I have a vivid memory of waking him and he was so tired he asked me, “am I putting my boots or my shoes on?” In saying that my dad always made time for us and I have the best memories of him on his day off taking us to the park and playing. And when he did come in from work, he gave us all his attention; when he came in the door, we all ran to him. He really influenced me because I now spin many plates as a nurse, I have two businesses, I work as a content creator, I’m a mum. I think I definitely get those traits from my dad, but I still give Sydney 110 per cent.
What about your mum?
What I love about my mum is that she does no harm, but she takes no shit! She was a real bean an tí – nothing got past her! As teenagers we’d try to pull the wool over her eyes and be up to no good and she just knew straight away and would rein us in! She knew exactly where we were and what we were getting up to. She knew before we even knew ourselves! I think her being such an involved parent and knowing her kids inside out was an amazing way for her to protect us and guide us. It’s not easy having kids all hitting the teenage years around the same time, I’m sure her heart was broken, but we really all turned out so well and that was completely down to my mam. Two amazing parents from Finglas, both from great families. I think Finglas is a great place to grow up in, it does get a bad rap but the best people I know are from there, for sure.
You told us earlier that you knew David was a keeper and that you didn’t hang around and got married within a year of your engagement. Was it also because he’s so handy around the house?!
I knew he was a keeper from the moment I met him! He gets me, he minds me and it’s true David does love a clean, tidy house – he runs a tight ship! These are traits you don’t usually find in a man…I would be quite opposite to that!
Looking at you you’d never think you’re messy or scatty…
Oh my god, the version of my office VIP saw compared to usual was two days worth of tidying and scrubbing! I would be very scatty and I don’t see mess. I am so grateful for David because he does pick up in an area in which I am slacking! And he does get joy out of making sure the house is in tip-top shape.
You joke about him being OCD, do you think he is or does he just like a tidy house?
Oh, I think he has OCD. In the fridge he likes the labels on the yoghurts facing outwards. He can’t go to bed until all the blinds are pulled. He couldn’t go to bed if there was any sort of mess in the kitchen. I think it’s funny because it just wouldn’t cross my mind.
Do you just pass out when you hit the pillow?
Yeah! Just give me a bed! I think that also comes from nursing, once everybody is breathing, I am happy to go asleep.
This is a comfortable home, how long have you been working on it?
We moved in in July and we’ve been tipping away at it. My mam kept saying to me a house will never be done, and I had great plans to do loads initially but as time went on I realised that you have to prioritise because you do get fatigued from putting in so much money and time. Having any sort of work done in a home is colossal money, even putting floors down is crazy. But it’s been super enjoyable. We’re loving the experience of making it our own, it’s a lovely space, I feel calm and happy here. I feel like there’s such good vibes in this house, it’s definitely our haven.
That’s so lovely to hear. As you said you spin a lot of plates, you’re an influencer, a businesswoman and a nurse. What do you feel you identify most as?
For a huge chunk of my life, I was training to be a nurse and then I worked as a nurse and I’m a good nurse. I’ve also worked as a CPC (Clinical Placement Coordinator) training student nurses. For me I still find myself saying I’m a nurse if I meet someone and they ask me what I do. I find the social media side of Terrie is very hard to explain sometimes. A nurse is how I identify. But in December I did take a little step back from nursing and I have started to be okay with that part of my life being temporarily closed at the moment and that’s been a big step for me because for a long time I have been holding on to that part of me. I think it’s okay to let that part go for now because when I ran the numbers they didn’t add up so for now, I’m going to focus a little on business and on content creation and I’m okay with that decision finally.
Does being a nurse make you good at being calm under pressure?
I would be a calm person in general, something crazy would happen in front of me and I just don’t react dramatically. But when I was having my c-section with Sydney I did find myself trying to control things that were out of my control. Like for example my blood pressure dropped, and I was talking to the anaesthetist about that and he was moving the monitor away from me so I couldn’t see it, telling me I wasn’t a nurse now but a mam!
Sometimes too much knowledge can be a bad thing!
It can be! When Sydney was born I wanted to know her Apgar (measures baby’s appearance, pulse, grimace, activity and respiration) score, they were laughing at me because I was hyper-analysing everything. I’m sure a lot of nurses would agree with this that it can be a blessing and a curse and sometimes ignorance is bliss. But in general, I am calm and that’s because of my background because I have seen the worst of the worst. I worked in major trauma in Australia, and I have seen awful situations and a lot of death throughout my career, and it definitely puts things in perspective. Even in business if people panic, I’m like this is not something to panic about! It’s definitely helped with what I do now.
Somebody cut themselves on the shoot and you were straight in there with the plasters!
[Laughing] I was!
Talk to us about Mantra Official (mantraofficial.com) which you run with Suzanne Jackson and Siobhan Murray selling timeless footwear and cool accessories.
Mantra came about in 2021, my business partner Siobhan Murray had just had her baby while I was pregnant, and we had been talking about doing something together for the longest time. I went over to hers to have lunch one day and she told me this idea, and I loved it and I was like we have to tell Suzanne. We then brainstormed, found a gap in the Irish market, figured how we could navigate that, we all invested and brought it to life in November 2021. It’s been such a learning curve, such an experience.
What does everyone bring to the table?
Suzanne has an incredible work ethic and great experience in business. My expertise would be marketing and the fashion side of things. Siobhan has a background of being a buyer; she worked for Primark for years and has developed a lot of product. While Suzanne and I might know how to develop beauty products Siobhan has great insight into what factories to go to that manufacture the high-end brands. So, for example, our sunglasses are not plastic they are acetate, so they won’t snap and bend, they’re long lasting which is so important with sustainability. It’s been such a journey the last four years and this year we are pivoting with some new product which I think is going to be really successful. Suzanne and I have been friends since 2009, it’s been great to work with her on multiple collabs with SoSu Cosmetics and we’ve developed a tan together which is one of the best-selling tans in Ireland, Bahama Body, that’s my other baby.
Another baby is your podcast Ten Down which you co-host with David. It might be the funniest, most relatable pod we’ve listened to in a long time…
[Laughing] So glad to hear that!
The best thing about it is your ability to slag each other off and take no offence – you two have fun.
We are well able for each other! When David and I first met, I think he was a bit shook at how quick I was to slag, and I do think that comes from a background of being from Finglas! I do think initially he was a bit like, woah! Now he’s so used to me and he can give straight back! But in general, off the camera and away from the microphones we have such a fun relationship. We will always go to bed laughing about something that’s happened during the day, we have a nice dynamic in that we are friends as well as partners and that’s something I definitely learnt from my mam and dad – my mam and dad are gas! The podcast is great; we just have so much fun with it. We produce and edit it and do it from home which means it’s much more relaxed, so we just feel like we’re in our sitting room talking as normal. And it’s been a real success; we’ve just turned two and we have a million downloads with 10,000 people listening every single week. We’ve really built a loyal audience.
There’s such lightness to you Terrie, you’re a real glass half full person…
Oh, for sure. Again, it comes from my background and from my mam and dad who are very positive people. As long as your family are okay and you’re healthy nothing else matters. Everything else is a bonus and I think if you live like that with gratitude, things do come to you. I know people are a bit allergic to manifesting but I do strongly think that when you are grateful everything else falls into place.
Talking about manifesting, you have been manifesting this VIP cover for four years!
For well over four years! Every month I’d look at the cover and go, one day I’ll be on the cover of that, for what I don’t know, but for something! I just always think they look so glam, and I have such respect for VIP, it’s always been a magazine that’s been in the hospitals I’ve worked in so it’s mind blowing to do this! For me this is so exciting. It’s such an honour and I’m so happy you guys asked and if you ever need anything again you know where to find me now! I’ll do it every month!
