IGNITE Alumni - Luke K. Murphy - Waking Dreams Media

Great interview on 2025, business and IGNITE UCC with Luke K. Murphy from Waking Dreams Media

Looking ahead to 2025, what do you see as the most significant trends shaping your industry, and how do you plan to leverage them?

AI video and audio could save reshoots and cover for insufficient footage. This will save companies thousands. Plus, you can test different versions of the same ad with ease.

Yet, it's not quite there as a one-stop professional tool yet.

• The physics are still unrealistic.
• The generation is random, so replicating a shot with some tweaks is difficult.
• Irish accents leave a lot to be desired!

Still, we’re keeping an eye on these tools and using them wherever they make sense.

What key projects or goals are you focusing on in the coming year to continue growing your business?

Double the number of sales calls. That metric closely matches total sales. More awareness of Waking Dreams is needed. We're rebooting the site and aim to consistently grow visitors with more content. LinkedIn was hugely valuable last year and grew fast. Adding about 2000 followers and a 100k impressions. A lot of inbound came from there. So I'm going to keep up the consistency and quality of posting and engagement.

What advice would you offer to recent graduates considering joining the IGNITE programme, based on your own experience?

When you start a business in your 20s, you're trying to learn so much. And the trouble with business is, there's no "one thing". It's not just that you need to learn sales. Or product development. Or recruitment. Or data. I'd love for it to be just one thing. But it's not. It's all those things and more.

Reflecting on your journey with IGNITE, what would you say was the most valuable aspect of the programme that helped you get to where you are today?

And that leads me on to the last thing. IGNITE is where you can find a co-founder with dev skills. Or a sage sales professional who helps you craft a sales plan. Or a finance wizard who gives you templates that keep the lights on. IGNITE is your team at the beginning. And that's about as good a leg up as anyone could ask for...maybe short of a small loan of a million dollars and your father's real estate empire!